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| Matteo painting a squid that he made of clay |
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| Elena loves to mix colors |
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| Chiara "painting" with stamps she made |
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| Giuseppe begs to paint after waking from his nap |
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
We've been going through...
...a lot of paint around here lately!
Posted with Blogsy
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Our Writing Time, Part II
Ok, let's actually talk about writing!
After all my talk about how much better I've found it to be for us to to things together, I have to admit that Maria uses an independent writing curriculum. She is working through a book called Writing With Skill. It is written to the student and divided into 36 four-day weeks. Don't let that lay out fool you - several of these "weeks" have taken longer than an actual week. Not that I'm complaining. There's no busy work in this book. I've been very impressed with its content. It covers academic writing, narrative and descriptive, about history and science and literary analysis. It covers skills like sentence composition, word choice, outlining, organization and others 3 out of 4 days of each "week." Then there is one day each week when they put everything together and write a complete 200-500 word essay. There is a teacher's manual to go with it that tells me how to help Maria with each step of a lesson, as well as a rubric for each essay and often sample essays to compare Maria's writing against.
This program seems to be a great lead into academic writing Maria will soon need in high school level studies. She is only in book 1 out of a planned 4 books. I say "planned" because the author is still writing the series. Book 2 is in beta testing write now. But, even though this is the author's first book in this series intended for the middle grades 5-8, I've found book 1 to be plenty challenging for a seventh grader. In fact, I'm having a hard time picturing Cati using it next year in 5th grade. We will see.
Well, that covers Maria's writing plan for this year. Next time I'll talk about Matteo and Cati's writing plan.
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NaNoWriMo update:
Maria - 6384 words! Now that Maria has officially reached her word count goal of 6000 words, I'll start comparing her word count to her personal goal of 12,000 words. Today, I asked her if she is half way done with her story or if she thinks she will have trouble reaching 12,000 words. She said that she is not even close to being halfway done with her planned story, so she may write much more than 12,000 words! But, I'm not sure she will will get it it done by the end of the month. But, that doesn't matter. I'm really happy with how well. She is doing!
Cati - 2231/5000 words. I told Cati today that she's doing great and that she's almost halfway to her goal of 5,000 words! She was not encouraged by the news. Oops! She's worried that she has to write again the amount she has already written. But, each day she is doing very well, so I think as long as she takes it one day at a time, she will be fine. The big picture seems to be overwhelming, but when she works each day, she is excited and happy about the little part that she's working on.
Matteo - 839/1000 words. He's inching up on his goal! Yay, Matteo!
After all my talk about how much better I've found it to be for us to to things together, I have to admit that Maria uses an independent writing curriculum. She is working through a book called Writing With Skill. It is written to the student and divided into 36 four-day weeks. Don't let that lay out fool you - several of these "weeks" have taken longer than an actual week. Not that I'm complaining. There's no busy work in this book. I've been very impressed with its content. It covers academic writing, narrative and descriptive, about history and science and literary analysis. It covers skills like sentence composition, word choice, outlining, organization and others 3 out of 4 days of each "week." Then there is one day each week when they put everything together and write a complete 200-500 word essay. There is a teacher's manual to go with it that tells me how to help Maria with each step of a lesson, as well as a rubric for each essay and often sample essays to compare Maria's writing against.
This program seems to be a great lead into academic writing Maria will soon need in high school level studies. She is only in book 1 out of a planned 4 books. I say "planned" because the author is still writing the series. Book 2 is in beta testing write now. But, even though this is the author's first book in this series intended for the middle grades 5-8, I've found book 1 to be plenty challenging for a seventh grader. In fact, I'm having a hard time picturing Cati using it next year in 5th grade. We will see.
Well, that covers Maria's writing plan for this year. Next time I'll talk about Matteo and Cati's writing plan.
*********************************************
NaNoWriMo update:
Maria - 6384 words! Now that Maria has officially reached her word count goal of 6000 words, I'll start comparing her word count to her personal goal of 12,000 words. Today, I asked her if she is half way done with her story or if she thinks she will have trouble reaching 12,000 words. She said that she is not even close to being halfway done with her planned story, so she may write much more than 12,000 words! But, I'm not sure she will will get it it done by the end of the month. But, that doesn't matter. I'm really happy with how well. She is doing!
