The Poetry of William Blake

William Blake

1757-1827

source Wikipedia

William Blake was a British poet, artist, and print maker. Many of his time considered him to be crazy and much of his work ,both poetry and art work, we are not studying. However, there are several pieces of this poetry that we highly enjoy.

There is a children's book called A Visit to William Blake's Inn: Poems for Innocent and Experienced Travelers that we enjoy.

Some of our favorites are:
The Lamb
The Little Boy Lost & only because of The Little Boy Found
The Tyger
A Cradle Song

Here is...
The Lamb

Little lamb, who made thee?
 Dost thou know who made thee,
 Gave thee life, and bid thee feed
 By the stream and o'er the mead;
 Gave thee clothing of delight,
 Softest clothing, woolly, bright;
 Gave thee such a tender voice,
 Making all the vales rejoice?
 Little lamb, who made thee?
 Dost thou know who made thee?

Little lamb, I'll tell thee;
 Little lamb, I'll tell thee:
 He is called by thy name,
 For He calls Himself a Lamb.
 He is meek, and He is mild,
 He became a little child.
 I a child, and thou a lamb,
 We are called by His name.
 Little lamb, God bless thee!
 Little lamb, God bless thee!
Ceesa memorized this when she was 7 and recited it for our church's Christmas Eve Candle Lighting service.

Resources
Ambleside Online

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The Poetry of Robert Frost

Robert Frost

1874-1963

source Wikipedia

"A poem…begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness. It is a reaching-out toward expression; an effort to find fulfillment. A complete poem is one where an emotion finds the thought and the thought finds the words." ~ R.F. Letter to Louis Untermeyer

Robert Frost was an American poet. He received four Pulitzer Prizes and the Congressional Gold Medal. Frost is most known for his poetry of rural New England, in which he infuses poignant life lessons. 

He was born in California, later moving to Massachusetts. Once married, he farmed (where he wrote many of his most notable poems). When farming was not a success, he moved to Great Britain where he was published. 

He spent most of his time writing and teaching at schools and colleges. He never received a degree, but attended both Dartmouth and Harvard.

Wikipedia

Our resources:
Ambleside Online Collection of resources and poems
Questions for Frost Poems
The Figure a Poem Makes

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Our New School Year

Today is our first day of school and Li's first year of preschool. Are you wondering what we will be doing this year?

Let's see...

Our schedule looks like this for 4 days a week:

10:00-11:00   

• Family Time: Prayer, Hymn, and Memory Verse
• Breakfast
• Spanish & Composer

11:00-12:30 

• Girls will work on Bible reading, Independent Reading, Copywork, Math, Poetry & Recitation, Narrations, Latin, Grammar, Writing, Oral Speeches, Typing, Book of Centuries & Mapping. 
• I will pull them separately to read aloud to Jo-Jo and read Plutarch and Shakespeare with Ceesa.
• Li will have time to listen to a Story, Poetry & Songs, do Math & Copywork and lots of play like: 
• ~Rhythmic: knit, sew, weave, dance, puzzles
• ~Creative: clay, paint, draw, build, sand, water, mold, chalk, wax sticks
• ~archetypes: wood/peg toys, dress up, puppets

12:30-1:00 

• Go Outside

1:00-3:00

• Prep for Lunch, eat and Clean Up
• Folk Song
• Artist
• Rest

3:00-4:30

• Choose from Projects, Handicraft, Art, Experiments, or Nature Study 
• Piano
• Exercises

4:30-bedtime 

• Any or all of these: Outside, Stories, Strategy Games, Computer, Masterly Inactivity, Living Skills, Garden, Volunteer Work, and Family Chores

On the 5th day we plan our Joyful Moment for the week & we focus on:

• Family Time
• reading
• writing
• math

So here's what we're planning...

