This post may contain affiliate links. Please see the disclosure page for more information.
We have been having a wonderful time working our way through Homegrown Learners Nutcracker Unit Study. It is a bargain at $3.99! The information and links provided are great and it's a perfect study for elementary and middle school students. Mr. T is very musically inclined, so we were excited to be able to preview a copy for our friend Mary at Homegrown Learners even though he is a little young for some of the work. So I came up with some activity ideas and some Montessori 3 Part cards to share with you to use with your littles while you are going through this great unit study this holiday season. Click the picture or click here to download your free printables. Here is the link for the Nutcracker Unit Study. Mr. T loved the cards and I laminated
them to keep them around for him and for Mr. F next year!
Mr. T is in ballet and tap right now, so he has some fun with the
dancing and the ballet terms, which I was delighted to see as part of
this unit study. We watched this version of The Nutcracker
during our
Nutcracker Tea. It was lovely, but my favorite is still this one
with
Mikhail Baryshnikov. The unit covers the original story by E.T.A. Hoffmann, the ballet, the most popular listening selections, lots of vocabulary terms, and more! There are even links to coloring pages and YouTube selections so you don't have to go hunting them down.
during our
Nutcracker Tea. It was lovely, but my favorite is still this one
with
Mikhail Baryshnikov. The unit covers the original story by E.T.A. Hoffmann, the ballet, the most popular listening selections, lots of vocabulary terms, and more! There are even links to coloring pages and YouTube selections so you don't have to go hunting them down. 
Mr. T is my chef-in-training. He's always loved the kitchen. With our gluten free (and other restrictions) diet, it has become a bit more challenging to create super yummy baked goodies for our special tea times but our Nutcracker tea was quite a success! I am compiling our holiday recipe successes into a gluten free Nutcracker Tea Cookbook that I will be posting soon! Our Toy Soldier cookies and Nutcracker Apple Crumble were divine. And the Sugar Plum Fairy fruit dip was pretty tasty, too! We had Clara's Christmas Cider instead of tea, it was so yummy and like a little bit of holiday cheer in a cup.
Mr. F isn't quite able to help in the kitchen yet, but he is not far from it. He is, however, a very willing eater and gladly joined us for our tea. He even had Cider over ice in his sippy cup.
This is the Discovery Bowl I am working on for Mr. F to enjoy next week. I have to dig out a little Nutcracker and the toy soldiers from our Christmas supplies, but I love the mice, the tree and the neat little instrument ornaments. They are plastic but sturdy. It's fun to watch him trying to imitate Mr. T, and to watch Mr. T teach Mr. F when we are studying new things.
We still have lots more fun we can have with our Nutcracker Unit Study, but this week we are going to focus on just listening and watching snippets while we go back to our regular studies. That's another great thing about this unit, it is completely self paced. So you really can insert little bits of it all season long without that "oh no, we didn't get to (insert whatever comes to mind first here) today" feeling. It makes for an easier holiday season study that way.
And here are the boys at our church Fall Festival. Saint George and the Dragon. Mr. F loved pulling his dragon nose over his face to play peek-a-boo with everyone. Mr. T was so enamored with his Saint George gear that he wore it all. day. long. To Kroger, Target and to see Mr. J at work. And he loves the Saint George and the Dragon
book we have. It is gorgeous! And it's such a fun adventure story for boys!What did you do this week?
We are linked up here:
