Chip "Mannheim Steamroller" Davis

We often think that new classical music is no longer being created because  we hear other genre more often, nevertheless,  it is, for some composers, going strong. The composer I want to highlight today is Chip Davis, better known as Mannheim Steamroller. His Christmas music is standard fare these days as a necessary part of the Christmas season. It wasn’t always the case.

Chip Davis was born in Sylvania, Ohio as Louis Davis, Jr. , but his nickname “Chip” stuck and he has been Chip ever since. He came from a musical family. He was taught piano by his grandmother, his dad was a high school music teacher and his mother was in Phil Spitainy’s All Girl Orchestra.  Chip Davis graduated from the University of Michigan as a classical musician, with mastery in Bassoon and Percussion.

After graduation he worked as a jingle writer for a Nebraska advertising agency where he and a colleague came up with the character CW McCall, a truck driver, to use in commercials for The Old Home Bread Company. The character was such a hit that Nashville came calling.  Chip and his colleague got a recording contract to produce recordings under that name. “Convoy” was a huge success and helped fuel the CB radio crazy. He sold 10 million records in 2 months!  Who knew!

Using the money he got from the CW McCall recordings and the movie rights starring Kris Kristofferson, he recorded the first of his Fresh Aire albums. He called his style “18th Century Classical Rock”.  He and his one man band Mannheim Steamroller were not accepted by the record companies and he ended up forming his own called American Gramaphone.

He still faced an uphill battle, but through persistence and clever marketing he is now one of the 50 top selling artists of all time and the top selling Christmas artist ever. He has sold more than 40 million  records!  He has sold out concerts all over the world and his music company is one of the most successful independent music franchises in the world.

He introduced his first Christmas Album in 1984. At the time Christmas music was not popular, but once his“Deck the Halls” hit the Top 40 he sold 5 million copies! Last year marked the 25th anniversary of his Christmas Mannheim Steamroller tour, one of the best selling tours in the music business each year.

In keeping with the season here is a sample of one of my favorites... Silent Night. Chip Davis is well loved in our home. My intermediate and older pianists love to play his music. One of their favorites is Chocolate Fudge. Another favorite is Sara’s Band. They also love all of his Christmas music.

You can purchase his sheet music either through amazon.com or on Mannheim Steamroller's web site. When you order the music you can order it as piano solo, 4 hands, or a full orchestra. Make sure you know which one you are purchasing!

Here is an interview Chip Davis did with Kim Komando just before Thanksgiving you might enjoy.

In closing, when it comes to introducing classical music or just a love of music in general, Chip Davis and Mannheim Steamroller Christmas music is a great place to start. Here is one of my favorites. Enjoy!

If you have any suggestions for future articles, whether it’s for music or art, just let me know. You can leave your thoughts, comments or suggestions here on my feedback page. Thanks!

- Dana

Christmas is for Brats...

I was thinking about Christmas this morning. About seemingly silly traditions that accompany this holiday. Moreover, I was thinking that it was wrong to celebrate in some of the ways we do. It was unfair.

I was trying to sort in my head all the gifts that still needed to be made and purchased and weighing the things I still needed to get for my kids against the mountains of presents they would already be receiving. I needed to make sure I got them something they would like, something they wanted, something someone else wasn't already giving them. And hopefully something that they would love and be interested in for more than a week.

That led to thoughts of what to get the little cousins whose names we have. This is trickier because we don't see them often and aren't always sure what they would like or what they already have. Then there are gifts for friends and neighbors and grandpa and the sister who has everything and teachers and mailmen...I thought, "this is ridiculous! This long list of people that we buy for whether or not they deserve a gift, whether or not it will be appreciated and used and loved, whether or not it is something that they want."

My kids know that they will be getting gifts for Christmas -- lots of gifts. No matter how many times in the month of December I may say, "you had better be good or Santa won't bring you any presents." Or my latest threat, "If you don't start picking up your stuff I am going to pick it up for you and wrap it up for your Christmas!" No, my kids know that, come Christmas morning there will be a pile of presents carefully chosen just for them. And the giving doesn't stop there. They will open gifts at home, at Grandma's later that morning, at Grandpa's that afternoon and the gifting will continue into the next week as we travel to the other grandparents' house for a Christmas party there.

All these gifts, regardless of their deserving them.

And then a thought stopped me in my tracks.

