Tuesday, September 1, 2026

Literature Circle Brainstorm

This year we are going to be doing Literature Circles on Mondays & Wednesdays.

There are lots of different ways to do a book study! Ms. Megan and I have decided to give the children traditional independent pencil & paper activities on Mondays (vocabulary words, comprehension questions, graphic organizers, book reports, etc.) and a relaxed book group-style "sit and chat about the book while we eat lunch together" social time on Wednesdays.

We are going to have two book groups. The children will be of mixed ages, grouped more by their reading speed than their birthdate. I think this will make for rich discussions as well as reduced frustration. If anyone does need a bit more time to catch up to the group, they can take their book home on the weekends so as to be ready for the Monday assignments.

Now I'm going through and looking for books that I have three copies of. Here are 10 options for each group:


Group One


Group Two


As we go through the year, I'll write up a post with the resources I use for each book. I'm really excited about this!

I am comfortable with my students marking up the text as they read -- underlining, circling, writing in the margins, dogearing pages, etc. -- so the books will probably be recycled afterwards or given to the children to keep.


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Monday, August 24, 2026

Art History Picture Books

This year we are focusing on contemporary local artists, but I loved teaching four years of Art History. Hopefully those studies laid a good foundation for our upcoming in-person artist discussions. I have to give a shout out to Lotus Stewart at Art History Kids because her course Magnificent Modern Art was really life changing for me and inspired me to give teaching Art a try!

Lotus just made a YouTube video of her 25 favorite art books for kids and I cannot resist making a list with links (Amazon) to each title. Here you go!


I have a lot of these books but it's always fun to learn about new titles!


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Sunday, August 23, 2026

Vertical Teacher Planner

My first choice and my second choice of teacher planbook are BOTH no longer being made, so today I spent a good hour and a half searching through all the remaining options. I finally discovered this nifty little item -- Elan Publishing Company 4 Period Teacher Lesson Plan; Days Vertically Down The Side (P4-97) -- and I'm very happy! For just $12.95, this bare bones stripped down planner comes with no stickers. It is simply an undated planner with the days vertically down the side, and four blocks of time.



For Waldorf homeschool families, these four blocks could correspond to Head / Heart / Hands plus a column to also list doctor appointments, etc.

For me, it goes beautifully with our three blocks of time in the day -- AM (before snack), MM (mid-morning, ie. after snack and before lunch), and PM (after recess). The fourth section is for my notes on individual children and it has eight rows, enough for each child to have a personal note each day.

I do a combination of whole group, small group, and one-on-one lessons every day and it's hard to find a planbook which will accommodate all those notes! This one looks like it will work well.


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Tuesday, August 18, 2026

Fishing! And More Fishing!

We are just coming to the end of a lovely summer vacation.

Besides all the usual time at the pool and community house and walking the beach hunting for sharks' teeth, Zac played lots of pickleball and pétanque. He went crabbing in the Chesapeake Bay. We went to the Maryland Science Center in Baltimore and had lunch at the Rusty Scupper for his birthday.

We also went to upper New York state and Zac had his first experience with canoe camping, rowing out to a tiny private island on a beautiful lake in the Adirondack Mountains. Zac spent most of his time there practicing his cast, and got his own fishing vest and his very first fishing rod and tackle box.

And he spent a weekend in Philadelphia with friends, visiting the Mint and the Federal Reserve, and getting to try food from several new countries.

Now we have just a few days left before we head back to Illinois, and I asked him what he wanted to do before we left. His response? More fishing!

Luckily I found this site: Fishing & Crabbing - Calvert County MD.

So today we are going to look for more places for my boy to fish...

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Wednesday, August 5, 2026

Seasons in Poetry

Here is a page last updated March 1, 2010 called "Seasons in Poetry."

I have a lot of new poetry collections that I would recommend since then, but it's still fun to look back at my past thinking!


Winter



Snow
by Cynthia Rylant



Talking Like the Rain: A Read-to-Me Book of Poems
ed. by X. J. Kennedy et al.

  • "Winter Morning" by Ogden Nash
  • "Cynthia in the Snow" by Gwendolyn Brooks
  • "First Snowflake" by N.M. Bodecker


Poetry of Earth
illus. by Adrienne Adams

  • "Velvet Shoes" by Elinor Wylie



Poetry Speaks to Children book & CD
ed. by Elise Paschen, et al.

  • "Skating in the Wind" by Kristine O'Connell George
  • "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost - read by the poet
  • "Winter" by W.D. Snodgrass - read by the poet


Spring



Basho and the Fox
by Tim Myers



Basho and the River Stones
by Tim Myers


How to Write Haiku and Other Short Poems
by Paul Janeczko


Red Dragonfly on My Shoulder
ed. by Sylvia Cassedy



Eric Carle's Animals Animals
ed. by Laura Whipple



Zin! Zin! Zin! a Violin
by Lloyd Moss


Summer


The Hutchinson Treasury of Children's Poetry
ed. by Alison Sage



Pigs in the Mud in the Middle of the Rud
by Lynn Plourde



Every Time I Climb a Tree
by David McCord

  • "Glowworm"
  • "Far Away"
  • "The Grasshopper"
  • "Bananas and Cream"



The Dragons Are Singing Tonight
by Jack Prelutsky

  • "I Am Boom!"



Handsprings
by Douglas Florian

  • "Growing"
  • "Rain Song"
  • "Rain Reign"



Insectlopedia
by Douglas Florian

  • "The Army Ants"
  • "The Inchworm"
  • "The Praying Mantis"
  • "The Whirligig Beetles"
  • "The Termites"
  • "The Locusts"



Creatures of Earth, Sea, and Sky
by Georgia Heard

  • "Hummingbird"
  • "Fishes"
  • "Frog Serenade"


Autumn



Where the Sidewalk Ends
by Shel Silverstein



Here's a Little Poem
ed. by Jane Yolen, et al



Whose Garden Is It?
by Mary Ann Hoberman



I Love You As Much…
by Laura Krauss Melmed



In the Land of Elves
by Daniela Drescher



Child of Faerie, Child of Earth
by Jane Yolen



Louella Mae, She's Run Away!
by Karen Beaumont Alarcón



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