Happy Monday,  Happy Homeschooling, and Happy New Year!

betty jo

Happy Monday and Merry Christmas Homeschooling Break!

betty jo

Happy Monday! Happy Homeschooling!  And, Happy Thanksgiving!

betty jo

As we move along on our “special days” studies through November, I see Thanksgiving looming coming up in the not so distant future.  I thought seriously about not teaching Thanksgiving lessons this year.   How could I not want to teach Thanksgiving?  We’ve always had wonderful Thanksgiving lessons in November.  Yes, that’s it.  For 17 years – 17 Novembers, I’ve been teaching a week or two or three of Thanksgiving.  The who, what, when, why, and how of those Mayflower pilgrims and the natives that they encountered, Lincoln’s proclamation to make a Thanksgiving holiday,  Bible studies that focus on giving thanks and gratitude, nutritional studies of squash, pumpkins, turkeys, sweet potatoes, and corn, Thanksgiving celebrations around the world, tons of cooking projects, and craft activities to go along with it all – we’ve been there and done that over and over again.

In addition to my grumpy mood about Thanksgiving…

This week we began our Thanksgiving unit studies with a couple of Pre-Thanksgiving activities.  Below are some of the links we followed as we both reviewed and learned about the early American Settlements of Roanoke and Jamestown.

3 Articles about the history and mystery of the Roanoke Colony  http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/articles/ushistory/roanoke2.htm

Roanoke Colony Creative Writing Prompt                      http://castelliclassroom.weebly.com/classroom-updates/roanoke-writing-prompt

Online interactive Jamestown adventure                                                                                                   http://www.historyglobe.com/jamestown/

This history game with Pocahontas for the younger kids http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/famouspeople/pocahontas/

Jamestown Interactive webquest adventure  http://web.archive.org/web/20040811071346/http://www.loudoun.k12.va.us/schools/catoctin/3rd/webquests/jamestown/

Jamestown reading comprehension and printable quiz  http://mrnussbaum.com/jamestown-printable-reading-comprehension/

John Smith interactive adventure           …