Winter Holidays

Winter Celebrations - well, seriously this is about Christmas, Hanakkuh, Yule and Kwanzaa. Since they are all very similar and I'm trying to teach my kids about the major religions in the world I decided to make a Lap book containing them all - which means it's a huge lapbook (it took 5 file folders as it was essentially 4 lapbooks combined into one..lol). Again there was no real pre=packaged lapbook that included them all so here's what I came up with...
*We had a KWL Printable for each Holiday: "what I Know, what I Want to know, what I Learned"
Christmas - Facts about the holiday. We focused on "The Night Before Christmas" book as well as "The 12 Days of Christmas Song" (as this ties in with Yule.) -- Origin of the 12 Days song ; Christian Associations for each of the 12 items in the 12 Days of Christmas ; 12 Days Clip Art; 12 Days activity sheets (we used page 6 to draw and write about the origins of the song); The Night Before Christmas lap book.
Hanukkah - Facts & Explanations. we learned about the 8 nights with 8 lights, then we read the book "The Trees fo the Dancing Goats" where a Jewish family helps their Christian neighbors have a happy Christmas (showing diveristy is wonderful!) the lapbook to go with the story is here. Songs worksheets(Dreidel, Spin, Spin, Spin; Hanukkah) Hanakkuh research printable/Hanakkuh Writing Prompt ; OH we made the background with white plain paper and did potato prints on them.
Kwanzaa - Facts about the holiday. printables ; explanation of the symbols; clip art; Kwanzaa Poem ; Poem; peom 3; kwanzaa song; We also read the "My First Kwanzaa Book"
Yule - For a history we used an article I had written for associated content...Yule Symbols explained; some yule (as well as some Christmas) clipart, clipart2, Yule Prayers 1, 2, 3, 4, Yule Carols, a yule story I wrote was also put into the lap book.

Veterans Day Lapbook

Jeez, I just can't seem to stop..lol...I think Lapbooks are more addicting for adults than kids!
Depending on where you are Veterans day is celebrated today or tomorrow. So I thought I'd gather some printables for everyone...

What are you using?

• Awesome Comprehensive site
• Older Printables
• Poetry/Learning about the day
• Crafts, Worksheets & Booklets
• Vietnam Wall memorial (history & worsheet, upper elementary)
• Veterans Day - Fact or Opinion sheet
• Veterans day comprehension sheet (upper elementary)
• edHelper Veterans Day
• teach-nology Veterans Day Unit
• clipart, more crafts, lessons & units
• Patriotic Coloring Pages
• Research Site - this is great for those older kids who are set to investigate a topic onling on their own.
• History of the National Anthem.
  
  Here's My Lapbook Printables for Veterans Day!!

Colonial Times

The books we have to support our Colonial Times/Thanksgiving lapbook (I made a mini book for each one)..are:
If You Lived in Colonial Times by Ann McGovern (1992, Scholastic Inc)
Why We Have Thanksgiving by Margaret Hillert (1982, Modern Curriculum Press)
Hands on History: Projects About Colonial Life by Marian Broida (2004 Marshall Cavendish Corp)
The North American Native Americans by Ernest Berke (1963, Lithograph for the Library of Congress)

To support these books and include them in our Thanksgiving Lapbooks, I made 2 mini books ...They can be used as research tools...or whatever; essentially one asks questions about the colonial times, one asks about the colonists...Check out Shannon's Colonial Times Minibooks...

Other great adds to your Thanksgiving Lapbooks:

• We're doing our lapbook, as well as several crafts that I've listed before - like making a quill pen and felt hats and such......
• Various links - this site (toward the bottom) has an archive of some great printables for thanksgiving.
• Dr. Pat's Pilgrim Coloring Pages
• Homeschool Helper - always a great lapbooking resource with some worksheets as well as templates.
• Homeschool Share - my favorite lapbooking resource
• Enchanted Learning - the best collection of Thanksgiving printables I've found!

Yule

Well, we tend to take it easy homeschooling between November and New Years. We spend almost all our time making gifts and running around. Furthermore, as many of you know, we celebrate an alternative faith system. So we celebrate the ancient holiday of Yule upon which many of our modern traditions were based. Here's my Yule Lapbook!

Kwanzaa

Kwanzaa Lapbook Tidbits


I'm working on making a giant lapbook of all the major celebrations during this season (as I've said before). Above is the Yule portion of that lapbook, here's the Kwanzaa portion...