Isn't that exactly what Christmas is all about? It is a gift of a Savior of the world. A gift of a perfect example of a perfect life. A gift of atonement and redemption and resurrection and eternal life. And it is all given freely and lovingly to every person in the whole world. Even brats like me. No one deserves it. Few acknowledge it and none of us are grateful enough for it. Too many times I don't even give it much thought. Yet, it is the perfect gift delivered with pure love and certainly with hopes and prayers of our using it. No gift has ever had a higher price, a greater degree of agony, or a brighter promise of hope.

Today I thank heaven that Christmas is for brats.

You can leave your thoughts, comments or suggestions here on my feedback page. Thanks!

- Kresta

Begin with the End in Mind

As the new school year begins, we plan, and schedule, and purchase so that we can have a successful year in our homeschools. I have found that the most important part of getting ready for the new school year begins with me. I have to begin my planning with the end in mind. I have to have a clear picture in my head so that I can see my homeschool and what will happen each day. As I take the time to do this it really helps me focus in on the important details, not just what books I have purchased. Here are some of the things I would suggest for beginning with the end in mind.

See the Why. 

If you do not know why you are homeschooling you will fail. If you are homeschooling because you are reacting to someone or something, you will fail because homeschooling is hard! It is hard having your children around every day. It is hard listening to negative comments from others about the crazy thing you are doing with your children. It is hard to fight the battle to get it all done. But if you have prayed and pondered and studied and know why, nothing can shake you from your purpose. You will be able to weather the storms because you know where you are going and why.

See your children. 

Whether you have 1 or 12, you need to see each child as an individual, and what their needs are at their current age and stage. Again, as a matter of prayer, seek to know what you need to do with each of your children, even if it is to just keep doing what you’ve been doing. Your school year will be much more successful. Especially, if you continue to do it throughout the school year.

See the relationship. 

How is your relationship with that child? Do you need to do damage control? Are things going as you would like? How are they relating to other family members? To their Heavenly Father? To me, the most important reason I homeschool is to foster these relationships. Everything else that we accomplish is gravy.

See the talent. 

Look again at each of your children. What are their talents? What can you help them accomplish this year in developing them? Are they spending too much time doing things that take them away from pursuing them? What needs to change to make that happen? One of the benefits of homeschooling is to be able to take the time for our children to develop personal talents. If we are too focused on academics or busyness we miss that opportunity.

See the challenges. 

Just as a ship’s captain has to know the dangers of the reefs ahead and how to navigate them, you too must look ahead and see the challenges you will face this year. Is it a new baby? A challenging teenager? An illness? Or just busyness? When you can see those things that might lead you off track from your goals you can plan ahead and know how to deal with them.

See the accomplishments. 

Visualizing what you want to accomplish in your school year will help you achieve your goals. Homeschool burn out happens when you work and work and work and see no results. Do you want to make sure that you include art in your school this year? Then visualize what you think that would be. If art class every week is too much, set the goal to 2 times a month, then take pictures of what you do. At the end of the year you will see what you accomplished, even if it is only baby steps toward your goal. Sometimes the goal is to just be consistent in doing school every day. Pat yourself on the back for each day school happens in your home, even if it isn’t a perfect day. Mark it on the calendar and I think you will see it happens more often than you think!

See the schedule. 

I am a schedule person. At least on paper. But then the toddler destroys a room and clean up destroys the schedule. I have learned that it is more important that the order of things is honored than a timetable. We have 4 deadlines in our house. The first one is what needs to happen before we start school, the second is what we accomplish before lunch, the third is between lunch and dinner and the last is what happens before bed. Since I have 8 boys most of these hit a mealtime or snack time. It is amazing how food motivates them to get it done. If you have visualization of what you need to have done when, then things move along and you are not still doing school at 6pm. It is also easier to be flexible because you can trash the morning, but the afternoon schedule is still in place. Everyone knows where to pick up the schedule.

See the joy. 

If you’re not experiencing joy in your homeschool you need to ask why. Yes, homeschooling is challenging, hard, exasperating, frustrating and did I say, hard? But, there needs to be an element of joy or you will burn out, both you and your kids. That doesn’t mean that every day has to be a circus (ok, if you have toddlers or preschoolers, then never mind) or that every activity you do with your kids is fun. That’s unrealistic. If you are not experiencing deep satisfaction in what you are doing, then you need to go back to “See the why”.

Taking time to “see” our homeschools will help us navigate the challenging waters and reach the destination we are heading for - a positive, happy, productive homeschool.

