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Review: Moving with Words & Actions

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Do you work with preschool or primary aged children?   If so, Shape America has come out with a really neat book for promoting physical literacy in children, from preschool through primary grades.  This book is called Moving with Words & Actions. 


Quick Book Synopsis:  
Moving With Words & Actions will help you develop physical literacy
and language literacy in your preschool and primary-grade students. The
text offers more than 70 lesson plans that are aligned with SHAPE
America’s National Standards and Grade-Level Outcomes for K-12 Physical
Education. The plans use an interdisciplinary approach and are adaptable
for various settings. 

Each lesson plan includes three learning tasks that help children apply a variety of action words and movement concepts to the moderate to vigorous intensity physical activities prescribed in the tasks. Most tasks are easy to implement, requiring no equipment or specialized setting.

The Book’s Purpose:
Moving With Words & Actions is geared toward helping a teacher equip their students with confidence in using their bodies well in a variety of environments. The students will be taught good action words as they learn to use their bodies better. 

Fun activities to help the children under your care learn actions and words. 

Set Up
The book is divided into two sections.

Section one to help you the teacher with
1. Selecting Age-Appropriate content
2. creating ad implementing lesson plans
3. making the most of every lesson
4. Assessing Children’s ability to move with words and action

Section two contains 70 lesson plans
5. Moving with Words & Actions to create healthy bodies
6. Moving with Words & Actions in our community
7. Moving with Words & Actions like living animals
8. Moving with Words & Actions in Science and Math
9. Moving with Words & Actions in Language Arts

I found the lessons to be thorough and working across disciplines, for instance “building structures” had children learning about arches, what they are, how they look, how to build one with their bodies of different heights and widths, and then how to move through them.  The lesson then closed with helping the children think about what they did.  What was easily or hard, how they moved through the arches…how they used their bodies to move through high arches or low ones. 

A thorough excellent book that will be of aid to anyone working with young children and is interested in helping them develop better body awareness with the language to go with it.   Recommend as a resource for preschool and primary teachers.

 
Moving with Words & Actions
Rhonda L. Clements
Sharon L. Schneider
Human Kinetics
Shape America
272 pages
Adult, teacher, resource, physical education

Reviewed for: Human Kinetics
 
Where can I find it?
Amazon.ca: Moving with Words & Action.
Amazon.com: Moving with Words & Action.

This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you!

©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites

Friday Fun: Cow Art (learning acrylics)

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 Not feeling so well today, so simply posting a pic of my lad with his latest project.  He’s taking a class in acrylic paints.

Will be linking up with Kym’s Art post… you can find that here. 

This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you! ©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites

In the Silence, Remember

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In the Silence of the house this morning I sit.
I ponder the word Silence.
As I ponder this chorus pops into my head:

Be still and know, that I am God
Be still and know, that I am God
Be still and know, that I am God

I NEED to remember those words you know?
Especially when my body seems to be fighting me.
And fears assail my soul.
In the end of it I need to remember this….

God is God.
He knows me full well.
He has my path fully marked out for me.
He knows what my future holds.

He holds me.
He calls me to trust
He calls me to listen
He calls me to act.
He calls me to remember.  

In the silence he reminds me.
To just be still.
To remember… that HE is God.

  —– 

This is a five minute Friday post. the word prompt is brought to us by Miss Kate over at Five Minute Friday.  What is Five Minute Friday?  Well it’s a party of a group of like minded folks who gather on Friday to do a five minute free write around a singular word.  AND THEN (and this is the most important part) we take the time to offer up encouragement to each other on this writing journey.  It’s fun, though it’s not always easy, but it is always good.   Come join us won’t you?  You are always welcome.

——

This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you! ©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

A Pearl Seeker: To Know God is Real

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The other morning friends of ours stopped in for a bit.  I dearly love this lady and her hubby, they are sweet people with a strong heart for the Lord God.  It is always a good thing to spend time with them.   We can easily talk about the things of God, as well as the things in our everyday lives (I’m not trying to make them sound different or separate) it’s just that sometimes it’s easy to have friends that are only in one aspect of your life and not in both.  This couple is very real and know that God is real too.  

