Writing with Transitional Words

One of the things I learned early on with this school at home adventure is to NOT assume a student knows something.  The K12 curriculum is lovely, I definitely recommend it.  However, I would love to have taken the children from Kindergarten or 1st grade.  There are days where we are really only backtracking and teaching from the get go whereas K12 assumes they already have worked with the topic (because they would have if they use K12 the previous years).  Not that K12 should be different, it shouldn't be.  It does a lovely job a reviewing and going to the next level but I've found that we have to introduce it and work with it a bit before we move onto the next level.  :-) It gives me just a little insight of what happens to a student when they transfer from school to school where the standards and scope and sequence is different.  So, I really do not have a problem with Common Core.  I think it would be good that nationally the schools are following the same set of standards.  However, that will take several years (if ever) to get to that point...but the thought behind it is right!

 

One specific area that I see a gap at every grade level is in writing.  I find that I often review my 1st grader's lesson with the kids up to grade 4.  Yes, that's right.  They really haven't had any formal learning for writing, even up to grade 4.   Today was one of those days where we did a whole group 1st grade lesson.  Language Arts1: Transitional Words.  (We also did whole group measurement review and metric system introduction so the 3rd grader could do her work.  But I was amazed still what I thought they would/should have known but didn't.)  Anyway, back to L's 1st grade language arts lesson.  It focused on the transition words first, next, and last.  We went a little beyond that.  First off I provided them an Oreo cookie to enjoy, right at the end of lunch time.  Then I pulled out the white board and we brainstormed transitional words.  Then I challenged them to eat another Oreo (yes, they had their fair share today...no complaining for some reason!) but really think about how they eat them.  Then each child verbally used transitional words to tell me how they each ate their Oreo.  They had recess and when they came in most of them created an Oreo project.

4th grader

 

3rd grader

 

1st grader

 

2nd grader

 

Simple, yes?! They absolutely loved it!  Seriously, isn't that funny?!  Oh the simple things.  Of course it probably had something to do with eating Oreo cookies when I never have those in the house...and getting to use the metallic permanent markers. :-)  As you see, we happened to talk about the various types of Oreos that are available now.  Pink for Valentine's day, green for St. Patrick's Day (actually I think we can get those year around now), orange for Halloween, etc.  So we got some variety of color for the inside frosting.  There was also a little friendly debate about what color the cookies actually are.  :-)  So, they got the option of brown and black paper.  And for those that had additional steps...they just created double stuffed oreos.

 

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Totally Terrific in Texas has a nice little reference sheet for those kiddos that need a little help revising and broadening their vocabulary.  :-)  You can get it here.

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There are several ideas out there on the web such as a face with a balloon and the kids telling the sequence of how to blow a bubble (gum).  My 4th grade suggested we do this again but with a hamburger.  Really, the possibilities are endless for a sequence craftactivity.  I really hope to do more of this next year. 

 

 

 

Owls!

We had a required "no Internet" day last week because for whatever reason we used a lot of it and was on the verge of going over our limit, even after boosting it once that month.  So on a whim I turned a 1st grade project into a whole group project and I'm so glad I did!  They turned out lovely...they all enjoyed this very simple project!
 

 3rd grade

preschool and 1st grade 
 
 

2nd graders

 

 4th grade

 

We took two sessions to complete.  The first day we splatter painted.  Oh boy.  Since I was only going to do this with one kiddo I hadn't prepared a splatter paint box.  Needless to day I'm still cleaning paint off my kitchen walls and appliances.  Oops!  Note to self, no matter how deep your kitchen sink is, don't do it there.  :-D  We also did the owls on the first session.  Great way to get those kids to "fill the paper".  Watered down some brown paint so it would resist their crayon details.  Then second session they created branches or fences, a moon, and any other details they wished.  I love how each are different.

This is not my original idea.  I came across this picture somewhere when I was browsing google images and do you think I can find it again?  Nope, sure can't.  This was just my take on their picture.

 

So, how we got started on this project.  In the LanguageArts1, they read a fictional store and then do a bit on a related nonfiction reading.  To make it a bit more interesting I've been incorporating a little paper craft or painting to go along with it.  Here is an example of the goat one he did.  He's also done a dinosaur and a bear...but the goat one was handy.  On the right he does the project on the left I staple the nonfiction reading and his nonfiction reading response page.  Simple...that's necessary around here with 6 kiddos!  But it allows for the child to take a little more pride in his work.

 

What happened this time was that I hadn't explored with the sizes of the owls and found out after the fact that they really needed the 12x18 background so we can't arrange it like we did on the other nonfiction projects.  We'll just attach his pages to the back of this project vs. having the story and response sheet side by side.

You can download the nonfiction response sheet here if you would like.

