Teaching with Ticia: Yankee Doodle

I love Yankee Doodle.  It's a fun song, it's easy to teach to kids, and there's history behind it.

I'm bringing this up because we're about to hit 4th of July and this is a great time to teach this song to our kids.  Ages ago, I wrote my first post about it with just the poem, here's a short mini-unit to do on this fun song.

LANGUAGE ARTS

1.  Look for the rhyming words.  Check out Mary Ann Hoberman's Yankee Doodle book.  It's a great example of making a parody of a rhyme and still keeping the original flavor.  What part of the rhyme is over the top and what parts could really happen?

2.  Look up what a macaroni is.  Write both a denotative (dictionary definition) and a connotative (your own words) definition.  It is a great way to truly internalize a word's meaning.

MATH

1.  Graphing- graph the vowels or choose a few consonants to graph.  It's a great exercise in prediction skills to think of which one will happen most frequently.

SOCIAL STUDIES

1.  Search for pictures of a "Macaroni."  Then draw what someone might look like today when we say "Macaroni."

2.  Read and find out the history behind the song Yankee Doodle.  Would you have been proud to be called a Yankee Doodle if you knew it was an insult?

COOKING

1.  Make hasty pudding like in the second verse of the song.

MUSIC AND MOVEMENT

1.  Yankee Doodle was nearly chosen for our national anthem.  Listen to "My Country Tis of Thee," "Star Spangled Banner," and "This Land is My Land."  All of these songs have been put forth at one time for a national anthem.  If you were choosing a song, what would you choose?

2.  Try marching in beat to the music.  Or play the game found here.

ART

1.  Make a newspaper hat and decorate it with feathers to make it a "Macaroni hat."

2.  Since this is a patriotic song, try making art using only red, white, and blue.  How does the picture turn out?  What color stands out most?  Try combining different mediums.  Does it change the artwork if you paint and then color with crayons?

What would you do with Yankee Doodle?

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Teaching with Ticia: mini-patriotic unit

Fourth of July is around the corner, and I know I'm starting to think about what we can do to celebrate it and teach my kids about our great country.  I actually did this as part of our Maryland state study, but I'm going to expand this out from what we did for it with some more ideas.

Here's a list of books/CDs I found at our library.  The last one is an Adventures in Odyssey that nicely acts out the events.  My kids are big fans of it, and it's a different way to go about the lesson.

ART

For full instructions head to my post about the Star Spangled Banner, but essentially. You're going to cut out the fort and ships attacking it, and glue them on, and then paint.  Adding in flecks of red, orange, and yellow for the explosions (the rockets red glare).

Printable here.

Alternative project: illustrate each verse and make it into a multi-page book.

SOCIAL STUDIES

Obviously, there's the War of 1812.  You can talk about why the United States was fighting England, again.  Create a timeline of when different battles happened.

In geography you can find the state of Maryland on a map, and look for the city of Baltimore.

LANGUAGE ARTS

Read the lyrics, and look for the rhymes.  This is going to be harder than a Dr. Seuss book because it's not a straight ABAB rhyming scheme.  Star Spangled Banner lyrics.

MATH

Study the flag.  Count the number of stripes.  How many white, how many red?  Look at the pattern of the stars.  How many are in each row?  Do all of the rows have the same number?  Look at a picture of the different flags.  How many stars were on the flag during the War of 1812?  What different shapes have they made with the stars?

MUSIC and MOVEMENT

This is a very martial song, and to me calls for marching.  You can also teach them the etiquette for the song, how you're supposed to stand, where to put your hand, what to do if you're wearing a hat.

SCIENCE

You can make a rocket.......

Don't forget on 4th of July we're going to link up any and all posts about Pennsylvania, it could be your visit there, or an activity you did about the state, but I can't wait to see what you guys have done!

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Patriotic Crafts and Activities

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Thank you to everyone who sent us these last minute submissions! This post literally won't have gotten done without you. We realized late last week that we'd never posted a request for them, and that the Fourth was right around the corner!

Let's start off our post devoted to patriotic and Fourth of July crafts with a BANG!

Anne at Teaching Two sent us this fireworks craft using cupcake liners.

Jedda from This Little Project has been causing some excitement around her house with these edible rocket fireworks! Be sure to see her post for the fun edible sparklers too!

We also got a yummy looking and patriotic looking snack from Amber at Everything Except the Grill, checkout her pretzel sparklers and graham crackers with froasting and sprinkles. What a sweet way to celebrate our county!

And now for some Red, White, and Blue patriotic and flag crafts!

Frequent contributor Kim from Four Crazy Kings is now also a featured writer at Grow In My Heart, a new adoption blog. See her first article to find out how to make this star mobile and patriotic clip.

Kristi at Miller Moments made this fun tear art project after reading a great book, go see her post to find out which one it was!

Crystal at The Harris Family fixed the problem of not having any patriotic decorations by making these two projects with her daughter. The window hanging sounds like a lot of fun to make!

The Masked Mommy submitted a patriotic painting project!

Susana at Our Homeschool Fun sent us these two fun flag crafts.

We love this open ended collage sent to us by Shannon at Teaching My Little Bookworm.

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Happy Memorial Day

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For those of you who are not familiar with this holiday, today is Memorial Day in the United States, where a majority of our readership is from. In the US, it is a three day weekend for most of us and the start of grilling season. Memorial Day is also a time to remember the men and women who have defended our country. To honor those who have fought and returned and those who, sadly, have not.

A lot of us take our freedoms for granted, and while we may not all agree on the reasons why our armed forces are sent places, I feel that we should all honor and respect those who are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to protect us and our country. It is not easy to leave families and friends behind and trade our lives in for whatever lies ahead during a period of deployment to unfamiliar places and I respect that immensely.

Last year a close neighbor was faced with the possibility her husband would be called to reenter active service leaving her as a single mother with three young children. That's the first time, the reality of being a military family really hit me as her friends and family scrambled to find ways to support her and prepare her girls for their father's imminent departure. Luckily for her, her husband did not end up being reactivated but I know that for many other families that is not the case.

I hope that this Memorial Day we all take a moment to honor and thank our armed forces, especially those who will never rejoin their families for a barbecue or enjoy the simple pleasures of a summer's day. This year I will also take time to thank the families of our military men and women, who surely also make a very big sacrifice for our country.

Katie from Katie's Nesting Spot

PS: We hope you have a wonderful Memorial Day and will join us for the kick off event of the Summer Prize Picnic tomorrow. We've got a wonderful company to share with you!

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