Drawing Activities | The Unofficial Homeschooler

Analyzing Stories Together + a FREEBIE

Posted by Jane on May 30, 2012 3 Comments

When I was a “real” teacher I would do chapter work with my students to help them really soak up the nuances in stories. As a mom I try to do the same thing. We’re nearing the end of our family’s current chapter book, The Twenty-One Balloons, and discussing the details has really helped our kids to think about the characters and setting; it has also aided them in making some educated predictions.

Today I’m offering a FREE DOWNLOADABLE for you to print off and use together.
Print a copy for each of your chapters and keep them in a binder, or use them only when you know you’ll be tackling some confusing text.
Encourage your kids to draw with detail and use their best spelling.
Have fun together and please pass this worksheet on to another mom!
Click and drag the image below to your desktop OR click this .pdf file.

How do you work with story details with your family?

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Filed Under: Comprehension Strategies, Discussion Ideas, Drawing Activities, Teaching Reading | Tagged: Tagged With: FREE chart, free download, reading comprehension, Reading worksheets

Exploring Setting

Posted by Jane on May 10, 2012 3 Comments

For reasons which I shall not divulge, this week the kids and I spent an *entire* day together away from school, reading and doing things that usually stay on my “if only” list.

I highly recommend it; the list came to life, and it was glorious.

One of the things we did was some work on our current family read-aloud, The Twenty-One Balloons
I’ve loved the creativity and imagination of this book since I first taught it to my elementary class so many years ago. Opening the pages to my own children this spring has been a special treat.

For those of you unfamiliar with this Newbery Winner, the main character, William Waterman Sherman, attempts to fly around the world in a hot air balloon but ends up on the island of Krakatoa. Krakatoa is a real island between the Java Sea and the Indian Ocean, and is actually the volcano that the book purports it to be. After “the world’s biggest volcanic eruption” in 1883, diamonds were found on the island and the money they brought transformed the lives of the island’s inhabitants.

This income allowed the islanders to build creative homes with secret entryways and trap doors, convertible roofs and chairs that could travel the house and automatically deliver you to your desired destination. I can’t wait to see my childrens’ faces light up when they imagine these homes!

But before we moved on, I thought this book offered the perfect moment to study the setting of the book. Why not try it with the next book you read together? Whether you’re reading about central Minnesota through the eyes of Laura Ingalls Wilder or Texas through the pages of Old Yeller, taking a look at setting will enrich your reading.

poster in progress...

A few tips:

Get out your largest world or U.S. map (or head to Barnes & Noble to buy one!)
Spend time locating the region mentioned in the book. Settings are generally unveiled right away, so this is a great way to get kids hooked on your story in the first chapter.
Use Wikipedia or another resource to read more about the area if it’s unfamiliar to you (as Krakatoa was to us)
Have your kids draw their own map, including surrounding areas for reference. Make sure to label bodies of water.
Ask each child to write down 3 facts about this location. These may include weather/climate trends, natural resources, or famous landmarks. At the very least, have your kids make statements of geographical reference (i.e., “This island is south of China.”).
Teach your children how to use Google Earth to locate your book’s setting. When we found Krakatoa we got to see real photos which our kids loved! We then zoomed above our own home and down to Rockafeller Center in NYC. So fun!
Make predictions about how the landscape might play into the story. Sometimes, as in western expansion stories, the setting is nearly a character in the plotline.
Actually travel to the book’s location! An expensive venture, but one they’ll never forget! One of the reasons I still love the West so much!
Create a “visitor’s guide” for this location! Even if you can’t really go, your kids can guide you on a “virtual” adventure! Use Keynote for a digital guide, Pages or Publisher for the graphic kid, or your video camera for the budding newscaster!

How have you explored setting with your kids? Have you ever traveled to a book’s setting as a family?

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Filed Under: Drawing Activities, Imagination, Read-Aloud Books, Teaching Geography, Teaching Literary/English Terms | Tagged: Tagged With: Laura Ingalls Wilder, Newbery Award Winners, Old Yeller, setting, The Twenty-One Balloons

A Shell Craft

Posted by Jane on October 4, 2011 6 Comments

After months of hibernation, the shells we harvested from the ocean’s shore last spring have been given a new life.

I read about this craft over on April’s blog some time ago and finally sat down with my daughter to create something cute for her newly-painted bedroom walls. Before you get started you’ll want to have these things on hand:

a shadow box of your choosing
fabric to cover the store’s shadow box background, if desired [we matched ours to my daughter's desk chair fabric...so cute!]
fabric glue
shells galore!

