ThadenPierce School

From the SWR seminar various handouts, these aren’t my ideas.

Update: Adding spelling enrichment ideas from Scholastic’s Spell Well activity book.

- Fish for spelling words or phonogram cards, put paperclip on edge of cards and magnet on string for kids to hold.
- Lay out cards and hop over, saying or spelling as you hop.
- Hopscotch.
- Spread out all cards and have kids find one you call out.
- Hide and seek with cards, you hide and kids spell/say as they find them.
- Spread across two sides of room, run back and forth saying words.
- Phonogram or spelling word bingo.
- Play a board game (Candyland, Chutes & Ladders) and say or spell word or phonogram with each move.
- Write words in salt box, MangaDoodle, chalk, fingerpaint, etc.
- Musical cards, put in circle and when music stops must spell word or say phonogram they are on.
- Hang words/phonograms on clothesline and kid can take off clothesline when knows it.
- Time child to see if they can beat their own record for spelling all words or saying all phonograms.

- Type all words on computer (if learning typing.)
- Hold two colored markers and write words double lined.
- Make word search puzzle with words.
- Use all words in letter to someone.
- Make acrostic, write word down side of page and find other words: butterfly – b is for bug, u is for umbrella, etc.
- Design a bookmark with spelling words.
- Write alphabet on paper and assign $1 per letter (A is $1, B is $2) and figure out how much your spelling words are worth.
- Make spelling pyramids: c
ca
cat
- Arrange letters of word in alphabetical order.
- Use letter tiles (Scramble) to spell words.
- Write a poem with all words.
- Write a song with words.
- Write each word in print & cursive.
- Draw a picture and hide words in it.
- www.puzzlemaker.com
- Pictionary
- Memory
- Illustrate each word.
- Write a silly sentence using the word, each word in the sentence must be the word spelled out – chip: Check His Illustrated Pigs.
- Find a country that begins with each letter from the word: chip – Czech Republic, Holland, Italy, Poland.
- Spell out word using your body to form letters.
- Write word without any vowels.
- Ditto with no consonants.
- Write entire spelling list mooshed together, using different color for each word.
- Write words out with popsicle sticks or toothpicks.
- Play hangman.
- Spell words with cereal, M&Ms, etc.
- Make sentence using alliteration, if spelling word is bug: Bugs bite bitter boys best.
- Lite Brite words
- Write antonym for each word, or synonym.
- Make each word plural.
- Write riddle using words.
- Clap out syllables of each word.
- Write words in cookie dough, playdough, etc.
- Paint words in water, paint, etc.
- Spell words while jumping rope, on trampoline, doing jumping jacks, etc.
- Toss beanbag back and forth while spelling.
- Record self spelling words and play back.
- Magnet letters.
- Sing as you spell.
- Form words with string.
- Use chopstick and write word on tinfoil.
- Pull out letter tiles for spelling list, mix up and spell all words.
- Make memory game with spelling words, same word on two cards or one word and one illustration.
- Write a letter including all your spelling words, save it and review at end of week. (Or greeting card, advertisement.)
- Use spelling words in Mad Lib.
- Draw comic strip w/words.
- Write poem.
- Make fortunes (and cookies!)
- Write puns.
- Use in conversation.
- Use in imaginary job application.
- Homophones (and illustrate them.)
- Lost and found listings.
- Bumper stickers.
- Magazine covers.
- News or story headlines.
- Menu.
- Diary for famous person.
- Write onto sheet of paper and cut into puzzle.
- Yellow pages ads.
- Collage using magazine clippings that are similar to words then write words next to images.
- Rules for… (parents, zoo, school, etc.)
- Define, antonym, synonym.
- Draw and describe machine, monster, etc.
- Billboards, draw and describe.
- Analogies.
- How to pamphlet.
- Movie review, poster, etc.
- Reasons why: ______ did not happen because _______.
- Commercial.
- Advice to _____.
- Mock definitions & real one, survey others to see if they know.
- Good news, bad news.
- School subjects (mock), new sports, new menu items.
- What if questions.
- Wish on a star.
- Words of wisdom.
- Wanted posters for self, characters, historical figures.
- Mobile.
- Silly snake, one word per body part and assemble.
- Board game.

Monday:
- preliminary SWR (spelling)
- First Language Lessons (grammar)
- Saxon math
- art
- motor lab/PE

Tuesday:
- spelling list
- Cursive First
- Saxon math
- co-op book club
- speech

Wednesday:
- spelling 2 & quiz
- First Language Lessons
- Saxon math
- music & piano lessons
- soccer (storytime w/little ones) – spring & fall

Thursday:
- spelling enrichment activity
- cursive first
- saxon math
- history
- speech

Friday:
- spelling test
- teaching the classics story
- soccer (storytime with little ones) – spring & fall
- Spirit Horse in spring & fall
- make up day

Saturday:
- science project
- family math
- handicraft

Sunday:
- journal writing

We’re trying to do math before Kit leaves for work, yesterday he did it with Christopher while I was out exercising. Math first since we’re getting the most resistance to that one. And because we find it’s easier for one adult to run interference with the other kids while the second adult gives focused attention to the math kid.

