Mini Goal Book

I had an activity last month for the 8 to 12 year old girls that I teach.
I divided the girls into 2 groups.
I gave one group a game with no instructions.
I gave the other group a puzzle without a picture to look at.

Then I gave them 5 minutes to play the game and put together the puzzle. 

They were definitely confused.

 When the time was up, I asked them what was missing.

INSTRUCTIONS!

I asked if it would have been more fun if they would have had instructions and a picture to look at for the puzzle.  It was unanimous.  Instructions would have made it a lot more  enjoyable.

Then we talked about how Heavenly Father has a plan for us.
He didn't just send us to earth and say "Good Luck".

Nope.

He gave us instructions.
He gave us scriptures.
He gave us a living prophet and apostles.

He gave us parents.
He gave us leaders.
And so much more.

He gave us His Son!

He gave us a PLAN.

He wants us to get back to Him and He gave us everything to be able to accomplish that.

We need a plan too.

I gave each of the girls a mini goal book.

They made their plan.

I made the goal books with my hand drawn borders.  Then I sewed them down the center with my sewing machine. 

If you would like a mini goal book, you can get a black and white version and a color version from my TPT store for free!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Half-Page-Goal-Book-Planner-1099980

Please leave me some feedback and let me know how you like it!

Best Day Ever

Apparently I am the best mom in the whole world.
What makes me the best mom in the whole world, you ask?
Well, let me tell you.

It was one of those days.
Those days where you have to go from one thing to the next.
There is hardly room to breathe, let alone fix dinner.
The Dr. Daddy is doing some doctoring all night long.
The fridge is empty.
There is $5 and some change in your pocket.

What to do for dinner?

In between piano lessons and swim team,
you make a Sam's Club run.
Sam's Club hot dogs.
Yep.
According to Bryce, that equates to me being "the best mom in the whole world".
Hot dogs for dinner.

Guess what makes it "the best day ever".

Getting a package in the mail from Baba and Dedo...

containing rock candy.

BEST

DAY

EVER.

I had a pretty good day too.

I made something.

Christmas finger puppets.

You know you want some...

I mean your kids want some!

Come and get them at my TeachersPayTeachers store.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Christmas-Finger-Puppets-1000270

or my etsy shop.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/171165516/christmas-finger-puppets?ref=shop_home_active

Cinderella

The Family School, Literature 1.6

What is true beauty?
Is it the way you dress?
Is it the way you do your hair?
Is it the color of your eyes?
What makes a person glow?
What makes a person smile?

Beauty is something that everyone seeks.
Even if you don't realize it, you are seeking beauty.
We seek beauty in our surroundings.
Our homes.
Nature.
Art.
We seek beauty within ourselves.

The beauty that is worth the most?
Lasting Beauty.
Beauty that is kindness.
Beauty that is honest.
Beauty that is cheerful.
Beauty that is compassionate.
Beauty that you can see even when it is dressed in rags and covered in soot.

What fairy tale did we read?
You guessed it.
Cinderella.

You can read The Blue Fairy Tale version here.
Or you can go to the library and find as many versions as you can!

We had a lot of fun reading Cinderella from cultures around the world.

Here are the handouts I made for the kids notebooks.

We read the talk "True Beauty" by Elder Lynn G. Robbins.
You can you read it here.

Handout number 1.

I also gave them a quote by David B. Haight.
Hand out number 2.

We watched another Adventures from the Book of Virtues episode.  The last tale on this episode is a native american version of Cinderella, called The Rough Faced Girl.
You can watch it here.

I made the kids this coloring page.
Handout number 3.

They colored it while they watched the Disney version of Cinderella.

Just because...

You can get the PDF of these handouts at my TPT store for free.

Hop on over and get it here.

If you download it from there, it would be wonderful if you would rate it for me!

Once again, if you would rather not get the PDF from my TPT store, let me know in the comments and I will make it available on my blog as well.

I hope enjoy it!

The Emperor's New Clothes

The Family School, Literature 1.5

Have you ever read President Benson's classic talk called, "Beware of Pride"?

You can read it here.

It is excellent.

We discussed it for this lesson.

I made the kids a handout for their notebooks.

Then we read "The Emperor's New Clothes"

What a funny fairy tale!

You can read it here.

Pride makes us want to be better than others.

It leads us away from truth.

The Emperor wanted to be better than everyone else.

He was so prideful, he could not see the truth.

This ended up being rather embarrassing for him!

I drew this for the kids to color.

While they colored they watched this.

We did this lesson for family school, but I think it would be an excellent Family Home Evening too!

I hope you enjoy it!

You can get the PDF here at my Teacher's Pay Teacher's store (it's free).  

If you would rather not get it from my Teacher's Pay Teacher's store, let me know in the comments and I will put the PDF on my blog as well.

And here are my cool-o-roonies.

Molly made this picture for Baba and Dedo.  

She insisted that I take a picture and put it on the blog.

Have an aimless daze!

Doodling

I'm a doodler.
I always have been.
While taking notes at school.
I doodle.
While listening to a talk.
I doodle.
While writing in my journal.
I doodle.

I know something is really important to me if it has a lot of doodles with it.

Likewise, I know something was really boring if it there are a lot of doodles.

That being said,
I think everyone should have a chance to doodle.

As I was giving a lesson during Family School, I saw my two youngest getting a little restless.  I completely understand that.  Some of the things we learn are challenging for them.  But I love that we are together so I don't want to send them to another room.  So I had a thought.  When I was in school, I doodled.  Why not find a way for them to doodle while I teach?  Then, perhaps they will be able to listen a little better, or if nothing else, they will not distract the older two.

This is what I came up with.

And guess what?

It worked!

Not only did they sit quietly through the entire lesson,

but they also actually heard what I said and learned something!

