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homeschoolanguagearts

Free Copywork Cattle A Texas Poem For a Fun Unit Study

May 16, 2014 | 6 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Today, I want to share some free copywork Cattle a Texas poem about our home. And look at History of the Texas Cowboy, Cattle Drives, and Chisholm Trail for fun ideas.

Talking with Tiny about our pending move to South America, I decided to find a poem about Texas so he understands that we are not going to forget it. 

Free Copywork Cattle A Texas Poem For a Fun Unit Study

Excited as we are about the move, you can imagine the whole host of emotions the kids go through. 

Excited one day and then a bit of trepidation the next.  So I turned that into a mini lesson and copywork about our home.

Next, look at these fun books to add to your unit study.

BOOKS FOR TEXAS ABOUT KIDS

Resources for Learning About the Lone Star State & Texas Cattle Drives

Add a few of these resources to learn about the great state of Texas.

The Chisholm Trail: A History of the World's Greatest Cattle Trail

The Chisholm Trail was the original "Cowboy Highway" stretching hundreds of miles from the ranches of Texas to the Cattle markets in Kansas. This classic work chronicles in vivid detail the entire journey of the trail and is complete with descriptions of actual incidents and events that occurred along the trail as well as stories of famous and infamous cowboys, outlaws, rustlers, Indians, and lawmen who made the journey.

A Gentle Tour Through Texas History

A guide for teaching Texas History through literature. It is based on a 34-week timeframe and is useful for students in grades K-6/7.

Texas History for Kids with 21 Activities

Encapsulating the 500-year saga of the one-of-a-kind state of Texas, this interactive book takes readers from the founding of the Spanish Missions and the victory at San Jacinto to the Great Storm that destroyed Galveston and the establishment of NASA’s Mission Control in Houston while covering everything in between. Texas History for Kids includes 21 informative and fun activities to help readers better understand the state’s culture, politics, and geography. Kids will recreate one of the six national flags that have flown over the state, make castings of local wildlife tracks, design a ranch’s branding iron, celebrate Juneteenth by reciting General Order Number 3, build a miniature Battle of Flowers float, and more. This valuable resource also includes a timeline of significant events, a list of historic sites to visit or explore online, and web resources for further study.

Texas Activity Book (Color and Learn)

A New Way to Enjoy Texas with Your Family

For hours of excitement, give your kids the Texas Activity Book by Paula Ellis! They'll enjoy learning about the Lone Star State through pictures and puzzles. It's also perfect for keeping kids entertained on the car ride to your next destination.

Texas Longhorn Bull Cow Toy Figure

DETAILED & REALISTIC. Crafted with precision and authentic detail to create a lifelike toy that teaches and inspires toddlers and kids; helps introduce children to animals. From the first sketch to the intricate finishing touches, we see value in every detail.

Susanna of the Alamo: A True Story

“Remember the Alamo!” is one of the most familiar battle cries in American history, yet few know about the brave woman who inspired it. Susanna Dickinson’s story reveals the crucial role she played during that turbulent period in Texas-American history.

The Boy in the Alamo

The classic story of the siege of the Alamo, as told for young readers. Originally published in 1958, thousands of children each year enjoy this story from the unique point of view of twelve-year old Billy Campbell.

Plains Warrior: Chief Quanah Parker and the Comanches

A biography of the legendary Comanche leader profiles the son of a white woman, who fiercely defended tribal lands against those who tried to seize them and who, after being moved with his people to a reservation, fought for the recognition and decent treatment of his tribe.

Make Way for Sam Houston

Colorful Sam Houston leaps to life in the pages of this fresh and funny biography, set against the story of Texas's fight for independence from Mexico.

Trail Fever: The Life of a Texas Cowboy

The story of one of Texas's most famous cowboys is filled with cattle drives, stampedes, floods, droughts, freezing desert nights, raiders and bandits, and one man's endurance and love of life on the plains.

Also, look at this poem about Texas.

Free Copywork Cattle A Texas Poem

The Texas poem was written in 1932 by Berta Hart Nance called “Cattle”.  Here is the whole thing that has such beautiful imagery and language.

