Advent 2016 lesson plans

These are our plans for Advent 2016. I will probably add a few more cookie recipes as we go along. The asterisks (*) next to the book title shows that we own the books. The (CM) means there is a lesson found in Christmas Mosaic. Since we will spend so much time reading, baking and crafting, we will be doing a lighter load of our regular classes, which is shown on the right hand column.
Obviously, our plans have our own special things added in, such as a birthday and our annual trip to the Nutcracker Ballet!

Happy Advent planning!!

**I'm sorry, when I try to edit, the page looks fine, when I look at the published post, my school work is mixed with all the books. I don't know how to fix it!

Advent week 1

**Daily** Hark, A Christmas Sampler and A Story A Day Til Christmas

Monday November 28

The Golden Cobwebs (Mostly Magic)                      Faith and Life

*Christmas Cobwebs (CM)                                        Spelling

*Cobweb Christmas (CM)                                          Handwriting

*The Cobweb Curtain (CM)

                   bake Spider Cookies

Tuesday November 29

*The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey (CM)

*A Christmas Memory (CM)                                     Math

                                                                                      Spelling

                   bake Molasses Cookies                            Handwriting      

Wednesday November 30**Begin St. Andrew Novena**

*Country Angel Christmas                                         Language

*The Legend of the Christmas Tree                           Science     

*The Legend of the Poinsettia

                   make Poinsettia napkin holders

Thursday December 1

*The Legend of the Candy Cane

*Uncle Vova's Tree                                                    Spelling

*Kristoph and the First Christmas Tree                     Handwriting

                   bake Candy Cane Kiss cookies               Math

Friday December 2

*Mickey's Night Before Christmas

*A Very Merry Christmas Alphabet                           Spelling

*The Star of Christmas                                               Handwriting

*Babar and Father Christmas                                     Math

*Beauty and the Beast:Enchanted Christmas  Social Studies

Saturday December 3**St Francis Xavier Feast CCC video***

Advent week 2

**Daily** Hark, A Christmas Sampler and A Story A Day Til Christmas

Monday December 5

*The Christmas Candle (CM)                           Faith and Life

*Why the Chimes Rang (CM)                          Spelling

*The First Christmas Stocking (CM)              Handwriting

                   Make bell shaped and stocking shaped ornaments

Tuesday December 6

*The Miracle of St Nicholas                             Math

*The Legend of St Nicholas                              Spelling

*A Special Place for Santa                                Handwriting

*Santa’s Prayer

*Santa’s Favorite Story

                   **Watch CCC Nicholas The Boy who became Santa

                   Make St Nick ornaments (example Catholic Icing)

Wednesday December 7

*Jingle the Christmas Clown                            Language

*The Clown of God                                           Science

*An Irish Night before Christmas

Thursday December 8 Feast of the Immaculate Conception

*Angela and the Baby Jesus                              Spelling

*Mary, the Mother of Jesus                               Handwriting

                                                                            Math

                   **Watch CCC Bernadette

                   *Make Blessed Virgin Mary ornaments w/old cards

Friday December 9

*Where’s the Baby King                                   Spelling

*Trim the Christmas Tree                                  Handwriting

*Christmas Carols                                              Math

*Santa Needs Help                                             Social Studies

                   **Watch CCC Juan Diego

Advent Week 3

**Daily** Hark, A Christmas Sampler and A Story a Day Til Christmas

Monday December 12

*The Lady of Guadalupe                                  Faith and Life

                                                                             Spelling

                                                                             Handwriting

                             *bake Mexican Wedding cakes

Tuesday December 13

*The Nutcracker                                                 Math

*Lucia Morning in Sweden                                Spelling

                                                                            Handwriting

                                                                            Science

                             2 min St Lucy video Catholic.org/saints

                             Santa Lucia song on Catholic Icing

                             Coloring page

Wednesday December 14 ***Jake’s Birthday***

****The Nutcracker ****

Thursday December 15

*An Orange for Frankie (CM)                          Math

*Silent Night (CM)                                           Spelling

*The Christmas Promise (CM)                         Handwriting

                   *bake Orange Snowballs *make spiced orange pomander craft

                             **begin Shelter Seeking

Friday December 16

*Christmas from Heaven: The True Story of the Berlin Candy Bomber

*Christmas in the Trenches                               Spelling

*The Polar Express                                            Handwriting

*The Night of Las Posadas                               Math

                             **Watch Polar Express         Social Studies

                             *make some type of fudge recipe 

*Saturday December 17**Begin O Antiphons**

Advent Week 4

**Daily**Hark, A Christmas Sampler and A Story a Day Til Christmas

Monday December 19

*The Littlest Angel                                            Faith and Life

*The Christmas Bird (CM)                               Spelling

                             **bake nativity cookies with story? Handwriting

Tuesday December 20                                      Math

*A Little House Christmas                                Spelling    

                                                                             Handwriting

                                                                            

Wednesday December 21

*A Little House Christmas                                Language

*Jacob’s Gift                                                      Science

*The Crippled Lamb

                             *bake

Thursday December 22                                   Spelling

*A Little House Christmas                                Handwriting

*Mortimer’s Christmas Manger (CM)             Math

*The Little Shepherd

*Red Boots for Christmas

*The Christmas Donkey (CM)

Friday December 23                                        Spelling

*Mary, Did You Know?                                    Handwriting

*Country Angel Christmas                               Math

*The Christian Origin of the 12 Days of Christmas

*The Real 12 Days of Christmas                      Social Studies

*12 Days of Christmas (2)

Year of Mercy lapbook

Since I posted all those great links a few months back on different Year of Mercy activities and such, I figured I would share pictures of our newly made Year of Mercy lapbook!
I read The Works of Mercy by Father Lovasik to the kids and downloaded these pictures for them to color and we taped and glued them to a large file folder. All these years of homeschooling and I finally made a lapbook!

Pope Francis' Jubilee Year of Mercy

I was going to start a Pinterest board for the Year of Mercy, but some of the articles, apps, etc. didn't have a "pin it" button, so I am posting links I find here, mainly for my personal use.

For the record, I am not too crazy about the logo, but here it is.

The Year of Mercy runs from December 8, 2015 to November 20, 2016. From the Feast of the Immaculate Conception to the Feast of Christ the King.

It looks like the Vatican has a pretty extensive website set up with lots to look at, read and watch.

We are blessed to be in a Schoenstatt couple's group. Last month, Sr. Marie started us on the Year of Mercy. She gave us some pamphlets from OSV. Those, as well as other books, can be found here.
Also on OSV, I found a free app I loaded on my phone for daily mercy prayers, scriptures and reflections.
Make sure to check your parish or diocesan website to find your local Holy Door locations. Here is a link that looks like it may have them all listed.

I found this fun little set of printouts to teach the children about the Year of Mercy. You can cut open the windows on the door, or use it as a coloring sheet.

I will try and update this post as I find more things. Please add your own links in the comments if I have missed something and I will add it to this post as well.

UPDATES:: Here are some more links that friends posted on my facebook page. This from DynamicCatholic.com
Catholic Pilgrimage Sites has this link to the Holy Doors.
And from my own diocese, the Archdiocese of Milwaukee there is this extensive list of videos and explanations on plenary indulgences and works of mercy.