International Chocolate Day Fun!

Did you know that today, September 13, 2013 is International Chocolate Day***?!?

 ***Please be sure to read all the way to the end of this post, as I have a chocolate themed freebie for those who leave comments on this post!

Dear Hubby and the boys made chocolate chip cookies in honor of the day! 
Mmm....

Still cooling on the parchment paper covered cookie sheet...

Well, we couldn't be more excited about that here, as we all are big chocolate fans.
We enjoy baking, eating, and making chocolate and chocolate related snacks.
As a family, we also recently watched both the newer, darker version, Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory starring Johnny Depp, as well as the classic older movie, Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, starring Gene Wilder.
Both movies were shown back to back on ABC Family, so the boys were able to watch both movies and then, they were able to compare them to Roald Dahl's original book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
We also have been studying ancient civilizations and this chocolate study tied in nicely with the study of the Mayan and Aztec people, as well as early chocolate history in Europe.
All in all, it has been an interesting study, to learn more about chocolate!

Brain Pop's featured movie is about chocolate today, so if you read this and think that you and your children would enjoy learning about chocolate, then be sure to watch the Brain Pop Chocolate movie during your studies.
We have done many chocolate themed, Montessori inspired works over the last few years, including making hot chocolate, chocolate brownies, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate and strawaberry milk pops, chocolate pudding and croissants with melted chocolate.
We have also read various chocolate themed math books and social studies books, along with some fun chocolate books.
Probably one of the most enjoyable things that we have done is chocolate taste testing. Chocolate Taste testing is a great jumping point for writing, as it requires each person to relay their opinions of every chocolate tested in a very descriptive, subjective way.
It is also nice for children to see that everyone is entitled to their own opinions, as the boys have very different tastes in chocolate.

Little Bro prefers White Chocolate and in second place, he likes Milk Chocolate.

Big Bro prefers dark chocolate and is very adventurous when it comes to trying unusual add ins that companies have tried, from hot peppers to pop rocks.

I have put a Pinterest board together, aptly named Chocolate Study! 
This board has links to all kinds of lapbooks, writing journals, math and science projects related to chocolate, along with Montessori inspired hot chocolate snack work.

Homeschool Share offers a very nice, free Chocolate Unit. We love Homeschool Share and used many of their free materials when the boys were younger.
Erica from Confessions of a Homeschooler has a really neat Charlie and the Chocolate Factory lapbook.
We have used several of Erica's materials and have always been quite happy with our purchases.

Amanda Bennett has a great Chocolate Study and Pinterest board called Chocolate Challenge.
Her unit looks lovely, as do her other chocolate themed pins, including recipes and such.


Do you have a chocolate themed Pinterest board?

Would love it if you also have any special chocolate themed learning activities and  / or yummy chocolate recipes that your would like to share.

***As a bonus, if you comment about chocolate or share your link to your chocolate themed fun, I will email you some of my cute spa labels...they are for a sugar scrub and a chocolate face mask!

The spa recipes can be found here.

Have a happy weekend and can't wait to see what you share! :)