I always like Linky Parties.  So today I joined in here:

Please join us.  :o)

Here's a funny that happened in my school room. 

I gave one of my students a page to sort his spelling words into columns according to their syllables, and this is what he handed in:

I started laughing so hard. 

Instead of taking his current spelling list and sorting them into each column he had simply gotten himself a copy of the last 3 weeks worth of spelling words and glued a list in each column.

Sometimes when you think they are listening - they're not, and this my friends is a classic example.

Learning the Days of the Week.

I made a up a couple of sets of cards with some cute animals on them as a theme in each set, and even though I don't have a color printer, they still worked well.

I laminated mine so that we could use them again and again.  I've got a few children that they need to go through.  :o)

AND I made a little cheat sheet for the children so that they can check their own work at the end to make sure that they got them all in the right order.  On the top side of the card it has a little hippo but yeah, on the back it has the Days of the Week in order.  :o)

Here's a little project that I started one day.   I never finished it, but I'm wondering if I should or not?   Do you think this type of thing would be useful for the entire alphabet?

It's a set of game boards that practice on focusing on a particular letter and things that start with that letter.

You can get the letter /a/ game HERE.  And the letter /b/ game HERE.

To play: just put a counter per player at the start and use a single die to roll.  When the child reaches the spot that the die has indicated, they must be able to name that letter, or name that picture.  If they can do that, they can stay.  If not, they must go back to their last spot and wait for their next turn.

Works well with 2 - 4 players.

 I turned this one into a file folder game so that we could use it again and again.

In the past I have also just printed a game up and used tape to join the two sides together and simply played.  No coloring, no laminating.

Try them out and let me know what you think.  Thanks.  :o)

 Augustus Caesar's World.

This turned out to be a favourite~!!   Highly recommended even if it wasn't a christian book.  I give this recommendation because of it's faithfulness to presenting history truthfully ( as truthfully as she could ).  It does not shy away from explaining how paganism was greatly influencing the people.  I loved how it provided a parallel history of the peoples of the time.  A fascinating read.  A must have for the homeschool library.

In between each major section there is a character selection of the main people that the book talks about.  The book is full of interesting illustrations throughout.

The book spends a lot of the time following the life of Octavius.  But it also presents us with interesting views of the lives of others at the time and how their lives are lived, and what happens to them.

Each main section is divided up into smaller chapters with lots of subheadings. That's how they are really divided up in the book, by sub topics.  So it's easy to start and stop when you are reading to the children.  That way each little part has a specific focus.

If you look just below Octavius here:  there is a little TITLE and this piece would only go for a couple of pages.  That's how each part is written up - there aren't any chapter numbers etc...

 Yes, christian things DO get mentioned.  Especially since Jerusalem is governed by the Romans during this time.

A true living book - it will spark your imagination, and draw you in on an adventure in history.  You'll want to read every page~!!

My few photos and comments here do NOT do this book justice.  Oh if you could only see it in real life~!!

Used for Ancient History.

Just wanted to share.  :o)

 Here's a project that we did a couple of weeks ago.

Where's Spot?

This was an awesome project for scissor skills~!!

At first, I toddled off over to kizclub and got myself their printables for this particular project and then:

I photocopied a copy of the cover of the book so that they could also have a cover on theirs.

 I love how they are all just like the pictures in the book.

Is he behind the door?

Inside the clock?

 But it is a LOT of cutting and pasting/gluing/taping.

Is he in the piano?

Under the stairs?

 But it is a nice keepsake - that they can color in later on.

In the wardrobe?

Under the bed?

 Is he in the box?

What about under the rug?

Finally, we find Spot in the basket.

The girls LOVED this project - even though they declined to color the pictures in at the time.  They just wanted to CUT and TAPE their book together.  The lift up flaps were a very novel and fun idea~!!

Thanks for visiting~!!

The Penguin.

