Sunday, June 29, 2014

Learning About the Taíno Peoples, and Christopher Columbus

*PLEASE BE AWARE that the Taino people did not wear clothing, and though they are usually shown clothed in books and videos, some artwork online or in documentaries may depict them in various stages of nudity. I encourage parents and teachers to choose resources ahead of time and preview all documentaries or books, even those recommended here, to make sure you find them appropriate for your children.

In addition to studying the life and voyages of Christopher Columbus, we decided to devote equal time to learning about the indigenous peoples he first encountered. I wanted Hunter to understand that while Columbus is a celebrated historical figure who certainly changed the world, these changes resulted in tragedy for the inhabitants of the lands he "discovered".

We read many books about Christopher Columbus in addition to our main history text, but these are the two we found the most helpful. Click on either of the pictures to check them out!

Here's the Interactive 3D Map of Columbus' first voyage that Hunter colored and assembled. Looks great, doesn't it? He worked so hard.

Some of the pieces are glued down, but the ships move along the track between Spain and the Caribbean.

We got the map from this book, and look forward to making more! Click on the picture to find out more about the book; it's a great addition to any homeschool.

He also completed this fabulous flip-flap book from Simply Skilled in Second. (The finished product can include one of Columbus' ships! Follow the link to see her examples.)

Each flap has maps, writing prompts, questions, or space to draw so the student can really show what they've learned.

We use these flip-flap books a lot, for history, science, and language arts. She has a fantastic collection and it's growing all the time!

Hunter loves documentaries, and we were happy to find this one by National Geographic on YouTube. The title is a little misleading; it's really about the impact of European settlement on the North and Central American civilizations. It's a good jumping off point for discussion about the positive and negative aspects of the Columbian exchange, and whether any of the negatives could have been avoided.

This story by Jane Yolen is told from the point of view of a young Taíno boy who is suspicious of the strangers that have suddenly appeared in his land. He tries to warn the adults of his village that the newcomers seem more interested in gold than friendship, but no one listens.

This FREE activity from Guest Hollow requires students to cut out the items (including foods, animals, and other resources) and paste them on either the New World or Old World side of the map. An answer key is included.

Each of these wonderful picture books tells a version of a Taíno creation myth explaining the origin of the sea. Click on either of them to view them on Amazon.com. (We were able to get both from our local library.) We created a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast the two stories. (You can find a free Venn Diagram designed for comparing two books right here.)

We studied zemis, sculptural objects the Taíno believed to house spirits, often of ancestors. Some zemis had full bodies, while others consisted of only a head or mask. Hunter made this sculpture with Crayola Air Dry Clay. It's based on an actual zemi at the Walters Art Museum.

This short video about the decimation of the Taíno peoples was made by Puerto Rican high school students for a senior project. They did a fantastic job!

Hunter was surprised to learn how many English words come from the Taino language, including:

Barbeque
Canoe
Potato
Manatee
Savannah
Papaya
Cannibal
Cuba
Jamaica
Guava
Hammock
Hurricane
and Iguana

If you want to learn more about the Taino before teaching, here are a couple great resources for adults:

What Became of the Taíno? is a great article on Smithsonian.com

This Wikipedia article is also very informative and links to more great resources.

Blogs and Shops featured in this post:

GuestHollow.com
Simply Skilled in Second (TpT)

Lisa Lilienthal (TpT)

Thursday, June 5, 2014

On Commas, or, Why Do the Rules of Grammar Hate Us So?!

I have a confession to make. I do not like teaching grammar and punctuation. There are so many rules to teach a child who really isn't interested (at least in my case), and so much practice required to commit it all to memory. To make matters worse, this difficult subject matter is incredibly important. College professors, future employers, and even Facebook friends will one day judge my son's grammatical proficiency. Fortunately for me, there are some wonderful resources out there to make it easier to understand and teach grammar.

I'm pleased to introduce guest blogger Nikolas Baron, who has written a fabulous post on teaching correct comma usage. I've been known to sprinkle commas pretty much anywhere, and Nick's clear explanations have been very helpful to me as a blogger, and as a teacher. Enjoy!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

On Commas, or, Why Do the Rules of Grammar Hate Us So?!

Commas. Ugh. No one likes commas, especially English teachers. They're difficult to teach, and students rarely use them correctly. We can sit and teach students the rules of the comma, but they'll usually end up ignoring them and dropping commas wherever they think a comma should go. This rarely turns out well, usually resulting in a paper with either no commas or too many. How do you even begin to teach such a complex topic to students that honestly don't care?

The primary difficulty is in the complexity of comma rules. Some people argue that there are only four rules for comma usage, while others break those rules down into further rules, increasing the complexity. For example, the Modern Language Association lists a total of 11 comma rules, which is just silly: not even a professional writer can keep track of 11 separate comma rules; what hope do any of us have? What hope do our students have?

In my work with Grammarly, I study the tools writers use to become better writers, and while I wish there were a fool-proof way to teach commas, there just isn't. The best you can hope is to simplify the rules enough that they're easy to understand, and then use some activities to help them practice.