You can leave your thoughts, comments or suggestions here on my feedback page. Thanks!

- Kari

Thank the Homeschoolers for Thanksgiving

History is abounding in tales of thanksgiving, however quiet and unfamiliar they may be. The beloved Pilgrims of Plymouth may be the most well-known thanks-givers (at least in the U.S.A.), but they weren’t the first or the last. There were Daniel and David in the Old Testament, Lehi and Moroni in the Book of Mormon, various Native American tribes, Spanish conquistadors, etc. There were many who recognized the Almighty as the giver of all that’s good with sacrifices, prayer, fasting or feasts. But for the traditional Thanksgiving as we know it today, we owe our thanks to “homeschoolers.”

George Washington penned the first presidential Thanksgiving proclamation at the behest of the Continental Congress, who had declared a variety of thanksgiving days of prayer throughout the Revolutionary War.

I love what he wrote: “Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor... (I) "recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:...”

Following Washington’s presidency, officially proclaimed days of Thanksgiving were sporadic. It was James Madison (another homeschooler) who proclaimed the last day of national Thanksgiving prior to a very long dry spell. Many individual states issued their own proclamations, but there was nothing more on a national level. A home and self educated woman by the name of Sarah Josepha Hale (who, incidentally, was America’s first female magazine editor and the author of “Mary Had a Little Lamb”) was passionate that the United States of America should set aside a uniform day to offer thanks as a nation. For decades she persuaded the women and petitioned the presidents of America to establish a national day of Thanksgiving. She succeeded in winning the hearts of many fellow Americans, but it wasn’t until another home-educated president was in office that anyone in the White House listened. The president? Abraham Lincoln.

In the springs of 1862 and 1863, President Lincoln issued Thanksgiving proclamations over victories in the battlefield. Then, in the fall of 1863, after the lobbying of Sara Hale for the revitalization of a national Thanksgiving on the same day President Washington had originally issued one, President Lincoln began anew the tradition of declaring the fourth Thursday in November a national holiday in which all gave thanks.

He wrote, in part: “... No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God... It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States... to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.”

To think of one homeschooled woman, doing what she could in her realm, and one homeschooled man doing what he could in his, together bringing about the grand tradition of an entire nation praising our Heavenly Father simultaneously is tremendous. God’s benevolence is no less today what it’s been in times past. Our nation will always be in need of Him. The power of an individual to influence for good is no less today, either. Our nation will always be in need of stubborn, stalwart, superb homeschooled people like Sarah Hale, Abraham Lincoln, and You.

Excellent reads:
Thank You, Sarah, The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving by Laurie Halse Anderson
P is for Pilgrim, A Thanksgiving Alphabet by Carol Crane
Thanksgiving in the White House by Gary Hines

For more information:

• A Timeline
• Presidential Thanksgiving Proclamations

A Thanksgiving Hymn

Come, Ye Thankful Homeschoolers

Adaptation by Sasha N. Takis

Come, ye thankful families come;
Raise the song of school at home. 
All are safely nestled in
Ere the culture storms begin.
God, our Maker, doth bestow
More edifying seeds to sow. 
Come, learn in your temple, come;
Raise the song of school at home.

Education is God’s own,
Fruit of knowledge is his throne.
Not of the world, but in it dwell,
Gathered at home, all is well.
Free to choose the means and source,
The shape of our eternal course.
Lord of wisdom, grant that we 
Understand veracity.

You can leave your thoughts, comments or suggestions here on my feedback page. Thanks!

- Sasha

The Power of the Positive

by Doreen Blanding

I hate math. My husband who is very gifted in logical math thinking just doesn’t understand me and I just don’t understand him.  How can a negative plus a negative be a positive? I just don’t get it!  But I do understand how destructive a negative can be and how powerful a positive can be. I also understand that if you add enough positive to a negative that you come out with more positive.

I coach a soccer team and the other day we were in a very tight game and trying desperately to hold on to a tie.  As I watched these girls defend their goal I noticed my assistant coach barking orders and telling them everything they were doing wrong.

“Megan, you didn’t drop back far enough.”

“Jessie, you can’t let number 15 get the ball.”

“KC, you have got to stay goal side.”

“MaKayla, don’t kick the ball out the end line, go side line. You know better.”

