Tea Time Tuesday Groundhog Edition

In just a few days it will be Groundhog Day… Will the groundhog see his shadow or not? In preparation for the big day we are kicking off the week with Tea Time Tuesday Groundhog Edition!

Featured Poem

Groundhog Groundhog What Do You See?

Groundhog, groundhog what do you see?
I see the sunshine looking at me!

To read the rest of this poem head over to DLTK’s Growing Together. You can even print a cute coloring page with the poem on it! I printed this out for Jack to color and read on his own. He is also using this poem as his copywork this week.

Our Snack

We made fun groundhog pudding snacks. To make your own you will need:

• Chocolate Pudding Cups
• Teddy Bear Crackers
• Crushed Oreos

Simply crush the Oreos, sprinkle on top of your pudding, and add a teddy bear cracker!

Without a doubt, the highlight of this week’s Tea Time Tuesday was using the meat tenderizer to crush the Oreos (ha!). Sadly I have been sick since Friday, and we did not do a number of the things I had planned for this week’s tea time. Hopefully I will be feeling better soon and we can get still do some of the fun crafts I had in mind.

Thank you for joining us for Tea Time Tuesday Groundhog Edition…

What’s your prediction? Will the groundhog see his shadow this year or not? Jack predicts that he will see his shadow this year.

Did you miss our past Tea Time Tuesdays?

You can find them all on my Tea Time page.

The post Tea Time Tuesday Groundhog Edition appeared first on Homework and Horseplay.

January Dollar Tree STEM Boxes | 2018

Today I am sharing my January Dollar Tree STEM Boxes. Yesterday we had Tea Time Tuesday Penguin Edition, and it was the perfect time to take on our challenges! 

Challenge #1: Candy Cane Science: Dissolving

Suggested supplies:

• Water
• Oil
• Vinegar
• 3 jars/containers with lids
• 3 candy canes

Which liquid will dissolve the candy cane the quickest?

Since we had leftovers candy canes from our December STEM Boxes, I knew I wanted to include them in our January Dollar Tree STEM Boxes. We discussed what a hypothesis was, and my children predicted which liquid would dissolve the candy cane piece the quickest:

1. Kenten- vinegar
2. Julia- vinegar
3. Jack – oil

Our Winner…

VINEGAR

Vinegar dissolved our candy cane piece the quickest, but just barely!  Water was a very close second. The candy cane in the oil didn’t dissolve at all (as of yet).

Challenge #2: Build an Igloo

Suggest supplies:

• Plastic Cup
• Scissors
• Frosting
• Mini Marshmallows

We cut down the plastic cups and used the frosting to attach our marshmallow “ice blocks”. Jack learned the hard way that you should really start from the bottom when building an igloo. He wasn’t able to fill all of his in like Julia.

Our finished products…

Challenge #3: Build a Penguin and an Ice Floe

Suggested supplies:

• Faux Egg
• White Sand
• Black Sand
• Glue
• Craft Sticks
• Hot Glue Gun

We decorated our eggs with sand to make them look like penguins, and then hot glued them onto our craft stick ice floes. 

Does your ice floe float?

Our penguins and ice floes did float… kinda? Our ice floes didn’t completely sink, but they were a bit front heavy with the egg penguins on them.

Thank you for checking out our January December Dollar Tree STEM Boxes…

We had a blast with these winter themed tasks. Are you ready to take on the challenge?

Did you miss our past Dollar Tree STEM Boxes?

You can find them all here.

 

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Tea Time Tuesday Penguin Edition

Winter storm after winter storm has hit us hard here in Michigan. Yesterday we got about a foot of snow! It’s hard to believe that January is almost done, but all this snowy weather has set the stage for Tea Time Tuesday Penguin Edition!

Featured Poem

Penguin by William Jay Smith

I think it must be very nice
To stroll about upon the ice,
Night and day, day and night,
Wearing only black and white,
Always in your Sunday best—

To read the rest of this cute poem head over to PoemHunter.com. William Smith has a number of sweet poems to share with your kiddos.

Our Table

My kiddos loved our snowman place setting so much that I had to come up with something new to surprise them. I think my penguins turned out super cute! To make your own penguin place setting you will need:

• 1 large black plate
• 1 small black plate
• 2 orange napkins folded into triangles
• 1 small white plate
• 2 Oreos 
• 2 chocolate chips 
• 1 peach gummi candy

Note: Multiple these supplies by the number of place settings you need.

We decided to make some icy treats this week and tackle our January STEM Boxes (make sure to check back tomorrow for all the details). Rootbeer floats are so yummy!

Just in case you can’t tell, Mr. Jack was super excited for his rootbeer float and popcorn (haha)! I love seeing these big smiles on my kiddos. We filled up on our goodies, and then got to work on our January challenges. One of our challenges even fit in with our penguin theme. 

Thank you for joining us for Tea Time Tuesday Penguin Edition…

We may be snowed in, but as you can see we are making the best of it. I hope you are having a wonderful snowy day just like us.

Did you miss our past Tea Time Tuesdays?