Cati - 2231/5000 words. I told Cati today that she's doing great and that she's almost halfway to her goal of 5,000 words! She was not encouraged by the news. Oops! She's worried that she has to write again the amount she has already written. But, each day she is doing very well, so I think as long as she takes it one day at a time, she will be fine. The big picture seems to be overwhelming, but when she works each day, she is excited and happy about the little part that she's working on.
Matteo - 839/1000 words. He's inching up on his goal! Yay, Matteo!
Monday, November 12, 2012
More on literature
I started this series of posts with the intention of showing you some things we have been using for writing this year, but I can't seem to stop talking about literature! This should be the last post about this before REALLY moving on to writing!
As I mentioned before, Teaching the Classics is our spine for our method of studying literature, but it's not a step-by-step 36-week curriculum. It's a method for studying literature, which is great because it's a one-time purchase that can then guide us in literature from grades K-12. However, I have to decide which books for us to read and discuss. There are SO many great books that's it's hard to decide what to read!
This summer, I looked at many resources and compiled book lists for each grade. My main source was the Kolbe Academy Elementary and Junior High Literature program book lists that can be found on their web site. I also looked at the book lists on the Center for Lit site (which produces Teaching the Classics) and Memoria Press.
I put together lists for these sources and then chose 5-6 for each grade to be required books for us to read and study together. Yes, that means I read them, too, which makes about 15-18 books for me to read. These are really great books, many of which I somehow missed out on reading when I was in school, so I'm really enjoying reading them. I just finished discussing The Reluctant Dragon with Matteo. Maria and I are discussing Anne of Green Gables now, and Cati and I are studying Heidi. We talk about the books, the kids fill out a story chart outlining the plot, conflict, characters, setting, and themes, and then they write an essay to sum things up.
I have the kids choose one additional book per month from their list to read just for the sake of enjoying a new piece of good literature. If I don't force them to read something new, they will just stick to their old favorites we have around the house. Of course, once they start a new book from their list, they start talking about how good it is and start trying to convince their siblings to read it, too.
They keep a record of these additional books in their literature journal. It is just a composition book where they write down info about the book, the date they read it, and a rating of how they liked it. Here are a few samples:
Matteo (2nd grade) only included the title of the book, a picture we found on the Internet, and a short sentence reminding him what it was about.
Cati included the title, author, date read, a gold sticker to show how much she liked it, and a very short summary.
Maria wrote the title, author, date read, and a bit longer summary. She also wrote a sentence explaining why she liked the book and some stickers rating it. (On the first page of their journals, they defined their rating systems.)
I've been so happy with our lit studies this year! We're learning a lot and having fun reading a lot of new books together!!
As I mentioned before, Teaching the Classics is our spine for our method of studying literature, but it's not a step-by-step 36-week curriculum. It's a method for studying literature, which is great because it's a one-time purchase that can then guide us in literature from grades K-12. However, I have to decide which books for us to read and discuss. There are SO many great books that's it's hard to decide what to read!
This summer, I looked at many resources and compiled book lists for each grade. My main source was the Kolbe Academy Elementary and Junior High Literature program book lists that can be found on their web site. I also looked at the book lists on the Center for Lit site (which produces Teaching the Classics) and Memoria Press.
I put together lists for these sources and then chose 5-6 for each grade to be required books for us to read and study together. Yes, that means I read them, too, which makes about 15-18 books for me to read. These are really great books, many of which I somehow missed out on reading when I was in school, so I'm really enjoying reading them. I just finished discussing The Reluctant Dragon with Matteo. Maria and I are discussing Anne of Green Gables now, and Cati and I are studying Heidi. We talk about the books, the kids fill out a story chart outlining the plot, conflict, characters, setting, and themes, and then they write an essay to sum things up.
I have the kids choose one additional book per month from their list to read just for the sake of enjoying a new piece of good literature. If I don't force them to read something new, they will just stick to their old favorites we have around the house. Of course, once they start a new book from their list, they start talking about how good it is and start trying to convince their siblings to read it, too.
