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December--who's planning a special unit?


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We're going to focus on how Christmas is celebrated in Europe (it goes along nicely with our world cultures/geography theme this year). We're using Children Just Like Me: Celebrations. Besides St. Nicholas' Day, Christmas Day, and Epiphany, we're also going to touch on St. Lucia's Day and Hanukkah. I'd like to try to do a mini-version some of those celebrations, but haven't got my plans totally worked out yet. I need to check around for other ideas - I'll do the bulk of the planning this weekend.

 

Blessings,

 

Laura

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going to start the Total Language Plus Christmas next week, it's a 3 week unit.

 

That sounds really interesting. Could you share a little about the type of things included? Are the stories right for a 3rd grader?

 

We are planning on reading lots of Christmas books and complete a lot of Christmas crafts. I bought Color the Christmas Classics Book & CD Set, for us to use. We are also going to read Bartholomew's Passage at night as a family. I can't wait.

 

Jan

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Here is a FREE one that is available from Homeschool in the Woods. It is only available till January. http://www.homeschoolinthewoods.com/ChristmasLesson/

 

God Bless,

Michelle

 

hee hee - I was reading through the various links on the page, and in the one titled "How to Make and Use and Advent Wreath" I spotted this important advice.

 

You notice how I emphasize snuffing out the candles at the end of each service? This has absolutely no liturgical significance whatsoever, but it is vitally important and you must not leave it out. It prevents the candles from burning your house down.

 

Maybe it's just me, maybe it's because I've been awake since 3am, but the way the author just put that there set me into a fit of giggles. :lol:

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It lives here.

 

We also are going to read through Jotham's Journey again.

 

We also always listen to The Cinnamon Bear while we make gifts.

 

Last year we did parts of three different lapbooks and that was fun and we made shrinky dink Jesse Tree ornaments.

 

We baked on a theme every week and gave what we made away to the fire station, the little market down the street, our wonderful folks at the local CVS and such. That was the kids favorite part.

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That sounds really interesting. Could you share a little about the type of things included? Are the stories right for a 3rd grader?

 

We are planning on reading lots of Christmas books and complete a lot of Christmas crafts. I bought Color the Christmas Classics Book & CD Set, for us to use. We are also going to read Bartholomew's Passage at night as a family. I can't wait.

 

Jan

 

Hi Jan,

The three stories are A Pint of Judgment, The Gift of the Magi and The Fir Tree. We are dropping LA in lieu of the TLP guide. It has the 3 week planning grid (lesson plans) so no planning.Each week is Writing,Lit. Analysis,Vocabulary,Spelling, Dictation, and our favorite Enrichment. Enrichment is a section of fun activity ideas. I plan on doing it with my 1,3,5.

There is something for all of them. The stories are wonderful. I think the stories are perfect for this age, although I think older kids would like them too!

I have been popping in, a TLP guide, here and there into our regular studies since last year. It is a nice break fro LA textbooks and worksheets and the kids have loved them.

I hope that helps!

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Hi Jan,

The three stories are A Pint of Judgment, The Gift of the Magi and The Fir Tree. We are dropping LA in lieu of the TLP guide. It has the 3 week planning grid (lesson plans) so no planning.Each week is Writing,Lit. Analysis,Vocabulary,Spelling, Dictation, and our favorite Enrichment. Enrichment is a section of fun activity ideas. I plan on doing it with my 1,3,5.

There is something for all of them. The stories are wonderful. I think the stories are perfect for this age, although I think older kids would like them too!

I have been popping in, a TLP guide, here and there into our regular studies since last year. It is a nice break fro LA textbooks and worksheets and the kids have loved them.

I hope that helps!

 

Thank you that does help. I was wanting to still be working on skills in December, but make all of our work Christmas themed. I was planning on reading some Christmas poetry and have her highlight in green all of the verbs one day and maybe nouns in red the next day. Making up some math problems similiar to what we have been working on this year, but making the problems Christmas themes. It would be nice if I didn't have to plan all of the work myself.

 

Jan

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I am not planning to do anything really Christmas related, other than our Advent celebrations, but we are doing something other than the typical "school" stuff. We are going to read Redwall together. I got a teacher's guide, the cookbook, the map, and will probably end by watching the movie/tv series. We are pretty excited about it.

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I'm making up a Christmas Around the World unit. Here are some of the library books I have on hold to go through...

 

Christmas Around the World by M. Lankford

Christmas Around the World by E. Kelley

Christmas Crafts from Around the World

Christmas Around the World series from World Book (focuses on specific countries)

Joy to the World: Christmas Stories from around the Globe

 

I may get this coloring book too.

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Hi Jan,

The three stories are A Pint of Judgment, The Gift of the Magi and The Fir Tree. We are dropping LA in lieu of the TLP guide. It has the 3 week planning grid (lesson plans) so no planning.Each week is Writing,Lit. Analysis,Vocabulary,Spelling, Dictation, and our favorite Enrichment. Enrichment is a section of fun activity ideas. I plan on doing it with my 1,3,5.

There is something for all of them. The stories are wonderful. I think the stories are perfect for this age, although I think older kids would like them too!

I have been popping in, a TLP guide, here and there into our regular studies since last year. It is a nice break fro LA textbooks and worksheets and the kids have loved them.

I hope that helps!

 

Pongo,

 

Where did you get your guide? I tried googling, but didn't get many results. Thanks!

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We do a couple of different things. We don't "school" during the entire month of December. I wrap up 25 Christmas books and putt hem all on one shelf. We unwrap 1 and do an activity with that book each day- could be decorating the house, making gingerbread, making paper snowflakes, etc... Also we use FIAR here so in December we "row" Christmas books- the nutcracker, Jonathan Toomey (our favorite), Cranberry Christmas, The Year of the Perfect Christmas tree, How the Grinch stole Christmas, etc... Some of these you can find on http://www.homeschoolshare.com There are several different book studies there. We also always do an advent book, this year it is going to be Tabitha's Travels. We love this series. Other than those it is very relaxed around here in December.

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