Posts Tagged ‘arts’

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English Grammar Worksheets (Middle & High School)

June 12th, 2013

Hi!  It’s Wednesday, June 12, 2013 and time for Language Arts at ClickSchooling!

Recommended Website:

Fox Valley Technical College: ABE English – Intro to Grammar

Age Range: 12-18 (about Middle & High School, with parental supervision)

A Maryland ClickScholar suggested this website, sponsored by Fox Valley Technical College that provides free English grammar worksheets and answer sheets. The study aids are provided for students who score low on college English entrance exams and are required to enroll in an Adult Basic Education English class.

There are no bells or whistles here, just great printable worksheets for learning, practicing, and remediating English grammar including:

  • Nouns & Prepositions
  • Plurals & Possessives
  • Verbs
  • Pronouns
  • Adjectives & Adverbs
  • Comparatives & Superlatives
  • Parts of Sentences
  • Subject & Verb Agreement
  • Commas
  • Quotes, Caps, & Apostrophes
  • End Punctuation

When you get to the site, just select the topics you want to study, download the pdf, print out the worksheets, and practice offline.

 

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English Games, Activities, & Worksheets!

June 5th, 2013

Hi!  It’s Wednesday,  June 5, 2013, and time for Language Arts at ClickSchooling!

Recommended Website:

FunEnglishGames.com

Age Range:  5-10 (grades K-5 approximately, with parental supervision)

This ad-supported website offers free English language games, activities, worksheets, quizzes and more! Designed for classroom and ESL teachers, you’ll find learning activities and resources that can easily be used for home learning.

When you get to the website, you’ll see a brief introduciton and some highlighted features.  Use the menu at the top of the page to access:

Games – Play interactive games that help kids learn and improve upon reading, writing (including debate!), grammar, vocabulary, and spelling skills.

Activities – Enjoy a line-up of fun online language arts games based on familiar board games and television game shows.

Worksheets – Get printable worksheets and activity pages that reinforce language arts skills.

Quizzes – Test your knowledge on grammar, parts of speech, spelling, and more.

You’ll also find videos that  include songs, nursery rhymes, and short instructional clips for learning English.

Because this website contains randomly generated advertisements, parents (as always) should preview the site and supervise all Internet activity.

 

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Free K-12 Literature Lessons & Activities

May 29th, 2013

Hi!  It’s Wednesday, May 29, 2014 and time for Language Arts at ClickSchooling!

Recommended Website:

EDSITEMent

Age Range: 5-18 (grades K-12 with parental supervision)

This website sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities, offers free, high-quality online lesson plans integrated with resources to promote active learning in literature and language arts (as well as other subjects such as art, foreign language, history and social studies).

When you get to the site, you’ll see a featured lesson plan.  Below that is a sorting tool where you can select the grade level you want (K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12) and other features including subtopics such as:

  • Biography
  • Drama
  • Essay
  • Fables, Fairy Tales, and Folklore
  • Novels
  • Poetry
  • Short Stories

Submit your parameters and a menu of lesson plans will appear below the sorting tool.  Click on any lesson title and a new page opens displaying the lesson including:

  • Guiding Questions
  • Learning Objectives
  • Preparation Instructions
  • Lesson Activities
  • Extending the Lesson

You’ll find links to free, carefully screened educational websites where you can read the literature online and find resources to extend the learning. In some cases you’ll find free, printable worksheets as well.

The content is so extensive that a description here simply doesn’t do it justice. This is a remarkable resource for the home educator – so bookmark it to return often. 

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American Folklore Stories & Lessons

May 22nd, 2013

Hi!  It’s Wednesday, May 22, 2013 and time for Language Arts at ClickSchooling!

Recommended Website:

American Folklore

Age Range: All (Note: As always, parental supervision required to determine suitability of content.)

This website provides a free archive of American folktales, myths, legends, fairy tales, superstitions, weatherlore and other stories. You can read them online or print them to use offline – and you can listen to some of them via podcast.

When you get to the site, you’ll see a brief introduction and some featured stories. You can click on the featured links or use the menu at the top of the home page that includes:

*Tall Tales – Meet Pecos Bill, Paul Bunyan, Brer Rabbit, and more.

*Myths & Legends – Enjoy stories about folk heroes such as Bigfoot Wallace, Davy Crockett, Casey Jones and more.   *Ghost Stories – A selection of stories about things that go bump in the night.

*Urban Legends – Incredible stories with bits of plausibility that spread quickly through a society.

