Learning Away From Home...Part 3

Hello friends, we are still learning while away and in Mexico and I wanted to share with you another lesson that can be taught while on vacation. Today's lesson focuses on reading, researching, spelling and vocabulary along with map work and history. During my lesson planning time, or as this was a last minute trip, during my flight, I came up with research questions that the kids needed to answer through looking up in different sources. They used maps, books, magazines, the computer and even spoke to local people.

The idea was to spend more time exploring and learning and not just saddled to a desk. The research was to be done for just a couple hours a day, IF that. What better way to learn than by touching, feeling, hearing, seeing and DOING!!

I like to do the research in books part before we leave or after we get back, this allows us more space for other books while we are on the road! In the questions that I ask (about 15-20 a day), I use big words that they may need to look up, to understand what I am asking. I also like them to learn about the history of the places we are learning about and have them make a timeline using index cards to make flashcards for each important year. Once all of it is done, they put them in order to make a timeline of history!

While on location, this is the perfect place to interview people, observe and report, photograph and most of all LEARN! One thing I absolutely love about Mexico, is how social the streets are, everyone is sitting in their gardens and talking to all that walk by. People stop and chat or shout and wave if they are in a hurry, if they are driving by, they honk! These moments are the perfect time to stop and chat with locals, oftentimes many locals open up their homes as restaurants, candy shops or the like. Learning from locals is the best way to learn.

When going on personal interviews, I always give the kids at least 2 questions each to ask people but then they have to come up with at least 2 of their own. They can ask 4 different people or just 1 person. I have them write all the questions down and keep them in their pocket whenever we go out, this keeps the questions always on hand.

Take a moment to enjoy every minute my friends!

Other posts in this series:
Part 1
Part 2

One more part left!

 

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Sunday School Post #8

Happy Sunday my friends! It has been a busy weekend with birthday celebrations and fun, so I apologize now for the very late post! I am busy preparing for the month of April in our classroom, with Easter and Spring bringing so much fun and excitement. Here is a calendar I found online HERE and then jazzed up a bit, this is perfect for using in our classroom to look up information in the morning during our prayer time.

Stopping in to a preview sale at the library got me striking it rich when I found my very own copy of The Book of Virtues!! I love sitting on the floor of a book sale and going through each and every box as I create piles and then sort through my piles to make stacks and then realize I have spent more than I intended and of course far more time than I ever thought was possible. A book sale is like a rabbit hole for me!

This past weekend took us out of town and of course exploring a new church! This is St. Peter's Church in Geneva and not quite new to me as I grew up at this parish and even was the first class to graduate in this church. I love taking the kids to a piece of my history. Visiting new churches is so much fun for not only the adults but the kids as well, they all seem to do something different for children. Here, they have special children's bulletins, complete with scripture verses and activities along with the readings of the day. They have 1 version for younger children and 1 for older children.

Our Love Dare for Children/Couples challenge still goes on and we are enjoying every part about it still. I recommend this to anyone that just wants to strengthen the bond they have with their spouse and or children. Both books are sold seperately and both go into so much detail!

I absolutely LOVE this labeled Paschal candle that I found online HERE. I printed it out in black and white, so that the kids could color it as they read each part of it!

Time for some Little Flowers Girls Club updates! Look at those cute buttons, I found them at Joann fabric and I think they would look so cute sewn on a sash! My daughter is going to put 3 on her sash and I plan on offering them up to the girls in our group in the future for a craft!

I just took my Leader Guide to Office Max and had it unbound and then hole punched for under 5.00 and now I can just slip it in a binder! This allows me to use tabbed dividers with folders in between each virtue, where I can stick ideas, worksheets, prayers and anything else I need for that particular meeting. I love being able to organize it just a bit more than it already was!

I also picked up some baseball trading card sheets to hold Holy Cards that I will need for this wreath. I have mentioned HERE, that we put our prayer cards on binder rings. That works best for us, because we love the portability of it all, but this works great for being able to view what I need and find it quickly. Some of the cards I even have multiples of, if the girls need 1.

This is my special gift to my Little Flower. I am collecting medals of each Saint we are studying in Wreath 1 and making her a charm bracelet that I will gift to her when the wreath is through. I plan on adding in crystal beads, rose charms and a variety of other things to chunk it up and make it looks sensational!

Our next meeting is on Tuesday and we begin with Virtue #1 and our first Saint is St. Catherine of Siena. This is the print out I THINK I will have for the girls (I have changed it 100 times!) and I plan to share the full meeting in next weekend's Sunday School post but wanted to share what I had so far. From the print out, they cut out each section and then create their own 'St. Page' as they listen to a story I read from a children's saint book. The page includes a Saint Coloring sheet, picture of St. Catherine, a print out of the Memory Verse and a prayer and reflection sheet. These can all be found using a simple Google Search.

Once again, over at Office Max you can have your Little Flower Member manual unbound and coiled for less than 4.00 and now it's easier to use and it looks so much nicer!

I absolutely love this quote!! Enjoy every minute my friends!

All posts in the Sunday School meme can be found HERE!

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Words on Wednesday

New books are my weakness, I love them too much to say no. The written word has power over me and I am glad to say that it does the same for my children. Tomorrow's post will have a list of all the books we bought last weekend and this week and what came in our Amazon order.

The kids started their new book for bookclub. HOLES by Louis Sachar and my daughter finished the same day she got it, but Gabriel is another story. We are reading a few chapters a day together and I notice my youngest always come in to snuggle and listen. A part of me thinks that he could read it all on his own, but he wants the snuggles and likes listening to me read. Autumn comes in too, because she loves hearing how I read the book, she says she never pictured the people's voices sounding like that! LOL! Do you still read to your kids? Never stop, they love it!

Crochet class #3 was granny squares, she already has 5 done and is in the process of making a scarf for a sick neighbor. She is not happy with how misshapen they are, but I told her that I love them and nothing is perfect, that's what makes them special.

As I cleaned out the closet of the classroom, I found some old waldorf type learning materials and the memories came flooding back as to how small they really were, where does that time go?

Why is it that kids absolutely love being outdoors? I am freezing just looking out the window, but they could be out there all day and every day. This photo was taken at the beginning of winter, now the snow has covered the slide that goes off the back porch and they love sliding down it and then filling it with snow again...I will admit that I did it too!

Enjoy every minute my friends...

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