Archive by Author | Lisa McAfee

Fiction: Junior, Senior High

Apr16

It is difficult at times to find books that are appropriate for junior high students since adult themes are introduced earlier and earlier. Here are some titles that I have read that are “good stories” and I think your student(s) will enjoy. There are also senior high titles listed below them.

** JH  junior high  SH senior high

My Side of the Mountain, Jean Craighead George  JH A story of a young man living by himself in the wilderness and the adventures he has while there.

Artemis Fowl, Eion Colfer  JH Artemis is a boy genius who is spoiled and doesn’t always do the right thing. It is fantasy with fairies, but I thought it was a good adventure book for my early teen sons and led to many discussions concerning consequences and honesty. There are several in this series, all of which we enjoyed.

Redwall, Brain Jacques JH A great tale of good versus evil, with good triumphing. Junior high students will enjoy reading them on their own. If you can find this on CD, listen to it to get the full effect of the text. I love how the author narrates his own book and has other actors as well. They are well done and make the book come alive. If you like this book you will be pleased to know there are many more titles to choose from as Mr. Jacques was a prolific writer. There is also an animated series you can purchase based upon the books.

The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis JH, SH  This is a seven book series of the adventures of children who were sent away to the country during World War II.  I am recommending these for junior and senior high because of the symbolism that is in each of these books.

The Hobbit J.R.R. Tolkien SH  This is the first book in the series, Lord of the Rings, and my favorite one of the epic struggle between good and evil. This is wonderful on CD and the whole family will enjoy it.

Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle SH I never tire of reading about Sherlock Holmes. His power of observations and deduction have made these stories a favorite since they were first written in the 19th century. If you own a kindle, any of the books can be downloaded for free.

A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens SH  John 15: 13 states, “Greater man has no man, than he lay his life down for a friend” is true in this story set during the French Revolution. I have read this book a half-dozen times and it never fails to move me to tears, it is that powerful. This is another book that is free for your kindle.

The Robe, Lloyd C. Douglas SH A fictionalized account of the Roman guard who won Jesus’ robe. This book was made into a movie so you can have your student write a comparison/contrast paper between the book and movie.

Happy Reading! 🙂

The Big Top: A Circus Unit

Apr9

Who doesn’t love the circus? There are so many wonderful acts and animals for children and adults to see. If you are feeling that you need a boost to finish out your school year, here is a list of books and some activities that are circus themed.

Books

The Circus Alphabet, Linda Bronson This simple rhyming text and alphabet book is terrific for younger children.

Circus Caps for Sale Esphyr Slobodkina  A lovable hat peddler unwittingly gets involved with a circus, animals and all!

If I Ran the Circus, Dr. Seuss A rhyming text of outrageous characters and antics involving a circus.

Olivia Saves the Circus, Ian Falconer Olivia is an adorable pig who relates her circus experiences that your children will enjoy reading.

The Circus Ship, Chris Van Dusen  This is based on a true story about ship wrecked animals off the coast of Maine.

Language Arts Ideas for the Above Mentioned Books

 The Circus Alphabet

Your circus performer can choose the letters from their name to make their own circus alphabet. Here is an example:

M is for money to buy a ticket for the show.

E is for electricity to pop the popcorn fluffy and light. (All I could think of since elephant  was the obvious choice!)

L is for lion tamer bold and brave.

You can reinforce the ideas from The Circus Alphabet by going to the page, Happy Together,   to make fabric alphabet letters. I think this would be fun to hang on a clothesline like they show since in the back of my mind I can see circus performers hanging their laundry between caravans. This is an especially nice idea for preschoolers and beginning readers.

 Circus Caps for Sale

Help the cap peddler by making an advertisement for his caps.

Act out the story.

You can also read one of my all time favorite books with the same peddler called Caps for Sale

 If I Ran the Circus

Write your own story about how you would run the circus. Illustrate and share your story with someone.

Olivia Saves the Circus

After reading the book discuss fact, fiction.

Read more stories of Olivia the Pig.

The Circus Ship

Draw pictures of the animals that were shipwrecked.

Make up a different tale or poem about what happened to the shipwrecked animals.

Join a Circus (Activities)

Have a parade The circus comes to town with a parade so why not decorate bikes and wagons with streamers and balloons and have a circus parade? The children can dress up as various circus performers such as acrobats, ringmaster, clowns, etc.

Tightrope walking Use the clothesline from the fabric alphabet letters (Happy Together website) to use as a tightrope on the ground. This is a great way to  practice balancing.

Strongest Person in the World Have a contest to see who is the strongest by weight lifting. If you have 1 or 2 pound weights you can see how many times each person can lift them. Extend the contest by making  it a math lesson by graphing the results.

Lion Tamer  The children can take turns being the tamer and the lions. This can be done by setting up an obstacle course that the lions must complete upon command. Your obstacle course could include the following:  green and red construction paper circles, a jump rope, and a hula hoop. These are just a few ideas, if you are creative, don’t stop there!

The lion tamer would give directions and say something like this,

” Lions, jump from the green circle to the red circle.”

“Lions, crawl on the ground until you reach the tightrope.”

” Walk across the tightrope and do a somersault at the end.”

“Jump into the hula hoop. Put your paws in the air and roar as loud as you can!”

