Tea Time Tuesday Spring Edition

Spring has finally sprung here in Michigan… I am so thankful that we finally have a bit of warm weather and sunshine back in our lives. I honestly felt like this past winter was never going to end. Hopefully the nice weather is here to stay. Either way we celebrated this change with Tea Time Tuesday Spring Edition.

Featured Poem

Spring, the sweet spring by Thomas Nashe

Spring, the sweet spring, is the year’s pleasant king, 

Then blooms each thing, then maids dance in a ring, 

Cold doth not sting, the pretty birds do sing: 

      Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo! 

 

The palm and may make country houses gay, 

Lambs frisk and play, the shepherds pipe all day, 

And we hear aye birds tune this merry lay: 

      Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo! 

 

The fields breathe sweet, the daisies kiss our feet, 

Young lovers meet, old wives a-sunning sit, 

In every street these tunes our ears do greet: 

      Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to witta-woo!

            Spring, the sweet spring!

Spring Treats

Miss Julia made us these sweet little flower dirt cups for tea time today.

I love that she steps up to help make our tea times so special each week. We have had a lot of appointments and other obligations recently, so I haven’t had the time to do anything extra for our Tuesday afternoons. Without my sweet girl we would have had no snack or anything this week!

Thank you for joining me for Tea Time Tuesday Spring Edition…

 I hope all of you are getting to enjoy the same beautiful spring weather we have this week. 

Did you miss our past Tea Time Tuesdays?

You can find them all here.

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

The Hobbit Literature Unit

If you have been following me for any length of time, you probably know that I am an avid reader. Over the past few months I have made it my mission to share my love of books with my children and to introduce them to some great classics. And what is a classics challenge without some J.R.R. Tolkien? Originally I planned to create my own complete literature unit for The Hobbit, but there were so many great options available that I skipped the hard work and got right to the fun stuff! However, I want to share the resources we used with all of you.

{Learning Resources}

Disclaimer: We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

• The Hobbit Copywork from Walking by the Way
  If you are not familiar with Ami from Walking by the Way, you need to check out her blog! She has so many great ideas and free resources.
• The Hobbit Teacher’s Guide from Penguin Random House
  Penguin Random House divided the book into eight sections. We followed the recommended reading timeline, and used the discussion questions to better understand the book. This site also includes an “About This Author” section that you may find useful.
• Who Was J.R.R. Tolkien? by Pam Pollack
  Whenever we do a literature unit I like to include an author study. I think learning more about an author can help children connect more with what they are reading. I absolutely love the “Who Was” series, and this was a great addition to our collection.
• Essay Ideas for Younger Students from The Tolkien Society
  We used these essay ideas as writing prompts for journal time since my little guy isn’t quite ready to be writing full essays. I really enjoyed reading my children’s journal entries. 
• Poems in The Hobbit
  The Tolkien Gateway has listed all of the poems in The Hobbit Tea Time Tuesday along with what chapters they were in. Since we have every week, we used this list to revisit the amazing poetry from the book.

{Hobbit Holes}

I knew as soon as I selected The Hobbit that I wanted to do something similar to a fairy garden for our school room. 
Suggested supplies:

• A container
• Soil
• Empty soda can
• Faux moss
• Modeling clay
• Rocks
• Twigs
• Glue
• Sand
• Faux flowers
• “Fairy garden” decor

Instructions:

1. Fill your container about half way with soil. Then place the empty soda can on top of the soda, and fill the container the rest of the way with soil. You will want to pack the soil onto the can, so it stays in place. (Note: Make sure to leave one end of the soda can uncovered so you can attach a door later on.)
   
2. With a glue bottle add a little bit of glue on top of your soil, and then pack moss on top of it. The glue is not necessary, but we found it was easier to get things to stay in place.
   
3. Use modeling clay to create a door and any other decor you may want to decorate your Hobbit Hole with. My daughter, Julia, create little hobbit men for both her and Jack’s Hobbit Holes. Once you have shaped the door to the right size, simply press it onto the front of the soda can. 
   (Note: Your modeling clay may take a day or more to dry, especially if it is thick. Allow proper drying time before attempting to paint it. My children decided not to paint any of their clay pieces.)
4. Finally, decorate your Hobbit Hole with any of the remaining supplies. My children added walking paths, trees, and flowers.

{More Fun Activity Ideas}

• Have a movie weekend–Watch all the movies and pig out on snacks after finishing the book! 
• Build with Legos while reading–There are a ton of great Hobbit sets available.We purchased this one.
• Prepare and eat a hobbit feast–One of my favorite parts of The Hobbit is the feast. Have your children prepare a feast for dinner one night.

Thank you for checking out The Hobbit literature unit…

I hope your found this list of resources helpful. If you have any great activities to add to this literature unit comment below. We are always looking for new ideas. 

You may also be interested in…

{FREE} Charlotte’s Web Literature Unit

A complete literature unit full of discussion questions, vocabulary worksheets, dictation/copywork, and projects!

 

The post The Hobbit Literature Unit appeared first on Homework and Horseplay.

