Christopher Columbus

Over the weekend I recieved an email from The Old Schoolhouse's Teacher's Toolbox newsletter. Posted, big and in front was a link stating that we could get a FREE unit study/lapbook from In The Hands of A Child.

I was excited about that because I have always heard great things about their products but never tried them. I quickly downloaded my copy and then decided that we would do nothing but that Unit Study and Math for the next two weeks.

Well we started today and the girls loved it!!

I prepped on Sunday by printing out the entire teacher portion of the download so that I could have something tangible. I made divisions on the lesson plans of sorts so that I would know what information we were going to cover on each day.

Then I printed out the pages for our first day.

This study is set up pretty well. The information that you read to the children is gives great detail but gives not so much that the child gets lost in all of the facts.

I also LOVED that there was a book list included with some great titles including Where Do You Think You Are Going Christopher Columbus? by Jean Fritz, If You Were There in 1492 by Barbara Brenner and A Picture Book of Christopher Columbus by David Adler. I chose one of the books for myself to read so that I could get some solid background information and I couldn't put that book down!!! All but a couple I was able to locate at our local library. Yay!!!

 Great selections.

A few things that I like about this product is how they have an easier assignment and a slightly harder one for you to choose from. The difference would be more writing and more information to remember and record for the olders while the youngers have the information already given Mom just needs to choose between tracer letters or bold pre-printed letters. I like that all the clip art for this particular study is in black and white. I honestly hate using so much colored ink on one project. Vocabulary is included and the word choices are great! The book list is great, as previously mentioned and the organized yet not cookie cutter plans. You can use this to fit YOU!!

So, if you are wanting to study about Christopher Columbus (we celebrate his day on the 11th) then check out Teacher's Toolbox today!!!

Oh, and if you hop on over to In the Hands of a Child you will see that they have their Thanksgiving study marked down from $18 to $5 this week only!!

Lovin' Learnin'

Revolutionary War Links

We have been slowly going through the birth of our country for history this year and have enjoyed it immensely. We have now made it up to the time of the Revolution. I personally have been touched at the dedication that the men of our past gave to their new country. Reading about this time will put into perspective the great price that was paid by humble men to gain our Independance. Oh that we strive to love our country as they did.

 

In our reading today we were instructed to find maps and locate particular cities where major battles were fought. I found some great websites and wanted to share some with you all here. I hope that you find them useful.

 

• This site has an interactive Revolutionary  battle map, timeline, Revolution activities and more!!
• This site has an awesome interactive map that shows victories in two different colors.
• Here is an extensive timeline with clickable links to learn more about specific events. More for the older set.
• This place has a map of the original 13 colonies, the land clamied by Great Britian and Spain as well. It's set up kind of reminded me of Wikipedia but for children.
• A neat game called the Road to Revolution can be found here. By correctly answering questions surrounding the war you make your way towards liberty. Other great resources on that PBS page as well.
• Check out some free streaming videos. Not all are great quality but still watchable.
• More maps. Beautiful maps of early America.
• Information on major events of this time period here.

 

I'm sure that there are tons more sites out there, these are just a few of the ones we found.

 

Lovin' Learnin'

Homeschool Freebie of the Day

GOLDEN DEEDS: Picture Stories of Heroes from History for Little Readers (PDF ebook) - Today's resource is this great little collection of one page retellings of heroic and unusual stories from throughout history, well illustrated for younger readers. Included are the stories of Horatius at the Bridge, Catherine Douglas, William Tell, Damon & Pythias, Casabianca, and several more.

I read through a couple of these stories and they seem to be pretty well done! They are quite short so they would be perfect for little ones. I think my four year old son would enjoy some of them! I hope that you all can use this!