Scholastic Treasures DVD Giveaway!

Many of the books in our Five In A Row Curriculum are Caldecott Winners, so it is no suprise that this giveaway would be awesome to win!  Check it out!

"The Scholastic Storybook Treasures Caldecott Favorites DVD collection consists of three separate DVDs with a total of 20 stories. The stories are timeless adaptations of some of the 20th Century’s most loved children’s classics. This collection will be released in stores on November 22nd, but you can already purchase this collection online at the Scholastic Storybook Treasures website."

"The Scholastic Storybook Treasures Caldecott Favorites DVD collection is full of some fantastic award winning stories from authors such as Ezra Jack Keats, Hans Christian Andersen and Marjorie Flack."

Stories included are:

Make Way for Ducklings

The Snowy Day

The Story About Ping

Caps for Sale

Beare Snores On

Enter at Fruality is Free

Thanksgiving Poem and *Christmas Sneak Peak*

I found this idea on a 1st Grade blog, but didn't note which one!  Why didn't I "Pin It," you ask... I haven't a clue!  But you can find the poem itself on DLTK's craft site.  The first grade teacher had her students fill-in-the-blank their sight words-- great practice for handwriting!  And to finish it off, her firsties made a handprint turkey.  Here's Tyler's:

I may be biased... but isn't this SOOOOO cute?! 



And here's a little sneak peak of something we made to give away to some very lucky family members!!

I couldn't decide which I like better.. the feather inside the ornament or the feathers around the top-- so I made two of each!  And... do you now how *hard* it was to get a good handprint from my squirmy 8 mo. old?!!  Here is the original idea... thanks Pinterest!

Special Thanks to Pinterest-- again-- for this idea!  Using Tyler's fingers we made snowmen!!  So stinkin' cute!  I don't even want to give them away!  But in the spirit of *giving,* ...... I will.

Supplies: 

Ornaments ( I purchased these from Hobby Lobby)

Acrylic paint

Glitter paint and feather boa (for Abby's handprint)

And that's all for the next couple days!  Thank you for stopping by to read my blog!  I'm so thankful for you!  I hope you and yours have a wonderful, safe, and very yummy Thanksgiving!!

Linking up to:

More the Merrier Monday #39 @ DIY Home Sweet Home

Link n' Learn @ No Time for Flashcards
Show and Share Saturday @ I Can Teach My Child

Fun for Kids Friday

Monday Madness @ Art for Little Hands

 

 

FIAR: "Cranberry Thanksgiving"

Yet another wonderful book was read this week through our Five In A Row Curriculum-- "Cranberry Thanksgiving" by Wende and Harry Devlin.  I definitely plan on reading this every year around Thanksgiving.  It is a story about a young girl and her grandmother getting ready for their Thanksgiving feast; each invited a guest--because "friendship and sharing were important."  To Grandmother's surprise, Maggie invited the man who was after her famous Cranberry Bread recipe, ... or so she thought.  It turns out that the man who "smelled of lavender and had a gold cane" was after Grandma's special Cranberry Bread recipe-- not "Maggie's clam-digging friend , Mr. Whiskers." 

Never judge a book by it's cover.

... And, Grandma's special recipe is in the back of the book... SHH!  Don't tell ; )

Social Studies

• Colored the states that make up New England; it's really cute to hear Tyler try to say some of the names!
• Just like Grandmother found out that judging solely on looks can be deceptive, Tyler did too....

**This idea was not my own!  I found it in the archives on the Five In a Row website.  I took two bags-- one that looked pretty and one that was an ugly plastic grocery store bag; the surprise was that inside the pink bag was a dirty diaper and the plastic grocery bag had a chocolate chip cookie in it!  Tyler of course chose the pink bag because, "it was pink."  It may have been pretty on the outside, but the inside was rather yucky!**

• Talked about Thanksgiving and we started a "Thankful Turkey;"  Tyler adds a feather with something he is thankful for onto the Turkey everyday leading up to Thanksgiving.  Should I be concerned that I was the FOURTH thing he named-- after Abby, toys, and Daddy?!
• Thanksgiving Timeline
• Watched a short Mayflower Deconstruction video-- very informative!
• Played Sail the Mayflower game for a little math and social studies interaction : )
• Learned about who the Pilgrims were and the boat they sailed on, The Mayflower.  I had Tyler color a picture of the Mayflower, but I wanted something more interactive so I made a puzzle and then turned it into a flapbook!  I think it turned out cute!

