Christmas Around the World

Do you want to celebrate the holidays around the globe but don't want the hassle of packing a suit case or driving to the airport? If so, you can join us in celebrating the holidays across the globe.....
Mrs. Nelson has put everything together to join in the travels....just print, put together and enjoy....

Snowy Day Field Trip

We capped off our snowy day unit with a trip to Big Bear. The kids don't see snow regularly where we live so we decided to take the kids to the snow instead. We anxiously drove for hours but as we got higher up the mountain the colder and more snowy it got. The children were thrilled. I was delighted to see the kids climbing eagerly onto the sled and throwing snowballs all afternoon. It was a wonderful day.

Sledding 



































Making snowballs







































Playing in the winter wonderland

Arts and Crafts!

Remember that macaroni we colored? We had tons of fun making pictures with it and making necklaces with it.
civil war quilt squares

A)Megatron                          B) Optimas Prime

(They are transformers can't you see the resemblance!)

Here are Benji's creations he was super happy about being allowed to use the glue















Here is Benji's necklace below, Jacob gave his necklace to his Education Supervisor at school

Astronomy: You Can Do It!

We are studying the solar system and calculated our own lunar jump right here on earth and you can too!

Supplies to do the Moon Jump

• measuring tape
• large sheet of paper
• crayon/marker
• calculator(for the younger kids)

1. We put a large sheet of paper on the wall and then jump up and put a mark where you jumped up to

2. We measured how high up the mark was.



















3. We multiplied the hight by six and that is our jumping on the moon

I then tried to get Benji to play along and low and behold he just wanted to color!



















*** What is your moon weight?

1. stand on a standard scale and record your weight
2. divide by six and that is your lunar weight!

Snowy Day Activities!

We have been working like busy bees on our snowy day activities......
First we read the story and then used our printables from Homeschool Share.

We retold the story using story cards and gluing them in the right order















And then we made a snowman, found the letter S in a letter find activity, learned and wrote some new words from the story and learned about what other things are white.

math fact mondays!

OK, so I know it is Tuesday and this should have been here yesterday, but we're moving so it's been a little crazy around here and will be for a while......
Anyway, I found a great printable that is responsible for Jacob's break through in math facts and has helped little Benji count like a champ...I found the number family printable from Home Grown Hearts. She has a lot of options for it and I printed off the ones with the white number spots. She also has some great ideas and extensions and much more.

we took the ones that would count up high enough for the sums of the math he was doing and then used our red counter beans to do the facts worksheet that came with our Saxon math program.




















this worked great for us by first adding the first number of the math sentence and then adding the second part of the sentence....after than just look under your last bean and you have your answer.















*hint* make sure you don't place a counter on zero or it will mess you up....also you can use this same concept for subtraction which we will be doing next week.
Jacob really liked this method and really had some great connections to the concepts. We hope you'll try it too!

I can't believe it's time already!

I want to get a head start on some fun crafts for my kids and family....need ideas? have ideas to share? Join the sharing time!

self haircut!

So I went upstairs to check on a very quiet Jacob and found out that he had given himself a haircut. He had gotten the scissors out of the classroom/playroom and went into the bathroom, used the mirror and trimmed a little in front.

It really could have been worse and actually I was quite proud of him telling me the truth of what happened even though he was afraid of what mommy and daddy might think.

Never ending creativity

When I wonder what Jacob will be when he grows up, it doesn't take me long to think of a few options
He could easily be a lawyer with his not stop efforts to make things go his way, or a cinematographer because of his love to make "movies" and set up camera angles or he could work in marketing because he loves to make things and then set up his own store complete with commercials.....I love that he dreams this stuff up. It's amazing to me how limitless the child's imagination is.

here he is with the advent calendar he made
















and here are the transformers ready for their film debut with Jacob as director

Thank You Target!

We scored these great little puzzles from the discount/dollar bins. They say six and up but my three year old went to work on these quickly and easily. He enjoyed them and will continue to enjoy them. They come with 18 pieces in each "Puzzle kit". I bought the animal and "monster" ones, but had a little girls dress up one as well...

Benji dumped out all the pieces and we were surprised how many there were

he went straight away to figuring out what to do with it all

it was very straight forward for him and his favorite is the giraffe one

Here is the monster/alien one which was also just as easy and fun

*the gold star was how quick and easy these were cleaned up since the puzzles aren't inter changeable. 

What are we reading for silent reading time?

Twice a week we read silently to our selves and since the kids are still in the early stages of reading these are the books we are reading and loving!

Bob Books: These are great for learning "decoding" and phonics


Now I'm Reading Books: these are great predictable little books that encourage reading







I Spy Books: these are great because they encourage reading by making you look at the words first and then the picture.

Math fact mondays!

Everything is more fun with pom poms right?
I found this activity from confessions of a homeschooler, but instead of using the provided "gumballs" my kids loved using the pom poms instead. My preK kid just does the counting and my first grader does math facts adding and subtracting pom poms.

A Trip Out West!

We have been spending a lot of time talking about westward expansion and life in the old west and civil war. Our field trip was to a historical site where we could learn more about how life was back then.

We took an awesome ride on a train to get there













"this place is great!"













"look mom, no seatbelts"
















We then went inside the Mormon Battalion Historic Site









We watched a very well done presentation about moving west and what life was like.
































We tried on historic clothing



















Learned about brick making, a skill they brought out west.














Panned for gold(think Sutter's Mill  and the 49'ers)













learned how to pump water from a well
































After that we had a light lunch and took the train home....what a great day! We are so thankful to live in this modern day with all the wonderful freedoms we have and nothing drove that home more than seeing people living the simplest lives.

Space themed reading games

Keeping with the themes we are studying...I found this great folder game from file folder fun.com . It was way easy to assemble and super fun to play. My Jacob had no trouble reading and rhyming these cool space ships.

Hands On Story Time

My kids love our hands on story time. It has helped them read and learning other language skills.

We get our story helpers from Kiz Club. I have laminated them and also flannel backed some of them so they can last. Here are some of our favorites, and I am sure they have your children's favorites too.
Did I mention they were a free printable? Because they are!

Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed










Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Looking for quick lessons?

The National Core Knowledge Coordinator has free printable lessons from PreK on up on the fabulous website Here
They also contain assessments as well as other valuable information.....ENJOY!

Soaring into Space!

We are moving toward outer space in our next science unit


This is the text we will be working from.













Our Science learning objectives:

How Do Scientists Study Space? 

•  Scientists study space using instruments such as telescopes and satellites.

Moon:

•  The moon is the only place in space where human beings have walked (besides planet Earth).
•  There is no air, water, wind, or life on the moon, and the moon has less gravity than the Earth.
•  The moon is made of rock and dust. 
•  The moon orbits around the Earth and sun. 
•  The moon looks bright because its surface is lit up by the sun (it does not make its
• own light).

Stars:

•  The sun is one of a vast number of stars. 
•  Stars are burning and they create heat and light. 
•  The sun has different layers, which are different temperatures. 
•  Without the sun, the Earth would be frozen and could not support living things. 
•  Stars vary in mass, temperature, color, and size (optional Home Day objective). 
•  The color of a star depends on how hot it is (optional Home Day objective). 
•  Star groups, called constellations, are given names to help us locate them in the
• sky. 
•  There are many different constellations.

Solar System:

•  Our solar system is made up of a sun and all of the planets that go around it, their moons, and other smaller objects such as asteroids, meteors, and comets.
•  Our solar system is a small part of a galaxy, called the Milky Way.