Head on over to my Tea Time page to catch up.

The post Tea Time Tuesday Penguin Edition appeared first on Homework and Horseplay.

Tea Time Tuesday Snow Edition

It’s a winter wonderland here in Michigan. We spent the weekend hibernating in our house to avoid the icy roads, and now the snow keeps coming! Usually once the holidays are past I am ready for the cold and snow to disappear, but there is something magical about waking up to inches upon inches of fresh snow. Unfortunately Miss Julia is not feeling very well, so we had a low key afternoon. We spent Tea Time Tuesday Snow Edition sipping hot cocoa and reading some wonderful snow poems. 

Featured Poem

The Snow Storm by Edna St. Vincent Millay

No hawk hangs over in this air:
The urgent snow is everywhere.
The wing adroiter than a sail
Must lean away from such a gale,
Abandoning its straight intent,
Or else expose tough ligament
And tender flesh to what before
Meant dampened feathers, nothing more.
Forceless upon our backs there fall
Infrequent flakes hexagonal,
Devised in many a curious style
To charm our safety for a while,
Where close to earth like mice we go
Under the horizontal snow.

Our Table

This week we set up in our school room so our doggies could join us for a cozy afternoon. We kept things pretty simple… No homemade goodies this week! I picked up donut holes for our snack because they remind me of snowballs.

These two didn’t seem to mind our store bought goodies… Kenten went to  friend’s house for the afternoon, so no donuts for him! Hopefully Miss Julia will be feeling better tomorrow. Poor thing spent most of the day in bed .

Thank you for joining us for Tea Time Tuesday Snow Edition…

I hope you are all keeping warm this winter! Did you miss our past Tea Time Tuesday posts? Head over to my Tea Time page to catch up.

The post Tea Time Tuesday Snow Edition appeared first on Homework and Horseplay.

Tea Time Tuesday Snowman Edition

It has been beyond cold here in Michigan lately, so we have been hibernating inside as much as possible. Since it is too cold to be outside, I decided to bring the winter fun inside with our Tea Time Tuesday Snowman Edition. 

Featured Poem

The Snow Man by Wallace Stevens

One must have a mind of winter 
To regard the frost and the boughs 
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow; 

And have been cold a long time 
To behold the junipers shagged with ice, 
The spruces rough in the distant glitter 

Of the January sun; and not to think 
Of any misery in the sound of the wind, 
In the sound of a few leaves, 

Which is the sound of the land 
Full of the same wind 
That is blowing in the same bare place 

For the listener, who listens in the snow, 
And, nothing himself, beholds 
Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.

Our Table

This week I wanted to make our table the center piece instead of the food… I think our snowman place settings turned out adorable!
It has been nice taking a break from all the fancy baking. I think the holidays have left us feeling a little burnt out when it comes to baking. In place of a dessert we had breakfast for lunch today. The kiddos convinced me to put chocolate chips in their pancakes, so I guess it is was more of a dessert than I originally planned (ha).

Thank you for joining us for Tea Time Tuesday Snowman Edition…

I hope you enjoyed all of our snowman festivities! With the holidays done and over with, it is nice to have these fun tea time afternoons to look forward to.

 

Did you  miss our past Tea Time Tuesday posts?
You can find them all on my Tea Time page.

The post Tea Time Tuesday Snowman Edition appeared first on Homework and Horseplay.

Tea Time Tuesday New Years Edition

It’s hard to believe that it is already 2018! As long as last year felt, it really did fly by. I am really hoping that 2018 will be a better year for us. I figured the best way to kick off 2018 is with a Tea Time Tuesday New Years party. However, if I am being honest it wasn’t much of a party. We needed to ease back into our normal routine. 

Featured Poem

The Year by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

What can be said in New Year rhymes,
That’s not been said a thousand times?

The new years come, the old years go,
We know we dream, we dream we know.

We rise up laughing with the light,
We lie down weeping with the night.

We hug the world until it stings,
We curse it then and sigh for wings.

We live, we love, we woo, we wed,
We wreathe our brides, we sheet our dead.

We laugh, we weep, we hope, we fear,
And that’s the burden of the year.

Our Table

This week we decided to do a “tea time” lunch. With it being the first day back to school, partnership classes, and tea time we had a crazy busy day. So we made an easy lunch, and picked up cinnamon rolls from the bakery for dessert. After pigging out, we settled in for a cozy movie afternoon.

Sometimes it is hard to get back into the swing of things–even if you think you are ready for it! Spending a couple hours on the sofa snuggled up with the kiddos was exactly what I needed. I am trying to treasure all of these sweet times before my kiddos think they are too cool to hang out with me any more. 

All in all, I think we had a great first day back to school after Christmas break. Everyone was determined to get their work done so we could have family time before dinner. How did your first day back to school go?

Thank you for joining us for Tea Time Tuesday New Years Edition…

I wish you all the best in 2018! Hopefully this year will be a fantastic one for all of you and your families. 

Did you miss our past Tea Time Tuesday posts?
Click the image above to see what we did in 2017.

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