I've got a HUGE post for you today~!!  Lots of show and tell with this theme - even though it only took a couple of days to do in real life.  We read 3 books, did some crafts, and did a little writing.

Here are the books we read:

100 Facts on Penguins.  I loved the pictures in this book.  I also love the idea of short numbered paragraphs.  The only thing I DIDN'T like in the book was that it added evolutionary rubbish - which we know is NOT fact, but rather opinion based on pseudo science.  It's a bit ironic that they add such "hear say" especially since the book is supposed to be about FACTS.  But that's ok - I can read around things like that.  But if I ever want to give this book to my children to read I'll be using a little black marker at certain points in the book.

 Now here is a gorgeous book~!!   I totally recommend this one.  Completely safe for any child.  They just stick to the FACTS.

 I love how they wrote and had illustrations on the left hand pages while on the right hand side they had REAL life photography.  So beautiful.

 Such a delight to read, and it didn't take long either.

The third book we read was this one.  A living book of the life of a Penguin.  This too is also recommended~!! 

Now we come to the crafts.  You can't do a "theme" on an animal without a couple of crafts, it just wouldn't be right~!!

So, we used an old 2 litre orange juice carton.  Wrapped it in black paper.  Then added the white belly, feet, wings, beak, and eyes.

 It didn't take too long and was fairly easy to put together.

 Basically we free styled it.  There wasn't any pattern.

Another craft that we did was a paper piecing of a penguin.

Here is Hannah holding the one that I did with her.  She might be able to cut her own hair but she hasn't really worked out how to cut that well with paper, so I did most of that with her.

And now for Chloe, Miss Grade 2 - who ended up with a little book on her Penguin.

I thought I'd help her out when we got to the cover part with some coloring.

 Here's Chloes paper piecing of a Penguin.  They love to eat fish.

On the right hand side we have a labeling exercise which I got from:  Mrs Kramer at Kindergarten Crayons.

We used this little page to list things about Penguins that we knew.  Well, I actually let Chloe write what she knew.  That's why Penguins can have "friends", and they can "help other penguins".  LOL  If you'd like a copy of this one you can get it here: Penguins

And now the drum roll please, since I am sooooo happy that it came out this well~!!  Getting children up and writing isn't always easy, and when they do it's so awesome to be able to see them make that progress.

If you'd like a copy of this notebooking page - and another one, oh and some awesome questions to ask your students to help them in their writing process you can get them by clicking the picture below.

I hope you've enjoyed what we did for our little theme on Penguins.  :o)  Thanks so much for joining us~!!

My Classroom

My Classroom.

I guess some of you might be wondering what our current school room looks like, so I thought that we'd do a little show and tell for you.

First off we have the plastic drawers:  each child has a drawer in the plastic tubs for their personal school books.  The very bottom drawers are for other items.  The white cupboard has paper and craft items mostly.

This is our main library wall.  I can't store all our books here so I've got them stashed all over the place, but this is where I keep all the new / big / valuable / favourite books.

 Our school desk.   Yep, a big 8 seater dining table - we don't eat in here as a general rule, so I never have to worry about food items on the table, so that is good.  :o)

 Shelving full of stuff.  This is where I keep all the little fiddly activities, jigsaws, readinga-z readers, farm animals, train set, and other odds and ends.  I keep worksheets and consumables that we are going to use in the plastic drawers on the shelf.   That's just so that they are easy to grab when we need to use them.  In the pink plastic drawers on the right I keep teachers manuals and other bits and pieces.

 The Kitchenette - also full of stuff ( and books ).  The books are up behind the glass doors.  The bench top is where I store the days work each day.  I also usually have my teachers program open on the top there too for easy reference etc...  Inside the cupboard I keep big tools like staplers, laminating machine, more paper etc...

 I hope you've enjoyed visiting our school room. :o)   I can see that I'd be able to get a few more classroom posts out of all of this if we got up and close with what's in those cupboards.  LOL  That might be more fun.  :o)