We recently had the opportunity review the White House Holidays Unit Studies from Silverdale Press LLC. These self-contained unit studies were a fun learning experience!
The White House Holidays Unit Studies is a series of six different holidays, some originating from Presidential orders and others are typical holiday celebrations and how the White House celebrates. The holidays Unit Studies that are available include Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Valentine's Day, Labor Day, Veteran's Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.
What makes the White House Holidays Unit Studies unique? They are self-contained. All the information that you need to complete the unit study is included. No need to worry about ordering books from the library. You will need some "around the house" craft materials for some of the lessons, but not a lot of prep is required. Another perk is that each Unit Study has been created for those teaching multiple grade levels in their homes. You can use them with kids in elementary through high school.
The lessons for each study are broken down by grade levels. There are sections for K-6th grade studies and 7th - 12th grade studies. Each section, depending on the unit study is organized this way. So when you download your study, you simple select what pages you want to print and what you will not be using.
We had the opportunity to use two of these studies during our Review period.
The history of Veteran's Day is explained in the first lesson. The student reading includes full-colored pictures. If you were printing the pages, you could easily print these pages in black and white. The lessons read similar to a textbook story style. At the end of each lesson, there is an activity of either a craft, literature lesson (example of poetry in this Unit Study) or even comprehension questions.
One of the activities was learning about the connection of Poppies and World War I. There was a craft idea included, and Caty was struggling that day and couldn't cut and make the craft. It was a very cute flower craft to go with the poem, In Flanders Field. Instead though she built a poppy field in her Minecraft game. I liked the flexibility with the Unit Study, to allow for this. She will still remember these details and poem that we read through.
Other topics covered in the White House Holidays - Veteran's Day, include food conservation during both World Wars, and why we know this as Veteran's Day and not Armistice Day.
There are many suggestions for all grade levels on how to become more involved in showing appreciation for veterans. The older grade level section also includes comprehension questions over some of the material being read.
The other unit study we spent time on was - White House Holidays - Labor Day. This study is laid out very similar to the Veteran's Day unit. It is written for Grades K - 12, and is broken down into grade levels K - 6 and grades 7 - 12.
White House Holidays Unit Studies - Labor Day focuses on the history of Labor Day, and what the true meaning is. Have you ever thought about that? Most people think, "That's a 3 day weekend off in September!" When we first started homeschooling, I wondered this. I loved the textbook style format of this unit study. I did not need to purchase or borrow any extra books for the lessons. The Labor Day Unit Study is an informative study that can be completed easily within a week, and would be a great addition to the start of your school year just before Labor Day!
The Labor Day Unit Study includes many photographs for students to look at photographs from the early 1900s and they are asked to answer thought provoking questions about what was going on inside them. The history of child labor and the dangers that many faced just to earn a paycheck is explored.
There were website suggestions given when working on research projects. You can click on links if you are using the PDF download.
I really liked the upper grade level of the Labor Day unit study, since it went into short descriptions of Primary Source documents, and we were able to have discussions about looking at what websites and materials they are using for find answers to questions they are researching.
Each of the Unit studies that we have used over the last few weeks, really do not take a lot of time. You could easily study each of them in a week. The pictures and photographs included in the student reading of each lesson, really do help to keep a student's attention.
The biggest benefit of using the White House Holidays Unit Studies from Silverdale Press LLC ..... almost all of the work has been done for you. Gathering a couple art supplies you already have around the house, or printing the student reading sections if that is what you want to do, is about all of your work!!
Silverdale Press LLC is very confident that you will love their products. They offer a Money-back guarantee, just in case you decide that their product is not for your family. Not many companies offer this guarantee for downloadable materials.
We really have enjoyed going through these Unit Studies that are part of the White House Holidays Unit Studies series. The kids have enjoyed the reading we have done together!!
Several members of the Homeschool Review Crew were given the opportunity to review the various areas from the White House Holidays Unit Studies offered by Silverdale Press LLC. Visit the link below to see what studies they used and what they felt about these unit studies.
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