Today's crush is on a series of book that SHow how to DRAW an animal, then WRITE about that animal. It's awesomeness is blew my mind. Kate and I already have a journal page we do on a semi-daily basis. It's simple. Kate draws something and then she writes something.
I have to tell you that this is THE MOST FAVORITE-IST thing we do. seriously.
I love disciphering each word and sentence. Since last Spring we have seen Kate's handwriting change and smooth out - often times I am able to hone in on a letter she is getting a bad habit about. Her words are phonetically spelled which means they are often wrong but she is getting her sounds and really putting to use. She suddenly started using periods one day and even commas. I was corrected when reading her journal page out loud one day because I did not pause long enough where she had placed a comma.
I love hearing what she is thinking about. It's all amazing.
This book series is a little challenging for Kate since the sentences are big and full - and she has to copy the text rather than forge ahead on her own - but I love it and I think that many kids through elementary would enjoy it.
Being the artsy type - I really enjoy the drawing portion. Kate has really grown in her confidence in drawing new things. She is pretty confident in most thing but she doesn't like to mess up her drawings or not have them come out the way she imagines them. I believe that just doing the step by step drawing she has (without talking about it or teaching it) gained a foundation for how objects can be drawn from shapes, how to connect the shapes and proportions.
All of the books have a theme - this one was animals in different environments....river, pond, dry grassland, ocean. It is great supportive material for any study.
As if drawing, writing and facts were not enough....
The book even talks about how to create backgrounds and perspective.... See the right hand page - it's showing/teaching the 'Rule of Thirds'. The photographer in me just squealed.
find, check out & enjoy.