**It was a tedious project, but it was worth it!  I only wish I had used cardstock instead of regular construction paper.  First I cut out my puzzle pieces.  Next I laid them onto the blue piece of construction paper and traced where everything should go.  Then I mixed all the pieces up and had Tyler put it back together.  Finally, I glued the edges of each flap piece in place thus making it a lift-a-flap book, too!  And as noted in the picture, I wrote Mayflower facts onto the blue paper before I had Tyler put the puzzle together.**

Tyler's turn to put it together!

Lift a flap to learn something new!



Language Arts

• Made a list of adjectives that described our Cranberries.

• Completed a cute "I have....., but the Pilgrims did not" writing activity.

• Reviewed Similes (I'm not concerned that Tyler knows the term, but more to have an awareness of the concept) with a fill-in-the-blank worksheet:

The slipper was as soft as a blanket.

The water was as cold as the floor.

I ran as fast as a cat.

The knock on the door was as loud as fireworks.

The cloud looked like a feather.

• Talked about 'repetition' in a story.  Lately I've had "Down By the Bay" in my head (don't ask why!) and since the first line repeats throughout the song, we read that to reinforce the concept.
• Copywork and our Narration cube

Math

• Turkey Addition Sort.  I had Tyler use a number line if he needed help figuring out an answer and he did great!

• Turkey Grid Game
• Odd/Even Turkey Worksheet-- I don't know where I found it, but it was great practice for Tyler.
• Worked on measuring skills while making our Cranberry Bread!

Workin' hard!

Grandmother's Secret Recipe!

Art

• The manual suggested a lesson on the Warm Color Palette, so I had Tyler color a turkey in reds, yellows, and oranges.  To compare 'feelings', I colored a turkey in Cool colors.  Warm colors are much more exciting, vibrant, and fun!  I asked Tyler how the pictures made him feel, and the Warm Palette turkey made him feel happy and the Cool Palette turkey made him feel sad!  So interesting how colors can shape how we feel!  And it's also interesting to learn that Tyler already has a "picture" for how everything should look-- he had a hard time keeping to his Warm colors as he wanted green for the grass and blue for the sky!

Cool (not cold) Palette vs. Warm Palette

• Watercolor silhouette of a Turkey

• Turkey Lacing activity

Science

• Learned about Turkeys! 
• Cranberry Sink or Float activity; watched a few videos on YouTube about Cranberry farms.

Our own Cranberry Bog!

• Reviewed the Four Seasons: I pulled out a puzzle I had found a loooooooong time ago-- before Pinterest (sigh!) so i am not sure where it is from, and had Tyler complete it.  Then we each took turns playing, "What Season Am I."
• There's actually a few more ideas in the maual that I think we'll do next week!

 I hope you check this book out, if you haven't already, it really is a sweet book with many lessons to be learned!

THANKFUL for Linky Parties!  Check them out!

Local Fun For Kids Linky Party

The Imagination Tree

Crafty Moms Share: Saturday #6
Link n' Learn @ No Time for Flashcards
For the Kids Friday #37 @ Sun Scholars

Turkey Crafts

Many things come to mind when I think of "Thanksgiving;" but one thing that stands out is food... food.... and more food!  Today we started our Thanksgiving festivities with reading and doing activities for "I know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie."

*Lil' Country Kindergarten
*Almost Unschoolers

Afterwards, we switched gears and read a book about Turkeys.  Tyler completed a 'Lable the Turkey' and a 'Turkey Brainstorming' worksheet that I found here.  Tyler also did a couple crafts I'd like to share with you! 

Turkey Lacing (aka, "sewing"... but we won't tell Daddy that!).  I found this at The Idea Box, but the idea originated at Ramblings of a Crazy Woman.

* You will need a Turkey cut-out ( I drew an 8 on a brown paper bag), hole puncher, yarn, googly-eyes, and scraps of paper for beak and snood.

Apple Turkey (a craft and snack in one!)

*We used an apple for the body, marshmallows and gummy snacks for the feathers, raisins for eyes, and a broken piece of candy corn for his beak-- attach with toothpicks!  The Turkey we were trying to copy had gumdrop feathers and is *cuter* than ours-- we tried!  He was yummy though!

Learning Numbers Turkey-- I don't have a picture.  My camera battery died!  I had Tyler color his turkey, cut it out and then glue pieces onto the Turkey's tail.  I had Tyler work on Counting by 5's since we are also learning how to tell time in our Math U See Curriculum right now. 

