Printables for Your Homeschool - Super Teacher Worksheets Review

As a homeschool mom, I have found that it helps to add a variety of learning tools to our school day.  Our regular curriculum is wonderful but the kids love it when I change things up a bit and add something new and different.  Rachel especially likes hands-on activities and worksheets.  

As a member of the Home School Review Crew, we were given a one year individual membership to their online subscription to review Super Teacher Worksheets in our homeschool.  The printable worksheets cover a wide variety of subjects including math, reading, writing, phonics, literature, handwriting, grammar, spelling, science, history, geography and MORE!  They also have many worksheets available in Spanish.

Rachel is working on the Insect badge for her American Heritage Girls troop.  For the requirements, she needed to learn details about one particular insect.  She chose to learn about the monarch butterfly.  I was excited to see that Super Teacher Worksheets had several nature science items to help her out.  In their science section, I found an article that was all about monarch butterflies and it had some wonderful colored pictures as well. 

Rachel read aloud the article to me and then completed the corresponding worksheets.  Just having the article to print out for her to read was great because I didn't have to go searching all over the internet or make a trip to the library.  The worksheets helped to get her thinking about what she had read and served as a good review for her.

I also printed off the Butterfly Life Cycle booklet.  Rachel loved this!  She colored the pictures, cut out the pages, and stapled the booklet together.  She wanted me to make a video of her reading aloud her booklet so here she is...


As you can see, Super Teacher Worksheets is more than just fill in the blank kind of worksheets.  They have several cute booklets that kids can make.  They also have worksheets that have pieces that the child can cut out and use in matching games.  We also found this really fun QR code reader worksheet.  Rachel had never seen QR codes before so I explained that she would use the QR code reader on my ipad to scan the code on the worksheet.

The QR code took her to a specific list of three words to choose from to answer the problem on the worksheet.  In this case, the worksheet asked her to write the word that is a synonym for the word "fast".  When she scanned the QR code, the following list popped up.

Rachel absolutely loved this.  She now loves QR codes and she wants all of her work to use them in some way!

Over the summer, we studied US states and capitals.  There are a lot of games and printables on Super Teacher Worksheets that I used as a review for her.  Her favorite one was the "Cootie Catcher".  Do you remember playing with these as a child?

She would pick a color then move the paper puzzle back and forth for the number of letters in the name of the color.  When she stopped, she could pick a state and she had to name the capital.  She picked Idaho and then opened up the pocket to see "Boise".  How fun is that for reviewing states and capitals!

We will be going to see the play Mr. Popper's Penguins next week so we are reading the book now.  I just realized that the Chapter Book section of Super Teacher Worksheets has lots of great printables for this book.  They include bookmarks, vocabulary words, word search, and more all related specifically to Mr. Popper's Penguins.  Resources like this make my job as teacher so much easier!

Finally, there are also some fun things to find at Super Teacher Worksheets.  We played this Halloween Bingo game over and over the other day.  I think the addition of candy for game pieces may have made it even more fun.

I have really enjoyed having Super Teacher Worksheets to turn to for supplements in our school day.  An individual membership costs only $19.95 for a full year.  This gives you complete access to all of their great printables.

If you would like to read other Super Teacher Worksheets reviews from other Home School Review Crew members, please just click on the banner below:

Summer Study of US Geography using the U.S.A. Activity Bundle {Review}

We aren't doing our regular homeschool work over the summer but I still have the kids doing a few short studies that we can wrap up before the regular school year starts back up.  I'd rather keep their brains active a little bit each day than have them get into a summer slump.  It is so hard getting back into a routine after their brains have turn to mush.

One of the things we have been doing this summer is going over U.S. Geography.  This is new work for Rachel and review for Nicholas but it has been fun.  It's been easy on me because I signed up to review the USA Activity Bundle from The Crafty Classroom and it has been the perfect fit.  The USA Activity Bundle is a PDF download that includes three products: USA State-by-State Activity Notebook, USA State-by-State 50 Mazes, USA State Birds.  I downloaded all three products and then bound the Activity Notebook and Mazes so they had their own workbook for those products.  We used the State Birds packet a little differently though.

