Snow Day!

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather. ~John Ruskin


Kindness is like snow--it beautifies everything it covers.

A snowflake is one of God's most fragile creations, but look what they can do when they stick together! ~Author Unknown

Snowmen fall from heaven... unassembled. ~Author Unknown

When it snows, you have two choices: shovel or make snow angels. ~Author Unknown

"A snowball in the face is surely the perfect beginning to a lasting friendship." — Markus Zusak -The Book Thief

The aging process has you firmly in its grasp if you never get the urge to throw a snowball.~ Doug Larson

"I love snow for the same reason I love Christmas: It brings people together while time stands still. Cozy couples lazily meandered the streets and children trudged sleds and chased snowballs. No one seemed to be in a rush to experience anything other than the glory of the day, with each other, whenever and however it happened " — Rachel Cohn

Winter Wonders Download N Go Review

We have enjoyed spending this week enjoying all of God’s Winter Wonders! One of the greatest things we’ve learned this week was to enjoy the small things. We knew this of course, but this week has been a wonderful reminder!



In case you are not familiar with Amanda Bennett’s Download N Go series, they are a comprehensive unit study geared toward K-4th grade students but could easily be used with older children as well. Everything is organized and prepared for you. It includes videos, websites, activities, and lapbook components. You don’t have to spend a lot of time doing research, all the work is done for you. There is a comprehensive book list included for each unit. I usually spend 30 minutes to an hour reading over the material, printing, and putting books on hold. Some might think there is a lot of printing but you can print as much or little of the materials as you decide. I print all the lapbook pieces and some activity pages and the rest we work on orally together. It works out perfectly for our family.


Here are some of the books we used for this study.

Take a look at what is included in Winter Wonders. Each day is broken down into 5 days/Objectives:

1. What is Winter?
2. Science Secrets of Winter
3. People and Places of Winter
4. Time for Tips and Treasures of Winter
5. Goodies and Gadgets of Winter

Click on the picture below to take a look at some sample pages.




Each day is filled with plenty of interesting videos and activities as you learn all about winter, snowflakes, hibernation, winter safety, the Iditarod Race, “Snowflake Bentley”, and so much more. There were also lots of fun recipes to try and the favorite around here…science experiments!


Here are a few that we tried this week:




"When Does Water Float? " We learned about density and how water becomes less dense when it freezes.

This experiment helped us to understand why we use salt on our sidewalks and roads during the winter.

Their hypothesis was correct. The ice cube with the salt melted much more quickly.

Almost on queue, the snow begin to fall and we were able to catch some snow crystals to examine. I love it when a plan comes together! *smile*

Snowflake Bentley we are not but we were able to get a pretty good look at some individual flakes.

We made some Hot Chocolate with one of the recipes included in the unit. Noah said, and I quote, "It was the best hot chocolate in the world!" and thats saying alot coming from him!

So we decided that Snowflake Tortillas would be the perfect snack to go along with our hot chocolate.

And it would be even better served on our snowman dishes.

We were right!!!! YUM! A perfect way to spend a winter afternoon.

We also made lots of snowflakes to decorate the windows.

One of the days, we were studying about an artist that does winter paintings named Robert Duncan. Imagine the kids surprise (and moms) when we discovered on our very own wall some of his art work!!! Love his stuff by the way, combines some of my favorite things- kids, animals, and snow.

After looking at alot of his winter scenes, we thought we would give it a try.

Micah hard at work.

This is Noah's. It's a little abstract but if you look closely you can see row upon row of bare trees.

I was very impressed!

We had such a great time with this study. So many different things to try. I love the opportunity to have this quality time with my kids and these units make it so fun and easy.


Here is a shot of the outside of our lapbook.

I would gladly recommend these Download & Go Units to anyone. You can order Winter Wonders here. Great product for a great price!

You can learn more about the Download N Go Series and all the titles they offer here.



You can also check out the DNG Blog for all the latest information and specials.

Check out the Winter Wonders Blog Tour and see what other reviewers are saying.

***Disclaimer Statement: We were provided a copy of this product, free of charge, for the purpose of writing an honest review her on my blog. The opinions expressed here are those of my children or myself.***

Fall Colors and Our First Snow

Well we have had our first snow! It didnt last long but I dont think it is a good sign when it snows the first week of October! LOL!

I love the fall folliage in the foreground with the snow on the mountains behind.

Snowflakes

Today we read all about snow and made some coffee filter snowflakes. Didnt they turn out pretty!

After dinner, we made snowflake tortillas. You cut the tortilla just like a paper snowflake and then fry it.

After it is done, you spray it with a little butter and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Yum!!!!!!!!

And just for us, this is what it has been doing outside all day long!



What a great way to start our Polar Lands & Animals Unit!!!