Calendar Connections ~ Thanksgiving Updated

Last year we released the Thanksgiving Calendar Connections cards. This year the date of Thanksgiving changes, so there needed to be an update.  Making one new card would be nice, but the date of Thanksgiving throws off the rest of the set, so I went ahead and made pages at the end for the next 3 years too.  While I was at it, I made the premium set {with the color border and prints front to back, that we usually sell}.  I did not make the eBook and will not have time to get that done in time, so there will be no bundle {sorry, time slipped away from me and it is too late now!}.

Thanksgiving Calendar Cards

The premium version of the new Thanksgiving Calendar Connections cards updated for 2012-2015 can be downloaded on the main Calendar Connections webpage, for FREE! Just scroll down to the Thanksgiving section.

The facts are written at a 3-6th grade level but you will be able to water them down for younger kids. It’s a great way to involve your entire family in exploring a particular theme.

NOTE: these DO print front to back, as they are the premium design.

I updated the small set for 2012 only, will change those each year, since they are easier to switch around!  The 2012 version is on the site also.


The cards fit my particular pocket chart calendar.image

but you could use a poster foam board and velcro to easily create your own set up. You could also use a standard pocket chart.


You can use most of our Calendar Connections cards for any month! We now have 13 sets to choose from, and we will still be adding more too!

Calendar Connections Set 1

Weekly Wrap-Up ~ It Begins

 

It is time to begin doing a weekly wrap-up, as the boys get older!  I will continue on with Tot School posts for Ladybug, and then preschool and Kindergarten with her, like I did with Krash.  But I am doing some fun things with the boys, and the kids as a group,  and I don’t want to leave those things out since they don’t technically fit into a category.  The Weekly Wrap-up is a perfect way to throw some random things together each week!  I don’t take photos of everything we do, but here is where I will share what I do capture, either with the boys, or with all of the kids together during our group activities.  It will look different each week, or every other week, depending on how much I keep my act together!


Homeschool Class

I got our new morning board updated to adapt to what we are focusing on this year.  Target had this lovely shiny foam board and Pac was shopping with me, so of course we got it. 

My main focus during this time is Ladybug and working on the basic calendar type skills {counting, days, months, weather, seasons, etc.}.  She is also beginning with the Songs for Saplings verses, you can see letter A in the photo {a few sung by us years ago are in a video on this page}.  The flashcard below the verse is from our Tot School Printables set. The yellow page is our  “______ of the day” chart which is mostly a review for her too {color, shape, letter, animal, character trait, state}.  You can see more about that in this post

We are learning hymns together {top right} our first is Holy, Holy, Holy.  You can see my hymn study pins on my Bible board.  I am making some hymn display printables, will share later! We are doing Seeds Family Worship verses too {those are mainly for the boys}.

Morning Board

Ladybug’s favorite part is when we sing the Name-O song {scroll down for video} and she runs the length of the room with her name!Name-O Song

Krash has a few focus areas during morning time, one is making the date with money.Make the Date with Money

The state of the day is just a quick way to continually review the names, capitals and locations of states.  Here Ladybug is coloring on our page {included in our calendar notebook set} She loves to join in with the “big kid” stuff.Color the States

 

World Geography is another group activity, which is based around our current continent box, which is Europe.  We don’t really have a plan for this, just explore the box together.  Here we were playing an impromptu “find the animal” game.  These cards are from our Montessori Print Shop Europe set.European Animals

 

We are using We Choose Virtues as a springboard for awesome discussion.  We are also using the Kids of Virtueville Coloring pages.  Here the kids were coloring a couple of the kids we have done.We Choose Virtues Coloring

We Choose Virtues Coloring


Krash 1st Grade

Krash completed his 2nd week of Calvert 1st grade {he completed the first week back in May}.  Here are his completed sight words for the week…Calvert Sight Words

His Draw, Write, Now drawing was a pig, we take about 3 days to complete it {1-pencil drawing and word tracing, 2-coloring, 3-background}.Draw Write Now Pig

The completed pig…Draw Write Now Pig

We had a science experiment flop, one called floating pasta.  It didn’t work, but we still had fun trying!1st Grade Science

1st Grade Science


PacMan 5th Grade

We love our Who Is God study time together.  Here he was typing out some Bible verses.Who is God

 

Thanks to Marci from The Homeschool Scientist, we are now actually doing our science experiments.  Confession ~ I ignored all science experiments until this year, mostly out of a silly fear.  After meeting Marci at the 2:1 Conference, I felt empowered by our little chat and vowed to make an effort this year!  Science is one of Pac’s favorite subjects, so he is thrilled that I met Marci!