CATTLE

By Berta Hart Nance

Other states were carved or born

Texas grew from hide and horn.

Other states are long and wide,

Texas is a shaggy hide.

Dripping blood and crumpled hair

Some fat giant flung it there,

Laid the head where valleys drain

Stretched its rump along the plain.

Other soil is full of stone

Texans plow up cattle bones.

Herds are buried on the trail

Underneath the powdered shale,

Herds that stiffened like the snow

Where the icy northers go.

Other states have built their halls

Humming tunes along the walls,

Texans watched the mortar stirred

While they kept the lowing herd.

Stamped on Texan wall and roof

Gleams the sharp and crescent hoof,

High above the hum and stir

Jingle bridle-rein and spur.

Other states were made or born

…Texas grew from hide and horn.

Free Copywork Cattle A Texas Poem For a Fun Unit Study

To go along with this poem, I thought I would teach Tiny how to make a simple Texas chili and you know spend a bit more time together.

Tx Unit 1Tx Unit 2

Too, we have had some cold weather that is almost unheard of in May so that called for home made Texas chili.  Well, I should say part home made. 

Any good Texan would make their beans from scratch, but canned beans are fine after we had a long day selling furniture in our house.

Easy Texas Homemade Chili

Here are some things we put in our chili:

  • 1 to 1 1/2 pounds of sirloin meat.  We are meat eaters.  Love the stuff.  This is a twist on our chili because we don’t use ground beef when we make it.
  • 1 onion, 1 jalapeno if I have it, some bacon for flavoring which makes any chili come alive.
  • About 1 tablespoon of cumino, 2 or 3 chopped garlic cloves, 1 teaspoon of chili powder, salt and pepper to taste.
  • 4 or 5 cans of pinto beans, though we use home made when we have them.
  • 1 can or 2 cans of Rotel Tomatoes, a bit of beef broth or beef bouillon.
Tx  Unit 3Tx Unit 4

Tiny and I share a love of cheese and a multiple assortment of delicious toppings over our chili when its cooked.

I like to add sour cream, tortilla strips,  avocado and the best recipe for home made salsa by Pioneer Woman.  I make that stuff by the bucket loads around here.

Free Copywork Cattle A Texas Poem For a Fun Unit Study

Trying to keep our school work light, this mix of homeschool lessons has been something I have not done before. 

I am finding it very gratifying to plan so spur of the moment and school on the wild and free side.  Sometimes you just a need a break from all the well laid out plans and sharing a bowl of hot Texas chili helps things too.

Free Copywork Cattle A Texas Poem For a Fun Unit Study

HOW TO GET THE FREE POEM COPYWORK

Now, how to grab the freebie. It’s a subscriber freebie.

That means when you sign up to follow me, you get my emails in your inbox and you get this freebie.

1) CLICK HERE ON THIS LINK TO SIGN UP ON MY EMAIL LIST & TO GET THIS FREEBIE.

2) Grab the freebie now.

3) Last, look for all my emails in your inbox. Glad to have you following me!

You’ll love these other resources too:

  • Texas Native American History Quick Unit Study (Middle School)
  • How to Build the Alamo: Day 5 Hands-on Learning (Free Texas Unit Study)
  • Exploring Edible Cactus: Day 4 Hands-on Learning (The Desert) – Eat cactus like the Coahuiltecan
  • Pioneer Living and Cloth Dyeing (Hands-on History)
  • 35 Simple But Powerful American History Homeschool Resources K to 12
Cattle by Berta Hart Nance Collage

6 CommentsFiled Under: 1. My FREE Learning Printables {Any Topic}, Hands-On Activities, History Resources Tagged With: copywork, freecopywork, hands on history, hands-on activities, handson, handsonhomeschooling, handwriting, homeschool, homeschoolanguagearts, language arts, languagearts, texasunit

Cursive and Free Greece Copywork Poetry

May 25, 2013 | 1 Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

I have done many things wrong when I first started homeschooling, but I have done a lot right too.

