Tag Archive | Poetry

Nursery Rhymes Uncovered and Continued

Just in time for us to restart this program. The kids are bugging me constantly to pull out the nursery rhyme book. We really enjoyed our look into history last year and with the twins one year older I am hoping their enthusiasm to find out the weird but true will help keep me on my toes!!!  

 

So, as I promised HERE… the further adventures (and really mostly resources) of our foray into Nursery Rhymes. I try to pick rhymes that I remember and that may be at least a fun challenge to learn for half of the kids. As I am sure those who are on my Facebook or Instagram have noticed, not all of our rhymes have gone over well with the minions.

Hush a Bye Baby/Rock a Bye Baby is another of those. While looking into cradleboards was fun and interesting and the multiple origin theories fun to explore some of the kids were put out by the “meanness” of the original rhyme. Echo espeically disliked the idea that ANY babies were harmed in the making of the story. After all for the rhyme to have been written she believed at least one baby had to fall. So of course we included the “not scary” version in our copy work. You can read about that version HERE. I didn’t make them memorize this vsersion as it is not common, but it was fun to read through the sweetened up version and wonder if it was necessary to do so.

We made sure to do some research about Cradleboards as soon as it was made clear that that is what the poem is referring to. And am I ever glad we did, they are BEAUTIFUL! And then, at the science museum, we found an actual example of one. You can read all about them HERE.

There is always Wiki for a brief write up HERE, try Song Facts for more information about various uses of this rhyme HERE, and Mom.me for a dark origin HERE.

MotherGoose.com has a cute colouring page HERE. We did a craft for this rhyme with Education.com called Baby Footprints. As you can see from the additional picture… we really didn’t stop there!IMG_20170809_133712_200

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3 Blind Mice was our next nursery rhyme. It was sadly much delayed with noise from siding construction. We could not get our video recorded and everyone was out of sorts so rather large amounts of work did NOT get done. BUT I do have links to share…

KidZone had an Itsy Bisty Book to share HERE. DLTK has a fun number sheet related to our rhyme HERE. A cute shaped colouring picture HERE was used by the kids. Check out Reading With Kids for another colouring page HERE

For research purposes check out rhymes.org.uk HERE or All Nursery Rhymes HERE. For a good joke page with animal related jokes, and most of the way down one specifically about the 3 blind mice head to THIS Activity Village link. Education.com has a list of brief information for various rhymes including this one HERE.

Hot Cross Buns came next with a lovely printable of pennies and buns that I printed in colour and laminated from Play at Home Teacher HERE. DLTK has a printable recipe HERE. Sadly we did not have time to bake buns but we saved the recipe for the holiday season to add to our cooking experience.

There is definitely religious significance to the rhyme in the subject matter, so if you are researching be aware. But the actual origins of the rhyme are as a selling tool. End of story. So not the most exciting. Though the kids loved singing it with the extended verse about having a daughter or son. You can read about it all on Powerfulwords.info HERE, Rhymes.org.uk HERE, Smithsonianmag.com HERE.

Kiddyhouse.com has both verses HERE.

Now as an additional bit of info Zander took some time and researched Mother Goose herself. Not an easy woman to pin down. But you can do your own reading with our resources. Bluebonkers.com HERE.

Back to the rhymes and Ring Around The Rosies (which does not have the origin story most people think it does). Echo really enjoyed learning the dance.

I will say straight off, I too thought it was about the plague. Wiki has a good run down HERE. Library of Congress has a helpful site HERE, Dictionary.com has information HERE. Dover Publications has a great colouring page with the lines of the rhyme in a traditional style HERE. And that is where we ended our series. Check back in the next months to see how we get on with our reboot!!

Lava Lamps and Other Items of Interest

January 8-9

Poor Echo has not had the best of days… a fever and a fuss. She was up until 3:30 am in the morning crying off and on. I am hoping that now she has moved onto fever and nappy she will get better. Though Nana and Baba pitched in on the wearing out and took ALL of the kids on a walk to the park in the snow. Fresh air when dress appropriately ALWAYS helps.

Poor sick baby

Ken went out in the morning to get a voucher so that in the evening he could get the very last book in the Robert Jordan series signed. Quite the commitment. When he got back we went out and got my immigration photos  taken. Just those two questions to answer and the forms go in the mail! What an exciting thought.

We made a special lunchtime call to Grandma back in Alberta… well with 4 of the 5 kids to say hello. Now that things are settled down more I am hoping to be able to get the kids in on more calls. If anyone feels the need I CAN give you the home number to call in and say hello. We ARE home most of the time. The kids do love catching up and saying hello.

Wild Kratts once again came through with ANOTHER interesting animal… SHARKS! The boys are retaining more and more from each episode.

Sharks!

In a spontaneous need to buy Ken purchased a lava lamp for the sitting room here, something his mom has mentioned liking and his dad hating… hilarity has ensued.

The Baba lamp

We are still working our way through interesting items in regards to Japanese culture… today’s focus – Sumo wrestlers. Thank you Activity Village for worksheets HERE. Zander worked with Emanuel on this one, so I had them tell me what they learned after our video and wrote it on the page.

Zander and Gavin with their new knowledge

And for a terrific video…

In all honesty, what REALLY interested them was the fact that the wrestlers were so large, oh and that the only eat two meals a day. That was definitely NOT ok with Zander who stated he needed to eat MORE often then that! We found a great educational site on Japan for kids HERE. There is a link on the page to go to a Sumo game  that is a quick play as well!

We finally assembled our Kokeshi dolls. They turned out so pretty!

Our dolls

Really in the two days it was a Japan focus with a side of Canadian poetry and stories. All thanks to the Christmas package Grandma sent down from Alberta. Zander and Emanuel took their inspiration From the ABC book A Northern Alphabet by Ted Harrison. We took a letter and they each worked with me to come up with a sentence full of their letter and then it was illustrated. 

A Northern Alphabet

Zander and Emanuel’s

Gavin had his chance to do an illustration alone. He chose to look at a Canadian poetry book – See Saw Saskatchewan. Gavin amazes me with his ability to mimic other styles! The picture he drew for his poem was spot on!

So sweet

We are really tapping into our Canadian roots this time. It is fun to read something that has so much resonance with us. Add in dinosaurs and other random bits of fun and I think we are doing quite well this week!

Our Kitty girls