reflect multiple ages and stages using
the same guide. And don’t forget that
the guides come in two age ranges: Pre
K–K and 1st–3rd.
The DVD we received was Dive Into
Diversity at the girls’ request. It talks
about the diversity that you find in the
ocean and how ocean animals use each
other to survive. They were very excited when it finally arrived and couldn’t
wait to get started. Funny thing, the
first chapter is on Night Diving, which
we were able to watch the first night—
perfect timing! The kids were all enthralled—even my 3-year-old!
Doesn’t that just make you want to
jump right into the ocean with her? I
know I did, and so did my kiddos. I
was even able to tell them how I used
to scuba dive just like Ocean Annie, which led us on a whole series of
conversations.
Since the DVD has “chapters,” I wanted to take the DVD a little at a time and
fully explore each chapter to its fullest,
so until just recently we had only seen
the first three chapters. Each chapter has
at least six to eight activities for both the
PreK–K level as well as the 1st–3rd level.
The chapters on the DVD are replicated
in The Educator Guide. Here’s a list of
the chapters: Night Diving, Coral Reef
Living, Be a Submarine Pilot, Swim in
a Kelp Forest, Sea Animals With Backbones, Invertebrates of the Sea, Dive
Into Diversity, and Crusty Crustaceans.
Annie Crawley and Michelle Hoffman Trotter really outdid themselves
with the guides. The PDF versions
come in two parts ( 1–4, 5–8) corresponding with the same chapter on the
DVD. Each chapter’s activities cover a
variety of subjects, including math, science, geography, English, and much,
much more. Some of the activities we
completed with the first two chapters
(Night Diving and Dive Into Diversity), including Coral Code Riddle, Bioluminescence, Celebrate Diversity, My
Ocean at Night, and many others. We
are in the process of working through
My Ocean at Night, which is creating a
diorama of the night ocean. (Read the
rest of the review here.) See what the
Crew had to say about all the reviews
(here).
—Product review by Kellyann Walker,
Schoolhouse Review Crew, blogging at
Walking Home ...
WriteShop Junior, Book D
WriteShop
Nancy I. Sanders
www.WriteShop.com
909-989-5576
As part of the TOS Crew Team, I was
given the opportunity to review one
of WriteShop’s new items, WriteShop
Junior, Book D. I was thrilled because
it would be perfect to use with my two
middle boys Caleb (5th grade) and
Brent (4th grade).
WriteShop Junior is geared toward
grades 3–6. It can also be used for 7th
grade with a child who hasn’t had any
prior writing experience. If you have a
3rd-grader with limited writing experience or writing at grade level, WriteShop
Junior, Book D, would be a good place to
start. Both my boys have used copywork,
dictation, and narration in the past but
have had no creative writing experience.
WriteShop is an incremental, step-by-step program, meaning that previously taught skills will emerge and be
taught again in later levels. Keep this in
mind when placing your child. (. . .)
For this review I received the printed
edition, but since I was using the program with two students I purchased the
Level 1 Fold-N-Go Grammar Pack E-Book, which made it easier to copy and
make a second set of the Fold-N-Go
Grammar file folders for Brent. What
kind of writing assignments will be
covered in WriteShop Junior Letter of
Invitation, Humor, Adventure, Science
Fiction, Mystery, Haiku, Folktales, Historical Fiction, Personal Narrative, and
Expository Writing.
What about grammar? With the
Fold-N-Go Grammar pack your child
will cover Punctuation Marks, Self
Editing, Nouns, Pronouns, Verbs,
Adjectives, Adverbs, Prepositions,
Capitalization, and Learning to Use
References. I like the concept of the
Fold-N-Go Grammar pack; it contains
pages to be assembled using file fold-
ers. Each child will need to have his
own Fold-N-Go Grammar file folder to
refer to when needed.
What did I think about WriteShop Junior I loved the Teacher’s Guide. As a
busy mom schooling six children, having a well-organized teacher’s manual
is a must! With WriteShop, preparing
for the week was simple. On Sunday
night, I’d look over the week’s lesson,
pull the worksheets that would be
needed for the assignments, and gather
any supplies needed. The step-by-step
instructions, again, made the program
user-friendly.
The boys have enjoyed the program
too, especially the Incredible Shrink-
ing Machine lesson. One activity had
us laughing because the boys were
instructed to write something funny.
It could have real people and unreal
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