Integrating Holidays: Cinco de Mayo

For the history, the WHY, and more reading material, check out a post from last year on this festive Holiday most Americans (Mexican or not) tend to recognize. Click here: Cinco de Mayo.

I see the term on invitations to parties, graduation invites, and sales all around. So, this year because of the business, we celebrated simple in my house.

We learned about the Mexican flag.

Then we compared it to the American flag. We talked about why there are flags, what we do when we say the Pledge, and the colors. Because my child is four, we took the time to make patterns like the Mexican flag with beads. And then of course, we read a new book I found at a Scholastic fair.



Maybe next year I will "spice" it up a bit.

Enjoy!

Integrating holidays: St. Patrick's Day

It was fun to hide clues around the house for Diva E. She was quick with the answers and was able to share some "gold". I made large shamrocks and wrote clues that rhymed. The clues would take her to the next room to try and find that leprechaun. As we reached the last clue, I had her look all around while I pulled out the gold and placed it back at the beginning. It was short, easy, quick and fun. I did the set up the night before while she was sleeping.

We may not be Irish, but it is fun to recognize the folklore of other cultures. 

Integrating History: President's Day

If you can name all of these guys below, you are amazing. I still get hung up.

Today, buildings are closed.  

 My child asked why? Isn't there only one President? I would be silly to not explain to her the history of it all. Only then, did she look confused.

I luckily had these two books on hand.

That is as far as we have gotten today. 

For the older kids, there are so many other books that would be better for their reading level. These two are my particular favorites:

If anything, challenge yourself and your kids. Take that picture from the top of all the Presidents, add our current President Obama, copy it twice and play the matching game. Add their names for a challenge. Good luck and have a wonderful day off!!

Moment in history:

Last year, the living Presidents got together for this great picture. Isn't it great to live in a country where our leadership can get along and the torch passes peacefully?



Integrating Weather: When Smog attacks

Today's idea was brought to you by my four-year old. The weather the past two weeks, well maybe three, has led commutes to work to look like this:

And signs posted while we drive like this:

Are caused by this:

Needless to say, it has been miserable. Kids haven't been able to play outside and everyone is having some serious cabin fever.

We welcomed a birthday trip to The Treehouse Museum. A place where discovery play, stories, and history meet. It was during that time, we got on the computer to read a few of our favorite Dr. Seuss.

Diva E then asked, where is the Lorax story? The original one? I had no idea, so we moved on. On the way home, she asked : Do we live in Theneedville?

What an interesting text to world connection!

So, we dug out the book: Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs.

We had fun reading it and then got out some play dough to create our own mess of weather.

 Of course if you do a google search, there are many, many activities you could do with this story. One sheet that I had from my teaching days was this gem:

For any age, students could write an extension to the story or re-create the story with their own issues.

I found this site that leads to a plethera of printable activities to keep the fun going.

Free activities to print

Either way- have fun and enjoy another snowy, wintry day!!!

Integrating History: Pearl Harbor attacks

On December 7, 71 years ago, there was an attack on Pearl Harbor. You can view pictures here:  Pearl Harbor Attack.

The next day, we went to war in what would be World War II. President Roosevelt labeled Dec. 7, 1941, "a date which will live in infamy."

This weekend take time with your kids and look up pictures and read about this day and the events that followed after it.

Have your student write a Christmas letter to a serviceman or woman thanking them for their service during a time of year when they could be with their family, but they are protecting us.

It may seem small, but it woul mean so much.

Integrating reading &writing:Print rich environment

I love having words around for my children to read. This as an easy craft I did in the Fall.

1. Get letters from your local craft store.

2. Choose scrapbook paper. 

3. Turn letters over to trace

4. Cut out letter.

5. Use modge podge on the letter and stick paper to the letter.

6. Place a bit of mode lodge on top of the paper. Allow to dry and hang where you would like. 

I have also done this for the girls names. 

Integrating Holidays: Halloween Fun

This time of year is very long for parents, at least for me. Every day I get the question, when is Halloween? In schools they talk about Fall and Halloween for quite a while.

A favorite book to read:

To help with sequencing and comprehension skills, you can:
 enlarge items from the book, color them, lamenate them (for durability), and have your child put them in order of how they arrived in the story.

We read the book then I had her put them in order from what she remembered. After that, we checked the book to see what she got correct.
Once they were all in order, we made the noises of the two shoes going "clomp, clomp" and the other noises as well.

It was a fun activity and one we can revisit again and again. After a while, I am going to see if she can draw the items in order and create her own scarecrow.

Here is a link with tons of Old Lady activities for this book: Afraid of anything


Also fun Fall activities remember Leaf Man from a previous year?