Sharpen Those Pencils! (Robot Pencil Toppers)

Who knew that on this first day of March we would be celebrating National Sharpen Your Pencil Day? Honestly, we seem to celebrate this every day. With 6 kids messing with all the pencils in this house, it is a rare day when I find one sharp enough to use.

To make our pencil-sharpening even more special, I created some fun pencil toppers. We kind of skipped the coloring-first part, but you can color them and then cut them out. You can get the download over at Granola Mom 4 God. You see, this pencil celebration idea was all hers. She even has cool prizes/freebies if you link up today!

You are Loved

Here's some virtual Valentine's chocolate just for you! May you all know how special you are--you are loved!

Free John 3:16 color-by-number page

There's a special Valentine's Treat from What's in the Bible? too! Use coupon code Love2 to get Vol. 1 DVD for just $5.00

Disclosure: Why yes, that DVD promotion is an affiliate link! I will receive a small commission if it is used--which I thank you in advance! :)

Birds Writing Center

This week is the Great Backyard Bird Count! Thanks to my Facebook subscribers for reminding me a couple weeks ago. I thought that since there is a big focus on birds this month, that I would love to incorporate the theme into our homeschool somehow. After reading a series about writing centers on the WriteShop blog, I knew that I was going to create our first-ever writing center. Using mostly printer-ink and supplies I had on hand, I set up a simple bird-theme writing station at home.

I tried to provide materials for all age-levels in my home--- 1yr to 13yrs. old. I have the station set up by a window so that they will hopefully be inspired by any winged creatures they see outside too.

-- various bird-theme lined paper for writing (see below for details)
-- bird fact cards (see below for details)
-- bird booklet for my little girls
-- letter B plus Birds writing paper for my little girls
(You can follow my bird Pinterest board for even more ideas)

I have a whole set of bird photo cards that I picked up a couple years ago from the Dollar Tree. There are writing prompts listed on the back. I figure my younger children can look at the photos and then tell me about what they see. My older children will have the option of using the prompts on the back or not.

In the green bins are writing prompt cards from WriteShop. I printed out StoryBuilders: World of Animal cards for some creative writing inspiration. Each card is color-coded and students pick 1 of each color and use them to write their story:

Character Cards - Blue
Character Trait Cards - Yellow
Setting Cards - Green
Plot Cards - Lavender

The download contains printable cards plus instructions for different ways to play this writing game. I am excited to see how my kids use this component this week. I think this will help with the "Mom, I don't know what to write," reply I hear when they are asked to write.

I also printed out bird cards and placed them in our table-top pocket chart. My 5yr. old daughter has been the first to explore this activity. She helped me place the names of the birds we already knew on the bird photos.

You can download these bird-themed papers for free! I appreciate all who read and subscribe to my site, so I'm planning on periodically creating some special downloads just for you. If you are a subscriber, you will find the download link at the bottom of the post in either your inbox or RSS feed:

You can easily keep up with all the happenings at Spell Outloud by subscribing two ways:

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If you follow SpellOutloud on Facebook, you can also access this download on my page. Just look to the left for the Only Likers box and click.

Hey Diddle, Diddle Nursery Rhyme Craft

Every Thursday for the next couple of months I will be sharing what we did with nursery rhymes at my home. This week I'm sharing nursery rhyme ideas here and over at Totally Tots. Be sure to check out what we did for Jack and Jill.

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Hey, Diddle, Diddle has become one of my 3yr. old's favorite nursery rhymes. I think it is because the poem is so silly! A cat playing a fiddle? A cow jumping over the moon? She thinks it is hilarious--especially when we use our nursery rhyme props to act the rhyme out. This week we made a craft that we used when retelling the rhyme.

Hey Diddle, Diddle Craft Instructions

Supplies:
Large google eyes
Medium google eyes
2- regular paper plate
Hey Diddle Diddle Rhyme Print-out
Spoon Pattern
Black construction paper
white glue
scissors
glue stick
stapler

Print out the spoon, the rhyme, and the feet for the dish. Color and then glue medium google eyes on the spoon.

Glue large google eyes on the plate, staple or glue the feet to the bottom of the plate. Next glue the spoon onto the plate. Once that is dry, staple another paper plate to the back so that this project opens like a book.

 

Glue the nursery rhyme on the inside. Now you have your own Hey Diddle, Diddle book!

I would find my daughter "reading" her Hey, Diddle, Diddle book to anyone who would stop and listen. She loved it!

Here she is "reading" the poem to Grandma (it was laundry day--please excuse all the clothes in the background--lol!)

For a twist on this poem we read the book, Hey Diddle, Diddle by Eve Bunting. We really enjoyed the ending plus it was a great book to point out rhyming words and talk about music.

 We also colored another Hey Diddle, Diddle coloring page to slip into our nursery rhyme notebook.

You can keep up with all our Nursery Rhyme activities on my Nursery Rhyme page.

