Sunday, November 9, 2014

Biography Book Report & Reading Log FREE

Hi there! My daughter who is currently in 2nd grade has been reading an interesting biography on George Washington. This was her first long chapter book (19 chapters!) and we are so proud of her and how much her reading has improved (with the help of incentives as well … hehehe…) So now I have decided to introduce her to the fun world of book reports! (a little sarcasm there)… so again on my online search for different graphic organizers, I found a few that I really liked, so I decided to mix different ideas and adapt it to her level…and viola! Below is her Graphic Organizer Biography Book Report :) We plan on making a Diorama next! Click here for some FREE helpful information and FREE printables at DLTK
I hope you all enjoy!  :) 

Also! I've created two different types of Reading Logs.. I hope no one gets offended that one is pink and one is blue…very gender oriented :) Maybe I will create a green one, as for now…time to get ready for bed!

**Tip** Our reading incentive that we like to use are "tokens"…when my daughter completes the reading list, correctly, I give her 4 tokens and a little "treat". I also give her tokens for other assignments as well…and when she fills up her little jar with tokens, she gets her "prize"…something we agreed upon in advanced…so for example…we agreed for each jar filled, she would receive $5…she wanted the American Girl Doll extremely bad…so we agreed she will work hard for it :) ….and boy did she! lol It took her a couple of months, but she managed to get $60…for her birthday we gave her the remainder…and she went and bought her doll with her own money…I love life lessons like these…one thing I learned though, is that its really hard to tell grandparents "NO"…well its not that hard, but if they are hard headed then yes it is :)



Thursday, November 6, 2014

United States Nomenclature Montessori Cards FREE



Hi there!
We have started our 2nd year of CC and our 3rd year of homeschooling! We are now a family of 6 as well lol so life has been very interesting, not a dull moment…and if I ever find myself bored…actually, no, I never find myself bored…but if I ever did…then something might be wrong…anyhows if you see the picture above, i've created nomenclature cards that helps the children associate where in the US the states are… I looked many places for something like this…but only found cards that had each state separate…so here you go! I also included the state capital and abbreviations…. if anyone here knows where cards like this are then please do share! lol It will save me a lot of time in the future…until then, I will slowly be creating more and more for each week. 

**Week 2&3 contains the state matching game…and includes the location of the state capitals…so far we have played it like a memory game, if you make up any other fun ways to play then please share in the comments below! Thanks



Files to download
Cycle 3 Week 1 United States Nomenclature Cards

Cycle 3 Week 2 United States Nomenclature Cards (includes individual state matching game)

Cycle 3 Week 3 (Includes individual state matching game)

***ADDED 11/12/2014**** Cycle 3 Week 4

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Getting Ready to Forage

I put together some helpful activities that I found for free. Its so important that the children are able to identify and differentiate between the different types of plants. It could be one little detail that makes one plant okay to eat and another one poisonous! So below are some activities that you can do before or after to help teach the different shapes of leaves and "margins" to help train their eyes. 


Leaf Identification Power Point FREE

 
Parts of a flower Montessori Matching Cards FREE
 

Links to Free botany activities  (purple links are free)

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Phonics and a preschooler

A very old version of hooked on phonics was given to us and we have been using it successfully with our 6 year old, so I decided let's teach our 3 year old too! Ha! I am sure he knows more letters then he leads on to know, but doing the letter flash cards along with the tape, over and over became tedious and tiring. I felt like he needed something more tactile while he was listening to the tape to help make it more concrete.

We do have sand paper letters, but they are a bit big and bulky to flip through during the song, so I started to look for sandpaper flash cards. I found some on amazon, but they didn't have great reviews and i didn't feel like ordering...so I came across this website and she has a very easy way of making cards! Glue and sand! Wow! I love simple and easy! Some things just don't need to be so complicated!

So I made some flash cards in pages, keeping the letters true to the Montessori colors (red for consonants and blue for vowels)

I found some glitter glue and voila!
I used my \ fiskar paper cutter, punched a hole with my hole puncher, and put a ring trough the whole. So simple. :)

So materials needed:
Card stock paper
Hole puncher
Paper cutter
Glitter glue (or glue and glitter, but messy!)
And a ring (1" is probably best)
PDF for flash cards
Website for original idea

Enjoy!









2013 Foraging Field Trip Wih "Wildman" Steve!

Yes I know, super late, but here are some pictures from our awesome homeschool field trip with "Wild Man" Steve Brill and his wonderful daughter/assistant Violet! (May 2013)

Also here is some links with more information on Steve Brill
Mr. Brill playing dead, this is what happens when you eat poisonous wild food!



Digging up some edible roots!




The "Brillophone" Duo, Steve Brill and his daughter Violet

Some vine swinging! They must have been pretty high! lol

Safely landed...

Azi's turn!