A-J & 0-9...Reviewing What We Already Know & Holiday Fun

With December here, I'd previously planned to leave the month open to review what we have learned already as well as have more open time to do holiday crafts, cooking, & fun!!  J is for Jesus led us into the Christmas season so we have stopped there to go over what we know so far.  Deacon is spending time writing A-J rather than learning new letters, writing 0-9 to perfect writing his numbers, & doing practice with our coins, planets, states, Presidents, & time.  That has left us with lots of time to do some West Coast holiday traveling since Soldier man's schedule is more open than usual this month as well as Christmas crafts & baking during the time we are here on post.

This week the crazies helped me decorate a batch of sugar cookies.  I like to use the homemade icing, but I gave them the tube icing to do theirs so it would not be such a mess! We made it to the craft building on post where I painted a platter & they painted some ornaments.  We have also done some crafts here to go along with the Christmas story.

It has been relaxing & fun & we are soaking in the season without lots of fuss!

The platter we made... a replica of a a Pintrest craft.  I used D's foot for the manger &

 K's thumb for baby Jesus

Decorating sugar cookies

 Of course they would: D making a camp start & K eating right out the tube

 Soooo yummy!!

Painting popsicle sticks for a manger craft

Assembling their mangers

Baby Jesus in the manger

 Candy cane break

Some nativity coloring by number

J is for Jesus!!!

With Christmas nearly here, I thought there would be no better way to introduce the letter "J" than with a J is for Jesus theme.  The crazies have jumped right into the Christmas story all while learning "J", Jesus, & other fun things with candy canes.  We used the candy canes to show the letter J & have made plenty of crafts tied back to them.  Deacon has been working on some Christmas math while Kennedy has been perfecting tracing & coloring her shapes.  We spent our day in the kitchen making candy came cookies & we practiced patterns by making candy canes with our thumbprints.  It has been a fun way to kick off Christmas with the crazies all while teaching the real reason for this season!!

J is for Jesus!!

One of our many books that tell the real reason for the season

 D's holiday themed math

K got some new Minnie stickers that she was excited to use for shape & sticker time!

 We colored candy canes, turned them into a J, & glues baby Jesus in it on some straw.

Candy canes were our go-to treat for cooperation during learning!

The candy cane cookies pre-baking... they did so good twisting the dough

Yumminess with drizzle & peppermint on top

K staying busy... she is sooo good at her busy bags

 D doing some addition

All the supplies you need for a little candy cane pattern action

D & K got busy laying down red, white, red, white, red, white... you get the idea!

Look MOM!!

I is for Indians... & alot of Thanksgiving stuff

With Thanksgiving fast approaching & the letter "I" in our forecast, I couldn't help but do an "I is for Indian" theme here for our learning time.  The crazies have had lots of Thanksgiving-themed crafts during our learning time & have loved it.  I'm still happy we have a week to fit more in!!  Deacon has practiced writing letters A-I & does really well.  We also spent some extra time practicing writing our numbers 1-7 more & he is getting better.  I've "promoted" him from tracing & writing his name daily to just writing it daily -- now I need to teach him how NOT to take up a whole piece of paper with it : )  I found some great Thanksgiving themed math practice sheets on education.com & even introduced him to Suduko which he enjoyed.  He also got some more practice at coloring by number as well as connecting the dots.  Here are some of the many pics of our festive & fun learning & craft times!

Deacon's name writing practice, on a whole piece of paper

Our Indian headpieces... K really got into it & Deacon loved coloring his

My Little Tribe

 K working on color pairing   & the Suduko puzzle I found online

            

D coloring by number

Making turkeys to practice our shapes

 Connecting the dots

K really enjoyed a dice game -- she rolls it & has to find 4 items of the number rolled

We discussed the Mayflower & Pilgrims & made a ship with our handprints

 K putting her hand down & D got creative with drying his paint

 The finished product

Our Thankful Turkeys we made with some pinecones Meme & Papa sent