Poetry Journal

Back when I taught 5th grade, poetry was used frequently in our classroom. We used poetry as a way for students to work on their fluency. Students would answer comprehension questions, act out the poems with peers, or draw imagery from it daily. When I home-schooled "A" for a short while I knew I wanted to give him the same exposure, but at a primary level. At Just 4 Teachers I found what I was looking for, a poetry journal where kinder kids can highlight sight words, work on their reading, and do an art project for each poem. 

Now that "A" is older and no longer home-schooled I still wanted to introduce him to amazing poetry. We still work in the journal but we do more comprehension type questions rather than look for sight words. I also pick harder poems for him to read. 

 Here is his most current page for All Things Bright and Beautiful by Cecil Frances Alexander

I am loving this artwork. We used our Easter colored egg shells as a mosaic for the flowers.

This page is for the poem At the Seaside by Robert Louis Stevenson. The sandcastle is made on sandpaper.

 Primary Page (see highlighted sight words): My Robot Does My Homework by Kenn Nesbitt 

(robot made with markers, aluminum foil & buttons)

 Primary Page: Thanksgiving (great way to tie in seasonal poems). 

Art made with lunch sack & construction paper. 

 1492 Poem with a color pencil drawing he made from step-by-step instructions

 Primary Page: Another seasonal/holiday poem called Trick or Treat. 

He made a trick-or-treat house from his leftover trick-or-treat candy loot.

 Primary Page:  Poem titled I Talk With The Moon with and handprint painted owl

 Primary Page: Scarecrow poem with cut construction paper art

 Primary Page: Leaves poem with abstract marker art

First one we ever did:  Poem is called Harvest time with apple print art. 

Check out the link above because she has the cover and some of the primary poems (like Harvest Time above) available as a free printable to get you started if you have younger kids. For older kids just search websites for popular kid poems. I will make sure to show you if we do any cool ones in the future.To read more about the importance of reading poetry to your child and tips to get started I recommend this quick article titled Celebrating Poetry, from PBS.

Shaving Cream Painting

Shaving cream "paint" has been one of my standard sensory activities for the last five years. Probably the reason I love it so much is because it so inexpensive to make. Get the white foamy shaving cream (which also happens to be the cheapest-WIN). Then add food dye. In the past, we usually paint on cookie sheets although you could certainly do it in the bath tub if you wanted to. 

Then I saw the great idea from Happy Hooligans to use the paint outside on sliding glass windows. I love how you can use something a hundred times but someone will use it completely different and it brings a whole new dimension to it. 

The boys then decided that they should paint "B's" car. They have their own ideas on how the paint should be used. Which lead me to think of a car wash. Even though they were cleaning they were having a blast, a getting awesome sensory play in at the same time. 

Hey while they are cleaning out there why not clean the windows as well. They didn't even see it as a chore. Bonus for me!

How to Make an Apple Pie (FIAR)

A little fun with lots of learning-1st try at apple bopping 

So we have finished our first week of homeschool and my first book of Five in a Row: How to Make an Apple Pie and Travel the World by Marjorie Priceman. It is a cute book about a girl who travels the world to get the ingredients to make apple pie. So here is our row:

Math:

Various farm theme math sheets for cheap Grade 1 workbooks 

3 part apple math cards from 1st Grade Parade 

Measuring Trees printable from 2 Teaching Mommies

Odd & Even Apple Trees from 1st Grade Parade

Ripe Math was also a printable from 1st Grade Parade. 

We asked 25 people what their favorite type of fruit pie is and then made a pie graph. We also did a lot of introduction to fractions as well. 

Social Studies:

This idea came from Delightful Learning. We took the manipulatives from our sensory bin (you can see that here) and placed them on our world map.

Paper Plate Globe from Mrs. T's First Grade 

We did all the maps from the How to Make an Apple Pie lapbook from homeschoolshare and the Vermont coloring sheet from Crayola

We love this song on Youtube to teach the names of the continents

We also studied about Johnny Appleseed (John Chapman). What a truly amazing American. Here "A" is writing about how he would throw a party for Johnny Appleseed. He had to know some of his likes to answer the questions. 