Big year long projects:

• Jo-Jo -Fables, Dragon Legends/Knights, Saint/Heroes, & Native American Tales/ Coyote; 
• Ceesa-North American Stories & Geography, Ancient Civilizations: India, Persia, Egypt, China, Greek & Roman

Reading Lists: Literature, poetry, history, geography, & science

• Year 6 
• Year 3

Composer Study

• Hildegard von Bingen
• Stephen Simon
• Sergei Rachmaninoff

Artist Study

• Fra Angelico
• Diego Velazquez
• Edgar Degas

Folk Songs

• Billy Boy, Billy Boy
• Cherry Ripe
• Pick a Bale of Cotton

Shakespeare

• Hamlet Prince of Denmark
• Midsummer Nights Dream 
• Richard II

Plutarch

• Crassus
• Timoleon
• Aemilius Paulus

Handicrafts

• Cross Stitch
• Knitting: purling & reg.
• Woodwork

Hymns
Just As I Am, Lift High the Cross, Jesus Paid it All, O Holy Night, I Am Thine, O Lord, Fairest Lord Jesus, Lord of all Hopefulness, Come Ye Thankful People come, and Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken

Grammar
Fix it! Grammar Robin Hood: Book 2

Art
Form Drawing, Modeling, Paper: Collage/mosaic,gift making, card making,Chalk pastels, Watercolor: Wet-on-Wet, Egg Dying, Sketching, and Oil pastel.


Nature Study
Butterflies, Bee, Conifer Tree, Weather, Chicken, Cow, Red bud Trees, Algae and Poppies/plant parts.

Math
Math Mammoth Grades 3 & 5

Spelling and Copywork
Spelling You See Levels C, D, and E

Latin
Latina Christiana

Piano
HomeSchoolPiano

Spanish 
Salsa
Reading with parallel books for oral and written translation
Bible with parallel

Li and I will work on these things:

READ ALOUDS

Series:

Alfie Series by Shirley Hughes

Angus Stories

Little Pear, Little Pear and Friends, Little Pear and The Rabbits

Billy and Blaze Series

Winnie-the-Pooh

Beatrix Potter

Brer Rabbit

Poetry & Nursery Rhymes

Poems and Prayers for the Very Young

A Child’s Book of Poems

Collections:

The World’s Treasury of Children’s Literature 3 Volume anthology

My Book House Book by Olive Beaupre Miller (12 volumes)

Fairy Tales

Goldilocks and three Bears     Little Red Hen                                    Enormous Carrot

3 Little Pigs                             3 Billy Goats Gruff                 Chicken Little

The Boy Who Called Wolf     The Gingerbread Man             Jack and the Beanstalk

Books:

Andy and the Lion                 One Morning in Maine                        Roxenboxen

Down, Down the Nature        All the Places to Love                         Down in the Meadow

Yonder                                                Ox Cart Man                                       Hiawatha

Owl Babies                             Make Way for Ducklings                    The Story of Ping

Joseph’s Overcoat                   I love you the Purplist                         Rainbabies

With you all the way

READING

Level A

CAP

Starfall

STORYTELLING/WRITING

Listen to Stories told orally

Tell stories orally

Draw pictures of stories

Label the stories

Make a sentence to go along with the story

COPYWORK

25 rainbow words

Name letters

Label items and work on writing in a real context

Letters in name & Name puzzle

Letters in ABC order

Match upper and lower case

Form Art, Write letters & numbers

Sound/letter matching

COMMUNICATION/RECITATION

Tongue twisters and rhyme

Narrate events, books, day, etc

Use who, what, where, when, why and how

Use proper grammar and complete descriptions

Listens to others, takes turns talking and speaks about the topic or text being discussed

Respond appropriately & Solve social conflicts through negotiation

Recognize consequences to actions

Focus even when frustrated & use creative and flexible thinking to solve problems.

MATH

Critical Thinking Math Books: Compare shapes, in different sizes and orientations

Count to 20

Identify and name numerals 1-9: dot to dot, spinner games, dice

Identify without counting small quantities of up to 3 items.

