Tag Archives: Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Curriculum Plans, 2013!

19 Tuesday Nov 2013

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It’s time to share new Thanksgiving curriculum ideas and resources!

We spent this morning creating our Thanksgiving Tree! Here are pictures from past years:

eDSC_0001 DSC_1375

This year, I tried to up my game a bit.

???????????????????????????????This is a great way to use up old scrapbooking supplies, by the way! I chose some of my “ugly” scrapbooking paper that was in fall colors, and then pulled out my die-cutting machine. (I have a SLICE. And it’s been a while since I’ve been able to really scrapbook, and had an urge to get crafty.) After cutting out various leaf shapes, I had the girls write things they were thankful for on the back, and then we hung them from the lighting fixture in our dining room.

And voila! a perfect Thanksgiving decoration! We’ll continue to add more in the days leading up to Thanksgiving.

If you’d like to use my more low-tech file, please feel free to download them here: Thanksgiving Leaves

The last time I shared Thanksgiving resources was a few years ago, and since my girls have done most of that, and also outgrown some of them, I’ve been collecting new ideas to try! Here are some of my favorites:

Cultivating Thankful Hearts: A FREE Unit Study
http://theroadto31.com/ – several printables and resources
Moccasin Printable
Tiny bow & arrow
Homeschool Share – Native Americans
30 Days of Giving Thanks
Charlie Brown Thanksgiving
Homeschool Share – Thanksgiving – Pinterest
History of Thanksgiving Unit Study
Scholastic – The First Thanksgiving
3 Dinosaurs Blog – Free Thanksgiving Pack
Gift of Curiosity – Free Thanksgiving Printable Pack
Motherhood on a Dime – Thanksgiving Crafts, Snacks, and Activities for Kids
30 Days of Thanksgiving: Printable Gratitude Journal
Thanksgiving Word Bump
Thanksgiving Finger Puppets

And I wanted to make a special shout-out to this post: 5 Ways to Teach Your Children to Be Givers.

2011 Gratitude Challenge, Day #24

24 Thursday Nov 2011

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Today I am thankful for the chance to spend Thanksgiving with family. I don’t think I’ve gotten to do that since college. I’m thankful that my mom and I split the cooking duties, and I didn’t have to cook the whole meal by myself!

I am thankful for the traditions our family has now – our “Thanksgiving tree,” our little homeschool Thanksgiving unit, and this year we created “Blessing Mix” for the first time. We made so much that we were able to share it with our friends!

I am thankful that we were able to have Thanksgiving in our own home for the first time this year. (Last year our house was covered in boxes.) I am thankful that we are all in good health, and for the great weather we had! The girls were able to get out and run around and ride their bikes, which was awesome.

I am thankful that the Methodist Church has a Thanksgiving service in the morning with music from the African Universal Church choir. They were awesome. Seriously, that is THE way to start your Thanksgiving off right. I went from being in a good mood to being in an AWESOME mood. I loved it. (Loved the free jar of homemade jelly we got there too!)

I am thankful that we all had a good time, and that our table was covered with God’s bounty – and plenty of leftovers to last all weekend!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

This is my first attempt at a blog challenge, something you might see friends doing on Facebook – “__ days of Giving Thanks.” I thought this was a very fitting challenge to get myself back into a regular habit of blogging again. Feel free to join me, and post your own blog link in the comments below, so we can keep up with each other! Follow others that are participating HERE.

Thanksgiving Curriculum Plans

20 Sunday Nov 2011

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Since Thanksgiving is almost here, I thought I’d better hurry up and get off my tush and finish this post!

Thanksgiving is easily my favorite holiday of the year. I love everything about it. Our traditions, the food, the cooking, the company, everything! And I’m hoping that my girls will love it too!

First of all, here are our Thanksgiving-themed books. I pack these books up with the decorations and only bring them out during November. That way our children will have fond memories and traditions of reading these books, but they will be fresh and “new” each year!

Another tradition that I started a few years ago, is our “Thanksgiving Tree.”  Living overseas makes it impossible to find Thanksgiving decorations and so I had to get a bit creative. I got some simple branches and we color “leaves” and write what we are thankful for on them. Cheap, meaningful, and turns out pretty cute when it’s full!

And here are some of this year’s leaves, waiting for Mommy to hang on our tree!

Thanksgiving Leaves If you’d like to download my leaf file, here it is! (I hope.)

And to go with our homeschooling this year, I’ve added a Thanksgiving “unit”!

The Internet is a wonderful invention for homeschoolers. I simply did a google search and found a ton of resources where others had done my work for me! (Thank you, Lord!) I decided to try this Lapbook concept that I’ve read about and printed of dozens of worksheets.

Here are our Thanksgiving lapbooks in progress. Both of our girls are doing them.

 

And here is a partial list of the multitude of Thanksgiving resources:

Thanksgiving Printables – I used mostly the preschool one, and a few pages from the kindergarten one.