We start our work by learning about a new state.  The USA Activity Bundle includes information about the state birds and flowers but not much else.  It is more of a consumable product for children to compile on their own the information they have learned.  So I read aloud a brief history from a geography book of my own.  While I'm reading to them, the kids work on the maze for that state.  It is a rather easy maze but a great way to review the shape of the state.

Once I've taught them about the state, they use that information to fill out their USA State-by-State Activity Notebook.

I just love how all of the information for each state is laid out for them.  It will make for a beautiful reference tool for them once we have completed all 50 states.

The USA State Birds packet includes a printable page for each state.  The page contains three parts, each of which can be cut out and used on their own.  There is a picture of the bird along with lines to write additional information about the bird.  Next, there is an outline drawing of the bird to be colored.  Finally, there are two small blocks that include a picture of the bird and the name and state for the bird.  These can be used as a matching game to test knowledge of the birds and their corresponding states.

We love learning about nature and wildlife so my children have really enjoyed using the State Birds packet.  One way we have used it is by having the children color the birds then I laminated the pages and cut out the blocks.  They can use these as identification when we are on nature walks but they also use the cards to quiz each other.  One of them picks a card (not letting the other child see it) and describes the bird aloud while the other child tries to guess the name of the bird being described. 

We have used other downloadable products from The Crafty Classroom in the past.  Here are a few other products that you might be interested in:



If you would like to read some additional reviews from other members of the Homeschool Review Crew, please click on the banner below:

Hernan Cortes and an Aztec Feast

The kids have been studying about how the Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes took over the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan (now called Mexico City) and brought the fall of the Aztec empire in the early 16th century.  They've learned a lot about Aztec life and culture and decided to have an Aztec feast to honor them.

Corn was a major crop of the Aztecs.  The kids decided to make homemade corn tortillas which is one of the many ways the Aztecs would have used their corn.

Ingredients:

2 cups masa harina

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 1/2 cups hot water

Rachel mixed the masa harina and salt.  She added the hot water and mixed it all together.  Then she let the dough rest for about 30 minutes.

She formed little balls of the dough and placed it on a cutting board that had been sprinkled with some masa harina.  Then she rolled out the dough.

She cooked them in a cast iron skillet for a few minutes per side.  We used them to make chicken tacos for dinner.  They were so delicious.  These corn tortillas taste better than any we've ever bought at a store and they were fun to make.

Another thing you can do with these corn tortillas is to fry or bake them to make your own tortillas chips!  Avocados were another crop of the Aztecs so we made some homemade guacamole to go with corn tortilla chips.  Our favorite is the Williams-Sonoma guacamole recipe.

The kids had fun mashing up all of the ingredients in the molcajete.  A molcajete is a mortar and pestle carved from volcanic rock and it was what the Aztecs used to grind their corn into flour.

With our bellies full of chips and guacamole and chicken tacos, the kids wanted to make one more course of Aztec food - Xocolatl, a Mexican hot chocolate.  There are lots of recipes out there but we melted chocolate chips, blended with warm milk, then added some cayenne pepper and cinnamon.  The kids topped theirs with marshmallows.  Yum!

SchoolhouseTeachers.com Review

I've looked at SchoolhouseTeachers.com several times over the last few years and have considered signing up for a membership but just never took the plunge.  As a member of The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Review Crew I was recently given the opportunity to review a Yearly Membership with SchoolhouseTeachers.com.  Wow! Now that we've had a few weeks to get a feel for the site and all that it has to offer, I'm kicking myself for not joining sooner!

The new SchoolhouseTeachers.com website is amazing!  It is easy to use and navigate.  They offer Online Classes and Online Electives to use in your homeschool, either as your full curriculum or as a supplement to what you are already using.  There are Scope and Sequence charts, lesson plans, and printable certificates of completion. 
Homeschooling children of multiple ages?  No problem!  They have course work for students preschool - high school. We have used several of their history lessons while studying the Renaissance.  There are weekly lesson plans, lapbooks, notebooking pages, as well as links to videos and related maps as well as hands-on activities like games, recipes, and crafts to really bring the Renaissance to life for my kids.  
In addition to the courses, we have also enjoyed some of the special online access to products included in our membership like The World of Animals through the World Book eBook Library and learning about how Christopher Columbus discovered American through watching the amazing video series called Drive-Thru History.  These have been so much fun for my kids to explore!
Just take a look at the subjects below that are covered in the SchoolhouseTeachers.com courses:

In addition to the wealth of curriculum on the site, there is also an abundance of homeschool parent support resources on the site.  As a member you can download several different planners.  Here are just two of them which are for homeschool parents to help organize their homeschool as well as manage their home. However, they also offer primary, intermediate, and high school student planners, as well as a planner for special needs students.

