Christmas Activity Week

A week before our Christmas break and we decided to put HoD on hold.  We needed a week of catching up on our fantasy reading, spelling word list and extra Christmas themed activities while listening to Christmas songs and sipping hot chocolate! It was a perfect week of homeschool around our Christmas tree! 

We started our week making cinnamon & sugar snowflake tortillas! This was a sure hit! They loved cutting out their own tortillas. Folded them in half and then in half again. Do not crease. Ours were pretty soft and easy to bend without breaking but, if yours aren't, you may want to put them in the microwave for 10 secs or so to soften.  

Next, I let the kiddos butter their own and sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on top. We baked on 350 degrees for 5-10 minutes.  I suppose you could use different toppings if you like... cheddar cheese, parmesan cheese, garlic butter or chocolate drizzle. The cinnamon & sugar was a definite plus in our house and so was the yummy snowflake! 

Next, we decided to do some reindeer art!  I found a perfect demonstration from Pinterest that I will post here. 

Christmas Reindeer Art

It took us a couple days to complete these but, the kids really enjoyed this project.  I gave simple drawing directions and they were able to follow as they drew with pencil. 

We drew the reindeer shapes in pencil first. Then, we outlined our drawing with a black oil pastel. Next, the kids colored the rest with watercolors. 

They both did a great job! 

And, they all were individually unique. 

So cute! 

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Found another great spelling app this week for the kids spelling practice called 'Spelling Monster.'  The kids studied their -ir words after I entered their HoD word lists. This app was cute, kept their attention, had multiple fun spelling games using the custom words I added, and really helped them both as it was repetitive practice of their word lists. 

Yes, we also played this little game I found online. It was inexpensive and simple to duplicate and it really helped the kids determine the difference between nouns, adjectives, and verbs. 

We worked on this writing prompt. The kids named their elf and wrote about their favorite toy. 

"My elf's name is Jingle. Her favorite toy is an American girl doll."

Then, they colored their elf, cut out all the pieces and glued together however they wanted. 

I love finding cute ideas on Pinterest! You can get it here!   Free Printable Elf

We also did a couple Christmas math worksheets this week. Multiplication for ds and addition for dd!

Multiplication Christmas Tree    

Gingerbread Addition

This worksheet below was another fun and sneaky math paper  that we did  to help decorate a Christmas tree.  

You can get this math worksheet here!    Math Christmas Tree Decoration Worksheet

We finished up our fantasy reading this week of Charlotte's Web. I am really glad we chose this book. The story captivated both the kids interest and kept their attention. The characters were funny and I made them come to life easily with character voices, of course. They did a book review. 

Then, we watched the Charlotte's Web movie. I was surprised how much the book influenced this movie and was impressed with the characters. There were a few parts that were taken out of the movie but, overall the kids were able to enjoy as they watched. 

I would highly recommend watching the movie after reading the book.   We also colored pics of the story, they cut them out and then put them in the correct sequence to have their own Charlotte's Web story.  

I wish we had more time to do a Charlottes Web lapbook or diorama and we may decide to revisit this after the holidays since they liked it so much. 

For fun, we made life size gingerbread people! We traced the kids bodies a bit rounded on butcher paper and then cut and colored them.  Of course, my dd had to dress hers with a Christmas dress, red tights and black shiny shoes! 

We made a lot of silly & fun crafts but, we finished the week talking a bit about the meaning of Christmas and read the Christmas story. The kids colored, cut and put together this nativity scene all on their own.  It was neat because all the characters stood.  You can find this free printable nativity here.

Free printable Color/Cut Stand-up Nativity Set

We are officially out of school until after the first of the year but, you can be assured there will be many learning opportunities in nearly all that we do! I have to take advantage of all of those... Big & small! 

Hope you enjoy all the free Christmas activities above as much as we did! Wishing each of you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! See you in 2014! 

Be blessed! 

Heart of Dakota - BLHFHG Unit 16

What a fantastic time off for thanksgiving with family and friends. Our bellies are full, our blessings are many, and we are ready for a couple more weeks of school before our Christmas break. 

At the beginning of this week, our outside time was spent as a family raking and bagging leaves day! There were so many that had fallen in our yard and the kids had an awesome time "helping" and playing in the leaves! Still loving this time of year and it isn't to cold yet! 

