Friday, January 11, 2013
Saturday, December 15, 2012
I'm a Slacker
Yup. I'm a slacker. I haven't blogged in almost a year. I do plan to get back to it. I do miss it. It's the only place I can fully express my views and opinions without worrying if anyone's listening.lol.
There's been sooooo many changes- a move, a job, that I ended up quitting, and a new baby. :)
I've been fully immersed in the world of cloth diapering once again and now that it's 'cool' I'm really enjoying it. There are a lot of new kinds, new companies and so many new cute diapers on the market. I've even won a few giveaways.
Speaking of- there's one going on right now at a very useful cloth diapering blog called All About Cloth Diapers the event is titled My Favorite Things. Wish me luck! I hope to win some nice 'fluff' for baby girl.
There's been sooooo many changes- a move, a job, that I ended up quitting, and a new baby. :)
I've been fully immersed in the world of cloth diapering once again and now that it's 'cool' I'm really enjoying it. There are a lot of new kinds, new companies and so many new cute diapers on the market. I've even won a few giveaways.
Speaking of- there's one going on right now at a very useful cloth diapering blog called All About Cloth Diapers the event is titled My Favorite Things. Wish me luck! I hope to win some nice 'fluff' for baby girl.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Turtle Lapbook
We finished the Dude's Turtle lapbook today. We didn't do a cover but I don't think he cares. I might just let him paste and color the leftover clip art from the copywork pages onto the front and call it good.
Here are the stick puppets I talked about in today's first post.
This is the first middle fold of the lapbook:
The extra middle flap with his Alligator Snapping Turtle report
Middle flap up close
A few details from inside
And a poem that was meant for copywork but since I think the Dude needs a bit more handwriting instruction first, I printed both poems off for him and we made books out of them which he illustrated. I like the hatchlings and eggs on the right. :) This is also the poem from the MFW teacher's manual.
Well, that's the lapbook. I hope you liked it!
Here are the stick puppets I talked about in today's first post.
This is the first middle fold of the lapbook:
The extra middle flap with his Alligator Snapping Turtle report
Middle flap up close
A few details from inside
And a poem that was meant for copywork but since I think the Dude needs a bit more handwriting instruction first, I printed both poems off for him and we made books out of them which he illustrated. I like the hatchlings and eggs on the right. :) This is also the poem from the MFW teacher's manual.
Well, that's the lapbook. I hope you liked it!
Books and Video we used for Tt Turtle
Just thought I'd list three of the books we used for our Tt Turtle unit since they worked the best for us.
The first was All About Turtles by Jim Arnosky. I really like Jim Arnosky's nature illustrations. I was turned on to them a couple of years ago while using My Father's World Exploring Countries and cultures. His books are really helpful when doing nature study.
The second book is Fun With Nature by Mel Boring I think I'm going to try to purchase this one because it's something like six books in one. I wish I'd found it back when we were studying Ll Leaf. I like the short two-page spreads. They're perfect for short attention spans.
The last one is "Maybe Donna Wants a Cheeseburger
!" by Karen Adler. This one is really cute. It tells the story of a Box Turtle named Donna who lived in a class room and how her owner, the teacher, explained hibernation and other turtle-specific terminology. We used some of the definitions in the back of the book for the Dudes turtle vocabulary in his turtle lapbook. Tink was actually the one who found this book for me. She had seen it at our local Whole Foods and liked it so she told me to get it for the Dude. I love how my girls look out for their little brother. :)
I also found a video from a show called Eco Geeks on Alligator Snapping Turtles. It was short and caught the Dude's attention. Now he focuses on that particular turtle whenever he hears about it. It's also the turtle he chose to do his lapbook report booklet on.
I'll probably post again to show the Dude's lapbook and his WH Question cards that his speech teacher made for him.
The first was All About Turtles by Jim Arnosky. I really like Jim Arnosky's nature illustrations. I was turned on to them a couple of years ago while using My Father's World Exploring Countries and cultures. His books are really helpful when doing nature study.
The second book is Fun With Nature by Mel Boring I think I'm going to try to purchase this one because it's something like six books in one. I wish I'd found it back when we were studying Ll Leaf. I like the short two-page spreads. They're perfect for short attention spans.
The last one is "Maybe Donna Wants a Cheeseburger
!" by Karen Adler. This one is really cute. It tells the story of a Box Turtle named Donna who lived in a class room and how her owner, the teacher, explained hibernation and other turtle-specific terminology. We used some of the definitions in the back of the book for the Dudes turtle vocabulary in his turtle lapbook. Tink was actually the one who found this book for me. She had seen it at our local Whole Foods and liked it so she told me to get it for the Dude. I love how my girls look out for their little brother. :)I also found a video from a show called Eco Geeks on Alligator Snapping Turtles. It was short and caught the Dude's attention. Now he focuses on that particular turtle whenever he hears about it. It's also the turtle he chose to do his lapbook report booklet on.
I'll probably post again to show the Dude's lapbook and his WH Question cards that his speech teacher made for him.
The Puppets Are Working!
Yay! Some exciting news. The puppets suggested by the Dude's speech teacher really are working. After reading the Tortoise and the Hare we made some simple stick puppets.