I also made sea life creatures.

You can check it out at my TPT store.

They are begging me for more, so be on the look out for more "Doodle and Draw" creations.

I also put up some doodle frames and some more free clip art.  So go on over there and see what you think.

Thanks!

Have an "aimless daze"!

Noah

These handouts can be used for Family School, Year 1, Lesson 6.

We read some more in Moses 7.

I got to do another scripture study sheet and scripture inserts.



We read the story of Noah.
Everyone knows the story.

Noah.
Righteous.
World.
Wicked.
People.
Warned.
Ark.
Animals.
Flood.
Destroyed.

In just a few words.

Think of how much courage it must have taken Noah to obey the Lord.
Do you realize that he was warning the people and building the ark for over a hundred years?
That is some serious dedication!

"Obedience makes you spiritually strong."

Every time we obey, we are building spiritual muscles.  The more muscles we build, the easier it will be for us to obey things that are hard.  Just like Noah, we can be obedient and the Lord can protect us.

I made this for our history notebooks.

Obedience is power!

Geography Lesson 1

Here are some handouts that can be used for Family School, Year 1, Lesson 1.

Worms

We went on a worm hunt.

We found some worms.

We made some observations.

In Bryce's words,  "worms are wormtastic".

Here are some worksheets I put together for Family School, Year 1, Science, Lesson 4.

Science 1.4_worm wksht

The kids wrote their own silly worm poems.

Science 1.4_worm poem

I posted both versions again, scribd and googledocs.  I don't know why googledocs isn't showing the picture with color.  I also don't know how to make it downloadable.

I'll keep trying to figure it out.

Vocabulary

I needed a good place for us to record our vocabulary words.

I put together these sheets.  Now the kids just keep them in the front of each folder.  

It is easy to find for recording more vocabulary and studying old vocabulary.

I'm trying to figure out the best way to share the things I am making.  I'm trying out scribd.  The first vocabulary sheets are uploaded from my google drive.  The second one is uploaded on scribd.  What do you think?  Which one is easier?  Does anyone know of a better option?  I have to admit, I don't really know what I'm doing...

Vocabulary

Your Good Name

Carl Linnaeus.

The man responsible for taxonomy.

The kids really enjoyed this lesson.

We briefly went over classification.  This lesson was basically an introduction.  One of the species we talked about was the wolf or dog.  We learned that the official name for the wolf and dog is lupus.  On our walk, the kids had to point out every lupus they saw.  Bryce would even use his "Brycer" voice (those who know him know what I'm talking about) and say "Oh, you cutesy wootsey lupus.  You are such a cutey lupus."  It was quite funny!

I made this handout on Carl Linnaeus.  The kids filled it out as I went through a powerpoint and as we watched a short clip about Carl Linnaeus.

The big kids wrote their findings down.

The younger kids drew pictures.

(Does Carl's picture look funny?  The color looks off.  I don't know why it is doing that.  It looks normal in word.  Does anyone know how to fix that?  I tried, and can't seem to figure it out)

Names.  Why was it so important for Carl Linnaeus to organize and find names for Gods creations?
Names are important.

We read this.



In the year 2000, I read this story and it really stuck with me.
I found this in one of my journals.

If you look closely, you can see that I added the name of the Lord, Jesus, in my name, as a reminder to me that I have taken His name upon me, and I must honor His name.

I also made one for Brian. (he was on his mission).

What have you done with your name?

That is a powerful question.

The kids loved drawing their names. Inside their name, they carefully added the Lord's name.  We promised to help each other honor His name, and do good with our name.

So...

Life's Mission

Last week we read the Fairy Tale, The Nightingale, by Hans Christian Andersen.

I love this illustration by levgen Kharuk



This fairy tale gave us a lot to talk about.

We discussed the internal and external characteristics of each bird.

We talked about how each bird, the Real Nightingale, and the Mechanical Nightingale had a purpose.  The Real Nightingale's purpose was to comfort and sooth people. The Real Nightingale brought people lasting happiness.  The Mechanical Nightingale's purpose was to look beautiful and sing the same song over and over.  Its purpose was not lasting.  It gave the people a temporary happiness.  Because it is mechanical, it doesn't have internal characteristics.

Each of us has a purpose.

The kids lit up as I told them the wonderful things that I see in each of them.  Then they had a chance to tell each other about the things they love to do and things that they would like to become better at.  We talked about how each of these gifts from the Lord, can help us find our mission.

We became "life's mission" detectives.

I asked the kids if they would rather be like the Real Nightingale or the Mechanical Nightingale.  They recognized that although the Mechanical bird was beautiful, they would rather be like the Real Nightingale and bring people joy.

We decided that we will work as a family to discover our missions.  We will help each other to focus on things that can bring lasting joy instead of temporary happiness.

The Tree of Learning

I love that with family school, we are incorporating the gospel with all of our learning.  One of our lessons was on the Tree of Learning.  Parly P. Pratt said this,

"Theology is the science of all other sciences…the very foundation from
which they [all other sciences] emanate. It includes, philosophy, astronomy,
history, mathematics, geography, languages, the science of letters, and
blends the knowledge of all matters of fact, in every branch of art and
research…originated by this science [theology] and this science alone, all
other sciences [subjects] being but branches growing out of this root"

All that we learn emanates from God.  That is what is so exciting about learning and understanding.  The more knowledge that we gain from the world around us, the more knowledge we gain of God.  If we seek truth, we will find it.

I love the symbolism of a tree.

In family school we talked about how all of the subjects we are learning can be likened to a tree. This lesson can be found for free in Family School Foundation: A Parent Guidebook, lesson 3.  I drew a tree for my kids to color as we talked about what it means.

I also made a color version.

I also gave each of the kids a list of the subjects and their definitions.