McKenna
What better doll to start with on our new doll lineup then McKenna Brooks. She is from Seattle , Washington and dreams of being a gold medalist on the Olympic team . She loves gymnastics but really struggles with reading . As her story unfolds , she is teamed up with a tutor, Josie. As her friendship develops with Josie, we see McKenna grow in maturity and we see how they both help each other in their friendship .. so good!
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We also learned about the history of the Olympics and gymnastics.
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We added our sticker to Washington State for the geography of where Mckenna lived .
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Our craft for Mckenna was a balance beam for our dolls. This was such a fun project ! We started by wrapping the beams in colorful duct tape. Some of the students decided to leave them unwrapped so their friends could sign them. The students also had the opportunity to hammer their legs onto their balance beam.Thankfully no one hammered their fingers .
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Our Tea party was the highlight! We had Oreo cookie medallions .. Yumm! And Cheeto torches made out of icecream cones. So cute!
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And we had lots of opportunities to shop! The students earned class money from doing homework pages . I have attached them below ⬇️
Felicity
Recently ,we had the opportunity to learn about Felicity Merriman for our American Girl Doll History Class.
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It was so fun going back in time to Williamsburg, Va and taking a peek inside Colonial living and what it would have been like living in Felicitys time.
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We jumped right in and started with making our butter and our spiced almonds.
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The butter took lots and lots of shaking the heavy cream .. then letting it sit and then shaking throughout which gave us two products, A cream to use with our scones and then shaking some more produced the butter.
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We also worked on coating the almonds in between the butter so we rotated everyone through to have a chance to make the spiced nuts.
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While the spiced nuts cooked, we sat down to have our tea party . We enjoyed scones with raspberry compote( our version of the raspberry flummery) and the cream from our shaking. We also enjoyed Felicity’s Liberty Tea which is actually red Raspberry leaf tea without any added sweeteners. We also talked about proper tea service and table setting , something Felicity would have learned at her Tea lessons. It’s fun seeing how these simple traditions are carried through time.
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Below are some helpful links, the recipes, printables , books and activities,I used in class⭐️
Butter in a jar:
How to Make Homemade Butter in a Jar
Spiced Nuts:
Felicity’s Spiced Nuts
Felicity Lesson plan:
Books :
Movie:
We are an Amazon Affiliate and receive a percentage of your purchase when you use our links…Thank you for supporting our blog❤🧡💜
American Girl Doll ~Grace
Our American Girl history class for the month of February was @americangirlbrand Grace Thomas✨
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Grace Thomas is one of our favorite dolls! Paris, macarons and french bulldogs.. what’s not to ❤️
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Grace’s story also takes part in two geographic locations .. France and Massachusetts .We were able to learn about both as well as some french✨
To make your own Grace passport click below⭐️
http://www.americangirlpublishing.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Printable-Activities-Grace-Girl-Of-The-Year-Passport.pdf
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I also knew that macarons are such a big part of the story and that my girls love when we make them so I thought we would attempt them as a class. We prepared the piping bags prior to class and put them in mason jars to help hold them up which worked perfectly.This helped us on time and keeping us on schedule.
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Each of the girls had the opportunity to pipe a few lines of the macaron shells. They did such a wonderful job and made it look easy!
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The buttercream filing we did the same way , prepped it prior, but oh my! I totally forgot that putting it in fridge it would harden up so I would recommend making that fresh. We spent more time trying to warm it up then it would have taken to just make a batch. Oh the lessons we learn🤣
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Since macarons have to “dry” before you cook them , I went ahead and had precooked enough for the girls to fill and take home .
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The Tea Party treats included macarons , french cookies and crepes.. Yumm!!
Here are the items I used to teach the girls all about Grace❤️I have also linked the printables. I would love to hear if you use any if this to teach your own class.
–We participate in affiliate programs, including the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program where we earn a small fee on items we share by you linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Thank you for helping to support our blog❤️-
You can make your own @Americangirl recipe box below⭐️
http://www.americangirlpublishing.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Printable-Activities-Grace-Girl-Of-The-Year-Recipe-Cards.pdf
Learning to Pipe Frosting ~American Girl Doll~Grace
Learning to pipe was another fun activity we did at our American Girl Doll history class as we were learning about Grace @americangirlbrand
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Grace loves to bake and gets the chance to work in her uncle’s patisserie in Paris.. how fun!
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I printed these sheets and then laminated them so the girls could pipe directly on them.
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When planning the details,a friend suggested having them decorate graham crackers since they were easy to hold and flat.It worked out great! Thank you sweet friend❤️
Below are the printables for the piping from hanielas.com and the products I ordered from Amazon for the class. By clicking on the Amazon links below, we will receive a portion of your purchase. Thank you for supporting us✨
Kirsten
We recently learned about Kirsten for our American Girl History class.
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@americangirlbrand Kirsten series is a wonderful story with historical roots . Her story starts as a family immigrating from Sweden and gives you glimpses of what it was like to be on board a boat headed for America.
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It was a wonderful read with some hard parts of loss and what is was like in that time era.