Cursive + Copywork + Free Greece Poetry Printable

One right thing was choosing the beautiful Calvert cursive to teach all of my sons. I know that a lot of public schools and homeschoolers are moving away from teaching cursive, but I am not one of them. I tell my workshop new bees that writing or penmanship has always been the hallmark of a well educated man. Maybe that is not so true today but if you want to peek into the past, you have to know at least how to read cursive to understand historical documents. I think reading cursive and writing cursive go hand in hand. Too though I feel the time comes when you need to teach your kids typing skills. Boys especially benefit from knowing how to type because they seem to struggle with learning how to write more so than girls.  Penmanship is a time consuming skill to teach. Between the struggles of a child and the time needed to teach, a lot of educators give up on it. However, I feel in homeschooling we do have the time to teach those skills.

Choosing Calvert script at a time when I had not a clue of what I was doing ended up being one thing that helped me not to struggle so much in this area. After having taught Mr. Senior 2013 how to write in cursive, I just taught the other boys after that. I did venture out into other writing programs but came back to Calvert.

I came back to Calvert School cursive because it is a simplified cursive. By the way, Calvert script is specific only to Calvert.  It is unique and I wished more people knew what a beautiful font and cursive it is. It is neither D’Nealian or Getty Dubay but again a type of cursive used only by them.  It is simplified because it teaches manuscript uppercase letters and cursive lowercase letters. I like the fact that it is free of the superfluous loops found on the traditional Palmer method. Too, It is just plain pretty and simple as you can see from the chart above.

Cursive + Copywork + Free Greece Poetry Printable

By the time Mr. Senior 2013 was in second grade, I knew how to teach cursive as you can see from his writing above. My middle son struggled more because I ventured off into other writing programs. {Mea Culpa} That was the dumb thing I did but again he is fine. Kids are pretty hardy and let you know real quick what is not working for them.

Because I still feel like the same way as I did when I first started homeschooling about the importance of cursive, ALL of us will do copywork sometimes.  Myself included. I keep a notebook beside my bed for me.  I never tell very many people that I pen a line or two also.  Oh, I don’t write cursive as much as I use to. I use to write all their copywork out because the cursive font is not one you can find on computers or among fonts to purchase, but not so much anymore. Copywork doesn’t take a long time and it’s a way of storing exquisite words in your mind and heart. The benefits of copywork go beyond learning how to write. It gives you an overflowing amount of words and thoughts too. Especially when I do copywork from the Bible, I find it very satisfying and it leaves a lasting impression. Just a little each day is restoring.

So when doing our unit study on Ancient Civilizations, I had prepare some copywork for Tiny. I have hunted for a font that was similar to Calvert and came pretty close with the one I used in this copywork below. All of my sons know the Calvert cursive font but I still like to get pretty close.

The font is a little more slanted than I like but again close enough. The poem is Greece by Robert Frost. It is one of his more obscure and early poems.  I like it because it’s by Robert Frost, one of my favorite poets. But also it gives a glimpse into his early writing and it shows his interest in history and idealization of heroic figures. I thought this would go along with our Ancient Civilization unit so we are trying to commit this to our memory. Here are the beautiful words. Download your copy at the bottom.

Greece

They say, “Let there be no more way!”

And straightway, at the word,

Along the Mediterranean shore,

The call to arms is heard.

Greece could not let her glory fade!

Although the peace be in sight

The race the Persians was arrayed

Must fight one more good fight.

Greece! Rise triumphant.   Long ago

It was you proved to men

A few may countless hosts o’ver throw:

Now prove it once again!

Download copy work Greece poem here.

Cursive, copywork, studying the classics and the co-op have all been on our mind lately.

What about you? Have you figured out the penmanship quandary yet?

Also, look at tips in these articles. How to Easily Add Poetry to Your Homeschool Subjects, Cursive Matters; Handwriting Style Doesn’t + Free Resources and Homeschool Tips for Teaching a Young Writer to Take his Ideas from a Trickle to a Waterfall.