We did math, we did the first spelling list in the SWR program and the kids loved it! They were sitting at the table with pencils ready when I told them it was time for learning logs. They both started out writing their lists in print but then asked to switch to cursive. I did the same spelling list for both kids since I want to introduce the concept. We’ll be keeping Mo at the start but letting Christopher skip ahead to a more age appropriate spelling list soon.

We did a grammar lesson with each child, read about our artist (since we skipped that yesterday) and read from our history. We got so much done! It feels great.

And I write this because it’s a rare day I get the language, math & special subject done plus anything extra.

I’m finding the kids all adore the salt box – a shoebox lid with black paper glued inside of it and salt poured over it. All of them ask for turns with the salt box and I’m storing the salt in an old prescription bottle. That way they must ask me for permission before they play in it. The big kids practice cursive, Bennett practices his version of cursive, and Emy draws pictures and tells me, “I drew /a/!” Which means she’s listening well when we practice phonograms. (The kids say, “/a/ /A/ /ah/” while writing the cursive letter a.)

I still love SWR. It’s only been a week or so but I really love it and I feel like it’s going to be a huge help for all of the kids with spelling, writing and reading. Well, duh – Spell to Write and Read. But I see how holding up my fingers and giving them the phonograms makes such a difference. Three fingers held up, point to each one as I say the sound /c/ /a/ /t/ and Mo is really clicking with it. Even for much trickier words, I can break it up into syllables (one per hand) and C’s able to figure it out much faster when he needs help spelling a word with that simple visual reminder of my fingers. (If a phonogram has two letters, like /ch/ then I hold up two fingers together. Like chip – two fingers together for /ch/ then one finger each for /i/ and /p/ and they know the word has four letters with three phonograms. Does that sound so complicated? It’s really easy if I show you what I mean.)

We’re also having some talks about habits we need to work on – as in, you cannot tell Mommy, “NO!” You may say, “No, please,” or “No, thank you.” But you don’t get to yell at me, “No!” or you’re going to be in trouble. (Can you tell I’m tired of the sass? I’m getting sass these days…) And we also instated a policy of you must have eye contact with Mommy for it to count as telling me something and after you complete something you MUST return and report. Don’t do an assignment then wander off, it doesn’t count as done unless I’ve seen it.

I said that language and math for both kids was only taking about an hour? Right, that’s changed. Christopher’s third grade math and language are both getting much more intense and while Mo’s 1st grade stuff is still brief, I have to give C sit down one-on-one time to get his work done and it’s far more extensive. Which is tricky because he’s only 7, he’s still first grade and I know he doesn’t have the attention span of a 9 or 10 year old yet but he’s academically there. I’m trying to keep the lessons brief (Charlotte Mason!) and keeping his attention focused and breaking the lessons up if we need to come back to it to finish up. His math text now has several pages of work per lessons instead of a couple so I’m not making him do them all and we’re trying things like one he’ll give me the answers verbally, another he writes out, etc.

With the SWR we’re following a friends’ trip – Monday is preliminary stuff (like new phonogram blends or spelling rules) and Tuesday we do half of the spelling list entering it into their learning log and a quiz to see what they retained. Wednesday we do the second half of the spelling list and quiz. Thursday is the enrichment activity for the spelling words (like games) and Friday is the spelling test.

Slow and steady. I’ll get the hang of this.

You can download the audio files for free! I have the print files but woo-hoo, audio!
Here and I’m downloading now, hopefully it works…

They also have A Christmas Carol and I’m sure so much more.

This is after one very inconsistent week of introducing cursive – I taught him half the letters this morning. And considering he wrote this laying on the floor on a dry erase board with no lines, I am very impressed with his efforts.

I’m also really, really liking Cursive First – I’ve only explored a few handwriting curriculums and I’ve not yet tried to introduce cursive before print so I can’t say how that’s going to go. (We’ll see, Bennett and Emy both I caught tracing letters in the salt box after they saw the big kids do it.) But I’m blown away by how quickly Moira & Christopher are picking up cursive from this text. And I LOVE that it’s only $15 and I can use it with all the kids.

