Homeschool Freebies

 It's time for the annual freebie directory from The Old Schoolhouse magazine.

Excuse my daughter's long legs
in the picture!

I recently received a lot of free science magazines from Natural Inquirer (get the play on words?)  I requested a sample pack and was surprised by the extent of what I received!I requested the middle school selection. Get your free science magazines HERE. Warning: not necessarily a Biblical worldview but still informative information.

Lastly today, my friend shared a new freebie from Nat Geo. It's free, printable, topography maps. You can select where you want in the United states, and it will print 5 PDF pages up for you which includes:  

• Page 1 is an overview map showing the topo in context
• Pages 2 through 5 are the standard USGS topo cut in quarters to fit on standard printers

Find your Nat Geo topography maps HERE

Celebrate Italian Heritage Month

Check out my latest at HEDUA!

America has been called the melting pot because so many different cultures have contributed to its development and continued success. As a result, we have many different “heritage” and “history” months like February being African-American History Month and Hispanic Heritage Month in September.

Not to be forgotten,

October is Italian Heritage Month!

So excited! I have items for sale on Currclick.com! GIVEAWAY

That's right. Yours truly has items for sale on http://Currclick.com. Hoping to help my family through providing some items that others might also find helpful!

The first items are my I Can Illustrate Psalm 23 booklets which are available in ESV, KJV, NIV, and NKJV. 

I have offered this free on my blog before, but this has been updated.

A brand new item I have on Currclick is Quality Quotations for Copywork: Nelson Mandela. His recent death made me want to have some a way to include some of his memorable quotes in our school day!

Now for a giveaway! That's right, I'm going to give away an item that I made! The winner will receive one item of their choice the Psalm 23  or the Nelson Mandela. Giveaway will end Sunday, February 10.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Will the Real Mexican Independence Day Please Stand Up?

Okay, first a disclaimer. This is NOT a Mexican flag in the picture. It's the Italian flag. I didn't have anything to do with that part!

Today is NOT Cinco de Mayo

I just wanted to make sure that point was clear. Today is Mexican Independence Day, however.

A lot of people think that Cinco de Mayo (May 5^th) is Mexican Independence Day because it is a big ta-doo here in the United States.

In Mexico, however, Cinco de Mayo is a regional holiday not a national holiday. It commemorates the day a rag-tag group of Mexican farmers defeated the proud and professional French troops at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. Today, in Mexico, it is celebrated in the state of Puebla. Here in the United States, it has become a day to celebrate Mexican heritage and culture.

That is why a lot of people get confused.

Read the rest at: http://hedua.com/blog/mexican-independence-day/#sthash.KE8UoBAy.dpuf

Free Printable!! My Country Report

Are you ready for another free printable?!?

Here is a fill-in the blank report for a country. I made it because I thought it would be a great introduction to writing reports about countries.

It's definitely a step above just fill in the blank sheets, because the answers are plugged into an existing report format. It becomes an introduction in the proper format to write a report. The last sentence is an open format allowing the student to include one interesting fact of their own.

It was also a first experience in research. Usually, mija and I look things up together. For this report, I found a couple of website with information about Australia and let her research from those. Previewed sites allowed me to have assurance that she wasn't going to come across unwanted content.

I've also included a key, so you know exactly what each blank needs.

This will regularly be available on my My Printables page.

Let me know what you think!

  

Wednesday Websites--Poetry

April is National Poetry Month!

Of course, there is studying the rhythm and rhyme pattern if there is one. You can see if there is a pattern in theme, topic or phrase. You can relate it to the historical time it was written or the science it mentions. When you read Langston Hughes' "Dream Variations", for instance, learn about the Civil Rights Movement and trees. Don't forget that writing poetry is an option, too! 

Poetry 4 Kids offer lessons for writing poetry. I recommend an acrostic poem if you are just starting out! It also offers a lot of other poetry resources.

Scholastic offers a lot of teacher resources for National Poetry Month.

At Poets.org, you search by poems or poets. There are even videos of various poems. Classics and more.

DLTK offers this collection of spring poems. This is a little more of a  "kid" friendly selection.

