DIY Snowman game

We've been studying "weather" in school right now.  Today I came across a bag of cotton balls, so I made this counting game to teach Callie number recognition. It should be an easy game to make in Thailand when we won't have snow!

1. First I took an empty oatmeal container and made a face and buttons with markers.  I added a scarf (we used a pair of doll tights!)
2. Dump the "snowballs" on the ground.  (You could have older kids explain how snow is made).
3. Roll the dice (this is a wooden cube with stickers, but any dice would work).
   
   
4. Count out the number of snowballs you rolled and put (or toss) them in the snowman.
5. Continue doing this, taking turns. You must get the EXACT number to end the game.                 
   

   

   Callie rolled a 2!  She wins!

                            
6. Whoever gets the last of the snowballs in snowman wins and gets to put his "hat" on (the lid).

                 It's just a simple game, but the kids asked to play it again:)

The Napping House: teaching adjectives, synonyms, sequence, and context clues

Have you read "The Napping House" by Audrey Wood? The illustrations by Don Wood are beautiful and provide so many context clues to enhance the story. I used it today to teach Language Arts to the kiddos. Here's a video link, in case you don't have the book: The Napping House video
Or this video:  The Napping House with words to follow along with.


Every character is attached to an adjective: a snoring granny, a dozing dog, etc. We read one page of the story without the adjectives and discussed how boring the story is without the descriptive words.

Each of these adjectives is also a synonym for "napping." I didn't go too far into this topic, but it's helpful to show your children how there are many words that replace "sleeping" or "sleepy." It keeps the reader interested.

 Since our daughter is 3, she is able to answer basic questions involving sequence. Example: On every page as one animal joins the pile, another animal is waking up. I asked questions to her like: "Who is on the bed now?" "Who is waking up?" "Who will get on the bed next?"


Using the illustrations as context clues:
 1. Were the characters napping or sleeping? By using the clues in the story, we see that the granny was in her pj's until the end; she wore a dress outside.
 2. The weather: it rained in the beginning, but as morning approached, the room became brighter, until morning.  All of the rain and sun provided a rainbow!

Biblical Implications: This is not a religious story, however, it does point out cause and effect. Our actions cause reactions.

Writing: Writing can overwhelm a first grader like our son, so instead I gave him specifics. Fill in the blank and change the title, characters, adjectives, conflict, and solution/resolution. He chose:
Title: The Cranky House
Characters: Mommy, Daddy, Callie, Jack (our family)
Adjectives: grumpy, angry, mad, grouchy.
Conflict: (a character that changes the house to become the opposite). He chose a skunk that got in the house and chased everyone around and made them cranky.
Solution: The phone rang and scared the skunk out of the house and everyone was happy.

We then re-read the story, using our choices to alter the story. Try it with your kiddos and let me know how it went!

Apologia: Mercury

We are using Apologia's "Exploring Creation with Astronomy" for Science this year.  It's an awesome study that includes evidence of God in our Solar System.  We also use portions of the Junior Notebook from Apologia.  I hope this provides you with a few ideas and saves you some planning time:)

 
 Mercury!

 Activity shelf #1

"God Made Outer Space" (I think Nana picked this one up in the dollar section of Walmart?)

She also sent us this model of the Solar System.

I made up this little matching game (see below). 

 

 Match the number to the correct box. (Click here for the free printable version!)

The basket contains all of the cards we've studied so far (the Sun and Mercury).

(The larger cards are from Baby Einstein). Scroll down for an explanation of the 3 bowls.

The plastic container holds cut up pipe-cleaners.  Use with a magnet to make them

                  crawl up the side.  The kids LOVED this!

I suggest you use a jar that closes tightly if you don' t want this to happen!
             In case you're wondering why we played with magnets, it's because Earth and Mercury are the only 2 rocky planets that have a global magnetic field.

Sensory bowls
Mercury is: dusty (oat bran) and rocky (pebbles). 

 

 Galaxy Play-doh, (recipe found here), "Sam's Space Rescue" book,

The balls are paired together to show the size difference between

 Earth and Mercury, (but you could use a baseball and a golf-ball).

 Magic School Bus books are usually fun and informative, the cards in the holder were

from the dollar section at Target, and the holder is from Dollar Tree.
  The rest of the items are ingredients are for "Planet pancakes"  (scroll down).

 

Activity Shelf #2

 

 Easy reader book from Rocket Readers about colors (since Mercury has no 

atmosphere, the sky looks black!)  I added sparkly pom-poms

(non-magnetic) to our pipe-cleaner jar and paired it with the 

big magnet (a 15 cent find from my Thrift Store trip!)

 Use the magnet to separate items into the correct group.

 File Folder game: arrange by size.
(This came from McKay's in a big book of file folder games).

 Practice pouring "rocks from Mercury"

 Miniature Mancala game from my recent Thrift Store trip.  

This foam peg number set was 50 cent, also from a thrift store! 

I replaced the mini-rocks for flat marbles (from Dollar Tree).  Callie practiced sorting by color.

We called the pegs "asteroids."

(You could put a piece of plexiglass over the holes to explain how Earth is different:

God made our planet with an atmosphere to protect us from asteroids and to color the sky!)

Hammer time!

DIY: You can make your own version.  Click here!

I came up with this cooking activity as a review of Mercury:

Planet Pancakes!  You could make these for any of the planets, but here's what we did for Mercury:

• Dusty: pancake mix
• Cold (at night): Almond milk (or whatever liquid your recipe calls for).
• Hot (during the day): A hot cast iron skillet (or pan)
• Rocky: Chocolate rocks, (or chocolate chips, walnuts, or pecans).
• Asteroids: Blueberries (plopped in, to make craters)

Talk through each of the ingredients and compare them to Mercury. 

•  Add liquid to the pancake mix, then the "rocks" (and any other ingredients your recipe calls for.)

• Pour the pancake onto the hot skillet.

• Toss blueberries onto the pancake.

• Cook both sides and serve with Maple Syrup.

   (We poured the syrup around the pancake in an oval shape to remind us it's extreme elliptical orbit.)

 Our $1 sit-and-spin came in helpful to teach revolving and rotating.
The "rotate" sign says "revolve" on the other side and the child can demonstrate each.
(By using the sit and spin they are revolving around the pink handle).

The seat is an oval shape- a reminder of Mercury's extreme "elliptical orbit."

These are "Tegu Blocks"  they are awesome....but expensive.

 (We picked up this huge set on ebay for less than the retail price of the 8 piece set.)

Tegu blocks are magnetic so they stick to each other and this vintage tray my brother gave me.

 Use promo code B182S2133 by November 3rd to receive 20% OFF anything  at Tegu.com 
(Thanks "Surviving on a Teacher's Salary" for sharing the promo code!)

To learn more about our missionary work with homeschooling families in Thailand, please click here.

 My Apologia textbook is older, so I used a video to show the most recent space voyage.
 Video of the Messenger.

Freebie:  Use my printable pages to review facts and characteristics about Mercury.