Holy week actvities part 1: Palm Sunday Donkey Craft

This week is our version of Spring Break 2013. All our regular curriculum is set aside for a Holy week unit study.

I wanted the Piwi's to work on it together so instead of a going with a set unit study we designed a relaxed one of our own.We started Palm Sunday with some arts and crafts

 We made our own version of the Clothespin donkey craft from Freefuneaster.com.Mini Piwi painted the donkey and clothespins and then added self adhesive felt for the mane and tail.The other cute activity we found at Catholic icing: Hand print donkey craft.

We added our Palms to the finished product and Miss K surprised me with a palm bracelet decorated with the blossoms she had collected at the park. So sweet!

Our Bedtime book was Humphry's first Palm Sunday by Carol Heyer. The camel we loved, in Humphry's first Christmas, is back and in Jerusalum as Jesus arrives triumpantly. The illustrations are just as adorable and funny as the original! It is one we intend to add to our bookshelves!

The bible study of our unit study is from the free Calvary Chapel curriculum. 

I printed out the bible studies related to all the events of Holy week. Each lesson has a memory verse, questions, a word puzzle and coloring page. We read the scripture passage aloud, answer the questions together and then Mini Piwi and I color while Miss K does the puzzle. We are a couple of lessons in and this is working well.

Sir Cumference Inspired Co-ordinate Mapping Skills Activity

Miss K (7) was a princess fan until last year when she gradually started moving away from all things pink and frilly and became animal crazy instead. Now that she is 'over Princesses' we set out to find something about Knights for this month's theme. Miss K chose:

Sir Cumference and the Viking's map is the latest, in a series of books, by Math Teacher Cindy Neuschwander.  When we first read this title, we hadn't read the earlier ones. This didn't seemed to matter though.

Without giving away any of the other adventures, Sir Cumference is a knight of Camelot, married to Lady Di of Ameter. They have a son named Radius. When the book starts Radius and his Cousin, Per have become lost during a horse ride in the forest. While trying to find their way home they
discover a treasure map created by a legendary Viking Xaxon Yellowbearyd. Can the map guide them home...and to treasure? It won't be easy:  the cousins don't understand how to read the map's strange numbered grids and they have bandits following them!

Miss K liked the adventure story a lot and was surprised to find out that co-ordinate mapping was Math!  This book introduces co-ordinate graphing in a way that Miss K had no trouble understanding. Other titles include topics such as Place value, decimals and area. I appreciate any effort made to make Math understandable and fun and Ms Neuschwander has thought of a topic that can be enjoyed by Girls and Boys. Athough it is a picture book our Librarian assures me that older kids still like the series because they 'get' more of the math puns.

In order to have our own graphing adventure Miss K and I made up a map.

All the locations on the map were Medieval themed.  At this point what Miss K didn't know was that they actually related to something near our home.

Without the kids knowing I set up a treasure hunt for them, leaving co-ordinate clues at each location. The neighbors were polite enough not to ask what I was up to.

On treasure hunt day we set off with the map and first clue. And a scooter. Mini Piwi had to take the scooter.

They found 'rabbit feild' which was actually neighbours' animal scultpures

and the 'creepy Tree'

There was a lot of map consulting

But eventually they found the treasure locked away in the ' Secret Message chest" also known as our Mailbox.  No pictures of the treasure because my hands were busy unwrapping gold chocolate coins!

Mini Piwi chose:

 

Dragons love Tacos, by Adam Rubin, turned out to be a great choice! From the title we know what you should serve at a Dragon part. However a little boy throwing a Dragon party discovers the hard way why you should stick with Mild salsa. The story is as funny as the illustrations.

Mini Piwi decided to make a blue egg carton dragon. She took a lot of care painting it and then we let it dry. The following day I suggest we go back to finish her dragon. Dhe told me that it was finished, it already had a tail. Oops.

We really enjoyed being a part of the Poppins Book Nook this month. Here are all the blogs taking part. Please go visit them to see what they are sharing for about all things Royal.

Enchanted Homeschooling Mom - Royal Baloo - 3 Dinosaurs - Monsters Ed - Chestnut Grove Academy - Growing in God's Grace - Royal Little Lambs - Life with Moore Babies - Teach Beside Me - The Usual Mayhem - Mum Central - Fantastic Fun and Learning - Kathys Cluttered Mind - Play Create Explore - Toddler Approved - Growing Book by Book - Adventures in Mommydom - B-Inspired Mama - The Fairy and The Frog - Edventures with Kids - Learning & Growing the Piwi way - A Gluten Free Journey - Rainy Day Mum - Mom to Crazy Monkeys

Come back next month for:  Wizards!