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THREE Ways Homeschoolers Can Have Some St. PATRICK’S DAY Fun

March 10, 2021 by Katherine Wolfe 25 Comments

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St. Patrick’s Day is one of those small holidays that doesn’t demand much respect. It often comes and goes in the middle of the week and all that occurs are a few green treats at school, lots of green drinks at Happy Hour and some misplaced pinching at both locations. Personally, I have never been a big St. Patty’s Day celebrant but even I believe it does deserve at least some mention to our kids. Though it’s a holiday based on both the history and myths from another land far, far away, it has somehow earned a place in our culture here in the United States. So, it makes sense to allow our kids a little Leprechaun fun alongside their homeschool studies.

Below are THREE WAYS that homeschoolers can have some St. Patrick’s Day fun!

ONE: MAKE yummy cookies or other baked goods!

We love any excuse for MAKING yummy treats and if you are like us, MAKING shaped sugar cookies is a given for practically every holiday. But if you’re burnt out on those, you could try MAKING Lucky Charms treats, green cake balls or mint brownies for St. Patrick’s Day. All of those look and sound delicious but, my all time favorite treat for this holiday is to MAKE some cookies to accompany Leo Lionni’s book, Little Blue and Little Yellow. All it takes is some simple round sugar cookies {you can even use store-bought, ready to eat cookies}, a small bowl of yellow frosting and a small bowl of blue frosting. Read the book, frost the cookies to blend the two colors and MAKE some fun memories while MAKING some yummy treats! {For more details, check out Little Blue and Little Yellow: an easy, fun and tasty St. Patrick’s Day Activity.}

TWO: CREATE a fun craft!

When I taught in the classroom {and also when my son was younger,} I considered the above-mentioned Little Blue, Little Yellow activity to be a sufficient example of CREATING a craft {that was eaten, of course}. But if you are a crafty mama who likes to give her kids more opportunity to CREATE, there are more than a few ideas out there for St. Patrick’s Day. Marshmallow Shamrock Stamping for the littles looks like fun {and educational too!} Shamrock Suncatchers seem like a good choice for all ages and can serve the double purpose of holiday decor. But if you have older kids with more ambition, check out these Leprechaun Traps. It looks like you can CREATE them to be as complicated and fancy as you want or keep them much more simple {which is surely what I would do!} Whichever craft your kids choose, they’ll surely have fun CREATING something memorable!

THREE: LEARN about the holiday!

As mentioned in my Valentine’s Day post, I can’t seem to let any holiday go by without expecting my son to LEARN about it. Doing this doesn’t even need to take away from the rigor of your child’s schooling, as you can easily substitute St. Patrick’s Day-themed reading and writing for your normally-scheduled school programming. I always like to use informational reading text passages and writing prompts {which can be found in my St. Patrick’s Day Holiday Fact Pack….so convenient, right?!?!? But, really, it’s an easy and inexpensive way to capitalize on the holiday without giving up learning!}

So, whether your kids MAKE yummy cookies, CREATE something fun or LEARN about the holiday, there are loads of ways for your homeschoolers to have some St. Patrick’s Day fun!

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Valentine’s Day: A UNIT STUDY Read~Write~Create~Explore~Enjoy~Learn!

February 10, 2021 by Katherine Wolfe 7 Comments

{This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our Disclosure Policy for details.}

Each UNIT STUDY includes suggestions of books to READ, ideas to WRITE, crafts to CREATE, more to EXPLORE, snacks to ENJOY and other ways to LEARN about a specific topic! To read more about the concepts behind my UNIT STUDIES, read this.

If you find it handy to have a simplified printable of these suggestions, you can find one, along with several free printables, here in the FREE Valentine’s Day Unit Study Printable Pack.

Otherwise, read on for a more detailed version with links embedded!

{Note: The links are pink! Just think, “pink link” if you are wanting to follow a link to something.}

INTRO: As you probably know, I used to be a classroom teacher. I loved so many things about my job but celebrating various holidays in my classroom was NOT one of them. Don’t get me wrong, we always had fun and celebrated with games, snacks and whatnot but it was stressful and left me exhausted at the end of the day. Not to mention, somehow even the smallest of holidays seemed to have a lasting impact on the kids’ attention spans and learning capacity that lasted an entire week. It took me a few years to realize that it did not need to just be cupcakes and Bingo to create a celebration. And, as soon as I adapted our holiday celebrations to include actual educational opportunities, the exhaustion and chaos seemed much more worth it! So, when I started homeschooling, I opted to use that same approach. So, with every holiday that rolled around, we did a UNIT STUDY and learned loads of new stuff! And, Valentine’s Day is the first of many small holidays heading your way!

