Hoppin' Popcorn...Some Crunchy Learning at our house!

Who doesn't love popcorn?  Well, we REALLY love popcorn!  We eat popcorn several times a week.  Sometimes with just butter and salt.  Other times with Junior Mints thrown in while it's still hot!  Delish!  When I saw Download N Go's Hoppin' Popcorn Unit Study, I knew we had to do it.  As with all Download N Go Unit Studies, this study is laid out in a five day format.

We often take up to two weeks to complete each unit study, but did complete this one in a week.   The basic outline for this study is as follows:

Day 1: Popcorn -- What Is It?

Day 2: The Story of Popcorn

Day 3: The Flavors of Popcorn

Day 4: The Science of Popcorn

Day 5: Fun With Popcorn

We often cook in our homeschool.  I have found this to be such an effective way to work on math skills without the children even knowing.  With Hoppin' Popcorn we were able to cook A LOT!  We even had a popcorn taste test.  We made regular popcorn, caramel corn, popcorn nachos, chocolate corn and kettle corn.  We tasted with blindfolds, determined our own favorites and polled others for their favorites. We also made our own butter for our popcorn, which was a big hit too. (Sorry, no pictures...my camera has crashed and is being repaired.  If my pictures make it, I'll post them later!)

One of my favorite parts of this lesson was having the children check the weather in different states each day.  While this seems like a simple task, the children found it more difficult than I expected the first day. I often overlook the "search" portion of  the kids computing time since I am so cautious about what websites they are on.  This was a good lesson to all of us that they need to be able to do their own searches.  I allowed them to use www.safesearchkids.com which is powered by Google and has great filters.  The process of "finding" a good weather site took a couple of tries, but they got it.  Since it was included each day, however, they were checking the weather EVERYWHERE by the end of the week! 

The only thing I would change about this unit study is that I would have loved to have done it in the fall. While my children have been to a corn maze, it would have been neat to be able to do that while doing this study.  And while we did make the popcorn ball bird feeders, they probably would have been better utilized (by the birds) in the fall.

Overall, I think you will find this unit study fun and informative.  While it might not have gone into as much depth as some of the other studies, my kids kept telling me it was one of their favorites.  It's also a great way to "force" yourself to step away from the schoolbooks and have some fun while learning!  My girls were certainly delighted!

Take a look at Amanda Bennett's other Unit Studies as well...you just can't go wrong with Download N Go!!!

Finally, I have a copy of this fun unit study to GIVE AWAY!!!   All you have to do is any of the following:
(Up to 3 entries per person. Please post a comment for each entry...if it's #2 or #3, please include a link!)
1. Follow my blog.
2. Share my Hoppin' Popcorn post on Facebook or Twitter.
3. Share my Hoppin' Popcorn post on YOUR blog.

I will announce the winner on Tuesday, March 8th!

Peace and Blessing upon your day!

Kim

December Got Away...

How does that keep happening?  I'm trucking along and then it's 2 months later???  I had such high hopes for December...I was so excited to share all the neat things we were doing.  I did continue the focus on memories and I think it paid off.  The Pergo was replaced, the dishwasher was bolted back in place and calm ensued...for 12 minutes.

A quick catch-up:
     We celebrated Willow's tenth birthday.  I don't even know how that happened.  It seems as if she was just born and now she's truly growing up.  I'm so proud and so blessed and it's so bittersweet!

So many crafts, so little time:
    
      We made snowflake candle holders...so cute. (Although, should you go looking for the artificial snow at the craft store 48 miles from your home, keep in mind that you will NOT find it with the Christmas goodies but instead in the Sewing Notion department.  Even the sweet manager who helped me didn't get that one!)  We covered the candle holders in Modge Podge, rolled in artificial snow, allowed to dry and repeated.  Once dry, we mixed some blue glitter with the Mod Podge and painted over the snow.  So cute!  These are the supplies we used:

     We made a lot of ornaments this year.  We painted some plaster bone shaped ornaments and put the dog's names on them.  We also did a fun, easy, momma-loving (translate-no mess) ornament.  I purchased some wooden cut-out, photo ornaments.  I had the girls color them...yes, color them with markers.  Then, they went over them with clear, glitter fabric paint which comes in handy squeeze bottles. 

    Did I mention the Peppermint Rice Krispy Treats? Mmmmmmm...  Make your standard Rice Treat recipe, add a bunch of crushed peppermints and chocolate sprinkles!  Beyond delish!  Perfect for Valentine's Day too.

     We were so blessed to be treated to a Ornament Glass Blowing session by my Mom at a neat studio in town: Glassworks. 

The girls were mesmerized by the studio with it's furnaces, kilns and art glass area.  I, personally, loved this sign:

     We spent a lot of time with family, a lot of time at home and tried not to focus so much on the commercial side of Christmas.  Gifts were fewer this year for the children and they didn't even seem to notice!  I tried to purchase gifts for others from PEOPLE and not stores...etsy and hyena cart helped out!  I even tried my hand at making key fobs!  I got pretty good by the time I'd finished...48 in total!

I'm learning to embrace the moment.  Bit by bit!  As we leave December, I'll leave you with our Christmas picture.  (We didn't do Christmas cards again this year.  We've taken to donating $100 to a charity instead!)

January--I can sum up the entire month in 6 sentences:
     I had shingles.  It is not an elderly person's disease.  It is way more painful than un-medicated childbirth or kidney stones.  I took a lot of drugs and slept a lot.  The children took over the house, the kitchen, the fridge and the television.  I'm still trying to catch up. 

The End. 

Glad to be back!

May blessings abound

Kim