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Age 6-8 Reading - Always Learning

Make a Fort - Fort making kits

October 28th 2011 04:16
Forts are FUN.

Forts can also be an inexpensive gift that encourages imaginative play. You do not even have to wait for a special occasion to present this amazing indoor gift, but it does make a wonderful present to bring along to one of the seemingly hundreds of birthday parties your children are invited to over the years.

Pack one for your own children to take along on overnight trips to grandparents, both your child and parents will thank you. If you have the room and temperament, a more permanent solution is described below.


FORT MAKING KITS
What is it?
What do you need?

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A is for Always

April 2nd 2011 12:52
For 26 days in April (minus Sundays) I will be posting a blog for each letter of the alphabet.
"Sylvie's word of the day"
I am all for challenges, so when this was dangled in front of me in my writers group, I grabbed it.

Hundreds of people signed up, literally 1037 people. Go ahead, Sign up here, if you dare.

This mini adventure is fairly mundane, but with 1000 bloggers jumping in, stalking each other, chatting away everyday, something good is bound to happen.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Always is my word of the day, in honor of ALWAYS learning. Life is too ....oh wait, I'll just quote Henry Miller, he said it best.....


"develop interest in life as you see it; in people, things, literature, music, the world is simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget yourself." ~Henry Miller

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Creative Ideas for Struggling Beginning Writers

August 30th 2010 02:18
Stepping into my first creative beginning writing class of the year was an eye opener. I quickly realized only two of the 12 students could write more than their own names.

A few quick revisions to my plans and we ended up having a fantastic year together. They progressed in both their story telling and writing skills by year end...thankfully. That class was a challenge...high energy, high creativity, high drama, little writing, yet lots of learning.

Creative Writing Lesson PlansStory Starters

Throughout the lesson time, I emphasize the elements of a story, beginning, middle, end and the elements, setting, characters and plot. By years end they were all fluent in those terms. Repetition is key!
Another beginning of the year activity, was to bring out a wide variety of magazines and let the kids tear out interesting settings and character possibilities. We set these in two big piles on the main table. Towards the end of the class, and in order to get help quickly cleaning up, I'd let the cleanest table go first picking out a setting and a character to tell an impromptu story.

a couple of reliable sources for interesting magazines...

* library book sales

* ask your neighbors, I discovered a retired couple down the street had been singlehandly keeping publishers clearing house in the money all these years. They had such a wide variety..which is also why many of my posted ideas include the sentence...bring out a variety of magazines....

* set a box out at school, church, your parents church...with a sign requesting magazines. This works well and also tends to bring out the surprising and obscure.magazines.

Throughout the lesson time, I emphasize the elements of a story, beginning, middle, end and the elements, setting, characters and plot. By years end they were all fluent in those terms. Repetition is key!

creative writing, beginning writing, elementary writing

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Matilda by Roald Dahl Activities

May 17th 2010 00:02
Matilda by Roald Dahl is a children’s classic. Many students will have already seen the movie by the time they reach your classroom, but that is not a reason to avoid this book. Roald Dahl did a great service to elementary school teachers when he wrote Matilda. The teaching opportunities abound in this book.

Matilda is a tiny genius who is stuck with a trashy, overbearing family. Her parents ignore her completely when they aren't being horribly nasty to her. She learns to take care of herself and cleverly manages to get back at them a few times. Entering school doesn't turn out to be the wonderful learning institution she might have hoped though. Faced with a enormous and evil headmistress, Matilda uses her superior abilities in this delightful story.

Matilda by Roald Dahl is a great read-aloud book for an elementary school classroom. Imaginative and exciting, the story will engage your class. This article gives instructions on creating a comprehensive book report that incorporates vocabulary, reading comprehension and writing.
matilda, book reports, creative writing, read aloud books for elementary classes, matilda by roald dahl, roald dahl

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Posted By: Sylvie Branch - Category: Age 6-8, Age 9-11, Books, Reading
   


Incredible Paintings of Felix Clousseau-Creative Writing Lesson Plans

May 12th 2010 00:51
Jon Agee wrote and illustrated, The Incredible Painting of Felix Clousseau, a charming story full of surprises.


