Description
The author’s goal in writing this series is to “instill a love of great literature in children, expand their ability to read intelligently and deeply, improve their communication abilities, and prepare them for more advanced language arts concepts.” The three key components to this series are literature, grammar and mechanics, and composition.
The Student Workbook explains the lesson’s concept for the child and includes Reading Journal Pages, Dictionary/Alphabet Pages, and Sentence Puzzle Pages. Workbook answers answers are in the Teacher’s Guide. The Workbook and Guide can be purchased separately or in a pack with Random House Book of Poetry for Children. You’ll need something else for teaching spelling, learning to read, and penmanship. Some of the lessons’ content:
- Capitalization: titles, proper nouns
- Regular/irregular plurals
- Parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs
- Synonyms/antonyms
- Punctuating dialogue
- Subject/predicate
- Diagramming sentences
- Poetry terms: line, stanza, rhyme, repetition, imagery, rhyme, vivid words
- Fiction/ nonfiction; fantasy/realism
- Writing: personal essay, explanatory, essay, friendly letter, poem, biography
If you want to extend reading time, assignments are given for the books Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne and Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling. Lessons use the following books, listed in the order in which they are introduced, which can be obtained either from the library or purchased used or new:
- Max’s Words by Kate Banks
- The Old Woman Who Named Things by Cynthia Rylant
- The Bee Tree by Patricia Polacco
- Teedie, The Story of Young Teddy Roosevelt by Don Brown
- Insect Detective by Steve Voake
- The Three Questions by Jon Muth
- La Mariposa by Francisco Jimenez
- Random House Book of Poetry for Children by Jack Prelutsky and Arnold Lobel
- Sequoyah by James Rumford
- Anatole by Eve Titus
- Pop’s Bridge by Eve Bunting
- The Patchwork Quilt by Valerie Flournoy
- Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig
- The Extraordinary Mark Twain (According to Susy) by Barbara Kerley
- The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg
- The Enormous Crocodile by Roald Dahl
- Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin
- Many Moons by James Thurber
- Sam, Bangs and Moonshine by Evaline Ness
- This Is New York by Miroslav Sasek
- The Bears on Hemlock Mountain by Alice Dalgliesh
- A Mouse Called Wolf by Dick King-Smith
- The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner
- 26 Fairmont Avenue by Tomie DePaolo
- Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard Atwater
