This trip we are doing a Western Unit. My kids are 6 and 8, so some of this might have to be beefed up for older kids.
I keep all of these books handy in a tall clear rubbermaid bin. This trip it's in the passenger side floor board so dad can get the books out one by one. And put them back!
1. Worship Song- I always like to start the day praising God just for being here! This trip we have Hillsong Kids!
2. Morning Devotion- I'm using a Beth Moore, Day by Day study- It's quick, simple, easy to carry in the car.
Now we dig out our notebooks! Clear 1' binders. I inserted a cute cowboy cover with a Bible verse. I should have put the kids names on their notebooks- oh, well! Next time!
The sections inside are divided so the kids can easily flip to the next section when they are done with the previous. We go in order:
1. Morning Messages-At home we brainstorm together and come up with a message. I have preprinted them for the car because it's exactly easy to "model" write in the car. Some of them also go with the Western theme: Draw a cowboy, what kind of work does a cowboy do, make up a top secret chili recipe. What's the secret ingredient? We have one for every day we will be gone. Usually I just google story starters for second grade....
2. Bible Verse - Copywork of the verse. I wanted to use a "song" one that I have on cd so we could play it in the car but then I found this one on a "wanted poster" and couldn't resist! "Blessed are they who maintain justice. Who always do what is right."psalm 106:3
3. Handwriting- I use Handwriting Without Tears at home so I wanted to use the same on the road but not have to lug around their workbooks. I was so excited to find their worksheet maker on their website!! I inserted "western words" onto the kids worksheets and printed one for every day we will be gone. For my second grader I also did vocabulary sheets with "western words" off of their site! So awesome!
4. Math- song, problem of the day, time, money :
We sing lots of math songs in the car! Dr. Jean is the BEST!!! Mr. Al and They Might be Giants also have some math songs.
Problem of the day- I got them from the Kcrews free printables! http://thekcrew.net/samplepacks.html Love this site!!
I wanted to focus on time and money when we were gone so I stuck some print outs about these concepts into this section of the folders. It's working great so far! We also sing Dr. Jeans time and money songs, over and over!!
5. Daily hundreds Chart Game- This is part of math but I wanted to make sure my daughter was counting to 100 daily so I printed some prefilled 100's charts! I also found a list of games to play with a 100's chart! A little more advanced to fill the needs of my second grader. Again, we use Dr. Jean's counting songs!
6. Daily Post Cards or Letters- Of course you have to send letters and post cards on vacation! At your stops along the way pick up some postcards to send to friends and family, or to yourself! We've been working on proper letter writing for some time now, so this is great reinforcement.
I am so proud of "D", my six year old, for making a coming up with this idea! We just did a book camp at our house so she wanted to be able to make books on our trip. I told her to make a "book making kit" to take with. I gave her a rubbermaid container made for holding documents- the lid clips shut. She went to town finding things to put in her box for the trip; cards and envelopes, scrapbook paper, mini star shaped blank books, scissors, glue sticks, stickers, markers, pencils! She even decorated the cover! I hope to post a picture soon! It's very cool and she has loved using it in the car and at our destination!
7. Poetry- I picked poetry to do in the car 1. because I found some super cute western poems online 2. because you can cover tons of language arts concepts through poetry 3. my kids love it 4. I can't read in the car for long periods of time! I've also got some super fun Shel Silverstein poems/songs on CD that we love to listen to in the car anytime!! The western poems I found are at http://www.thevirtualvine.com/cowboys.html
Cowboy Dan, My Name is Texas, I am a Cowboy, I am a Cowgirl, When Tillie Ate the Chili
8. Book Making- Since we have the bookmaking kit, I thought we could make some "western books" in the car! 1. My Cowboy Book...illustrating each page (boots, hats, jeans, bunkhouse, corral, stampede, lasso) 2. Cowboys Can....But Cowboys Cannot 3. T is for Texas, cut out Texas symbols, use for each page, put in alphabetical order 4. Texas Flip Book, one for each letter in the word Texas. Most of these ideas also came from virtual vine or Kcrew sites. www.bookmakingwithkids.com is also a wonderful bookmaking site!
9. Tutor Time- Individual Math with each child. I haven't gotten to this yet in the car and the vehicle we are driving doesn't allow me to sit next to the children. We'll have to do tutor time at our destination!
10. Reading- For summer reading the kids are trying to read 50 books. I brought as many as I could of the books they wanted to read. I like for my second grader to read at least one chapter in a sitting, even though he could read an entire book in one sitting. He is working on the Magic Tree House Series, my kindergartener is working on Bob Books and Scholastic first time readers. If I had prepared better I would have ordered Western books for them to read on this trip- I ran out of time! But I do have a list! Also found at those great websites listed above!
I have a book with western activities and short stories about the west that we are using for background information, history, and introduction of "the west." It's working fine to just have this. I'll post specific names of books later..........
11. Art, Food, Fun when you get where you're going.......
Today at our destination we had ribs and baked beans for dinner and made cowboy vests out of paper bags!! The kids decorated with stickers, sheriff badges, and fringe! Pictures later......
12. Be spontaneous - We happened to see a sign for a place called Western Town while driving! Of course we had to stop at the biggest western store in the country! We had the kids do a treasure hunt for cowboy gear throughout the store and take pictures of everything they could find! We had just talked about this in the car using the the "Cowboy Dan" poem so it worked out perfectly! They had a great time and I got some cute pictures. We also bought a lasso to play with at our destination! It ended up being way cheaper than a paid attraction, the kids LOVED it, and we stretched our legs for a few minutes.
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