We also filled out this Look Who is Famous informational sheet. I think we will use this sheet for all amazing people we learn about. You can find it at homeschool creations.

Literacy:

This is our poetry journal which I will do a complete post about in awhile. He highlights high frequency words and illustrates it. Here is with apple paint prints. 

Our apple picking sight word game. I took the idea of my popcorn game and wrote our high frequency words on apple prints and wrote the word Rot for the word to send the apples back. Check out my popcorn post on how to play.

We had a vocabulary word each day that he wrote on apples and defined: harvest, acquaintance, crop, coax 

I love this KWL chart from 1st Grade Parade

Sequence Cards from Fiarcircle

We did a comparison of the All in Just One Cookie to How to Make an Apple Pie and mapped where the books got their ingredients. 

This isn't the best picture but he had to write an alternate ending to How to Make an Apple Pie. What if he really wanted vanilla ice-cream. What would he need and where would he go. The only thing extra is vanilla which in All for one Cookie we learn he could go to Madagascar if he wanted-s that is what he did.

Science:

He labeled the parts of an apple. This printable is from here 

I got this idea from Mrs. T's First Grade. I love the art component. 

This is a salt evaporation experiment that is in the Five in a Row Volume 1 book. The worksheet is part of the lapbook at HomeschoolShare.

This experiment I read on Pinterest and can't find the owner. Let me know if it is you. Take one clean apple slice and then drop another, rub your hands on it, etc and see which molds fastest. Great way to discuss germs!

Of course we made an apple pie! This is part science and math. We also made homemade applesauce because I love it! 

We also had to do an apple tasting. This is great to do for once for everyone. "A" loved the sour and hated the sweet-me complete opposite!

Art:

We studied still life paintings. Did you know that apples symbolized knowledge and in religious paintings it represented temptation? Here is our set up-we ran out of red apples so we had to imagine.

Here is"A's" finished piece using watercolor pastels. 

Here is my still life. I love how this is something we can learn to do together. We are both students. 

Other Resources we used:

A-Z Art: A is for Apple Prints

Part of how our summer schedule is that every Monday afternoons will be Masterpiece Mondays (more on our schedule tomorrow). Since art is going to be a frequent activity this summer I wanted to have a focus. About a year ago, I heard about a woman who decided to do an A-Z theme with picking different mediums and art ideas based on the letter of the alphabet, I was inspired! My oldest and I sat down and came up with an plan for 26 different art projects. The ideas are truly endless. It was hard to narrow down what to do for each letter because I kept thinking of more different ways we could do art- at least there is always next summer!

A-Apple Prints

B-Bubble Art 

C-Contact Collage

D-Drip Art

E-Eggshell Art

F-Fingerpaint

G-Glue & Watercolor Resist

H-Handprint Art

I-Inventions (robots)

J-Jars (glitter)

K-Kenya Masks

L-Leafprint Art

M-Melted Crayon Art

N-Newpaper Art

O-Origami Art

P-Pottery

Q-Quill Art

R-Rocks (Story)

S-Seed Mosaic

T-Tissue Paper Stainglass

U-USA Needlepoint

V-Valentine Heart Suncatchers

W-Wheel Print Art

X-Xray Sketches

Y-Yarn Weaving

Z-Zentangles

For our first Masterpiece Monday we painted with apples. I cut up four apples and put out four different colors of paint (apple colors of course). I decided to make some puffy paint too for different texture. To make puffy paint: mix white shaving foam, white Elmers glue and paint. I don't have exact ratios but just kept adding glue and paint for good measure. I let it be COMPLETELY kid-directed (which won't always be the case on all letters). I really thought they would stamp with the apples but my sons wanted to drag the apples like paint brushes. Both boys liked the sensory aspect of the puffy paint. If you have a kiddo with a sensory disorder or an oral toddler I would be careful putting paint (that isn't edible) on apples and freely handing it to them. Apples are meant to be eaten, right?!? I'm slowly learning about this sensory stuff!

Anyhoo, keep checking back for A-Z Art ideas, Masterpiece Mondays, and our new AWESOME summer schedule.