READ: There are so many Valentine’s Day books out there! As always, I suggest checking out your local library. Chances are, they have a great selection already identified and ready for check-out! Of course, Amazon is also a great option…as long as you plan at least two days ahead. 😉 But, wherever you find your books, here are a few of my faves….

For the youngest set, I adore Babies Love Valentine’s by Holly Berry-Byrd. It’s a lift-the-flap board book designed to introduce babies and toddlers to the common elements of Valentine’s Day. It’s simple, sweet and durable!

For early readers, I really like Love from The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. It’s short and sweet and features the world’s most famous caterpillar using his favorite foods to show off what love means to him.

Another fairly simple but fun book that is perfectly adaptable for Valentine’s Day is Love from the Crayons by Drew Daywalt. It features a series of crayons explaining why love can be red or purple or brown or green. It features a repetitive text but also includes some more challenging words and phrases which allow for great opportunities to expand vocabulary.

A silly option, that still offers great life and literacy lessons is Roses Are Pink, Your Feet Really Stink by Diane de Groat. It’s about a possum who struggles to write a kind Valentine card for a few of his classmates. Because of the way he feels, he ends up writing some less-than-kind words, but, in the end, the classmates work through their issues and everybody has a happy Valentine’s Day! It’s a sweet and relatable story for sure! But my favorite part is the silly rhyming that the book presents. Rhyming is so important for early readers and writers and, the sillier, the better when it comes to this age-range {6-9 years old}.

Though it’s not really a Valentine’s Day book, I absolutely love A Book of Hearts by Jessica Laurel Kane. It’s a thought-provoking book about all sorts of hearts, including a golden heart, a sensitive heart, a brave heart, a mourning heart and more. It’s not your typical Valentine’s Day story because it’s not all happy hearts, for sure, but it does end with an “understanding heart” which implores us to love all types of hearts we find along the way. It’s a big lesson provided for small people in a short book. I highly recommend it!

WRITE: For a couple of different writing activities, look no further than the FREE Valentine’s Day Unit Study Printable Pack.

It includes this cute and simple activity that coordinates perfectly with Love from The Crayons by Drew Daywalt but can also be used on its own. There are even two styles; one with primary lines and one with standard lines.

Also included in the FREE Valentine’s Day Unit Study Printable Pack, is this cute and clever poem-writing activity. It was designed to be used with Roses Are Pink, Your Feet Really Stink by Diane de Groat but is a perfect activity to use with kids of all ages, with or without the book!

CREATE: These Tissue Paper Stained Glass Hearts are not only super cute, but they are also cheap, easy and NOT MESSY! Oh! And they’re very easy to display as decor and store year after year. All you need is some clear contact paper and tissue paper. That’s it! Seriously! My son and I made some a decade ago and I still pull them out every year to stick on the windows in February!

Another fun, but a wee bit messier, craft is this I Love You To Pieces Mosaic Heart. The included instructions are designed to make a card to give to somebody it could also be simplified to just make on a piece of construction paper. It requires tearing colored construction paper into small pieces and gluing them onto a heart. It’s a great activity for littles and bigs alike!

ENJOY: Starting the day with these adorable Sheet Pan Heart Bear Pancakes would be super fun. You could even prep them the night before to make the morning easier. I might be tempted to modify these instructions to just use heart-shaped cookie cutters, instead of bears, and slice some strawberries the easy way. But, either way, it does not look like too much work at all and I can safely say I almost always have those ingredients on hand {just pancake mix and strawberries!}

For lunch, use that heart-shaped cookie cutter again and create this Valentine Sandwich Snack! The instructions include making homemade strawberry jam, which would be a very unlikely use of time in our home, but the rest of it is easy peasy and too cute! You basically use a cookie cutter to cut a peep-through hole in the top piece of bread. What you put in the sandwich could be anything!

