Thanksgiving Web Quest

I like to begin my Thanksgiving activities by reading Turkey Trouble!  We usually do this a week or two before Thanksgiving.  Then, I send home Tom Turkey.  This is a family project that I have the students do.  They have to disguise Tom so he won't be eaten and then write about his plan to escape.

When I send home the letter to the parents, I also send home a turkey template and this writing template.

This year I decided to make a web quest for our Thanksgiving activities and I really loved it!  My initial idea was to just have the students use the Blendspace that I create and go at their own pace.  However, I later decided that we would do it together.  I projected the Blendspace and we went through it an activity at a time.  I made a Thanksgiving packet with some coloring pages and other Thanksgiving themed activities for the students to do while waiting on others to finish activities.

Click the image to purchase my Thanksgiving Web Quest!

Here are some of the activities that we did:

• Making a Thanksgiving journal
• Creating headbands 
• Watching short movie clips
• Comparing Thanksgivings
• Reading articles
• Making Mayflower munchies snack bags
• Making Native American pictographs
• Answering questions about the first Thanksgiving
• Going on a virtual tour of the first Thanksgiving and the Mayflower
• Doing a comparing sort
• Making a word cloud
• Writing an acrostic poem
• Creating a Pilgrim journal of the Mayflower voyage

Click here to purchase my whole Thanksgiving unit!

Day of the Dead Update

It has been awhile since I have blogged, so I thought it was about time to get back into it.  Dia de los Muertos is one of my favorite holidays to teach about!  Since my original Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead post I have made a few changes.

Here are some of the changed:

• I have created a Day of the Dead presentation.
• I also have the students make paper versions of an ofrenda.
• I bring in cookies with skeletons on them.
• I do skeleton color by numbers.
• I have added some new videos.

If you want to really go all out, you can dress up!  Our school does positive book character day around this time, so I dress up as Maria in "A Book of Life". 

You can purchase this unit at my TPT store.

'Tis the Season

'Tis the season to be JOLLY!  I love Christmas time.  It is my favorite time of the year.  Decorating Christmas trees, celebrating the birth of Jesus, Christmas treats, buying presents I can't get enough.  It does have its down side though…Christmas pictures.  I have a very unique family.  I have two 15 year old boys that I am adopting.  I also have two girls (8 and 4) that I fostered for 14 months that I still consider family.  You can imagine the nightmare of trying to get everyone dressed, happy, and smiling at the same time!  When the 4 year old was smiling the boys weren't.  It took forever, but we eventually finished and they turned out great.  Oh and I forgot to mention, I didn't have anyone there to take the pictures so we were using the 10 second timer!

To make this I bought some chipboard letters and scrapbook paper at Hobby Lobby.  Then, I bought the bell at the Dollar Tree for $1.  I traced the letters onto the paper and used Modge Podge to glue the paper to the letters.  Last, I hot glued the bell to the "O" and this is the outcome!  The inspiration for this came from http://brittanyestes.com/2013/12/15-diy-christmas-decorations.html.

This candle holder was so simple.  I added the festive candles and then put in some light Christmas bulbs and sparkling balls.

Here I took a strand of lights and just tied fabric in knots all down it.  This was inspired by http://www.topinspired.com/top-10-last-minute-diy-christmas-decorations/.  I tried using burlap but it kept coming apart so I just used fabric.

For this centerpiece, I found candles of all different sizes.  I put them in a bowl and arranged them randomly (the bigger the bowl the better).  Then, I just added bells, Christmas bulbs, sparkling balls, and rope garland.  This page inspired this centerpiece.

I got this vase at Dollar Tree for $1.  In case you can't tell I LOVE that place.  I added a candle and some sparkling balls.  Super cheap and easy.

The Finished Product

Reusing Wedding Items!

Like many of you, I have boxes of stuff from my wedding that I just can bare to part with.  I have been married now for 4 years and this box of stuff just sits in my garage.  I probably will never do anything with it, but I can't bring myself to get rid of it.  I decided to find some way to put some of it to good use.

At my wedding I had these really cute kids' tables.  I would recommend that everyone have tables just for the kids because they stay occupied all night.  My husband made these little sandboxes that we put in the middle of the table.

It felt like a shame to just let these boxes go to waste so I created shadow boxes out of them and they turned out amazing!  First, I painted them.  Then, I hot glued some fabric in the background.  Last, I just decorated them they way that I wanted to.

On the adult table, I had vases with flowers and vases with candles in the center.

I used some of the flowers to make a wreath for my door.