Tag Archive | porcupine

The Start of the Cousin Invasion

December 13-14

With the cousins here when they are not at school or clubs until the beginning of the next week accomplishing schoolwork during the traditional school hours has become a must. They slept the night on Wednesday and then were gone before we were up to school, so Thursday had to be a work first snow later sort of day. We have TWO packages left to mail, both American which required hand crafted cards or specially coloured Christmas pictures.

Ken spent some time with the boys finishing up their reindeer factual section. Lots of difficult words and interesting facts about reindeer digestion I am told!

Back around the table

The snow fort/igloo HAS really progressed… though with the weather getting warmer in the afternoon and then cold again I have made VERY sure they realize that unless there is someone on the OUTSIDE of the structure they are NOT to go in it. Hopefully this lovely weather holds, Wednesday they were out for hours and hours!

Quite the building

Room for 2

Even Trinity went out and joined in the fun for a bit. That is a first this week as she has been under the weather. Poor Emanuel AGREED to have a nap! I have to say Trinity looks so cute in her purple gear.

Out with her brothers (Zander standing)

We had ANOTHER Wild Kratts episode to watch and create a mini poster for. This one all about the porcupine. I have to admit, I am learning right along with the boys! 

Porcupine

Really with the lovely weather being outside has taken priority with the kids. I do have to admit – the final creation outside is quite impressive! Friday was a completion day of course! AND the end of our reindeer unit. Each of the kids got a Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer song bookmark to celebrate! You can find those on Activity Village HERE.

Zander left… of course

Emanuel and Trinity and I had to create our reindeer food – oatmeal and glitter. This is something we did at the local library up in Alberta LAST year. They had so much fun making “Magic” reindeer food!

Creating the mixture

Reindeer food!

To celebrate NOVEMBER’s reading accomplishments the twins got their pizza again. It really does help to motivate the reading for the next month. Though we are not doing as many stories in December, 15 to the usual 20 and even that is a bit of a struggle with all the to and fro and excitement of Advent!

Proud readers

Trinity and I made a Christmas angel to hang on the tree – we printed it off of Activity Village and then coloured, cut and pasted making sure to put our string through the top first. I think she is LOVELY! 

Angel

Our story of the day: Here Comes Jack Frost. I personally loved the illustrations in this one! There were very few complaints when I asked them to draw a picture in their books based on this one as the shapes were actually rather fun to reproduce for ALL ages. 

Here Comes Jack Frost

We had ANOTHER Art for Kids activity to enjoy, this one a 3D piece much like the turkey  from Thanksgiving. A 3D reindeer! Simple and fun. 

3D Reindeer

I lucked out as I have the ability to use my mother in law’s Prime Amazon account. That means that we can watch tv episodes for free streaming on there. So I was able to find the Dirty Jobs episode from season 5 titled Reindeer Farm. The boys absolutely thought it was a gas that it took forever for them to TRY and feed the reindeer. I actually find that Dirty Jobs is an awesome resource when you want to get the kids interested in something! I would love, someday, to own the series on dvd for the kids! I took our usual book journal pages and had each of the twins draw and write about the episode.

Thank you Dirty Jobs!

I also took some pages from Activity Village and had the boys each come up with some facts that they learned about reindeer. Not surprisingly, they were VERY clear about the predators! 

Reindeer facts retained

We finished our reindeer and really just enjoyed our day… until the evening when mid interview phone call I had to pull Ken OFF the phone to come help me extract a Lego with tweezers and a flashlight from EMANUEL’s nose! When asked WHY he simply said because he didn’t know he shouldn’t? Ummm I am rather SURE I covered that lesson multiple times. BUT at least it was a tiny Lego and easily extracted. Oh and the phone call was able to be picked back up!!

Excitement feels as if it is our cornerstone lately! But honestly, in a much less… hair pulling, brain wracking and traumatic way!

Building in all seasons, that’s our boys!

This entry was posted on 20/12/2012, in Uncategorized. 1 Comment