They keep a record of these additional books in their literature journal. It is just a composition book where they write down info about the book, the date they read it, and a rating of how they liked it. Here are a few samples:
Matteo (2nd grade) only included the title of the book, a picture we found on the Internet, and a short sentence reminding him what it was about.
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| Matteo's literature journal |
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| Cati's literature journal |
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| Maria's literature journal |
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Some funny math
Saturday morning, Elena started filling her bowl with mini-muffins. She started counting...1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10...
I was so impressed! I've never heard her accurately count out even 3 items before, and she just counted 10! Then, she paused, I guess trying to think of what came after 10...
"7, 8..." (Another pause as she looks in the bowl to see if there's room for more...)
"2..." (Another pause as she looks for room for just one more)
"5!" She then said triumphantly!
Oh, well. The beginning was good :).
Actually, thinking about it some more, I think the second part of her counting was better because it gave me another memory to smile about for the rest of the day!
I was so impressed! I've never heard her accurately count out even 3 items before, and she just counted 10! Then, she paused, I guess trying to think of what came after 10...
"7, 8..." (Another pause as she looks in the bowl to see if there's room for more...)
"2..." (Another pause as she looks for room for just one more)
"5!" She then said triumphantly!
Oh, well. The beginning was good :).
Actually, thinking about it some more, I think the second part of her counting was better because it gave me another memory to smile about for the rest of the day!
Saturday, November 10, 2012
Still adjusting
It's been a week since the time changed and we fell back an hour, but our two youngest are stubbornly resisting the change. They are still waking up ready to go at 6am...
Of course, we then had a not-so-fun mid-morning trip to Joann's to shop for supplies for Christmas gifts. Elena had a melt down when we put back an item that she had snuck into the cart. Thankfully, Giuseppe fell asleep in the sling. This 30-minute respite in the store ruined any hope of a regular nap later in the day, but I guess it saved my sanity as we finished shopping.
Hey, it's not too long before we "spring back," right?
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| Enjoying a Saturday morning muffin |
Of course, we then had a not-so-fun mid-morning trip to Joann's to shop for supplies for Christmas gifts. Elena had a melt down when we put back an item that she had snuck into the cart. Thankfully, Giuseppe fell asleep in the sling. This 30-minute respite in the store ruined any hope of a regular nap later in the day, but I guess it saved my sanity as we finished shopping.
Hey, it's not too long before we "spring back," right?
Friday, November 9, 2012
7 Quick Takes, Vol. 2
First, a couple of nice fall photos. There have been too many words on this blog lately and not enough pictures! |
| Elena playing the leaves at SVC |
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| Elena enjoying a beautiful fall afternoon |
'Tis the season! Maria spent a good bit of time this week looking up homemade gift ideas on the Internet, and now everyone has presents that they are excited to get started on. The lists have been written, checked, and double-checked, so we can go shopping for supplies at Joanne's tomorrow!
Do you know how many times I have to get this boy out of a chair everyday? So many times, I can't count! |
| Climbing in a chair AGAIN!! |
The family had dental check-ups on Tuesday - well, except for me. I went last week. It takes a while to clean the teeth of 5 kids and one adult. We took over the hygienist chairs for 2:45 to 4:45! I'm happy to report that no one had any cavities! We do have a lot of teeth coming in now. The dentist said that Elena is just starting to cut the last of her 2-year molars (probably why she hasn't been the best sleeper lately) and Matteo is still working on his 6-year molars. Giuseppe hasn't gotten his 1-year molars yet, so we're going to have some cranky kids with sore mouths running around here for a while!
The kids have been watching the Italian Little Pim DVDs for their Italian studies this fall. Even though they are geared to younger children, still find them valuable for the older ones as well because they really do teach a lot of good vocabulary and phrases. |
| Giuseppe learning Italian |
Giuseppe loves watching them with his siblings! You can see how attentive he is to it in this photo. He always says, "Panda! Ciao!" when it starts. It's pretty cute! (A panda is the main character or narrator of the movies.)
Cati is completely out of her Halloween candy, and Elena is scraping the bottom of her pumpkin, but the others surprisingly still have a significant amount left!
