Kindergarten Fall Activities

Hi guys, it's been a while since I posted anything on the blog. We've been busy learning and living life. But it's time for me to up date you guys and what we've been up to. Today I am sharing all the fun fall activities my kindergartner enjoyed.

Learning Shelf

Language Arts

Pumpkin Rhyming Words

Pumpkin Sight Words

syllable counting with candy corn

CVC craft

Math 

Skip Counting by 5 with leaves

Measuring

Science

pumpkin life cycle

pumpkin dissection

Art

I hope you enjoyed seeing all our fall activities. I know we're a little late, but I'll share all the winter activities soon.

What We Read In November

Hi guys! Today I wanted to share with you all the books we enjoyed in November and a peek into what we're reading this month. Our reading block is divided into to categories fun reading and assigned reading. During their fun read they can read any book they went be it picture book or chapter book. During assigned reading I will usually assign them a book to read that corresponds with either history, science, geography, or language arts.

3rd Grader

Fun Reading

my 3rd grader has been really into this series by Kenneth Oppel. There are four books that are based on bats. I've read along with him and enjoyed all four books. 

Assigned Reading

 For his assigned reading he read The Cricket in Times Square. He really enjoyed the book and worked on some activities for the literature unit. 

1st Grader

Fun Reading

For his fun read I asked him to pick out four of his favorite books and here are the four he chose. Stone Soup, The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything, Skippyjon Jones, and The Rough Face Girl

Assigned Reading:

He finished Charlotte's Web and is almost finished Stone Fox. 

Read Alouds

Here are some of the books we enjoyed together. 

We read these picture books during our writing, and geography time. 

We listened to the Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe on audio and also watched the movie. 

What we're reading this month:

 We are really loving The Silver Balloon

We are also enjoying the audio of The Mysterious Benedict Society. The boys have been really loving this book. 

What books have your kids been loving?

Linked Up With:
Literacy Musing Mondays

Character Study Curriculum

Hi guys! Today I wanted to share with you what we have been using for our virtues/character education. In the previous years I've always just kind of threw things together for this aspect of our homeschool. So, this year it was really important for me to have a solid plan for character education.

Spines:

This book gives you one-manner to focus on a day and how to exercises. 

This book is a collection of stories that deal with the development of good character. 

This book has 13 adventure stories that introduces the concept of virtues behavior and how it can make

the world a better place. 

Coloring Page/Narration:

I create a coloring page for each virtue while I read the story. At the end of the week the boys write in their journals a prompt that focuses on that trait. 

 Read Alouds:

To enhance our character building I grab some books from the library for the boys to read during their independent reading time.

 Some of the books we have enjoyed are One Hen, The Quilt Makers Gift, 

The Giving Tree, Rainbow Fish, etc.

We usually work on character education on Mondays as part of our morning basket, you can check out that post here. I also include stories that talk about some of the characteristics of the Prophet (SAW) and stories of his companions. We also read from the Quran and draw lessons from our reading.


That's it! What do you use for character education in your homeschool?

Check out our Pinterest board for more ideas.

Morning Time Basket

Hi guys! Today I wanted to share with you what is in our morning time basket. I've seen this morning basket idea floating around for a while. Now that my boys are getting older they are no longer interested in circle time so I needed something to substitute that so I could still cover things that do not fit into our other school stuff. The morning basket idea was perfect so I just made our own twist to it and we've been enjoying ever since.

I put together a schedule for me to follow so I know what to cover on each day so I wasn't searching for ideas at the last minute.

I put our schedule in a page protector and write with a visa visa marker so I can reuse it. 

I stick in the basket for easy reference. 

Our Schedule:

Every morning we start with our read aloud and memory work (which is normally poems were memorizing) we move on to what ever activity is schedule for that day.Some times I add a word of the day that I've pulled from our reading.

Mondays-Character trait

Tuesday: Poetry

Wednesday: Fair tales/Fables

Thursday: Art History

Friday: Picture books

Character Building:
Our main spines are Children's book of virtues and The adventures of Mali and Keela.  
We usually have one virtue a month we cover and we supplement with picture books and hands on activities.

Poetry:

The Random House Book of Poetry and Where the Sidewalk Ends is two of our spines and I usually will grab books from the library to switch it up. We also use our poem PowerPoint presentation you can check that out here.

Fairy Tales and Fables:

The boys have chosen Aesop's Fables and Stories from Around the World. 

Art History:

I love this book it has a short summary about the artist and the technique they are famous for. It also gives instruction on how to recreate a piece from the artist.

I am also waiting for this book to come in the mail. I've heard great things about it. 

Picture Books:

I wanted to make sure I continue to read picture books to the boys because there are some great ones we've never read. Especially now that my eldest is reading novels and is interested in longer books. 

The boys loved this one!

Read Alouds:

 We're currently reading The Silver Balloon. 

That's it for our morning time basket. Do you have a morning time basket and what are some of your favorite books?

Linked Up With:
Weekly Wrap Up