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Nature I Spy Printable - Winter Edition

It has been an unusual winter in our area. We usually get snow. We expect snow in the winter. This year though, has mostly been rain with a couple spring-like days teasing us. It's been a dreary, muddy winter. It is this time of the year that we start to feel cooped-up in the house.We need to get out.

When I start feeling this way I find that going for a nature walk helps change our mood. It might be a quick walk around the block or sometimes a trip to our local gardens or state park (I will admit that I only take longer walks on warmer winter days. I'm a wimp---lol!)

I created a winter edition set of I Spy cards (see related Fall I Spy Cards) for our next nature walk. Now I realize that winter looks different in the Midwest than  in other areas. I tried to make most of the cards usable for any area. Just print and laminate (optional), place on a ring and carry along on your nature walk. See how many of the items you can find.

Nature I Spy Cards: Winter Edition Download

Please share the link to this blog post and not the direct link to the printable. Thank you!

You might also be interested in my winter notebooking page for young children too.

 I've joined several other bloggers today who are sharing free nature printables too. Stop by their blogs and see how they are enjoying nature this winter.

1. Cindy from Our Journey Westward
2. Maureen from Spell Outloud.
3. Jimmie from Jimmie's Collage
4. Lauren from Mama's Learning Corner
5. Amanda from Hearts and Trees.
6. Barb from Handbook of Nature Study

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Our Muddy Meanderings

We've had unseasonably warm weather in our area. In fact, we haven't had a significant snowfall yet, which is really weird. Most of our winter has been rainy. Last week though, we had a beautiful day. I hadn't planned on going anywhere, but it was too nice to be inside. My mom happened to be over and suggested a local state park. I totally forgot the entrance is free during the winter! So we dug around the house for socks, shoes, and jackets and headed for an impromptu nature walk.

The first stop was the natural spring. My mom needed a couple of gallons of water to feed her water kefir. No, it's not a pet. She makes it into a drink (see previous link for more details.)

For the first part of the walk, we took a road down to the river. That way Lil Pumpkin could get some energy out and walk on her own. She was so excited! She babbled and babbled the entire short walk to the river.

The trees' shadows lined the road. We spotted a couple of woodpeckers. Saw a couple dogs being walked, but I think our noise drove most of the wildlife away. :) Harmony Art Mom suggested doing a Silent Nature Walk. I don't think that would be possible with my group. I like the idea though!

The best part for the kids was that it was ok to walk in the mud! Good thing since the trails were mud. A stroller + mud= hard work. I probably should have worn Lil Pumpkin in the carrier. The kids went to the river bank and spotted various animal tracks. We saw deer, raccoon and maybe coyote tracks (could have been dog prints though--I'm no track expert.)

Breaking up the monotony of brown and grey tones were the occasional splashes of green--mainly from moss.

It will be interesting to come back in a couple of months and see this whole area bursting with color.

If you are looking for some winter nature studies ideas, you might want to check out Harmony Art Mom's Winter Nature Study e-book. She has a ton of resources and information on her Handbook of Nature Study blog. Reading her blog has inspired me to get my kids out more to learn. :)

I also have a nature notebook page for each season of the year. You can find them here: Nature Notebook Pages 

Not sure what notebooking is? I highly recommend reading Notebooking Success by Jimmie. You can use this tool for any curriculum and any subject.

Do you incorporate nature studies into your year? How?

Kindness Craft

This year I have been intentionally teaching my children virtues. I had found myself telling my kids to be nice, be kind, be attentive, but I hadn't told them what that meant. I just expected them to do it. Thankfully I came across a wonderful company called We Choose Virtues that has the cutest virtue cards to help with our virtue training (You can see my WCV Flashcard Review here)

We use the faith-based parent/teacher cards. There are also community cards that contain no scriptures for those in public school or community settings. Sometimes we stick to a particular virtue for more than a week or so. Currently we are working on showing each other kindness.

With 6 kids in the family (once again my ds is missing from the photo) we have many opportunities each day to show kindness.

Kettle Gretel is the VirtueVille kid who teaches about kindness. She loves to make hot chocolate for all her friends. My younger girls pretended to make hot chocolate for each other. While doing this, we sang a little song to the tune of "Mary Had a Little Lamb" with the words taken from the nursery rhyme "Polly Put the Kettle On"

Gretel put the kettle on, kettle on, kettle on

Gretel put the kettle on we'll all have hot chocolate.

(Name of child) take it off again, off again, off again

(Name of child) take it off again, our friends have gone away.

Then we did an art project to help us remember the keyword pictures and Bible verse.

The girls colored their kettle and cup and glued onto a piece of construction paper.

 

The "hot chocolate" being poured from the kettle to the cup has the theme verse.