We started by sorting our many, many…many shells into piles that would fit the size of the shadow box we had purchased. Several were too large and many others had cracked; these were set aside or discarded. Shells that won our approval were arranged in a sample shape to test for size and space. Like April’s blog demonstrated with an “M”, we determined to make an “A” for my daughter’s name.

After laying each shell in place to test for fit and beauty, we glued them down and allowed them to dry thoroughly. I added the sand dollar just because it was so pretty. Let yourself give in to the creative flow of art and beauty for beauty’s sake. Practicality is an unwelcome guest during craft time!

Enjoy an afternoon with your daughter and allow her to express herself with shells, beads, buttons, dried flowers, or other whirly-do’s that best represent her aesthetic. Hang it up and enjoy the memories it evokes.

I can nearly hear the steady crash of the surf, even now.

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Filed Under: Drawing Activities, Enjoying Nature, Having fun with your kids, Imagination, Teaching Art, Time with Mom, Time with your Daughter, Uncategorized | Tagged: Tagged With: crafts, ocean, shell crafts, shells, time with mom, time with your daughter

Back-To-School Pennants

Posted by Jane on September 6, 2011 2 Comments

Several days ago as I was browsing through my Twitter account, I happened upon a link to this article about a teacher using pennants to inspire his students to set goals for themselves.

Brilliant!

Since I like to inspire my own kids as an Unofficial Homeschooler, this project was right up my alley and, I thought, a perfect way to welcome the start of another school year.

We changed things slightly, but overall used the same concept with our kids. Here are a the steps:

1. Cut out a pennant-shape from a large piece of paper. [HINT: I folded each piece of paper first so that the kids could easily achieve this].

2. After cutting out our pennants, I gave a little teaching on their meaning, symbolism, and the role pennants have played in sports. Then, I translated this to each child working on his own success; achieving his own goals; finding victory on his own terms.

3. Each child [and parent] was then asked to write his/her name on the pennant, leaving space on the top and bottom border areas for “something else.”

4. After names were penciled in and colored, we were on to the meaty stuff meant for those reserved border spaces: GOALS. I asked the kids to think of a learning/school goal [or for mom and dad, a work goal], and also a personal goal of something they’d like to achieve by springtime.

They wrote one goal on the top, and one on the bottom. [I'm keeping my kids' stuff private, but here's one of my goals]…

5. Talk.

Share your goals.

Encourage one another.

BE THE LOUDEST CHEERLEADERS IN THE CROWD.

6. Hang them up somewhere special, but also somewhere that doesn’t display information that’s intended to be kept private. We put things like this in our laundry room, but a child’s bedroom would be perfect, too.

Making back-to-school pennants was a wonderful way for our family to focus on a couple of goals, be supportive of each other, and celebrate the fact that while God has made us each individuals, we are above all, a team.

Q4U: What did you do to usher in a new school year? Homeschooling moms, have you begun your studies yet?

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Filed Under: Back-To-School, Character Training, Discussion Ideas, Drawing Activities, Family Night, goal-setting, Having fun with your kids | Tagged:

Doodle While You Wait

Posted by Jane on August 26, 2011 Leave a Comment

Have you ever found yourself “taking notes” during a meeting and instead mindlessly filled the margins of your page with doodles? Personally, my best artwork is birthed during those long calls to the cable company when I’m placed on hold and asked to press “7″ if I think my TV might blow up.

I’m kidding. About the blowing up, that is.

Still, doodling is a fun pass time and a great way to express yourself creatively. That’s why I love this book by Deborah Zemke,Doodle At Lunch: 36 Tear-Off Placemats. Laid out in A-B-C fashion, Zemke offers doodle starters for each letter of the alphabet, and incorporates the letter into the artwork itself! It’s genius!

For example, “M” offers a handful of steps that lead the artist toward a completed doodle of a mouse. The first pencil stroke is to draw an “m”. Guess what part of the mouse that becomes? His ears! “T” helps the doodler draw a T-Rex. The first steps of that picture are a series of very tiny capital “T’s” which go on to form the teeth of the dino. It’s incredibly creative and absolutely attainable for elementary-aged children.

The wonderful culmination of all the doodling and coloring is that your child has created his or her own placemat! The drawings take only a handful of minutes, but my kids were so hooked they each did three while they ate. They’re now taped on our slider window on display.

I can’t wait to sneak a few of these into a restaurant the next time we go out. What an easy way to keep hungry kids at bay and help them to be patient during a long wait.

Bring a pencil and crayons…and pass the bread basket. Your kids will love this book!

What creative things have you been doing during lunchtime?