 

Next year I hope to incorporate more "hands-on" extras in all subjects.  K12 is a good curriculum but there is a lot of a paper-pencil activities.  I'd like to tweak that a bit for next year.  :-)

 

Side Note:  During the project, L., he first grader, was telling us what he had learned about owls and one of the little facts about owls he learned was that their eyes look straight ahead.  So an adaptation was the ability to turn their head almost all the way around.  So later they are all looking at each other's owls and one of the 2nd graders piped up and said, "Mine is the only one that is realistic."  After asking him to tell us more, he pointed out the eyes.  His were the only ones looking straight ahead.  :-D 

Habitat Dioramas

Both our 1st and 3rd graders did a bit more of an "in depth" study on habitats and the other students touched on animal habitats and animal adaptations somewhere along the line.  So we finally got around to doing dioramas for habitats over spring break!

Grade 3- Temperate Forest

She actually had a lot of various animals here.  We had great conversations about the food chain.  :-)  The kids found her baby foxes very cute.  Painted marshmallows! Creative use of real sod for her ground! 

Grade 1:  Ocean

Sand at the bottom, neat "wallpaper" on back.  Hanging fish.  Well-enjoyed by all!

 

 

Grade 2: Desert

Wispy cotton ball clouds, glitter glue sun, oasis, snakes, hard to see behind the Styrofoam cactus but he has a bean mouse.  He has little critters round the inside of the box also.    Sand paper bottom.  Mountain range with shadow.  :-)  His main animal was the snake...so he had the mouse as the snake's prey and he wanted the hawk to be flying as if it was ready to snatch the snake.  So the snake's predator was the hawk.

 

Grade 4: Rain Forest

This is a fun age to do dioramas with.  They really need no assistance and their imagination is great!  He went outside to find rocks.  Saw some things at a dollar store that he thought would be great.  Use moss for the bottom,  Back in the corner is a plastic snake and there are bean eggs in the nest.  He made a nest for the bird on top of a towel tube...neat!

 

Grade 2: Polar

Creative use of the marshmallows!  He told me he found these animals in a workbook he had at home...love that! 

 

We were going to have the preschooler make up a savanna "sensory" tray on the day of the presentations but our presentations came sooner than expected, due to having a "no internet" required day due to data usage limitations.  So it didn't get done.  Oh well.  'Tis the way it goes.

 

Writing2 has a presentation, book review, and research units and we are tying all three of those units into this project.  Fun stuff! 

 

I tried to get pictures of each child doing their presentation but, as usual, only a couple pictures actually turned out.  Why is that?  They look decent on the camera and I get them on the computer and they are blurry, etc.  Lighting, setting, etc are all the same.

Anyway, most of the children did well and enjoyed "presenting".  The 1st grader had a bit more difficulty with it but that comes with practice.  This is something else I'd like to do more of next year.  Creating visuals for their lesson and having them present them to the rest of the group.  This was perfect for the younger grades and reinforcing how to ask questions.  Yes, one would think that this isn't so difficult but the children here had the same difficulties that I saw happening in the K-2 classrooms in brick and mortar.  :-)

 

We had a lot of fun with this!  Next up...our whole group Owl art project!

Flowers in Vase

Nice "spring-y" project that we ended up all doing.  First it started as a Art3 project that just the 3rd and 4th grader was doing.  3rd grader was learning about art of porcelain pottery.  Then I found that the Art1 had a still life that was a vase also.  So, voila!  We'll all do it.  :-)

 

2nd graders

(I love those contrasting colors on the right!)

  

1st grader's and preschooler's

(FYI: The flowers were difficult for the 1st grader and preschooler.  :-))

 

 

4th and 3rd graders

(I want a vase like that purple one!  :-))

 

Actually, a very simple project that really doesn't take a lot of time.  When I did this with the Preschool-2nd graders we finished it in 2 days.  1st day we folded a 9x12 piece of white construction paper in half and trace a half of vase and cut out.  Then added crayon design and water color.  We also took the time to add a tablecloth and wallpaper to the background paper.  The next day I worked with them to make tissue paper flowers and I hot glued the vases and their flowers. 

 

Directions to the tissue paper/button flowers can be found at

Make and Takes.

 

 

 

Vincent van Gogh

Our group lesson this week has been inspired by Art1: Vincent van Gogh.

 

 

What was really cool was that the 1st grader and I had gone through the first portion of the lesson and the next day we went to the Midland Center for the Arts: Grossology Exhibit.  We spent some time in the other parts of the museum, outside of the exhibit and lo and behold...we found the same piece of art work as above-his self-portrait (but with a pipe).  Then we stuck around for awhile and realized that there was a bit of technology involved and it would change from one self-portrait to another, leaving the face and pipe.  So they saw...

    

Well, versions of these.  :-)  They were definitely recognizable but they all used the face of the one on the top left, with the pipe.  And every once in awhile the pipe would "puff".  Then on the other wall was one on the left and leafcutter ants took pieces off the "framed art" (using again that top left self-portrait) and moved it to seperate frame and put it all back together with the added touch of a butterfly putting the last piece on.  :-)  Very cool use of technology and famous artwork!

