Christmas

We want to know
-why do people celebrate it?
-why do you get presents?
-why does
-how does Santa's sleigh fly

What we did

Poem
First part of "Twas the Night Before Christmas" by: Clement Moore
Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads.
And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap.

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below.

Math
-make a Christmas countdown chain. The boys wrote numbers on each link.
-I made a calendar. Ezra wrote the numbers in. I had him circle Christmas, Christmas Eve and a few random numbers.
-patterns with Christmas pictures

Watched
LDS Nativity video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQs0H7dvwy0

Coloring
Christmas pictures

Read
Christmas books

What we learned
-learned about Christmas symbols and what they mean http://www.santaclausvillage.info/videos-4/santa-claus-sledging/
-that we celebrate Christ's birth and remember all He did for us

We Made a Christmas Gingerbread Village



Livi's Reindeer Stable


template:
http://www.ultimategingerbread.com/free%20patterns/Barn-Pattern.pdf

Mr. & Mrs. Claus's House - Ashley


template:
http://www.ultimategingerbread.com/free%20patterns/Elf-House-Pattern.pdf

North Pole Outfitters - Mike


template:
http://www.slice-heaven.com/system/0000/3585/pb1977_19.19a.pdf

Sammy's Hot Chocolate Shop


template:
http://images.allrecipes.com/site/allrecipes/gingerbread_house_diagram.pdf

Toy Factory - Ezra


template:
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/stuff/contentmgr/files/7512947c75dd4ce76f3a611041c1fe40/miscdocs/gingerbread.pdf

Noah's Tree Shop



template:
http://images.marthastewart.com/images/content/web/pdfs/pdf2/gingerbreadinstructionskit.pdf

This was a TON of work, but really fun. I spent almost every evening for a week getting things ready.

Schedule
Day 1 - find, print, and cut gingerbread templates
Day 2 - make, cut, and bake gingerbread (used 8 times recipe for 6 houses)
Day 3 - make windows, assemble houses
Day 4 - make frosting, buy candy
Day 5 - kids decorate, lighting
Day 6 - edging, icicles, signs, display

Gingerbread Recipe (I used 8 times the recipe for 6 houses) from foodnetwork.com
1/2 c (4 oz)butter, margarine, or shortening at room temperature
1/2 c brown sugar
1/4 c (2 oz) light molasses
1 T cinnamon
1 T ground ginger
1 1/2 t ground cloves
1 t baking soda
2 c (10 oz) all-purpose flour
2 T (1 oz) water

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter, brown sugar, molasses, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and baking soda together until the mixture is smooth. Blend in the flour and water to make a stiff dough. Roll out, place on a parchment lined pan. Bake at 375 10-12 minutes.

Candy Windows (I used 3 times the recipe for 6 houses)
1 cup granulated cane sugar
1/3 cup hot water
1/3 cup light com syrup

Place cooked gingerbread on parchment paper on a flat surface. Combine sugar, hot water and corn syrup in a heavy saucepan. Place on high heat and stir with a wooden spoon until all sugar crystals are dissolved. Cook until 290 F, without stirring, then remove from heat. Add food coloring if you wish. While hot, pour the candy into window cut-out's. It can be reheated if it cools too much while pouring. Let completely cool before peeling off parchment.

Royal Icing with powdered egg whites
3 tablespoons meringue powder
4 c (16 oz) powdered sugar
5-6 tablespoons lukewarm water

Place sugar and Meringue powder in a bowl and stir at low speed. Add water and mix on low to medium for 7-10 minutes, until icing loses its sheen. To prevent drying out, keep the bowl and icing tips covered with a damp towel. Will keep for two weeks stored in the fridge.

