TMI- Too Much Info!

Information Overload!  Curriculum Chaos!  Busy Bees!  That pretty much describes what's been happening in our schooling!  I may have expected too much out of my kids this school year.  I found great unit studies and curriculum last year to use for this school year.  Our days were packed full and very busy.  I found myself becoming a slave to the curriculum.  "The lesson plan says we have to do this, so we have to do it!"  One by one unit studies began falling away.  School wasn't fun for any of us for a while.  We've pruned away many things and scaled back on some.  School is so much more enjoyable to teach and for the kids to learn!  Every subject doesn't need to be taught everday!!!   For now, we've dropped our Expedition Earth program.  We have a history class at the library we attend every week and geography is a huge part of that.  I found that we were really duplicating assignments and projects with the 2 curriculum.  Now we really put a lot of focus into our History Hideaways class.  More projects, more assignments, more fun!  I took over the curriculum writing for that class a couple months ago.  It's been time consuming and challenging at times but I enjoy it.  I find things that fit all learning styles as well so everyone in the class benefits.  This is also why I haven't blogged anything for a while. First, we were just too busy (my fault!) and then I was busy with the history stuff. 

I've had a note taped to my computer screen for over a month that says, "Update blog".  I'm finally doing that!  One more thing checked off the list!  I hope to keep updating on a regular basis but it may end up not being so regular! 

Sometimes Less really is More!

Expedition Earth-India

We traveled to India in our Expedition Earth unit!

Here are the activities we did in India:

*India map
*Flag of India
*Learned our names and some words in Hindi
*Learned about several festivals
* Made stone inlay boxes
*Read several stories from India
*Made a lotus flower
*Tried Bollywood dancing
*Listened to Bollywood music
*Learned about the significance of the peacock in Indian Art
*Made a peacock souvenir pin

 Peacock Souvenir Pin with lots of sparkle like the Bollywood outfits!

Matthew's box

Faith's box

Lotus Flower card

Updates tonight!

I have gotten very busy and have not updated in over a month!  I will be updating with several posts tonight!  So hang tight, readers!

Playing Catch-Up

It seems we have gotten extremely busy!  This week and last we have been trying to catch up with everything.  I wonder if we're not doing enough each day or have too much scheduled.  When I did my lesson planning, I planned for the entire school year, but I didn't leave room for things to come up- Field trips/ classes/ fun activities/ etc.  I'm thinking I may need to replan my year with built in catch up days.  I will be posting a few Expedition Earth posts as well as some others in the next couple days. 

Expedition Earth- Japan

We finished Japan last week.  I'm a bit behind in posting but will get caught up soon!


This is what we did for Japan:

*Located Japan on the map and found the capital city
*Mapping worksheet
*Flag worksheet
*Learned about Zen gardens and created our own tabletop Zen garden
*Learned about the Children's Festival (boy's festival) and The Doll's festival (girl's festival)
* Made a Samurai Warrior doll and a Japanese Lady doll
*Watched Discovering Asia- Japan DVD
*Learned some origami
*Had Yakitori and Japanese sponge cake for dinner
*Read several stories about Japan and read Flat Stanley's World Adventures- The Ninja Surprise.

Our Zen garden.  I purchased everything at the Dollar Tree for a total of $3.  We made a little rake out of cardboard but it didn't work too well.  When we were at the dollar store again today we found a Zen garden kit complete with rake for only $1! 

Samurai Warrior doll for The Children's festival.

Our Origami duck.  Construction paper isn't the best paper to use for origami!!

This is what the origami ducks were supposed to be like.  Ours were close :)

Yakitori- Skewered grilled chicken with a sweet sauce and green onions.  This isn't my picture.  I forgot to take a picture of ours and we ate it before I realized I was supposed to take a picture!

Japanese sponge cake made with eggs, sugar, honey and flour.  Very simple and yummy!

Japanese Sake (rice wine as it is sometimes referred to in the states).  It tasted like a cross between wine and vodka.  It was used in the sauce of the yakitori.

Finally we made a Kimono pin for our souvenir suitcase!

National Novel Writing Month- The young writers program

Just found out about this great site!  November is National Novel Writing Month and this site http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/ teaches kids (and adults!) how to write a novel in 30 days.  They will even publish your book for free!   The lesson plans look pretty good.  I just skimmed a few, but I think I will be adding these to our curriculum.

This info is from freelyeducate.com :

For Young Writers: Free Workbooks, Free Snail Mail Goodies, and Free Publishing of Your Novel!

NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) has a Young Writers Program for students 17 years old and younger.  Even better, they have a lot of great freebies (virtual and physical ones) to give away to all of us.

What is NaNoWriMo?

"It is a fun, seat-of-your-pants novel writing event where the challenge is to write an entire novel in just 30 days. That means participants begin writing November 1 and must finish by midnight, November 30. The word-count goal for our adult program is 50,000 words, but our Young Writers Program allows participants who are 17 years old and younger to set reasonable, yet challenging, word-count goals."

Ready for the challenge?  Start with these freebies:
Free Workbooks (digital download):
Before NaNoWriMo, if you would like to teach your students what a novel is all about and how to write one, download one of the three "non-lame" workbooks .  (I downloaded all three books: elementary, middle school and high school safely)
Free Classroom Noveling Kit (in your snail mail!)

On the Educators' Page you'll find free lesson plans and other resources, but be sure to notice the free classroom noveling kit for classes of ten or more students.  The classroom noveling kit contains buttons, stickers, and a progress report.  It will be shipped to your mailing address.
Free Publishing
On this page, you'll see a couple of offers of "free publishing" to children with completed manuscripts.
How to Get this Freebie:  Visit the NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program site to learn more.
Limited Time Offer:  Remember, NaNoWriMo begins November 1st!

Expedition Earth- South Korea

Annyeong!  (hello!)  This week we traveled to Korea!  Here is what we did this week!



*Located Korea on the map and the capital
*Completed a mapping activity and flag worksheet
*Listened to Korean Folk music
*Read about a day in the life of an average Korean kid
*Lapbook activities
*Talked about some animals in Korea
*Read about the Finless porpoise and watched videos on them
*Played Kawi Pawi Po (Scissors, rock, paper)
*Celebrated Korean Lunar New Year- Sul, did the traditional bows and received Bokjumoni (gift purse with money and sweets).
*Learned names and words in Korean
*Learned about the women divers of Jeju island.
*Made our souvenir pins
*Ended with a traditional Korean dinner

Playing Kawi Pawi Po (Scissors, rock, Paper)  Korean children use this game when walking home from school.  The loser has to carry everyone's books and backpacks!

We learned our names in Korean as well as some other words- hello, goodbye, please and thank you.

These are the traditional bows done by children to their elders during Sul, The Korean Lunar New Year.  The children honor their elders with a bow then are given Bokjumoni (gift purse) filled with money and candy.

This is our Bokjumoni.  Each bag had $1 and mini marshmallows in it.  I forgot to buy candy and this is what we had in the pantry! :)


To end our journey to Korea, we ate Bulgogi- Korean BBQ beef.  We also had some Korean cookies and dessert.

The green cup on the left is filled with chocolate filled squares, the little mushrooms are cookies with a chocolate top, on the right are sweetened puffed rice rolls, on top left is drinkable yogurt and Aloe Vera juice.  It sounds weird but was actually really good!  It was just Aloe vera juice, aloe vera pulp and sugar.  It tasted very fruity!

This is the drinkable yogurt.  These are used mostly as a dessert.  They are only about  3 inches tall.  Very yummy!

 Our souvenir pins for our suitcases are clay vases with bamboo.

Next stop on our global journey is Japan!