Nativity Christmas Actvities

We're kicking off all our Christmas activities by doing nativity activities. Before we get lost in all the festivities I want the boys to learn the real Christmas story. We've read many different versions of it and found lots of fun story books that tell the Christmas story from different angles. 

This is a printable shadow game where you match the cut outs to the shadows. 

Here you measure the different nativity characters with little stars we cut out. Lots of counting practice. 

We read "This is the Stable" and "The Christmas Baby" and used sequencing cards (below) to arrange the events in order. 

More nativity printables for writing numbers. 

And this fun worksheet didn't take him any time at all, but he filled in all the missing letters from the alphabet. 

Polar Lands and Chilly Experiments

The last week of November we transitioned from our Thanksgiving activities to wintery themes by doing some polar lands activities. Since we don't actually have a cold winter here, this let us introduce cold weather themes and learn about some of the polar animals that live in cold climates. 

We matched animals with their tracks 

We traced animal paths and drew their homes at the end. 

We made patterns with our polar animal cards (this is a favorite we've also done several times since).

Here we were doing a science experiment. You cover your hand in shortening to simulate the fatty skin polar animals have. Dip your hand in icy water and you can feel how the fat keeps you warm. 

Thanksgiving Wrap Up

We took a few days off last week to rest and enjoy a little holiday, but yesterday and today we were back in school mode full force.

I wanted to use up all the Thanksgiving printables I'd been collecting, so we did lots of themed worksheets. 

Thanksgiving subtraction problems made math a lot more interesting and gave us much-needed practice writing numbers. 

We practiced writing letters with qtip paintings themed to the holiday. 

Jack enjoyed painting with qtips too. 

We cut out pumpkins and did some pumpkin measuring to see how many pumpkins long thing like a pencil, crayon, paper clip, and finger are. This was one of Peyton's favorites. 

I got a foam puzzle of the United States that we've done about five times the last two days because Peyton loves it so much. 

This is the counting game we usually play with Pom Poms, only with paper lips because we misplaced the Poms that day. 

I made a Feelings Face for us to practice talking about feelings. We've had a lot of fun making different faces. All the pieces rotate and the cheeks flip to have tears on the other side. 

Here we wrote big numbers, taped them to the floor, and played grasshopper jumping on numbers as I called them out. To make it more interesting I later had him walk like different animals from one number to another. 

We built a block train and I would line up letters with one missing in alphabetical order. Peyton found the missing letters to complete the train cars.

And these are our shape penguins! We have some penguin themed activities the next couple days before we go into full out Christmas, so this got us started. I cut out the pieces and Peyton matched the shapes and glued them down.

We will do lots of Christmas activities throughout December so be prepared for holiday overload. 

Thankfulness and Trains

We had a few days off so Peyton was anxious to get back to it and begging for a full day of activities. 

We worked on R, S, and T. First we did dot pages. 

Then we made the letters out of train tracks and had the trains follow the path to write them. 

R was the trickiest one but we did all three. Jack had some fun with the train tracks too. 

 Then we made sticker pages for R and S. We did T a couple weeks ago. 

We do lots with letters and not as much with math, so today I tried to include lots of counting and math today to make things more balanced. 

This is a very simple counting game where you roll the dice and get Pompoms for the number you rolled. The first person to reach ten wins. It's short and simple but gives lots of chances to count, add, and even subtract. "You need ten but you have six, so how many empty spaces are left?"  He always impresses me with how much he knows without going back to the board and counting. 

Thanks to our crazy schedule, we're celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow. So today we made a shopping list for the foods we'll need. Peyton helped me think of dishes and wrote a list. 

Our story time hit on Thanksgiving too talking about being thankful. 

Peyton's been begging to make a hopscotch court for ages so today he wrote out the numbers for me and we made one on the floor. 

He counted and jumped on it for a long time, and Jack even got in on the fun. 

We worked with a new rhyming family using the flash cards I made last week and wrote a list of rhyming words. 

Finally we did an alphabet matching game putting the pictures next to the letters. 

Tomorrow is our Thanksgiving so come back for lots more activities and fun! Peyton still isn't satisfied with today since he's pulling out a number puzzle as I type and teaching Jack to count so we may have more from this evening to share too!

Cleaning and Crafts

We honestly spent most of the day trying to get on top of chores before our weekend, but I tried to make it as educational as possible and at the end of the day Peyton was begging for more activities so we had a fun evening.

Practicing sorting with socks!

Sorting googly eyes. 

 Making a ribbon turkey! Lots of practice with counting and colors! He's a big fan of green so it's a green turkey with green eyes. 

Peyton worked on reading with his Hot Dots books. 

And we finished the day with some worksheets. Brushed up on B and C. 

We also wrote a list for Santa, did lots of reading, and learned about hygiene with Barney. I don't usually consider TV too educational but Peyton came and quizzed me on dental health afterwards so he got something out of Jack's new favorite character. 

Rhyming and Thanksgiving

Today involved lots of life skills since the kids "helped" me put away laundry, clean a clogged dishwasher pipe, and bandage up a cut toe. But we fit in some organized activities too!

We made flash cards for word families and practiced reading and making rhyming words. Peyton also wrote out lists of rhyming words. 

We made a toilet paper roll turkey. 

And we practiced patterns making this placemat. 

Peyton also wanted to work on same and different, so we did several pages in this workbook. 

Add in lots of story time, counting, and building (shapes, sizes, and positioning practice) and we had a pretty good day!

Thankful Days

We've had some slower days activity wise, but still lots of fun and endless reading, talking, spelling, and asking questions. Here's what we did today. 

Practicing letters with qtips and paint. We have several Thanksgiving themed sheets. 

Then we headed to the park to meet up with some friends. We got to feed ducks, watch turtles, play in sand, and run and run and run. 

This has been an ongoing science experiment. We put some beans in a plastic bag with a damp paper towel. They sprouted big time. Peytons a little unsure about it all though. 

Finally we made a thankful tree and Peyton told me all the things he's thankful for. Afterward he spent a lot of time looking at the tree and practicing reading the leaves. 

All About Thanksgiving

Yesterday we read a great book about where food comes from, so today we were able to follow up on that while continuing the Thanksgiving theme by sorting play food into piles according to whether or not it was something the pilgrims could have had, or whether it was a processed food that we only have today.

Sorting play foods

Once we had our food sorted out, Peyton wanted to play grocery store. Instead of setting up a modern grocery store, we talked about how Native Americans used wampum and used our own collection of seashells as play money. We practiced counting out enough wampum to buy different food items and got to work in addition and subtraction as well.

Counting out wampum.

Next we discussed Native American sand paintings. We pretended we didn't feel very well after we ate all the food we traded for, so we needed a healer. Since we don't have sand, we made out version of sand paintings with glitter. 

Glitter paintings

In preparation for our own Thanksgiving feast, our next activity was to practice setting the table. I drew a sample place mat that we could line up his play food pieces with.

Practicing place settings

Then he set up place settings without the mat for himself and Jack. Jack was thrilled.

His outfit changed, but this is just later in the day (we found clearance clothes at Target, and he liked them so much he wanted to wear them the rest of the day). We brushed up on our numbers a bit and did worksheets for 2, 3, and 4.

Number worksheets

Meanwhile Jack had a blast coloring.

Keeping with our Thanksgiving theme, we did Thanksgiving addition sheets.

Then we practiced reading comprehension with this great little story. He had to listen to the short story and answer the questions about it. He also got to practice reading. I read the questions for him, but he read the answer choices.

Reading comprehension

Then we went out and burned off some energy with a bubble walk. Who doesn't love a bubble walk?

Bubble walk!