Our first experiment {from his 5th Grade Calvert science} was using eggs, vinegar, water, and corn syrup.  The purpose was to relate the egg shell to cell membranes and how they take in and let out liquid.  First, the eggs spent 3 days in vinegar, came out looking like this…Egg Experiment

Then they went into water {left} and corn syrup {right} for one day.Egg Experiment

They came out looking like this!Egg Experiment

Of course, we touched, and poked and really had a great time with the gross-ness.

Egg Experiment Egg Experiment

The little ones get to watch too, Ladybug thought it was nasty, Krash was pretty interested in it all, but also disgusted.Egg Experiment

Egg Experiment Egg Experiment


That’s certainly not everything we did, but a glimpse of what my camera captured!  To see more weekly wrap-ups, visit…

Baby Animals Calendar Connections

I am on a bit of a Baby Animal kick if you haven’t noticed!  I recently released the Baby Animals Printable Pack, and also Mommy & Baby Animal Matching Cards!

I have another Baby Animal item for those of you who subscribe to my newsletter!

Calendar-Connections-Baby-Animals

This is a set of Baby Animals Calendar Connections, with our new design.  These are more for the early elementary level, featuring the animal group names as well as female and male names, with a photo of an adult animal on the back.  These are also set up to print front to back!  See the first pages of the actual printable set for more information!

This set is available to my Newsletter Subscribers for FREE.

If you are already subscribed to my newsletter, you should have an email that has the subject “Newsletter Subscriber Freebies from 1+1+1=1″  in case you need to search your email folders.

Not subscribed to the newsletter yet {which is not the same as the blog feed RSS email, read more here}, you can subscribe here.  Be sure to confirm your email subscription or the newsletters won’t come!

Calendar Connections ~ Astronomy

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My wonderful friend Shannon is still working with me to create the Calendar Connections cards. She is a fellow inner city missionary with me and also a homeschooler {and former school teacher}.

We chose the theme of Astronomy for March!

Calendar Connections Outer Space

The facts are written at a 3-6th grade level but you will be able to water them down for younger kids. It’s a great way to involve your entire family in exploring a particular theme. 


The cards fit my particular pocket chart calendar, I ordered mine from Oriental Trading but they now have the same one on Amazon

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but you could use a poster foam board and velcro to easily create your own set up. You could also use a standard pocket chart. They seem like they would fit in this calendar on Amazon but I am not certain.


I am now creating smaller sets to go along with the small pocket charts found recently in the Target $1 section. Here is what they look like… Calendar Connections Small Outer Space 1

Be sure to visit this post for a tutorial of how to sew your $1 pocket chart into a calendar!

There is also a new sheet included to be used in a Calendar Notebook if you are using those too!Calendar Connections Small Outer Space 2

I printed my numbers on cardstock and laminated them before cutting them apart.

You can download these for FREE here!


You can use most of our Calendar Connections cards for any month! We are slowly building up what we hope will be a wide variety of themes to choose from!

OCean-Life-Calendar-Connections34226 Rain-Forest-Calendar-Connections-web[1] Explorers_thumb7_thumb2_thumb_thumb_ 

Arctic-and-Antarctica-Calendar-Conne[1] Calendar-Connections-Presidents_thum

Daily Calendar Notebook

I have wanted to create a daily calendar notebook for years.  I have seen them used in classrooms {back in my teaching days} and then last year my pal Mama Jenn posted her version here.  Recently I was inspired to take the dive and create a notebook for my 2 boys, Kindergarten and 4th grade!  Since I knew I was going to add a few more sheets, I decided to recreate all of the pages we would need specifically for my two boys ~ also knowing some of you may want them too!  Jenn has some pages I don’t have {money, tally marks, place value and more} so be sure to get other sheets from her if you are interested in them.  I personally have given up on counting our days in school since it drives me nuts to be off a day.

After the first day of the tutorial process, this has now become something the boys do together.  It is a great time of team work and patience building as they work together.  I am close by and help as needed, but try to stay away as much as possible so they can learn from each other. The lap desks they are using are less than $5 at Michaels!IMG_6536

For the cover each child just decorated a page with his name on it. You can see them set up below in front of our current wall calendar…IMG_6889

Each child has a mini supply box {boxes are from this awesome organizer}, here’s a peek into PacMan’s, which contains everything he needs to complete his notebook each day: crayons, pencils, dry erase click marker, Vis a Vis markers.  There’s also a community eraser that sits nearby.

