Tuesday, December 10, 2013

December in Review!



Story hour at the Library-


Playing outside in the snow-


Lily was in the Christmas Parade-


Christmas craft fair- Lily and Aj bought and had presents wrapped for the family.




We went to see "The Christmas Story" at the Wang Center in Boston. We got to go back stage after the show and see the props, stage and meet some actors.




The Church Nativity Play

Meeting Santa-

Making Gingerbread man-

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

A New Coat for Anna


Title: A New Coat for Anna
Author: Harriet Ziefert
Illustrator: Anita Lobel

Summary: In a post-war time era, resourcefulness,sacrifice,love and care result in a new coat for Anna.

Lily and Aj did many fun activities while reading this book. They also learned a lot about world war II, weaving and Natural Dyes.

Social studies: (Geography, History)
Although the exact country is never revealed, this story takes place in Europe soon after world war II. We decided to put our story disk on Germany. Lily and Aj learned all about Germany and World War II by reading books, coloring a map, doing work sheets and playing games.



We did a worksheet on vehicles used in war world II. Lily and Aj had to determine if the vehicles were used for land, air or water.


The kids colored a map, flag and read books on Germany.


Having fun with our World War II Sticker book.


We colored pictures of paratroopers.


Here are the books we read about World War II.


Art and Mathematics:(Weaving, Patterns, Painting)
Weaving, taking threads of yarn and interlacing them together to make a garment is an amazing process. In this story Anna's mother has yarn weaved together to make material for Anna's Coat. Lily an Aj weaved places mats out of construction paper. We also made stamps using recycled milk containers and yarn. Lily and Aj made patterns with paper and paint and read a book about patterns too! The last art project we did was making a coat for Anna using construction paper and crayons.



Science: (Dyes, Sheep, Seasons)
Lily and Aj learned about natural dyes. Dyes are used to create a permanent color in fabrics. We made a dye out of cranberries, vinegar and water. Then Lily and Aj dyed yarn a bright red color. We also read books about sheep and reviewed the seasons of the year by coloring a picture of their favorite season and doing a worksheet.

Kids are making Natural dye from cranberries.


Books we read on sheep and a work sheet on seasons.


Language Arts: (Memory,Comprehension)
We did a worksheet about putting the story in order from what happened first, next and so on... We also talked about the story and I asked questions Like "How did Anna's mother obtain the wool?" and " Who did Anna thank last?"


Religious Education: (Christmas, birth of Jesus)
Lily and Aj made Christmas cards. We talked about who is the "Lamb of God"? Lily was also a singing angel in our churches Nativity play.