I Might Be Addicted to *Theme Units*

Because I'm totally a nerd mom I had to take a picture of some of the  packets, aka theme units I developed for K to work thru this last year-2nd grade (as I'm clearing out the clutter). I am such a sucker for theme units so I'd scour the internet for crafts, projects and printables and put it all together.

It never seems like much is accomplished in the moment and I always feel like we could or should be doing more, more, more.  Now that I look at these though...wow! Pretty cool. Some are missing for who knows what reason...lost, crumpled, left in the car and inevitably, tossed. Gasp! Which is where these are headed. In the recycling bin of course! 

Here are few of the themes we covered and shown in this pic: 

• My Five Sense
• Your Body
• Diary of an Elf
• My Reindeer Report
• Winter/Christmas Around the World
• Rain
• Spring
• Valentine's Day
• St. Patrick's Day
• Tropical Rain Forest
• The Arctic
• Oceans

Of course I found a couple that were left more unfinished than finished to include in this picture. Haha! We'll finish them up this summer. Think I wouldn't!?!

I choose a theme, which usually matches the current weather, season, or holiday of the month. It's super easy to find printables (mostly free) for every subject on every topic. Hello Pinterest!?! I personally have a few fav sites that I use regularly Education.com (some printables are free but I have full access with a subscription from our charter school) and Readworks.org (for language arts passages). Those two links usually make up my base. From there I search for themed math worksheets. He has a math book so those would be supplementary and colorful! I use multi-media like youtube to find interesting videos to match the theme.

I can incorporate language arts, math, science, social studies and/or history and even fine art. Science is often my starting point or subject because language arts can be incorporated with anything. Occasionally I will create a packet that focuses solely on language arts skills using reading passages, graphic organizers, writing prompts and reading comprehension such as a Fairy Tale packet I created. Or one that had beautiful, full-color graphic organizers that was all about writing good sentences and solid paragraphs with a main idea and supporting sentences.  

I use science topics the most though because helllooo...experiments! When I shared in class that I prefer to use theme units, my professor responded that it is hard and takes years of experience to create theme units. I don't know if that is true or not since I DO have years (19 so far!) of experience. I certainly don't think it is hard though. If I may be honest, I love theme units because it feels so easy. Like the lazy mom's way to home-educate! Why not use one topic and hit all the subjects instead of having 6 separate subjects AND topics?

Over all, I can say, now that it's summer, that we had a great year. I was doubtful at times. Scared often. Home-educating is a huge responsibility. My darlings aren't always as excited about it as I am! I don't know why. ;-) We also did a lot of organic learning...while hiking, visiting nature centers and various outdoor environments in different seasons and all kinds of weather.

Theme units aren't just for lower and elementary grades either. I created my high schoolers fine arts syllabus month-to-month following the same idea: theme, youtube, printable, art project. Voila! (I can share more about that later...on my homeschool blog --I promise to catch up soon. I have lots of drafts to update from this past school year.)

There you have it folks...the lazy mom's guide too homeschool. Maybe that should have been the title? 

Math Brain : STEM

Creating animal dens.

It's been a rough few months due to the move and adjusting to all of that, so I have been off my home-educating game a bit. Haha. I love pinterest for inspiring ideas! I found various activities using marshmallows and tooth picks. I knew there were STEM challenges to do but I wanted more creative exercises. Sometimes all you need is one suggestion to spark your own ideas.

The middle schooler's structure.

The middle schooler could not help joining in when she saw the first grader starting his structure. 

Building a structure with tooth picks and marshmallows.

The initial challenge was to create animal dens from the supplies given. Once that was completed, I upped the ante by challenging my students to create the tallest, free standing structure possible. It needed to be sound enough to maintain it's height with out falling over. 

It's more challenging then it sounds. They enjoyed this and it covered all STEM areas: science, technology, engineering and math. Supposedly, right? haha. They definitely experienced and learned about the force of gravity. 

Can you guess which structure was created by the middle schooler and which was created by the high schooler & first grader team?