Tea Time Tuesday Bunny Edition

Welcome back to Homework and Horseplay. I usually do a Tea Time Tuesday every week, but the last two weeks were kind of crazy. We got hit by another bug, celebrated Easter with our family, were on spring break, and went to a robotics competition over five hours away. Thankfully everything is back to normal this week just in time for Tea Time Tuesday Bunny Edition.

Featured Poem

Little Bunny Foo Foo

Little Bunny Foo Foo hopping through the forest
Scooping up the field mice and bopping ’em on the head
Down came the good fairy and she said:
“Little Bunny Foo Foo, I don’t want to see you
Scooping up the field mice and bopping ’em on the head.
I’ll give you 3 more chances and if you don’t behave
I’m going to turn you into a goon!”

So the next day…

Little Bunny Foo Foo hopping through the forest
Scooping up the field mice and bopping ’em on the head
Down came the good fairy and she said:
“Little Bunny Foo Foo, I don’t want to see you
Scooping up the field mice and bopping ’em on the head.
I’ll give you 2 more chances and if you don’t behave
I’m going to turn you into a goon!”

So the next day…

Little Bunny Foo Foo hopping through the forest
Scooping up the field mice and bopping ’em on the head
Down came the good fairy and she said:
“Little Bunny Foo Foo, I don’t want to see you
Scooping up the field mice and bopping ’em on the head.
I’ll give you 1 more chances and if you don’t behave
I’m going to turn you into a goon!”

So the next day…

Little Bunny Foo Foo hopping through the forest
Scooping up the field mice and bopping ’em on the head
Down came the good fairy and she said:
“I gave you 3 chances and you didn’t behave
Now I’m going to turn you into a goon!”

Moral of the story is…
“Hare today, goon tomorrow!”

Our Table

This week we kept our table pretty simple because Jack and Julia wanted to try making some more jelly bean watercolors bunny pictures. Miss Julia made our favorite Fun-Fetti cupcakes and topped them with bunny candies. They turned out super cute!

We also brought out the Easter Sensory Bin I made for the little ones I babysit one more time before taking it apart. It just melts my heart watching the girls play with sensory bins… I have so many sweet memories of my children playing with these same bins. It is interesting to see how different children explore and play with the same things my children enjoyed years ago.

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

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter and spring break. Hopefully soon we will actually get some spring weather soon, so we can get out and about more.

Did you miss our past Tea Time Tuesdays?

You can find them all here.

 

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

Spring Sensory Bin

Spring is in the air or at least it is supposed to be… Last week we were hit with another 12+ inches of snow, but things are starting to warm back up finally. I am more than ready for warm weather and all things green and beautiful. Since the weather isn’t cooperating quite yet, I figured I could at least make a Spring Sensory Bin and pretend it is warmer out (ha).

Homework and Horseplay’s Spring Easter Bin

To create this Spring Easter Bin I used:

• Dried split peas
• Green gems
• Yellow and green foam flowers
• Faux flowers
• Butterflies
• Pink water pitcher
• Green ice cream scoop
• Faux moss 
• Flower cupcake wrapper
• Pastel pom-poms

I love how the pink accents in this bin pops against the green split peas. I hope the girls I babysit will enjoy this spring sensory bin as much as my own children did years ago. Maybe by breaking out all things spring here in my house the weather will follow suit.

Helpful Hint:
Purchase a vinyl tablecloth to put on the floor under sensory bins. I have a rule that ALL sensory materials must stay on the tablecloth. This helps prevent a major mess since some sensory materials are quite small. When your child is done playing you can pick up the corners of the tablecloth and pour everything back into the bin. I also highly recommend using a bin with a lid for easier storage.

Thank you for checking out my Spring Sensory Bin…

Are you look for more sensory bin ideas? Check out my Pinterest page!

The post Spring Sensory Bin appeared first on Homework and Horseplay.

March Dollar Tree STEM Box | 2018

Are you ready to take on an Easter STEM challenge? For our March Dollar Tree STEM Box we worked on creating some fun Easter art. To be honest I wasn’t sure how this project would turn out, but I am really happy that we tried it out.

Challenge: Make your own jelly bean watercolors.

Suggested supplies:

• Jelly beans
• Plastic containers with lids
• Paint brushes
• Coloring pages or plain paper

Step 1: Sort the jelly beans by color into separate containers.

Step 2: Pour water over jelly beans so they are completely covered. Then put the lids on and let the jelly beans dissolve.

Step 3: Paint your pictures!

As you can see the watercolors look a little strange, but they smell amazzzzzzing! Some of the lighter colors didn’t show up as clearly as I had hoped, but Jack still had a great time making his own jelly bean watercolors.

Thank you for checking out our March Dollar Tree STEM Box | 2018.

Happy Easter to all of you and your families! If you try making your own jelly bean watercolors we would love to see your completed artwork. Please feel free to share your art in the comments below or tag me on Instagram.

Did you miss our past STEM Box challenges?

You can find them all here. 

The post March Dollar Tree STEM Box | 2018 appeared first on Homework and Horseplay.