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Game Review: PRIME CLIMB {Math}

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

PRIME CLIMB is available on Amazon HERE.

{I purchased this game myself. All opinions are my own!}

Read on for a detailed REVIEW.

I first learned about Prime Climb in a Homeschool FaceBook Group. It was promoted as being a good game to play if you wanted your kids to practice using all four operations {addition, subtraction, multiplication, division} in a fun way. Being a sucker for math games, I immediately bought it! And then it sat on our game shelf for months and months. I don’t know if it was the word “prime” in the title, the geometric-looking game board or the lengthy instruction booklet that intimidated me, but something sure did! But, eventually, my son asked enough times to play, that I relented and I am so glad I did!  Read this review of PRIME CLIMB to see why it now ranks as our favorite math game! 

In addition to reviewing the

FUN FACTOR and the

EDUCATIONAL VALUE,

I will also include info on the

ORGANIZATIONAL COMPONENT,

TIME COMMITMENT, 

CLARITY LEVEL

and an OVERALL SCORE. 

NAME: Prime Climb

PUBLISHER: Math for Love

CATEGORY: Math

SUB CATEGORY: All four operations with an emphasis on factors

TIME COMMITMENT: Moderate {30+ minutes}

PLAYERS: 2-4

AGES: 10+ 

CLARITY LEVEL: ♥♥♥♥♥ I won’t mislead you and say this is the easiest of games to understand nor play because it’s not. But don’t let the 8 pages of instructions nor the spiral game board intimidate you. The instruction booklet is long only because it’s extremely detailed and includes a lot of images. And the board is super detailed only because it was designed to highlight prime factorization to increase the use of strategy. It truly is fairly simple to understand and play.  CLARITY LEVEL SCORE: 5/5 ♥♥♥♥♥

FUN FACTOR: ♥♥♥♥_ The tagline is “The Beautiful, Colorful, Mathematical Game, ” and it is! It has a very beautiful and bold appearance with its black background and color-coded spiral board. But, the tagline never mentions fun, though I think it should! No, it’s not fun enough that all of the neighborhood kids will want to come and play this instead of the PS4 but it is fun! It’s especially fun when you have played a few turns and players start to bump one another back to start. And the fun is significantly increased when players really start to strategize instead of just relying on luck.  FUN FACTOR SCORE: 4/5 ♥♥♥♥_

EDUCATIONAL LEVEL: ♥♥♥♥♥  If you are looking for a game that allows for practicing all four operations, pushes kids to strategize and really hounds the concept of factors and prime, this is a GREAT game! I would classify this as the math game with the HIGHEST EDUCATIONAL VALUE of every math game we have tried!  It’s a wee bit on the expensive side, but the depth of the EDUCATIONAL VALUE makes it well worth it, in my opinion.  EDUCATIONAL LEVEL SCORE: 5/5 ♥♥♥♥♥

ORGANIZATIONAL COMPONENT: ♥♥♥♥♥  Prime Climb is designed beautifully with quality pieces, though the pawns could probably take an upgrade.  The box is sturdy, but not small. It does have a divider insert which helps keep things neat. The board is the fold-out type and is very well-made and easy to fold/unfold.  ORGANIZATIONAL COMPONENT: 5/5 ♥♥♥♥♥ 

OVERALL SCORE: ♥♥♥♥♥ This game has ousted FLIP IT for the top spot and is now our favorite math game! Not only is it fun, but it offers the opportunity to push players to the next level of understanding math. It also offers practice with all four operations and allows players to strategize or just go with sheer luck! It’s especially great for older kids who need practice because it definitely gives off an older-kid vibe with its style and strategy.  OVERALL SCORE: 95% ♥♥♥♥♥ 

If you are ready to play “the beautiful, colorful, mathematical game,” you can grab it here on Amazon. 

If you want to look more closely at HOW to play Prime Climb, keep reading….

STEP ONE: Unfold the board and put it in the middle of the playing area. 

STEP TWO: Remove the blank cards from the pile, shuffle the remaining cards and place them in a pile so that all players have access. 

STEP THREE: Each player chooses their pawn color and places BOTH on “0”.  For our example, we only have two players {yellow and blue.}

STEP FOUR: Decide who will go first. 

TIP: A turn consists of four phases: ROLL, MOVE, BUMP, DRAW

STEP FIVE: Player One ROLLS the dice. 