I say the phonogram and he wrote the letters, no tracing. A few of the letters I taught this morning he needed a reminder for (r and z, etc.) I drew them then he wrote his own. I say, “Give me an /a/, /A/, /ah/ letter,” and he writes a. The cards in the set tell you exactly what sounds to make and how to describe the letter being drawn if the kids need hints – like f, “This letter is the only one that goes to the attic and basement,” to remind them it goes all the way to the top line and below the line for a tail.

Really, really like it. I’ll let you know how it goes when we try it with Bennett.

We got the tv back out of the garage and I packed up all the kids’ movies so they cannot get to them. This gives me far more control over them putting shows in for themselves, at least until they figure out where I hid them. I know, funny – I pull out the tv but hide the movies.

I’m still learning about this new curriculum and it requires me to really, really focus on the big kids while doing lessons. If Kit’s not able to be home then I need something that keeps the little kids’ attention long enough for me to give the big kids some time. I’m trying to use the busy box and backyard but sometimes I’m using the tv!

We don’t get any stations, we only have dvds or tapes for them to watch. That’s made it easier for us to ensure anything they see isn’t inappropriate, though some of it is far more mindless than other stuff. We have a nice collection of Blue’s Clues tapes from the thrift shop but we only got the early ones (Steve instead of Joe.) We have Veggie Tales, the scripture shows (though a lot of those really need to be watched and explained, the Bible has lots-o-violence in it and the cartoons have so much that needs to be talked through with the kids.)

Anyway, I made a stack of movies that I’m okay with the kids watching during lesson time, stuff I consider to be educational. We’re keeping these on the high shelf in the living room so the kids can’t get to them easily and I can grab one if I really need to keep the little ones contained. Here they are:

- School House Rock! collection which is great but we found at the library there is a new DVD out that is not included in the collector’s edition!
- Baby Signing Time 1 & 2, or any regular Signing Time we get from the library. (There’s a wait list for those!) Bennett’s not interested in the baby ones anymore but Emy & Joseph love the ones we got from my sister and Bennett adores the regular Signing Time.
- LeapFrog letter factory, math circus, etc. We have the 5 DVD collection and love it. It looks like they discontinued the five pack but you can buy the individual dvds still. We got the set for a Christmas gift for the kids one year and it’s so worth it.
- Baby Einstein DVDs, mostly the early stuff (Mozart, Beethoven) vs. the later and much more animated stuff. Bennett’s too old for these but Emy loves them. We were fortunate to inherit a collection of these.
- The Scholastic video collection, the stories are animated and move at a nice and slow pace: Where the Wild Things Are, Harold & the Purple Crayon, etc. We found a set at Sams and really like them, each dvds has about 6 books on it. We don’t have that huge set, I think we have about 5 dvds and really like them.
- YogaKids which we got for Bennett’s birthday.

Kit likes these so I grabbed a packet of seeds last year and promptly forgot about them. I found them this year and thought it was worth trying – I only planted four of the little pea seeds and when they were about 4″ tall I moved them into one of our dirt filled half barrels. When they sprouted like beanstalks (hmm, beanstalks? ) I added the trellis thing for them to climb and now they are taller than me. This last week we noticed we had pea pods!

Christopher loves the peas, Mo loves the pods, so they have a nice system going on to divide them. I don’t think any of these are going to make it to the table for an actual meal but it’s fun they are enjoying them. The kids have especially loved watching the tiny tendrils wrap around the cage as they climb.

On the front porch the cilantro and basil and green peppers are all doing really well, and the carrots I am optimistic about – we didn’t do a lot but they seem to be growing in the same pot as the green onions. We shall see! The garden has only our vine things – cucumber, pumpkin and watermelon. Everything else is in the containers, various pots and barrels.

I wrote “left” and “right” (in cursive) on two scraps of paper then taped them to the wall. Mo had to bounce and tap the paper with the correct hand but they were on her opposite side – so she had to cross midline to tape the left with her left hand and vice versa.

It was hard for her, which is usually a good sign for me that we’re on the right track doing therapy with her.

One piece fell and she taped it back up at a different height, which would be a good way to play around with this exercise. It was from Ready Bodies, Learning Minds which we use at home for occupational therapy exercises – we (and the book) call it our “Motor Lab” time.

And related to fine motor, we’re focusing on getting through some of our Cursive First book this week before we start with our spelling lists from SWR. This is Christopher’s notebook page today as he practices and this is his third day with cursive. Some of those are my sample letters, of course, but I am really amazed at how quickly both kids are picking up the cursive.

And Joseph wanted a turn after Mo, this is to note the kids in the their cute matching shirts, compliments of Katie’s boys.

And Emy wandered off during motor lab and I found this:

We work them hard around here. Poor thing, passed out with her LeapPad.

