Friday, April 25, 2014

Everything Easter

Here's a quick photo blitz of our Easter activities!  Both Hunter and Colban's projects are included in this post.


Colby did an awesome job with this Easter Bunny Application Craft by Marta Almiron.  


Have you ever seen a bunny jumping competition?  We loved watching this video of furry little athletes!  


After watching the video (twice, at Colby's insistence), Colban completed this adorable, FREE Bunny Competition Writing Prompt from Little Bird Kindergarten.  


Colby named his imaginary bunny Thunder, and as you can see, Thunder is blue, skinny, furry, and a great jumper!  He drew Thunder's portrait and a picture of him in competition, and also some of his awards.  This was a favorite activity!


Maria Manore has Interactive Sight Word Readers for every occasion!  We complete at least one of these each week.  This one, "Jesus is Risen!", which focuses on learning to spell the name "Jesus", is a FREE download!  


It goes over the week leading up to the Resurrection, which fit right in with our Easter lessons.


This is the Protestant version; she also offers a free Catholic version entitled "Jesus Had a Holy Week".


This one cost only $1, and focuses on the word "that".


It has an Easter egg theme, and is not religious.  You can find a copy of "Look at that Egg!" right here!


Rita Mitchell's Bunny 10 Frames activities were a huge hit.  Something about the colorful vegetable clip art really appealed to Colban.  


We found so many ways to use this 40-page resource.  We practiced making teen numbers, and did some addition and subtraction too.


Throw in some manipulatives and a dry-erase marker and the possibilities are endless.  The best part?  It costs $1.00!


Colby loves adding mini-books to his "Colby library", so I knew he'd be thrilled with this one from Lil Country Librarian.  It was a cute way to practice simple subtraction!


"Five Little Bunnies" is only $1.50!  You can buy a copy here.


This simple non-standard measurement activity from Teach With Laughter was a lot of fun, although Colby found the estimation part a little frustrating!  It's a skill we'll continue to work on.  You can find this activity right here!


It's the inevitable Marsha McGuire I-Spy!  If you follow this blog you know that these are a staple in our classroom.  Check out Crazy Rabbits Love I-Spy Addition and Subtraction; Colby really loves these activities and they're differentiated in a way that works well for homeschoolers.


Another great resource we found is Spring Bunny Initial Sounds Learning Center Activities by Teaching With Nancy.  In addition to the clip cards shown (which we like to use with a dry-erase marker), there are three other activities and some practice pages.  It's a great bundle and SO inexpensive!


We read several books this year, but this one was our favorite by far.  Dan Goeller's adaptation of The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde is absolutely fantastic.  The story and artwork are beautiful, and the book comes with an audio CD of the narration set to orchestra music.  My boys loved the book, but when I played the CD for them they immediately began acting out the story, performing their own impromptu interpretive dance.  It was really amazing to watch.  They had such a good time that they ended up practicing  and performing for family members on Easter Sunday.  I can't recommend this book highly enough.

Another fabulous version is this one, illustrated by Ritva Voutila.


   

We also recommend The Very First Easter by Paul L. Maier and The Donkey Who Carried a King by R.C. Sproul.


Hunter's schedule is so much more rigorous than Colby's, and we're almost always involved in several ongoing projects or assignments, so we don't do as many holiday activities.  He did complete this lapbook about the Easter story after a lot of reading and discussion.


The lapbook includes vocabulary words such as "hypocrisy" and "disciple", and interactive flaps for the key moments of Easter week.


I did have some trouble turning these components into an actual lapbook; there was no obvious design or intended layout and I had to wing it.  They would probably be fantastic in an interactive notebook, if you keep one.

For many, many more FREE and DIY Easter ideas, check out these Pinterest boards:


We hope you had as wonderful a holiday as we did!

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