Poetry for Kids offers all kinds of poetry based links including places to post poetry you've written, a link to a rhyming dictionary, and more.

Readwritethink has some cool online tools that actually help write various types of poetry.

Apples 4 the Teacher has a thematic list of poems which includes various holidays. How about memorizing a poem for Armed Forces Day or Bird Day. (You know how I feel about every day being a holiday!)

Every Day's A Holdiay!

Credit Home Educating Family

Forgot to mention that I posted today at Home Educating Family Blog! Come join me!

Cinco de Mayo--a quick lesson in Mexican History

First of all, I have to post my favorite Cinco de Mayo picture...

Get it? 

Second, I must break some news to you that you might find quite surprising.


Cinco de Mayo IS NOT Mexican Independence Day. 


{sigh} That's a relief. It's been a heavy burden on my shoulders for a long time.

While we celebrate Cinco de Mayo all across the United States, it's only celebrated in the state of Puebla in Mexico. That's because Puebla is where it all "went down". In the Battle of Puebla, 6000 well-armed French troops lost to 2,000 "rag-tag" Mexican army in 1862. Mexican Independence from Spain was declared about 50 years earlier on September 16, 1810.


Cinco de Mayo has become a Mexican pride celebration here in the United States. Being a quarter Mexican, I'm all for that!


Here's some sites to help you celebrate Mexico and all things Mexican.
Apples 4 the Teacher
Eclectic Education
Mr. Donn
Teacher Planet
Scholastic
ABC Teach
DLTK-Kids
A to Z Teacher Stuff

Viva la raza!!


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Thanksgiving on Pinterest

Do you all do ?  If you do, you know how addicting it can be.  If you don't, I warn you that it can be addicting!  You have to be invited, so let me know if you want an invite.

The biggest challenge for me, with  is actually doing some of the things!  I mean, I've over 300 pins right now.  Some are just like this...

While you might find that very handy to keep in mind at the Thanksgiving dinner table, most involve projects and such.

SO

In order to get my tardy self ready for this week's celebration, I thought I'd post about some of the cool things I have found, which I may use this week for fun school stuff or dinner stuff. 

I'm going to link them back to the actual source instead of my Pinterest board just for your convenience.  You also might bookmark the original sources for ongoing ideas.  Some of these people are just sooooo creative!

First, here are some great lesson plans.

The idea for the cute pumpkins would be enough but trust me she has a lot more.

We actually did this one and I thought it would be cute to use different colors and shape some like feathers and make a turkey potato print!

You could make these for placemats!

How about another crafty pumpkin idea?  This one takes two days so plan accordingly.

Now, some acorns for the nuts in my family tree.

This game could be great for school time OR for killing time waiting for dinner to be ready or for it to digest!

How about some paper crafts?

No website for this one.
Wouldn't it look really cute
with googley eyes?

Last but not least, playing with food.  Some edible, some not!



Definitely not edible!



 

And these are a little more dinner specific, but would be great to include the kids in the making there of!  ;-)

I noticed that I had a lot of TURKEYS.  I'm hoping it's not a Freudian slip!

Well, I've come this far, so I might as well go full fowl!        

I so would have had mija wear this for her first Thanksgivng seven years ago! 

Johnny Appleseed Day--Sept. 26

Would you believe I've lived this long and never realized that Johnny Appleseed Day and my birthday fell a day apart!

(And trust me, I've had plenty of years to figure this out!)

So, here are some sites for you to find Johnny Appleseed and apple things.  This is just the tip of the iceberg.  Apples are very popular things!

Squidoo.com --Johnny Appleseed Unit

AtoZTeacherStuff.com --Johnny Appleseed Unit

EdHelper.com --Appleseed reading comprehension, math printables, more

HomeschoolShare.com --Appleseed lapbook and printables

Teaching Heart.net --Apple Theme Unit

ABCTeach.com --Apple theme printables, worksheets, activities, word puzzles & more

AtoZ Teacher Stuff.com -- apple lesson plans, activities, printables

EdHelper.com -- apple readers, reading comprehension, read & color, math printables, puzzles, more

Webtech.Kennesaw.edu --apple plans, printables, more

Fall into Autumn--Sept. 23

I don't forget the start of fall.  It usually "falls" on my husband's birthday, so if I'd forget it, I'd be in trouble!

