Adventures in The Great Outdoors with Poppins Book Nook

 This month's theme for the Poppins Book Nook (more info here) was "The Great Outdoors"

Chickadee and I had a wonderful time reading books about the great great outdoors and doing our activity together! Some of the books we chose to read this time included the following:

Curious George goes Camping 
A Camping Spree with Mr. Magee
Birds (a nature book all about Birds)
Down to the Sea with Mr. Magee
 .... and several others!
   
    After we had read several books, we chose one book to focus on for our lapbook components that go along with each month's theme. Chickadee and I chose "Curious George Goes Camping" for this aspect. Chickadee filled in the answers to each booklet or colored pictures as it suggested. She is really liking making this large lapbook so far and we like to look back at each month's themes each time we pull it out! It will be a great keepsake for our school year!

After we had finished that, I gave her the activity I had created. I made up a "Nature Scavenger Hunt"  and she was so excited!  This is the scavenger hunt I created:

   We read over the list together first so that she knew what she was looking for, then Chickadee and I headed outdoors! As soon as we opened our front door she exclaimed: "I hear birds chirping!" and checked that off her list. We walked around our neighborhood for a bit and found the things we could there. The next day we headed to our local nature park to find a few of the harder things. 

Here you can see her "Smelling something Beautiful; finding a cool stick; wildflowers; 2 different types of leaves;  feeling something smooth (a rock); and something rough (tree bark)"
We had a wonderful time enjoying the great outdoors and spending time together as a family! We also headed to a local campground with some friends for the day during this month and enjoyed a hike on one of the trails and just being in "The Great Outdoors" for awhile! We had a wonderful adventure this month exploring this topic and are excitedly looking forward to next months Pirate theme! 

Until our next adventure,

Adventures in Summer Learning!

   This summer I created a "Summer Learning Basket" for Chickadee. I wanted to give her things to keep her mind active, but also let her dictate what and when she did these activities. I wanted it to be pretty laid back and fun for her (and not too stressful for me as it is my summer break too!) :)  

  I really enjoy doing thematic unit studies throughout the year so I decided to stick with that to create her summer basket. The first week of summer I kept it really light and just put in some books about summer, a few art projects, look and find books, a puzzle, etc., and her Summer Bridges K-1 Activity Book.  I told her I would like for her to do a page a day in this workbook (very easy, but keeps her mind active).

  Starting with the second week of our summer break, I included 3 Dinosaurs' Jump In To Summer Learning  activity sheets and she completes one set of these a day for the week. The first week was space themed worksheets so I included books about space, art/science projects about space, space themed games, toys, a leapfrog math DVD, and a sensory play box. 

I gather all the materials I need for the week on Sunday night then place them all in a big blue crate I found at wal-mart last summer. The crate sits in our living/family room so its close enough to find an activity and do and theres no need to go find supplies or other things. Chickadee loves this set up and likes looking through the crate each day to pick out something new she didn't see before! My favorite activities from space week were the games (from Mailbox) and the 2 projects. 

We made our own paper mache' moon lantern from a trial Babba Co. (no longer available) box I had gotten 2 summers ago and just saved the projects until Chickadee could truly participate and enjoy them. 

(I love her face in the first picture!)

We also made rockets from a trial Kiwi Crate that we got in the mail just a week before! The timing couldn't have been more perfect! 

This is just a peek into what our summer learning adventures look like. Other weekly themes will include Ocean/Beach, Dinosaurs, Pond, Robots, etc. We look forward to sharing those summer adventures with you as well! 

Until Life's Next Adventure...
~B

The end of an adventure...

 Our first official school year (Kindergarten) has come to a close! It has been a crazy fun adventure this year as Chickadee and I (and my husband) waded through the waters of homeschooling! We had many ups, a few downs, and lots of fun memories! Here are a few highlights from our year:

August: First Day of Kindergarten! 
September: Trip to Disney World!
October: Charlotte's Web Unit Study
November: Learning to Read!
December: Truth in the Tinsel Christmas Study!
January: 100th Day!
February: Animal Secret's Homeschool class at the Children's Museum!
March: Fairy Tales Unit Study!
April: Road Trip USA study (begin)

MAY:  

