Making A Spinner

A lot of the games on my blog use a spinner. If you don't have one, here is how I made mine.

First I took a scrap piece of wood and a nail. I had this spinner face that we were using at the time (yes, this spinner is probably 14 years old). I stapled the spinner face to the piece of wood then pounded the nail in at the center of the face.

Next, cut an arrow out of a piece of construction paper and tape or glue it to a large paper clip. The other end of the paper clip slips easily over the nail and freely rotates for spinning.

When you need a different spinner face for another game, just make a small hole and slip it over the nail (take the paper clip off first, then put it back on).

To work the spinner, place one finger on top of the nail and flick the pointer/paper clip with your other hand. If the pointer lands on a line, sometimes we spin again, and sometimes we add the two numbers together -- depending on the game.

School Break Goals

I've made charts with goals that I want K. and myself to accomplish each week during our winter break. Some of the goals are: drinking 6 glasses of water a day, reading a new book each week, completing a sewing project each week, and doing an exercise video four times during the week. Some are chores that need to be done. Some are things I want K. to start doing (like brushing her hair). Some are things I want to remember to do (like watching BJU's archived webinars).

At the end of each week we see who has the FEWEST boxes completed on their chart. That person has to put $1 in a jar. On the first day of first grade we will take the money and treat ourselves at Golden Spoon.

Bible Memory Verses

God gave me this really good idea: Read the passages we are going to memorize next year during our winter break.

As I thought about this, I realized that reading each passage once a week for nine weeks will make K. so familiar with the passages that when it is time to memorize them it will probably be easier.

Kindergarten, Book Study, Week 42

This week we finished reading A Bear Called Paddington and started reading Margaret Pumphrey's Pilgrim Stories. We also recited Psalm 62:5-8, and played Fast Track and Egg Carton Tales.

Friday evening we celebrated K.'s kindergarten graduation with  family dinner. After the dinner I awarded her a Kindergarten Diploma and an Award of Merit certificate and ribbon for her memorization work. After that we went to Marie Callender's for pie.

Here are some activities you can do to expand on the book Pilgrim Stories (these are just from the first chapter):

• Read/learn more about Robin Hood
• Geography: England, Sherwood Forest, Scrooby, Holland
• Find out about Scrooby Manor
• Learn more about King James and Queen Anne
• What did the separatists believe?
• Play Hide-and-Seek
• Play Drop the Handkerchief
• Draw a picture
• Scrooby Manor's garden
• The Queen's carriage
• A rose
• The church service in the barn

Kindergarten, Bible, Week 41

This week we:

• Reviewed Psalm 62:5-8
• Reviewed Catechism (3 days)
• Read Stories 261 - 270 in Picture Story Bible
• Other books, stories, and videos:
• Boys and Toys from Storytime . . . Millers
• Red Boots from Other Lands
• Mrs. R-P and the Chocolate Cherry Treat
• The Princess and the Kiss
• Prayer
• It is interesting, K. has started her own prayer journal in a small notebook she got at a birthday party.
• Song: He Keeps Me Singing

Kindergarten, Writing, Week 41

Practice "Sentence": And talk of God who cares for me.

• I thought K. would need 2 lines to write it, but she wanted to write it on 1 line. The first day "for me" was really squished. But she learned to write everything skinnier so it would all fit nicely on the line.

Small Muscle Development:

• Activity: Say It With Pictures, see Writing, Week 9 for instructions
• Our theme was Thanksgiving

Story Development:

• Activity: Strange Sentences, from Games for Writing -- this game gives children the opportunity to compose nonsensical sentences while helping them understand the grammatical anatomy of common sentences.
• You'll Need: a Strange Sentences Chart, and a Spinner with numbers 1 - 6, paper, pencil
• In the book are charts with sentences broken up into pieces (Who/What, Did What, Where, When, and Punctuation). Each chart has six sentences.
• How to Play:
• Have your child flick the spinner.
• It it lands on 3, then you take the Who/What from sentence number three.
• Spin again.
• What ever number it lands on, you take the Did What from that sentence.
• Continue spinning a getting the sentence parts until you have the complete sentence.
• Let your child illustrate the sentence and tell you a story about it.
• Our sentence was: My cat lost a part in the barn during lunch!

Writing Practice:

• Activity: Traveling Words, see Writing, Week 28 for instructions
• The shape to write on was an autumn leaf

Kindergarten, Reading, Week 41

The genres from our textbook were:

• Informational article
• Poem
• Fiction

Activity: Oops, see Reading, Week 37 for instructions

Kindergarten, Math, Week 41

Monday

• Fractions: One-Fourth
• Practiced with manipulative "cookies". I put four cookies on a plate and asked her what part had blue frosting. She would write the answer.
• Then we switched and I wrote a fraction and she demonstrated it with the cookies.

