Friday, April 25, 2014

Everything Easter

Here's a quick photo blitz of our Easter activities!  Both Hunter and Colban's projects are included in this post.


Colby did an awesome job with this Easter Bunny Application Craft by Marta Almiron.  


Have you ever seen a bunny jumping competition?  We loved watching this video of furry little athletes!  


After watching the video (twice, at Colby's insistence), Colban completed this adorable, FREE Bunny Competition Writing Prompt from Little Bird Kindergarten.  


Colby named his imaginary bunny Thunder, and as you can see, Thunder is blue, skinny, furry, and a great jumper!  He drew Thunder's portrait and a picture of him in competition, and also some of his awards.  This was a favorite activity!


Maria Manore has Interactive Sight Word Readers for every occasion!  We complete at least one of these each week.  This one, "Jesus is Risen!", which focuses on learning to spell the name "Jesus", is a FREE download!  


It goes over the week leading up to the Resurrection, which fit right in with our Easter lessons.


This is the Protestant version; she also offers a free Catholic version entitled "Jesus Had a Holy Week".


This one cost only $1, and focuses on the word "that".


It has an Easter egg theme, and is not religious.  You can find a copy of "Look at that Egg!" right here!


Rita Mitchell's Bunny 10 Frames activities were a huge hit.  Something about the colorful vegetable clip art really appealed to Colban.  


We found so many ways to use this 40-page resource.  We practiced making teen numbers, and did some addition and subtraction too.


Throw in some manipulatives and a dry-erase marker and the possibilities are endless.  The best part?  It costs $1.00!


Colby loves adding mini-books to his "Colby library", so I knew he'd be thrilled with this one from Lil Country Librarian.  It was a cute way to practice simple subtraction!


"Five Little Bunnies" is only $1.50!  You can buy a copy here.


This simple non-standard measurement activity from Teach With Laughter was a lot of fun, although Colby found the estimation part a little frustrating!  It's a skill we'll continue to work on.  You can find this activity right here!


It's the inevitable Marsha McGuire I-Spy!  If you follow this blog you know that these are a staple in our classroom.  Check out Crazy Rabbits Love I-Spy Addition and Subtraction; Colby really loves these activities and they're differentiated in a way that works well for homeschoolers.


Another great resource we found is Spring Bunny Initial Sounds Learning Center Activities by Teaching With Nancy.  In addition to the clip cards shown (which we like to use with a dry-erase marker), there are three other activities and some practice pages.  It's a great bundle and SO inexpensive!


We read several books this year, but this one was our favorite by far.  Dan Goeller's adaptation of The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde is absolutely fantastic.  The story and artwork are beautiful, and the book comes with an audio CD of the narration set to orchestra music.  My boys loved the book, but when I played the CD for them they immediately began acting out the story, performing their own impromptu interpretive dance.  It was really amazing to watch.  They had such a good time that they ended up practicing  and performing for family members on Easter Sunday.  I can't recommend this book highly enough.

Another fabulous version is this one, illustrated by Ritva Voutila.


   

We also recommend The Very First Easter by Paul L. Maier and The Donkey Who Carried a King by R.C. Sproul.


Hunter's schedule is so much more rigorous than Colby's, and we're almost always involved in several ongoing projects or assignments, so we don't do as many holiday activities.  He did complete this lapbook about the Easter story after a lot of reading and discussion.


The lapbook includes vocabulary words such as "hypocrisy" and "disciple", and interactive flaps for the key moments of Easter week.


I did have some trouble turning these components into an actual lapbook; there was no obvious design or intended layout and I had to wing it.  They would probably be fantastic in an interactive notebook, if you keep one.

For many, many more FREE and DIY Easter ideas, check out these Pinterest boards:


We hope you had as wonderful a holiday as we did!

Blogs and Shops Mentioned in this Post:









Monday, March 24, 2014

St. Patrick's Day!

St. Patrick's Day photo blitz!
  

This fabulous freebie is from Falling Into First.  The four things Colby treasures are his dog Baron, his "magic stick" (which is just a cool-looking stick he found in the woods, and is extremely attached to), Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park, and the toy house that he got for Christmas.  So cute!


