In this post: A Lapbook, snack, and craft for Groundhog’s Day.
Hello dear ones! Do you celebrate Groundhog’s Day? If so, what traditions do you have? I’d love to hear about it in the comments. My mom’s birthday is on Groundhog’s Day, so we usually just focus on that. This year I wanted to do more though. It was super simple to throw this study together. Here’s how we learned.
Groundhog Survey
The night before, my hubby got online and asked Facebook friends to share their opinions. Would the groundhog see his shadow or not? We also asked family. Then Michael and I tallied the results on this nifty chart (pictured below). On Groundhog’s day we shared the results and also what three top groundhogs did or didn’t see.
The link for this printable: http://acupcakefortheteacher.blogspot.com/2012/01/freebies-for-groundhog-day.html
We watched two videos on Groundhog’s Day, a sweet cartoon and a funny lesson on the day. You can find them on my Pinterest here:
On Groundhog’s Day itself, I made these cute groundhog pudding cups pinspired by: http://we-made-that.com/groundhog-day-dessert/ . I just bought pudding already made. I’m simple like that.
Next, Michael did this quick lapbook on groundhogs from: http://www.currclick.com/product/77171/Groundhog–Speedy-Lapbook
Lastly, we did this groundhog craft pinspired by: http://almostunschoolers.blogspot.com/2012/02/groundhog-day-craft.html
We used a larger groundhog and we made ours into a square flipbook. I used a brad to move our groundhog from one page to the next. We favor an early spring around here :).
That’s it for our study. I hope you were inspired. Here are other homeschool happenings…
Lego zipline~ my sister found this idea on a blog and shared it. Michael was eager to make his own version.
Michael’s Budget and Pay Day
At the beginning of the school year, I had this great idea to make homeschool like a real job. I bought tickets and made them into school “money”. I put up behavior charts. Good behavior & work ethic mean’t regular pay and sometimes a raise in salary. Bad behavior and work ethic mean’t loss of pay and demotions, plus drawing from the consequence jar. At the end of each month, Michael gets paid. He first puts money aside for tithes and savings. Then he pays a few bills (rent, snack fee, cleaning fee). Whatever is left he can then spend on rewards. Each set of rewards costs a certain amount. Small rewards like sleeping in or picking a movie cost 100 school bucks. Bigger rewards like a day off of school or a special field trip cost about 600 school bucks.
So this was great except I got pregnant, morning sickness hit, and all these plans fell to the wayside. Well, finally we got back on track and Michael was able to earn pay for the month of January. I helped him write up a budget. He chose what organization he wanted me to donate to for his tithes and offerings. He paid “bills” and put aside money for savings. Lastly, he went to my store and purchased his rewards. He chose “pick a movie” and “choose a family activity”. He had money left over so he put it into savings.
This has been a great incentive to keep Michael on track with his school work. Thanks to my sister Jenn for the idea to use tickets for the fake money. She was a public school teacher for awhile and it’s nice to pick her brain.
Well, God bless & remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover
amberdover 