by Donna | Apr 6, 2011
April is National Poetry Month, a month-long celebration of poetry throughout the United States! This event was founded by the Academy of American Poets in 1996 in order to wide the attention of individuals and the media to poetry: the art of it, our poetic heritage, poetry books, living poets, and more.
According to the National Poetry Month site, the goals of National Poetry Month are to
§ Highlight the extraordinary legacy and ongoing achievement of American poets
§ Introduce more Americans to the pleasures of reading poetry
§ Bring poets and poetry to the public in immediate and innovative ways
§ Make poetry a more important part of the school curriculum
§ Increase the attention paid to poetry by national and local media
§ Encourage increased publication, distribution, and sales of poetry books
§ Increase public and private philanthropic support for poets and poetry
According to the aforementioned site, the Academy celebrates National Poetry Month in the following ways:
§ Posters: Each year the Academy creates and distributes nearly 200,000 official NPM posters, which are mailed for free to teachers, librarians, and booksellers nationwide.
§ Publicity: To ensure that poetry gains national attention in the media each April, the Academy mails several thousand press releases and media kits each year to editors and journalists across the country. As a result, thousands of articles about poetry appear in newspapers, magazines, and online media outlets. The Academy also acts as the official clearing house for news and information about National Poetry Month.
*Inspiration & Guidance: The Academy offers a plethora of practical resources for celebrating NPM, including tips for teaching poetry during April, creating a poetry book display in your bookstore or library, presenting a poetry reading or contest, and much more
Tomorrow—suggestions from the National Poetry Month for ways that individuals and teachers to celebrate this month.
In the meantime, I thought we could celebrate it here on Language Lady 365 by doing the following:
(1) Publishing poetry of the readers—you! I would love to publish some poems written by readers, so send them via INBOX, and I will put them up in the coming days;
(2) Have a poetry challenge—challenging readers to write a four line (or so) poem with words from a given word list. More on the latter later; in the meantime, send your poems in!
by Donna | Apr 4, 2011
“You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up” Deuteronomy 6:7
Story of Stories: https://positiveparenting3-6-5.blogspot.com/2010/05/day-143-faith-books-for-teensstory-of.html
In His Hands: https://positiveparenting3-6-5.blogspot.com/2010/05/day-143-faith-books-for-teensstory-of.html
Unlocking the Mysteries of Creation: https://positiveparenting3-6-5.blogspot.com/2010/05/day-141-faith-reading-with_24.html
Character Sketches: https://positiveparenting3-6-5.blogspot.com/2010/05/day-136-character-sketches-review-faith.html
by Donna | Apr 4, 2011
A few more ideas for encouraging/helping your child with sentence writing, then we’re on to something new!
- If your child is hesitant to write because of penmanship difficulties, either teach him how to type (use a typing program for young kids) or write for him as he dictates to you. He needs to see that penmanship difficulties do not mean that he is unable to write. Writing is thinking. Penning is art.
- Try having him write sentences about things you are doing. For example, have him write a sentence each day in a journal about that day or every Saturday about the weekend.
- Or have specific things listed at the top of a journal for him or her that he/she writes about:
- Monday: Weekend
- Tuesday: Food
- Wednesday: Book
- Thursday: Animal
- Friday: Person
- Saturday: Movie
- Have him write a sentence under a picture, similar to captions. These pictures may be ones that he has drawn or colored or cartoons or pictures from a book.
- Make a list of nouns and a list of verbs. Have him write a sentence using one word from the noun list and one word from the verb list. For example:
NOUNS VERBS
Dog run
Boy jump
Girl catch
Radio blare
Cow ate
For more sentence writing help, along with help in other areas of language arts, for the second/third grade level (i.e. already reading well), check out the sample of the our books, “Character Quality Language Arts,” Level Pre A (
https://www.tfths.com/samples.php ). There is a full month that you may use with our child free of charge. Happy writing!
by Donna | Apr 4, 2011
Just a couple of most posts about sentence writing for our “Homework Help” feature this month—then back to more tips and tricks for all readers, writers, speakers, and thinkers! Below is a list of other sentence writing ideas for you and your student/child:
- If your child likes the feeling of creating through writing, but doesn’t think he can write sentences, you may want to try one of the following:
- Have him copy sentences that you write for him or sentences out of one of his favorite books.
- Write sentences for him with a light colored highlighter and have him write over the highlighter with his pencil.
- Write “fill in the blank sentences for him.” When I was in teacher’s college, these were called “cloze sentence” (for those who want to google to find out more). This is where you write sentences but leave blanks for him to fill in key words. This way you have started the sentences for him, but what happens in the sentence and to whom is still his creation. (There’s a site that lets you build these and print them for your kids/students at https://www.theteacherscorner.net/printable-worksheets/make-your-own/fill-in-the-blank/ .)
- If he can’t think of anything to write about in his sentences, ask him questions that he must answer in sentence form. “What is your favorite animal?” “What is your favorite color?” etc.
- If he is having trouble writing “real” sentences (i.e. write fragments or dependent clauses instead), have him say it aloud and ask him more questions. For example, if he says “Blue” (to the favorite color question), say “Blue what?” If he says “favorite color,” continue to coach him. “Try this…Blue is…can you make that into a complete sentences instead of just words?” (Coaching is a huge part of teaching writing!)
- If he likes to write stories, have him dictate sentences to you (or alternate giving sentences—he then you) that you pen for him.
- Finally, have him write a sentence a day to get used to sentence writing. We had journals for our kids that they copied verses and quotes in—one a day—to help them get a feeling for sentence writing.
Tomorrow—final homework help for sentences. Thanks for joining us!
by Donna | Apr 1, 2011
“You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up” Deuteronomy 6:7
We have done many types of devotionals with our kids, besides the “open up, read, and discuss” method previously described. We used to belong to a homeschool organization that provided character training materials that we read aloud together most mornings for eight or ten years (mostly with Dad before he went to work). Additionally, we have used other devotionals—some of which I will link or describe below.
One of the keys to making morning devotions work in a busy family (especially if you are doing them with Dad before he goes to work, Mom before she works, with children who go to school) is to keep it simple. There are many good materials out there that are just five to ten minute reads that can be read during breakfast, if desired. If you make the morning devotions too long and drawn out, you will likely not stick with them because there are so many things that must be done in the mornings in a very short period of time.
In the next few days, I will share links to some devotional/character types of materials we have used through the years.
by Donna | Mar 31, 2011
“You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up” Deuteronomy 6:7
One of the ways that we worked on our kids’ reading skills and taught them the Bible at the same time was to get everybody the exact same Bible to use together. That is, we each had the exact same version, same edition, etc., so that we could help the “littles” find the passages more easily (i.e. “Turn to page 698”). Then everybody followed along in their own Bibles.
We then went around the room and let each child read according to his readability level. For example, a new reader would sit closest to Dad and read one verse (short one) with Dad coaching/helping him sound out difficult words. Middle readers would read a couple of verses. Older readers would read more. Of course, in between, lively discussion would ensue, helping everybody make personal applications, etc.
Different people feel differently about easier versions. We personally used the New King James for group reading while Ray used another version personally, as did I—and the older kids had their own favorites as well. Again, we just dug in. You will be glad you did!
