FUNTIMES HOME EDUCATION

When we first started learning at home, we seemed to do quite a few poems as the children seemed interested in descriptive words and using adjectives in their work. 

I had read about a lovely children's Thesaurus in a back dated teachers magazine and was lucky to find an unused copy of it on Amazon (new and used) which I bought quite cheaply.  The Usborne Illustrated Thesaurus (1996) has come in handy for the children's work, when finding suitable descriptions to everyday words.

To aid the children with their poem writing, not only did we read lots of different kinds of poetry and have a fun play around with rhyming words, but we used the web too for inspiration.   I came across a "Magnetic Poetry" board on the Snaith School web site (see links below) where you can move words onto an imaginary fridge door to build a poem.  Another good version was "My Monster" where you add your choice of words before the computer can display a monster poem incorporating the words you'd chosen.  The BBC children's web site is also a good starting ground for literacy and if you dig deep and look in the teachers section you will find printable plans that include poetry for children.

http://home.freeuk.net/elloughton13/scramble.htm (Magnetic Poetry)

http://www.lancsngfl.ac.uk/curriculum/literacy/lit_site/html/fiction/my_monster/index.htm (My Monster)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/index.shtml (BBC)

Both children seem to have a way with words (so to speak).  K is an avid reading and I'm hoping that B's new interest in words will also spark an interest in literacy.  Here is a small collection of poems by K and B and the dates that they were written.  In K's work, you'll see how her mind is changing and how she is able put across her thoughts to produce some lovely work.

The children were very interested in the popular Narnia books and we had read three of the stories from the series in preparation for a visit to the cinema to see "The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe".  B didn't want to see the film, but he, like me and K, found the book very discriptive and imaginative.  The film together with a fantastic mythical book from the library called "Arthur Spiderwicks Field Guide to the Fantastic World Around You" (Stamford Book for Education ISBN 1-416-90136-1) inspired us to develop our own fantasy figure and write a story.

• The first aim was to imagine our fantasy figure that will eventually become a character in a story.  I found the beautiful Spiderwicks full of interest with detailed drawings and snippets of information on fairies, pixies and trolls, to name a few, but infact the children already had ideas in mind as to how their characters would look and behave.  By the way, anyone interested in the fantasy world would adore this book, have a look at the Spiderwicks web site which shows some of the lovely pictures.  Characters were drawn and named, K's was an Aracorn (like a unicorn) and B's a Bouncing Ogre and a Ridiculous Troll.

• Next, the children designed detailed storyboards to discribe the setting of the story and to help the reader understand the background of the character.  I was amazed at how much care and attention K and B had put into the boards, especially K, her imagination was running riot!

B's board pointed out that his ogre likes to                     K's board was quite indepth.  It states that "anyone
eat seeds, he uses a spring to bounce along,                   who has sparkly powder on them has seen an
he has a yellow tummy but his skin is "delicate            Aracorn".  A "dream flower" if touched  meant you
as thin ice", he lives in the desert but there are            would see an Aracorn.  Scraps of material were from
leaves on the ground.                                                              Aracorn fighting flags, a miniature book was found
                                                                                                          behind a fairy poster in a child's bedroom.  And a 
                                                                                                          carefully made Aracorn doll "was given to the girl
                                                                                                          who had found the book, her name was Jessica".

• The children then wrote about their characters using the PC and clip art to inspire their work.  Doing this meant the children had to not only type their work, but find and add suitable pictures and position them alongside the typing.  Both decided to use arrows to guide the reader  and to relate pictures to text, so again aligning the arrows correctly was a skill they had to perfect.
• Snippets from this section:-           

K:- This Aracorn is a Storycorn.  You can tell by his wild and unruley mane, and his sleek Thoroughbred fur.  Storycorns are not Arab x Unicorn, they are Thoroughbred x Unicorn.  This gives them spectacular movement, and can gallop 70 mph, canter 20 mph and trot 10 mph.  Their walk is wonderful too.  They walk powerfully, like a trot, but slowed down.  His name is LinThinTeal.  Place to live: Aracornie Rocks "n" Hills.  Food: fliawaflawers (Fly-away-flowers) and Ipppyylipppyisckyys (ippy-lippy-ickys). 

B:-  This axe has spikes on it.  It can kill people easily.  His name is Uglyhead.  He likes to knock trees down.  When the trees are down he hits it until they are in bits. 

