Thanksgiving crafts and worksheets

Today we focused on school and some Thanksgiving crafts.

I gave the kids choices, like I usually do, and we planned activities that they wanted to participate in.  I knew I wanted to do a "thankful" craft, but I couldn't decide on a Thankful Pumpkin pie, a thankful pumpkin or a thankful turkey.  I was glad I asked since they all ended up choosing a different one to make!

Ian's only requirement was that he be able to paint it.  While they got ready for the day, I pulled out the necessary supplies.  I knew we'd get a late start on our day as they were watching a marathon of How It's Made episodes and I had a lot to do around the house. But that is the beauty of homeschooling.  We can do schoolwork whenever we want! 
 
We started by painting those things that needed to be painted and setting them aside to dry.  While they were drying we read a very cute Thanksgiving book called The Thanksgiving Door and started on some math work for the day.

Mixing colors to get them "just right"

I had Evan work on another turkey number and color page-- this sheet worked with two digit numbers and had more colors listed for him to practice his color words.  I also found another coordinate pair worksheet for the older boys-- this time they colored in squares to make a Native American Indian picture.

Ian finished his pumpkin pie craft and had to come up with a few more items that he was thankful for to fill in the pie.  It came out great! He was thrilled to be able to use a permanent black marker. I guess something it's the little things in life that really make our day.  He did ask me to plan some "real" art projects and paintings for later in the week since he has decided he loves to paint and really misses it.  I brought him to my Pinterest page and set him up with his own board.  He pinned many wonderful art projects from some of my teaching and art boards and we now have a wonderful "list" of art projects we can start tackling!

While Ian was copying his words, Evan was hard at work copying his too.  I had sat down with him and had him dictate what he was thankful for and I wrote it all down on scrap paper.  We cut an orange piece of construction paper (and really I should have used scrapbooking or oak tag paper) into 8 strips and I had him copy his words onto each strip of paper.  He did an amazing job of writing out all the words.  I then used brads to turn the paper strips into a pumpkin and added a few leaves and vines to the top using glue.  It's adorable!  He also read a new Bob Books to me called "Mat Hid" and I was pretty impressed when he read a page or two without any help first time through!  I guess he really is picking up words here and there. 

We should have used stronger paper so it
would hold it's shape better. 

Alec pulled out his Angry Birds bird book so he could check and see what real turkeys look like before painting his turkey.  He then cut out feathers, wrote out his thankful list and copied each word/ phrase onto one of the feathers also using a permanent marker.  We decided to add feet to the turkey and found some googlie eyes and a balloon to use as his waddle.  He is super cute!

His finished project. 

After lunch we finished up our math worksheets-- after a bit of work this morning I had them all take a break and go play for a while.  I find they're much more willing to work when we break up the work throughout the day and throw in a bit of fun now and then.

The boys asked to watch Flubber again and we talked about properties of matter, how the flubber in the movie is different/ same to the flubber we make.  I know it's kind of a stretch but I did request this movie from the library for them as part of science.  I guess, since they've watched it a few times already, that they really love it.  The younger two decided to spend the rest of the afternoon playing with our latest batch of flubber and a bunch of Mario Brothers toys while Ian bundled up and headed outside to play.  It was cold but nice and sunny and he's still got a lot of digging to do before the ground freezes. 

"It's both a liquid and a solid" says Alec