A Real Leapfrog Card

This is either a serious grammatical error or Leapfrog is teaching first graders about more than silent e.

Add This To The List Of Reasons We're Homeschooling

In yesterday's meeting, my principal told us she wants our students to use these sentences. 

Oh, Charlotte Mason, I wish you had been in the room. What would you have said about a first grader reciting, "I can construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others"?

Add this to the list of reasons we're homeschooling.

Add This To The List Of Reasons We're Homeschooling

This was the math lesson I was supposed to teach my public school 4th graders today. Out with standard algorithms. In with lessons parents are too confused with to help their children do simple arithmetic. Add this to the list of reasons we're homeschooling.

Alice in Urban Wonderland

I'm reading Alice's Adventures in Wonderland with my fourth grade class. We're on Chapter 6. 

Today, one of my students showed me a picture he had drawn. It had a teeny tiny Alice in the lower left hand corner, and the rest of the page was white. 

When I asked what he was going to do with all of the negative space, he said that he was going to color it black. 

I told him that he needed to do something other than color it all black, and he argued, "But sewers are black." 

"Alice didn't fall into a sewer."

"But holes go to the sewer," he said.

"But she's not a Ninja Turtle."

"But-"

Curiouser and curiouser, thought the teacher, as she watched a white rabbit lift a maintenance hole cover and jump feet first into the Los Angeles sewer system.

Drawing With Children: Tiger Lilies

Last week, my fourth grade students drew tiger lilies, a lesson from Mona Brookes' Drawing With Children.

I didn't do the lesson as written because it calls for markers, and we didn't have markers. Instead, I had the children use crayons (yellow orange, orange, and red orange, and green yellow, yellow green, and green, and the purple of their choice). They also used fine-tipped black felt markers for the anthers and filaments, and for the black dots on the petals.

To prepare my students for this lesson, I explained that, in real life, things don't have black outlines.

We also discussed negative space and the children did the negative space activities in Brookes' book:

Next, using their three green crayons, they did these shading exercises from Brookes' book:

Finally, I gave them copies of Brookes' black and white image of tiger lilies:

The students grumbled and whined that the task was too hard, and I said, "But you're doing it anyway."

And they turned out beautiful work.

This was a two part lesson, with all of the excercises done the first day (1 hour), and the tiger lilies done the second day (1 hour). And I had students do a purple background for a triadic color scheme.

After the children had completed their drawings, they were all pleased with what they'd accomplished.

If you're looking for a book to help you teach drawing to an elementary schooler, I highly recommend Drawing With Children. 

Why You Should Play Outside In The Rain

Christmas Pageant Rehearsals Have Started

One of the songs that the Cherub Choir will be singing for this year's Christmas pageant is in Latin, so the music director made this poster to help the little ones learn the words.

The song is "Alleluia, Hodie Alleluia."

This means "Alleluia, today alleluia!" 

Alleluia today alleluia

Alleluia Christ is born

Alleluia today alleluia 

Today the glory of the Lord

Glory. Glory to God in the highest

Glory. And on earth peace

I love that the music director used an image of dominoes for Domino on the poster. But, being a child of the 1980s, I really loved that she used Gloria Estefan's picture for Gloria. The Cherubs have no idea who she is, and were just told that Gloria is a girl's name, and this girl's name is Gloria.

Have you started Christmas pageant rehearsals?