Archive for March, 2016
Some More Easter Fun
Mar
We have been doing Easter activities each day this week, and the kids have been having a lot of fun learning all about Easter. I posted earlier this week about the Easter activities we had done so far. Here are the rest of the activities we did:
Hailey read another version of the Easter story from another children’s Bible that we have.
We put painters tape in the shape of a cross on some paper and then the kids painted.
Once they were dry we took the tape off, and these are the completed pictures.
We also made resurrection rolls. We pretended that the marshmallow was Jesus. We rolled the marshmallow in butter and then a cinnamon sugar mixture, which represented the oil and spices they would have put on the body of Jesus after he died.
Then we wrapped the marshmallow up in a crescent roll, making sure to seal all of the edges really well.
Then we baked the rolls. This symbolized Jesus being in the tomb for 3 days.
Once they were done cooking, we took the rolls out, and cut them open…
The roll was empty- just like the tomb!
Then the kids made pictures of the tomb with the stone rolled away.
Happy Easter!!
Easter Activities
Mar
We have been busy doing some fun Easter activities this week, so I thought I would share what we have done so far in case anyone is looking for some easy ideas for Easter.
Each day we are reading the Easter story from one of our Bibles. We have so many different Bibles for children and all of them are a little different, so it’s good to read a different one each day. Our first day, after we the Easter story, I focused on Palm Sunday and what happened that day. We acted it out by pretending to put coats and palm branches down on the ground (we used blankets to pretend). Then everyone had a turn to pretend to be Jesus riding on the donkey over the palm branches and coats.
Afterwards we made a very simple craft. The kids glued down a path, then put palm branches (green construction paper) and coats (scrapbook paper) down onto the path.
Then they colored a picture of Jesus riding a donkey to put on the path.
Their finished projects.
The second day I used Resurrection Eggs to tell the story of Easter.
Inside each of the eggs is a a little symbol of part of the story. So, I would tell part of the story and then have someone open a certain colored egg to find the symbol for that part of the story. The kids really enjoyed this activity! Later in the day while Hunter was outside playing he asked if he could come in to do the Easter “actibity” again. They had to do it again later when Rich came home from work so he could see it too.
Then we made a craft. First they colored their papers with Colorix silky crayons (we LOVE these!).
After they finished coloring they added a little bit of water with a paint brush. The Colorix blend together like water colors.
Then we glued on a grassy hill and crosses. This is Haiely’s finished picture.
Hunter’s finished picture
Harper never really finished hers- she’d be happy to color and glue and do crafts all day long.
Be sure to check back and see what else we do this week!
Curriculum 2015-2016
Mar
So, I never posted about the curriculum we are using this school year. I thought that now that the school year is winding down I could post about what we used and how we have liked what we are using.
Preschool:
For Hunter this year, I am using Sonlight P 3/4. This isn’t an actual curriculum with lesson plans though, it’s just a list of books with an activity suggested for each book. You can do it in any order you wish to do it.
These are the books that came with Hunter’s curriculum. We have not read all of them, but so far he has enjoyed all of the ones we have read. We tend to spend several days reading and rereading one book, so more than likely we won’t finish everything this year. They are all great, classic books that every child should have. I also add in lots of other books to go with whatever theme I am currently using for Hunter.
These are the other things that came with Sonlight P3/4. We absolutely love the Colorix- they are so neat!
For the most part it’s hard to consider Sonlight P3/4 an actual curriculum. It’s really just a lot of great books that I use and then build my own curriculum around those books.
Fourth Grade:
For science this year we have been using Elemental Science, the Zoology Sassafras Science Adventures. Hailey reads a portion of the book (which is written as a story and is very interesting!) and then there are notebooking assignments to do. We both absolutely loved it at the beginning. Sometime after Christmas time Hailey got really tired of doing the notebooking/logbook assignments. They were the same thing for every unit and I think she just got bored with doing the exact same thing for each animal. There were a lot of hands on activities that I added in, but she begged not to do the logbook anymore. So, right now she is still reading the book, but I am not making her complete the logbook.
For Language Arts we started out using:
- Spelling- Sequential Spelling. I recently switched to a different spelling curriculum. There isn’t anything specific about it that I didn’t like, I just don’t know that it’s the best way for Hailey to learn to spell.
- Grammar and writing- Winter Promise 4th grade- Solving the Mysteries of Grammar. We are still using this for grammar. We recently reviewed Here to Help Learning for writing and I am planning to on sticking with that for writing.
- Handwriting- A Reason for Handwriting D.
For history we are using Sonlight Core D. I love the books that are included in this history curriculum. The only thing I don’t like is that there aren’t any hands on activities, so I have been adding them in on my own. Hailey loves doing hands on projects and that is what helps her remember what she is learning about. As much as I love this curriculum I am going to switch next year to something that has hands on activities included.
These are the readers and read alouds we are using, also part of the Sonlight curriculum. Both of us have really enjoyed all of the books. The books all have to do with what we are learning about in history, which was great at the beginning of the school year. About a month ago Hailey mentioned that it felt like we were doing history all the time and she wanted to read books that are not all historical fiction. So, for right now I am reading the readers and read alouds and letting Hailey read non-history related books. Right now she is reading The Candymakers (the only book in our curriculum that is not a historical fiction book) and both of us LOVE this book! I think it’s our favorite book of the whole year!
We use Teaching Textbooks for math. It’s not Hailey’s favorite subject, but it is working, so we will continue to use it.
These are a few other things we are using.
- Bible- The Discoverer’s Bible
- Health- Developing Good Health
- Critical and Creating Thinking Activities, 4th grade
Hailey was excited about her tall pile of books!