Anyways, the opening section of this chapter made me think of them, about our need to see the realness of God.  How we can’t know him, if we don’t take the time to understand him, and learn about him and spend time with him.   God needs to be real to us.
AND if God is real to us, we aren’t content to just let him slip through the cracks, we find ourselves wanting to spend more and more time with him. If God’s reality isn’t as clear to us, it’s easy to skate by with the bare minimum… not attending services, not studying his word, not doing most anything.  BUT the more we spend in the word, the more we want to know God’s goodness and grace and favour and see more and more how we can better live for him.   It’s actually pretty amazing how that works out. 
Remember these words from Colossians 3:16:
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
Let the word dwell in you.. live it out.  Show it, sing it, work it out, Let it dwell in you.  Christ’s word, all it’s fullness and richness. 
Be an adult Christian, not baby fed.  Seek out God’s truth, be active in your faith.  It’s important.  Know who God is by looking for him in the word that he has given us.  LOOK for him.   Don’t accept the tidbits others offer you…but really LOOK.

This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you!

©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites

Art Book: Fine Art Adventures

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What would you do if I told you that you could explore 18 different masterpieces with your student, using those 18 masterpieces as inspiration for doing 3 different art projects with students 6 years old and up?   Wouldn’t that just peak your interest?   It certainly did mine.   Today I would like to introduce Fine Art Adventures by Maja Pitamic and Jill Laidlaw.


First let me tell you about the authors.  Maja has written several art books and has over 20 years experience teaching art to children.   Jill has used her art history degree as she’s been writing and editing books since 1990.

Fine Art Adventures was written with the novice art teacher in mind.  Just assemble the needed supplies and open the book and teach your art class. 

The book is divided into sections: Colour, Black & White, Shape, Animals, Portraits, Landscape, Myths & Legends and Light & Black.   In the landscape section we look at three different paintings: Winter Landscape, Mone Sanite-Victorie and Nocturne in Blue and Silver.  Each of the 18 paintings comes with two art lessons.  

Before you start the lesson you are given a history on the artist and his painting.   

Next comes a picture of the project along with pictorial steps (with text underneath) of the project along with a materials list. 

Each of the projects is simple enough to do.  They could, most likely, fit into an hour long co-op class…guess what I am thinking of doing???   Having a fun art class!

Most of the projects use materials easily attained in most basic art stories, others might take a bit of sussing out on amazon (like shrink plastic), but not that difficult.   Then it’s just a matter of sitting down with a group of children and having fun doing some art.  (and learning some history at the same time).

My thoughts:
I like this book and how it is laid out into sections.  It would so easy to teach art to your children/students as the lessons are well laid, with hints about when to use speed, how to mix up your paints, or whatever else you need.  The instructions are easy to read and having the pictorial alongside makes it super easy to follow. I love how each of the lessons grabs a hold of ONE idea from the painting studied and then finds a way to work with the idea presented.  Some of the ways are SO COOL!  🙂  I want to do this book so bad with some students, I think it would be so much fun.

In showing it to an art teacher, her response was “wow…that would be so interesting to do”, and “did you see this lesson?…what would be good to show the colours..oh, I like this”.   (she said she’ll be looking for it!)

Fine Art Adventures: 36 creative, hands-on projects inspired by classic masterpieces
Maja Pitamic & Jilll Laidlaw
Chicago Review Press
144 pages
Softcover, art, resource, children’s art
Age: 6 and up

Where can you find it?
Amazon.ca: Fine Art Adventures.
Amazon.com: Fine Art Adventures: 36 Creative, Hands-On Projects Inspired by Classic Masterpieces

This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you!

©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites

Review: Castle in the Stars

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Suppose, just suppose that man’s first trip, man’s first journey into space happened in 1869 rather than in 1969.   What do you think might have happened?   Just suppose this for a while… and then you’ll have the premise to Castle in the Stars. 

alex alice castle stars

So what do you think a space race in 1869 would look like?
Would there be rivalries between nations?  Would there be kings fighting?  Any involvement of castles or knights or ladies in waiting?  Just what do you think it would look like?

Done in
the graphic novel style, this easy to read book is broken into
chapters.  The graphics are well done, with spots of narrative to
explain background information.

 I loved the colours, they fit really well with the story line…all those blues and greens, the greys of the castle.   Just marvellously done, with a water colour feel eh?

 I found the text easy to read, and believable.  No huge gaps in conversation or plot line as I have sometimes found in graphic novels.   It made sense the way it was all put together.

My thoughts:

All in all, a good book.  It seemed believable to me, what it might look like it days gone by to be racing to the sky.   The intrigue and concerns between people and nations.

