Archive for the ‘English’ Category
FREE Reading Comprehension Worksheets
Check out these FREE Reading Comprehension worksheets from K12 Reader. They are wonderful! This site is a wealth of educational resources so have fun.
Another adVENTURE of FREE, fun learning 
Blessings,
Liz
FREE Sleeping Bear Press Teacher Guides
Recently I asked an author if she knew of any other authors who provided FREE activity pages to go with their books and she told me about Sleeping Bear Press so yesterday I looked them up. Wow! There are some truly great resources here. Yes, you do have to purchase the books if your library does not have them but due to the nature of most of their books the kids will learn a lot from each one and the books will grace your library for many years and be great reference tools.
Let’s support the authors and publishers that go the extra mile to provide additional resources to aid in the reading of their books.
As I research and find more I will let you know!
Another adVENTURE of FREE, fun learning
Liz
CVC Matching Puzzle Cards
Do you have a child who is just starting to learn to read? We do! Caleb (4) knows all his letters now and so it is time to go to the next step of learning the sounds and putting them together. Not sure about you, but it has been our experience that boys tend to be more lackadaisical when it comes to learning to read than girls. They simply do not want to make the effort it takes so when I found these CVC Puzzle Cards over at Mama’s Learning Corner I was very excited. By printing them out on bright colored paper they immediately strike interest.
What are CVC words? They are consonant, vowel, consonant words that are spelled our phonetically. For e.g C-A-T.
Yes, they take a little time to make if you laminate them like I did but I highly recommend doing this especially if you have younger children coming along behind. These will get used over and over again and once laminated should last for a LONG time. I always put mine through the laminator two times. three if not sealed. I cut out the words and put them through as a whole sheet of laminate first. Then I cut them out around the laminate, separate them and put each half through again. This way you are ensured that the laminate has sealed and so will be harder to peel.
Another adVENTURE of FREE, fun learning
Liz
Paddle to the Sea by Holling C. Holling
With my determination to study more novels this year still firmly intact we just finished the book Paddle to the Sea by Holling Clancy Holling (originally published in 1941). This is an adventure that starts north of Lake Superior on Lake Nipigon. An Indian boy crafts a canoe with an Indian sitting in it. On the bottom of the canoe he writes “Put me back in the water. I am Paddle-to-the Sea.”
The story follows the canoe’s adventures as it travels through the lakes. The book not only has full colored illustrations on the right hand page but also gray scale images on the left hand page which add a lot to the information being read about. At the end of the book there is a double page map showing Paddle’s journey which really lets you imagine the magnitude of the trip. Paddle-to-the-Sea gets stranded a few times but when people rescue him they always read the bottom. At one point Paddle gets a brand new paint job with a new ‘plate’ on the bottom along with fresh ballast. Each place he visits, whoever finds him adds that name to the plate. One winter he lives with a lady close to Montreal who keeps him safe until the St. Lawrence River unfreezes again in Spring.
Does he make it to the ocean? Yes, but I won’t tell you the ending as I don’t want to ruin it 🙂
This book is VERY educational as along the way you will learn about different animals, the shapes that the Great Lakes remind folks of, the amazing amount of industry that was up there not to mention the fascinating fact that although fresh water, the lakes are in some ways very much like the ocean with huge waves, beaches, lighthouses and ship wrecks. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for every family’s library.
Want to do a more in-depth study with your children? Julie, over at Butterflies and Barefoot Lasses created a a wonderful set of FREE printables to compliment this book. As you can see below there is quite a variety and we did not do them all! Using these printables you will cover history, science, geography, writing etc. We did the book in 8 days – reading and studying a few chapters each day but you could easily draw it out longer.
The only thing I switched out was the map. I wanted one with a little more detail so took a FREE one from FreeUsAndWorldMaps.com (scroll down the page to find the USA and Canada one) and cropped it to just have the north eastern US and Canada. Worked really well.
Your library will probably have this book but if not you can purchase it from Amazon or on Ebay.
Another adVENTURE of FREE, fun learning
Liz
Teach your child the story of the Erie Canal
Recently we have been studying the book, Paddle to the Sea, a true classic which I will share more about later in a separate post. Today, as Paddle had now made it to Lake Erie, I thought it would be perfect timing to study the building of the Erie Canal. I have to admit that the prompting to study the book The Amazing Impossible Erie Canal by Cheryl Harness was not my own but came from Lauren Hill over at Mama’s Learning Corner. Lauren studied this book with her children and created some FREE worksheets as well as sharing some wonderful You Tube links all of which you can find here. All I had to do was purchase the book as our library did not have it.
The kids learned a lot this morning about how canal locks work and also enjoyed the song in the back of the book sung by Bruce Springstein. (See Lauren’s page.) Did you know that the Erie Canal was the longest canal in the world at 363 miles and had 83 locks! Now we just have to make sure we visit a working lock on our travels somewhere. Can you see a canal boat trip in our future?
