Nativity Silhouette

This craft was just for Calista.  I wanted something a little more challenging to do with her this afternoon and this one was perfect.  I found it at The Artist Woman and the directions were easy to follow.  I think it turned out beautifully.  

Christmas Fun Begins

I put the regular curriculum on hold so we could have a little break and some Christmas fun.  I have seen so many great ideas on other mommy blogs that I can't wait to try them all.  The twins love cutting and gluing so this was a great one to start with.  It was a preschool craft that I found here.

I love how they line things up in rows.

Sweet smiles and lots of fun.

Claire was making me laugh with her glue.  She has grown so much since the school year started.  She used to just watch Courtney and shy away from the craft.  Now she's much more confident.  I love witnessing this!

Week 8 and 9 of Adventures

Calista studied Benjamin Franklin and George Washington over these past few weeks.  Thanksgiving was in between so we detoured for a bit.  I was able to find so many of the recommended books at the library and in our own shelves (thanks to a dear friend).  Calista is fascinated with the Colonial Days and is always sharing her facts and findings with us.  She made both a Colonial Days and a Benjamin Franklin Lapbook on her own.

The Colonial Days Lapbook below had a number of flaps and models of their homes, foods and daily activities.  I was so happy to see her get excited and involved with this topic and her own learning.

She also did some baking from Felicity's Cookbook.  These little Breakfast Puffs were really easy to make and the girls enjoyed them.   I couldn't convince her to make the Chicken Pudding or the Beefsteak Pie.  Hmmm.

Right around Thanksgiving she received her state shoebox from a family in Kentucky.  She went through every item in the box and read it excitedly.  She loved the Kentucky Derby information because Ken had talked about it a lot already in the past.   She had worked for a while on her box which we sent to a child in Pennsylvania, so she appreciated all of the facts and information included here.

We have this great globe puzzle which really came in handy this week.  We needed a globe for Science and she remembered that we did in fact have one.   She enjoys putting it together so it worked out perfectly.

In Bible she learned more about Jesus as the Rock.  We discussed that if we listen to Him and obey Him we are building our house (our life) on the Rock.  She wrote about it in her journal and memorized the verse.  She also participates in Awana and is working hard in that book as well.  I'm happy about that because so far I'm feeling like we could use a little more Bible time.  It could be because we're only on week 9 of Adventures but I'm not sure yet.  I've been thinking of adding here but I'll decide over break.  We're just going to finish up another week or two and then move into Christmas fun.   

Our Snow Surprise

It doesn't normally snow where we live so waking up to snow was a special surprise.  The girls were so excited to go outside even though it was still dark.  We scrambled around to find warm coats, hats and gloves and finally made it out the door.

They couldn't wait to build a 'snowgirl' and they named her Jubilee :)  They tried naming our truck Jubilee a while back but daddy would have nothing to do with that.  The truck needs a boy name since he's already surrounded by girls.

Turtle Week in Kindergarten

We completed our Turtle lessons in Kindergarten this week.  I am so grateful for this curriculum and how much the girls and I enjoy it.

I've been trying different methods to introduce the lessons and this week I tried using the pictorial input chart.  I just lightly drew the picture ahead of time so that as I taught the lesson I could draw over my pencil lines.  My girls were impressed with my drawing skills until they noticed I had already prepared it and was tracing.  I didn't go over the whole chart of facts in one sitting; maybe 10 minutes at a time.   We later highlighted key words as we reviewed it and added some additional facts off to the side.  They also had some fun coloring the turtle.

Caroline was eager to read the turtle poem this morning.  Calista was jumping for joy in the background with each word Caroline read without help.  She read most of it and was all smiles.  :)

The girls had a great time playing turtle and learning how turtles protect themselves from predators.  Claire was the raccoon.

Caroline is copying and illustrating her 'words to remember' each week.  I thought we could bind her pages into a book at the end of the year.  I'm not really sure but I would like to do something with them.

Both Courtney and Claire decided they could cut out their own picture cards from now on.  They actually cut most of their school type papers up this week.  :)  New skills are exciting!

