Matsuo Bashō wandered by foot through medieval Japan and kept a diary of his journeys—prose woven with haiku.
There is sublime simplicity in this poet’s observations:
Autumn moonlight—
a worm digs silently
into the chestnut.
Haiku are the little powerhouses of the poetry world! They are a fun challenge involving the best of word play mixed with a little finger counting to get the syllables just right!
Here’s a little lesson to help you get started:
1. Haiku poems consist of a three-line stanza that has a total of 16-18 *syllables written in the following pattern:
Line 1: 5ish syllables
Line 2: 7ish syllables
Line 3: 5ish syllables
*Slight variations in syllabication is appropriate as this helps the poet maintain the “one thought in three lines” rule.
2. Haiku poems like photographs, capture moments in time. The “haiku moment” snaps a scene for the reader to experience.
3. Haiku poems were originally written as introductions to much longer works of poetry and should be written as one thought in three lines.
Ready to write?
A great way to begin haiku is with a short descriptive sentence:
Beautiful old maple tree, your autumn leaves are floating to rest at the foot of your trunk.
Count the syllables—this one has 22 total—about 5 too many! Next, break your sentence to a lovely little haiku.
Beautiful old maple tree, your autumn leaves are floating to rest at the foot of your trunk. Now the sentence is 19 syllables, ready to break into the three-line haiku:
Beautiful old maple
your autumn leaves are floating
to the foot of your trunk.
Here’s another: In autumn leaves of the Silver Maple turn ruddy and breezily fall.
Count the syllables—this one is 17 syllables. Perfect! Break it to haiku:
In autumn, leaves of
Silver Maple turn ruddy
and breezily fall.
Go for a walk. What is your neck of the woods like during fall? Collect some fallen leaves in a basket. Make simple observations. Begin with a sentences and move to haiku of autumn. Write away!
“Whatever you do in life, if you want to be creative and intelligent, and develop your brain, you must do everything with the awareness that everything, in some way, connects to everything else.” ~Leonardo da Vinci
Observation begins with a question: What am I seeing? In a world filled to the brim with stimulation, it is easy to take our senses for granted. Though we are usually quick to have thoughts on things that we taste and smell, sight (of all things) can often be overlooked. We see so many things on a daily basis that it’s easy to forget to stop and really look.
There is nothing like art-making to engage students in active learning. Leonardo da Vinci, the quintessential Renaissance Man, made over 13,000 journal observations during the course of his lifetime, and as he did, he not only gained an enormous body of knowledge, but also created masterworks and made significant discoveries that he generously shared with the world. His influence is far reaching.
Over the course of 20 weeks, students will learn to observe from no other than the Renaissance Man himself! Students will research the life of Leonardo Da Vinci and learn to create observational drawings. Watch for our brand new unit to be released early this summer.
Books for primary readers are categorized into levels of difficulty—Just Right Readers.
Some of these books are categorized by grade level (GRL), some by a developmental readiness assessment (DRA), and others still are categorized by a Lexile measure. The purpose of these readers is to provide opportunities for children to read as they are mastering the patterns of phonics.
Hatchling Volume 1 for kindergarten and Hatchling Volume 2 for 1st grade, systematically introduce students to phonics for reading and writing. In the Teacher Helps that is tied to both units, we offer information and strategies including this tidbit at the top of page 9:
“Phonics is a method of teaching students to read and write by helping them HEAR.”
In the English language, there are 44 sounds that make up every single spoken word. These sound bites are called phonemes. The 26 letters of the alphabet are combined in various ways to replicate the sounds we hear. These are called graphemes. There are around 250 graphemes to write the 44 phonemes! Phenomenal, right? This is the heart of phonics.
During kindergarten and 1st grade, students using our Hatchling curriculum are introduced to over 150 of these graphemes setting them firmly on their way to reading and writing well. As students are introduced to phonics, it is important to practice both reading and writing. Early on, during kindergarten, students will have limited skills. At first, once the consonant and short vowel sounds are mastered, they will be able to read and write “can” or “fun” or “let” with ease. However, they might write “pepl” for “people” because those are the sounds they have mastered. As more complex graphemes are introduced (consonant blends, digraphs, long vowel patterns and so on), the reading and writing lexicon increases.
This is where Just Right Readers enter the scene.
Amelia Bedelia brought delight to my childhood. I mean, she took every figure of speech and turned it upside down, literally! She made me laugh out loud! “Dress the chicken,” seemed an odd task to Amelia Bedelia. But she obediently got on with the task and suddenly the chicken was dressed in overalls! Once upon a time, back in my day, this series of stories was not a Just Right Reader, but rather a wonderful series of picture books. The first twelve books in the series are written by Peggy Parish. After her death, nephew Herman Parish, continued the series. Since 2009, the stories have been adapted for part of the I Can Read series published by Harper Kids.
Just Right Readers are just right for primary readers. So fill a basket with wonderful stories for your Kindergartener, 1st, or 2nd grader. I promise Amelia Bedelia will make them chuckle! I promise she will stand the test of time.
We never planned on homeschooling. Then suddenly our first child was getting closer to school age and the big question hung over our heads, “Where does she go to school?”
We were in our first small starter home, the last one we could possibly afford left in Orange County. We were not in a good school district. Let’s just say our local school was rated quite low. We thought of the private route and started doing research. That led to us to multiplying tuition times 3 children (our two sons following our beautiful daughter) and it seemed like a plan we could never sustain. On top of these realities, my husband and I were both quite aware that our daughter was going to learn differently—dyslexia ran in our family and we were noticing some of the signs.