Cati started struggling with NaNoWriMo this week. I started hearing a panicked, "I don't know what else to write!" I gave her my literature guide book that has a lot of questions in the back to guide our discussions about literature. She read through some of it, and now she's back on track! She doubled her daily word count goal for today! I knew we would have some struggles along the way, and I'm really glad that this was resolved pretty easily.
Maria seems to be doing well on her novel and hasn't expressed any frustration yet. She's well on her way to her personal goal of 12,000 words (however, I'm still posting her official goal of 6000 words for now). And says that she still has a lot of her outlined story left to write.
Matteo now just has a goal of reaching his daily word count of 40 words. I'm not sure what will happen when he reaches 1000 words but still has days left in November to write. I don't know if he will be done, or if I will be able to convince him to continue writing. Either way, I'll be very impressed by him reaching 1000 words! That is WAY more than he's ever written before and quite an accomplishment for a 2nd grader, I think.
Today's updated word counts:
Maria - / 6000
Cati - 1881 / 5000
Matteo - 730 / 1000
For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Some writing samples
Today, I thought I would post some samples of the kids' writing that are related to poetry and literature which I blogged about yesterday. I'm not posting them because they are so wonderfully brilliant. I'm mostly pleased with these samples because I can see that the kids have become excited about writing. I think that comes from their exposure to poetry, which we have not been good about including in our days until recently, and it comes from the excitement of us working on this together and sharing our thoughts. It's become more than just a subject to complete and move on from as soon as possible. It's truly something we're enjoying!
Earlier in the school year I posted this: Arcara Family: Maria's Spelling Assignment. It was a poem Maria wrote for a spelling assignment.
Here are two poems that Cati wrote recently:
Earlier in the school year I posted this: Arcara Family: Maria's Spelling Assignment. It was a poem Maria wrote for a spelling assignment.
Here are two poems that Cati wrote recently:
I Don't Like Grapes
Grapes are mushy and smushy,
Grapes are yucky and mucky,
Grapes are as green
As my sister's chair is clean.
This one was written after the kids watched men cut down our neighbor's tree this week:
They Cut Down a Tree
They cut down a tree
Faster than a bee
They snipped it
And clipped it
They ground it
And bound it
Then they drove away
And came back another day.
Our literature studies also include a few written literary analysis assignments. The kids' favorite story that we read together in the first couple of months of school was Rikki-Tikki-Tavi by Rudyard Kipling. It eventually led to an interesting debate on the theme of the story. Cati argued that it was a story about good vs. evil. Matteo said that he thought it was a story about good vs. good. They both decided to write about their positions:
Rikki-Tikki Tavi: Good vs. Evil (by Cati)
The story of Rikki-Tikki-Tavi has the theme of good vs. evil. The two horrifying, murderous snakes in the story named Nag and Nagaina are evil because in the story they can think! Nag tries to kill the humans so Rikki will leave. Nagaina tries to murder the little boy because the boy's father shot Nag.
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi also can think! Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, even though all mongeese eat snakes, protects the humans. Mongeese that can't think kill snakes to eat, not to protect humans!
In case you didn't get Cati's point, she's saying that you can consider the snakes evil and the mongoose good because they consciously chose their actions instead of just acting according to their natures, which is Matteo's reasoning in his analysis:
Rikki-Tikki Tavi: Good vs. Evil (by Matteo)
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi by Rudyard Kipling is a story about a mongoose named Rikki-Tikki-Tavi defeating two cobras named Nag and Nagaina. This is not a story about good verses evil. It is a story about good vs. good. The tall snakes are alright. They are just doing what snakes do even though Nagaina tries to kill the humans after they killed Nag. Rikki-Tikki-Tavi is good, too. He's just protecting the humans. Even though they are both good, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi and the snakes get in a lot of fights, but they are just doing what they do.
Again, these aren't brilliant writing samples, but you can see a bit of how our literature studies are giving the kids an opportunity to debate with each other and support their positions and then to express that in writing. They were so passionate about their points that they rather enjoyed writing these short essays.
NaNoWriMo has been a wonderful opportunity for the kids to take what they've learned about characters, setting, plot, conflicts, and themes and apply them. Hopefully, that will in turn make them even more aware of these elements in reading. And, that leads nicely into today's word count updates:
Maria - 4112 / 6000
Cati - 1461 / 5000
Matteo - 687 / 1000
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