We started off the week with a new verse, Proverbs 15:3.   'The eyes of the LORD are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good.'  

We talked about a new character trait of integrity and doing the right thing even when no one is around watching.  We are never alone and God sees everything we do good and bad even when no one else does. 

Our poem this week was "God, Who Made the Earth" by Sarah Betts Rhodes. 

Copywork is never a favorite for either my 6 yo printer or 8 yo cursive writer but,  I'm daily impressed by the improvement I am seeing in their penmanship. This week the poetry was long and they both completed it without out too much complaining! 

In history, we talked about how the Indians were at peace with the settlers for  nearly 50 years. The settlers would trade beads, blankets, and knives for the Indian land. 

Our art project was to weave blankets using construction paper. The kids both had fun with this! 

Yes, my son couldn't resist turning his into a Nascar flag!  :)

The Indians learned over time that the material things would wear out and break and the settlers land remained. This made the Indians feel cheated. When Chief Massasoit passed away, his son, Phillip was angry with the colonists. King Phillip of the tribe called for war and the Indians struck in the evenings burning down the colonists houses and villages when they least expected.  It was a dangerous time for colonists. 

We read in Stories of the Pilgrims about 2 girls who were left alone as their parents journeyed to a nearby village.  The girls heard Indians on their land and had heard many stories of the Indians taking items and burning down homes.  The girls decided to work together to scare the Indians with lanterns. The Indians were afraid of things they did not understand and they ran away frightened by the burning fire in the lantern.  We talked about the reflection of light. 

In Science, we talked about how God gave 5 gifts to man to help them live on Earth - eyes to see, ears to hear, a nose to smell, a tongue to taste and skin to touch. We are starting with the eyes. We took pictures of the kids eyes so they could see what they looked like up close. Then, they colored their own eyes to match while we talked about the parts of an eye and then labeled it! This free eye printable is on my homeschool pinterest board. You can print it here.

  We experimented with shadows!  Even the dog was a forced volunteer for this experiment! We learned that the shadow was small when the light was directly overhead and the shadow grew larger as the light went down.  

                                                                 

In math, both kids are moving right along. Proud of our 1st grader who is doing above grade level and learning to carry her ones with double digit addition! 

My ds, 3rd grader, is stepping it up with multiplying double digit numbers. He struggled a bit with this but, we will refresh and repeat next week. 

We are continuing to read Charlottes Web and will be finishing up by watching the movie soon.  The kids are really enjoying the book so far as I read it to them.  We generally are reading about 2-4 chapters per day. 

Our emerging reader this week was a level 4 reader called Prairie School by AVI.  Here is a review from my dd:  

This is Aunt Dora in her wheelchair teaching her nephew, Noah how to read out on the prairie.  I just love the old fashioned wheelchair my dd drew with an umbrella covering Aunt Dora for shade.

Our writing prompt this week was inspired by our day reminiscing and putting our Christmas tree up. We  discussed our favorite ornaments.  For my 3rd grader, he wrote his and then edited his mistakes. For my dd, who is 6 well.... good luck trying to read her writings.  :)  

 You can get this free writing prompt on my Pinterest homeschool board  here.   * HINT*  it will connect you to Teachers pay Teachers but when you view the preview you can print it for free.

We took a break this week for a social activity to visit the library and meet up with other homeschoolers in our area to do several Christmas crafts.  There was quite a turnout and the kids enjoyed it.  It is important to us to keep our kids active and social with other children who are homeschooling too. They had a great time making crafts and meeting new friends.   The marshmallow snowman was a cute idea... and the dog liked it too when we got home and hung it on the fridge. YUM!  :(

We also enjoyed the festivities and fireworks at City Centers, Holly Dazzle.  It was crowded and chilly but, didn't keep us from window shopping, sipping on hot chocolate and singing along with the merry trombone players as they watched the lighting of the tree! Tis' the season! 

These 2 are very excited about the next few weeks with Christmas being so near! I guess, I am too... but, it is such a busy time of year.  It'll be much better after all the hustle and bustle of shopping and crowds, performances and  parties. Then, we can focus more on the joy of the reason for the season with our family and friends. 

Please feel free to post your comments below.  I'd love to hear from those that are following our journey!

Be blessed! See you next week!