*Folk Tales – Stories or legends passed down from one generation to another in the oral tradition.

*Fables & Fairy Tales – A wide variety of stories – some will be very familiar, some not-so-much.

*Campfire Stories – Stories and songs that include tales for the littlest campfire kids to scary stories that will give teens and adults goosebumps.

*Children’s Stories – Enjoy whimsical children’s bedtime stories, American folk songs, and nursery rhymes.

*Animal Stories – Fun fables starring cats, dogs, crows, chickens, hummingbirds, bears, coyotes, sea serpents – and even Sasquatch aka Bigfoot.

You’ll also find Canadian, Mexican, African-American, Latin-American, Asian-American, European-American, and Native American folklore. 

If you click on “Teacher Resources” located near the bottom of the vertical menu on the left side of the home page, you’ll find links to folktale-themed lessons. Some of them are free, some require a fee. Unfortunately, not all of the links were working when I tested them. Don’t let that deter you from exploring the stories archived at the site. :)

 

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Poetry Videos for K-12!

May 8th, 2013

Hi!  It’s Wednesday, May 8, 2013 and time for Language Arts at ClickSchooling!

Recommended Website:

Favorite Poem Project

Age Range: All (Grades K-12, with parental supervision.)

This website was designed to enhance and improve the teaching of poetry in K-12 classrooms through a collection of 50 short video documentaries showcasing individual Americans reading and talking about poems they love.

The Favorite Poem Project was founded by Robert Pinsky, the 39th Poet Laureate of the United States, and is dedicated to “celebrating, documenting and encouraging poetry’s role in Americans’ lives.”

The videos are a permanent part of the Library of Congress archive of recorded poetry and literature. While the videos were conceived as a teaching and learning tool for schools, they can be used in the homeschool environment as well.

When you get to the site you’ll see a brief introduction and a menu of the poetry videos. Turn on your speakers, click on any poetry video title, and a new page opens that launches the video. In addition to watching an individual read the poem, you’ll learn a little about the reader including their thoughts about why they like the poem. The words of the poem are displayed so you can follow along as it’s being read.

Because there are no age/grade ranges mentioned on the individual videos, parents AS ALWAYS should preview the poems to determine suitability of content for their own children.

Of the poetry videos I watched, most were geared to Middle and High School age students and beyond. If you want a suggestion for a poem that younger children may enjoy, try “Block City” by Robert Louis Stevenson, read in a very child-like, sing-song voice by an elementary grade student. After he reads the poem, he talks about why he likes it – and it’s utterly charming.  :)

 

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Free Tips for Young Writers!

May 1st, 2013

Hi!  It’s Wednesday, May 1, 2013 and time for Language Arts at ClickSchooling!

Recommended Website:

Blue Zoo Writers: Young Writers Tips

Age Range: 10 and up (approximately, with parental supervision)

This website is a free online learning center to help writers of all ages learn to write better without taking up a lot of your time. As explained at the site:

“As W. Somerset Maugham said: ‘There are three rules for writing. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.’ This is not a place for rules. On the other hand, it’s not a place for endless advice. …My promise here: no fluff. Just help.”

When you click on the link above it will take you to the “Young Writers – Tips” page. While the entire site offers helpful information for writers of all ages, this particular page is a good jumping off point – with lots of short writing tips especially useful for young writers.  You’ll see a menu of articles that include guidelines and suggestions for writing:

  • Poetry
  • Brainstorming Ideas for Stories
  • The Difference Between an Idea and a Story
  • Good First Lines to Start a Great Story
  • How to Make a Story Map of Your Neighborhood
  • Are you a Rock or a Feather (writing exercise)
  • A Zillion Story Starters

The articles include advice and examples from well-known writers such as Barbara Kingsolver, Sid Fleischman, Jan Yolen, Dr. Seuss, and more. You’ll find links to resources within the articles as well.

When you’re through exploring the “Young Writers Tips,” click on “Core Advice for Your Writing Craft and Career” on the menu. There, you’ll find more articles on becoming a better writer, including the “Blue Zoo Curriculum – An Outline.” It’s a set of core articles on 10 skills “a professional writer would do well to master” and are grouped into three categories:

*Being a Writer – Get advice on becoming a better writer along with some motivational techniques.

*The Craft of Writing – Find out how to spin an appealing story and  how to create a sense of place.

*Career Development – Discover how to build your writer’s brand.

This site is a work in progress and new material is continuously added. You can sign up to receive an email notifying you whenever new content is posted to the site.

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