Royal Icing with real egg whites (I used 8 times the recipe for 6 houses)
2 large egg whites
2 t fresh lemon juice
3 c (12 oz) powdered sugar
Read more: http://www.joyofbaking.com/RoyalIcing.html#ixzz177Gtik4o

Tips
-don't try to do this in one day, by the end you won't care how they look
-make more gingerbread dough and frosting than you think you'll need, it takes a lot of extra time to go back and make more for one house I would double the gingerbread recipe and 2-3 times the icing
-make a candy plan of things that look good together, so it ends up looking nice
-cereal, cookies, and crackers are really cute decorations as well
-edge all sides for a finished look
-do the icing for the kids and let them place the candy
-use battery powered led lights, we drilled a hole in the back after decorating them

Factories

We want to know
-a factory song
-how they make stuff like whips, crayons, books, whiteboards, and toys
-how much can they make in a day? hour? two minutes?

What we did
-song- "Button Factory"
Hi, my name is Jo
I have a wife and three kids
and I work in a button factory
one day my boss came to me
and said, "Jo, are you busy?"
I said, "no"
he said turn the button with your right hand (wave hand in a circle)
(repeat song with left hand, right foot, left foot, and head.)
last two lines of last verse:
and said, "Jo, are you busy?"
I said, "YES"

Letter Factory


The kids and I made a letter factory. We stamped and addressed our Christmas cards. We got it done very quickly.

We watched:
crayons- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSrzZwPGZ7s&feature=related
hot dogs- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhwXPsTaRgc&feature=related
cereal- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJ6ek9UOvxA&feature=related
tires- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onrEXGlCkKI
cheese- http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=how+to+make+cheese+factory&aq=f

Thanksgiving

We want to know
-want to know why Thanksgiving is so special
-why does everyone race races?
-why does everyone visit their families

What we did
-song - "A Song of Thanks" LDS Children's Songbook http://lds.org/churchmusic/detailmusicPlayer/index.html?searchlanguage=1&searchcollection=2&searchseqstart=20&searchsubseqstart=a&searchseqend=20&searchsubseqend=a
-poem - "The Turkey Shot Out of the Oven" Jack Prelutsky (repeat from oven week)

Turkeys


We made turkeys. The feathers, body, and parts are below. We used a pine-cone for the back and hot glued the body on. The feathers stayed by just putting sliding them between the pine-cone sections.

Turkey Body and Parts (makes 2)



Turkey Feathers (for 2)



Math and Writing
Ezra wrote up surveys asking people to write 10 things they were thankful for. He wrote: Please write 10 things, then numbered each paper 1-10. Everyone in the family (except Sam) filled one out. We gathered our data and wrote down the top five things. Ezra made a bar graph to chart it.
Top Five: family, gospel, home, friends, and food

-made a pumpkin pie

What we learned
Story for Family Home Evening
http://www.apples4theteacher.com/holidays/thanksgiving/short-stories/the-first-thanksgiving.html
1. people who lived in England were unhappy because their king was mean. He didn't let them to pray to God. They decided to move to Holland, but they were very poor and their kids didn't want to pray anymore, so they built two ships. One was not strong enough, so they left it and only sailed on the Mayflower.
2. They had to go all the way across the ocean and they got really sick. After two months they landed at Plymouth Rock. They started building their first house on Christmas day. It was cold and they didn't have much. The Indians came and helped them. In the spring the Indians helped them plant their crops.
3. They had a great harvest that fall with plenty of food to last through the winter. They decided to thank God for all of these things. Their party lasted three days. They ate wild turkey, pig, fish, corn, bread, cakes. They had races and played with the kids. Every year they celebrated Thanksgiving.
video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFDSobNnfQs

Ice

What we want to know
-if ice can melt in the winter
-if ice can melt in the spring, summer, and fall
-how ice is made

What we did
-Poem
Icicle
http://www.everypoet.net/poetry/blogs/just_me/icicle
drip
drip
drip
from my
tip
tip
tip
like a
tooth
tooth
tooth
from the
roof
roof
roof
in freezing weather
i grow
long
long
long
when the sun gets hot
i'll be
gone
gone
gone

-watched a video of an icicle forming:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgRLQ9jomgQ&NR=1"


-song "Scoops of Ice Cream" by Very Derryberry, it was $.99 on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Very-Derryberry-Debi/dp/B0019J4AKM/ref=sr_1_1_digr?ie=UTF8&qid=1289243816&sr=8-1

Ice Cream Poster


The boys colored ice cream scoops and the cone, to use when we sing the song. Noah discovered he could color in the lines and cover up all of the white. He did a great
job!




