We're excited as we leave the virtual homeschool world to meet one on one with Catholic homeschooling families in Shawnigan Lake, B.C.
We will be leaving our nesting grounds of Nanaimo to attend the Catholic Home Education Workshop being held at Our Lady Queen of the World Church in beautiful Shawnigan Lake on Vancouver Island. We look forward to chatting one on one with wanna be, newbie, and veteran homeschoolers about curriculum and all of the usual homeschooling concerns - socialization, a day in the life, and or course, teaching what when. We will be sharing our free resources too. :)
May God bless us all this weekend as we continue in service to Him.
Blessings,
That Resource Team
July 9 - Little Beginners Learn to Count Set and Pattern Cards
Today we have some fun Montessori friendly math game style resources perfect for Pre/K to 1/2. This Little Beginners Set 1 covers counting and writing numbers from 1 to 5. This 5 page resource was created by Michelle over at Thinking Love, No Twaddle and it is great for visual learners or those having a bit of trouble grasping the big picture of math concepts. Bright familiar pictures really help to make concepts clear for children. Some sheets require writing and some are for reference, as pictured at the left.
She has also included pattern cards to go along with these sheets. Tangible pattern pieces really help solidify these most important early math concepts.
You could easily laminate these pieces and sheets and use them over and over. The writing sample pictured below is a perfect example of laminating for repeated use. This is a great money saving tip. In her introduction, Michelle talks about laminating machines as a most useful tool and we totally agree!! :)
Click Here to download Little Beginners Set 1
Click Here to download Pattern Pieces
Blessings,
That Resource Team
July 8 - The Works of Mercy In Johnny Crow's Garden
This was perhaps one of the best activities we did during this book. In a very classical learning style, we went through the book page by page and found all the instances and examples we could of good manners, virtuous behaviour, and Works of Mercy on the part of Johnny Crow. These examples help to reinforce the Gifts of the Holy Spirit - Wisdom, Knowledge, and Understanding. All of that from the natural scavenger, the crow. Who would have thought, eh?
Here are the examples we came up with to share with you based on the Corporal Works of Mercy. We have shared the pages as they are listed in our PIY version of this work. You may find more examples of your own during your discussion.
I. Feed the hungry
II. Give drink to the thirsty
III. Clothe the naked
IV. Shelter the homeless
V. Visit the sick
VI. Visit the imprisoned
Vii. Bury the dead
I. Feed the hungry
p.47 - Johnny feeds his friends. He even makes sure to call the penguins who are still admiring his garden. After all that happens in the story, all if forgiven and every animal is accounted for at the table. BTW - Did you find the mouse and rat with their little chairs?
II. Give drink to the thirsty
p.38 - Johnny offers Cat a drink of milk. In his wisdom he sees that by doing this simple act, chaos is avoided and his friend Mouse remains safe. He is wise. The little pictures on the surrounding pages show that Johnny is always thinking of clever ways to solve problems without he himself falling into sin.
III. Clothe the naked
pp.14-17 - In an effort to make Bear feel more comfortable as he as has nothing to wear as well as prevent the Monkeys from further mocking Bear, he asks them to use their talents and make Bear some clothing. This allows them to be put to use rather than having them stay idle and mock others. He is clever and aware of how others are feeling in his home.
IV. Shelter the homeless
pp. 18-19 - Crane is in need of shelter and Johnny provides it for him in the way of an umbrella. Johnny thinks nothing of his own needs as he himself gets wet in the process to make sure his friend is kept dry. He is a gracious host.
V. Visit the sick
pp.21-24 - The Beaver believes that she is becoming ill. Johnny Crow does all he can to ease her mind and suffering. He stays with her even after she is out of bed.
VI. Visit the imprisoned
pp.43-46 - Johnny rushes to visit and see his friends as they have been wrongly accused and persecuted by the fox. He then does all he can to make sure that justice is carried out in their quick release. In true Pope John Paul II style, our feathered friend forgives the fox and still asks him to dine with them at the table.
Thankfully, there are no casualties in need of burial in this story. :)
Try you hand at using the Spiritual Works of Mercy. A bit more difficult but there are still instances present.
Click Here to download Our Learning Flashcards on the Corporal Works of Mercy.
Click Here to download Our Learning Flashcards on the Spiritual Works of Mercy.
Click Here to see our entire collection of Catholic Learning Flashcards.
Blessings,
That Resource Team
July 7 - E-texts as Worktexts - Grammar and Writing In Johnny Crow's Garden
We've often thought to ourselves, why can't we use a living book as a textbook to teach and reinforce simple grammar lessons?
We teach our children to read carefully and tell back what they have learned in some form - oral, written, drawn, fill-in the blanks, etc. But grammar has always been a bit of a winding road to teach well but still be faithful to a more relaxed living book learning style. We want to make sure we cover the basics but not every child responds well to the same approach. So about 2 years we began creating PIY versions of books and said to ourselves, why don't we just highlight the examples right in the book? The book is already providing good examples, why reinvent the wheel? Using home printed versions of books allows the children to use them, mark in them, love on them, and then, if desired, recycle them. So here is our first attempt to share our idea with other homeschoolers. It really does work as a teaching tool. It is very out of the box, we know, but different is good - at least in our homeschool.
BTW - Before you gasp at the thought of marking in a book, our children have never tried to write in our proper, store bought books as they can tell the difference and we established that right in the very beginning.
To use this PIY book as a text, follow these simple steps:
- Select what grammar concepts you would like to highlight.
- Assign concepts different individual colours or shades of colours. (4 shades of green for verbs)
- Present or review concepts as needed. Keep this simple and use a black board or white board or reference sheet to help children along.
- Have children circle concept examples with appropriate coloured crayons or coloured pencils as they occur in the text.
Our blackboard reference sample
To give you a few ideas of what we mean, Johnny Crow lends itself very well to:
- using apostrophes to show possession - In Johnny Crow's Garden.
- rhyme and rhythm and repetition - pig, jig, crane, rain, or the phrase "In Johnny Crow's Garden"
- irregular plurals - hippopotami
- verb use, which could be further broken down to be, action verbs and helping verbs
- Noun and Proper Nouns usage- the animals names are all capitalized as would be a real name -title of reference; Garden is also oddly capitalized as it is a reference to Johnny's Garden in particular
- Prepositions - especially the word in
These are just some samples. We have also used this technique very successfully in our Aesop's Fables printable story pages. See our collection Here. You may also want to download and use some of our Learning Cards for Grammar for reference. See our collection Here. Families have told us that they find these very useful.
Using our Story Starter Art Cards for this particular book, the children narrate and draw the story. This could be done very simply for new, young or reluctant writers or it can be done very intricately such as what virtue or Gift of the Holy Spirit or Work of Mercy is being practiced at this point in the story? What gives you clues? But more on that tomorrow. Our children have loved doing these and sharing their work with each other.
Improve Handwriting and Spelling with Johnny Crow Copywork SheetsFor simple writing practice for most of all of the animals in this story. We have provided two sets of wordlist copywork. Each set includes print and cursive tracing and also a non-trace version for advanced writers or those trying to master cursive.
Click Here to download Set 1 Story Starter Art Narration Cards for In Johnny Crow's Garden.
Click Here to download Set 2 Story Starter Art Narration Cards for In Johnny Crow's Garden.
Click Here to download print trace Copywork Sheets for In Johnny Crow's Garden.
Click Here to download cursive trace Copywork Sheets for In Johnny Crow's Garden.
Click Here to download non-trace Copywork Sheets for In Johnny Crow's Garden.
Join us tomorrow for a Faith filled day In Johnny Crow's Garden.
Blessings,
That Resource Team