I watched these girls drop their heads and look at the ground. I noticed that my goalie started barking and yelling orders at her defense.   It wasn’t looking good. It looked like in the last five minutes of the game we were playing a totally different game than what we had practiced all week long.  The girls were frustrated and it was showing.  Thankfully the ball was kicked out of bounds and my assistant coach was busy shaking his head.  I yelled at my girls to look at me. When I had their eyes I told them to take a deep breath, shake it off, put a smile on their face and just play our game. “Soccer’s fun after all.”
  
I noticed an immediate change in my girls as well as the opposing team.  First my girls had their spirits lifted and their confidence boosted.  Shoulders went up, down and then back. Chins came up and smiles appeared on their faces.  The opposing team noticed the change too and one girl actually looked at me with a bit of fear in her face.  

What happened next was what happens when you believe in yourself, your team, your abilities and when you add more positive than negative. In a game that we had spent more time playing defense than offense, things turned around in literally minutes. We were finally on the attack.  We went down the pitch and in the very last minutes of the game scored the only goal of the game. 

Now how does this relate to math and homeschooling?

I’ve noticed that when my children are negative about their school work they start a negative spiral going and it is hard for them to stop. Pretty soon it isn’t geometry that is hard, but simple arithmetic. But worse, sometimes I am the cause of all this negative. 

“I’ve told you a thousand times, i before e except after c.”

“You are holding your pencil wrong AGAIN! How will you ever have pretty handwriting?”

“We do this every morning. You know the drill. Now get to the table!”

“Why don’t you know your four times tables; we’ve been over it every day now for years!”

Here is where as the teacher/parent we step in and tell them to, “take a deep breath, shake it off, play your game and make it fun.”  It is amazing to see the difference in a child’s work when they take a moment to slow down and think positively. It’s amazing how much more they can accomplish and accomplish it correctly.  By adding more positive to the negative we can eventually stop the downward spiral and begin to have positive experiences and eventually win.

We need to teach our children how to add that positive so that when they do face the negative, they don’t just keep adding to the negative, but add positive and eventually pull themselves out of that spiral. Positive plus a positive is always a positive!

You can leave your thoughts, comments or suggestions here on my feedback page. Thanks!

- Doreen

Just Begin

Kari has written a wonderful book on teaching writing... It is eleven chapters long and this is installment ten. We hope you enjoy it as much as we have!

Editor

In the process of writing this book there were times when I didn’t want to write.  My ideas were there, but my enthusiasm gone.  

Yet as I followed my own “Writing Traffic Light” steps, I just WROTE! WROTE! WROTE!  My ideas were clumsy and unorganized.  Still I wrote.

Then I walked away from it.  I planted in the garden, added a stitch to a quilt, and fed the fish.  I came back to it in the morning when I was fresh.  I started to EDIT.  Thank goodness for spell-check!  I was able to look at my ideas.  I added new and took away old.  I read it to my family first, and then let others edit and critique it.  They helped organize my ideas and helped them flow.

Then, when the ideas were in the right place and in order, we made it SPARKLE!  We added illustrations and arranged it on the page.
  
The process is the same for me as it is for the 2nd grader who is writing a story, the 9th grader who is writing a report, or the college student who is preparing a thesis.  I have used the process over and over with every chapter and article I have written and every activity in his book.  With each, I used the “Writing Traffic Light” process.

This process is nothing new.  We see it every day.  When my oldest daughter started soccer for the first time she just got out there and ran and kicked the ball when it came to her.  (KICK! KICK! KICK!)

Then her coach pulled her aside one day and said, “I can see that you are kicking the ball a lot.  Let me teach you how to kick with the side of your foot.  You can control it better.  She listened and she practiced. (EDIT)

She practiced her kick until she was so good that she could kick it right where she wanted. (SPARKLE)
  
The process is nearly everywhere.  It’s how we get better at anything.  We try it, we stop and edit to make things better, and then we make it uniquely ours… we make it SPARKLE.

Two things I have learned about writing to have success:

1. Stick to the “Writing Traffic Light” process, it works.
2. Just begin.

Now that you have learned how to help yourself and your children become better writers, we can get on to all the fun stuff — the Activities! 
 

Next week: "Begin with the End in Mind"

You can leave your thoughts, comments or suggestions here on my feedback page. Thanks!

- Kari

Where Do I Start?

Kari has written a wonderful book on teaching writing... It is ten chapters long and this is installment nine. We hope you enjoy it as much as we have!

Editor

So you’re excited about writing, but not sure where to start?  Here is a 6-week plan to get you going! 

