Our Homemade Homeschool Easel

We are loving our new homeschool easel and the best part, it costs us under $50 to make. We couldn't find a decent easel online, or in stores, so we made our own. 

Jeff used pine boards for the entire thing and created the easel from a rough draft of mine. It is perfect for holding our dry erase board, our chalk board, and our posters/flip books for subjects. It also works out great for other things, as well, like painting, art, crafts, etc.

Here's how we made it:

2-63 inch boards (we used 2x4s) •THESE ARE THE SIDE LEGS

1-58 inch board •BACK LEG THAT HOLDS THE EASEL UP

1-26 inch board •ACROSS THE BOTTOM BEHIND THE LEGS TO HOLD THE SIDE LEGS TOGETHER

1-33 inch board •ACROSS THE FRONT SO YOU CAN ACTUALLY USE THE EASEL FOR PLACING THINGS ON THE EASEL FRONT

1-7 inch board •ACROSS THE TOP OF THE LEGS ON THE BACK SIDE TO HOLD THE EASEL TOGETHER AT THE TOP

1 large gate hinge

2-medium L-shaped brackets

We got out boards at Lowe's and they will cut your board to length. A lot of boards come a lot longer than you will need here, but you can get all of these cut from three boards. We used pine, but you can literally customize this and use any type of board you want.

Board Lessons this Week

 

End of Year Classroom Redo/Organizing

Another year comes to an end in the classroom. It's always the time I use to go through things, get rid of old work, worksheets, clean the walls, and folders out, and rearrange for the new year. Here is a glimpse of what we're doing right now in the RVRS Homeschool Classroom.

Happy New Year! Here's to the end of tenth grade and onto eleventh grade!

Classroom update (November 25-December 6 )

Monday (November 25):  

We started our week off with the new schedule.  Of course with Thanksgiving later in the week, we took Thursday and Friday off, so on Monday we packed in as much as we could.  Who can't use a four day weekend?

We got a new list of spelling words for the month.  We are a bit delayed on the spelling list because of getting into a new routine, with what subjects we do, on what days now.  You can find our full schedule under the "Our Classroom Schedule" tab at the top of the page.

Notice our new board light?  We love it!

Our spelling words for the rest of November:

1. body
2. music
3. color
4. stand
5. sun
6. questions
7. fish
8. area
9. mark
10. dog
11. bargain
12. certain
13. orphan
14. fountain
15. oxen
16. latitude
17. longitude
18. compass
19. absolute
20. equator
21. compensation

Trouble Words from October:

1.  height

2.  tongue

3.  straight

We also covered more on money counting and counting back change.  We did board work for this and will set up a mock grocery store next week to have some fun with it even more.

My diagram is of a grocery store purchase and how much change will come back from a purchase of a soda.  We went over how simple subtraction is all that's needed to give change back.  

Tuesday (November 26):

On Tuesday we covered a bit of history.  We talked about the history of Thanksgiving and why we celebrate in giving thanks.  I let Skylar write down 10 things he is thankful for and we talked about each one.

We also covered a bit more on our continent and animals from that continent in Social Studies.  Skylar has already completed three continents of the seven we are covering.  His animal of continent and animal of choice this time is the panda in Asia.

Wednesday (November 27):

On Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, we did some reading and did a Thanksgiving craft.  For our reading we started in on Book 2 of "A Series of Unfortunate Events."  We finished Book 1 a few weeks back and to celebrate we prepared a dish of Puttanesca Sauce. 

For the Thanksgiving craft, we made tee pees to add to our table for Thanksgiving dinner.We ended up using felt sheets instead of foam, and we love how cozy they look.  Skylar went on a hunt for the sticks to use, and we also added these Indian-themed additions to add to the table along with the tee pees.

Thursday (November 28):  Happy Thanksgiving (No class held)

Friday (November 29):  Thanksgiving Break (No class held)

Monday (December 2): 

On Monday, we got back to class with a little bit of math work.  We set up a mock grocery store and had Skylar be the checker that had to give back change to the rest of us.  We had grocery purchases that were made and change was worked into the learning.  We then talked about how hard, or easy the change was and what we could get better at.  Skylar did a fantastic job with this, and we all had a blast!

We also worked in a worksheet for Probability and Data.  We talked about graphs and how they can go from a pie chart to a graph depending on how we wanted to look at the data.

Tuesday (December 3):  

Science:  We talked a lot about the difference between rocks and minerals.  I sent Skylar on a scavenger hunt to find as many rocks and minerals as he could.

History:  We covered a few more things about Thanksgiving and touched a little on Native American Indians.  I let him draw and color his own version of how he saw the first Thanksgiving dinner with the pilgrims and the Indians.

Social Studies:  We worked more on our animal and continent books.  We are currently on pandas and Asia.

Wednesday:  (December 4):  

Spelling:  We took a mock spelling test to determine what words we need to work on.  I have started a new lesson with spelling words:  Writing them three times, then use them in a sentence that he thinks they work best in.  This seems to be a good teaching lesson on working on handwriting as well.

Reading:  We read another chapter in the "Series of Unfortunate Events" book 2 (The Reptile Room) and talked about what we had just read.  The story is getting very interesting.

Writing:  Skylar has been adding to his journal entries that we keep.  He has to draw a picture and then come up with a story line to go with the picture.

Thursday (December 5):

On Thursday, we reviewed everything we had talked about and covered in the days before since Monday.  We also studied over the spelling words to prepare for the test that will come later in the month.  From everything else we go over and learn, the spelling test will come on the last Friday of the month now.  

Music:  I've decided to add in a bit of music lessons into our weekly schedule.  On Thursday, we played with spoons and how to make music using spoons.  Skylar had a blast with this, and it will be something we do again, for sure.

P.E.:  Currently our P.E. time consists of indoor activities due to the rain, and the cold.  Hopefully there will be more to add to this once we get out of the cold spells here in the Willamette Valley area of Oregon.

Art:  For art this week we made snowflakes from coffee filters.  We are going to be working on these in the next few weeks and reveal our creations the last Thursday before Christmas, so stay tuned for that.

Cooking:  We have been working in some cooking learning with this homeschool time.  It's going very well, and it also gives us some great time to spend together in the kitchen too.  This week me made some cupcake brownies that were part of a Valentine's Day gift box that came in February.  

This little kit came with everything we needed to make these cupcakes, so it was a perfect tool to follow in a step-by-step cooking instruction.

First, we melted the butter.

Then, measured and added the water.

Then mixed the batter and added them to the prepared muffin tin.

We baked them up and they were perfect.  We then talked about the small things we had learned from the cooking lesson.  Skylar said that he learned how to read a measuring cup during that lesson, so that is a big plus.  

Friday (December 6):  

On Friday we took our end of the week test on everything we covered in the past four days.  I like to do an end of the week test to determine if we should move on from a lesson or not.  It's also a great way to gauge where we stand on what we are learning too. 

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving and look for a classroom update in two weeks.  

Copyright©

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.