Poem #1

I've been working on a poetry unit with my grade 6 class. I had them purchase sketchbooks which had paper that could handle watercolours. For our poetry unit, we're studying a different type of poem and an art technique (for lack of a better word) each week. My goal is to have the students create a beautiful poetry journal filled with art that they can truly be proud of. So far, they've done a fantastic job and are so proud of themselves.

I'm enjoying this project so much that I've decided to do it with my two. We started with the acrostic poem using their first names. Last names could be added as well. I chose to have them write sentences for each letter of their name, but for younger children, they could easily choose one word for each letter. The word or sentences must be reflective of the child.

For the artwork on the border, I had them make some tangled art. Since I can't find a link online, here's a quick lesson. I did it within a border, but it's even better when you can fill a whole page.
1) draw 4-5 curved lines from one edge of the page to the other. Allow them to criss cross.

2) fill each shape with a different pattern.

3) go over curved lines and patterns with a fine black Sharpie marker.

4) after discussing colour theory and colour options, have them fill in each space with colour.


Mason - age 7


Mickey - age 5

The kids were so proud of themselves when they were done. Stay tuned for our next poem.

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A New Book

I've been eyeing these books by Erin Hunter for a while. Going into the children's department in any bookstore can be quite daunting. As a book lover, I get completely overwhelmed. I want to buy everything. Finding a chapter book suitable for a young, yet advanced reader can be a challenge. I need the books to interest him, yet not be garbage. I also need them to interest me! After speaking with the sales rep. at our local Chapters, ( who really knew her stuff), I decided to give this book a go. This is Mason's newest chapter book. He loves animals so a fantasy book all about bears, is perfect. It's beautifully written and I am enjoying hearing the story as well. When we finish it we will write a more complete review. If we enjoy this series, I'm sure we'll try Warriers as well. I would love to hear from anyone who has read them all. What did you think?

Balloons

A friend suggested that we get our kids together to do some experiments. She had three in mind that all used balloons. We stayed with the balloon theme and ended up with seven fun experiments. Nothing serious, just some fun experimenting!

We started by creating static electricity. They had a lot of fun with this one.



Next we tried the "skewer through the balloon" experiment. This was cool! The kids predicted the best locations for the skewer to enter and exit the balloon. Unfortunately I didn't have any of the thin wooden ones so, we had to make do with a metal shish kebab skewer which proved to be a little more challenging. It took a few tries, but finally worked. The kids figured out that it was best to put the skewer through the area with the least amount of stress on it.



Here's a good one to demonstrate the difference between expansion and contraction. Since I didn't always have my camera at the ready, my pictures aren't the best, but you get the idea!



Check out this video for demonstrating centripetal force. The kids enjoyed this one and it could be expanded on in a variety of ways; different sized balloons, different objects, etc...







All kids love a chemical reaction. Try this simple one for blowing up a balloon.






And my personal favourite, the balloon hovercraft. It definitely helped to have another set of hands available to help stretch the balloon over the top. Very neat.



Next theme....lemons!

Money Worksheets

This is a good site for generating money worksheets. Different currencies are available.

Remembrance Day Message

Visit here

Good Math Link

Check out this site for math practice. Note: Area and Perimeter is under Geometry instead of Measurement.

Christmas Ideas - Free online magazine!

I just found this link to a great online magazine filled with Christmas ideas. It's free too! Thanks Karen for the link. Enjoy everyone!

Open publication - Free publishing - More happy

Our Science Program

I must admit that our science program is not well developed. It's generally child led. The only component that's organized is a science co-op that I've organized. We meet every other week with 13 other children. Half of our program is delivered by this group and half by this one. The rest of our learning is determined by Mason and Mickey's current interests. Both of these programs are wonderful and are very hands on. The organizers are very willing to work within our guidelines.

Suspense Story Writing Prompts

Here is a series of writing prompts that I used when my class was working on suspense writing. These aren't meant to replace their story but rather jump start their creative juices. I would use the one below for confident writers. As the prompts progressed, students loved sharing what they had written and demonstrating how they had used rich vocab.

Starter sentence:
He (or she) thought she heard someone in the house.

a) where was he/she in the house?
b) what was the disturbing sound he/she heard?
c) what was he/she thinking? What question could be going through his/her mind?
d) was anything out of the ordinary in the house?
e) did the character smell anything? Did it remind him/her of anything?
f) connect that memory to the present moment.
g) raise another question in the character's mind.
h) what does the character really want to do right now but can't?
i) Why is he/she afraid?
j) Have the character take some kind of action.
k) Put an obstacle in his/her path; make him retreat.
l) Give him/her the courage to return and try again.
m) Have the character discover what's really going on.

Here's a much shorter one I tried with younger writers. It could easily have been made longer.

Once upon a time I was _______________________________________________ and I heard ________________________________________.

The noise made me feel ________________________________. I think it was ____________________________________________________.

I quickly ________________________________________________________________________________. All of a sudden __________________

_________________________________________________.