Christmas Fun Link Up 2015

Christmas!

 

Did I hear someone say Christmas?

Seriously why does it take me by surprise every single year?

Are you the same?

Here we are only a day or so away from December 1st but as always I'm not ready for Christmas just yet!

I was looking back over all the fun we've had during the years and I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that it has actually been three whole years since my last Christmas Fun link up. Wow! What a shame to have missed the past years as there are some amazing links added which you can still visit just by choosing the Christmas Label in my sidebar.

So I wanted to let you all know that I'm doing it again this year. 

The 2015 Christmas Fun Linky will open this coming Wednesday the 2nd and will continue for the 4 weeks leading up to Christmas.

So get out all of those Christmas goodies, get crafting, cooking, singing, sewing and enjoying all that Christmas means to you. Then head back here on Wednesday and link up your posts.

Would you all mind doing me a little favour though? 

Please grab the Christmas Button below and share it around so that all of your awesome links are seen by as many people as possible this festive season.

<a href=" http://ourworldwideclassroom.blogspot.com/search/label/Christmas/" target="_blank"><img src=" http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk224/realworldlearners/ChristmasFunButton2010.jpg" alt="Our Worldwide Classroom" /></a>

Do you use and love Instagram?

Share your Christmas Fun images over there using the hash tag #homeschoolchristmasfun



Follow Our Worldwide Classroom's board Homeschool: Christmas Fun on Pinterest.  

I have also created a Homeschool Christmas Fun Group Sharing Board. I'd love for you to join the board and add all of your wonderful Christmas Fun pins there. Please contact me if you would like to be added.

 

I'm so excited I can't wait to get this underway and to explore all of the fabulous things you are doing in the lead up to Christmas. See you later in the week for the very first installment of  Christmas Fun.

 

Happy Homeschooling,

Kylie

It's OK To be Ordinary!

This article can now be found here -

THE ORDINARY HOMESCHOOL

France ~ The Eiffel Tower

 

So I figured it was about time I shared some more details on our recent trip to France. You might remember the Madeline post! This time we visited the Eiffel Tower. One of the most visited and well known structures in the entire world!

As is always the case with our group activities we have a large age range of children, from five up to fourteen years in fact so it can at times be a little tricky putting together something that will work for the entire group.

This time the information presented was pretty much the same for everyone but the output from the various age groups was much more appropriate.

As you can see here we had a simple tracing exercise for the youngest of the children and the middle to upper primary group completed a question and answer sheet after chatting about and watching a short informational video on the Eiffel Tower.

I actually struggled to find a video I was truly happy with, either my searching abilities this time around needed some work or there just isn't much out there in the form of short documentary style videos about the Eiffel Tower.

After watching the video and a having brief discussion the oldest of the group wrote a short informational report about the Eiffel Tower. They were given a list of questions to answer within the report. As a group we worked through all of the topics and discussed as necessary or when various points were raised.

I do enjoy working with older kids for this reason. We generally are not a group of one teacher and several students. I am simply one of them, together in that group all learning what we can, asking questions, sorting through the information and coming up with something that works for each of us.

I have included these Free Eiffel Tower Printable Worksheets as a download at the bottom of this post.


For a bit of fun we all took a ride on the Eiffel Tower Elevator. Well as close as we could get to a ride whilst remaining firmly planted here in the living room.

I love the view you get from this angle though, it is well worth watching.

There are quite few different Eiffel Tower Crafts out there on the web. I knew I needed something simple due to time constraints and the wide variety of ages of kids that I was dealing with.

In the end I went with the Straw Eiffel Tower Craft as it gave some level of flexibility, was simple enough for young ones and the older kids could add their own flair to it.

I googled a template and printed it on light weight card as I knew there would be loads of wet glue being added to these during the process. The template itself is really just to use as a guide so it doesn't need to be too particular.

I just love how even with such a simple activity they all came up with their very own different ideas.

When it came time for the older kids turn I gave them a great deal more choice with materials. There were of course the straws in varying colours, but I also laid out buttons, beads, pretty little paper flowers and other small bits and bobs envisioning them all having a grand old time turning their plain template into a beautiful rendition of the tower.

Alas, they all, but me, chose the straws. Oh well you know what they say about never working with children ;-) hahaha!

And that was our visit to the Eiffel Tower.

Would you like a copy of the Eiffel Tower Worksheets I shared above?  Please use this link to download a copy for your personal use.

Happy Homeschooling,
Kylie

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