LEARN: For an easy way to work on pertinent literacy skills while learning about some of the fun facts associated with Valentine’s Day, check out this Valentine’s Day Holiday Fact Pack. It introduces your 3rd-6th graders to a variety of topics including conversation hearts, St. Valentine, cupid, chocolate candy and more through Informational Text, Comprehension Questions, Writing Prompts and more! Use discount code 25OffVAL, to save 25%. {Or, if you bought the Celebrate It! Digital Grab Bag, you’ll find it in there!}

EXPLORE: A great path to take if you want to explore more for Valentine’s Day is to focus on the science of the most important muscle in our bodies, the heart! Here is a 5 minute video explaining what the heart is and how it works. It’s great for all ages! And here is a fun, and fairly simple science activity that shows how the heart works. It requires a balloon, small jar, cup, two bendy straws, some tape and water. That’s it! You can also snag some free printables here that allow your kids to color an image of a heart using a color-coded chart.

You may also want to check out this Pinterest Board. It has a carefully curated collection of ideas of how to teach about and enjoy Valentine’s Day in your homeschool!

AND, as a BONUS for this UNIT STUDY, several of my blogging buddies have contributed their own Valentine’s Day-themed posts. There are some awesome ideas included. Check them out!

1. If your kids need inspiration for creative writing, try these fun writing prompts and tips {plus a free printable}, Inspire Creativity in Your Children + Gnome Writing Prompts from In All You Do. 2. If you want some additional STEM activities, check out these 10+ Awesome Valentine’s Day STEM Activities for Kids from Hess Un-Academy! 3. To learn more about the all-time most favorite food for Valentine’s Day, check out the post Chocolate Secrets from Julie Naturally. 4. For additional info on the history behind the holiday, head over to read The History Behind Valentine’s Day from Homeschool on the Range. 5. Do a quick 15-minute music lesson for Valentine’s Day while listening to some of the greatest ever Love Songs from Musicals from Music in Our Homeschool. 6. Try these DIY Felt Fortune Cookies Valentine’s Day Craft + free Valentine printable from Making Room 4 One More. They’re so simple, that your kids can help make a batch! 7. For some additional literacy learning, try these Valentine’s Day Language Arts Resources for Homeschooling Families from Whole Child Homeschool. 8. For something sweet, whip up a batch of Make Some Easy Sweetheart Popcorn For Valentine’s Day from Our Crazy Adventures in Autismland. 9. If you want to go big and have an actual party, check out How to Have a Valentine’s Day Homeschool Party from Everyday Graces Homeschool. 10. For another sweet concoction, try this Valentine’s Chocolate Pudding Cream Cheese Frosting from Homegrown Motherhood. 11. For several more book ideas, check out 27 Valentine’s Day Books for Kids from Heart and Soul Homeschooling. 12. If you want to take your snickety snacks to the next level, here are some 5 Valentine’s Day Snacks that Teach About God’s Love from Stand Up, Reach Out! 13. Here are several ideas to go along with a special book: Story Time: Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch from Orison Orchards. 14. You know I’m all about simple snacks! Here are 15 Fast and Fun Valentine’s Day Snacks for Kids from Thrive@Home! 15. For a craft with a purpose, check out this DIY Valentine’s Day Craft Ideas – Beautiful Heart-Shaped Upcycled Book Decorations from Geez, Gwen!

Snow: A UNIT STUDY Read~Write~Create~Explore~Enjoy~Learn!

December 15, 2020 by Katherine Wolfe Leave a Comment

{This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our Disclosure Policy for details.}

Each UNIT STUDY includes suggestions of books to READ, ideas to WRITE, crafts to CREATE, more to EXPLORE, snacks to ENJOY and other ways to LEARN about a specific topic!

This is part of a series, THE 12 DAYS OF WINTER UNIT STUDIES. For a thorough explanation of UNIT STUDIES {what they are and what they include} check out THE 12 DAYS OF WINTER UNIT STUDIES. You’ll also find a schedule of when each new UNIT PACK will go live!

Day Eleven: SNOW

Whether you live in sunny California or frigid Minnesota, a series of WINTER UNIT STUDIES would not be complete without doing SNOW!

