Crafty Monday Part 2: Bats, Owls, Spiders, and Cats October 28, 2013

In this post: Our homeschool group learns about the creepy and spooky creatures talked about this time of year. At home Michael learns about bats, owls, and spiders with crafts, games, and fun food. Plus my pumpkin art!

Hello dear ones! I know the top pictures are always too big. They are for my Pinterest and the reader. This is the second part of Crafty Monday. I hope you didn’t miss the first part with week 2 of Ancient Greece. We had fun last week learning about the creepy creatures brought up around Halloween. We don’t celebrate Halloween (as in celebrating the dead…ghosts…horror etc…) but I don’t mind learning about these “creepy” creatures because I don’t think they are scary at all. We love to dress up for Fall festivals and to enjoy Harvest celebrations but I’m very anti-horror.

When one of the homeschool moms decided to do a creepy creature project we just had to prepare. So I found these great lapbooks etc on Currclick.com. They were super cheap and all about owls, bats, spiders, and cats. We never got to the cat one.

You can find my Fall Pinspirations here: http://www.pinterest.com/doverette/fall-crafts/

First we began with bats and a famous bat named Stellaluna :).  I think bats are super cute.

Here’s what you see above:

• Flutter, Flutter Little Bat poem
• Candy Bat craft ~We also watched a reading of Stellaluna. The white bat represents her.
• Hanging Bat craft ~I hung these over Michael’s reading pool. Now he has a bat cave :).
• Bat lapbook from Currclick.com. We also watched a video about bats. I believe the link came with the lapbook.
• Bats and Cats music game ~ found here: http://www.susanparadis.com/catalog.php?ID=SP740
• Cat cookie cutter sandwich ~ it is what it is. Poor black cats. They get such a bad rap. I have a sweet one and he’s not evil…well most of the time.

• Owl cursive sheets~ Michael practiced writing cursive with these all week.  He traced the owl fact sheets and he copied owl facts too.
• Michael dissected an owl pellet online here: http://www.kidwings.com/owlpellets/flash/v4/index.htm
• Then he got a certificate for being a Bird Barfologist.  Michael got the funny glasses from Michael’s craft store.

• Spider Web Language Arts Game: I made a yarn web with cut out spiders. I put various Fall words on it. Michael had to find synonyms, homonyms, and antonyms. He wasn’t allowed to step off the yarn.
• Glue Resist Spider Web~ it’s really hard to see the spider web with a green back ground.  We made the web with glue then painted over it with water paint.

A friend’s church had a fall festival called Manna-ween. We watched “It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown” on the lawn.  You can see Michael as Bilbo Baggins. There’s a pic with his buddies Olivia and Liam. When we got home Michael colored his Great Pumpkin coloring book and we watched the movie again.

Our homeschool group  learned about creepy creatures last week.  The mom who led it divided the activities in centers.  The kids were split into pairs.  They were given passports. Once they completed the activities at each center they stamped the passport. I have them labeled below.

Lastly, a couple projects of my own…

• Sweater Pumpkin made from an old blue sweater.
• Pumpkin blocks ~ wooden blocks painted orange and white. A nail for the stem and gold wire for the vine.
• We are trying to sprout Indian corn for a science project.

God bless & remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover

Crafty Monday: Greece Week 1 + Down at the Farm October 21, 2013

In this post: We begin our study of Ancient Greece with Greek Pizza, the Parthenon, Greek architecture, and the Alphabet! Also a fun trip to the farm/ranch as we learn about pioneers and pilgrims. And a few Fall crafts!

Hello beloved and how are you? We are still kickin’ over here at the Dover’s. I’m excited to be teaching and learning about Ancient Greece. The Greeks were some of my favorite people in Social studies at school. I really enjoyed Greek mythology as a kid but that’s changed since I became a Christian. I don’t watch Xena or Hercules anymore. Still, I think the culture was interesting.

