Learning ideas, games, activities, books, and suggestions for the kindergarten through fourth grade learner, ideal for home learner or school student.
If there is one subject that we return to in our homeschool again and again, it is that of the coral reef. My kids love Nemo, Dory, and their friends, so of course learning about their habitat in the oceans of the world is a subject we love to learn about. What could be better
I stumbled on an article about cursive being cut from public schools. With the impending implementation of the Common Core and cursive not being a part of that Core, I completely get it. How can you teach everything to this huge group of students in your stewardship in just one year? Something has to give,
A few weeks ago, I overheard my kindergartner talking to his baby sister. “Are you an i, u, v, or j?” he was saying in his sweetest voice. “Because if you are, you cannot come at the end of an English word!” This he repeated a few times over the next few minutes as he
I’ve been creating units for kindergarten using picture books to introduce the poetic concepts of rhythm, rhyme, and metaphor. Today I thought I’d write about another picture book that would help in teaching older children about metaphors in poetry: Red Sings from Treetops by Joyce Sidman and illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski.
Storm Song is a rhythmic and rhyming book about three kids in the midst of a dark and long storm. Some pages feature onomatopoeia (boom, bang, rumble, rap) and other pages feature describing words (like flash and sparkle). When I introduce onomatopoeia in my Language Arts class, we use this book.
When my son was a toddler, his favorite page in The Cat in the Hat was the “Look at Me! Look at Me! Look at Me Now!” page, in which the Cat balances and hops with all sorts of fun items. I have to admit, this is a favorite for me too. “It’s fun to
One of the keys to beginning reading is understanding the parts of words, including syllable breaks. For my beginning readers, I made a Valentine’s Day-themed syllable practice set to practice hearing the “beats” in the words. We also played with syllable clip cards for fun as well.
I love teaching the Spanish class at our homeschool co-op. It’s an enrichment class, so we are just learning for fun. We made Spanish valentines to deliver to family. We also learned important family vocabulary.
We play games for kindergarten this year. It’s the new normal. I’ve learned to adjust my expectations of Kindergarten learning. When Raisin was in kindergarten, he, as my first and only school-aged child, had to deal with what I’ll call, “An overload of curriculum.” There were many tears. Now, five years later, I’ve learned to adjust
This week, my kindergartner and I decided to work on recognizing beginning blends. To practice sorting the beginning blends sounds, I made a beginning consonant blends game just perfect for the autumn season, since it involves sorting turkey feathers and returning them to the correct beginning consonant blend turkey.
It’s so hard to get back in to the groove after a vacation. The last thing we wanted to do was head back to homeschool. But this week, we turned to old routines and found ways to learn from our “extras”, and it turned out to be a fantastic, learning-packed week!
It is autumn time! I love watching the passing seasons, and fall is no exception: I love the day by day changes on the maple tree in the back yard, and the cool breezes are refreshing. I know I say it at the start each season, but I love this time of year! It is always