Tuesday

• Calculator: Subtraction
• I wrote out 10 equations and had K. use the calculator to solve them and then write the answer.

Wednesday

• Fractions: Review

Thursday

• Game: Shape Lotto, see Math, Week 19 for instructions

Friday

• Problem Solving: Graphs
• We made a line graph of the temperatures from our weather journal in science
• Game: Three Pots, see Math Week 19 for instructions
• We finished early, and K. asked if we could play this game.

Kindergarten, History, Week 41

• Child's History chapter 42 (New Places -- New Heroes)
• There so were many laws in the Eastern Roman Empire that they contradicted each other
• Justinian made just laws
• Justinian got the secret of how to make silk cloth from China
• King Arthur was ruling in England
• Finished Squanto, Friend of the White Men
• Read books about Veteran's Day, the Erie Canal, and the Statue of Liberty

Kindergarten, Science, Week 41

• Read Down Comes the Rain by Franklyn M. Branley
• Kept a weather journal
• Recorded the temperature at 8 am each day (I wanted to do 8, 12, 4, and 7, but we kept forgetting all the other times except for 8:00, so by Thursday I decided to forget the other times.)
• Recorded what the sky looked like (clear, wispy clouds, cloudy, etc)
• We discovered that when the sky was covered with clouds, it was warmer because the clouds act like a sweater for the earth and keep the warm air from escaping.

Thanksgiving

Here are my favorite books to read for Thanksgiving:

• The Thanksgiving Story by Alice Dalgliesh
• Three Young Pilgrims by Cheryl Harness
• Pilgrims to the Rescue by Wilma Pitchford Hays
• Squanto's Journey by Joseph Bruchac
• Squanto, Friend of the White Men by Clyde Robert Bulla
• If you Sailed on The Mayflower in 1620 by Ann McGovern
• Stories of the Pilgrims by Margaret B. Pumphrey
• This book is also published under the title Margaret Pumphrey's Pilgrim Stories. The first was revised and edited by Michael J. McHugh, this second was revised and expanded by Elvajean Hall.
• The Landing of the Pilgrims by James Daugherty

This year I sorta went crazy getting Thanksgiving books from the library. It bothered me that so many of the books' main theme was saving turkeys from being killed or had a main character who was a vegetarian. Here are my thoughts about each book:

• Easy Reader / Picture Books
• Mousekin's Thanksgiving by Edna Miller -- cute story about a turkey that takes a mouse's stashes of food, then when it snows the turkey digs us the food and share with all the animals.
• Sheriff Sally Gopher and the Thanksgiving Caper by Robert Quackenbush -- we didn't even get half way through this book. K. and I decided it was really boring.
• Henry and Mudge Under the Yellow Moon by Cynthia Rylant -- the first story is about autumn, and is good. The third story is about an aunt coming to visit and is fine. The second story is about Henry's mother telling ghost stories. The stories scare Henry, but the scare Mudge even more.
• Silly Tilly's Thanksgiving Dinner by Lillian Hoban -- a fun story that will make you laugh and can be read over and over
• A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving by Charles M. Schulz -- this comic strip style story teaches us to be thankful to just be together. K. really liked this book.
• Thanksgiving is Here! by Diane Goode -- a fun story about a family's Thanksgiving day with their extended family.
• I am the Turkey by Michele Sobel Spirn -- a fun story about a boy that is the turkey in his class' Thanksgiving play, the problems is causes him, and how he saves the program.
• Molly's Pilgrim by Barbara Cohen -- this one is a keeper. A story about modern day pilgrims. This is also a video.
• 'Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving by Dav Pilkey -- a story about children saving turkeys from being killed for Thanksgiving dinners
• The Peterkins' Thanksgiving adapted by Elizabeth Spurr -- this one is a keeper. A super fun story!! It will have to laughing!
• An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving by Louisa May Alcott -- my friend's copy of this book has small black and white illustrations, but this one was illustrated by James Bernardin and had wonderful full-page color illustrations. This one is a keeper.
• A Turkey for Thanksgiving by Eve Bunting -- a story about animals finding "a turkey for Thanksgiving", but it isn't what the turkey expects.
• Over the River: A Turkey's Tale by Derek Anderson -- full of fun and lively illustrations of the song by Lydia Maria Child
• Annie and Snowball and the Thankful Friends by Cynthia Rylant -- Annie wants a table full of guests for Thanksgiving. A good read.
• The Thanksgiving Door by Debby Atwell -- this one is a keeper. A story about an elderly couple who unintentionally crashes a family's Thanksgiving, but are welcomed and have a wonderful day.
• Turkey Bowl by Phil Bildner -- the Thanksgiving a boy and is friends are finally old enough to join in the family football game, it snows too hard for the extended family to come over. The kids decide they can have their own football game and there is a surprise ending.
• The Know-Nothings Talk Turkey by Michele Sobel Spirn -- this might be a keeper. It is another book that will have you and your children laughing.
• Thanksgiving on Plymouth Plantation by Diane Stanley -- children and their grandma travel back in time to Plymouth. It has good illustrations and teaches about the hardships endured by the Pilgrims.
• Chapter Books
• The Hoboken Chicken Emergency by D. Manus Pinkwater -- nonsensical but entertaining
• The Thanksgiving Visitor by Truman Capote -- not really a chapter book, but not a book for little kids to read. A good story about a boy that gets bullied and then his Aunt invites the bully to Thanksgiving dinner where the boy finds a way to get even with the bully, but it backfires. Lots to talk about with older children.
• The Thanksgiving Treasure by Gail Rock -- as a first response I would tell you that I liked this story because Addie makes a friend out of a family enemy. However, when I stop to really think about the story there are problems. First, the dad uses bad language, but I skipped over that. Second, Addie repeatedly disobeys her father and grandmother by riding her bike farther from town than she is supposed to.
• The Thanksgiving Day Parade Mystery by Marion M. Markham -- a fun story of twin girls helping to solve a mystery.
• Mayflower Treasure Hunt by Ron Roy -- a fun story about some kids solving a mystery that started on the Mayflower. Although the mystery is fictitious, it does teach about life on the Mayflower and at Plymouth.
• The Turkeys' Side of It by Janice Lee Smith -- Adam and his best friend are the turkeys in their class' Thanksgiving program. At the end of the program they and some other children, dressed at food also, have to do a dance. The rest of the class teases them, but in the end, the class rallies together and has fun with it.
• Thanksgiving Stories and Poems edited by Caroline Feller Bauer -- we didn't read the whole book, but we enjoyed what we did read
• Katie Kazoo Switcheroo: Don't Be Such a Turkey by Nancy Krulik -- we didn't finish reading this book. Katie gets switched into other people, but I didn't feel like it really taught anything about the Pilgrims.
• Books I didn't get around to reading
• Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew by Carolyn Keene
• Thanksgiving Turkey Trouble by Abby Klein
• Peanut-Butter Pilgrims by Judy Delton
• Needle and Thread by Ann M. Martin
• A Journey to the New World by Kathryn Lasky