Since our history co-op will be disbanding in the fall (as three of the four families will be enrolling in co-ops that will use Story of the World, our history text, so no point in doubling up) we need to shift focus and use our history group time for some new activities. One of the moms proposed we do a book club with the kids once a month and on alternate weeks we do a handicraft, nature study, or field trip that’s somehow related to the book. We’re discussing logistics but I proposed we pick a book for September through May and we each pick two or three titles we would like to host for the book club discussion and related activity.

We were brainstorming titles today and here are some –

Katie
Little House on the Prairie
James & the Giant Peach

Heidi
The Chocolate Touch
poetry unit – Shel Silverstein
A Christmas Carol
Mary Poppins

Other ideas…
Pippi Longstockings
Pollyanna
Treasure Island
Stuart Little
Shakespeare for kids by Lambs

I’m excited because this lets me commit to a novel a month with the kids and we can use them for our Teaching the Classics program as well. We’ll do a story chart with the kids and hands on activities with friends… I think it will help the stories stick for them better, too. Right now after reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory we learned our friends were also reading it and we scheduled a tour of the local candy factory. It’s fun to read these books, it’s more fun to plan great activities around them, and it’s always great to do it with friends – my friends and the kids’ friends.

I didn’t want to follow their lesson plan outline so I’m doing it this way. This is NOT a day-by-day plan, it’s just the order of how I’ll combine things. I’ll only be doing a lesson 2x a week at the most for this stage…

Abbreviations are CF: Cursive First, SWR: Spell to Write & Read teacher’s guide, WISE: Wise Guide for Spelling, LL: learning log (kids’ book)

We will be introducing cursive first along with the phonograms (the kids know the single letters already), then the learning logs and spelling lists. I want them to write their spelling in cursive so that’s why I’m spending some time on that first. I anticipate C will race through most of the early spelling lists but it appears to be about the right level for Mo to start from the beginning.

1. SWR 1 to 5, teacher prep: let kids play in salt box.
2. Cursive First 2A-26A (covering SWR lessons 6 & 7): This will be extensive as we introduce the phonograms, numerals, cursive strokes, and lower case letters 4 at a time, depending on how the kids handle it. We’ll be doing tactile and gross motor writing before we do paper/pen writing so introducing the cursive will take a couple weeks depending on how they handle it.
3. SWR 8: intro to learning log
4. SWR 9: vowel & consonant page in LL
5. SWR 10: phonogram page in LL
6. SWR 11: placement test for WISE
7. SWR 12: prep to start WISE
8. WISE A and CF 26B, 27AB
9. SWR 13: Reinforce spelling
10. SWR 14: Classic literature
11. SWR 15: number page in LL
12. WISE B & CF 28AB 29A
13: WISE C & CF 29B 30AB
14. SWR 16: grammar

15. SWR 17: final E
16. WISE D & CF 31AB 32AB
17. WISE E & CF 33AB
18. SWR 18: start sh and ti
19. SWR 19: AEIOU page in LL
20. WISE F & CF 34AB 35A
21. SWR 20

22. WISE G
23. SWR 21: sentences (starting compose own sentences)
24. WISE H1
25. WISE H2 & CF 35B 36AB
26. SWR 22: explain ed

27. WISE I1
28. SWR 23: reading in books assigned
29. WISE I2 & CF 37A
30. SWR 24: vocabulary
31. SWR 25: abbreviations
32. WISE I3 & CF 37B 38A
33. WISE I4 & CF 38B 39A

Capital letters in cursive from CF.

34. WISE J1
35. SWR 26: er page
36. WISE J2
37. WISE J3
38. SWR 27: plurals
39: WISE J4
40. WISE J5
41. SWR 28: contractions
42. WISE J6

So that breaks down which lessons and which workbook pages or lesson log reference pages we need to do each day. This gets us through section J of the WISE guide which is about halfway through second grade spelling wise. I don’t know how long it will take us to get the kids there, I’m starting them at the same time and I’ll adapt as needed for Mo and add extra stuff for Christopher. Because each lessons has fun enrichment ideas, I think it won’t be hard to have Christopher do those things and keep pace with Mo for the first bit as he works on his handwriting and the phonograms. Then I’ll start doubling up his spelling words until he catches up to where he tested at, in section Q. If he shows me he has mastered through J then I may just quiz him on the spelling lists to jump him ahead but still make sure we get the spelling rules covered along the way.

So really, I’m not sure how this will work. I may stagger the days I do this with them once they get the basics down and C goes ahead.

If this is something you are interested in then let me know and I’ll have you over to look through it. That way you can have the books in front of you so you can see what I’m referring to – otherwise it’s just a bunch of letters and numbers. But once you see it, if you’re visual like me, it will make MUCH more sense.

Even after pouring over these books that give me flashbacks to foreign language texts in college, I am still so excited. The kids are practicing cursive letters in the salt box now and love it.