Unit 20

Happy New Year.

This week we are back on the Little Hands to Heaven by Heart of Dakota.
This is also Cora's first week in the bilingual art/dance class. She is attending two days a week in the mornings, which still give us more than enough time for our activities. Plus, it gives me some one-on-one time with my little guy.

Speaking of the little guy, I am excited to see Caleb participating in our activities more. In the past few weeks his vocabulary has really grown and he is making wonderful, clear sentences. He is counting and singing he's ABC's. Loves to do the finger plays and listens well to the bible stories. It should be fun to incorporate him more into the lessons and not have to wait for his nap time.

Before Christmas we skipped to unit 21 so that we could save the review week for after Christmas. This has worked out very well. Nice to have a review after so many weeks off of this material.

This week we are studying about Daniel and reviewing the letters A-Q.

We had a lot of fun today playing with sugar!
I covered a paper with sugar and Cora used her finger to draw the letters as I called them out.
She really enjoyed this activity.
After we finished she had free time to draw in the sugar.
Next,we discovered how sugar dissolved in water and finished up with a nice sugar hand scrub.
Very fun!

I should have used the sugar water to make salt crystals, but I forgot about that until my hubby reminded me how we did that project when we were kids.
Oh, well have to save that one for another day.

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Sugar Crystals:
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Boil about 1 ½ cup (400 ml) water.
Add about ¾ cup (200 ml) of sugar to the water, and stir the solution well.
Pour the solution into the jar. Make sure that the jar you selected can withstand the temperature (a glass should work).
Suspend the string from a pencil.
Submerge the string in the solution.
The sugar crystals will grow slowly on the string over a period of several days. If you want the string to hang straight in the jar, tie a weight to the bottom of the string.

http://www.sciencekidsathome.com/science_experiments/sugar_crystals.html

New Year

I spent a few hours this morning making a plan for the coming year.

We are currently in Unit 20 in the Heart of Dakota, Little Hands to Heaven.
I have us scheduled to take a week off before every review week. That's a week's vacation every 4 week.
With that schedule this curriculum will take us through mid April.

I was toying with the idea of switching to Our Father's World -kindergarten. But after reading the reviews, I think we are going to stick with Heart of Dakota for another year.
That said, I have not ordered the next set of books yet so, until I do I can still change my mind.

As far as the rest of the year, I plan to try to stick with the 4 wks on 1 week off pattern, plus any VBS or camps over the summer. Then we'll take a break in December (maybe November, too) and do another fun Christmas study.

Here's to a fun year full of reading, learning, laughing, and lots of playing!
Happy New Year!

Christmas Unit Study: Week 3

10 more days
'till Christmas!

Here is our week so far, and the plan for the rest of it:

Monday:
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Sick day.

Tuesdsay:
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Story: Wise men followed a star
Bible activity: Acted out being a wise man, seeing the star and then following it.
Symbol: Santa: Watched The Santa Clause movie.
Craft: Cut out a stocking, and "sewed" it together with yarn.
Carol: What Child is This? First verse and chorus.
*Write in Christmas Journal each day.

Wednesday:
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Story: Wise Men visit Herod.
Activity: Act out the story.
Symbol: History of Santa
Craft: Cut out a star and cover with glitter. (Can use to play follow the "star")
Sing this weeks carol.

Thursday:
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Story: Wise Men find Jesus!!
Craft/activity: Draw and cut out a heart. Have Cora draw a picture of herself on the heart. Place in a box and have her wrap it up as a gift for baby Jesus.
Options: Add hands, and mouth in the box.
Sing Carol.

Friday:
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Story: Wise men go back home a different way.
Activity: On left side of a sheet of paper draw three men. In the middle draw a crown (Herod). On the right draw a house/home.
Draw a line from the wise men to the house, but go around Herod.
Sing Carol.
Hope to make pumpkin bread.

December: Christmas Unit Study

After taking a week off for Thanksgiving, and with the excitement of the Christmas season, I just couldn't bring myself to force us back into our normal routine.

So we are putting Heart of Dakota on hold...

Just for December.

I am taking this entire month to really celebrate the true meaning of Christmas...the birth of our savior, Jesus Christ.

So I took a little time and put together a Christmas Unit Study.

Here is what week one looked like:

Monday:

• Teacher planning day. :-)

Tuesday:

• Bible: Angle visits Mary (Little Golden Books. The Christmas Story)
• Bible activity: Cora acted out being Mary and I was the angle Gabriel.
• Carol: Learning Away in the Manger with hand motions (repeated daily)
• Symbol: Meaning of the Christmas tree (Science: What is an evergreen?)
• Writing: Copied today's date and the word Mary. Then drew a picture of today's story.
• Craft: Planned activity:Color and cut out a Christmas tree. Actual Activity: Made a Christmas count down, with tear away numbers.
• Christmas Countdown: Drew weather for the day on the calender and pulled off number on the Countdown board. (repeated daily)
• Advent: Verbally count number on the calender 1-25 (repeated daily)

Wednesday:

• Bible: Angle came to Joseph in a dream
• Symbol: Read more about the history of the Christmas tree
• Writing: Copied today's date and the word Joseph. Then drew a picture of today's story.
• Craft: Planned: Cut out different shapes to sort, glue them as ornaments on the tree from yesterday's craft. What really happened: No craft.
• Advent
• Christmas Carol
• Story: The story of the Three Trees

Thursday:

• Bible: Mary and Joseph travel to Bethlehem
• Bible Activity: Acted out packing and taking a long trip to Bethlehem.
• Opt bible activity: Look up distance from Nazareth to Bethe lam on a map.
• Symbol: discussed the meaning of Christmas lights/ Tree decoration
• Craft: planned: color and cut out light shapes, glue on tree from first day. Actual: none
• Writing: copied Date and Bethlehem, then drew picture of today's story.
• Advent
• Christmas carol

Friday:

• Bible: No room in the Inn, Jesus born in a stable
• Bible Activity: Went around knocking on "doors" asking for a place to stay, and finally going to the stable. Cora played the part of Mary holding baby Jesus, while Caleb and I pretended to be various barn yard animals. Then we switched places.
• Activity: Made and decorated Christmas cookies. Then delivered some to our neighbors.
• Advent
• Christmas Carol

Key bible Verse for this week:

John 3:16

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him, will not perish , but have eternal life."

Unit 20 - Review

I skipped this unit the week before Thanksgiving and we moved on to unit 21 - Letter Q.
The plan was to do the Unit 20's review after our Thanksgiving break.

Unit 19- P

Pending update. Check back soon.

Unit 18- O

Pending update. Check back soon.