Learning ideas, games, activities, books, and suggestions for the kindergarten through fourth grade learner, ideal for home learner or school student.
It cooled off! This Monday morning feels like fall. Today, in celebration of the coming of the new season, I have two great fall picture books to share with some ideas on how to incorporate them in to learning. Learn about the apple tree life cycle and also sort the sillies out of the season!
My fifth grader and I are working on basic conversation in Spanish, while my kindergartner and I are at the other end of the learning spectrum: we’re focusing on basics like learning the alphabet, the days of the week, and other calendar words. Our alphabet wall cards and the calendar tracking page (and cards) help
Now that Strawberry is gaining more confidence with the various sounds of the letters of the alphabet, she’s ready for understanding the concepts of digraphs and other multi-letter phonograms. Whistling Whales by Denise Eide introduces the 21 most important multi-letter phonograms and the multiple sounds they produce in English. After reading the picture book together,
When I thought about a persuasive mentor text, my first thought was to go with The Pigeon, Mo Willems’ crabby bird who demands things. I almost dismissed this Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus writing idea because I thought my kids will probably think it is childish, but I went with it anyway. I’m
I don’t always believe that writing prompts that come out of nowhere can always help our kids gain stronger writing skills. But, I do believe that high interest books can prompt kids to want to write! I’ve frequently written about books and the writing prompts I’ve given as a homeschool mom and co-op teacher. Here
The War of 1812 is often overlooked. It seems it accomplished very little. (Both Britain and America considered themselves winners.) The biggest battle occurred after the peace treaty was signed. But, because of the War, America was finally recognized as it’s own nation. The flag became a symbol of patriotism, and we received the national
The first decades of the new United States of America were tremulous as the founding fathers disagreed over how the government should run, thus beginning political parties. Plus, the United States expanded with the Louisiana Purchase and the new knowledge gained from the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
The American Revolutionary War begin with an anonymous shot. Soon after the first shots were fired, a larger war broke out. General George Washington faced a lot of trials with his untrained group of soldiers. But with courage to stand up for themselves and determination, the American Patriots eventually were able to end the war
It’s one thing to say the colonists wanted freedom from England, but students should learn just why it came to that. What changed from the early 1700s to 1776, when the Declaration of Independence was signed? As students look at the perspectives of various characters (real or not) from history, they will gain a better
Pretending and imagination are a key to relating to and enjoying history. Once you’ve learned about the American colonies, simulate what it would be like to live in the colonial era, and encourage your students to pretend to be a colonial era child.
For young elementary kids, learning about the early American settlements can be a investigation of the reasons behind the success and failures of the early colonists in America. Roanoke’s mystery provides context for the difficulties of settling, Jamestown teaches about the economic reasons to settle, and the Massachusset Bay Colony of Pilgrims shows religious reasons
The explorers to North America are some of my favorite subjects simply because of the courage necessary to voyage out in to the unknown. There are so many explorers one could learn about. Reading about the explorers to America and doing hands-on activities helps us too explore. This time, we’re exploring the explorers!