STEP SIX: Player One needs to decide what to do with each die. Each die needs to be applied to a pawn. Each die is applied by either adding, subtracting, multiplying or dividing it with the number that pawn is on. Because it’s on 0, the only option is to add it. So, Player One adds the 7 die to one pawn and MOVES it to 7. Then Player One adds the 10 die to the other pawn and MOVES it to 10. 

NOTE: Player One could’ve applied both die to one pawn and moved to 17. 

STEP SEVEN: If another player’s pawns were on one of those new spots, Player One would BUMP it back to 0. But there are no pawns to BUMP so that part is done for this turn. 

STEP EIGHT: If Player One has a pawn on an entirely red space, he gets to DRAW a card. But he didn’t, so there is no card to DRAW this time. 

STEP NINE: Player Two takes a turn. ROLL. MOVE. BUMP. DRAW. 

STEP TEN: Player One takes another turn. This time he ROLLS 10 and 4.

STEP ELEVEN: Player One uses the 4 die and adds it to the 7 that it’s on and MOVES that pawn to 11. Then he uses the 10 die and multiplies it with the 10 spot and MOVES that pawn to 100. 

STEP TWELVE: No pawns to BUMP. 

STEP THIRTEEN: Because Player One has a pawn on an all-red spot {11}, he gets to DRAW a card. It’s a KEEPER card that he can use on a future turn. So, his turn is now over. 

STEP FOURTEEN: Player Two takes a turn. 

STEP FIFTEEN: Player One ROLLS a 3 and 11.  Player One adds the 11 to the 8 spot and MOVES to 19. He then subtracts the 3 from the 100 spot and MOVES to 97. 

NOTE: You MUST land on 101 exactly. Player One could not have added 3 to the 100 spot and moved to 101. It must be exact. 

STEP SIXTEEN: No pawns to BUMP. 

STEP SEVENTEEN: Because Player One landed on an all-red spot, he gets to DRAW a card. It’s another KEEPER card to use on a future turn. 

NOTE: Even though Player One was on TWO red spots, he only got to DRAW one card. Only one card can be drawn per turn. 

STEP EIGHTEEN: Player Two takes a turn. 

STEP NINETEEN: Player One ROLLS a 4 and 5.  Player One adds the 4 to the 97 spot and MOVES to 101! That pawn is done and can be removed from the board!  Player One is halfway to winning!

STEP TWENTY: He then subtracts the 5 from the 19 spot and MOVES to 14 where Player Two has a pawn. Player One BUMPS this pawn back to 0 and takes over the 14 spot. 

STEP TWENTY-ONE: Player One does not DRAW a card because he is not on an all-red spot. His turn is over. 

STEP TWENTY-TWO: Play continues until either Player One gets his remaining pawn to 101 or Player Two gets both of his pawns to 101. 

Stop saying, “WE’RE ALL JUST DOING OUR BEST,” because I’m not! Are you?

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This is not your normal warm and fuzzy “Mother’s Day” post but hopefully, it’ll make you laugh a lot and think at least a wee bit.

But even if does neither, be sure to enter the amazing giveaway at the bottom!

{Amazing = $100 gift cards x 4!}

I wish moms would just stop saying, “We’re all just doing our best,” because I’m certainly not! Are you?

I heard it again just yesterday. Or, rather, I saw it several times in a series of comments in a FaceBook group for homeschooling moms.

“She’s just doing her best.”

“Stop. The Mommy Wars. We’re all doing the best we can.”

“We need to show more support for one another. We’re doing our best!”

And, yet, I wonder, “are we?”

I know for darn certain that I AM NOT.

Sure, I have some uber duber super duper days.

I usually take charge of Monday and own it like a boss.

I’m up early. My lesson plans are all prepped. The kitchen is spotless. The laundry is whirling away. The carpets are vacuumed. The kid is on task. Nobody is yelling or crying. I’m even dressed (including a bra) and actually answer the door when the UPS man arrives. I have meals planned. It’s all good. I AM DOING MY BEST!

But, by Thursday little of that fabulousness remains. No bra. No home-cooked meals. No clean carpets. Those things have been replaced with short tempers from everybody, Hot Pockets for lunch and Hulu in the middle of the day.

I KNOW how to own my days. I KNOW what it means to do my best. I do! I did it on Monday and Tuesday…some weeks I even rock Wednesday too.

