Posted in Copywork
For school, Matt has to write a book that contains 100 words that he can read. As if the book report a day and weekly 6 pages aren't enough, his teacher adds this huge project. Not to mention it is due on Wednesday. So, Matt and I went about writing a story. The paper that the teacher sent didn't say it had to be 100 different words, just 100 words. I wrote the story, following what Matt wanted, and he wrote the sentences out and colored pictures to go with it.
So, I figured, seeing how I think the pictures are adorable, I would post the story here. So without further ado, here is The Adventures of Matt ~part 1~
Posted in Copywork
I have always had my kids do some sort of copywork throughout the year. Mostly it is poetry added into their poetry notebook, but this year I want to try to make it more fun and pretty to look at.
Like the post before this one, I would like to have Chantelle illustrate her daily copywork passages. She loves to draw and I am always having a hard time trying to figure out how to add art into her daily studies.
So for now, I have created a cover to her copywork notebook (3 ring binder with plastic sheets in it).
I have downloaded plenty of notebooking pages from Notebooking Pages and Notebooking Nook to use in both our copywork and nature study notebooks.
I plan on following this schedule for assigning the daily copywork:
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Monday ~ Poetry
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Tuesday ~ History
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Wednesday ~ Nature
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Thursday ~ Shakespeare
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Friday ~ Quotes
Posted in Copywork
Copywork – What’s it All About?
by Betsy Stout at Notebooking Nook
Copywork is exactly what it sounds like... copying! Your child will spend a few minutes each day copying great pieces of work from a wide variety of sources – literature, poetry, scripture, fables, quotes, and so on. While your child is copying these great works, emphasize the importance of using their very best penmanship and making their copy as close to the original as possible. By using this method, your child will see the proper way to punctuate, usage of different parts of speech, as well as capitalization. Basically, they will see how a great piece of literature should look and be written.
Copywork will allow your child to see different writing styles and structure, which in turn, if consistent, will help them become better writers. If your child can manage it, have them look and write the whole word instead of letter by letter, this will assist them in becoming better spellers. My younger children who started out doing copywork from the start are much better writers and spellers. They don't seem to have to work so hard at spelling. My older children who began copywork later struggled a bit more. That’s not to say copywork was a for sure cure for spelling, however, I do believe it helped a lot.
If your child is very young, you can start with the formation of their letters. Spend only as much time as your child can handle doing this. Once this is mastered you will move on to words, sentences, verses and poems. I’ve designed some primary copywork sets that work nicely for practice.
Allow them to illustrate their pages or find pages that are made for copywork practice. Placing these pages in a notebook is a great way to store their work. This allows them to not only be able to show off their beautiful penmanship to grandparents and friends, but also allows both you and your child to see their progression. My kids often like to illustrate or color a picture that goes along with their copywork for the day. Some children enjoy illustrating their own pictures while others enjoy coloring pictures already provided for them. Copywork notebooks allow your child to add any illustration, making them very personal.
Over the years I've done different things to get my children motivated about doing their copywork – I used to keep separate jars with scripture verses, quotes, and poems and they would pull them out and that was their copywork for the day. We still alternate days doing a verse, quote, poem, literature and their choice for each day of the week. However, some selections take more than one day to complete. One bookshelf in my schoolroom is dedicated to keeping books of poetry, fables, quotes and so forth. I also keep a notebook where I continually add verses, poems and quotes to be used for copywork.
In short, if you choose to use this method, you will find that your child will become better at spelling, writing, grammar and penmanship. It is so simple to implement, there really is no reason to not give it a try!
Posted in Copywork
Here is some fitting copywork to go along with my previous post.
School is Over
- Kate Greenaway
School is over,
Oh, what fun!
Lessons finished,
Play begun.
Who’ll run fastest,
You or I?
Who’ll laugh loudest?
Let us try.
Posted in Copywork
Little Robin Redbreast
sat upon a tree,
Up went Pussycat and
down went he;
Down came Pussycat
and away Robin ran;
Says little Robin Redbreast:
“Catch me if you can!”
Little Robin Redbreast
jumped upon a wall;
Pussycat jumped after him,
and almost had a fall.
Little Robin chirped and sang,
and what did Pussy say?
Pussycat said “Mew” and
Robin jumped away.
Posted in Copywork
To go along with out Woodpecker studies, I found this poem by Elizabeth Madox Roberts that we are using for copywork with both kids. Along with the poem, I found other printables that go along with this poem.
Woodpecker
Elizabeth Madox Roberts
The woodpecker pecked out
A little round hole
And made him a house
In a telephone pole.
One day when I watched
He poked out his head
And had on a hood
And a collar of red.
When streams of rain
Poured out of the sky,
And sparkles of lightning
Go flashing by.
And the big, big wheels
Of thunder roll,
He can snuggle back in
The telephone pole.
Posted in Copywork
Well, I have finished writing up my first copywork book for Chantelle to use this year. It is full of quotes and poems from the Revolutionary War period. Some passages are long, like Paul Revere's Ride, and others are one line. The longer ones I have divided up to take her a few days to copy so that she doesn't get hand cramps or tired and frustrated. I didn't add any lined paper to the book, she has a separate notebook for her copywork and dictations. I also added pictures of either the author or of what the quote/poem was about. I'm happy with it and it is so nice to not hear Chantelle moan about copywork anymore. Here are some pictures of the cover and a page inside.
Posted in Copywork
I have decided to write my own copywork book for my kids. After much gleening from Cindy Rushton's "Homesmade Books! Yes! You can be a writer too!" , I have decided to take all these short poems, scriptures and quotes that I have been collecting and put them into a book of sorts for my kids. I need to go to Staples and see how much they charge for a spiral bound book. I want it to lay flat.
So far Chantelle has been taking a paragraph from one of her readings to do her copywork daily. But she finds this boring and wants a change. So hopefully she will like what I have started to do. Matt only does about one word a day, not including his name, which he loves to write.
Well today is my birthday so I am going to go out to lunch with the kids and a friend of mine.
