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