Switch and let someone else be the new lion tamer.

You can make the lion act as long as you wish. Several sets of directions can be typed out ahead of time for reading skills or you can let them improvise, depending upon how much you want to put into this. By doing this activity  listening and following directions are employed in a fun way.

Acrobats Do you have a child who enjoys gymnastics? They could create an act by doing cartwheels, backbends, and somersaults.

Clowns  A circus is not complete without clowns! You could make balloon animals and come up with a funny act. Have your clowns wear face paint and pantomime. Let the audience guess what they are pantomiming. Here are some ideas for pantomime:

Eating popcorn, playing instruments (trumpet, trombone, bass drum, flute, etc.), selling concessions through the crowd, giving away flowers, feeding the animals, etc.

Have fun!

Good Reads: Middle School, Junior High

Apr2

I haven’t had a lot of time recently to read many books, but I wanted to pass along a few great titles of books that I have had an opportunity to read. These titles are sure to not only interest middle school and junior high students, but they can be read aloud in the evenings to the entire family.

If you haven’t heard of this series I think you are going to love reading them. It is called the Wilderking Trilogy, which is set in the Middle Ages period. It is a terrific retelling of the story of David, the biblical character. The story of David and Goliath is one that children are told repeatedly in Sunday School, but do they know what happened before or after he fights the giant?  This series is a wonderful compliment to the bible and will lend itself to discussion about being faithful and loyal against all odds. I have just found out that there is a prequel that will be released soon and I am looking forward to reading more about Aidan and the kingdom of Corenwald.

The Bark of the Bog Owl, Jonathan Rogers

The Secret of the Swamp King, Jonathan Rogers

The Way of the Wilderking, Jonathan Rogers

As a follow-up to the books, you will want to check out Jonathan Rogers’ Feechie Film Festival. Funny tales are found here of whether people believe in these wild creatures [or not].

Strange Journey Back, Paul McCusker [Focus on the Family’s Adventures in Odyssey].  If you are familiar with the  audio series of the Adventures in Odyssey, this is the printed format. My sons loved the audio series that Focus on the Family produced and listened to them daily on the radio.

Happy reading! 🙂

Homeschool Product Catalogs

Mar26

As home school conventions approach and school is starting to wrap you, one’s mind tends to go toward the products you’d like to read about in order to make decisions for next year. I like to look at catalogs and read the reviews of products from a few trusted sources. Where do you start? Here are the companies that I rely on to help me with my decisions.

Rainbow Resource Catalog The granddaddy of them all, this catalog gives a description about each curriculum product they sell. I appreciate that and refer many home school families to them for that very reason. If you would get a paper catalog it 3 inches thick and has over 1,300 pages! I just looked! Click here for their website.

Christian Book Distributors sells individual products as well as packaged curriculum.

I realize that some of you are not interested in or comfortable with putting all of your own curriculum together and want a package instead.  Here is a list  of companies who offer just that!

Sonlight offers a literature-based, Christ-centered curriculum from preschool through high school. I used their American History program with some modifications and read many of their read-aloud books to my sons.

Timberdoodle has been in business for 25 years and has first-hand experience with nearly all of the products they recommend.

Do you have a favorite company that offers homeschool products and curriculum that I haven’t mentioned? Feel free to add to the list.

Helping Young Readers: Book Resources

Mar19

One of the most rewarding events that has occurred in teaching my own children and others is when letters and sounds letters go from just symbols on a page to actual words that have meaning. I think it is as exciting as the first steps a child takes when they begin walking. The world opens up and there is no stopping a reader after that!

The process of reading can be arduous for all involved. 😦  I like to find books that will help you and your child as you go through the reading process and help provide reading independence. You Read to Me, I’ll Read to You is a series that you and your young reader share together. You read one portion of a short story and  your child reads the other portion. There are even times where you read parts of the book together. This is known as choral reading and is one language arts standard that is covered in primary grades. I think this is important since reading takes a lot of “brain power” and can be overwhelming, plus it’s fun!

This series can be used in several ways. You can have two of your children take turns reading aloud; a child and an adult take turns; or an advanced and beginner reader alternate reading the text. The selections are not for the student who is just beginning to read, but rather for a student who is ready for  more than simple sentences such as, “See Spot Run.” These books are a bridge to chapter books for students in grades 2-3 with a collection of poems and 2 page stories that include rhythm, rhyming, and repetition; all techniques that give young readers confidence they need to succeed. I have only featured three books in this series so if you like what you see there are several more to enjoy. Another bonus is that I picked them up at the library and  some of them are American Library Notable books they should be easy to find at your library. Happy reading!

You Read to Me, I’ll Read to You: Very Short Stories to Read  Together, by Mary Ann Hoberman are modern-day nursery rhymes that have catchy phrases and fun pictures.

You Read to Me, I’ll Read to You:Very Short Fairy Tales to Read Together, by Mary Ann Hoberman include tales of Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, and the Little Red Hen with some surprise plot twists and endings.

You Read to Me, I’ll Read to You: Very Short Fables to Read Together, by Mary Ann Hoberman is a retelling of the classic Aesop’s fables that you and your reader are sure to enjoy.

** I have been “field testing” these books for the past 3 weeks and the girls I am tutoring love these books!