Turkey Break

Psalm 100:4 "Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name. For the Lord is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations."

Crock Pot Chicken Taco Chili

From: http://www.skinnytaste.com/2008/11/crock-pot-chicken-taco-chili-4-pts.html

1 onion, chopped

1 16-oz. can black beans

1 16-oz. can kidney beans

1 8-oz. can tomato sauce

10 oz package frozen corn (I used a can)

2 14.5-oz. cans Rotel

1 packet taco seasoning

1 Tbsp cumin

1 Tbsp chili powder

3-4 boneless chicken breasts

Chili peppers, chopped (optional)

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro (I omitted)

Combine all ingredients (except chicken and cilantro) in the bottom of your crock pot. Place chicken breasts on top. Cook on low for 10 hours or high for 6 hours (my crock pot runs hot I think and it did not take me nearly this long).  Half an hour before serving remove chicken and shred. Return to pot and stir in. Top with fresh cilantro....or a mountain of cheese and crushed tortilla chips like we did!

I am at the same time amazed and astounded that we are entering Thanksgiving Week! With only two and a half days of school this week I know it is going to fly by! One of my boys asked me if we would have to clean out our desks before we go on "Turkey Break"...so cute! And yes, your desk is like a black hole where pencil shavings, goldfish, unfinished papers, random assortment of trash, and who-knows-what-else go to die...not so cute! Here's a quick catch up of just a few of the things we have been doing recently...

In math we've been talking about skip counting and they made these precious ten frame skip counting turkeys. Believe it or not the orange one below, complete with the fabulous long eyelashes, was created by one of my boys! He wanted to make a girl turkey and was kind enough to supply her with the lashes every girl desires. 

Previously in math we had been studying patterns. They made some really cute pattern turkeys using four different kinds of patterns on the feathers but unfortunately I forgot to snap a pic. We also reviewed patterns using Sweetarts. There's no better way to get them excited for math than to pump them full of sugar at 9:00 in the morning! They had to use their sweetarts to create different patterns then record them using corresponding colored pencils.

We've also been super busy traveling the world in our history unit. The kids have been learning about different countries all over the world and recording a fact about the country and the flag in a passport (it actually looks like a real passport complete with their picture and info). To help with the concept of directions and maps we read "Rosie's Walk" and made these Rosie's with directional words...

We also made these awesome maps that made them totally understand concepts of state vs. country vs. continent. All along our traveling unit they would ask, "When are we going to study Texas?" Texas is a state, not a country. "When are we going to study Austin?" Austin is a city, not a country. Before we started I found our school on Google Earth. Then we slowly zoomed out so they could see our school, street, city, state, country, continent, world. Then we zoomed back in....all these concepts totally clicked! Then we started on our time-consuming projects...but it was definitely worth the time and effort! We started small and worked our way out, beginning with our school. The kids drew pics of our school, street, and different symbols of Texas. For the country, continent, and planet layers I supplied a little map for them to glue on and label. Sorry about the photo quality...

After we'd been traveling to all different countries, I decided that we would establish our own country. First we had to brainstorm everything a country would need. I was amazed at some of the actually realistic ideas they had! Transportation, money, stores, roads, etc. This was a really great time to stretch their brains and really make them aware of so many parts of our country and how it is run. It also hit a ton of Social Studies standards that are sometimes tricky to fit in. From there we had to name our country. To practice voting, we created our list of names and took an anonymous vote. Surprise, surprise, our country was named Aggie. That's what I get for living in Aggieland! Although, "Sebestaland" was a close second :) Then I put the kids on four different committees: the Flag Committee, National Symbols Committee, Rules and Laws Committee , and Leadership Committee. I love some of the rules and qualifications of a leader they brainstormed! It was a really neat time too because every committee member had to agree on whatever they were working on before putting it on the paper. Since creating our country we've also talked a lot about goods and services (the kids made "Goods Road" and "Services Street" to put in our country) and needs and wants. Needs and wants came at a perfect time as we focus on being thankful around this time of year!  

Finally, to prepare for our Thanksgiving party on Wednesday, we made these "I am thankful for..." placemats that will be laminated and set out on their desks. I set out pre-cut turkey bodies (which James pointed out looked like a drumstick when turned on its side) and all different scrapbook and construction papers. The kids had free reign in creating their turkeys and I love how different they all turned out! It was so cute to see their creativity shine. Some kids really went all out but I thought this little guy was so precious and simple....

Happy Thanksgiving!