So, what happened? It’s not like I forgot. And, truth be told, it’s not like anything changed. I just got tired and, frankly, more than a wee bit lazy. While sitting on the couch in my day pajamas, I will contemplate all I need to do but am NOT doing. I have the time. I have the knowledge. I just don’t have the energy. Or the desire. Or the gumption. I’m not sure what to call it.

Call it whatever you want, but it sure isn’t  MY BEST.

Now, I know most moms, ESPECIALLY homeschool moms, have way more on their figurative plates than I do* with more kids and actual jobs but I still wonder if “we’re all just doing our best.” I honestly believe that, for the most part, the truth is we’re not.

WE ARE NOT DOING OUR BEST.

If you rang my doorbell on Thursday at 1:30pm, you’d probably find me braless and drinking coffee with unbrushed teeth and my hair in a blob on my head.  You’d find my kid wearing the same clothes that he wore to Youth Group the night before, eating Doritos while watching You Tube on the iPad. There’d be dishes in the sink, cat fur on the carpet and laundry on the kitchen table. 

Are any of those things HORRIBLE enough to warrant a call to Child Protective Services. Of course not. But, are they MY BEST?

Good golly, no. 

If I actually answered the door and let you in, I’d apologize for the messy everything and you’d brush it off and say, “Oh. It’s fine! You should see MY house. No worries. We’re all just doing our best.” And then we’d laugh and pretend that was true. 

But, if that was true, my Thursday would look like my Monday. 

If that was true, dry shampoo would not be on an auto order with Amazon.

If that was true, they would not recognize my car at the McDonald’s drive-thru.

If that was true, my husband would not need to remind me to put gas in my car before I run out again. 

If that was true, I wouldn’t avoid the bathroom scale like I do Walmart on a Sunday. 

If that was true, the kid would not have a pile of incomplete school work labeled “Summer Stuff”. 

Instead of saying, “You’re just doing your best,” maybe we need to be brave and bold and say, “While you binge watch The Handmaid’s Tale this weekend, why don’t you fold some laundry? Eight piles on the kitchen table really aren’t okay.  Everybody, including YOU, will appreciate it.”♥

Or instead of ignoring your child’s rude interruptive behavior at co-op because you’re “just doing your best” and taking a break while chatting with another homeschool mom, you actually break away from the conversation and redirect your child’s behavior.♦

Or perhaps instead of perusing Facebook for hours each day, you actually sit down and plan some meals. McDonald’s won’t be happy but your husband, bank account and BMI will be.♣

Now, I’m not saying we all need to start openly calling one another out on doing our best. I’m not saying that at all. That would do nothing but ramp up the Mommy Wars and create loads of resentful, angry women.

But, I AM suggesting that we start calling out OURSELVES. Ask yourself, “am I really doing my best?” 

And, MAYBE, after your answer is consistently “YES!” you can then broach the subject with your BFF. Maybe. 

*{It’s tough to beat how much I have on my literal plate though! I LOVE food!} 

♥{True story, basically but with a different series every weekend since I finished Handmaid’s Tale long ago.}

♦{Totally true story except for the days I was teaching co-op because it’s hard to gossip with other moms while teaching a group of kids.}

♣{Oh my! 100% true story but with Freddy’s and Q’Doba mixed in too.}

NOW, FOR THE GIVEAWAY

Mother’s Day is right around the corner and a group of my blogging friends and I would like to make your day a little extra special because, whether you are doing your best every day or not, YOU DESERVE IT! 

We are giving away FOUR $100 gift cards to the place of your choice. The winner can pick from the following options – Hobby Lobby, Christianbook.com, grocery store of choice, or restaurant of choice. 

To enter for your chance to win, simply use the Rafflecopter form below to enter. Now I know that is quite a few entries, but each of these bloggers generously chipped in their own money to bring you this giveaway, so I hope you will take the time to do all of the entries; it will bless them in return. And hey, you might find a new favorite blogger to follow. 

Giveaway ends May 7th at 11:59pm EDT.  The winner will have 48 hours to respond to email to claim the prize. By entering this giveaway you will be added to the email lists of the participating bloggers. Please be sure to read the Terms & Conditions upon entering the giveaway. By entering the giveaway, you agree and acknowledge your understanding of the terms & conditions.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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

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St Patricks Day Fun for Homeschoolers

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

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!

St. Patricks Fun for Homeschoolers

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!

St. Patricks Fun for Homeschoolers

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!

St. Patricks Fun for Homeschoolers

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!

St Patricks Day Fun for Homeschoolers

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

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{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!

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{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.

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