Enjoy!  Gobble, Gobble!

Linked up @:

Link n' Learn

1 Little, 2 Little, 3 Little Indians...

This week we took a took a break from our Five In a Row manual, but we still did a Unit Study-- my mind just works that way.  I need things to have some sort of flow!  We did a Native American unit based on the book, "The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush" by  Tomie dePaola.  I thought this was a great book about never giving up and suggesting that everyone has his/her own gifts and we are to use those for the greater 'body;' the illustrations were beautiful, too-- especially, the illustrations of the sunset.  I found some great websites for additional activities, but my main source of ideas came from Homeschool Share. 

Social Studies:

• Made Wyoming's state flag and found its location on our map.
• Looked at many books about Native Americans-- compared how they lived, dressed, etc. to present day.
• Took a field trip to a Native American Museum

Checking out a real wigwam!

Wooden goggles Natives wore when it snowed!

Language Arts:

• Used our Syllable Drum to count out syllables-- Tyler really caught on quick!  Even after finishing his syllable worksheet from Homeschool Creations Thanksgiving Pack, he kept banging away on the drum segmenting different words : )

• Number copywork to go along with 10 Little Indians rhyme.  For a math tie-in, I had Tyler match the number word to the number of Indian boys.  We used the rhyme to count backwards too, which Tyler knows how to do-- but, when we added words, he had trouble keeping track!

• Picture stories (pictograph); I drew a story, using just symbols, and had Tyler tell me what he thought I was saying-- which, his response was, "I don't know" with a chuckle...  My drawings weren't that bad!  Lol! 

It was interesting that when I told him what I was trying to say, he suggested different symbols!  Homeschool Share also provided us with a printable of actual pictographs, so we drew some of those symbols on a paper bag that I had gotten wet, crumpled up, and let dry--- to kind of resemble leather.

• Tyler and I made a list of "description" words and animals, and we narrowed it down to one of each to make his Indian name, which is "Red Cat."  : )  His two favorite things!

Reading!

Math:

• Worked on patterns; Tyler made patterns on a headband with our dot paints and foam stickers.  He thought of some very sophisticated patterns all on his own-- so proud!

• Feather Estimation activity-- I put a handful of feathers in a plastic bag and had Tyler estimate how many there were.  He guessed pretty darn close!

• How Many Feathers addition worksheet.  I had Tyler roll two dice, add the numbers together, and then draw that many feathers on a headband.

Art:

• Made a tepee
• Sunset painting with watercolor

Science:

• To be honest, we didn't do much.  I just read a couple of books on Prairie's! 

For fun, we checked out the Native American Museum and Tyler got to see a real wigwam, animal fur, artifacts, canoe, etc...  It was a small museum, but full of stuff. 

And, the only other fictional read aloud I had for this week was "Knots on a Counting Rope" by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault; I started the book at nap-time and just never finished because the kiddos were crabby, but I am glad I didn't finish because I found a website called, Storyline Online-- it's an online streaming video program that has members of the Screen Actors Guild foundation reading the stories, and "Knots on a Counting Rope" was one of them!  After watching the story online, there is no way I will be reading that book!  Bonnie Bartlett and William Daniels truly brought the story to life-- amazing!  Definitely check it out!

One week is never enough time to do everything (again, that is just how my mind works!  I'll have to re-train my brain!)... we'll defintiely revisit Native American studies later!

Links:

Homeschool Share Resources

Additional inspiration from:
Little Giraffes
Miss Drake's Room
Miss Renee's Kindergarten Pad
Made for First Grade
Mrs. Lee's Kindergarten (math ideas)
Syllable Drum
Thanksgiving Printable Pack @ Homeschool Creations

Linked up @: Crafty Moms Share

Cake Handprint

One very lucky Yiayia and one very lucky Grandma, whom both celebrated birthdays recently, will be receiving a yummy looking cake in the mail!!  No, it is not edible.  Yes, I am late sending it out-- Sorry! 

Tyler loves making cards-- especially when there is paint and a body part involved!  On white cardstock I liberally applied brown paint to his palm, red paint to his fingers, and yellow paint to the tips... and Voila!!!  Oh, and don't forget about the frosting!!

 A yummy treat to be cherished forever : )  LOVE handprint art!!

I didn't look at Pinterest before doing this project, BUT of couse, there is one there!  Check out the Meet The Dubiens blog for some other super cute ideas!

Linked up to:

Link & Learn @ No Time for Flashcards