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Our Tea Party was pioneer themed. We had heart shaped cakes , cheese and crackers.
The heart shaped cakes were based on the Little House on the Prairie and the heart shaped cakes that Laura received in her stocking. The pioneers treasured flour and sugar and so it was a fun way to incorporate this treat into the Kirsten Tea Party.
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While the girls enjoyed their treats and tea, we shared our favorite moments from the books.
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We then played a fun bingo with vocabulary words on the bingo sheet that were from the books. This was a fun part that really helped reinforce what they had learned and it gave the girls a chance to earn class money to use in the class store.
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The girls also had the opportunity to learn to sew. They made aprons to match their dolls. This was the perfect craft for this time era since aprons were such a big part of the pioneers and their daily lives.
We then finished up by 🛍 shopping. The girls had the opportunity to use the money they had earned to buy items for their dolls ❤️
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I am attaching some of the printables and the links we used for this class below. I hope you find it helpful❤️
Heart cake recipes
Map where we put a sticker of the doll for where she lived
We purchased the history packet here .It was a wonderful tool! It had the bingo and crosswords and so much more!
Pioneer America (American Girl Kirsten) – Printable Power Pack
Amazon is a great place to pick up the books as well as the mini stickers to have to add to your map. The coloring book below has several dolls to color including Kirsten❤️We participate in affiliate programs, including the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Thanks for supporting us by clicking below to purchase your products❤️
Melody
This month we learned about Melody @americangirlbrand as our doll of the month
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We read through the books then came together to have a tea party and talk about what we learned about Melody.
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The books were well done and we learned about some of the civil rights movement through Melodys eyes and what her family experienced
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One of my favorite parts of the book that made me cry was when her grandfather talked about how the night before the Emancipation Proclamation was to be signed , how they stayed up all night knowing in a few hours there would be freedom. It became known as the Watch Night.
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It’s hard to understand that anyone would be treated that way but it was good for us to talk about it as a class and how we can respond
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For our tea party, the table was decorated like a block party with lemon plates and napkins just like Melody and her friends did:) There were double chocolate cupcakes just like Melody’s birthday cake.. Yum!
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One of the things Melody loved to do was to work in her grandfathers flower shop . So we made a flower shop where the girls could all make their own arrangements just like Melody did. It turned out so fun and the girls had a great time picking and choosing flowers
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Then it was time to shop! The girls had a great time shopping with and for their dolls. They earned class money from reading the the books, learning about the state Melody was from and doing some worksheets to go along with the book❤️
Below are some of the items we used for the class. We receive a small portion of your sale when you’re use our links:) Thank you for supporting our blog✨
Kaya
We hosted our first American Girl Doll History Class recently. Our doll of the month was Kaya and we had a fun time learning all about her tribe the Nez Perce.
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The girls are sent their monthly work they can do at home and then once a month ,I host a Tea Party where we can come together and talk about the doll of the month and what we learned. The girls also earn class money from doing their homework, answering questions and the vocabulary bingo that they can then purchase items for their dolls. So fun!
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Our Tea Party food is based on what Kaya would have eaten such as seeds, berries and popcorn.
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We then cleanup and do an activity that Doll would have done.. for Kaya we did weaving.
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Then the girls shopped and chatted .. it was a wonderful time!
Here are some of the Kaya item we used ..by clicking on the links below we will receive a portion of your sale. Thanks for supporting us ✨
Maryellen
Last year we learned about Maryellen @americangirlbrand in our American Girl Doll History class.
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There were so many things happening in the world during Maryellen’s life .She grew up in the time following WW2, she was a polio survivor , there was a space race and Cold War happening ..so many big things and changes.We had lots of fun discussion.
For our craft, the girls made these super simple poodle skirts .They coordinated with their dolls and with just a bit of hot glue looked awesome!
For our Teaparty , we had icecream sundaes…yummm! The perfect treat to wrap up learning about Maryellen.
Below are a few of the printables I used ⬇️Enjoy⭐️
Click to access c2cc978e3f190497bf43c49dbe84a214
Click to access AL_11008_OL_Helicopter.pdf
Click to access AL_11008_OL_BlankPostcard.pdf
Click to access AL_11008_OL_ActivityBooklet.pdf
Sputnik space race
Marie-Grace
Marie-Grace & Cecile from @americangirlbrand was one of our Dolls of the Month.
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The story takes place in 1853 in New Orleans and is full of history, an epidemic, and a friendship that transcended all social barriers at that time.
Most of the people in New Orleans at that time spoke French so it was fun learning a little french and speaking it at our tea party.
For our tea party we served chocolate drizzled croissants , scones and walnuts ( for our take on pralines)
We played a game from American Girl instead of doing the vocabulary bingo and the girls loved it!
The girls then decorated masquerade mask for their dolls and for themselves.
Such a fun day!
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Resource links below ⬇️
http://4littlepiglets.blogspot.com/2013/03/american-girl-lapbook.html?m=1
http://www.usa-printables.com/50_States/LA/la-pics/louisiana-map-01.gif
http://allfreeprintable.com/cont/gms/pdf/mardigr-triv.pdf