Now instead of saying, "Be nice now," or something along those lines, all I have to say is "Kettle Gretel" and my kids know what I'm telling them and what I am expecting from them. :)

You can download the craft printable here: Kettle Kindness Craft

The Names of Jesus Advent Chain

I know, I know I just posted about Thanksgiving sneaking up on me and here I am writing about Christmas! Yes, I am currently working on Christmas posts. I wanted to share this one early just in case you are planning some of your December activities already.

I have wanted to go over the Names of Jesus with my kids as a study for awhile. This year I thought it would be appropriate to do during the Christmas season. I found an online Names of Jesus study at Easy Fun School and based this Advent chain off of the scope and sequence found there. The chains only contain the name and the Bible reference. Check out Easy Fun School’s site for in-depth activity ideas for each name.

Since purple is usually a color associated with royalty, I decided to make our paper chain purple and silver. I printed out the template on shimmer cardstock by Core’dinations. I was worried that the ink would rub off right away, but it didn’t. I did need to let it dry for a few minutes before cutting. If the ink gives you problems, you can set the ink with Kryon Preserve It! by lightly spraying the paper before cutting.

I made the hanger for the chain out of a white, sparkly pipe cleaner, ribbon, and snowflake garland. We will hang this up on December 1st and remove a chain each day until Christmas.

Click to download the Names of Jesus Advent Chain.

You may also want to check out the additional Christmas printables I have available. More coming soon.

I plan on flip-flopping Advent chains each year. In the past we have used this advent chain created by my friend Cassie (yes, she is real!—lol). I love how Advent Chains have become a December tradition in my household.

What are some of your family Christmas Traditions?

P.S. I will also be using The Names of Jesus ornaments from Bible Story Printables to go along with our study. I’ll be blogging about that later. :) I also will be posting a Children’s Christmas book series at the end of this month! Make sure you subscribe to my blog so you don’t miss a thing!

Thanksgiving Printables and Resources

Am I the only one who just looked at the calendar and saw how close Thanksgiving is already? Sometimes I am thankful for blog deadlines, because it ensures that I do get some of my great ideas (lol) completed!

We already have our Thanksgiving Banner done, which was featured at The Homeschool Village (you’ll find the instructions and downloadable template there.)

My 9yr. old daughter and I read The Imagination Station Problems in Plymouth together.  My daughter has enjoyed all the books in this series (I wrote reviews  for Book 1 and 2, and Books 3 and 4. In book 6, we were transported back to Plymouth and met Miles Standish, William Bradford, Squanto and others. It was a nice book that led to several discussions about Thanksgiving.

I printed off some more Thanksgiving mini-cards for my little girls to color (I originally posted these last year.) You can use these as-is or make them decorative mini-flags by folding the card over a craft stick and glueing closed.

I also printed off several of these Thanksgiving Thankful Mats. I’m going to have my kids write what they are thankful for, color the color-by-number turkey, and then cover with contact paper for an easy holiday placemat.

If I have time I also hope to check out the following Thanksgiving resources from these talented bloggers:

•  Thanksgiving word cards from Homeschool Creations
•  Thanksgiving Preschool Pack from 1+1+1=1
•  Turkeys Unit from 2 Teaching Mommies
•  Thanksgiving Unit from 2 Teaching Mommies
•  Thanksgiving tot pack from Lawteedah
• Various Thanksgiving Crafts & Printables from Christian Preschool Printables

Experiencing Apples

I’ve done lots of apple-themed activities in the past with my kids, and wasn’t really planning on doing much with apples this fall. Sometimes I forget that though I’ve done these “apple” events and activities over and over again, my littlest ones really haven’t. God must have known that my littles needed some apple experiences this fall!

On a recent fall weekend, my 4 youngest children and I had the day to ourselves. I decided we should get out and visit our local museum. I totally forgot it was apple-festival day there! We walked in to apple-activities galore and my kids thought I planned this. I love it when that happens. :)

One of the first activities the girls came across was making homemade apple cider using an old cider press. It was hard work smashing up those apples!

We got to taste our own batch of apple cider too.

Next we moved on to the apple-tasting table. My 3-year old was so shocked that they were letting her eat apples! The presenter shared facts about each type of apple and then they voted for their favorite apple.

Not only did they get to taste apples, they got to eat apple pie too! Boy was it delicious! Yes, we came on the right day!

The girls had the opportunity to guess how many apples were in the basket. It warmed my heart and made me smile when they told me their guesses. My 3-year old told me there were 5 apples. My 4.5yr. old said some unreasonable number like 2,000.

We also spent some time visiting the apple orchard store where they have a huge apple-cider press. We walked along the garden paths and totally enjoyed this unplanned apple experience. Thanks God for this special memory!

Just in case you are curious to what we’ve done in the past, you can find several apple-themed printables and activities in my archives.

  Apple Tree Number Match

Apple Pattern Cards

Apple Activities Blog Post 2010
Letter A Activities Post 2010 (Apple-themed finger-play)