We found this Shamrock Trinity Craft at BibleStoryPrintables.com.  It's FREE! 


This shamrock alphabet freebie is courtesy of The B Keeps Us Honest; there is also a similar freebie for numbers.  This was great practice for Colby!


Colby completed two worksheets from Color Me Ten: Color by Number Ten Frame Practice by Danielle Kroger.  Each theme in the packet has three levels, and there are themes for the whole school year.  Very useful product, and it's great when you need something quick but meaningful!


This fun Pots O' Gold addition game is a freebie from Mrs. Ricca's Kindergarten!  There are about a gazillion more freebies in the post!  Seriously, check it out.  Math and literacy galore!


Of course, we had to make something beautiful for the classroom wall!  Believe it or not, this craftivity is a freebie from Teaching's a Hoot!  If Colby found a pot of gold and a leprechaun gave him six wishes, he would wish for his birthday, computer time, no hurricanes, no tornadoes, lots of candy, and summer.  Love it!


This was a favorite activity; both of the boys really enjoyed this game, even though it was really easy for Hunter.  I wish I'd gotten some pictures of them playing it!  Like all of Marsha's McGuire's fantastic products, it's differentiated.  Students can race to 30, 50, or 100.  I ended up wishing I'd printed off one of the more difficult game mats, as Colby caught on very quickly.  Leprechauns Love to Race is FREE on TpT!  
We read a lot of St. Patrick's Day books this year!  Below, I've linked to the ones the boys enjoyed the most.  To find out more about any of these, just click on the pic! 

   
   

For lots more St. Patrick's Day freebies and DIY ideas, check out this Pinterest board:


Blogs and Shops mentioned in this post:


Sunday, March 16, 2014

Mittens, Penguins, and Wintry Things


This picture pretty much sums up the entire month of March in my neck of the woods:


Snow, snow, and more snow!  Every time we thought it was over, another storm blew in.  
The boys and I really didn't mind; we like snow, and we spend our days cozy at home anyway.
One of the wonderful things about homeschooling is that we never have to cancel due to bad weather!


It did delay the start of any spring-themed activities, though.  It just didn't seem right to be jumping into flowers and robins with another 12" of snow falling outside.  We've continued on with cold weather stuff, including Jan Brett's "The Mitten".


How cute is this free activity from What the Teacher Wants?
Colby's page says "A rat climbed into the mitten because he was cold".


We practiced ordinal numbers with these "The Mitten" Sequence Cards by Erin from Creating and Teaching.  They're free!  Download a copy here.


Colby retold the story with the help of these free printable retelling props from janbrett.com. 


Handprint art at it's finest!  Colby turned his hand print into an iceberg with five little penguins!  He made the thumbprint penguin appear to be leaping into the water.  We added tiny googly eyes to each penguin.  The finished product is very, very cute.  We found the idea here.


There is a Marsha McGuire I-Spy activity for every occasion!


Check out I-Spy Cold Weather Addition and Subtraction, and while you're at it take a minute to explore the rest of her TpT shop - we love her products! 


This super cute addition to ten activity is from Caitlin Clabby's Penguins: Math, Literacy, and SO Much More.  I've mentioned this product in previous posts (here); there are over 30 penguin themed activities!  We've loved everything we've used so far, and we will have plenty more to do next year.  It was a great buy.


Colby loved this beginning sound sort by Lorie Duggins.  It's just one activity from her FREE 53-page Snowman Literacy Centers pack.


Here's a closer look at part of the activity.


Colby loves to rhyme!  It occasionally trips him up, though, so we're making sure to get a little more practice.


This fantastic Winter Rhyming Cards are a freebie from KinderKids Fun!  Visit the blog and download a copy, and some other great freebies, right here.


I got these adorable nesting penguins on Amazon.com, and we love them!


Colby just doesn't get sick of playing with them.  You can find them right here .

For oodles more freebies and ideas, check out these Pinterest boards:


Blogs and Shops mentioned in this post:

Marsha McGuire (TpT Shop)
Lorie Duggins (TpT Shop)