There is also a Custom Schedule Builder to help you organize your homeschool day as well as online access to Applecore Recordkeeping for tracking your students' portfolio, coursework, grades, and attendance.
SchoolhouseTeachers.com really has everything you might need for your homeschool!
Be sure to join SchoolhouseTeachers.com during their Super Christmas Sale and save 50% by using code: CHRISTMAS for $9.95/month or CHRISTMASYEAR for $90/year.  This is really a great deal!  The sale ends on January 15th so HURRY and lock in your promo rate.

To read more reviews for SchoolhouseTeachers.com from other members of The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Review Crew, please click on the graphic below:


My kids and I have thoroughly enjoyed using SchoolhouseTeachers.com in our homeschool and I have written my honest opinion about this product.  Although I was given a free Yearly Membership in order to research the product and write this review, I have benefited so much from it that I will definitely renew our membership when this one expires.

Tapestry of Grace: Marco Polo

This week we are studying the Mongols and Marco Polo.  Marco Polo was born in Venice in 1254.  When he was 17 years old he traveled the Silk Road to China with his father and uncle who had befriended the Chinese emperor Kublai Khan.  Khan later sent Marco Polo on ambassador missions around the area.  As we read about Marco Polo's travels, Rachel marked his journey on a map.

Marco Polo saw many wonderful things during his explorations.  Europeans were not aware of some of the plants, animals, and inventions in the Far East.  Marco Polo recorded many of the amazing sights in his book The Travels of Marco Polo.  We made a list of just some of the things he saw including "a very ugly unicorn that looked like a pig" (which was probably a rhinoceros) and "lions with stripes" (tigers). 

The Silk Road was an ancient network of routes from Europe to China that opened up opportunities for exploration and discovery of other countries but most importantly it allowed for merchant trading across continents.  The Europeans were not aware of silk until explorers like Marco Polo had discovered it in the Far East.  We talked a little about how silk is made and even looked at some real cocoons from 2 silk moths that we raised in the past.

Travel on the Silk Road was hard.  There were bandits along the way who were ready to rob merchants of their goods.  But also the terrain was challenging as well.  Marco Polo traveled over mountains and deserts and much of this travel couldn't have been done without the use of camels.  The kids liked reading the cute little story of The Happy Dromedary camel.

We watched a few videos on Marco Polo and the world of ancient China to wrap up our week.  My kids love the Explorers of the World DVD series.  Different explorers' paintings come to life and talk about why they traveled and what their lives were like.

Little Passports: Egypt

The kids both have fun with their monthly subscriptions to Little Passports.  I'm so excited that this month's package was on Egypt which they are studying right now in their Tapestry of Grace program!  

Here are all of the goodies they received:

We always start with reading aloud the letter from Sam and Sofia, two imaginary kids who travel the world and send letters, games, activities, and passport stickers to my kids each month.

Then each kiddo finds the location on their world map.

Nicholas placed his sticker right on the delta of the Nile River.

They learned about hieroglyphics and used the translator key to interpret some words.

I love that they have fun together with Little Passports.  The activities are quick and easy for Nicholas but he hasn't had much exposure to geography so he enjoys it.

Next they worked on a word scramble of cities and countries around Egypt.  It is a great way to get them looking more closely at their map.  They are "learning while doing".

I always make them save the activity for the end.  This month it is a dig kit!!  They each got a pyramid that has a hidden treasure in it that they have to excavate!

We took this project outside because I knew it would produce a lot of dust.  But oh how fun!

They got so excited when they chipped away a piece of pyramid and found a little piece of something hidden inside!

I use small cookie trays for projects like this because it makes clean up a breeze!  They each have their own.  I bought them at the dollar store and they are only used for projects, never food.

They both excavated a gold mummy from their pyramid!

Little Passports offers three programs.  Early Explorers for ages 3-5, World Edition for ages 6-10, and USA Edition for ages 7-12.  You can choose a monthly plan, 6 month plan, or 12 month plan.