The History Of Halloween and Pilgrim Virtual Field Trip

I have a lot to share in one little post. I don't want anyone to miss anything they might want to use in their educational adventures. If you go to Scholastic, you can sign up for a free Thanksgiving virtual tour with educational resources. The first tour is Wed Nov 2nd, so I am sharing the link so you can sign up in time. We did it last year too, but the link didn't work great and they have added more stuff and updated the tour. They will send you email reminders so you don't miss any episodes.

Monday is of course Halloween. While I do not consider Halloween a holiday many people refer to it as such. Have you ever wondered why Halloween is even celebrated? The History Channel has put together an awesome show so you can find out. You can view it below or Tivo it Oct 31st at 10 PM on the History Channel.

One more Tivo alert, Nov 7th at 6 AM the History Channel will be having a documentary to cover Veteran's Day, called The True Story of Veterans Day. There is a teacher's guide that goes along with the documentary, but it is a pdf file that I am not sure I am supposed to share. But, you could go to the History Channel website and get the teacher guide there. We will be doing this one as well.

We have been learning about pumpkins lately. Those of you who are used the themed units then you know that there are a ton of different ways to cover a topic. We have painted on pumpkins, learned how pumpkins grow, looked at some pumpkin recipes, made pumpkin crafts and coloring pages. I want to make homemade pumpkin pie but I am not optimistic that this is something I can achieve. If anyone knows of a super easy homemade pumpkin pie recipe for a novice please share it with me.

Happy Saturday, everyone.

History Of Halloween

If you have a child in elementary school, then you know a big part of their education is about our American holidays. While Halloween is not what I define as a holiday it is celebrated like one. The video below explains the history of Halloween. Both my kids will watch this, and then just a short discussion. We are also continuing with our learning of places around the world and Canada is our current topic. To see some cool videos about Canada you can find them in my archives. We will be making a Canadian flag tomorrow, and finishing up with other facts about Canada. DJ also has his other history lessons. By the way anyone who didn't read on my Facebook page DJ got elected to be club photographer at his very first 4H meeting. He is very excited. It was a beautiful day at the park for our playdate today. I love the weather this time of year.

Lesson Plans For 10/13/10:

DJ:
Social Studies: Story of the World Ancient Times chapter 5 with worksheets, plus above
Math: Multiplication, rounding numbers, and problem solving
Spelling: Chapter 5 write each word three times each
Map Skills

Caitlin:
Social Studies: As above, and she is starting map skills
Math: Addition with number line
Language Arts: Blends pr, short vowels, beginning sounds
Finding Words in Pictures: Worksheet
Spelling List 5
Printing Practice
Clock work, calendar work, sight words, skip counting