Saturday, November 23, 2013

Flag craft

This project could also work great for a Fourth of July craft, or even New Year's craft, as well.  We did this craft for Veteran's Day.  Here is how it's done.



What you'll need:

Empty toilet paper roll/Paper towel roll
White paper/card stock/construction paper
Markers/Crayons/Colored Pencils
Tape/Stapler/Glue
Scissors







Begin by cutting the paper into long, wide strips and cleaning the roll clean of any leftover cotton paper.  We found that a pencil eraser works great on the cotton strips and glue.





Have your child color the paper into their own version of what the flag looks like.  Don't be too picky if it doesn't look exactly like the flag you have in your mind, just let them create what they see.





Let them tape or glue the flag to their own rolls.  If using the stapler, please use caution.  Once the flag is on the roll, they can decorate the roll too, or leave it as is.



Now the flag can sit on their desk or line them up along the windowsill to admire all day during class.  You could even incorporate a lesson plan around the flag for the day, or have them give their understanding of what the flag means to them.

This classroom craft is a super simple craft that can be done in less than 30 minutes.  It was a great craft for us to learn about our country and the flag that represents the United States.  This could also be used for state flags, city flags, or even school flags.



Friday, November 22, 2013

Classroom update for (November 11-November 22)

The past few weeks we have been working on grammar usage, cursive writing, and rounded to the thousand's place with math skills.  We have also covered money counting.  We have come such a long way with this practice.  Here is what we covered in the Red Snail Classroom.

The weeks leading up to Halloween we did a few art projects for the season.  We colored Halloween sheets and some fall sheets to decorate the classroom.



Monday (November 11):

Monday was Veteran's Day, so the Red Snail classroom didn't hold class.  In turn we did a Veteran's Day craft that was not only fun, but also gave a chance to talk about why we celebrate this day.

We drew small flags on white paper and attached them to a toilet paper roll.  The flags were able to sit on the table all week and show our respect for those that have given us the freedoms we have today.  

Tuesday (November 12):

On Tuesday, we picked back up with our normal schedule of class instruction and learned about counting money and counting back change.



With money stickers we were able to learn just how much change I person would get back in coins if they bought a certain item at a store.  It was a great hands on learning experience and Skylar grasped the concept quite quickly.


Wednesday (November 13):

Thursday took us into some vocabulary words.  These words will will stay on for the entire month.

Thursday (November 14):

We did a bit of review from the week and some art.  On Thursdays is our review day for the week that will carry over to Friday for our end of the week test.  For art this week we talked about Thanksgiving and did a few holiday coloring sheets.

Friday (November 15):

Friday is our day of putting what we have learned from the week into test form.


Monday (November 18):

Grammar usage with apostrophes and commas were part of Monday's teaching.  Clearly you are too busy being focused on what you're going to teach and not even notice the date on the board is the same.

Tuesday (November 19):

With a clean board we talked about rounding to the thousands when working with larger numbers.  

Wednesday (November 20):

Wednesday we worked on a bit of art with coloring of the Red Snail.  No classroom is complete without a colorful mascot.  Skylar chose the Red Snail because we loves snails and the color red.  We also finished our book bag to take to the library.  

We talked about the things (animals in particular) that are in our neighborhood, we took the time to color our own images of what we think might be in our neighborhood.  We also added a story to the image to be creative.  I did this writing project with Skylar too, because it allows him to be more free with his creativity.  His creature was a creepy turtle and mine was the rat/beaver.

Thursday (November 21):

On Thursday, we did some review for the week and also worked a lot on our handwriting.  Skylar's handwriting is getting a lot better with this method.  The writing board was picked up on clearance for $5, and has been an awesome addition to the homeschool teaching so far.

Friday (November 22):

Friday was our test day today.  We touched on a few things from last week and also covered this week's lessons.