This is our first year learning about Independence day… so we are going rather topical and trying to see a broad picture and get a handle on a holiday that is 100% new to us! We had 3 different files we used… Currclick has a great speedy lapbook from homeschool bits HERE. It is just 1.00. We also used Gift of Curiosity’s site HERE. The Simple Homeschool also has a file we found a while ago. You can access their site HERE. Lulu Marketplace also has a freebie HERE.

Helpful printables:

• Activity Village has a selection of printables etc on their site HERE.
• Lots of great stuff on Lapbook Lessons HERE.
• Mini book with DLTK HERE.
• I have a collection on Education.com for Independence Day HERE. I will rate all the ones I use before  the end of our unit.
• A free file from 2 Teaching Mommies HERE.
• LapbookLessons is also very helpful HERE.
• Maps on Free US and World Maps.com HERE.
• Cute journalling pages thanks to Education to the Core HERE.

Crafts:

• The Little Sewing Shop has a way to make your own firework like thing HERE.
• We made flag fans by decorating paper and then doing an accordion fold before stapling the base.
• I cannot find the instructions anymore, but we made fireworks on paper using paint, a plastic lid and a hammer… you put globs of paint on the paper (we used poster board), place a plastic lid on top of it and smack it with a hammer… SPLAT firework!
• We made patriotic shakers (well they would have been if the kids had stuck with red white and blue)… two plastic cups, with beads inside, use a coloured masking tape to tape them together and decorate with stickers. Thanks to Lakeshore Learning store for that free craft! (HERE is the store site)

Books:

• Independence Day by Helen Frost HERE
• Independence Day by Marc Tyler Nobleman HERE
• Red, White, and Boom! by Lee Wardlaw HERE
• Celebrate Independence Day by Deborah Heiligman HERE
• Independence Day by Elaine Landau HERE
• Independence Day by Ann Heinrichs HERE
• Calendar Mysteries: July Critters by Ron Roy HERE
• Independence Day Crafts by Mary Berendes and Jean Eick HERE

A bit of a more difficult hunt finding out things about Mother’s Day. I lucked out with my lapbook. I had to join the Live and Learn Press Yahoo group and a member there was able to share the once easily attained freebie spoken about HERE.

For Trinity we did the “Are You My Mother?” lapbook. Something very simple and fun for a first lapbook. I found it HERE. I got an additional page from Obseussed HERE. A second matching baby and mommy picture.

Of course there were some choice Wiki pages we used for answering questions for the boys:

• Mother’s Day HERE
• Ann Jarvis (the mother the date was finally cemented for) HERE
• Anna Jarvis (the daughter) HERE
• Julia Ward Howe (the first person to really make the push for this day) HERE
• Mothering Sunday (a prior significant day in Britain) HERE

And Crafts:

• Fingerprint flower card (Zander’s favourite) HERE
• Photo Tulips HERE

And a special page that was also suggested by a member of the yahoo group…

• DayForMothers.com HERE

Worksheets:

• Colouring page and rhyme for Miss Trinity HERE
• Acrostic Poem HERE
• All About My Mom booklet HERE
• Trinity’s colouring page of choice HERE
• Mother’s Day Puzzles (we used the mazes) HERE

Books:

• Mother’s Day by Ann Heinrichs HERE
• T.Rex and the Mother’s Day Hug by Lois G. Grambling HERE
• Mother’s Day by Anne Rockwell (we also made the craft at the end of the story) HERE
• The Mother’s Day Mice by Eve Bunting HERE
• No Time for Mother’s Day by Laurie Halse Anderson HERE
• My Mother’s Voice by Joanne Ryder HERE

And a great short video on the history of Mother’s Day…

Oh and our DVD that included a Dora episode about Mother’s Day… Food With Friends HERE.

March has been a busy month! For Easter, with only a week and a half between it and St. Patrick’s Day, we are doing a family lapbook. Which means another resource entry! Books:

• Easter by Trudi Strain Trueit
• Piggy Bunny by Rachel Vail
• Ollie’s Easter Eggs by Olivier Dunrea
• The Easter Bunny’s Assistant by Jan Thomas
• Lily’s Easter Party by Crystal Bowman
• Easter by Let’s See Library: Holidays
• Celebrate Easter by Deborah Heiligman
• Julie Andrews’ Treasury for All Season by Julie Andrews and Emma Walton Hamilton

Worksheets:

• 3 Digit Easter Subtraction with Education.com
• Egg-citing Addition with Education.com
• Easter Coordinate Puzzles with Activity Village
• Easter Game and Lapbook Printables with Confessions of a Homeschooler
• Resurrection Lapbook with Lapbook Lessons
• Easter Themed Clock Work with Education.com
• Easter Egg Maze with Activity Village
• L is for Lily by First School
• Easter Subtraction Word Problems with Education.com
• Easter Missing Vowels with Education.com
• Colour the Egg with Education.com
• Word Problems for Easter with Education.com

Crafts

• Peter Rabbit Egg Basket with nickjr.com
• Handprint Lily with Spoonful.com
• Easter Bunny Stand-ups with Education.com
• Ressurrection Egg Lapbook Lesson with Sunday School Lady
• Weave a Paper Basket with Education.com
• Easter Backet Printable by Art For Kids through The Homeschool Classroom

Games

• Easter Goodies Game with Education.com

Movie

• ‘Twas the Night Before Easter with Veggie Tales and the colouring page that goes with
• Dinosaur Train Eggstravaganza by PBS kids… not so much Easter but egg and baby related. Lots of fun as it tied in eggs, new birth and our beloved dinsaurs

Printables in General

• Joke Mini Book with Activity Village
• Easter colouring pages with Activity Village
• Easter Sampler with CurrClick
• Jellybean Prayer with poem with CurrClick

Helpful information sites

• To answer why there is an Easter Bunny with KidCulture
• To answer why we dye Easter Eggs with Yahoo! Answers

Videos Ken found us this informative but slightly over the boys’ heads video on Easter traditions. Very interesting but maybe not for the youngest students.

And a picture of two of our lapbook pages! Good luck! 

We had a lot of fun with this unit