Winter Links

Animal Tracks
Snowflake Photography
Snowflake Bentley

We're Enjoying Jan Brett ...

A Wonderful Winter Nature Study

I recently purchased a delightful winter unit from the Five in a Row digital store. The unique thing about this unit is that it is digital. As a customer, I purchased the unit online and received it within a few moments as an attachment in an email. It was quick and easy to download and once opened, it was jammed packed with tons of great ideas. Some of the ideas included tips and printables for winter nature studies (including animal studies), read alouds, poems, songs, quotations, art ideas, etc. The cost of the unit is $16 and is well worth every penny. It can be used across grade levels and can be easily integrated along with any curriculum. It is definitely something that I will go back to year after year during the chilly winter months.

Miss Rumphius ~ Barbara Cooney

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths ~ Ephesians 4:29
I adore Miss Rumphius! We rowed this book in the Fall and it was wonderful, but it would be ideal as a Spring unit since there is a focus on planting seeds.


~ directed quail drawing, narration, booklet of various places that Miss Rumphius visits


~ multi-media art (watercolour paint and felt pen), ways to make the world more beautiful, letter to grandparents and their responses

Favourite Activity ~ Letter Writing:
In Miss Rumphius the grandfather tells his granddaughter stories about when he was young. We decided to reenact this storytelling through letter writing. My daughter copied a letter to 2 sets of grandparents and to 2 sets of great grandparents and asked for them to write her a letter about "when they were a kid". Her grandparents rose up to the occasion and wrote amazing letters about the good ole days.

Nothing can replace these letters. I was crying through several of them as I read about the memorable moments in my parents and grandparents lives ~ many moments that I had never been told about before.

The wonderful thing about this activity is that my daughter now has an incredible keepsake that goes beyond words. A keepsake that I hope will be treasured forever!

From the Teacher in Me ....

Following are some ideas and website links that may prove useful in helping to increase your child’s reading fluency:

Oral Reading and Fluency:
A. Instructor models fluency.

B. Student reads same passage four times as instructor offers guidance.

C. Engage in other activities.

1. Student may read aloud along with a taped book.
2. Student and instructor may read some passages in unison.

(Taken from notes from “The Good Reader: Teaching Reading From Birth On” ~ by Jessie Wise)


Activities for repeated oral reading practice to help increase fluency:
Student-adult reading--reading one-on-one with an adult, who provides a model of fluent reading, helps with word recognition, and provides feedback.

Choral reading--reading aloud simultaneously in a group.

Tape-assisted reading--reading aloud simultaneously or as an echo with an audio-taped model.

Partner reading--reading aloud with a more fluent partner (or with a partner of equal ability) who provides a model of fluent reading, helps with word recognition, and provides feedback.

Readers' theatre--the rehearsing and performing before an audience of a dialogue-rich script derived from a book.

(Taken from “Fluency Instruction”)


Some Sight Word Website Links:
For those students who need to sound out almost every word, getting them to learn their sight words is essential. These two sites have the Dolch sight word lists available. Have your child practice reading the words on list 1 until he/she masters it, and then move on to list 2 etc. There are 11 lists in total to master!
Dolch List
Jan Brett’s Dolch List


Some Reading Fluency Website Links:
Put Reading First
Fluency Activities
Educational Links: Fluency

We're Enjoying ...

The Snowy Day ~ Ezra Jack Keats

Some Thoughts ...

Just prior to the Christmas break, a colleague blessed me with a reading recommendation: Educating the WholeHearted Child by Clay and Sally Clarkson. I am one of those people who loves to learn from the wisdom of those who have gone before me and thoroughly enjoyed the insight of the Clarksons.

As I spent time reading, I felt God speaking to me in the area of peace. Peace within my home. Peace within my relationships. Peace within my conversations. Peace within my attitude.

Right alongside the desire for peace was the reminder of my need for Grace.

Daily Grace.

Grace to make it peacefully through this day, this week, this term, this year.

In God's perfect timing, He had another fellow colleague send me an email that directed me to this beautifully written excerpt on how to maintain Peace within a homeschooling home. I encourage you to take some time when your home is quiet and your mind is still, to read these words of encouragement: How to Parent: Just Guide Gently

Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace always in every way. The Lord be with you all. ~ 2 Thessalonians 3:16

My Reading Nook

Sally Clarkson's inspirational blog: I Take Joy

A New Coat for Anna - Harriet Ziefert

Memory Verse: Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth ... but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven ... For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. ~ Matthew 6:19-21

Lots of great discussion! We discussed:
~ being poor
~ families during war times
~ giving to those who are in need
~ being content and worry free no matter what the circumstance
~ patience - how Anna waited a whole year to get her new coat
~ the seasons (through the illustrations and text)
~ the difference between buying with money and bartering

Our favourite activities:
~Role playing through the story
~ Sequencing the story using picture cards (I used my scanner to scan key illustrations from the book and then my daughter put them in order, dictated what was happening and then put together as a little book)
~ Planning, purchasing items for and putting together a package for a Thanksgiving food hamper for new moms with babies.
~ Sewing a small bag.
~ Measuring various parts of our bodies.