Dude was very excited about them. He wanted to be involved in every part of the process of making them. I sketched our favorite poses of both the tortoise and the hare from the book we'd just read and he helped decide which ones to use. (I think we've read it about 5 times.) Then we colored them, cut them out, glued them to some card stock, then glued them to Popsicle sticks.
Of course, Dude didn't narrate back the whole story on his own but he was able to act it out with me using our puppets. I think that's amazing for him! I'm sure the more we practice acting out the stories at the end of each unit, the better he'll get at it.
We've finished the Tt Turtle unit and are almost done with the Turtle lapbook. Pictures will be posted as soon as we're done. Probably next week since this is a busy weekend. I'll have to make a standard pocket to store our stick puppets for each unit. :) Puppets and lapbooks. Who knew?
Dude was very excited about them. He wanted to be involved in every part of the process of making them. I sketched our favorite poses of both the tortoise and the hare from the book we'd just read and he helped decide which ones to use. (I think we've read it about 5 times.) Then we colored them, cut them out, glued them to some card stock, then glued them to Popsicle sticks.
Of course, Dude didn't narrate back the whole story on his own but he was able to act it out with me using our puppets. I think that's amazing for him! I'm sure the more we practice acting out the stories at the end of each unit, the better he'll get at it.
We've finished the Tt Turtle unit and are almost done with the Turtle lapbook. Pictures will be posted as soon as we're done. Probably next week since this is a busy weekend. I'll have to make a standard pocket to store our stick puppets for each unit. :) Puppets and lapbooks. Who knew?
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Narration With Puppets!
The Dude had a great day at speech today. Mrs. B, his speech teacher, noticed that he really likes puppets so she's started using them during some of his speech sessions. Today when we walked in the room, I could tell she had something up her sleeve because she was extra smiley.
Instead of working on Chicken Little like they had been with their "WH" questions like we'd planned, she pulled out some puppets that went along with the story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff.
It was a success! The Dude was so excited about the puppets he was wiggling in his seat and could hardly hold still. Mrs. B read the Three Billy Goats Gruff and would pause so the Dude could read his "lines". Then they used the same "WH" question format she'd been using for Chicken Little. (I'll have to post a picture of this set-up another time.) The Dude had only a few problems answering the questions and helping sequence the story with the visual cues.
After the questions, they picked up the puppets and acted out the story together and the Dude was actually able to tell back little snippets of the story. Can you say "narration"??? I've been trying to push back the little worries in my head that the Dude could not narrate or tell back stories we'd read yet. This should help bridge that gap until he can get a better grasp on his language skills.
I'm going to have to work on making simple puppets to go along with what we're learning in school. Should be pretty since most of our units are on animals. Hey! I just remembered, I think I still have that hinge template from doing that Puppet tools review a couple of years ago. That'll come in handy.
Instead of working on Chicken Little like they had been with their "WH" questions like we'd planned, she pulled out some puppets that went along with the story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff.
It was a success! The Dude was so excited about the puppets he was wiggling in his seat and could hardly hold still. Mrs. B read the Three Billy Goats Gruff and would pause so the Dude could read his "lines". Then they used the same "WH" question format she'd been using for Chicken Little. (I'll have to post a picture of this set-up another time.) The Dude had only a few problems answering the questions and helping sequence the story with the visual cues.
After the questions, they picked up the puppets and acted out the story together and the Dude was actually able to tell back little snippets of the story. Can you say "narration"??? I've been trying to push back the little worries in my head that the Dude could not narrate or tell back stories we'd read yet. This should help bridge that gap until he can get a better grasp on his language skills.
I'm going to have to work on making simple puppets to go along with what we're learning in school. Should be pretty since most of our units are on animals. Hey! I just remembered, I think I still have that hinge template from doing that Puppet tools review a couple of years ago. That'll come in handy.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Perseverance (Did I spell that right?)
I'm having a lot of luck thinking of different ways to teach perseverance to the Dude. Perseverance is the theme for his Tt Turtle unit. The problem is getting my hands on the materials. I went to the library today to pick up a couple of books with perseverance themes but even though the catalog said the books were in, they weren't. Sorta frustrating. I'll have to go back and look for Horton Hatches the Egg
another day since this cold/allergies I have is a bit much for me.
I requested Veggie Tales Sumo of the Opera from the library but they just took too long so I had my hubby bring it home tonight. It was nice, the whole family sat down to watch it while dinner was in the oven. Perseverance was mentioned over and over again and it was even defined in the beginning. I wish we'd had the movie a bit sooner for St. Patrick's Day but that's okay, maybe the Dude will remember what it's about in time for next year. :) After watching the movie I asked him if he liked learning more about perseverance and he sounded very happy to hear the word again. I think we picked the right movie!
another day since this cold/allergies I have is a bit much for me.I requested Veggie Tales Sumo of the Opera from the library but they just took too long so I had my hubby bring it home tonight. It was nice, the whole family sat down to watch it while dinner was in the oven. Perseverance was mentioned over and over again and it was even defined in the beginning. I wish we'd had the movie a bit sooner for St. Patrick's Day but that's okay, maybe the Dude will remember what it's about in time for next year. :) After watching the movie I asked him if he liked learning more about perseverance and he sounded very happy to hear the word again. I think we picked the right movie!
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