Turkey in the Brown Straw

 

 Around 4 or 5 years ago I looked up and printed out several Thanksgiving songs and rhymes for Ava.  I'm pretty sure that I used this webpage here.   I set a few personal parameters narrowing the list down to what would be appropriate for our family.  (for example, nothing about eating the turkey.  Even if that's what my 3or 4 year old was going to do, it still seemed macabre.)  Now an annual favorite (and one of the most silly) it gains popularity with the flannel pieces that I made.  (side note, while looking for the link with the lyrics I came across these felt pieces, and wow.)

Turkey In The Brown Straw
(Tune: Skip To My Lou)


 Turkey in the Brown Straw, Ha Ha Ha,
Turkey in the brown straw, Ha Ha Ha,
Turkey in the brown straw, Ha Ha Ha,
Turkey in the straw my darlin'


 
Turkey in the green tree, Hee Hee Hee,
Turkey in the green tree, Hee Hee Hee,
Turkey in the green tree, Hee Hee Hee,
Turkey in the tree my darlin'.


 
Turkey in the white snow, Ho Ho Ho,
Turkey in the white snow, Ho Ho Ho,
Turkey in the white snow, Ho Ho Ho,
Turkey in the snow my darlin'.


 
Turkey in the red barn,, Harn Harn Harn,
Turkey in the red barn,, Harn Harn Harn,
Turkey in the red barn,, Harn Harn Harn,
Turkey in the barn my darlin'.


 
Turkey in the blue sky,, High, High, High,
Turkey in the blue sky,, High, High, High
Turkey in the blue sky,, High, High, High
Turkey in the sky my darlin'.

This project came together quickly in one afternoon.  I used ecofelt that I had on hand, and decorated with puffy paint.  Ava's little hand plays the role of our turkey, the rest of the pieces were just quickly cut out.  When we moved I left behind my felt board, so for now I'm using a scrap of blue felt wrapped around a box.  (I'm such a perfectionist!)

The Day After

Last night we ordered pizza, printed out these coloring pages, and watched the election unfold.  It was so exciting to watch my children get involved in the process. 

This morning, in order to give my children a sense of closure, we gave Florida to Obama, but didn't assign him the electoral votes.  Ava asked if they could keep their election maps in our America Box (similar to our continent boxes) so we laminated their maps and will keep them for prosperity.  In a few weeks we'll print up the final statistics from each state and store them all together. 

I love how all of this came together.  Very organically.  It started with answering a lot of questions and led from there.  This is one of the beautiful things about homeschool.

Sight of Sol

Yikes.
I'm smitten.

(most of these photos were his idea.  He likes to see himself on my camera's view finder)

Gratitude Monday

Here are some of the things that I'm so very grateful for today...

*fall rains that are turning the hillsides green again

*The beginning of our new Autumn/Winter trimester in our homeschool

*fires at night to warm the house

*fresh baked bread

*November!

*A partner who works magic in the kitchen

*A baby who shares his love so freely

*A little girl who spends hours a day talking about Harry Potter

*A boy who tells strangers that we pass in the grocery store that he is a wizzard

*Painting my fingernails dark blue

*Children's art work

*Voting!

I'm super excited to be in November.  I love this season.  Here's to a new week!

Week In Homeschool #12

Our theme of the week:  Halloween

We read:
All the Halloween books in our home library!
And Then Comes Halloween:  A poem of the turn of season, and bringing of Halloween.
Dem Bones:  A classic, we sing it.
Old Old Witch:  A short poem, that reads like a song.
Pumpkin Shivaree:  The story of a seed to a pumpkin, to a jack-o-lantern, then back to a seed that returns to the earth.
Child of Faerie, Child of Earth:  A favorite loved by the whole family.  We love the story, and the illustrations.
Which Witch is Which?:  Try to solve each riddle using imaginative illustrations.
Two Little Witches:  A counting rhyme.
It's Halloween:  A collection of 13 poems by Jack Prelutsky.  They are funny, spooky, but not scary. 

All of the books on this list are loved.  Most of them I picked up used at the library, some of them were gifts.  We look forward to bringing them out every October.

Our Letter of the Week:

 

GFJ review.
Snack of the week:  Pumpkin bread, and Halloween candy!

Art:

Our art project this week was a gift from their Aunt Rachael.  She sent us the materials to make these wooden bead, and pipe cleaner spiders.  These will surely be a treasure to bring out every year.

Art Study:

 

This week we explored  Fast Break, by Red Grooms.   The last image in the book.    

Cyrus:  "This looks too much aggressive, and I see a person getting hit in the body  There is a lot of movement, and wood missing on the floor.  It looks like the ground is shaking up and down. "

Ava: "I see a lot of movement energy and noise with the way the people are acting.  And I see how people would be moving."         

Science:

We brought home dry ice on Halloween as a surprise for our family.  It was a great review of the states of matter.

History:
We read about Ancient China.

 

Math:

Ava:
*Roman Numerals
*Finished graphing the weather for October
*Continued charting her time of 8 different review sheets.


Peace:

 

Using Dumbledore as our example, we talked about the qualities that they thought would make a great leader.

respect, peace, wisdom, 

honest, fair, 

powerful, kind.

Field Trip:
This week's field trip was Trick-or-Treating on Halloween.

 

 

 

This week we wrapped up our first trimester of the year!  Next week we will start our Autumn/Winter trimester.   This was another week that was less than perfect academically, but we managed to get done what needed to be done.    I'm going to stop making predictions that next week I'll be on top of my game!  The week may have lacked a few lessons, but it sure turned out to be a very fun, and memorable week.  And that's one of the reasons why we homeschool.

Oh Sweet Ninja Goodness.

4 months ago in June we found our Halloween costumes.  It's not unusual for my family to have our costumes figured out really early.  After we buy our costumes, I put them up until the big day.  After the 31st, they add their precious costumes into their everyday play.  On that special day in June, I asked Cyrus if he would like to try on his outfit before I put it away.  What followed was something that I both never expected, and something that I have wanted to share publicly for months, but had to wait so not to spoil any surprises.

Cyrus not only slipped on his ninja costume, he slipped into a ninja character.  He spent close to a half an hour coming up with new poses.  Neither of us spoke during his fashion shoot.  All of these photos are 100% Cyrus's idea.  Oh I love these photos so very much.


Things started out pretty much how I thought they would.  Him standing very still and straight.

Suddenly he started posing.

I started to notice that his smile was slipping, as he adapted a warrior's demeanor.

 Suddenly he was playful again, throwing his sword in the air.

I have absolutely no idea where he learned these poses, or what inspired him.  I just know that my sweet 5 year old with a face full of jam, gave me the best photo shoot of his little life.  And I love him.

Halloween 2012

Here's the basic run down of our super fun Halloween.

Matt stayed home to enjoy the day with us, and we went out to lunch at my new favorite Italian place in Berkeley.

When we got home we played with dry ice, while Matt prepared our pizzas for dinner.

My babies got dressed in their costumes, and had a blast trick-or-treating through our neighborhood.  Sol would yell out, "thank you, I love you!" to everyone who gave him candy.

 

 

 

Halloween 2012 has been a fantastic success.  I'm looking forward to next year already!