I can't believe that I have a first grader now, but I know that beyond a doubt, homeschooling her this year was the right choice! We have all learned so much from this experience and are excited to see what the next year holds!  Overall I was pleased with our curriculum and only had to make a few tweaks. Along with literature studies, a social studies magazine, and resources from our library, our Core Curriculum we used this year included:
Horizons Math K
All About Reading Level 1
Starfall Learn to Read
Elemental Science- Exploring Science
Home Art Studio
Writeshop Primary Book A
A Reason For Handwriting K
What's In the Bible with Buck Denver? (complete series)

We have now wrapped up our school year, are in the process of reorganizing and cleaning our school room to get ready for next year, and we are enjoying the summer!  We have already made a trip out of state (for my sisters wedding!), gone swimming at our local pool, played in the sprinkler numerous times, read many many books, joined our library's summer reading program, and done some cool science/art projects! Summer is in full swing and we are living it up!

Until life's next adventure,
~B


*If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to ask. I would be more than happy to answer them!

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Adventures in the Northeast Region part 1

 The next several lessons of our Road Trip USA start by introducing you to the states of the Northeast region. We were able to complete four states before the end of our school year and will be taking a break until next fall. We were able to learn about Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, and Maryland. Chickadee is really loving this study and I am amazed at how well she has been able to learn each of the state capitols, learn some of the state animals/insects/etc., learn where the state is located, and other information about each state. With the Road Trip USA curriculum, there is a coloring page included for each state as well as postcard to make. The postcards are my favorite activity! Below are some of Chickadee's coloring pages and postcards:

 

After this was finished, I cut it out and glued the picture to the message side and laminate them to keep better! I was really excited that just before we started our study, Highlights Which Way USA sent us an advertising envelope and inside were stickers (one for each state) so that is what we use for our stamps on our postcards!

Here is Chickadee eating a poptart one morning when she looked at me and proclaimed "It looks like Delaware!" Love that girl's creativity!

Also, during the study of Delaware we learned about the Delaware Memorial Bridge and the Road Trip USA has instructions on how to build a replica of the bridge. We had a lot of fun working on it together as a family. Here are a few pictures! (And this bridge is still in our school room... I can't throw it out yet, we worked hard on it!) Chickadee had a lot of fun testing some of her small cars on the roadway too! I had her test it before the "string supports" were added and after to see WHY the supports were so important!

Proud Engineer!

Lastly, during our study of Maryland, we learned that they have a state boat: a Skipjack. Chickadee and her Dad made some of these boats and tested them in the water. 

Again, I can't say how much we love this curriculum, the hands on approach, and the fun we have while learning about our 50 states! Looking forward to the fall when we can pick back up into our study! 

For more info on this wonderful Road Trip USA curriculum by Confessions of a Homeschooler click here!

Until Life's Next Adventure,

~B

Poppins Book Nook- Folktales!

   We chose to read "Stone Soup" (The 1947 version) by Marcia Brown as part of the Poppins Book Nook series with the May theme of "Folktales."  We chose to focus on this particular book for a whole week. On Monday, we simply read the book and familiarized ourselves with the story. Tuesday, we reread the book and then filled out the questions on the bookmark provided (free) here by Enchanted Homeschooling Mom. Wednesday we reread the story again, only this time I would pause at the end of a sentence or page and see if Chickadee could finish the phrase. After we finished reading the book this day, Chickadee had to fill out a shopping list for Stone Soup. 

Chickadee is sounding out the words she needs to add to her list!

This is one of her best "Inventive Spelling" papers yet! I was so proud of her for sounding out each word on her own and not asking for any help!

 On Thursday we completed a lapbook I found here, which was specifically for the version of Stone Soup (by Marcia Brown)! Chickadee had a great time adding to the lapbook and answering the questions!  

On Friday, we read the book one last time, completed the lapbook components from our Poppins Book Nook lapbook (found here) and then we made our very own STONE SOUP! There are many recipes for stone soup on the internet and we took advice from several and came up with our own recipe. 

Adding the Stone to our Stone Soup!

Adding Potatoes!

Mix it all up!

She gave it 2 thumbs up! MMMM!

While the soup was cooking, we did one final project. I created a template with a big black pot on it that said "Stone Soup" and gave her some magazines to look through and cut out ingredients for stone soup. I think this was her favorite project of the whole week! She loved cutting and gluing all the different foods she could find for her picture! (It was great fine motor/scissors skills work too!)

All we used for our stone soup collage!

Cutting in Action!

Finished Collage!!

All in all, we had a great week reading this folktale and doing various activities to go with this great book! What a fun adventure to learn to make Stone Soup!

Until life's next adventure,

~B