Good Books Copywork-no, now, man, ten

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Here is this week's installment of my Good Books Copywork.  The spelling/writing words for this week are 'no' 'now' 'man' and 'ten.'   In case it is your first time visiting, let me explain what these pages are... I am putting together copywork pages for each of the spelling words we are learning this year.  These sheets are a marriage of two resources, The Writing Road to Reading and the 1000 Good Books  list at Classical Christian Homeschooling.  The spelling words are taken in order from the Writing Road to Reading and I have paired each one with a sentence from one of the books on the 1000 Good Books list.

I thought today I'd take the time to mention (in response to a few questions I have received) that in The Writing Road to Reading these words are designed for 1st graders.  It says they can be used with kindergartners at a slower pace if needed.  They recommend doing about four words a day.  What I have made is designed for preschoolers, so it is taking it at a much slower pace.  My goal with my preschooler is to solidify phonics as well as letter formation.  These sheets have been working great for these goals.  Hopefully one day I post on how our entire reading/writing time goes so you can see how it all fits together.

In response to another question I received:  Each page says on it which book the sentence is taken from.  If you notice the fuzzy little writing at the bottom of the picture above, that's it!  When you download the pages you can read it clearly.  This way, if you'd like to read the book along with doing the copywork or even come up with any other fun learning activities to go with the book, you can make a whole lesson plan our of it (Five in a Row style)!

Previous weeks copywork packs:

• me, do, and, go
• at, on, a, it 
• is, she, can, see
• run, the, in, so 

This week's copywork pack:

• no, now, man, ten

If you teach your children with the Charlotte Mason or Classical Education styles, how do you do copywork and dictation?  What sentences/passages do you use with your children?  I'd love to know if those of you with older children still use it and if so, how it looks different than doing it with younger children.


Happy Writing!

Marshmallow Snowflakes

 To go along with our Melting Snow science activity last week, I thought it would be fun to make some marshmallow snowflakes!  The kids had a blast.  What could be more fun than an activity with marshmallows???

The process is really super simple.  All you need is a bag of big marshmallows, a bag of mini marshmallows, and some toothpicks.  At first I had Trevor follow my instructions and then just let him have at it to create whatever he wanted.  Here's his best effort at a snowflake....

Mackenzie LOVES anything fine motor.  She will sit and pour water between two cups for an hour, so I knew that she would enjoy poking marshmallows onto toothpicks =)  Trevor worked for a while on his snowflakes and then moved on to doing something with daddy, but Mackenzie stayed at the kitchen table for another half hour just poking marshmallows on each end of a toothpick and lining them up in rows!  Here is her best effort....

This was a fun, simple activity for kids of really any age!  Have you made any marshmallow creations with your little ones?  If not, give it a try!

Displayed on our mantle...

Happy Winter!

I link up to:

Science Activity - Melting Snow

This winter, in my neck of the woods, has been really odd this year.  Usually we are up to our eyeballs in snow, but this year we've only had a couple of minor snowfalls.  A few days ago it even got up to 55 degrees and we were able to take a bike ride to the park! In my lesson plan for this week I had down that I wanted to do a science activity about measuring how much water is in snow, and since there was still a little snow on the ground on Monday, we did it right then before it could melt!

Trevor is always super excited to do science activities, and this one was no different =)

First we scooped snow off of our balcony into a large pyrex bowl.  Here's Trevor trying not to get his toes cold!

Oh boy, I think this is going to take a while!

After we all took turns scooping, we got the bowl filled up!

Next we measured how much snow we collected (it was about 6c. even thought this picture makes it look like more...) Then we reviewed what snow is made of and how we could make the snow turn back into water.  I figured that we could just leave the snow sit for a while, but Trevor mentioned using the microwave, so that's what we did!  It was a nice option because he was able to watch it melt from snow to water right before his eyes!

Here is what we were left with!  I asked Trevor to look and wee how much water we got and this is what he did...Oh, little boys =)

The 6c. of snow yielded about 1c. of water.  To make sure that I got the story right, I found a website that did the same experiment and they had a great explanation of why snow takes up more room than water.  From HomeTrainingTools ...