This week we focused on the Alphabet and architecture. You can find our pinspirations at this link:

http://www.pinterest.com/doverette/sow-greece/

Michael decoded a Greek letter and then he wrote his own Greek letter. It was a secret message to his Daddy, the other secret agent in the family. Shhhhh! Don’t tell! 😉

Chris decoding his letter.

We watched a couple of videos about the Greek Alphabet and some cute songs. They reminded me of my brief time in Bible college. Me and my guy buddy were surrounded by old men and they cracked us up. I’ve got a video of the guys singing the Greek Alphabet. Oh how I miss them all….good times.  You can find the other vids on the link I gave you.

We talked about Athens vs Sparta. I would rather live in Athens for sure. The Spartans were warriors and very harsh. The Athenians were all about education and the arts. We learned a bit about the Olympics. Michael couldn’t believe that it was limited to men and they went around naked! No wonder married women were forbidden to attend!

We made a homemade Greek Pizza with olives and feta. My guys really enjoyed it. I couldn’t handle the heart burn.

We looked at Greek mosaics online and then made a bean mosaic.

Michael drew the Parthenon from his Draw and Write Through History book.

We watched a video about the Parthenon while we put together this Lego Parthenon. We found directions online but sort of did our own thing. We simplified and it turned out nice.

Michael made these Greek columns out of toilet paper tubes and paper. We have Doric (the plain columns),  Ionic (looks like scrolls), and Corinthian (fancy) columns.

We ended the week by looking at Greek sculptures and then making our own out of cucumbers. Okay, it was hard! None of us had the talent for it.

I thought mine (right) looked like an old grandma. You can’t see her face in the pic. Michael’s looks scary like slimer or something. Yeah, it was hard.

We did a scarecrow tutorial. The crayon didn’t resist the paint well. You can’t see his straw. Cute, nevertheless.

Michael also learned how to draw an owl. He added other animals to his picture.

You can find these crafts here: http://www.pinterest.com/doverette/fall-crafts/

I gave Michael a fake pumpkin and let him decorate it however he wanted. He drew a cat face.

At the beginning of the week, our group took a trip to a ranch/farm to learn about pilgrims and pioneers. It was a good program though overshadowed literally by the grey misty and COLD weather. Oh, I froze my tail off! All of us had dressed for a hot day too. So we shivered through it and most of us went home, napped, and had cider or cocoa after. Goes to show….cold homeschool moms think alike ;).

Currclick.com has free “Down on the Farm” notebooking pages. Check it out:

http://www.currclick.com/product/30016/Down-on-the-Farm-Notebooking-Pages

This sweet lady talked to the kiddos about the pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving.

The the kids learned how to grind corn. There is no way to get a decent amount of food this way. I’m thinking there was a bowl shaped vat and a long stone cylinder or something to grind it. I can’t imagine a rock and a log being very effective at all.  The corn went everywhere.

Our “Native American” guide showed the kids this teepee and told a Native American legend.

Inside the teepee.

A dreary day on the farm…

Fun feeding goats!

The free range bunnies made burrows…I want a free range bunny now.

Baaaa ram ewe! He he…reminds me of Babe every time. Sheep make me giggle. It’s like chihuahuas. I always want to say “Yo quero Taco Bell”.

King of the world!

A hay ride without any hay…still fun.

This man knew his stuff. He talked to the kids about being a pioneer and living on the trail.

The Pioneer man took us to the cabin “we built”. We used our imagination to get there :).

Pioneer man showing us how to wash clothes the old fashioned way.

Inside the cabin…such simple beauty.

The loft. You didn’t have to worry about family togetherness back then.

Downstairs in the one room cabin. Oh this reminds me of some of my favorite Christian romance and inspirational movies….Love Comes Softly…Seasons of the Heart.

What a perfect Fall table…I wouldn’t mind having a cabin someday. See the stuffed turkey in the corner? There’s an abacus on the mantle.

An old reader on the table.

Pumpkins by the covered wagon.

Nifty spiderweb net.

