May the Fourth Be With You

Today is Star Wars Day at our house.  Everything Star Wars.

Star Wars Concentration...

Star Wars Pajamas...

Darth Vader Costumes...

Yoda Punch...Yes, it is just a lovely shade of green...

You name it...We are putting a Star Wars Twist on it.

And so, in that light...I have found some wonderfully funny Star Wars songs that I would like to share with you.  They are YouTube videos, all Lego, some Weird Al, but some are other songs I just happened to find looking for Star Wars stuff for this day.  But there is also some education in this...Be sure to watch the last one!!!  Be sure to put on your speakers!!!

Yoda

Vader Orchestra

The Saga Begins

Star Wars Cantina   OR

Star Wars Cantina Sing-Along

(Both Cantina Videos should be viewed by parents before hand as there are some graphic parts from the movie.  Be the judge for your own children)

Grocery Store Wars

So, just what are we going to do besides dress up like Darth Vader (and Mommy like Leia because I always wanted Bagels stuck to the side of my head but never had the hair to do it...okay...so that's not true...the bagel part...)

Well, first we're going to do a comparison between the Star Wars movies and other movies/books we are familiar with - Good Versus Evil type stuff.  We're going to do a quick peek at how Anakin Skywalker can be viewed as a tragic character with deep conflict going on within him and how that conflict is so easily manipulated by Palpatine/Darth Sidious, a Dark Lord of the Sith.  And while Anikin/Darth Vader might turn to the Dark Side, how he eventually redeems himself.  A little deep some say, but I think at 8 Squirt can handle it in the context of Star Wars.

As well, we're going to toss in some fun by making our own "Death Star" - out of paper mache, of course.  We also have some origami stuff - I found some wonderful Star Wars origami as well as some great Star Wars printables so be sure to check it out for your own Kiddos.  Squirt will need help with it, but the end result should be pretty neat and we're hoping to have two or three new "toys" in the end.

We also have a few Star Wars games for the computer - DroidWorks, for example.  Check out Lucas Learning for further lesson plans using these games.  Since we are studying Simple Machines in science, we are going to look at pulleys using Training Mission 3 of DroidWorks.

We will also practice our multiplying skills with a rousing game of "Star Wars" - simply a deck of cards with the face cards removed.  The dealer deals out the deck so the two players each have half a deck which is kept face down in front of the player.  Each of the two players flips their top card over - the first person to answer with the correct product wins both cards.  (Of course, the youngest of the two goes first when playing with Mom or Dad!!!  And often is allowed to win when Mom or Dad is just a bit slower...)  Play continues until one player holds all the cards.  Luckily, we actually have Star Wars cards for this!  But any deck will do OR you can make your own using various printables found on the net and card stock.  Simply print the Star Wars images you like and using number stamps or markers add the various numbers to the cards for a deck of 20, 30 or even 50 or more.  Laminate if you wish.  (I would, since Squirt loves to play card games such as War, Dutch Blitz, etc)

I was also thinking of doing a movie poster or short story as practice for adjectives - describing the war or the movie using plenty of adjectives and examining what adjectives are, etc...But we will see about time.  I don't want to spend too much time on "desk stuff" when it is supposed to be a FUN FILLED day!

After we are done "school" stuff, then we are going to wait for Squirt's best buddy to be dismissed from his school (public school) and he's going to rush right over with his Star Wars costume and the boys are going to have light saber battles, a Star Wars treasure hunt, building a Tie Fighter our of cardboard and then settling down to watch one or two (or more) of the Star Wars movies. 

For some reason, Squirt's best buddy does not have school on Wednesday so after a quick discussion with BB's mother it was decided that the boys could spend the night together and they will be allowed to stay up a bit later...so if the movies go a bit late, that is fine with me, so long as they don't go and do something really silly like wake up at 4 in the morning!  (yes, they have been known to do that!) 

So our Star Wars event will be going on "late" into the night...

And it will include a Star Wars meal...of Blasteroids (apple dumplings), Naboo Nuggets (chicken nuggets), Fried Light Sabres (yes, fries) as well as a Jabba Salad (gotta get veggies in there somehow!)

Until later...

A Jedi's strength flows from the Force.



-- Yoda