-Math - We did story problems with the ice cream scoops. Ezra had to write the equations down during the story. Noah had to put on and take off specified amounts and count the remainder.


Ice Skating at 7 Peaks!



The pictures are blurry, but those skating aids in the first picture were awesome! Livi and Ezra loved it! Noah didn't like how the skates made his ankles turn. He tried it though. In another year he'll probably like it better. Sam and Noah loved watching the zamboni smooth the ice. 7 Peaks has public skating from 7-9 on Mondays. It was only $20 for 4 skaters and 5 skate rentals (3 and under skate free). We went to Dairy Queen for ice cream after skating.

Spider Ice Cubes


-made spider ice cubes and tricked dad
-grape and marshmallow experiment - when they were frozen the marsyhmellow was squishy because it didn't have much water, the grape was hard because it had a lot of water
-video on how ice rinks are made: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hT3yfuLPIU
to make an ice skating rink - 1. get water and spray 2. they paint 3. they spray water all over to make ice 4. then you can skate

Distilled Water

-made ice spikes with distilled water

Ice Paint Brushes

-painted with ice cubes as the paint brushes, it made the paint really smooth because each time it gave it a little bit of water

Ice Chiseling


-we put toys and water in a container and froze them, then the boys chiseled them out

-looked up ice sculptures - http://www.amazingice.com/gallery.html

-video on how ice sculptures are made: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itvuudjb9hk&feature=related

We learned
-distilled water makes ice spikes
-ice is made from water and you shape it different shapes, and freeze it in the freezer
-outside ice forms when snow melts and drips and turns into ice
-the sun can melt the snow even in the winter

Dogs

We want to know
-how hard they chew bones
-how often they poop
-how many kinds of dogs there are
-if dogs teeth are super duper sharp and if they can scratch on houses
-how many hours a day they sleep
-how much they eat

What we did
-song
"How Much is That Doggy in the Window"
Bob Merrill



How much is that doggie in the window? (arf! arf!)
The one with the waggley tail
How much is that doggie in the window? (arf! arf!)
I do hope that doggie's` for sale

I must take a trip to California
And leave my poor sweetheart alone
If she has a dog, she won't be lonesome
And the doggie will have a good home

I read in the paper there are robbers (roof! roof!)
With flashlights that shine in the dark
My love needs a doggie to protect her
And scare them away with one bark

I don't want a bunny or a kitty
I don't want a parrot that talks
I don't want a bowl of little fishies
She can't take a goldfish for a walk

How much is that doggie in the window? (arf! arf!)
The one with the waggley tail
How much is that doggie in the window? (arf! arf!)
I do hope that doggie's for sale
I do hope that doggie's for sale

we made a cardboard window for song, Noah and Ezra painted it
Livi played the song on the piano, Ezra sang it, Noah barked

-looked up dog breeds
http://www.justdogbreeds.com/all-dog-breeds.html
http://www.akc.org/pdfs/public_education/bailey_goes_home.pdf
Compared four breeds according to ease of training, intelligence, protectiveness, good with children, etc. We read a little about each dog. We chose a great dane, toy poodle, bulldog, and a lab. Ezra decided a lab would be the best dog. Livi decided a great dane would be best.

-math- I barked and they counted using tally marks or their fingers and wrote down the number of times I barked.

Number Books

made number books 1-10, they had to count the dogs, write the numbers, cut the pages, and put them in order

-reading- gathered all the dog books we have and read them
read leveled readers about dogs with Ezra

-took a trip to the pet store. Sammy was so excited he couldn't contain himself. He stomped his feet excitedly and said, "lee, lee, lee!" There were no dogs, but lots of cats, birds, fishes, snakes, lizards, and guinea pigs.