Suddenly, paying for private school we couldn’t really afford and having my daughter away from us for 7 hours a day starting in kindergarten didn’t appear like the right plan. At this time, one of my best friends from childhood discovered homeschooling. Next thing I knew, I was ordering books, attending talks and learning about homeschooling. Up to this point I had never heard of anyone who homeschooled and it was quite a mystery to me.
What I did hear over and over from truly everyone was: “Read to your kids!”
This was no problem! Because I loved reading to my kids, this was an easy task. I loved snuggling, reading aloud, discussing stories, making up stories, acting out stories, listening to stories while we drove. I was told if you read to your kids, they will eventually read. I read and pointed out words and letters, yet, my daughter did not read. Not only did she not read, but she couldn’t even sing the ABC song correctly, let alone identify the letters! I would consistently sit in groups of other homeschooling moms who would say, “Don’t worry it will come.”
During this time, I met my mentor, friend, and eventually boss through another homeschooling parent. My mentor ran a private school and also had developed a unique language arts curriculum and ran her own publishing company—Blackbird & Company. During this part of the journey I learned why phonics is important. I learned terms like phoneme, grapheme, digraphs, CVC words,syllables and so much more. I think I knew these concepts on some level. I had attended public school and had done quite well in my elementary school years, I was even placed in the gifted programs. But like most people I don’t remember being taught to read.
In the homeschooling world, this concept of “being able to read” always boiled down to a natural process.
This is, of course, partially true. And maybe it is completely true for some children, but for others this “natural process” needs little coaxing. I felt rather lost and ill-equipped. Since this time, I have met many homeschooling parents at conferences. What I love about my job is that I feel I am just another mom talking to other moms about tools that worked for me. Many of the moms I talk to don’t know what a phoneme or grapheme is, or what CVC even stands for (consonant, vowel, consonant)! I am honored and grateful every time they ask. It is not a sign of intelligence, or an indicator that you will be a good teacher if aren’t familiar with these terms. I think quite the opposite is true.
I think the best teachers aren’t afraid to say, “I don’t know!” The best teachers readily say, “Can you help me?”
Blackbird & Company curriculum was a breakthrough for me and my children because it broke down the concepts and helped me understand these new terms via hands-on-tools. This led me to becoming Barton Trained, to a study of the Orton-Gillingham method, and a deep dive into the foundational terms that are the foundations of the English language.
This month we will begin to post videos of phonics tips and terms to accompany Hatchling, Volume 1 learning. In these videos we discuss terms you may not recognize and give you tips to support your student in early learning—especially when a student may need a little coaxing! We are adding pages of terms, extra words to work on, and extended lessons to accompany our materials. Videos for Hatchling, Volume 2 will follow late winter, early spring. Our beautifully simple, yet full, Teacher’s Helps is, of course, included in our curated Hatchling kits. Our videos will expand on the tools provided, allowing you to learn right along side your student.
When I met my mentor, I was so overwhelmed and everything felt so complicated. What Blackbird & Company curriculum did for me was take me back to the basics and kept it simple. We started learning what was important—all the right terms—together, slowly and well. You can too!
No TIP today, rather, a reminder and an encouragement!
While reading through our Blackbird & Company ELA Benchmark materials, I was awestruck.
Just to hold in my hand a concise stack of pages detailing what a child will learn over their childhood—just in learning to read and write—was both a testimony to what it means to be human and to the powerhouse that is the human brain. Let’s take, for example, the first thing on the list. ”Holds book right side up, turns pages moving from front to back.” We have all seen a toddler holding a book upside down, pretending to read. It’s really a small miracle how one day something just clicks in their brain and they know to turn the book around.
When you think of all the tiny parts of language arts coming together over the span of a child’s early years, it can seem like a daunting task to be the teacher.
How will I hit all those small pieces?
Having two adult children, it’s fun to reflect back on those years and realize how many of the bits and pieces naturally came to my children (at different speeds, of course). I didn’t actually have a checklist of all the small parts (thank goodness or I might have freaked out). Don’t get me wrong, we had our big bumps, especially my son, who did a stint of ELA remediation at Linda Mood Bell. But, it is amazing, each child’s capacity to learn to decode and encode language while growing a love for good books and becoming motivated to share their unique ideas. I just felt this moment of extreme gratitude for what it means to be human, gratitude that all us educators are in this rich vein of motivating young writers to eventually raise their voices in the wide world.
Comment your own haiku below using one of Shakespeare’s celebrated words—see photo below to review—to be entered into our giveaway! To receive additional entries, head over to our Instagram or Facebook pages, be sure to follow us, and tag a friend on our latest “12 Days of Haiku” post.
We will be giving away three sets of Shakespeare’s Words & Will’s Words. Three lucky winners will be announced TOMORROW (12/15/2023) on Instagram and Facebook!
Chilly white blanket atop the city streets is an invitation to play.
Chilly white blanket
atop the city streets is an
invitation to play.
Now you try!
Here’s how to enter:
Enter your own haiku here using today’s Shakespeare word—invitation—to be entered into our giveaway! To receive additional entries, head over to our Instagram or Facebook pages, be sure to follow us, and tag a friend on our latest “12 Days of Haiku” post.
We will be giving away three sets of Shakespeare’s Words & Will’s Words. Three lucky winners will be announced 12/15/2023 on Instagram and Facebook!
Stars in the sky, your multitudinous lights twinkle a wintery song.
Stars in the sky, your
multitudinous lights twinkle
a wintery song.
Now you try!
Here’s how to enter:
Enter your own haiku here using today’s Shakespeare word—multitudunous—to be entered into our giveaway! To receive additional entries, head over to our Instagram or Facebook pages, be sure to follow us, and tag a friend on our latest “12 Days of Haiku” post.
We will be giving away three sets of Shakespeare’s Words & Will’s Words. Three lucky winners will be announced 12/15/2023 on Instagram and Facebook!
