LIttle Cards Help Make Big Learning in Greek and Music

Don't worry about cramming it all in; little by little works well too.

I spend most of my year teaching and thinking about education.  I am either teaching my own children or children at our parish (CCD) or pondering and preparing my lessons for teaching the next year.  I am always looking for new ways to introduce new information, concepts and lessons.  It can be a big task, unless of course I remember that I am teaching little hearts and minds.  The key word is little.

There always seems to be a struggle about how much information we can concretely deliver into little hearts and young minds.  Many of us start off one of two ways.  We either begin rather zealously and fizzle out with fatigue or we begin feeling in control only to hit a cramming session at the end of the year when we find we have not met our learning goals.  If you are following a prepared curriculum or adhere to state or government standards you must meet certain criteria or learning outcomes.  This can be overwhelming to both teacher and learner.  Not running a good race, as I think of St.Paul, a race that is consistent, steady, paced, and goal oriented, will undoubtedly lead to exhaustion, fatigue and in most cases, tears and despair.  We must remember, as Christians, that we are always to be a  people of hope.

As promised, today we have more goodies to share from Shell over at Thinking Love, No Twaddle.  Shell's resources reminded me about how presenting big information in little ways (cards in this instance) can bring about great learning.  By teaching new information consistently in little increments and reviewing often, big tasks become a series of little victories - even in the subjects of Greek and music.

In Greek, these colourful printable resource sheets are cut into fun little cards that help teach about the Greek alphabet.  Find cards in different styles to help solidify learning the different facets of the Greek alphabet including symbols and pronunciation.

In music, the resource she shares helps teach young children rhythm in 4/4 time.  By using a little string of words, clapping, and little cards, children can become comfortable in picking and repeating rhythms.  This seems elementary and unnecessary until you realize that not every one has this ability naturally.  If you have ever tried to teach rhythm to someone who has none, you know how daunting and fragile this task can be.

Click HERE to see this and other of Shell's Greek resources.

Click HERE to see this and other of Shell's Music resources.

Thank you so much Shell for sharing your time and talent with all of us!  :)

Blessings,

Kalei - That Resource Team

They are Finally Finished and Ready for Downloading..all 26 of them!!

Free notebooking packets to accompany our latest timeline project are waiting for you!!

Our timeline projects are a clear-cut favourite amongst our visitours.  To help bring even more meaning to them we have tried to include go-along printable resources.  In our latest offering called, The  Little Timeline of Composers, we have included the timeline, the image pieces, and reference sheet.  We also included composer biography learning cards that children can create and collect on their own.

To help further bring this resource to life, we have now added notebooking sheet packets for each composer on the timeline.  Each packet includes 21 pages of various layouts, styles and line spacing options.  Sheets highlight the composer as well as the time period of their works - Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Late Romantic, Impressionist, or Modern.  A matching image from the timeline is included on some of the layouts too.  Some layouts are especially useful for listing major compositions or creating a timeline for the life or accomplishments of each composer.

We will begin this study in our own little homeschool next week incorporating reading about composers, listening to their actual works and getting to know each, one by one.  We are looking forward to delightful learning. 

Click HERE to visit our Composer Notebooking Sheets page.
Click HERE to see all of Notebooking Resources.


As a side note:

If you are looking for neat way to help your children learn about a few of the most famous composers, then you might want to check out the Classical Kids series.  We own most of them and have loved using them over the years.  For some children this will really bring the composers and their music to life.  Each tale features a specific composer and a sampling of their work set to an interesting historical fiction plot incorporating children as some of the main characters.  You can order them in tangible format of CD or even a DVD movie.  Some are now available for instant MP3 download.  Here are some of our favourites.

    

 

 

Blessings,

Kalei - That Resource Team

A Must Have Timeline Featuring the Composers

Composer timeline is sure to be that fun little extra your homeschool music learning sessions are craving

Timelines are always a popular way of learning all kinds of different material for just about any style learner.  Classical, Charlotte Mason style, hands-on or even traditional learners can all find something useful in finding out about who the master composers were, when they lived, and in which musical period they created their masterpieces. 

In many of our religious services we hear beautiful hymns some of which are based on, derived from or created works of the master composers.  God Created Earth and Heaven, which is created from the melody of  Ode to Joy by Ludwig van Beethoven, is just such a hymn.  My children could immediately see the importance of the composers, once they heard this hymn sung years ago.  After just a bit of research, we further learned that many musicians created works inspired by God or their faith.  Of course, this is not true of all composers, but each composer has made a significant contribution to our musical heritage.

Timeline Sample Pieces

To help bring the composers to life for younger learners, we have created a Little Timeline of Composers which features 26 different composers as well as includes one space for another composer of your choice which may not have been included in our resource offering.  Timeline picture cards of each composer are provided with their name, birth and death details, as well as the musical period of their works.  The lines for affixing the cards are simple, bright and colourful.  Set-up instructions are included as well as a very handy composer reference sheet to help you remember the order and details of the composers.

Timeline Sample

Timelines are always popular with homeschoolers and our special creations seem to be favourites of our regular visitors to our resource website and blog.  We are certain that this one will become a favourite too.  As an added extra, we have created matching Biography Learning Cards featuring the composers.  You will also find a few additional composers available who are not part of the timeline unit to inspire you to add one composer of your own selection to the timeline.  We have left a blank card specifically for this purpose.

Now, if you are thinking the only thing that would make this project even better is matching notebooking sheets, we were thinking that same thing too! :)   Twenty-one page notebooking sets for each composer and their music period are on the way.  About half of them are created and we will work on the rest of the sets to perhaps post later in the week.

Learn more and download the Little Timeline of Composers.

See all of Our Timeline Resources.

See our collection of Biography Learning Cards featuring the composers.

If you know another homeschooling family or teacher who could benefit from this resource, please feel free to introduce them to our blog and website.  We would appreciate it and they hopefully will too.

Blessings,

That Resource Team

New Little Lesson For Music Study and More Planner Pages

New Little Lesson helps bring music to life.

Today we share a Little Lesson on music from Michelle over at  Thinking Love, No Twaddle.  This hands on and very appealing resource is perfect for refreshing music theory or introducing learners to the basics of music.  This lesson includes pieces for the children and lesson/answers for parents.  Hands-on fun for free.

You can also find more planner pages for her special homeschool year-planner with more to come shortly.

If you are looking for more nice freebies, stop in at her blog now to see her Frugal Friday Freebies.  I love that she keeps it all about homeschooling.  Some really good and unique finds come forth and I look forward to them weekly.

Click HERE to download this Little Music Lesson.

Click HERE to see all of Michelle's goodies from our website.

Blessings,
Kalei - That Resource Team