READ: The Snowman by Raymond Briggs is one of my ALL-TIME favorite books because of its sweet story, lovely illustrations and sad ending. Yes, the sad ending is one of the aspects that makes it such a sweet tale. And it offers great lessons for kids and adults of all ages….and all without a single word! Be sure to grab the FREE mini FICTION BOOK COMPANION PACK to work on your student’s comprehension skills.

WRITE: And to go along with The Snowman by Raymond Briggs is this cute writing activity. You can find it in the FREE Winter-Themed Writing Activity Pack. It’s easy and quick but really does a great job of connecting the student to the book by asking for something his/her snowman liked and something it didn’t.

Here is my silly sample. I’m sure your kiddos can do much better than I did! My poor snowman doesn’t even have a hat….then again, if you saw the way I drew the hat on my snowman in the HIBERNATION UNIT STUDY, you might think a hatless snowman is an improvement.

There is also a paragraph activity for kids who want to write more. This one asks the student to create a way for the snowman not to melt at the end of the book.

EXPLORE: The Story of Snow: The Science of Winter’s Wonder by Jon Nelson is a great NON-FICTION book that does just what the title says! It tells the story of snow…how it starts, how it builds and how it falls. In addition to the easy-to-digest but real scientific text, it also has both great illustrations AND photographs. There are comprehension questions that go along with it in the FREE NON-FICTION mini BOOK COMPANION PACK that should allow your kids to take their learning to the next level.

There is also a great 40+ minute documentary on SNOW that I would recommend: Secrets of the Greatest SNOW on Earth by National Geographic.

ENJOY: This Cucumber Carrot Snowman Snack is super easy to make and healthy too! In addition to some cucumber slices and a bit of cleverly-cut carrot pieces, it also uses a couple of pretzel sticks and some raisins.

This Pretzel Marshmallow Snowflake Snack is not as healthy but is just as easy and cute! It requires just small marshmallows and some pretzel sticks!

Another SNOW snack option {that could actually be served as lunch or dinner} is these Snowman Mini Pizzas. All you need is some sort of round carb base {she used biscuit dough, but you could easily use crackers, mini pitas, sandwich thins, tortillas, or actual pizza dough} plus some sauce, cheese, olives and cleverly-cut carrot slices.

All of the above rely on the imagination to incorporate the SNOW theme into the snack but if you actually have SNOW to work with, then you may want to make some Snow Ice Cream with fresh snow, condensed milk and vanilla.

But, really, the best SNOW snack idea is this one. Just check it out. Seriously, THIS is what I would serve and call it a day!

And, while your kids enjoy their SNOW snacks and water, ha ha, they can enjoy The Snowman on Amazon Prime!

CREATE: There are so many SNOW crafts on Pinterest. SO MANY! I’ll just list a few of my favorites to give you a good selection:

Symmetrical Snowflake Craft

Snowpaint

Melted Snowman

Salt Snowflakes

Coffee Filter Snowflakes

LEARN: Your kids have probably all heard the song, Let It Snow but do they know the words? Use this SONG LITERACY PACK to teach them the lyrics and also work on some pertinent literacy skills. It’s not normally free, but if you use code SnowingWOLFe, it will be totally FREE for you!

READ MORE: A wee bit below are several other good books on SNOW. Each would make a great addition to any SNOW study!

I hope this SNOW UNIT STUDY provided at least a few ideas to spark an interest in SNOW this winter!

Be sure to check out the other UNIT STUDIES as they go live. You can find the full schedule, along with the rest of the Homeschooling Fun Through the Holidays Series, HERE!

Check out the entire series,

12 Days of Winter Unit Studies!

READ~WRITE~CREATE~EXPLORE~ENJOY~LEARN!

Next up: STEAM TRAINS

Much appreciation goes out to my good friend, Jamie Spear! She helped me find these fun books, crafts, snacks and more! Without her, these UNIT STUDIES would have nothing but “read this, print that, and write something!” You can find her on FaceBook, Instagram and Pinterest.

Sleighs: A UNIT STUDY Read~Write~Create~Explore~Enjoy~Learn!

December 14, 2020 by Katherine Wolfe 1 Comment

{This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our Disclosure Policy for details.}

Each UNIT STUDY includes suggestions of books to READ, ideas to WRITE, crafts to CREATE, more to EXPLORE, snacks to ENJOY and other ways to LEARN about a specific topic!