Here are a couple of photos of the paper pencil type activities:


~ back and front portraits, narration, body measurement booklet


~ directed drawing, sequencing booklet, scripture reference, swatch of material used for sewing project

Calendar Time

Here's a great way to get your children learning through living. I hear that ALL calendars are on sale right now - everywhere! My kids are loving this one so far. They can design their own page and add stickers for special dates - How fun is that?!?!

Nature Walk Extravaganza

Instilling a LOVE of nature in my children is a priority since nature is a reflection of God's awesomeness. I like to take time to be awed at His creation and I like to bring my kids alongside in this experience.

Tomorrow I have an autumn nature walk planned. To help with our discoveries, I am going to have the girls use this picture checklist from abcteach : Nature Walk Checklist

Recently I came across some other neat ideas to use while exploring nature:
Painted Egg Carton Discovery Chest

Using your 5 Senses

Top 10 Things to Do on a Nature Walk


Awe-Tumn
When summer's seams
Have come undone,
Then greens to reds
And purples run.
A palette falls
To forest floor,
And autumn leaves
Leave me in awe.

~ Douglas Florian ~ "Autumnblings"

A Milestone

Get Ready for the Code - Explode the Code Primer Book A is officially completed - October 24, 2008.

There were moments of "letter writing trauma" as m's looked like seagulls flying across the page and k's's looked like flat-headed crocodiles with their mouths wide open. But truth be told, my heart delights and the corners of my lips curl up in response to the flying m's and wide-mouthed k's.

I'm not sure if I should be aiming for "perfection" in the area of writing or not. But so far, I'm not. - I'm aiming for legibility.

This is my daughter's first attempt at a workbook and to be honest I'm pretty proud of her. She showed perseverance and looked almost studious at times while working away at the exercises. Next week we'll bring on Book B ... Get Set for the Code!

We're not trying to do School at Home. We're trying to do home school. These are two entirely different propositions. We're not trying to replicate the time, style or content of the classroom. Rather we're trying to cultivate a lifestyle of learning in which learning takes place from morning until bedtime 7 days each week. The formal portion of each teaching day is just the tip of the ice burg. ~ Steve and Jane Lambert

A Forest Scavenger Hunt

This is a fun little scavenger hunt that I came across in a local environmental magazine:

~ a mushroom
~ lichen (like hanging hair)
~ a cedar tree
~ a seed
~ a feather
~ a non-native species
~ a sign of the season
~ a sign of humans
~ a branch or stick shaped like a letter
~ a squirrel or chipmunk chattering
~ something red
~ something round
~ a conifer cone (like a pine or fir cone)
~ a scat (animal droppings)
~ somebody's home
~ a bird song
~ a stream or creek
~ a nurse log (a log with plants growing on it)
~ a wildflower
~ a sign of a woodpecker
~ a rotten log
~ a worm or an insect
~ something yellow
~ a river worn rock (smooth and round)
~ moss on a tree trunk or log
~ an old growth tree (takes 3 kids arms to wrap around the trunk!)

Wee Gillis ~ Munro Leaf ~ FIAR Unit Study

Memory Verse: Proverbs 9:9 ~ Instruct a wise man and he will be wiser still.

Day 1
~ listened to bagpipe music
~ talked about the months of the New Year and January
~ went through a calendar learning the names of the months and an occasion that corresponds with each
~ sung the months of the year (made up a tune)
~ compared "oatmeal eating" pictures
~ made homemade oatmeal

Day 2
~ looked at the picture of Wee Gillis blowing the bagpipes and talked about how the "cross-hatching" lets us know that his cheeks were red
~ tried cross hatching on a square piece of paper
~ glued pictures of a hairy-cow and a stag into our animal classification chart

Day 3
~ looked at the shadows in the illustrations and discussed where the sun was coming from (my daughter also looks for her shadow and the direction of the sun when outside)
~ completed a directed drawing of a hairy-cow and it's shadow




Day 4~ placed a sticker on Scotland on a world map
~ created a Scotland flip book - the pages included a flag of Scotland and of our own country, pictures and labels of a kilt (and a swatch of plaid material), bagpipes, a hairy-cow and a map of Scotland




Day 5
~ narrated the story of Wee Gillis ~ my daughter dictated and I typed (she needed a little prompting but for the most part it is her interpretation)
~ cut and assembled scrapbook pages with the completed Wee Gillis activities