Winter Wonders...

We have spent the last 2 weeks marveling in the "Wonders of Winter" .  Since we were taking a small break from our usual school schedule with the holidays we decided to use the Download n' Go unit "WINTER WONDERS"...   This is a unit that is designed to be used in a week, but I took 2 weeks since we were doing it as a fun thing to entertain the kids during our time off and as a way for me to "sneak" some school in too.  Now, as with all the DNG units ~ it's a comprehensive unit study geared toward K-4th grade students, but I use it with my 5th grader and he learns and enjoys them  just as much as my 2nd grader. They are really easy to beef up by adding additonal work sheets on the older childs level. 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.

 For the last 10 years or so, East Tn has had relatively dry winters (virtually no snow ~ except for the occasional flurry). In the last month we have had 3 snowfalls with accumulations and more is predicted to fall in the coming days... My kids are in heaven and taking advantage of learning about winter was perfect for us.

We lean towards the eclectic order in our homeschool and I use the DNG units as I use most of my material  ~ in the way that works for us. And that is one of the reasons why I love using these units. They work with us and take almost no prep work on my part. Now I know some people don't mind printing and use every page and that's great, but for us I like to save ink and paper (my budget prevails) and I print mostly the lapbook components and  a few of the activity pages.


This is one of the pages that my kids completed on Caribou.
  I usually take 30 minutes to an hour for my prep for the WHOLE week~ that includes reading over the material, printing the neccessary pages, and putting my library books on hold. Since you download the unit, you have it available as soon as you need it ~ no waiting on it to be mailed or shipped to you. And I usually just take the laptop to our table and we work together on it orally. It is perfectfor our family. 

Each week is broken down into daily 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

I didn't use any library books this time with it being the holidays and wanting to have a slow-paced study. So I pulled these books of our shelves and used them.

     These are some of our favorite books involving winter themes. I through the whale book in as we studied Beluga whales...

Now we did this study over 2 weeks and took our time and really went in-depth on each topic. I added some math worksheets with a winter theme that I found here . You can choose your grade level and just print our what you need.


My children used the bible verses or poetry included  with each unit as their daily copywork. Here is my daughter's version of  "BED IN SUMMER" by Robert Louis Stevenson.

 

The videos that were included in the unit were fantastic... My kidlets loved watching them ~ and I especially loved all the falling snow... It was so relaxing to watch the videos and drink hot cocoa made from some of the recipes included with "WINTER WONDERS".   One of our favorite recipes was for the "SNOWFLAKE COOKIES" .. the kidlets had a great time making them and then hubby and I had a great time eating them...




The kidlets found out what the "Winter Solstice" is, when it occurs,  how the earth rotates to create this occurence, and the season in other parts of the world. Then they each drew their own earth rotating on it's axis. 
     
                                      
Learning about animals like the Snowy Owl, the Arctic Fox,  and  the Beluga Whale would have covered our science but the included experiments took us even further... We learned about "When Does Water Float" in an experiment using household ingredients and a plastic bottle. We melted ice cubes, learning what reaction salt has in the process.

And then we spent a couple of days with the "Iditarod"... my 10yo son really enjoyed reading "Balto" and watching a video on Netflix called, "Iditarod: Toughest Race on Earth" .      We learned why it is the "Last Great Race"  and were able to trace the race on a map of Alaska...

 

We spent some time getting to know the artist Robert Duncan and took a look at some of his paintings. This was my kids favorite:



We learned about Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley and spent time looking at the beautiful pictures he had taken in his lifetime of the snowflake.
We used this website to learn more about snowflakes and their compostition.  I also thought it would be a good time to use a site that I had found on similies using snowflakes and  "Snowflake Bentley" and you can find it here.  Here are some of the beautiful snowflakes that we looked at online:

                     

And then we made our own snowflakes which was another of my favorite activities in the unit...
           

And we ended our week playing in the snow and looking at the beauty of the snow all around us....

 

 

 

 

 

You too can have a wonderful week learning about this great season. At only $7.95, it's an inexpensive way to add some fun and learning to your homeschool week. You can purchase this unit here. For more information on other Download N Go Series  and all the titles they offer can be seen here.  Check out the DNG Blog for all the latest information and specials or the Winter Wonders Blog Tour and see what other reviewers have to say about these great products.

 I received this product free of charge for use in exchange for my family's honest opinion and I received no other compensation in exchange for my review.