Day Ten: SLEIGHS

I wanted to create a LITERACY PACK for Jingle Bells and that started me down this path of a UNIT STUDY on SLEIGHS. I’ll admit, it’s kind of an odd topic to study but I was still surprised that I could not find a single NON-FICTION book on SLEIGHS. I think I need to start a list of topics for books that need to be written! But, there are some super cute FICTION books along with an informative video so all was not lost!

READ: Despite the fact that it follows the same pattern as 1000 other Christmas books {the sleigh wants to grow up and work with Santa,} this book is one of my new favorites! Who knew you could fall in love with a little red sleigh? This book is a great place to start your UNIT STUDY on SLEIGHS because it does a good job of crossing over the line between SLED to SLEIGH. If you don’t have Little Red Sleigh by Erin Guendelsberger, I highly recommend adding it to your Christmas collection. And don’t forget to grab the FREE FICTION mini BOOK COMPANION PACK to go along with it.

Another cute SLEIGH book is The 12 Sleighs of Christmas by Sherri Duskey Rinker. It introduces a series of innovative SLEIGHS that Santa’s elves have invented in hopes of solving Santa’s problem. Of course, none of them work right and disaster occurs! It’s a silly book but creates an opportunity to discuss what makes a SLEIGH work and what doesn’t. And, yes, flying REINDEER is what makes Santa’s SLEIGH work! Don’t forget to make use of the comprehension activities found in the FREE mini FICTION BOOK COMPANION PACK.

WRITE: One-Dog Sleigh by Mary Cassanova is one of my favorite types of books! Each page adds on to the last so that when the sleigh ride starts, there is only a little girl and a dog being pulled by a pony but by the time the book ends, there is a girl, dog, deer, bear, mouse and more! It’s really rather cute and lends itself perfectly to this fun writing activity.

Your kids can either draw their own animals or cut out the ARCTIC animals and glue them on. Both are found in the WINTER-THEMED WRITING ACTIVITIES PACK. {Note: If you want the Arctic animals and downloaded the pack prior to 12-11-20, you’ll need to download the pack again.}

Of course, there is also a paragraph option that asks kids to design a new SLEIGH for Santa and describe it.

ENJOY: As you might guess, there are not too many SLEIGH snacks out there but this cute Santa Sleigh that was designed as a gift is actually editable and made with nothing but candy so your kids will be sure to devour it! Problem is….if you buy the supplies for it {candy canes, Hershey Miniatures, Santa Hat Kisses and Royal Icing,} you’ll end up with a boat-load of the little sleighs! A more elaborate {and expensive} version of that snack is this one. It takes a full-size candy bar, several more Hershey Minitarues, a chocolate Santa and some ribbon. It would also make a great gift!

CREATE: Apparently candy canes are a popular item to use in SLEIGH crafts! This one requires only candy canes, popsicle sticks and hot glue. Add some ribbon if you want to turn it into an ornament! There is also this cute Paper Plate Sleigh Full of Snowmen! It requires paper plate, white/grey/black paper, some markers and glue. Paint and glitter, optional. It looks pretty easy and because it uses a cutout of your child’s hand, it’s a great one to do every year. I always loved seeing how those progress!

EXPLORE: If you are feeling especially enthusiastic, you can set up this Sleigh-Building Challenge. It requires more time, materials and patience than I normally have but it would make a great activity for a co-op class….or a mom who typically has it all together.

Or you can take the easy route like me and show your kid this quick 9-minute video, Sleighs and Sleighbells. It gives some easy-to-digest history about SLEIGHS and requires no materials or patience!

LEARN: Check out this JINGLE BELLS SONG LITERACY PACK. It’s a great way for your kids to learn the most famous stanza of a carol we all know and love but also to work on rhyming, comprehension, reading and writing! It’s not free in my store but with code FREEJingleWOLFe, it’s FREE for you! Plus, it’s tons of fun to sing that one stanza over and over and over again!

READ MORE: Below are some more FICTION books about SLEIGHS. But, sadly, there are no NON-FICTION books listed. Seriously, I am going to start keeping a list of all the unsung topics!