• The children wrote their stories, K on the PC, B the conventional way (for Bouncing Ogre), and then on the PC (for Ridiculous Troll).  K, being 9 and having read alot of books for her tender young age, produced a wonderful piece of work.  B, being 6 and not really into reading or writing at the moment, did very well at this task, especially with descriptions of actions.

Snippets from this section:-   

K:- Tahraellen stood, looking up at LinThinTeal.  She really loved him, and unlike him, she had a best friend.  In their cave there were posters with pictures of him on, but Tahraellen wished he could see them too.  Then, she bravely stepped up to him, and LinThinTeal looked at her.  He wasn't used to things  liking him so much. 

B:- When the Bouncing Ogre landed he didn't land on the ground he landed on the someones. "Ahh" said the someones, then the Bouncing Ogre picks up the someones' guns and waited and waited until more someones came. 

• Finally, the children made covers for their work ready for filing.  I must admit, it seemed a great shame to file them away, their work was truly an eye-opener.  For B, it opened up the world of reading and writing stories.  He has since typed a lovely story about the cartoon character "Mario" which was so much more indepth compared to his Ogre story.  For K completing this piece of literacy broadened her writing skills and developed her creativity.

(work: March '06)

The children love to use the digital camera to take snap shots of their toys during their play.  It struck me that this would be a good way to encourage literacy by producing photostories.

The children used the camera to take shots of their dolls and toys to act out a story.  Once the photos were printed out and stuck on paper in the correct order, the story could be written up.  Sometimes the story flows from line to line using the photos for added interest, at other times the photos are used with speech bubbles which makes the work look like a glossy teenage magazine.

After Christmas, armed with a large bundle of unwanted Christmas cards, we all chose a selection of cards to cut out pictures to tell a Christmassy story.  Having the pretty sparkling cards for inspiration helped produce some lovely writing.

To aid their understanding of adjectives, I took head and shoulder photos of K and B so they could use the special "liquify" brush on our Paintshop software to turn themselves into ugly, smudged beings!  Once this was completed they each found words to describe themselves:-

spooky, unreal, devilish, eye-boggling and creepy (for K)

eerie, spooky, ugly, revolting and gruesome (for B)

(work: Oct./Nov. '05 & Jan. '06)

The lesson plan that I stumbled across here helped the children to build a character profile.  We each had a go at this for National Poetry Day which was on the 5th October, 2006.

We started by each choosing a button from the huge collection we seem to have accumulated.  The button K chose was a two tone brown and looked like a flower; it reminded her of almonds. B chose a deep red button with a star etched on it.  We started by taking time to look closely at our chosen button, to feel it and then try and get an idea of what item of clothing it may have once belonged to.  We then followed most of the instructions in the lesson plan to achieve our character profile, gradually building the image of a person in our mind.  Once this was succesfully done,  we read our profile out to each other to get feedback on the character we were describing.  We ended with a simple poem to complete the excerise.

(work: Oct. '06)

K is an avid reader and will easily plough through a tall pile of books of any nature (as long as they are of interest to her) in a very short space of time.  I don't know what we would do without our local library for assistance in this, as books are quite expensive, especially if bought frequently, and in bulk to fuel her reading enthusiasm!

B, on the other hand, is not such a lover of reading.  We find it hard to find books with a subject matter that'll interest him, and are of a level that he can read himself.  Again, this is where the wonderful library system comes in favour - just think of all those wasted books otherwise!  When B wants to read he will.  Recently he received a castle kit to put together himself and he proudly announced that he'd read the instructions (which covered several pages, with diagrams) by himself and therefore was able to get on with his task of building.  Using the PC to play interactive games has also brought on his reading skills as he needs to understand game instructions and also read messages from friends in order for him to reply!

Due to these different levels of interest in literature, I decided that, when reading a book as a family, it would be a good idea for the children to draw a storyboard as we went along.  K and B seem to enjoy drawing when being read to, and they are still able to listen and take in what is being said.  In fact by drawing the story as we go, it makes it clear to me that they are comprehending the plot, a skill much needed in life I feel.

Our first storyboard, read and drawn during warm summer days in the garden, was on J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan.  Once completed the children completed their work by adding their opinion of the book.  We have since done Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roahl Dahl (a firm favourite) and the Christmas Story (as we are reading the New Testament).  For "Charlie", the children made their own book review boxes, decorated with ideas from the story that they particularly liked.  They drew their favourite character and wrote snippets of information about the book which was placed inside the box.  This was far more interesting to them both than writing out a review!

Bs ticking crocodile from "Peter Pan"

 
K's Willy Wonka from "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and the story boxes for this book.

(work: Summer - Winter '06)