Read! Build! Write! – Great for learning Thanksgiving “vocabulary”

Thanksgiving Preschool Pack – Great printouts (My girls love the color by numbers Turkey)

2 Teaching Mommies – Turkeys

Dr. Pat’s On-line Pilgrim Coloring Book

Lapbook Ideas and Pictures

Christian Preschool Printables: Thanksgiving

Enchanted Learning: K-3 Thanksgiving Ideas

ABC Teach: Thanksgiving

Pilgrim (female) Paper Doll

Thanksgiving Lapbooks

2011 Gratitude Challenge, Day #17

17 Thursday Nov 2011

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Today I am thankful for my brave little girl.

My youngest is my little scaredy cat. She’s phobically terrified of just about everything, and always has been. Seriously, anything not human (and frankly, most of them too) is on her possible freakout list.

But today we went to a petting farm. I’ve been wanting to surprise them with this for weeks.

And about halfway through the trip, the owner brought out a rabbit. My youngest told me she needed to hold that rabbit. And she did.

And then it was time for the pony ride. Goodness, you could see the battle she was going through right on her face. She was so scared but wanted to get on that pony so bad. She told me she wanted to ride, but asked me if I would hold her hand. This is how the ride started:

 

And after one lap around, this is how it ended!

I have never been so proud of my little brave girl, who finally chose to push past her fears, and take her very first pony ride!

This is my first attempt at a blog challenge, something you might see friends doing on Facebook – “__ days of Giving Thanks.” I thought this was a very fitting challenge to get myself back into a regular habit of blogging again. Feel free to join me, and post your own blog link in the comments below, so we can keep up with each other! Follow others that are participating HERE.

2011 Gratitude Challenge, Day #16

16 Wednesday Nov 2011

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Today I am thankful for goats. And forgiveness.

Let me explain.

Earlier this week we were studying the letter G, and “Goat” was our theme for the unit.

The Bible verses for this unit were this:

“When Aaron has finished purifying the Most Holy Place and the Tabernacle and the altar, he must present the live goat. He will lay both of his hands on the goat’s head and confess over it all the wickedness, rebellion, and sins of the people of Israel. In this way, he will transfer the people’s sins to the head of the goat. Then a man specially chosen for the task will drive the goat into the wilderness. As the goat goes into the wilderness, it will carry all the people’s sins upon itself into a desolate land.
–Leviticus 16:20-22 (nlt)
(This is part of the description of the rules of sacrifice for the annual
Day of Atonement for the Jewish people in the Old Testament.)
Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow
could cleanse people’s bodies from ceremonial impurity. Just think
how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds
so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit,
Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins.
— Hebrews 9:13-14 (nlt)
But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten
so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep,
have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet
the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.
–Isaiah 53:5-6 (nlt)

While reviewing these verses, we had a long talk about the word sin. What it was, why God didn’t like it, and that if people wanted to be with God the sin had to be taken away.

This morning, we were playing a word game, making silly sentences with her flash card words. (Our favorite was “Ann sat in the mud.”) One of the flashcards had the word “sin” on it, and my oldest asked what that word meant. I reminded her of our conversation about the goat that used to be sent in the wilderness carrying the sins of the people far away. I told her that today if we wanted Jesus to take away our sins we needed to say we were sorry and ask for forgiveness, and he would take our sins so far away they can never be found again. She nodded, and we moved on.

This afternoon, when we were getting out of the car back at home from picking up the youngest from preschool, my oldest said to me (in a very, “Oh, by the way” voice): “Mommy, when you went inside and I was waiting in the car? I asked Jesus to take my sins far, far away.”

And she skipped away.

My jaw just dropped. I literally said, “Oh. Okay.”

So today, I am so thankful for goats. And the forgiveness Jesus Christ gives each of us, taking our sins far, far away.

This is my first attempt at a blog challenge, something you might see friends doing on Facebook – “__ days of Giving Thanks.” I thought this was a very fitting challenge to get myself back into a regular habit of blogging again. Feel free to join me, and post your own blog link in the comments below, so we can keep up with each other! Follow others that are participating HERE.

2011 Gratitude Challenge, Day #9

09 Wednesday Nov 2011

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Today I am thankful for a working refrigerator and ice maker!

The ice maker has been on the fritz for a while, and finally the repairman came to check it out today. Seems the motor was fried, which was a 10 minute fix for him.  PLUS, the home warranty covered the repair! So, while it’s not a nice, new, pretty replacement model fridge, I am very happy that we now have ice!

This is my first attempt at a blog challenge, something you might see friends doing on Facebook – “__ days of Giving Thanks.” I thought this was a very fitting challenge to get myself back into a regular habit of blogging again. Feel free to join me, and post your own blog link in the comments below, so we can keep up with each other! Follow others that are participating HERE.

2011 Gratitude Challenge, Day #8

08 Tuesday Nov 2011

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Today I am thankful for bubble baths and a good book.

Today was a long day and the end didn’t come fast enough. And even though the end came at 7:15pm (gotta love it getting dark and the girls going to bed earlier), I was creaking. Really. I can’t be old enough to be CREAKING.

Which is why tonight called for a major bubble bath and a new book to read on my Nook. And some prune-y skin later, I almost feel  . . . less than old . . . again. A little chocolate helped too.

