Heart of Dakota - BLHFHG Unit 12

I love this time of year!  Cool mornings, beautiful leaves falling off the trees, hot chocolate, fall festivals, and warm clothes are all my favorites!

So much so... we enjoyed a day of outside school soaking up the autumn fresh air and writing in our nature journals. 

It was an exciting and fun weekend as the kids dressed in their costumes and we visited a nearby farm for a harvest event.  We had a fantastic day filled with crafts for the kids. They made bird feeders from pine cones, learned about herbs and butterfly life cycles, pressed leaves with crayons, and fed the animals. 

In the picture above, they rolled a pine cone in a Crisco/cornmeal mix and then in birdseed. These were a favorite treat for the squirrels when we hung them on our trees! 

The kids enjoyed pressing the different leaves with crayons which is something I remember doing as a child but had forgotten.  Thought I'd share this so you could try it with your little ones this season. 

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Loved having a review week in HoD to repeat the songs, memory verses & concepts. 

In History, we learned that the winter was long and hard for the pilgrims. Disease spread amongst them & with little medicine it killed half of the pilgrims that came to America on the Mayflower. 

We demonstrated how germs spread by tearing up pieces of paper and putting them into a cup. We covered the cup with our hand, "sneezed" and the germs stayed in the cup. When we didn't cover the cup, the germs flew everywhere. Needless to say, both kids had a great time "Ah-chooing" all over the place many times!  Even the dog had germs on him. Lol!  It was tough to get a pic of the sneeze but the smile on their faces speaks louder than the silly sneezes! 

We talked about how an Indian named Samoset walked into the fort. The pilgrims reached for their weapons and were surprised as the Indian spoke in English. The pilgrims were hesitant but soon trusted him and invited him to eat with them and stay the night in their home. 

We learned that the pilgrims observed the Sabbath - The Lords Day and would not trade with the Indians on Sunday but welcomed them to bring their fine furs the next day.  

The pilgrims and Indians created a peace treaty. The Indians promised not to harm the white men, and if other tribes made war upon Plymouth, they would help the pilgrims. They also promised not to bring their bows and arrows into the pilgrims settlements.  The pilgrims equally promised not to harm the Indians or carry their guns into the Indian villages. They promised to always give the Indians a fair price for the furs and other trades. 

Once they both signed the peace treaty, it was kept for 50 years. 

We talked about how Squanto lived with the pilgrims and taught them many things about the land including planting corn, tracking animals and about the native language. The Indians used symbols to tell stories and were fascinated with the white men's "talking paper". Squanto learned the English language.  The kids wrote stories with symbols just like the Indians. 

In Geography, we learned about reading maps and making a key.  The kids drew their own maps of the Plymouth Fort, added a key, and labeled their maps. 

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We talked about alphabetical order and both kids were able to put their spelling word cards in the correct order.   They both are doing great on their weekly word tests I give on Fridays. 

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Online piano lessons are a hit! The kids are doing very well this week with rhythm and note identification. 

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We did a fun journal entry creating their own silly monster and writing about it.   Both kids were unique with their creations and loved sharing them with each other. 

We made a fun Halloween mummy lunch for the kids.  They enjoyed wrapping their own mummy hot dogs with crescent rolls.  Adding in holiday festivities made for a great week! 

In Math, the 6 year old is doing a great job identifying even & odd numbers and working on fact families. The 8 year old, is multiplying 2 digit numbers.  He actually loved doing this and thought it was easy.  We also started working on identifying fractions and touched on equivalent fractions.  This was a bit more complex, but with more practice I am sure he will get it soon!  

For those that have asked, our hermit crabs are doing quite fine. They were  interesting to the kids at first but, soon became Mommy's pets after a couple weeks.  We added 3 more crabs to keep it exciting .... so we now have 5 total and increased the size of their crabitat.     

~ Herman-Sherman, Rosetta, Sherlock, Jigsaw and Lovie ~  

I'm still fascinated by these nocturnal critters as they are so much more than a mall kiosk special with Sponge Bob shells.   Here is our very photogenic crab, Herman-Sherman.  

The kids are still intrigued as they dig, climb, and crawl around in their crabitat but, maybe not as much as me!  Isn't he cute in a weird way?


Hope you had a happy and safe Halloween!  Our kids enjoyed dressing up and trick or treating in our neighborhood.  We had a Jedi and a Masquerade Princess Fairy! 

My kids were so anxious to dump out all their loot the morning after that we worked it into our school day. Sorting, counting and graphing of their fabulous candy treasures were fabulous activities to keep their attention!   ;)

See you next week! 

Be blessed!