SNOW DAY AT THE MAGiC SCHOOL HOUSE

        "Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire."
                                                                                                                               ~ William Butler Yeats

Today we woke up with the silence of a light snowfall blanketing our woods.   After a romp in the snow we headed back inside as our home was transformed into the "Magic School House."   We usually go ahead and have school on snow days so that we can take other days off during the year.

 Being a snow day, something fun was in order.  We decided to read Fancy Nancy's Favorite Fancy Words: From Accessories to Zany.

 I want to say THANK YOU JANE O'CONNOR for writing such wonderful books that have inspired so many creative and fun home school moments.  I am always looking for ways to "light the fire" of learning.  I feel that the knowledge gained from these moments is the stuff she is eager to remember, and search out after the fact.   

Here's how we made our "Fancy" Word Box:

I gave her a file box that we had hanging around and a stack of 4x6 index cards.  She went to town writing "fancy' vocabulary words on the front and their definitions on the back.

I made a set of A-Z dividers out of colorful card stock, so that she could alphabetize them.

Then she decorated the box in the true "Fancy Nancy" style.  This included lots of glitter.

I also introduced the concept of using a thesaurus.  She loved that we could take an ordinary word and turn it into a fancy and sophisticated word. 

Also for those who have their own Fancy Nancy enthusiasts, her website has a bunch of cute printables for planning your very own Fancy Nancy event.  I think that I may see a Poetry Extravaganza in our future.