Let's start with rules. In my belief, there are only five comma rules that are crucial to teach:

A comma is used before a coordinating conjunction that separates two independent clauses.

Example: “I sat on the couch, and I watched TV.”

A comma is used to offset additional information that describes a noun, called an “appositive.”

Example: “The speaker, a world-reknowned author, took the stage.”

A comma is used to separate like items in a list.

Example: “I've written for a blog, newspaper, and TV station.”

A comma offsets an introductory clause that comes before the subject of the sentence.

Example: “In his right hand, he held his drink.”

A comma separates a quotation from the rest of the text.

Example: “She pulled him aside and said, “This is important.”

As previously mentioned, there are certainly more comma rules, but I believe these are the most important. Once your students seem to have a good grasp on these rules, it's time to put them into practice. While you can certainly provide worksheets with sentences that need commas, I feel like worksheets do little to teach the practical use of the rules. To provide practice, I believe we should use activities that encourage our students to think critically about how commas should be used in real situations. Try the following exercises with your students to help them practice the five rules above:

Write three sentences for each comma rule on separate strips of paper. Have your students categorize each sentence by the comma rule it uses.
Have your students write a paragraph using five sentences. Make sure that each sentence uses at least one of the comma rules above.
If you have multiple students, have each one write a paragraph that uses the above rules but does not include the commas. Have your students trade paragraphs and add the commas in.

These three exercises are simple ways you can have your students practice the proper ways to use the five comma rules. Keep in mind, however, that no matter how good your students get, no writer is perfect. Comma errors will always fall through the cracks. That's where Grammarly comes in. Over at Grammarly, we offer a comprehensive grammar check that examines a text for over 200 grammatical errors. With good comma practice and a little extra help from Grammarly, you can not only make sure that your students learn about commas, but also ensure that they will always use commas correctly.

By Nikolas Baron

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Bio:

Nikolas discovered his love for the written word in Elementary School, where he started spending his afternoons sprawled across the living room floor devouring one Marc Brown children's novel after the other and writing short stories about daring pirate adventures. After acquiring some experience in various marketing, business development, and hiring roles at internet startups in a few different countries, he decided to re-unite his professional life with his childhood passions by joining Grammarly’s marketing team in San Francisco. He has the pleasure of being tasked with talking to writers, bloggers, teachers, and others about how they use Grammarly’s online proofreading application to improve their writing. His free time is spent biking, traveling, and reading.

Friday, April 25, 2014

Everything Easter

Here's a quick photo blitz of our Easter activities! Both Hunter and Colban's projects are included in this post.

Colby did an awesome job with this Easter Bunny Application Craft by Marta Almiron.

Have you ever seen a bunny jumping competition? We loved watching this video of furry little athletes!

After watching the video (twice, at Colby's insistence), Colban completed this adorable, FREE Bunny Competition Writing Prompt from Little Bird Kindergarten.

Colby named his imaginary bunny Thunder, and as you can see, Thunder is blue, skinny, furry, and a great jumper! He drew Thunder's portrait and a picture of him in competition, and also some of his awards. This was a favorite activity!

Maria Manore has Interactive Sight Word Readers for every occasion! We complete at least one of these each week. This one, "Jesus is Risen!", which focuses on learning to spell the name "Jesus", is a FREE download!

It goes over the week leading up to the Resurrection, which fit right in with our Easter lessons.

This is the Protestant version; she also offers a free Catholic version entitled "Jesus Had a Holy Week".

This one cost only $1, and focuses on the word "that".

It has an Easter egg theme, and is not religious. You can find a copy of "Look at that Egg!" right here!

Rita Mitchell's Bunny 10 Frames activities were a huge hit. Something about the colorful vegetable clip art really appealed to Colban.

We found so many ways to use this 40-page resource. We practiced making teen numbers, and did some addition and subtraction too.

Throw in some manipulatives and a dry-erase marker and the possibilities are endless. The best part? It costs $1.00!

Colby loves adding mini-books to his "Colby library", so I knew he'd be thrilled with this one from Lil Country Librarian. It was a cute way to practice simple subtraction!

"Five Little Bunnies" is only $1.50! You can buy a copy here.

This simple non-standard measurement activity from Teach With Laughter was a lot of fun, although Colby found the estimation part a little frustrating! It's a skill we'll continue to work on. You can find this activity right here!

It's the inevitable Marsha McGuire I-Spy! If you follow this blog you know that these are a staple in our classroom. Check out Crazy Rabbits Love I-Spy Addition and Subtraction; Colby really loves these activities and they're differentiated in a way that works well for homeschoolers.

Another great resource we found is Spring Bunny Initial Sounds Learning Center Activities by Teaching With Nancy. In addition to the clip cards shown (which we like to use with a dry-erase marker), there are three other activities and some practice pages. It's a great bundle and SO inexpensive!

We read several books this year, but this one was our favorite by far. Dan Goeller's adaptation of The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde is absolutely fantastic. The story and artwork are beautiful, and the book comes with an audio CD of the narration set to orchestra music. My boys loved the book, but when I played the CD for them they immediately began acting out the story, performing their own impromptu interpretive dance. It was really amazing to watch. They had such a good time that they ended up practicing and performing for family members on Easter Sunday. I can't recommend this book highly enough.

