Workbox Wednesday, Thanksgiving edition

Thanksgiving has been the workbox theme around here since last week, and here a few samples.

Copywork slips with Thanksgiving quotes can be found in this cornucopia basket, which was my grandmother's.

I chose to give different quotes to each of my older two kids, so I stamped each slip with either a leaf or an apple and made sure they knew whose was whose. The writing paper is from abcteach.

DD (8) has some alone time with her grandmother tomorrow so I'm leaving this hinged puppet project in her last workbox; from History Pockets: Life in Plymouth Colony.

Thanksgiving-themed verbal analogies from Enchanted Learning. DS (11) is getting the Thanksgiving version of a "grammar potpourri" worksheet from that same site in one of tomorrow's boxes.

Word problems having to do with Thanksgiving from abcteach are keeping both kids' math skills sharp while we take a little break from Right Start Math. We'll hop right back into the curricula as soon as December 1st rolls around.

Schlessinger Media DVDs are great--we were lucky enough to get this one (Early Settlers) and one about Plimouth Plantation via interlibrary loan to watch this week. Wish this company would start streaming videos, and soon!

A few of the many Thanksgiving books that have made their way into the boxes in the past week or so.

Squanto's Journey, by Joseph Bruchac

Thank You, Sarah--The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving, by Laurie Halse Anderson

The First Thanksgiving, by Jean Craighead George

The New Americans (part of The American Story series), by Betsy and Giulio Maestro

I'll post more as time allows.

Thanksgiving copywork

Here is my first attempt at using Scribd to post a pdf. Let me know if it works! Below is a list of mostly secular Thanksgiving quotations that my kids are using for copywork as we get close to Thanksgiving. I printed them out, cut them into individual slips, and put them in a basket for the kids to choose from each day.

Thanksgiving Copywork

Thanksgiving, by Amelia A. Barr (1831-1919)

Thanksgiving

by Amelia A. Barr

"Have you cut the wheat in the blowing fields,

The barley, the oats, and the rye,

The golden corn and the pearly rice?

For the winter days are nigh."

"We have reaped them all from shore to shore,

And the grain is safe on the threshing floor."

"Have you gathered the berries from the vine,

And the fruit from the orchard trees?

The dew and the scent from the roses and thyme,

In the hive of the honeybees?"

"The peach and the plum and the apple are ours,

And the honeycomb from the scented flowers."

"The wealth of the snowy cotton field

And the gift of the sugar cane,

The savory herb and the nourishing root—

There has nothing been given in vain."

"We have gathered the harvest from shore to shore,

And the measure is full and brimming o'er."

"Then lift up the head with a song!

And lift up the hand with a gift!

To the ancient Giver of all

The spirit in gratitude lift!

For the joy and the promise of spring,

For the hay and the clover sweet,

The barley, the rye, and the oats,

The rice, and the corn, and the wheat,

The cotton, and sugar, and fruit,

The flowers and the fine honeycomb,

The country so fair and so free,

The blessings and glory of home."

I was reminded of this poem by Living Books Curriculum's Holiday Helper: Thanksgiving, which is this week's free download from CurrClick. Victorian romance author Amelia Barr is best known for "Remember the Alamo" (1888).

Wordless Wednesday - Red Apple Farm

So my husband walks into a Starbucks. . .

. . . and what does he see but a brand new Sting cd.

Sting. With a beard. Singing one of my favorite Christmas carols ever, along with a host of other songs to bring cheer on a winter's night. My day just got a whole lot better.