Demonstrate one-to-one correspondence when counting objects up to 10: dominoes, beans

Understand that the last number spoken tells the number of objects counted.

Make equal sets and sets of 1 more/1 less up to 10.

Solve simple addition and subtraction problems up to 8 with manipulative and story problems

Group and regroup: Sort and classify objects by one or more attributes (e.g., size, shape).

Recognize, duplicate, extend, create patterns: color, shape, size, sound, and motion

Describe and compare objects using length, size, capacity and weight

Order objects by biggest to smallest

Measure length and volume using non-standard or standard measurement tools: hand tracings

Collect data by categories to answer simple questions

Position: in/on/under,up/down,inside/outside,above/below,beside/between,infront/behind,next to

Create shapes during play by building, drawing & Combine simple shapes to form larger shapes

Describe, compare, sort, classify, and order.

Record observations using words, pictures, charts, graphs, etc. (Graphing: small, medium, large)

Days of the week & Months of the year

Build trains with rods: longer and shorter and Build stairs

EXTRAS

Weather                                   Mapping-represent places                   Cutting pages

Basic Needs                            Life cycles                                           babies to adult animals

Body parts                              Nutrition                                             Exercise

Safety rules                             Emergency routines

Wishing you homeschool blessings,


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A poem from Jo-Jo

Wake up!

It's day.

Play, Play, Play.

Go to bed,

Go to sleep.

Dream of fuzzy

Sheep, Sheep, Sheep.

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on April

The tulips now are pushing up

Like small green knuckles through the ground.

The grass is young and doubtful yet.

The robin takes a look around.

And if you listen you can hear

Spring laughing with a windy sound.

~Eunice Tietjens

from The Year Around: Poems for Children

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The Beauty of Poetry

Poetry is a story told in the most beautiful language.

We read a lot of poetry, at least one piece every day. Sometimes we listen and then explain a poem. Sometimes we draw a picture of the poem. Other times we work on memorizing a poem or a portion of it for a recitation.

Learning poetry can give children a feel for language, for rhythm, for using precisly the right words, for getting to the heart of something, and for creating beautiful pictures that deepen their imagination and creativitiy.

Writing poetry gives kids the oppurtunity to really notice something, to consider its sounds, colors, shapes, actions, scents, and so much detail.

Have you read a poem today?

Poetry is..."the best words in the best order." ~Samuel Taylor Coleridge...

"To read a poem is to hear it with our eyes; to hear it is to see it with our ears." ~Octavio Paz...

"Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words." ~Robert Frost...

"Poetry...should strike the readers as a working of his own highest thoughts, and appear almost as a remembrance." ~ John Keats

Wishing you homeschool blessings,

Exam Week Fun

Three times a year we have exams.

The kids haven't always looked forward to exam week.

But we've thought of a way to make it enjoyable.

This week is our second exam week of the year.

And we've taken exams, but we've had a lot of fun too!

We've...

baked animal crackers and learned the poem,

Animal Crackers

by Christopher Morley

Animal crackers and cocoa to drink,

That is the finest of suppers I think;
When I'm grown up and can have what I please
I think I shall always insist upon these.
What do YOU choose when you're offered a treat?
When Mother says, "What would you like best to eat?"
Is it waffles and syrup, or cinnamon toast?
It's cocoa and animals that I love most!

The kitchen's the cosiest place that I know;

The kettle is singing, the stove is aglow,
And there in the twilight, how jolly to see
The cocoa and animals waiting for me.

Daddy and Mother dine later in state,

With Mary to cook for them, Susan to wait;
But they don't have nearly as much fun as I
Who eat in the kitchen with Nurse standing by;
And Daddy once said, he would like to be me
Having cocoa and animals once more for tea.

 

played games and drank hot chocolate,

taken pictures,

made a web,

watched the horses,

tried out a glider experiement for Barbie, and

watched movies.

No complaints about exams this week! :)

Wishing you homeschool blessings,

Bethany