Week 1:  Get ready for successful writing! 

• Set up your family writing area. (see "Set Up Your writing Area" chapter)
• Make your own “Writing Traffic Light” out of construction paper.  Hang it where everyone can see it.
• Go shopping for a writing journal for yourself.
• Start writing in your journal:  make lists, copy quotes, and write entries about ideas, ponderings, or things that are happening in your life.
• Write in your journal each day.  (remember that your journal is a place to catch ideas, that each idea is a seed being planted.)
• Buy each person a writing folder for current projects and a writing portfolio for all completed projects.

Week 2: Introduce your family or students to successful writing.

• Explain the “Writing Traffic Light” process.
• Introduce the writing journal.  Go shopping for writing journals for the whole family or encourage your class to each get one.
• Make lists, copy quotes, write entries about ideas, ponderings, or things that are happening in your life.
• Encourage your children to write in their journals each day.  Sharing if they want to.
• Make an example of next week’s writing activity that you can show, before you introduce this activity.

Week 3:   “You are Charming” Activity (see Activity Section) 

• Monday:  introduce the activity and show the example.  For Beginning and Developing Writers; have them do the project part, save the writing for Tuesday-Thursday.  Experienced Writers:  Do the project and begin the writing process.
• Tuesday—Green Light:  WRITE! WRITE! WRITE!
• Wednesday & Thursday--Yellow Light:  EDIT and rewrite.
• Friday--Red Light:  make it SPARKLE!  Add finishing touches and print it out on nice paper.  
• Hang finished projects on the wall!
• Make an example of next week’s writing activity that you can show, before you introduce this activity.

Week 4:  “Hidden Treasure Chart” Activity. (see Activity Section) 

• Make a chart for each child and hang up a famous detailed painting. 
• Monday:  introduce the activity and show the example. Using the painting, fill the chart in and share your results.
• Tuesday:  do the activity “Jump into a Painting.” (see Activities)—Green Light:  WRITE! WRITE! WRITE!
• Wednesday & Thursday--Yellow Light:  EDIT and rewrite.
• Friday--Red Light:  make it SPARKLE!  Add finishing touches and print it out on nice paper.  
• Share your fun stories with someone (Grandparent’s are great!)
• Look to the next week’s lesson and make the example.

Week 5:  “Ouch” Activity. (see Activity Section) 

• Monday:  introduce the activity and show your students a physical scar and tell them how you got it. 
• For Beginning writers have them do the drawing, save the writing for Tuesday-Thursday.  Developing and Experienced Writers:  Do the drawing and begin the writing process.  Make sure and put a band-aid on every drawing!
• Tuesday—Green Light:  WRITE! WRITE! WRITE!
• Wednesday & Thursday--Yellow Light:  EDIT and rewrite.
• Friday--Red Light:  make it SPARKLE!  Add finishing touches and print it out on nice paper.  
• Is your whole family or class writing “Ouch!” stories?  Type them up and make a collection.  Staple your stories together, have them bound at the local copy store, or type them up small and save them in a small photo album.
• Look to the next week’s lesson and make the example.

Week 6:  Transplant an Idea into a “Flip and Fold Book” (see Activity Section) 

• Monday:  Have your children look through their writing journals.  Is there anything they want to transplant?
• Each person make a “Flip and Fold Book” (see Activity section) using an idea to be transplanted.
• Brainstorm what could go on each page.  Make a Flip and Fold Book that will serve as a “Sloppy Copy”.
• Tuesday—Green Light:  WRITE! WRITE! WRITE!
• Wednesday & Thursday--Yellow Light:  EDIT and rewrite.  Make as many Flip and Fold books as needed in the EDIT and rewrite steps.
• Friday--Red Light:  make it SPARKLE!  Add finishing touches and print it out on nice paper.  
• Have each student sit in the Author’s Chair to share his or her book with the others.
• Put students completed books in a basket and keep them handy for fun reading!

After six weeks, hopefully by now you and your children are enjoying writing with the “Writing Traffic Light” and have seen great success!  Celebrate your writing!
  
Choose your next activities from the “Activities Section” and keep transplanting ideas out of your writing journal!  Continue to WRITE! WRITE! WRITE! on Monday or Tuesday, EDIT on Tuesday through Thursday, and SPARKLE on Friday!  The more children (and You) write, the better writers they (and You) become.
 

Next week: "Just Begin"

You can leave your thoughts, comments or suggestions here on my feedback page. Thanks!