Hugs and love ya,

1 CommentFiled Under: 1. My FREE Learning Printables {Any Topic}, History Based, My Unit Studies {Free Printables & Hands-on Ideas}, Teach Homeschool Language Arts Tagged With: Ancient Greece, copywork, freecopywork, handwriting, homeschoolanguagearts, language arts, languagearts

A Reader Asked Is there a Spiral or Mastery Approach for English

May 21, 2013 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

A reader asked is there a spiral or mastery approach to English. Look at her question below.

Jennifer writes “I know that you wrote about Spiral VS Mastery programs for Math, but is there a such thing for English. My daughter has used 1st language lessons (1st, 2nd, 3rd) and then Rod and Staff for (4th-7th). We are pulling our hair out! Writing and English is not my thing, I would take math any day. I need help knowing what kind of learning those two Englishes are so that I can doing something different. I was thinking about Alpha Omega Life Pacs but would love some insight. Thank you for your time. I appreciate your thoughts and your response.”

The answer to your question directly is YES. There can be several approaches to how we teach grammar and writing.

{But indirectly, it matters more how we use it than the approach we choose.}

Demystifying the language arts process too by understanding that grammar and writing are two very different skill sets will help you to weigh curriculum differently.

A Reader Asked Is there a Spiral or Mastery Approach for English

Grammar a Tool or Ruler

At times it seems that grammar can be complicated to understand.

However, just like math, grammar is about learning and understanding rules. Some rules in math are simple to understand some not so simple. Does everybody master these rules? I don’t. I need constant reminders. Do these rules ever go away? No, they build on each other.

Spiral Approach

There are also exceptions to the rules in math and we make allowances for them. Learning the English language is similar.

So texts tend to be “graded” in grammar meaning they go from very simple to complex rules. Most texts, whether spiral or mastery, add some type of review.

The best way I found to use a text for grammar should be like we use a ruler to measure. Do we have the need to measure on a daily basis if we have basic skills in grammar? Absolutely not.

Grammar should be studied in use with writing to show the importance of it in the writing process. If we study grammar separately it may not hold any meaning to a child or to us.

Writing a Process

Writing on the other hand is a process. More important than memorizing a set of rules in grammar is that our children develop a strong writing foundation and equate writing with pleasure.

Writing is about communicating ideas that are important to us. Ideas can be serious, heartbreaking or even hysterical . Communicating ideas effortlessly builds meaning on the definition of the terms subject and verb.

In the writing process there is room for creativity.

Grammar rules are just explanations not creations or a creative like a composition.

Both texts you are using are very good resources but they don’t always work well with every learner or teacher.

Rod and Staff takes a more mastery approach while First Language Lessons seems to be down the middle because it uses a more incremental approach or step by step. Most grammar texts serve well as reference tools only.

Solution

Teaching writing by using something laid out like Institute for Excellence in Writing or WriteShop can bring relief when we are struggling. Rod and Staff is also a writing program with grammar but at times it can be hard to measure progress.

Approach for Homeschool English

Because good speech and writing well don’t just happen, we all need practice daily and models to follow. I don’t think you need any more grammar books but need help to apply the grammar she has learned to a writing program that will give you ways to chart her progress.

A writing program that gives you more direct instruction will put the emphasis back on why we learn the grammar rules and breathe life into language arts.

A Reader Asked Is there a Spiral or Mastery Approach for English

Your turn. Do you have any other insight or tips to share with Jennifer?

Look at these other tips:

  • 5 Signs That You Need to Switch Your Homeschool Approach
  • What Are the Top 5 Homeschool Styles
  • Top 5 Approaches New Homeschoolers Need to Know
  • 10 Key Benefits of Unit Study Curriculum (free printable)

Hugs to ya’ll..

Tina

Dynamic Reader Question Is there a Spiral Or Mastery Approach For English

Leave a CommentFiled Under: Dynamic Reader Question, Teach Homeschool Language Arts Tagged With: homeschool grammar, homeschoolanguagearts, language arts, languagearts

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