Snow is made when water freezes in the form of ice crystals that we call snowflakes. The pointed star-like shape of a snowflake causes its points to stick out far from its body, allowing the snowflake to take up a lot of room. (If you stick your arms straight out from your body, something similar would happen with you! Your arms cause your body to take up more space and you may find yourself bumping into walls or having a hard time making your way down a hallway with your arms sticking straight out.) When lots of snowflakes pile up, their points keep them from getting very close together, creating empty space in between the snowflakes. When the snow melts into water, the snowflakes no longer have their points, and the space between them disappears. (If you put your arms down next to your body, you are no longer taking up so much space and can get much closer to other people and things.) So the melted snow takes up less space as water than it did as snowflakes.

What a great explanation!  To help them understand, I had Trevor and Mackenzie pretend to be snowflakes and stand with their arms out and I asked them to stand as close as they could.  They saw that they could only get so close before their arms ran into each other.  Then they 'melted' into water by putting their arms down, and now they could stand right next to each other, taking up far less room!  I'm sure they didn't really get the correlation between this and the snow, but it was fun to do =)

Have you gotten as much snow as usual for your area?  What fun learning activities have you done in the snow with your kids?

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 Would you like to have an activity sheet and printable instructions for this and 9 other science activities for preschoolers?

Get my Preschool Science (& Nature) printable pack for free!

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 Looking for more preschool information?  Click on the picture below to find a list of all the preschool posts here at Living and Learning at Home, plus some of my favorite preschool resources!

January Recap

It's a new year and I thought I'd start doing something new.  Each month I plan on doing a little recap by thanking the top three sites that referred visitors to Living and Learning at Home, highlighting the three most popular posts of the month (in case you missed one!), and sharing a post from another website that either encouraged or inspired me in some way.  I hope you enjoy!

Top 3 Refering Sites:

1. Homeschool Creations (Preschool Corner Link-Up)
2. Preschool Powol Packets (Teach Me Tuesday Link-Up)
3. No Time For Flashcards (Link & Learn)

Each of these blogs has a great link-up party each week where bloggers from all over share great ideas.  If you're not familiar with one of them, check it out!  I am sure you will leave inspired =)


Top 3 Posts here at Living and Learning at Home:

1. Paper Hats and Cute Corner Bookmarks
2. Valentine's Wreath For The Birds
3. Science Activity: Frozen Fruit

 If you happened to miss any of these posts, take a minute to check them out!  I hope you won't be disappointed =)


Featured Blog Post:

Now for a post that encouraged me this month, I encourage you to head over to Lizzy's Nest and read her article The "Me Time" Lie.  As homeschooling moms (and really any mom!) by definition we don't naturally get very much "me time."  I was greatly encouraged my Lizzy's perspective on this and hope that you will be too!

I hope you had a.....Happy January!

Lesson Plan : Week 13

MV - Memory Verse    CT - Character Trait    FP - Forest People    To see our resources click here

Posts Detailing Activities From This Week:

• How Much Water is in Snow?
• Marshmallow Snowflakes
• What's That Smell?
• Good Books Copywork - no, now, man, ten

It's so nice to be back on schedule this week after our sick week last week!  If you look closely, you'll notice something different on Friday for math.  Last week one of our facebook followers shared with us her website, FUNancial Literacy, which is a site dedicated to teaching children to be responsible with money.  I checked out the site and it looks great!  They are still working on putting it all together, but one thing that is ready (and free!) is a short story with coloring pages geared for the youngest of children.  The story is called Saving Salvatore and is about a squirrel and what he does with his acorns.  The message is simple, but clear and profound, seemingly perfect for the preschool crowd =)   I'm excited to give it a try with my kids!  We already practice the principles that this website teaches, but I think my 3 yr old will be able to really understand the cute story of Saving Salvatore and my 1 yr old will love coloring the pictures!

What are you doing this week with your children?