- Kari

Halloween Math Art

Real life math applications are so much better than worksheets, and anytime you can find one project to employ multiple subjects you’ve got yourself a deal.  Give it seasonal appeal and it’s a bonus project with extra purpose.  Additionally, combining art and math is a fantastic whole-brained exercise that draws on and develops the strengths of both cerebral hemispheres.*

This past week I presented just such a project to my children.  I spent less than $3.00 for all 5 kids to complete an assignment that qualified as both math and art, and which also added to festive Halloween decorations.  Even better:  it got them excited.  This was a developmental pursuit in geometry, measurement, creativity, aesthetics, association, and coordination.  It took right-brained thinking to have an imaginative vision of the whole, and left-brained mathematics, logical analysis, and attention to detail to make it.  It was hands-on, 3D, and real.

The mission was to make Halloween Houses.  I purchased several 12”x12” pieces of Halloween scrapbook paper at a discount, put it in the middle of the table, and told the kids they were using this paper and Scotch tape to make small model houses.  Helping my youngest, who was concentrating on cutting, taping, choosing paper, naming shapes, and learning to use a ruler, I showed everyone a basic format of 4 main walls of squares of equal sizes, rectangle pieces for the pitch of the roof, attached to triangles whose bases were the same length as the square walls.   The kids were free to use whatever measurements they wanted (within reason, considering there was only so much paper, and also to be considerate as to not use all of one particular pattern) as well as whatever building design and/or embellishments they wanted. 

The project isn’t going to end with math and art, however.  Each of the kids had a different vision.  For some, I sensed a story behind the creation—that the artistic and architectural vision came from thoughts of plots and characters that might as yet be subconscious but nonetheless there. One child did a half-open creepy door cutout.  One child put holes in his roof and added sinister stairs inside that could be seen through a doorway under the ominous porch.  One child added an attic, and his triangles did not match his squares, giving the house a more traditional aged and threatening look. Because we have a theme in our homeschool this year of “Everyone Has a Story,” in the next week the children will each be writing “the story” of their Halloween House.

If you don’t like Halloween, you can adopt the idea simply for autumn, or you could do something similar at Christmas time.  Since this was my kids’ first go at it, and we were on a bit of a time schedule when we did it, most of the kids kept it simple to get it finished.  I suspect if given another opportunity and more time they’ll be faster at the fundamentals and want to add on to and enhance the basic concept.  Maybe it’ll become a new October tradition. 

Whatever you do this week, try to find some creative, real-world applications for newfound knowledge and skills.  Take notice of left- and right-brained thinking and see how many activities you can find to employ both.

*For a quick test of hemispheric dominance, go here.
 

You can leave your thoughts, comments or suggestions here on my feedback page. Thanks!

- Sasha

Jack o'Lantern Senses

One of my favorite ways to teach something is to incorporate a bit of holiday fun into the lesson. Lucky for me, this route is extremely easy to take when you’re teaching younger ones. Fall and Halloween are two great reasons to celebrate, and can provide many different avenues for learning. Today I’d like to share our favorite Halloween lesson: Jack O’Lantern Senses.  Basically the idea is to teach the kids about their five senses using a jack o’ lantern and some fun Halloween activities.

Materials Needed

-Black construction paper
-Clear contact paper
-Scissors
-Orange tissue paper, cut into small squares
-A jack o’lantern pattern (use this link or a pattern of your own, you’ll want the outline to be thick) 
-Flashlight
-A pumpkin, top cut off and guts scraped out (save the guts in a separate bowl)
-Pumpkin seeds (the ones from the pumpkin above will work nicely)
-Soy sauce
-Lemon juice
-Cinnamon sugar
-Seasoning salt
-Scented jack o’lantern candles pumpkin and licorice (you can find these at WalMart for $0.39 each)

*Separate the pumpkin seeds into four groups. Put them in separate parts of a muffin tin. Sprinkle one group with soy sauce, one group with lemon juice, one group with cinnamon and sugar, and one group with seasoning salt. Bake the seeds at 350 degrees stirring every 3-5 minutes until seeds are dry.  Keep the seeds in their separate groups.

What to Do

Cut out the jack o’lantern pattern so that you are left with the outline and the eyes, nose, and mouth. Trace those pieces onto black construction paper and cut them out again. (Depending on the age/skill level of the kids I’m working with, I usually cut out the outline of the jack o’lantern and the eyes, nose, and mouth for them, and provide them with a plastic sandwich baggie with all their pieces tucked inside.) Also, cut out two squares of contact paper big enough to cover the whole jack o’lantern.