Kindergarten, Bible, Week 40

This week we:

• Memorized Psalm 62:8
• Introduced Catechism #28: Did Adam obey God? No, Adam did not obey God. Genesis 3:6
• Reviewed Catechism (2 days)
• Read stories 250 - 260 in Picture Story Bible
• Other books, stories, videos:
• Going for a Visit from Storytime . . . Millers
• Just in Case You Ever Wonder
• She Changed Her Mind from Missionary Stories . . . Millers
• The Indians and the Cookies from Storytime . . . Millers
• My Heart, Christ's Home
• Prayer
• Song: He Keeps Me Singing

Kindergarten, Writing, Week 40

Practice "Sentence": It is so jolly to be alive

Small Muscle Development:

• Screw driver practice

Story Development:

• Activity: Halting Stories, see Writing, Week 17 for instructions

Writing Practice:

• Activity: Rhyme Time, see Writing, Week 19 for instructions

Kindergarten, Reading, Week 40

Genres from our textbook were:

• Poetry
• Biblical Fiction
• Fiction

Activity: Oops, see Reading, Week 37 for instructions

Kindergarten, Math, Week 40

Monday

• Fractions: One-Third
• Use manipulatives and stories to practice the concept of thirds
• Practice writing fractions
• When we first sat down to do this, K. had a cookie. I asked her to break it into 3 pieces. The pieces were not equal. We discussed that the cookie pieces were not thirds because they pieces were not the same size. She had 3 pieces, but not thirds.

Tuesday

• Calculator: Addition
• I wrote out 10 equations and had K. work them on the calculator and write down the answer.

Wednesday

• Fractions: One-Fourth
• Used manipulatives and stories to understand fourths.
• Worksheet to practice writing 1/4, 2/4, 3/4

Thursday

• Game: Location Words, see Math, Week 9 for instructions

Friday

• Problem Solving: Probability
• We played "1 Spinner" and "21 Marble Outcomes" (the old probability activity) at Johnnie's Math Page

Kindergarten, History, Week 40

This week we looked at and read:

• Ancient World pages 90 and 91
• Stranger on the Silk Road by Jessica Gunderson

Because we are essentially done with Ancient History, and Thanksgiving is this month we have started reading:

• Squanto, Friend of the White Men by Clyde Robert Bulla

Kindergarten, Science, Week 40

This week we read:

• Snow Is Falling by Franklyn Branley
• Looking at Weather and Seasons by Angela Royston
• Wind is to Feel by Shirley Cook Hatch
• We did the experiments in this book