She loves her little necklaces and wears them faithfully.

On Fridays we attend a Christian homeschool co-op.  Caroline learned about sea turtles in her class and made this cute turtle craft.  It worked out well since I realized by the end of the week that I hadn't prepared many crafts besides some of her lapbook elements.

We read some great books about turtles and perseverance.  I get most of my ideas for books from Erna at Maple Tree Academy and from the MFW message boards.

The Name of The Tree retold by Celia Barker Lottridge (we loved this one!)

The Hare and the Tortoise by Brian Wildsmith

Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton
Box Turtle at Long Pond - William T. George
Splash by Ann Jonas
Turtle, Turtle, Watch Out! by April Pulley Sayne
Hi Harry by Martin Waddle
Turtle Splash! Countdown at the Pond by Cathryn Falwell
The Turtle by Cynthia Rylant
The Turtle and the Dove by Don Freedman

It was another fun week with My Father's World.  Next week will be light for us since we'll be focusing on Thanksgiving and the activities in the Adventures curriculum for only 2-3 days.  They will have some free time and I'll catch up on household tasks (and hopefully a little scrapbooking).

Happy Thanksgiving :)

For more Weekly Highlights go on over to Mishmash Maggie.

Nest Week in Kindergarten

We had such a great week learning about Nests and other animal homes.  We read so many good books and have a few that I've already had to renew from the library because the girls don't want to let them go.

We started with a KWL chart (what we Know, Want to know and Learned) about nests and animal homes.  We added to it as we gathered information throughout the week.  I hadn't started a week with a KWL chart before but I thought it would be a good place to list our facts.  I was also thinking ahead to the lapbook and knew she could pull her facts from the chart.  Caroline looked forward to adding her  learnings after each book we read.

We made nests out of clay.  Calista actually made the clay as an assignment in her Adventures curriculum so it worked out perfectly.  We tried to make the clay brown but figured gray was close enough.  All of the girls made nests and added the twigs and grass that we collected on our nature walk earlier in the week.

Caroline made a sweet little badge to wear.  I found a similar image on a quilting website and she loved the mommy and baby bird.  So we did our best to replicate it and she wore it everywhere.  She likes her badges more as necklaces so we always add the ribbon.

We moved calendar off of the wall and into a folder.  It is workbox #1 for her each day and she likes it better this way so far.

I am still trying to find ways to build more math into her curriculum.  I found this great domino math worksheet at Confessions of A Homeschooler.   We'll be doing these more often since it was a hit :)

Caroline painted a tree and then added torn paper leaves and some cotton clouds. She added a little bird in it's nest to the bottom branch.  I think the baby bird is just hatching.  She spent a long time on this project and was very proud of it.

Caroline worked with Courtney in matching her picture cards to the correct letter sound.  She and Calista each do at least one learning activity with one or both of the twins daily.

Each time we finish immersing ourselves in the week's topic I think I'm not going to like the next one as much.  I've been wrong every time.  The have all been wonderful so far.

These were our favorite books from the Nest week:

A Nest Full of Eggs by Pricilla Betz Jenkins
Silly Little Goose by Nancy Tufuri
Robin's Home by Jeannine Atkins
Best Nest by P.D. Eastman
Are You My Mother by P.D. Eastman
What's Inside Animal Homes - DK Books
Once Upon a Time, Upon a Nest by Jonathan Emmett
Is This a House for a Hermit Crab by Megan McDonald

More Weekly Homeschool highlights at Mishmash Maggie

Apple Lapbook

I snapped some quick shots of Caroline's Apple Lapbook from two weeks (or three) ago.  She added an extra flap so she could include facts and her own drawings.  She was much more in charge of creating it this time.   She's becoming my little lapbook expert.  :)

The center flips up and has both the drawing of her apple worm house and then this tree with little sequencing tabs.  I still need to reprint the photos she chose on better photo paper and write the captions underneath for it to be complete.

 

Her cover makes me chuckle because of the way she positioned her apples.  She loves having her fingernails polished so this was the next best thing I suppose.