Grade Three Ideas for English

We haven't really applied ourselves to a detailed curriculum in English this year.  But here are a few ideas that I'll share with you.



I read to Marnie every morning.  I've done this for years - from picture books to more interesting series of novels.  The reasons I read to Marnie rather than have her read to me are:

• she enjoys it and so do I
• she can engage with material that might otherwise be too complex for her to access (she can enjoy books and stories that might be too hard for her to read)
• she is learning about the conventions of storymaking - character, plot, pacing, beginnings and endings.
• it helps her with expression, vocabulary and basic sentence construction
• I can have influence over  the types of books and stories she is being introduced to
• I believe that hearing stories being told to them is what children love and need

We enjoy reading this way, and it's easy and comfortable on a winter's morning to lay snuggled up in bed and do our first "lesson" of the day without having to jump out into the cold of the day and fight the morning traffic to get to school.  



I also encourage Marnie to read for herself, although she is not particularly enthusiastic about it - she can do it though.  And I must say that her reading has improved vastly this past six months.  She loves reading Garfield books that are set out in comic style.  She does not understand half of the jokes, but she enjoys Garfield's expressions and shenanigans.

Here are some of the books we've read this year:

• The Judy Moody series about a third grader in Virginia http://www.judymoody.com/ 



• The Sisters 8 series about eight, eight year old octuplets left to fend for themselves: http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/features/sisters8/

• The Walk Right in Detective Agency; four books about two Aussie youngsters living in Milk Bay who open a detective agency:



• Ramona Quimby Aged 8; another third grader in America. 
• The Making Tracks series of Australian novels, each set in a different time period.  Some are better than others but we enjoy them.
• "Our Australian Girl" series - fantastic!  We love them, each series of four books is about a girl who is living in a different historical period.  Great way to introduce Australian History to children. http://www.ouraustraliangirl.com.au/





• Anything to do with cats: the Animal Ark books are Marnie's favourites.
• Earlier in the year we read some Roald Dahl books which Marnie seemed to enjoy. 
• We still occasionally pull an Edith Blyton book off the library shelf to read - Secret Seven and The Naughtiest Girl in the School remain our all time favourites in this particular genre.

We read a series of books called "Girlz Rock" and they were fine.  I felt that the characters did nothing but pursue hedonistic pleasure - there were no real moral dilemmas to work through or any earth shattering life lessons to learn by book's end.  On the other hand, they portray girls as strong and actively living their lives which is a good thing.  I don't know that I would recommend them as particularly great books to read aloud though.



I'm sure I'll think of more, but these books have been our highlights for third grade so far. 


I have not focussed on 'literacy' so much this year.  I tend to embed spelling and vocabulary into other subjects such as science or maths.  Our most recent spelling tests have been for The days of the week, the different geometric shapes (cylinder, triangular prism, rectangular pyramid), and some words related to a study of the skeleton (ossification, sternum, femur etc).  I still beleive that reading will improve Marnie's spelling, however next year I am going to give grammar, spelling, vocab etc. more time than I have this year.


I'll be using this book for the remainder of the year (till about Feb 2012 I'm guessing).  It has pages of reading, comprehension and vocab, spelling and grammar exercises.  Personally we have found it a little advanced so far this year, but I'm thinking that Marnie is probably at a stage now where she could work through the exercises with some assistance from me.



I found it very hard to enthuse Marnie about her handwriting.  She has avoided it whenever she could.  We completed a few weeks of 'joined up writing' which she enjoyed if she was tracing over the letters that I wrote first.  We had a real breakthrough a few months ago when I decided to find some overseas penpals for her.  Since recieving letters, Marnie is now much more enthusiastic about her handwriting, and writing in general.  Her handwriting is not great but then with practice it should improve.  I found a website for homeschooling families wanting penpals: Yahoo Homeschoolpen-pals.  To be perfectly honest I've struggled with the website - it's not easy to use or find your messages.  Anyway we have about three or four girls writing to Marnie now from different parts of the USA, so I don't have to bother with the website anylonger.  Also an add that Marnie sent off months ago into Grass Roots magazine also resulted in several girls from around Australia writing to Marnie as well.  So now she has plenty of handwriting opportunities!  (And she is learning about the conventions of letter writing: how to address an envelope and what will fit in a standard envelope!).


I'd love any feedback.  More posts coming soon!