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Here is a glimpse into the printables in each notebook, many are the same but I made a cursive version for PacMan and a print version for Krash.  Be sure to make it to the end of the post if you want to see a video of me walking you through the notebook!

 

These printables can be downloaded for free on my Calendar webpage, just scroll to the bottom to find the section!

Month Calendars ~ each day they just write the next number in. Just print a new sheet each month.

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Write the Number ~ extra handwriting practice and number word spelling practice.  Pac writes them, Krash spells them out loud and just traces the number.

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Day of the Week ~ each day they trace the current day and abbreviation.  They also circle yesterday/tomorrow.  They then sing the song together.  This page is in a sheet protector so we can erase it at the end of the week.  They use a Vis a Vis to prevent smudging throughout the week. The images below show Monday first, but the updated file has Sunday first to match the songs.  The boys quickly corrected my mistake!

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Month ~ They obviously only change this page when we have a new month.  But we sing the song daily.  Also in a sheet protector.

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Weather & Season ~ circle the season once, do the weather graph daily.

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We still use our _____ of the Day chart on our main calendar board, which is where they look to get the following items.  I change them out when necessary and if I forget, Pac does it for me!

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USA ~ we go through our states A-Z, still using our USA PowerPoint show and Erica’s USA printables.  We don’t do a new state daily {usually 1-2 per week}, but record our new state after we finish our simple research on the state.

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For our state work, we are using Road Trip USA-just the state coloring pages, and also this awesome My States Notebook.  The boys work together to complete the pages, we also review all states with our USA Geography PowerPoint show.

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Shapes ~ there’s also a shape cards page in the download in case you need a set to use to “choose” the shape of the day.

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Colors ~ colors page is included also in the download, to cut apart and “choose” a daily color.

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Pac has an extra sheet, Today’s Number.  On this sheet he takes the date and makes 6 math problems to equal that number. This sheet is in a sheet protector and he erases it daily.  He uses a thin dry erase click marker for this one.

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Krash has 2 extra sheets, one to add a word per day to our current word family, and one to record a word per day from our You Can Read unit.  Each day he reads all the words he has listed also.

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Daily Drawing ~ I printed tons of free how to draw pages from the sites I have pinned here.  Each day I give the boys a new laminated sheet to draw in their notebook.  I did this because I simply love their drawings and I am horrible with art.  It is a simple way to encourage drawing daily.  I also love that I will have an awesome keepsake collection of their drawings!Slide18


Additional Items not included as printables in my download…

 

Mini Calendar Connections Sheet

Calendar Connections Small Thanksgiving 2I added in a sheet-starting with the Thanksgiving set, with all cards on one page just so I can add it to their notebook.  You can find this page for this month and upcoming months within the small set of Calendar Connections cards.

 

Weekly Bible Verse

imageI included a cursive copy work page and a print trace work page for each child taken from our Bible verse of the week.  We are currently going through the Seeds Family Worship Printables that Valerie shares over at Totally Tots.  You can find all downloads for the sheets we use over there!

 

Sponsored Child{ren} Prayer Sheet

I created a sheet that includes photos of our sponsored children and maps showing their location {all of our kids are in Rwanda, Africa}.  We actually have one more little girl who we are now sponsoring {I just couldn’t resist while at Relevant}, but I don’t have her online photo yet-I will update this sheet when I do. I just used their photos from the sponsorship website and then searched on Google for a map and flag shot.  I added in stars to show which city they live in, and then on the bottom right I added 2 stars to represent us and them.

Slide20This page is intended to be a visual reminder to pray for them and talk about them each day. Slipped in the back of the sheet protector that holds this sheet is our most recent letter/photo form each child.  Here they were looking at our “brother” Albert and catching up on what life is like for him.

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Obviously Ladybug is too young for a calendar notebook, but she certainly made it known to me that she felt left out.  Here she is, where she set herself up ~ right next to her brothers, working on her dry erase board.  Soon after this she asked me where her notebook was.IMG_6600So, I made her one.

Stay tuned…I will be sharing the printables I created for her-which have nothing to do with calendar time, but make her feel special since she now has her own notebook. IMG_6670

Updated, see Ladybug’s Tot Time Notebook here!


Finally, for those of you who prefer a walk through, here’s my cheesy video that I made just for you.  It is a few minutes and probably very boring unless you want to see their actual notebooks and how I have them set up.  I also show the differences between the 2 boys and what they complete each day.

Useful Supplies…

Download your free Calendar Notebook pages here!