Strategically Weaving Curriculum Through a Holiday Theme

It was the week of Halloween, and little people were all abuzz at Household Schmidt.  The trick-or-treat anticipation was building, the costumes were ready to go, and talk amongst our little ones was mostly about pumpkins, candy, and SCHOOL?!?!  Could it be?  SCHOOL?!?!  I know...it is shocking even to me, but Homeschool Schmidt is officially off of our extended Fall break and officially back working our way to the much-anticipated 100th day of school. (No pressure for this teacher, but I had better come up with some FANTASTIC 100th day celebration ideas because the girls are all looking forward to this day, and they just KNOW it will be GREAT)!

Why were we on an "extended" Fall break you ask?  Well, we welcomed an oh-so-sweet baby BOY on October 15th into our family!!  He arrived early, and from day one has been teaching his momma (just like his daddy does) that if you plan early, you'll plan twice.  Apparently the men in the house are really trying to teach that lesson to me, and I think I am -finally- getting it!  "Many are the plans in a person's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails" (Proverbs 19:21).

Callum Scott weighed in at 7 pounds 11 ounces of pure cuteness, and we are BLESSED to be Schmidt Family SIX now!  Here he is:

And, here is our new family portrait done by a very proud big sister and absolutely sweet five-year-old:

Children's artwork is the BEST!  I love how we are all holding hands, how we are in order from oldest to youngest and tallest to smallest.  I love how there are six people and six flowers!  I love the fingers and the toes, and I love the sweet girl that surprised me with this masterpiece when I arrived home from the hospital!  This beautiful picture, a macaroni necklace, and a handmade bouquet of construction paper flowers...how precious is that?!?!

After my arrival home from the hospital, I frantically got the house all set for the upcoming holiday because it is the seemingly little things that make a HUGE difference in children's worlds and their enthusiasm for life.  

Yes, even the girls' bathroom mirror was decorated.  Since this teacher doesn't have a "formal" classroom to decorate anymore, I just make the whole house our classroom!

Halloween week approached rapidly after sweet Callum's arrival, and I knew that it would be a perfect week to begin the homeschooling journey again after a brief hiatus because I really enjoy strategically weaving curriculum through a theme, and what better theme than a holiday theme?!?!  Callum found the schooling a wee-bit exhausting and wasn't nearly as excited about resuming school as I was:

But the girls were eager to learn all things pumpkin-themed!  Here the girls are preparing to carve their pumpkins!

What does pumpkin carving have to do with school?  Well, Jack-o-Lanterns DO have eyes, a nose, and a mouth, and those features DO have shapes, so we revisited our shapes while designing and carving.  Brynn wanted her Jack-o-Lantern to match her toothless grin.  How can one not help smiling when you see both of these toothless wonders?

The next day, Brynn and Clare wrote a journal entry about their pumpkin carving experiences.  

Clare had a guided-writing experience where she told Momma what to write and then she got to illustrate the writing.  While I was working with Clare, here is what Brynn wrote:

Wasting precious toilet paper in a houseful of SO many girls?!?!  Well, if it involves teaching, I guess that it is OK.  In our "Mystery of History" lessons, we just happened to be learning about Ancient Egypt and, through our discussion of the pyramids, the topic of mummies also surfaced in the curriculum.  Here is Mummy Brynn!

Skeletons! Skeletons! All About Bones by Katy Hall was a big hit at story time.  The girls were intrigued to learn that their baby brother has MORE bones than they do even though he is SMALLER than them.  After reading the story, we discussed the different bones in our body and made Q-tip skeletons.  I do not know that I will ever use a Q-tip again without thinking about our fun bone lesson. 

Can you tell we have some "girly-girls" in the house?!?  Only they would claim that their skeletons were not complete without bows on the top of their skeletons' heads for "decoration." Those bows were creatively designed with leftover Valentine heart stickers.  And, now, the skeletons even match Clare's shirt!

Here comes MATH!  Pumpkin seeds were gathered with great care the night before during the carving adventure, and although they were still a little bit slimy to the touch, it was time to COUNT!  Each girl was tasked with counting out ten seeds.

Clare just had to count them one-by-one to develop her skills in one-to-one correspondence.

Brynn took the project a step further.  During this particular week, she was learning about the numbers after ten.  We discussed how her group of ten seeds that she had counted out could be considered a unit of ten pumpkin seeds.  If she added additional seeds to that unit of ten, she could represent the tens place AND the ones place, too.  The goal was to enhance her understanding of how the "teen" numbers are 10 plus a digit.

Brynn grasped the concept quickly, and I LOVE the expression of JOY on her face!

Here's Clare showing us that she can DEFINITELY count to ten with no problem at all.  She is demonstrating that her fingers make TEN, too!

To integrate literature into this Math lesson, we read How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin? by Margaret McNamara and G. Brian Karas.

Who knew that for each line on the outside of a pumpkin, there is a row of seeds on the inside of the pumpkin?  With that amazing knowledge that we acquired from reading this book, we will be able to estimate which of our pumpkins has the most seeds more accurately next year!

After all that deep thinking with Math, it was time for some creative art!  The girls got to break out their new paint set and paint a glorious pumpkin.  As usual, their two finished products were COMPLETELY different, and, as usual, I marveled at how unique each of our children is!  "I praise you because [our children] are fearfully and wonderfully made!" (Psalm 139:14)

It was time for read aloud, and guess who is doing the reading?!?!  BRYNN!  She LOVES to read to all of her siblings (even the twenty-two-month-old one who is a read aloud escapee).  Happy Halloween Curious George was the girls' choice for this Halloween afternoon.

It was time for some baking!  There is SO much learning that can be done in the kitchen, and the great part about it is that the kiddos have a lot of fun gathering the ingredients, measuring the ingredients, following the recipe, and, of course, taste-testing the final product.  As a side note, the girls are WAY more patient making cut-out cookies than I am.  Seeing a pumpkin-shaped cookie come out of the oven is well worth the time and energy it takes to make one when you are little and you are waiting for what seems like FOREVER to put on your costume and go trick-or-treating.

Finally, after many Halloween-related activities, the much-anticipated costume time had arrived!  Here was our little puppy!

Our clown!

And, our Princess Merida from the movie "Brave!" (Notice the crimped hair!  I will use any excuse to get out my 80s crimper because that beauty tool is too much fun!)

Elle is not sure what this craziness is all about.  First, we bring a baby brother home, and, now everyone dresses up in costumes and carries pumpkins around?  What is happening in this world?

She is still mystified.  You want me to hold what?!?  This little pumpkin?!?  And, why am I being forced to wear this ridiculous outfit?  She's like her momma...her facial expressions tell all.

 After detoxing from sugar the next morning, we did a few more pumpkin-related activities, and one of them was reciting the poem "Five Little Pumpkins:"

Five little pumpkins sitting on the gate.

The first one said, "Oh, my!  It's getting late!"

The second one said, "There are witches in the air."

The third one said, "But we don't care."

The fourth one said, "Let's run and run and run."

The fifth one said, "Isn't Halloween fun?"

Then, "Ooooooo" went the wind.

And OUT went the lights.

And the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight.

And, finally, we reviewed the pumpkin cycle pages in Brynn's learning log from last year.

All-in-all, it was a SPOOKTACULAR Halloween!  Curriculum was integrated, the children had fun, and the little people are already planning their costumes for next year's festivities.  If only I were that far ahead in my lesson plans...