Happy studying,
Liz
FREE James and the Giant Peach Study Guide
It is no secret that we enjoy reading books by Roald Dahl in this house. However finding study guides that are suitable for our children can be hard so when I wanted them to study James and the Giant Peach earlier this year I decided to tackle the job of creating a study guide myself. It turned into a mammoth task but one that all enjoyed once finished. I am now sharing it with you in the hopes that you too can make good use of it.
As you will see, once you have downloaded the file, there is more than a study of James and the Giant Peach included. We also studied each of the characters, even taking a “trip” to New Zealand for the glowworm!
It is suitable for grades 1-5 but could easily be adapted for older children.
Another adVENTURE of FREE, fun learning
I look forward to hearing what you think.
Liz
Strawberry Worksheets and Cutting Practice for K-1st from Mama’s Learning Corner
I recently downloaded these FREE Strawberry Worksheets from Mama’s Learning Corner for Hannah and thought I would share them for you. They are bright and colorful, professionally done and with strawberry season just around the corner, a fun project for kids to complete.
- Strawberry Cutting Practice
- Strawberry Worksheets (Math, English etc)
Lauren (owner of Mama’s Learning Corner) reminded me of one of Caleb’s favorite books – Big Hungry Bear by Don and Audrey Wood. If you have never read this book of a mouse who is trying to keep a strawberry from a big hungry bear, you have missed out! Your library could well have a copy, if not I recommend purchasing one for your home library. As you can see, ours has been well loved!
Another adVENTURE of FREE, fun learning
Liz
FREE Study Guides for the Goldtown Adventure Series
I recently came across the Goldtown Adventure Series by Susan K. Marlow. They are set in 1864, just before the end of the Civil War and after the Pony Express came to an end. Although fictional there is a lot of real facts in them. Although written for boys, girls could also enjoy them. Suggested reading age is 8-12. The four books in the series are:
- Badge of Honor
- Tunnel of Gold
- Canyon of Danger
- River of Peril
All four books are available in paperback with the last two in the series out on Kindle.
Jem is a 12 year old boy whose father is the sheriff of Goldtown in California. Times are hard as Jem’s mother has died and so Aunt Rose and her son, Nathan, have come to live with the family. Jem has a younger sister, Ellianna.
Here’s the exciting part though! It was not until we had finished the first book that we learned that there were FREE Study Guides available for each book! They are EXTREMELY well done and very educational.
The truth is, that some FREE study guides are not worth the paper they are printed on but these are exceptional. You can also purchase Lapbooks for each book on Susan’s website but I decided against these as I think Daniel will learn just as much from the Study Guides.
Susan K. Marlow has written two series for girls, the younger one of which I plan on sharing with you tomorrow.
I am SO glad we do not follow a set curriculum as when such great gems as this unexpectedly come along we can take another track and set off on an unplanned learning curve which everyone is excited about! We are going to be studying the Pony Express after doing this but I will share that with you MUCH later 🙂
Happy learning,
Liz
FREE Raggedy Andy worksheets!
Here is the Raggedy Andy Notebook to go with the Raggedy Ann ones I shared with you a while back! Raggedy Andy is the friend of Raggedy Ann and they are excited to be reunited after over 50 years! SO yes, you will read a lot about Raggedy Ann in the Andy stories as well. Both sets of stories were created by author Johnny Gruelle. This book is another one that I consider a classic. You can download the book FREE from Gutenberg.
When wanting to study this book with Hannah (7), once again I could not find exactly what I was looking for so created my own. It has been tested and is now available for you 🙂 Each chapter has a corresponding narration page, questions page and a copy work page. Several coloring pages are also included. This time around I included the answers for the Question and Answer page at the end of the packet so it is all in one download 🙂
Hannah really enjoyed studying both books and you will often see her looking back over them. I put both the book and all her work in one folder so that she can keep it and easily reference it when she wants to. Narration skills I have been reading how important (and lacking in mainstream education today) narration skills are i.e. the ability to be able to tell back a story just read. When Hannah started this she was absolutely hopeless! However it only took her about about two stories to get the idea that she had to really listen in order to be able to tell the story back. A good and essential training for a child that finds it hard to sit still and concentrate.
Depending on your child’s abilities, this curriculum could be used for the older child. Instead of narrating to you and you writing it down, he/she could rewrite the story themselves.
Another adVENTURE of FREE, fun learning
Hope you enjoy,
Liz
Boys and Girls Worksheets
OOH! Activity Village have just brought out FREE personalized worksheets for hundreds of boys and girls names and they have not finished yet so if your child’s name is not there be patient and if you do not see it when you check back send them a polite email asking them if they would please consider including it.
Four pages are included:
- Finger Tracing
- Handwriting
- Personalized Stationary
- Personalized Notecards
FABULOUS resource for young children!
Another adVENTURE of FREE, fun learning
Liz
Recent Comments