Peel the backing off of one of the squares of contact paper and stick the outline of the jack o’lantern onto the sticky side of the contact paper. Explain that this is the jack o’lantern’s skin. Talk about our skin, and how it covers our whole body and allows us to feel things when we touch them. Pass around the pumpkin and let the kids feel the pumpkin skin, the stem, the inside of the pumpkin, and the bowl full of pumpkin guts. Talk about the different textures that their skin is feeling: smooth, bumpy, hard, scratchy, wet, slimy, etc. 

Next have the kids stick on the jack o’lantern’s mouth. Have the kids point to their mouths and ask them what they have inside. Have them stick out their tongue. Ask what they use their tongues for. Explain that our tongue has tiny things all over it called taste buds that help us to taste the food that we eat. Let the kids try each group of pumpkin seeds, one group at a time. Explain that the ones cooked in soy sauce are bitter, the ones in lemon juice are sour, the ones in cinnamon sugar are sweet, and the ones in seasoning salt are salty.  Have them vote on their favorite taste.

After that, talk about ears. Explain that we have something that the jack o’lanterns don’t have, and that is ears. Have all the kids point to their ears. Ask what we do with our ears. We listen. Have all the kids stand in a line, or a circle, and play a wiggle game. Give the kids directions such as, “If you can hear me, touch the top of your head.” Or, “If you can hear me, turn around in a circle.” And so on. Change your voice, so that sometimes you are speaking loudly and sometimes you are speaking softly. Then tell the kids that we can also hear music with our ears. Teach them the song, Mr. Jack o’Lantern by Alene Dalton, Myriel Cluff Ashton and Erla Young.

Mr. Jack-o-lantern
Is very round and fat.
He has a yellow candle
Tucked underneath his hat.
It makes his face look scary 
And very, very bright
When he winks and smiles at me
On spooky Halloween night!

You can find the sheet music for the song in the book "My Picture Book of Songs" by Alene Dalton, Myriel Cluff Ashton, and Erla Young. I found a copy at the library, but you can also look it up online.

Next comes the nose. Don’t forget to have the kids stick the nose on their jack o’lantern. Have everyone point to their nose, and talk about how we use it to smell. Bring out the pumpkin and licorice scented candles. Light them and let them burn long enough to melt some of the wax. Have the kids close their eyes, and let them smell both of the candles. Have them vote on which smell they like best.

Lastly, have the kids put the eyes on their jack o’lanterns. In order to do the sight activity, you’ll have to finish the art project first. Use orange construction paper squares to fill in the inside of the jack o’lantern. When all the space is full, take the second square of contact paper and stick in over top. Cut out around the edge of the jack o’lantern. When the art project is finished, talk about how we use our eyes to see things. Take one of the finished jack o’lanterns and shine a flashlight behind it so that the light shines through the tissue paper. Holding the jack o’lantern up to the sun will have the same effect.

You can hang your jack o’lantern sun catcher up in the window to remind you about the things you learned about the five senses, and to make a fun holiday decoration. Enjoy!

You can leave your thoughts, comments or suggestions here on my feedback page. Thanks!

- Krystal

Set Up Your Writing Area

Kari has written a wonderful book on teaching writing... It is ten chapters long and this is installment eight. We hope you enjoy it as much as we have!

Editor

There is nothing worse than having a great idea and not being able to find a pencil or paper to write it down.  Every home or classroom should have a well-stocked writing area that makes it easy for a writer to jump in when the inspiration hits that have everything a writer needs all in one place!  This includes:

• A copy of the “Writing Traffic Light”
• Lots of paper of different colors and sizes, with some lined and some blank
• Envelopes for writing letters
• Pencils, colored pencils, pens, markers, and crayons of all different types and neatly organized
• Construction paper of different colors and organized in a drawer or other holder
• Scissors, glue, etc. for all those crafts that turn into writing projects
• A writing table with room to organize ideas and papers
• Writing Folder for each student or child  (This is where they keep their writing projects or transplanted ideas)
• Portfolio for each child (a 3-ring binder) with plastic sheet protectors for keeping all your finished writing in
• Writing journal for each child and YOU

Next week: "Where Do I Start?"

You can leave your thoughts, comments or suggestions here on my feedback page. Thanks!

- Kari