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Filed Under: Creativitiy, Dinner Activities, Drawing Activities, Kids in the Kitchen | Tagged: Tagged With: Deborah Zemke, Doodles at Lunch: 36 Tear-off Placemats, doodling, drawing, patience, teaching art, teaching drawing, teaching patience at dinner

Onomonopia + Fireworks

Posted by Jane on July 5, 2011 1 Comment

photo: mlive.com

Last night as we sat nestled snuggly in the tender grass of July, my mind wandered back here, wondering how fireworks could be brought into our home “classroom.” The first thing that came to me was a simple onomonopia lesson: introduce this silly-sounding term to your children as the name given to words that are spelled how they sound. For instance: crack, snap, zoom.

So while you’re preparing dinner tonight:

give each kid a blank piece of paper and crayons
invite them to draw the fireworks they saw last night
talk about onomonopia and offer several examples
have your little ones write down 3 words that they think best describe the sounds they remember from Fourth of July fireworks

Send your pretty artwork to the kids you’re sponsoring through World Vision or Compassion International! Fold up something lovely from your world and send it into theirs.

How did you celebrate the Fourth? Did your kids enjoy the fireworks?

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Filed Under: Dinner Activities, Drawing Activities, Kids in the Kitchen, Teaching Letters & Numbers, Teaching Literary/English Terms, Teaching Reading | Tagged: Tagged With: Compassion International, Fireworks, Fourth of July, onomonopia lesson idea, World Vision

Art & Design

Posted by Jane on June 15, 2011 Leave a Comment

Our kids love watching the professionals on HGTV work their magic. Our daughter, in particular, is a mini “Dear Genevieve” in the making. She observes the details, takes notes on color choices, asks about words like “texture” and “contrast,” and can’t wait to see the big reveal. Now that we’re discussing moving her into another room of our home, her imagination is in fourth gear, revving up to create something special—something she helps design.

To play into these natural bents, I tooled over to our friendly dollar store a few weeks ago and bought a few foam display boards. Similar to traditional poster board, the foam version offers a bit more stability for presentation. This is especially important if you’re pretending to be Genevieve and needing to present your “vision” to eager clients.

My mom used to work somewhere that frequently tossed old fabric samples, so we employed a pile of those along with a handful of paint chips to begin to help create a “dream home.” This was an ideal time for me to sacrifice lust-inducing catalogs to something more worthy than my drooled longing. I had the kids cut out photos of things they wanted in “their” homes and then assigned colors and fabrics to the concept.

They had a blast! Even my little one [who's comprehension of color expands only to recognizing his favorite shirt] had a ball! This is a great rainy day activity; even if you don’t draw in curricular benchmarks, their little brains will love creating!

If you try this at home, I’d love to see your photos! Write a post about your experience and then link to me!

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Filed Under: Creativitiy, Drawing Activities, Imagination, Teaching Art, Uncategorized | Tagged:

Homemade Pictionary

Posted by Jane on May 30, 2011 Leave a Comment

With the onset of a pseudo-spring, I’ll admit that we haven’t been all that disciplined to maintain our family tradition of Sunday night “Family Game Nights.” This evening, for instance, our kids had the opportunity to play with some friends they don’t often see, and after a day of stormy weather their dad and I were more than happy to unleash them into the wild expanse of the neighborhood.

However, our typical Sunday nights consist of ordering pizza and playing games together. We have a few favorites which I’ll no doubt tell you all about in a future post, but last week’s newbie was an unexpected hit that I think may be worth sharing.

With their dad gone, I set out to accomplish “Super Fun Mom Night,” a friendly inter-spousal competition we wage to see who can out-do each other having fun and scoring points with the kids in the other’s untimely absence. I don’t know that this should be encouraged in all marriages, but it works for us and the kids get charged up just wondering what kind of adventures we have in store for them. [My husband generally wins, FYI].

So this night was no exception. Pizza? Check. Game? … enter Homemade Pictionary. Here’s how you can do it at home:

Decide your teams. Consider ability level as well as number of individuals per team.
Gather up scrap paper to write your clues on.
Decide how many clues you want to create; we landed on 5 per team as I wanted to keep things from going too long. Certainly older kids would need more clues.
Teams should separate for secrecy while writing clues.
Think of a thing or an action that can be written on each piece of paper. For example, some of the ones that we used were: tattoo, changing a tire, spa [that was tricky! from my 9 y.o!].
Fold the clues and put each team’s in a basket, keeping teams separate.
Trade baskets so you’re working with clues made by the other team.
Get out paper, pencils, and a timer [we gave each person drawing 2 minutes].
The person drawing the paper must have another team member guess. No correct guesses in the allotted time is a forfeit; correct answers = 1 pt.
Keep score if you want to foster healthy competition, or skip it and play for fun!