Giving Thanks

Here are my little Indians. I have some grocery paper bags that we will be making vests out of later this week. Our homeschool association is having a Thanksgiving Banquet, and we are going to go dressed as Native Americans. If I have time I am going to try to make Bella an indian dress...directions found here...Free download "Be an Indian Easy Dress up for thanksgiving"
http://www.joyoushome.com/holworkshops/day1ae/squaw.pdf

This month in school our unit study is Thanksgiving. We have been reading about Pilgrims and why they left their homeland to come to a new world. We've studied about Native Americans and what their lifestyle was like back then, and how they helped the pilgrims survive and taught them how to plant and hunt in better ways. And our character traits we are studying are being "thankful" and "giving". I hope to finish it all up with a lapbook to keep around for years to come. I look forward to posting pictures of it when we finish.

This is a cool tradition I hope that sticks with our family...Thanks and Giving Trees http://chocolateonmycranium.blogspot.com/2008/10/thanks-and-giving.html

One of my favorite blogs has great resources listed from doing a Thanksgiving LB last year...most of what we are doing is found from looking at her blog about it. So instead of listing out exactly what we are doing...here is her blog. Check it out...it is awesome!
http://1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com/2007/11/thanksgiving-lapbook.html

Also...my new find of the week (thanks Kim!!!) that I am so excited about is this site:
http://www.writingwizard.longcountdown.com/handwriting_practice_worksheet_maker.html
It lets you custom make any handwriting practice words, or phrases...
James had his own Thanksgiving themed sheet custom made with even his name to trace. Check it out.

Here are some pictures throughout our week.

This is Mark and James making a bow...arrows to come later I guess. :) We had a bonfire and Mark chopped down a small tree and began to whittle away. I don't have a picture of the finished project but I hope to remember to take one and post it later. It looks so cool! James is so proud of it. Now he wants to go hunting...I don't think it's deer worthy, but it will be fun to pretend. As I write this they are out camping on Mark's dads land. He loves to camp with Daddy and Poppy.

We took a much needed break to the sand park one day. We went on a nature walk to collect leaves for a craft...of course, I forgot to take pictures of all that. But here James was sitting down on the merry go round as I was pushing, and Bella walked over to him, turned around, sat in his lap and leaned back. She loves him so! James has his protector face on here.
Life is like a box of chocolates.....she has a leaf in her hand and she is so engrossed!
Here are my little Indians. I have some grocery paper bags that we will be making vests out of later this week. Our homeschool association is having a Thanksgiving Banquet, and we are going dressed as Native Americans.
Bella loves to sit and look through books. Rarely will she sit long enough in your lap to read, but she will sit by herself for long periods of time.

Here is a shot of the start of a school day. We review the calendar, what day it is, the date. We sing the days of the week, months of the year songs. And then we do our weather observations. We also do this in our Coop class, so I put all this on a Display board, so it is portable.

James working on his "T" is for Turkey Craft page.
James is having Daddy time camping tonight, so Bella, my mom, and I had girl time and visited my Grandad Eby. My aunt and uncle were also in town, so we had a great family time catching up.