Veteran's Day Fun

My Papaw served in World War II and instilled in me the importance of appreciating and supporting our veterans. I try to do something with my kids on each patriotic holiday to remind them how important veterans are to the freedom we have.

This year, we used this awesome printable pack from Money Saving Mom that had activities my kindergartener and three year old both enjoyed.

They also made cards for veterans we know...

And, my big kid was tasked with creating a Lego flag!

Thanks to all the veterans who have served our country! We are grateful for you.

Around the World in 11 Days: South Korea, Japan and China

Week two was South Korea. Kimchi and sweet potatoes are popular foods in South Korea so we substituted sauerkraut for kimchi and ate sweet potato tots. Our craft for this week was paper fans and my boys were most excited to learn that Avengers: Age of Ultron was partially filmed in this country. If you have a super hero fan like me, that's a fun fact to add!

For Japan, an amazing local restaurant donated fried rice, chicken, yaki and sweet carrots for them to try. We made this shape ninja craft modified to be on paper plates and Coke bottle cherry blossom trees. Some people got a little carried away with the paint. ;)

The week we learned about China, we were extra excited because a couple of the kids in our class were adopted from there. Their mommy came and showed us a Chinese bible, clothes, a lantern, a dragon puppet and lots more. This week, a local Chinese restaurant donated egg rolls and fortune cookies for them to try and we learned about Chinese New Year and made this quick Year of the Sheep craft.

 

 

Around the World in 11 Days: Australia and India

For our class about Australia, we ate cookies shaped like kangaroos, made a kangaroo planter and a beach in a bottle.

 

For the planter, I printed the pieces I found here and adapted it to just use paper they could color instead of the craft foam. I let them draw on the face and then we used hot glue to put all the pieces together.

 

 

For the beach in a bottle, I purchased the 8 oz bottles of water. They got to take one big drink and then we used sand colored aquarium rocks (I originally planned to use sand, but it's really expensive to find in the off season, so the rocks did the trick.). We used a funnel to pour them in and then added a couple glittery fish foam stickers (with the paper removed). Lastly, we used food coloring to turn the water blue.

I also got them these boomerangs to take home.

In India, we ate yummy naan bread and learned that they have Bengal tigers.

I painted their hands orange and let them do their print. They then glued on eyes and drew stripes with a permanent marker.

We talked about Diwali and made paper lanterns. I modified this pattern and let them decorate them with markers before stapling
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Lastly, we learned that there are 272 different species of snakes in India and made a quick paper chain snake.

 

Around the World in 11 Days: Passports and Belize

At our homeschool co-op this semester, I am teaching a class I called "Around the World in 11 Days." We have 11 weeks of co-op, so we explore a different country each week.

I made a passport for each child and they get to look at a fact sheet and color the flag of each country every week.

I also added some recipes for food we ate from some of the countries that I just printed from online cookbooks.

The first week we learned about Belize. An amazing missionary from our church came and shared pictures, money, crafts and more from the country. We ate banana muffins and banana jam and made a banana craft. I just printed a picture of a banana and let them glue on yellow tissue paper.

 

Around the World in 11 Days: Mexico and England

The week we did Mexico was really close to Halloween, so we tied in the Dia de Los Muertos Celebration. They got to break a piñata, make celebration masks and try chips and salsa!

 

 

 

 

 For England, we learned all about royalty!

 

 We had a tea party with fancy cakes and sweet tea. Our local Burger King donated crowns to make them queens and kings and they decorated them with stickers. 

 

 

 

We also made shape castles using two rectangles, one square and four triangles!