Thanksgiving Unit Study

Beautiful Fall days.....

 We have had such a beautiful fall here in Germany. I think it's one of the most colorful ever!

We have spent our days playing in the leaves out front. Making lots of piles to jump in, and watching our dog burry things in it!

                   Picking acorn caps, hunting for mushrooms, our feet shuffling along our daily walks...

Seems like as the fall comes, we feel so crafty in our house! We have taken up finger knitting again, and felt crafting. The kinders and I had some friends over and we made these adorable fabric acorns!

Each day we head out to our woods for a walk with our dog... Brinkley.He can run off leash so it's great exercise for everyone!

The kids were so excited when we found this bridge on one of our outings...

Psalm 31:19 How great is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you, which you bestow in the sight of men on those who take refuge in you.

This past week we invited some friends over for a little lesson on the First Thanksgiving!

Here are some things we did that I wanted to share!

               As the guests arrived, they were able to choose a costume to put on before they came in!

Here are our Pilgrims and Indians!

I read the story of Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving while the kids colored a picture. This is a wonderful story! One of our favorites.

We Talked a little about the Mayflower and some fun Facts. I gave each of the kids a Piece of candy that looked like a ROCK, to remind them of Plymouth Rock. =)

                      As they colored their Mayflower picture; I read a little bit from "On the Mayflower."

Afterwards it was time to head outside and stretch those little legs!!! We asked the kinders what 3 Things they would bring with them on the Mayflower...
Here is what they said : Blanket and pillows , Fabric, Food, Stuffed animals, furniture.....


So, Off we went to find out what in fact the Pilgrims did bring with them on the Mayflower!

The kids LOVED this!

They were very quick! 

What did they find?

Fabric

Bible

Dishes

Family heirlooms

Seeds for planting
Candles & Lantern

Then we spent the rest of our afternoon crafting!

We made little Corn Husk Dolls. It was so fun! We saved all the husks from the corn we picked in September , we soaked them in water and then laid them out to dry off a little and they were very easy to bend and fold....

All of our supplies were ready to go! We also made little Mayflowers out of paper bags, Popsicle sticks and paper ( I used dabs of play doh to hold the Popsicle sticks in place)... I totally made this up and I am sure their is a better way to make these!

Here is KT's Corn doll....

 Another great book the kinders and I enjoyed:

I made a gift bag for each Family to take home! I had some beige linen, and we cut the shapes out felt and sewed them on.  I was so proud of myself! =)

We filled it with homemade snack mix, and chocolate!

                                                                              Snack time!
I had seen these adorable tee pee cakes on Pinterest, but for some reason mine melted in the oven.. so this was our snack!

                                                                         Some more fun!

Something I am thankful for? I was able to fly and see my Husband in Korea for one week. I went without the kinders and came home a few days ago. We had a wonderful visit.  Here we are at the Seoul Lantern Festival ..Like the picture? =)

Thank you for visiting our Family, Have a Wonderful Thanksgiving week!

Psalm 145:7  They will celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness.

The Pumpkin Runner... FIAR Study

Have you read the Pumpkin runner? What a GREAT story! We really enjoyed this book. I realized after I planned on "rowing" the book that I didn't have level 4 Teachers guide to FIAR! =( whoops. So, we winged it. =) Here are some of the things we have been up to the past few weeks during this AMAZING fall we are having......

Gramma gave the kids a pumpkin plant this summer. We were able to watch it grow, and care for it.. and then finally the day came to pick their pumpkin! They were so excited!

                     Of all the fun things we did with it.... we FORGOT to weigh it!!!! =( 

We also went on our first homeschool group field trip this  year to the local pumpkin farm...
                                                BOTH my kinders picked a green pumpkin... =)

Since I am in charge of the field trips for our local group, I decided to bring some learnin to our day! =)
Here we had a table set up with some pumpkin facts, a pumpkin life cycle set, and some differant types of pumpkins and gourds.

I also brought a few types of foods that many may have never thought to try made of pumpkin!

Made from a local Farm:

* Pumpkin Syrup

*Pumpkin Jelly

*chocolate covered pumpkin seeds

*Shelled pumpkin seeds

*regular Pumpkin seeds

Hardly an of the  20 kinders had ever tried any of them! So this was a great lesson, and some moms got some new inspiration for snack time! =)

I also brought a pumpkin spice room spray for them to smell....

                Next we played the Game Sink or Float with the largest pumpkin we had at the farm.

I gave each kinder a laminated pumpkin (so I can use it next year)  to stick to my little wall chart (cardboard box), and it was a 50/50 Sink or Float moment..... ALL ages love this game! This tub was later used at the end of our trip to wash their pumpkins before going home... kept alot of mama's happy with a clean trunk! =)

Here is KT counting all the seeds from the pumpkin we grew...

While Daddy was home visiting, we went to our favorite Pumpkin Festival. We always have a great time there! It has become one of our traditions. We have been going since my son was only 7 months! =)

                                             The whole fam! And our new Dog Brinkley!

                                                JT with his choice of Gourd to bring home!

We also made some adorable little felt pumpkins. KT is learning to hand sew, and this was a great craft for them. We cut out shapes by tracing a pattern...  The felt was pretty stiff, so it made it easier on tiny hands....

                                         And of course some coloring fun & worksheet fun!

.....And the CUTEST Snacks!!!

                                                      Is that enough about pumpkins? =)



                                      We also spent some time learning about Australia.

                     The kinders also checked out our world map from Sidney to Melbourne. They colored the Flag, and we read some fun Australian Poems, and played with our boomerang...

                            

               We did our lapbook and studied the differant animals that live in this amazing country. There was so much MORE I wanted to do with the kinders, we will have to visit this story again next year!                                                           

 Thanks for visiting!

Resources:

Homeschoolshare:

Ausie Pumpkin Patch

Around the world coloring book- for Australia map by Dover

You tube Video of the REAL pumpkin runner

You tube videos on Australian Animals

Now, we are getting ready for our mini Thanksgiving Unit Study in a DAY with some friends!

Have a wonderful week!