Learning the alphabet... outside in the garden

Check out my post at the Green Phone Booth to learn more about how T is learning his letters in our Alphabet Garden.  What a fun wrap-up to Grade 1!

"F" is for Feverfew, in full bloom right now.

Lamb's Ear grows under the "L",
with its purple spikes about to burst into beauty.  

To buy, or not to buy a Buch - maybe we can help you

We are fortunate to have a branch of our public library system nearby.  Between all of our family members, we go there several times each week.  Many, many titles have come in and out of our house.

There's just one thing... the books are all in English!  When I was a child, the library system included some German books, too, but that's no longer a language it supports.  That means our selection of German-language books is limited to those we have at home.  That's why I'm all the happier to know of Alphabet Garten, an online bookstore for German books, videos, and DVDs for kids... on this side of the Atlantic!  And, it's a mama-owned home-based business!

When the opportunity came to review books for Alphabet Garten, I submitted an application.  The result was that... a box of books arrived on the front porch for me!

Sarah, Alphabet Garten's owner, added some thoughtful touches, including this colorful Buchwurm bookmark.  The bookmark wishes Viel Spass beim Lesen!  Thanks, we did have a lot of Spass, so much so that T asked me to reread one of the books to him right away.

My first review has been posted, and there are a few others in the pipeline.  Viel Spass beim Lesen!

Anansi inspired a whole page of writing and drawing!

I came home to the most wonderful surprise tonight:


Last night, I wrote a short assignment list for S. He and I discussed his primary task, writing a summary of Anansi Goes Fishing. (More about the book later...) We talked about how he'd write a sentence or two about the story, draw a picture (with background to fill the entire space), and make a border. My note to him included a diagram of the these features. :-) He listened, and then decided that he wanted me to do this work with him. Well, that meant that we wouldn't get to it until Friday evening.

Lo, and behold! My reluctant writer wrote this lovely summary (all by himself), drew a beautiful picture to go with it, and remembered his border! (He even included a list of characters at the bottom.) Yes, there are some, er, creatively spelled words in there, but I'm more than willing to look the other way on those.

The back story to this book is that S had checked it out of the library, and read it. Yesterday, we put it into our pile of books to return. The library was closed when we got there, so we put our books into the Book Return slot. Except for Anansi. When I asked S about that book, he generously offered to read it to me - right then and there, standing next to the Book Return slot! Seizing the moment, I thought it would be an ideal addition to our Grade 2 work on animal stories and fables, which is where this blog post begins...

On Valentine's Day Eve

S's afternoon class was canceled today, due to the weather. (I wish I had known that *before* we drove over there...) Anyway, that gave us an unexpectedly free afternoon, perfect for "teatime."

By request, we sipped hot chocolate instead of tea. And, instead of something seasonally appropriate, S and T polished off some (yummy) Christmas cookies we still had stashed away. But, I digress...

We attempted this tongue twister from zzzebra:

Zehn zahme Ziegen zogen zehn Zentner Zucker zum Zoo.

We sampled some Valentine's Day verses, and this one was the overwhelming favorite:

Wenn die Flüsse aufwärts fließen,
und die Hasen Jäger schießen,
und die Mäuse Katzen fressen,
dann erst will ich dich vergessen.

And, we talked a little about the origins of Valentine's Day.

And, did I mentioned we had hot chocolate?

Some Fabel resources for Grade 2

• http://literaturnetz.org/gedichte
• Drachenlied
  

• http://literaturnetz.org/fabeln
• Fünfzig Fabeln für Kinder - gereimt
• http://www.hamburger-bildungsserver.de/welcome.phtml?unten=/faecher/deutsch/gattungen/fabeln.htm
• http://www.kinderreimeseite.de/50185293cb009ac05/index.html
• Hekaya - Fabeln aus aller Welt
• http://www.udoklinger.de/Deutsch/Fabeln/Inhalt2.htm
  

Resources: Math / Language / Movement / Music

Math

• A to Z Teacher Stuff
• 100th day
• Math Central, University of Regina: http://mathcentral.uregina.ca/
• http://www.livelylessons.com/
  

Language

• http://www.labbe.de/zzzebra/index.asp
• http://www.readwritethink.org/
• http://www.garten-literatur.de/Leselaube/abc/jahr.htm
• http://www.unterrichtsmaterial-schule.de/
• http://www.lehrer-online.de/
• Wortarten: http://193.171.252.18/www.lehrerweb.at/gs/gs_arb/kl_3/d/stoeps/wortarten_stoepsel.pdf
• http://www.lehrerweb.at/
• http://www.grundschulmediothek.de/klasse_2.php
  

Movement / P.E.

• Children's Yoga: http://www.childrensyoga.com/

Music

• Liederbaum - http://www.labbe.de/liederbaum/index.asp