Another fabulous version is this one, illustrated by Ritva Voutila.

We also recommend The Very First Easter by Paul L. Maier and The Donkey Who Carried a King by R.C. Sproul.

Hunter's schedule is so much more rigorous than Colby's, and we're almost always involved in several ongoing projects or assignments, so we don't do as many holiday activities. He did complete this lapbook about the Easter story after a lot of reading and discussion.

The lapbook includes vocabulary words such as "hypocrisy" and "disciple", and interactive flaps for the key moments of Easter week.

I did have some trouble turning these components into an actual lapbook; there was no obvious design or intended layout and I had to wing it. They would probably be fantastic in an interactive notebook, if you keep one.

For many, many more FREE and DIY Easter ideas, check out these Pinterest boards:

Easter Crafts and Activities For Kids

FREE Easter Printables {Educational}

We hope you had as wonderful a holiday as we did!

Blogs and Shops Mentioned in this Post:

Marta Almiron (TpT)

Little Bird Kindergarten (TpT)

Maria Manore (TpT)

Rita Mitchell (TpT)

Lil Country Librarian (TpT)

Teach With Laughter (TpT)

Marsha McGuire (TpT)

Teaching With Nancy (TpT)

Practice Makes Perfect (TpT)

Monday, March 24, 2014

St. Patrick's Day!

St. Patrick's Day photo blitz!

This fabulous freebie is from Falling Into First. The four things Colby treasures are his dog Baron, his "magic stick" (which is just a cool-looking stick he found in the woods, and is extremely attached to), Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park, and the toy house that he got for Christmas. So cute!

We found this Shamrock Trinity Craft at BibleStoryPrintables.com. It's FREE!

This shamrock alphabet freebie is courtesy of The B Keeps Us Honest; there is also a similar freebie for numbers. This was great practice for Colby!

Colby completed two worksheets from Color Me Ten: Color by Number Ten Frame Practice by Danielle Kroger. Each theme in the packet has three levels, and there are themes for the whole school year. Very useful product, and it's great when you need something quick but meaningful!

This fun Pots O' Gold addition game is a freebie from Mrs. Ricca's Kindergarten! There are about a gazillion more freebies in the post! Seriously, check it out. Math and literacy galore!

Of course, we had to make something beautiful for the classroom wall! Believe it or not, this craftivity is a freebie from Teaching's a Hoot! If Colby found a pot of gold and a leprechaun gave him six wishes, he would wish for his birthday, computer time, no hurricanes, no tornadoes, lots of candy, and summer. Love it!

This was a favorite activity; both of the boys really enjoyed this game, even though it was really easy for Hunter. I wish I'd gotten some pictures of them playing it! Like all of Marsha's McGuire's fantastic products, it's differentiated. Students can race to 30, 50, or 100. I ended up wishing I'd printed off one of the more difficult game mats, as Colby caught on very quickly. Leprechauns Love to Race is FREE on TpT!

We read a lot of St. Patrick's Day books this year! Below, I've linked to the ones the boys enjoyed the most. To find out more about any of these, just click on the pic!

For lots more St. Patrick's Day freebies and DIY ideas, check out this Pinterest board:

St. Patrick's Day For Kids

Blogs and Shops mentioned in this post:

Falling Into First

The B Keeps Us Honest

Danielle Kroger (TpT)

Mrs. Ricca's Kindergarten

Teaching's a Hoot!

Marsha McGuire (TpT)

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Mittens, Penguins, and Wintry Things

This picture pretty much sums up the entire month of March in my neck of the woods:

Snow, snow, and more snow! Every time we thought it was over, another storm blew in.

The boys and I really didn't mind; we like snow, and we spend our days cozy at home anyway.

One of the wonderful things about homeschooling is that we never have to cancel due to bad weather!

It did delay the start of any spring-themed activities, though. It just didn't seem right to be jumping into flowers and robins with another 12" of snow falling outside. We've continued on with cold weather stuff, including Jan Brett's "The Mitten".

How cute is this free activity from What the Teacher Wants?

Colby's page says "A rat climbed into the mitten because he was cold".

We practiced ordinal numbers with these "The Mitten" Sequence Cards by Erin from Creating and Teaching. They're free! Download a copy here.

Colby retold the story with the help of these free printable retelling props from janbrett.com.

Find the Mitten printable here,

and the animals here.

Handprint art at it's finest! Colby turned his hand print into an iceberg with five little penguins! He made the thumbprint penguin appear to be leaping into the water. We added tiny googly eyes to each penguin. The finished product is very, very cute. We found the idea here.

There is a Marsha McGuire I-Spy activity for every occasion!

Check out I-Spy Cold Weather Addition and Subtraction, and while you're at it take a minute to explore the rest of her TpT shop - we love her products!

This super cute addition to ten activity is from Caitlin Clabby's Penguins: Math, Literacy, and SO Much More. I've mentioned this product in previous posts (here); there are over 30 penguin themed activities! We've loved everything we've used so far, and we will have plenty more to do next year. It was a great buy.