Jon Agee brings the old adage, "Art imitates life," alive with surprising twists in the picture book, The Incredible Painting of Felix Clousseau. Introduce your class to a book about an unknown artist and let them figure out the clues shown in the illustrations. This book needs to be read in such a way that everyone in the class can see the pictures on each page.

Artists from all over Paris gather to show their art at the Royal Palace. An unknown painter named Felix Clousseau also brings his art piece to the show. Everyone laughed at his work until the painting, "quacked." All of a sudden, Felix Clousseau became famous around Paris.

Trouble began as his paintings
came to life. Sadly, Felix was put in prison because of all the chaos this caused. He was eventually set free when one of his paintings made him a hero.

Lesson Plans Here





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Posted By: Sylvie Branch - Category: Age 6-8, Age 9-11, Books, Reading, Writing
   


Play With Me

January 25th 2010 18:34
Following on from our animal theme we have been reading the charming book, Play With Me written by Marie Hall Ets. It features a little girl who ventures outside to play with the wild animals only to discover that at first they are too frightened to go near her. The text and pictures are charming in this book and is one of my daughter's favourites.

Homeschool Share provided us with some book related suggestions, the favourite one of my daughter being the Guess Who Animal game


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Coraline

November 20th 2009 01:26
My daughter loves the animated movie Coraline so loudly announced that it is Coraline week in our house giving me about five minutes notice to organise some activities for us to do.

Thankfully Coraline.com came to our aid and we were able to button eye images of both myself and my daughter as well as create online button flowers. There was also a fun print image in which the circus mice could also spell out my daughter's name


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Easy Cranberry Squares

November 12th 2009 18:54
Taken from the fun story, Cranberry Autumn, my daughter and I decided to bake this easy Cranberry Square recipe this afternoon as follows:

Cranberry Squares


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Halloween Lesson Plans

October 1st 2009 13:50
October already and that means only one thing for children (particularly in North America) - Halloween. This is a fun time for children to let their imagination run wild and it is great to incorporate monsters, goblins, ghouls and witches into the curriculum to inspire their creativity and imagination.

For history buffs it is interesting to go over the facts behind the tradition and if you are unfamiliar with the history then drop over to TIme For Kids to give you the lowdown


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Don't Discount Second Hand Stores

September 18th 2009 17:35
Investigating a new area to live, I started checking out all the stores - second hand stores included and noticed what bargains they had to offer particularly in the way of kids educational computer games and books. We managed to make some great savings and many of the books and cds were priced at $2 or less!

The Little Bear Preschool Thinking Adventure normally sells for between $10 and $15 and we picked it up for $1. A definite bargain


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Speakaboos

June 2nd 2009 02:38
The Speakaboo website served a great purpose this week as it gave us an online version of The Ugly Duckling to read and view as well as a follow on activity, but the site itself holds an interesting premise.

Coming soon, as the site announces, is a record your own story section which will allow kids and parents to record their own voices reading (or singing!) their favorite story, song, or nursery rhyme. Anything that aids in the improvement and creation of kids wanting to read or listen to stories is a great idea.
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Ugly Duckling Week

May 31st 2009 07:02
This may sound like some poor joke but it is the book to which my daughter has chosen to base all of her crafts and activities this week. Again being a popular story like The Three Liltte Pigs, there is no shortage for either crafts or activities we can do together.

We have various Ugly Duckling and Swan pictures to cut out and glue together, although my favourite is this 3D duck. We are unable to source the plastic eggs although are going to amend it slightly by using small paper cups which should do the trick just nicely


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Send In The Clowns

May 24th 2009 02:59
Admittedly I am not a fan of clowns, preferring to see them at children's parties rather than adorned all over my wall. So the inclusion of Clown Week into our schedule took me a little by surprise to say the least.

Loonette and Molly from the Canadian Series, The Big Comfy Couch, are a particular favourite in our house so at least I had a starting point on which to base our activities. And in particular I love the concept of a 10-second tidy which we are going to incorporate with a clown based cleaning chart
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BBC Stories

May 14th 2009 00:50
CBeebies, the children's BBC website, has a great range of stories to watch and read along with and will easily inspire your children.

Currently my daughter's favourite, she enjoys listening to the stories and selecting her own depending on her mood. The stories are excerpts from the children's programs featured on the BBC channel such as The Tweenies, The Story Makers and Charlie and Lola


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