 

So, our lesson...Starry Night

Definitely a well-known piece of artwork!

We had fun with this.  We added a little "extra" to K12's 1st grade lesson because I wanted them to explore with thick paint and texture.  :-)  But we didn't get into as much if I had just older students.  I can see grades 4+ really get into this!  We took three mornings to do this to allow the paint to dry in between.  Day one we browsed through Vincent van Gogh's artwork and then spent some time with the Starry Night one.  Actually, what I do is find eart work and save them to a file on the laptop and then we watch a slideshow.  :-)  We worked on to bottom portion of the landscape.  I provided dark colored paints and for whatever reason they all chose green for bottom of landscape and blues/purples for mountains/hills.  :-)  Day 2, I provided colors to make shades of blue for the sky and white for them to swirl.  Day 3, they added yellow in the sky and any other details they wanted. 

Grade 4

 

Grade 2

 

  Preschool

(with help---he really enjoyed this!)

 

Grade 2

 

Grade 3

 

And last but not least...our 1st grader's:

 

They did a job well done!

 

The Vincent Van Gogh pictures were from Wikipedia.

 

This is a pretty cool variation...

Bottle caps!  I found this at

http://2soulsisters.blogspot.com/2011/01/bottle-caps.html

 

Mosaics-Byzatine Empire

 

Another shout to K12's history/art curriculum.  By the way, MVCA is taking applications for 2013-2014 school year.  :-)  Here's the link. http://www.k12.com/mvca.  This is for Michigan's online public school using the K12 curriculum.  Many states have this online schooling option available.  You can check your state at www.k12.com.

 

The 2nd graders have spent quite a bit of time learning about the Roman Empire in history.  They learned that Rome started about 2700 years ago with a small group of villages.  Then it grew into  a huge empire. Then they learned about what caused the empire to split into the Eastern and Western Empires and they learned that the new more modern term "Byzantine Empire" represented the Eastern Roman Empire.   Also, that the Emperor Justinian who caused the Eastern Empire to grow was a Christian, which brought us to some of the art work within the churches.  :-)

 

Of course, there were many more details throughout those lessons.  But what's really neat with the K12 curriculum is that often art and history are connected somehow.  Not all the time, but often. And I love how they go back and make connections to past lessons because that's how children really learn...repetition! So in Art they are revisiting Ancient Rome.  They are being reminded of all the beautiful architectural work, temples that were built to worship their gods/goddesses and all the amazing artwork and marble sculptures.  They were reminded about the city of Pompeii which was buried over the course of 2-3 days when Mt. Vesuvius erupted.  And they were shown a picture of a Roman bedroom that was preserved.  The lesson title was called "No Window? No Problem!"  :-D 

www.studyblue.com

The walls were frescoes (paintings directly on the plaster of the walls) and the floor was a marble mosaic.  (I couldn't find the same picture as in the lesson.  :-( They showed more of the floor.)  The walls were painted with windows and scenes outside windows and from what I gather from the lesson, there wasn't an actual window in this room.  All of them were painted! So the 2nd grade lesson was to paint a window and a scene outdoors. 

They started with making a window sill and frame. The one on the left is very typical for that child, very detailed and the one on the right ... yep, that's typical too! He did a fictional scene. Seems to think that drawing realistic scenes are harder. :-D So he made a CandyLand scene out the window. Ha!

 

In a 3rd grade lesson, back in November, the children painted on plaster squares my husband made for them.  That lesson was touching on frescoes also.  Not exactly the same as painting on wet plaster but fun anyway!  

 

Anyway, they moved onto some of the mosaics after talking about the floor of that room was a marble mosaic!  That marble mosaic floor was 2000 years old.  So we had a good conversation on whether carpet would last 2000 years.  :-D

 

The mosaic below was one of the pictures also shared with the students.  Remember that Emperor Justinian was Christian, he had many of the bible stories created in mosaics on the walls of churches. They did a good job and helping the children understand just how much marble would be needed and how much work it would be do create a mosaic like these.

 

Emperor Justinian and his Attendants

www.studyblue.com

 

So after discussing mosaics for awhile all the students created a paper mosaic.  They turned out well!

Yes, time consuming, but definitely neat outcomes.  I see now in the picture that he should have used hot glue to glue his seaweed down.  Seems that liquid glue didn't hold it down.  We'll have to fix that.  And no, that isn't part of a typical mosaic but I try to allow the children to follow their creative whims.  So if the project turns out a little different than I expected, 'tis okay.  :-)

1st grader really wasn't "into" this project as you can tell.  :-)  That's his sun.  2nd grader's umbrella, notice the little tiny piece of handle coming back up at the bottom of the page.  Interesting!  And he added darker blue for rain.

2nd grader's carrots.

 

 

Preschooler's sun on the left and 3rd grader's heart on the right.