So, I thought I'd help you out with a few resources for autumn.  Please feel free to share your ideas and resources as well!

Squidoo.com--Autumn Leaves are Falling Unit Study

Apples4theTeacher.com--coloring pages, worksheets, poems, more

EasyFunSchool.com--Autumn Science

EdHelper.com--color by number, read and color, math printables, a lot more

ABCTeach.com--worksheets

TeacherPlanet.com--lesson planets, worksheets, clipart, more

KidZone.ws--language arts, math, cutting skills, more

BusyTeachersCafe.com--activities, worksheets, links, more

Snow Plans

Tomorrow, we're expecting a blizzard.  Expectations are for six to twelve inches with thunder snow.

We are just getting over being a sick family, so want to take it easy, but do some "schooling." 

I'm planning on a snow day tomorrow.  A day that we do snow/winter related things.  Here are some of the things I'm digging up.  Maybe it will give you somethings to springboard from as well.

• I made a word search using spelling words in the shape of a snowman.  I made it at abcteach.com.  I don't think it's one of the free things on the site, but you can go to A to Z Teacher Stuff and probably make one there.
• A friend mentioned I should make sure to mention Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley.  We'll probably go to the site there and find out about him.
• I'm going to grab some ideas from Snowflakes--A Thematic Approach.  I'm getting some picture of actually snowflakes and we'll fold symmetrically and will draw some simple pictures symmetrically, as well.
• I went to Activity Village for tons of ideas for winter.  I think we are definitely going to need to finger paint snow scenes and maybe weave a snowflake. Oooo, how about making a snowflake from hand prints?
• It'll be fun to watch some videos about snow and Wilson Bentley. 
• Hot chocolate with marshmallows are a definite must. 
• Tomorrow's the first day of February as well.  Probably should go make a calendar at Starfall. 

Well, I think that's probably plenty. I want to focus on Mr. Snowflake and make sure we remember that snowflakes have six sides and are symmetrical.  I want to review our spelling words with the word search and make the calendar. Rewarding each word found with a marshmallow might be fun. Then I think we'll go back to watch some videos and do crafts.

Social Studies/History/Geography ideas

I'm once again working on cleaning out my "idea" cards.  This post will have some ideas for social studies, history, and geography.

Use empty shallow boxes for a mini-environment.
Jungle Safari--line with brown paper, paint stream, cutout animals and trees, concepts of habitat, predator, and prey.
Model City--student creates a business or service, box becomes fully stocked store (bank with money, cafe with cut out food).
Ocean--lined with blue, design a yellow submersible vehicle.  Assortment of fish and under water creatures.

Use stamps.  Relate history of stamps of history of individuals or events.  Find out about other countries by the people or events on them. 

Cardinal directions.  After a demonstration using the compass, students work together to establish true north, then the other directions.  Encourage students to use landmarks to remember each direction.  Play a game in which you call out a specific direction.  Students then must quickly face in that directions.  Speed up the commands as the game progresses.

A Capital Game.
large map of US, states labeled only
numbered bottle caps or chips
Make a list of state capitals on paper and assign each a number.  Number each bottle cap.
1.  The map is the game board.
2.  Draw a bottle cap and read the number.
3.  Look up number in the key.  Read the name of the city.
4.  Decide which state the capital belongs.
5.  Place a cap on correct state on the map.
6.  Continue until all states are covered.

Currclick Freebie: Summer Learning Across the USA

The freebie contains only 3 states, but it gives you a great sample from which to continue.

"This free gift includes several states that have popular spots to visit especially during the summer. Learn about the states before you go! Each sheet includes space for students to fill in information they learn about each state. Older students can do independent research to find the answers. There is an answer key at the back, which can be used to teach the facts to younger students."

Summer Learning Across the USA

St. Patrick

Never too late for one more St. Patrick's Day resource.  You have to grab it this week because it's one of CurrClick's free resources they send out every Monday.  If you haven't signed up for them yet, what are you waiting for?  This resource is at St Patrick: The World's Greatest Missionary