A Slice of Sky

For the past two weeks, I have been thinking about how to assess and develop my 7 year old’s reading and writing abililities in a way that wasn’t burdensome. The shelves in the education section of our local bookshops are dotted with workbooks of every shape, size and colour. That seemed like an easy alternative- for me. But I know Joy would just hate sitting through hours of workbooks. Besides, I don’t think they fit into our investigative approach toward learning.

I had heard about oral narration as a tool for learning. At the same time, I want my daughter to be able to polish her writing skills.  So I have decided to as her to do written narration of the books that she reads – history, science, fiction,art,etc.

I didn’t want to duplicate workbooks. So I decided to come up with templates. These templates are basically frameworks, that provide a structure for the narration- something that I think she needs at this point.

Here’s the History Template

If you use it, do tell me what you think!

I wanted to do something different than the usual descriptive piece of landscapes such as forests, beaches and mountains. So, I looked around the house and saw our oven, refrigerator and walla …MACHINES!

We take machines for granted since they have always been there , well at least for the past few generations! Most of us have not known life without machines. So I figured, “How different would our life be without them?”

Well, I’ve written a short creative writing activity on machines. It should set your student’s creative juices flowing as she creates and describes ‘her’ machine.

Download the new worksheet here.

I’ve just posted a worksheet on mini activities to explore literary elements with your children.

Download it here: Mini Activities to Explore Literary Elements

I hope you will enjoy them!

For this writing activity, your child has to think of an incident e.g. football game, a dance, visit to the farm, a picnic by the sea, a day at school. She has to describe the incident purely through phrasal verbs.

Since this may be quite tough, you may want to ask her to write a short paragraph of the incident. Be sure to use phrasal verbs in her short description.

For example, you may want to describe a battle that you have watched on television between  some robots and humans ( this should ring about a a dozen bells!).  The poem would look something like this:

Invasion from the Sky( this is the title)

thrown out

spy on

descend on

hover over

peer into

press upon

slam down

knock over

knock down

smash up

chase after

blast away

blown up

hover over

hover over

clean up.

The title is very important as it enables the reader to make sense of the phrasal verbs.

You could also get your kids to write a few of these poems, without the titles, then ask them to exchange their poems and guess what each poem is about.

Hi, I will be posting a new worksheet soon on how to use a thesaurus when you write poems with you children. The whole idea has to do with bringing the image taht you have in mind to a sharper focus.

I have been penning down some poetry of my own as I think about how my two children are growing up. How do you give them roots and wings at the same time? Our mothers and grandmothers before them have done so: how will I pass on the legacy as it were? What kind of legacy do I want to pass on to my children?

I tend to get more reflective toward the end of the year. It think there is one word for it -brooding !  You know you are getting older, and perhaps, a little wiser.  There is much in the world today to rejoice over- nature for one, good friends, family, wholesome books and God’s faithfulness. There is also much to grieve over -war, lost children,  the silent pain men and women carry. And then what do we do? We need to have courage. It is time to be brave, as we once were , on  that first venture into the darkness of the bathroom late at night, that first step into the classroom, that first break-up .

I digress. This is supposed to be about the new worksheet that’s coming soon!

Some ideas of what to do with the fairytale –Sleeping Beauty.

1. The king and queen and those in their court were supposed to have slept for a hundred years. Together with your child, list down the changes that would have taken place outside.

-Which of those changes would have been very difficult for the king’s family when they woke from their hundred-year sleep ?

2. Imagine that Sleeping Beauty did not like the prince when he woke her up. What would she have done? How would the story end?