As promised in yesterday's post, here is how we made our diorama. I had felt a little overwhelmed right from the start of this project and as I didn't want the children feeling the same I tried to break it down into manageable sections for them: First, we brainstormed all our ideas on the white…
Author: Claire
Literature Study – Dante’s Divine Comedy: Inferno
Dante is a risky piece of literature to study with 10 and 11 year olds. There is much in there which I should thoroughly disapprove of exposing them to at their tender age. And yet I have found myself drawn to the learning possibilities. In the Inferno, Dante wrote about his views on Hell, some think as…
Mr Men Maths: Making a Number Tool Box
What is a number tool box? It is basically a box I can grab that has a few tools inside to teach number skills. The number skills I want the little ones to learn are: Number recognition (B2) Counting (B2) Ordering Numbers (B2) Number bonds (A5) Writing numbers (B2 and A5) Making the Box 1) Collect the…
Informal Letter: Crusades Writing Activity
When I wrote about the writing activities I had set the children, a few of you expressed an interest in seeing some of the results. As I have already posted some of T11's work and C10's work, I thought I would post L10's writing this time. This particular assignment was to write an informal letter to…
European Geography: Resources
My goal this year is simply for the younger two to learn the continents and for the older children to learn the names and positions of all the countries in Europe. In addition, I will be doing a short lesson on how geography influenced the crusades. This is the first time I've had specific geographical goals for…
Mr Men School : Introduction
The family has had (yet another) nasty infection going around for the last couple of weeks and last week Gary succumbed with a sinus infection, and on Thursday B2 and I came down with some sort of weird throat infection. We're all on the mend now but didn't get round to our pond study on Friday on…
Picture Study: Botticelli’s Map of Hell
Source The parchment was completed by Botticelli between 1480 and 1490, using the technique of the silver tip and coloured pencils. This will be the first time we have ever studied anything coloured in with pencils! The Map of Hell is one of seven of Botticelli's parchments currently kept in the Vatican library in Rome. Although many artists have tried…
Preschool Adventure Box: I Am an Artist
This is the last book I am posting about for BFIAR. There are one or two in the series that I can't get hold of (Jenny's Surprise Summer, The Quiet Way Home and the Blue Boat) and one that I am not posting about because we all rowed it (including the older ones) and it seems a bit too…
Questions, anyone?
Over the past six months or so I have been receiving some lovely emails from people who read my blog, all asking the same question. Could I give a bit more information about how I home school? Some ask specific questions and some more general. I have found as I answer these questions that I am…
Helping a Struggling Maths Student: Quadrilaterals – Part Two
Discovery goals this week: Revise the quadrilaterals of last week Go over the nets of a cube ensuring each of the 11 nets are found Discover the formulae for the perimeter of all the quadrilaterals which are parallelograms and be able to explain why the formulae work Discover the formulae for the area of the quadrilaterals…
One Year Pond Study Week 31: Finding Autumn
Here is our pond this week: This week was all about the signs of Autumn. I love Autumn more than any other month of the year. I love the warm colours associated with it; I love our wood burning stove lighting up our 200-year-old living room each night whilst Gary and I are snuggled up watching NCIS…
Crusades: Pope Urban’s Speech – Part Two
For part one see here At the end of the week it was our plan to dress up and conduct our own Council at Clermont. Each of the children would have a chance to recite some of Urban's speech either verbatim or in their own words. The whole event would be full of propaganda, one…
Crusaders: Pope Urban’s Speech – Part One
Pope Urban II speech at Clermont, 1095, is arguably one of the most influential speeches of all times. It is the speech that fired up a whole nation to join together, even whilst parts of it were at war with each other, to fight against the perceived enemy of God, the Muslims; to fight for…
Writing Assignments this Term
Source This year I am wanting to teach a new writing skill to the children - that of being able to write persuasively. Given the amount of nagging the children would naturally do if we allowed them (we don't) you'd think they'd be experts! I designed four writing assignments attached to the crusades: To write a…
Helping a Struggling Maths Student: Investigating Quadrilaterals
Goals of this week's maths fun: To discover the shapes and names of all the quadrilaterals To be able to recognise each of them as plain mathematical shapes and as shapes in everyday life. To sort, classify and display their findings relating to a bag of quadrilaterals To discover and fully understand the terms 2D and 3D…