So that is it for today.

This is my first attempt at a blog challenge, something you might see friends doing on Facebook – “__ days of Giving Thanks.” I thought this was a very fitting challenge to get myself back into a regular habit of blogging again. Feel free to join me, and post your own blog link in the comments below, so we can keep up with each other! Follow others that are participating HERE.

2011 Gratitude Challenge, Day #7

07 Monday Nov 2011

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Today I am thankful for our country.

We’ve lived in four countries so far on three continents. Living overseas has made Joel and I more patriotic and appreciative of “home.” It is pretty common to hear one of us say, “God Bless America” over just about anything. Grocery stores. High school football games. Basically anytime we find something easily and/or when things work the way they should. Heck, a trip to Walmart and I practically break out in song. 

I know many of you guys won’t get that. I understand. But after getting used to two-hour grocery trips that cost $200 for what we’d get here for $50 (without couponing, because that does not exist overseas) where the bulk of those two hours are spent attempting to read product labels in a different language (am I buying canned peas or canned tomatoes?), yeah, shopping in the US is pure joy.

And there are parts of life that are taken for granted here that we revel in. Small town parades. High school football games. Good Chinese food. (No lie- we have yet to find decent Chinese food in any of the other countries we lived in or visited.) Libraries filled with books in English! You guys seriously don’t know how good you’ve got it. We do, and we’re loving that we’ve got to spend the past year or so “back home.”

And just as soon as it all seems like “old news,” we’ll head back out to start learning to appreciate the good ole’ USA all over again.

This is my first attempt at a blog challenge, something you might see friends doing on Facebook – “__ days of Giving Thanks.” I thought this was a very fitting challenge to get myself back into a regular habit of blogging again. Feel free to join me, and post your own blog link in the comments below, so we can keep up with each other! Follow others that are participating HERE.

2011 Gratitude Challenge, Day #6

07 Monday Nov 2011

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Today I am thankful for a sense of humor.

My children crack me up. I know, I’m the mom and of course everything I think everything they say is hilarious.

But they are!

Lily, at the age of three, is the biggest comedian. She loves making up jokes. Three-year-old jokes aren’t always the most complicated in the world, but I love them anyway.

Maybe it’s really the pure pleasure she takes in telling them that I love so much. She has so much fun telling her jokes, that sometimes she will literally fall down on the floor laughing too hard. And her laugh is infectious, partly because she’s so quiet and reserved in public and rarely shows that side of her personality.

This afternoon she asked me if I was going to stay in my pajamas forever. (Umm, I’m in a pair of yoga pants. No need to be uncomfortable if I’m not leaving the house, right?)

And may I point out she asks this as she is wearing her Cinderella princess costume? Complete with tiara, heels and jewelry? And she’s been wearing the exact same outfit for two full days?

My yoga pants are apparently not up to her standards.

She also likes to tell me, “Yes Sir,” instead of “Yes, Ma’am.” (We’ve been working on manners.) She knows exactly what she’s doing. But in three-year-old humor, there is nothing funnier than using boy words on your mom, and girl words on your dad. She actually slapped her leg when she cracked herself up with that one.

And tonight at bedtime she had me laughing so hard when I was trying to be stern. I was giving the girls the nightly, “GO TO SLEEP” (with the implied “OR ELSE”) talk, and Lily told me she needed to give me a kiss. I go over to her bed and say, “Okay, give me a big one then.”

She promptly blows her mouth up with air like a huge balloon so she can give me the biggest gift possible. And blew a raspberry. On My Face. I had to leave the room.

So yes, I am thankful. Thankful I have a sense of humor, or at least one that loves preschool jokes.

This is my first attempt at a blog challenge, something you might see friends doing on Facebook – “__ days of Giving Thanks.” I thought this was a very fitting challenge to get myself back into a regular habit of blogging again. Feel free to join me, and post your own blog link in the comments below, so we can keep up with each other! Follow others that are participating HERE.

2011 Gratitude Challenge, Day #5

06 Sunday Nov 2011

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Today I am thankful for a great shower. No, really.

You moms know exactly what I’m talking about, don’t ya?

This morning my girls woke up early. TOO EARLY. Which is of course nothing new.

But they actually played quietly in their room until a respectable hour. And then went downstairs to the playroom to play. So I decided to take a shower.

And they were still playing happily.

So I decided to go ahead and get dressed. IN REAL CLOTHES.

And they were still playing.

So I did my hair. REALLY. I pulled out the flat iron and straightened my hair.

About that time, they came and started asking for food. (Sigh. I know, right?)

Thankfully, I was able to distract them for about five minutes.

AND PUT MAKE UP ON!

Seriously, when does that happen? It’s like a Mommy Miracle.

Too bad I didn’t have anywhere to go with my great hair day.

This is my first attempt at a blog challenge, something you might see friends doing on Facebook – “__ days of Giving Thanks.” I thought this was a very fitting challenge to get myself back into a regular habit of blogging again. Feel free to join me, and post your own blog link in the comments below, so we can keep up with each other! Follow others that are participating HERE.