It was a fun and busy week.  We went to the fair and also a cooking school. I’ll show pictures of that later, Lord willing.  If you’re wondering where the Bible was in this time of history (remember our timeline?): well, the book of Malachi was being written and the Jews were about to enter into the silent years where God refused to speak. When we study Rome we will finally be in the times of Jesus, the messiah. That’ll be great near Christmas, one of the times we celebrate Christ’ birth.

God bless & remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover

Last Week: https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2013/10/14/crafty-monday-part-1-babylon-and-persia/

Week 2 of Greece: https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2013/10/28/crafty-monday-part-1-ancient-greece-week-2/

Crafty Monday: Owls October 22, 2012

In this post: Owl crafts and fall treats!

Hello friends! I hope you are well. We just got back from visiting our home town. I always feel a bit icky when I travel. Maybe it’s because I’m a homebody. I felt bad yesterday & didn’t have internet most of the weekend. So I’m just getting around to posting something. Last week in homeschool we learned about owls. I say “we” because I learn too. We took the apples off our tree and now it’s a fall tree with owls and pumpkins :).

Rachel, I did make a lapbook :). Thankfully we checked out the right books to go with it. As always you can find most of these ideas & crafts on my Pinterest.

Owl Lapbook

That’s not the book that goes with it. It’s just a book we read this week. You can find the lapbook info on my Pinterest.

Inside- Owl facts, My favorite owls, etc…

Back- James 1:5 copywork

We read the Owl babies book and we made our own owl babies

Owl Cupcakes– I made vanilla cupcakes and gave them owl faces with frosting. They’re a bit pathetic but Michael thought they were awesome. That’s all that matters right? 😉

Owl Math- So I got these owls from a teacher store. I put masking tape on them because it comes off easy. I wrote multiplication problems on some of the owls and the answers on the others.

I told Michael that most owls have only one friend but there is one owl that has several (the zero owl).

We were multiplying by one and zero. I love math games because Michael forgets that he’s doing actual “school”. They’re just fun!

Paper plate Owl– we made this handsome owl and read about two owl buddies.

Sometimes you just have to do math on the trampoline :). This was a coin toss worksheet.

Oh, and what’s school without dinosaurs (dragons)?

Fall Brownies- I just poured brownie mix into fall molds and added colored sprinkles. Easy peasy 😉

If Michael wasn’t so cute this mask would be a bit creepy. We got this scarecrow mask from Hobby Lobby and Michael used markers to color it.

Michael forgot his listening ears the beginning of the week. He was a little gremlin and I promise I didn’t feed him fried chicken! Sooooooo… I came up with this chart. He gets smiles  for listening, writing neat, finishing in time, and talking with respect in each subject. Then the smiles tally up at the end of the day. Lots of points mean rewards or getting something back that was taken away. Hardly any points means losing privileges or toys. This worked the first day I used it.

This was a great owl mask. I can’t remember where we found it.

Pastel Resist Owl in the Moonlight- Michael’s owl

The moonlight owl went well with our book.

This is my owl. It looked too fun not to do!

Chris and I helped a lot with this Jug Owl

This paper bag Owl was cute!

We ended our week by watching “The Owls of Ga’ hoole” . I had never seen it before. It was a really good movie. There was tons of owl info in the movie as well. It was great reading our owl book and Michael saying he remembered that owl type from the movie.

This week we have a mixture of fall themes. See you next week, Lord willing!

God bless & remember the High King lives!~Amber Dover

Apples Study: https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2012/10/01/crafty-monday-apple-week/

Bats, Falling Leaves, & World Pasta Day:

https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2012/11/05/crafty-monday-bats-falling-leaves-world-pasta-day/

Candy Corn, Crows, & Homemade Rootbeer:

https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2012/10/15/crafty-monday-candy-corn-and-homemade-rootbeer/

Pumpkins & Scarecrows:

https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2012/10/08/crafty-monday-pumpkins-sukkot/