I do wish that graphic novels wouldn’t leave me hanging.  It’s like they only give you part of the story in the hopes that you like it well enough to buy the next installment.  Drives me crazy.   I guess the question is this: do I like this book enough that I would like to see part two?  Yes, but if I never finish the story I’m okay with that as well.  

Castle in the Stars: The Space Race of 1869 
Book One.
Alex Alice
First Second
Ages 10-14
64 pages
Graphic novel, hardcover, oversized

Reviewed for: Raincoast Books

Where can you find it?

Amazon.ca: Castle in the Stars
Amazon.com: Castle in the Stars, space race of 1869.

This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you!

©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites

Review: Thinking Like an Engineer

By 4 Comments

Do you like it when your children and students ask questions, and have interest light up their eyes?  I would not have thought of my lad as being an engineer….but for the past few weeks he’s been designing,creating and asking questions as we work through Thinking Like an Engineer by Innovators Tribe. It has been fascinating watching his mind at work and his delight that genetic engineering is considered ENGINEERING!!!

So what can I tell you about Thinking Like an Engineer?


I can tell you that my son loves this program.  He doesn’t fight the learning but eagerly approaches his lessons, and when he tries a project he keeps at it, making sure to follow the rules laid out for him.  It’s a self-paced, STEM program that focuses on engineering, using hands on challenges to motivate the student.  Students can work through the program at their own speed, and they can go back and watch lessons again if they want to. It’s a very user friendly program, easily operated by a 12 year old.   The only thing he needed help with was downloading the software program.

When you login you come to this page, which shows you how far you are through the program.  Right now my lad is about 8% through the course, working at it three days per week, which occasional extra time on Friday.   We have missed the odd day due to the start of “cold” season, overall he’s been pretty consistent.

From there, you’ll find yourself on a page like this.   Where you are in the course on one side, the video on the other. That green arrow advances you in the lesson.

Sometimes in the lesson you will see a picture of Mr. Koeplin as he teaches, other times you see a variety of slides. 

The challenges were spelled out clearly, which was great for my precise lad.  He managed to make a tower about 6 feet tall, that would stand longer than 10 seconds as long as there was no wind at all.   Wind, even a very gentle breeze would cause it to topple over.

My lad was wondering what he’ll send up doing with the software, so I showed him the course outline.  Can you imagine his delight when he learned that he’ll be making a rollercoaster and a bridge!  🙂   So good to see excitement in a young fellow.

The book stack surprised me.  I expected maybe forty books all told.   But that lad ended up with much more than that.  I unfortunately walked in on him as he was putting a book on top …without it being centered (my bad!) and the books toppled over.  He did his best to recreate it for the pic but it just didn’t work the same.   

  
My Thoughts:
As I virtually had nothing with the program beyond setting it up and asking my lad where he was and what he needed to be doing… my thoughts are based on what I saw and heard.   Oh… and taking some video and pictures.  🙂

LOTS of questions and conversation.  “Mom, did you know…..”  “Mom, this was fun to do.”  “Mom, come see what I did!!” 

Some frustration “But mom, they said if it fell over at all I had to start over completely”… which led to me asking “Well, can you tell me why it fell down?”  His response: “A wind made it fall cause I moved.  I followed up with:  “So is that the fault of what you built or circumstances upon your control?”   Learning happened, understanding dawned, and he learned all the different factors that engineers have to take into account.   I think it would be good to build those questions into the program, to help the students work through potential issues they run into, and perhaps they have, but I haven’t listened to the entire program.   If they did, my son doesn’t remember them doing so.

 My Son’s Thoughts:
My overall opinion: “They did a good job.  I liked it.” 
Specifics: “They did a good job explaining all of the stuff.  They were really good at explaining how to do the 123d software.”  
Didn’t like: “It would be nice if their full screen would actually become full screen, cause their screen is kinda small.”
Recommendation:  “Get this program, because if you are at all interested in engineering of any kind, they will teach you about it.”


Innovators Tribe
Thinking Like an Engineer

Note: A single subscription can be used for an entire household. We received a 2-year subscription. 
Good for grades 6-12. 
Taught by Wayne Kroeplin.
Online video and hands on STEM course.

Guess what…until November 11 they are having a sale…35% off, check it out eh?  

Also reviewed by the crew: Thinking Like an Architect.

75 members of the homeschool review crew have checked out their two programs.  Click here (or on the image below) to see what others had to say.

http://schoolhousereviewcrew.com/thinking-like-an-architect-or-engineer-innovators-tribe-reviews/

This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you! ©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites