November School

November was another great month of school. We of course added some Thanksgiving studies to our normal routine to celebrate a month of Thanks! We chose not to add any field trips to this already very busy month!

Here is a sample of our school in the Morgan household this month!

Pilgrim and Turkey shape matching:


Math games: Counting corn kernels into the right numbered dish.

and putting the correct number of feathers on a numbered turkey (we were especially working on 11-20 this month).
The kids had fun painting with pop corn as well!


We also made a "gratitude chain", writing things we were thankful for on each link.


This is just a cute photo of our morning school routine after breakfast. Gracie and Jake like to join in too.

For science this month we were learning about simple machines and the three forms of matter (solid, liquid, gas). Here Ben and Gracie are practicing making a lever out of baby food and cranberry sauce. :)

Here Luke and Ben practice pouring liquids and transferring them with a medicine dropper. I have found this to be a great activity to have the kids do while I prepare and cook meals. Jacob will sit in his high chair with a few Cherrios watching, and Luke, Ben and Gracie will pour water for 30-45 minutes and beg for more. It is a much faster cleanup than play dough or paint too!

The boys have had fun trying to figure out which items are in which category. After Thanksgiving I let them watch the old Frosty cartoon on DVD. Afterwards they told me, "Frosty was a solid, but he melted into a liquid!" :) I love how school saturates every aspect of our lives, who knew Frosty could be such a good example of scientific principles!

We also made some home made bird food and put it on our fence. We saw a few birds try it out, but we think squirrels probably ate most of the food!

Gracie is practicing some of her school activities. I found the cutest bowl/spoon sets at the dollar store. I got a set of three (pink, blue, green) ice cream bowls and spoons for a dollar! The kids love them for treats, but they are great for fine motor transfer activities too! :) Gracie is begging to do school all the time. When Jeff's parents were visiting last week the boys were practicing their reading with Grandma and Grandpa. Gracie did not want to be left out, so she pulled out the Bob books and started pretending to sound out words. "M.....A.....T" with the biggest smile.

We had fun using cookie cutters to cut out shapes with jellied cranberry sauce. The kids also helped me make pies and cranberry bread for our Thanksgiving meal.


We read so many great Thanksgiving books this month. Here is a list of our favorites!
Cranberry Thanksgiving by Wende and Harry Devlin (amazing cranberry bread recipe in back of this favorite book!!!)
How Many Days to America by Eve Bunting
The Thanksgiving Story by Alice Dalgliesh
A Thanksgiving Turkey by Julian Scheer
Pilgrim Cat by Carol Antoinette Peacock
Samuel Eaton's Day, Tapenum's Day, Sarah Morton's Day, all by Kate Waters
(this is a series that shares what life would be like for a pilgrim boy/girl, and Wampanoag boy).

Instead of a field trip, the kids helped me go shopping for items for a canned food drive our church was having.

My fridge seemed to be full of Thanksgiving art work this month. This was my favorite artwork by far! Thanksgiving Turkey hands of Thanks.

It was a fun, full month of learning.