English Arts - Writing Topic Prompter

Medieval writing desk (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

     Ever want to sit down and write a story, but your mind is blank?
     I often wish there were some magical way to break down those mental blocks, whether for writing or art or anything creative.
     Well, this free tool I found could help me, plus homeschool and classroom students for those journals or stories they need to write.
     I also figure it could help us artist-types who want to think of a topic for their art journals or next painting or artist trading card. It could even jog us scrapbookers into designing a page they wouldn't have thought to make otherwise.
    Here's how Homeschool Launch describes this free online tool, the English Arts - Writing Topic Prompter: 
     "The hardest part of writing a story is starting it! Use this story prompter to generate some ideas and get your creative juices flowing.

Writing
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

     If you type in a name, the prompter will use it. Make sure to specify "boy name" or "girl name" - or you may end up with some silly results! If you don't type in a name, the prompter will choose one for you randomly."
     I tried it just now, and when I entered my youngest son Noah's name, this is the prompt I got:

She looked at Noah. "What happened to you? It looks like you just escaped a tornado!"

http://www.hsunlimited.com/english-lessons/prompter.php

Related articles

• Free Pirate Roll a Word 2 Dice Learning to Read, Homeschool, etc.
• Free Spanish English Bilingual Teaching Resources For Teachers
• Guest Post About Homeschooling Grandma
• Free Vintage Labels for Collage, Scrapbook, Altered Art Etc.
• I Remember When...Finding Summer Jobs for Teens
• Free Creating Keepsakes Scrapbook Font: CK Mitbap
• I Made My Dad a Recycled Father's Day Card :)
• Free Scrapbook etc. Digi "Funky Doodled July 4" ATC size Download
• Free Online Art Class "Everyday Moodlings"

Free Elementary Longfellow Hiawatha Reading Nature Primer Great for Homeschool or Classroom

I love it when Homeschool Freebie of the Day: offers these great old resources.

As the Erskines put it, "Today's is this classic reading and nature studies primer that uses the 1855 epic poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow based on the legends of the Ojibway Indians as its subject. It's a delightful reading primer for grades 2-3, covering a variety of topics, handwriting instruction, reading lessons, and some lovely illustrations. A great introduction to this classic work for younger students."

I'll bet my youngest son will love this :)


'via Blog this'

Free Eye Bookmarks For Students Plus Lessons, Fortune Teller Activity Etc.

Optical illusion image used in psychological tests (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Patterns creating optical illusion (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Optical illusion image used in psychological tests (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Optical illusion with decorative patterns (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This is a picture of floor tiles in Basilica of St. John Lateran, which create an optical illusion. The picture was taken by Tino Warinowski (User:Chino) in June 2006 and is hereby released to the public domain. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Ponzo Illusion relies on the fact that parallel lines appear to converge as they approach infinity. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The duck-rabbit, made famous by Wittgenstein (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

filedesc Original Image: :Image:Wikidec2005cani.gif Image author: Jeremy Hinton. The author created this image and also devised the visual illusion which it exemplifies. License: Template:PD-release Edit From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Wikidec2005cani.gif, but with text removed. license-header Category:Optical illusions (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Optical illusion: The two orange circles are the same size. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Optical illusion 3 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Optical illusion 1 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Optical illusion 2 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Optical illusion with cubes (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Optical illusion with staircases (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

An optical illusion. Square A is exactly the same shade of grey as square B. See demonstration. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Optical illusion (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

You might catch yourself saying "Eye didn't know that" (pun intended) when you check out the http://www.eyedidntknowthat.info/for-teachers/resource-center/ to order your free Eye bookmarks for homeschool or classroom students.

I compiled several optical illusions from around the web in honor of the occasion, seen here :)

Plus you can download several cool free lessons and activities (see below to check out what kind and the link.)

Optical Illusion (Photo credit: micahb37)

Optical illusion image used in psychological tests (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

On "Eye Didn't Know That"  they offer a variety of materials that you can use with your homeschool or classroom students to make teaching children about healthy eyesight a fun and informative lesson.

Eye Didn't Know That Lesson Plans 

Classroom Activities

(we love the optical illusions :) 

Fact Sheets

Brochure

Eye Fact Fortune Teller 

Coloring Pages

Educational Posters

Also check out interesting facts here: For Teachers | Eye Didn't Know That!:

Did you know that an elephant can see a 100 yards?

Optical Illusion (Photo credit: Hiddenpower)

Free Latin Language Games, Lessons, etc. & it's International Mother Language Day!

Image via Wikipedia

Latin Class (Photo credit: Worcester Academy)

Hmmm...
February 21 is International Mother Language Day. For those of us whose heritage stems from those who spoke Latin, (and even those with different origins) this seems like a good time to have some fun with Latin:

There are some fun free PDF games to download here:
Homeschool Latin Activities and Games Free Downloads: I especially think McHenry's Chariot Latin game is really great, for Latin learning or Roman history or just for fun! As she describes it: "Chariots at the Circus" teaches 85 Latin words.  It features a board that resemble the Circus Maximus where chariot races were held.  The tokens are little chariots, of course.  The two main "selling points" of this game are: 1) you learn as you go along (many Latin games I have seen require you to know words already), and 2) all players play at the same time so that there is no "dead time" while players wait for their turn.


Here is a Latin Game. As they describe it: Player fills up one part, until the whole table is full and then, the last player to fill up the table gives the next verb. All in the Indicative Present Tense at first, unless someone would like to practice the same verb at the different tense, then sure, no problem! Just click the link to check out more!"
http://www.phrasebase.com/archive2/latin/conjugation-game.html


The following is a school-initiated site that has plenty of cool resources. I would have loved to learn Latin in this atmosphere, I'll bet. Notice their great projects (including a sample below but you need to check out the site:)


http://www.latinata.com/practice.html
The website has:
CLASSES         ROMAN HISTORY & CULTURE         IN THE NEWS         GAMES         ARCHIVE         REFERENCE TOOLS
As they explain on their site "Latin Four students this spring have the facts to prove the case-- Latin is everywhere you look. Students have searched discarded newspapers to create collages of vocabulary with  tell-tale traces of Latin. They have also clipped and cropped, stapled and stuck a bulletin board and a hall wall full of all things Roman.            bene factum...euge omnibus!  "


I love collages, so I think the above is really cool. Great job!
Among their games they offer (see here:
http://www.latinata.com/games.html
are jigsaw puzzles, acting like a Roman sleuth, map games, mosaics, and many many more!

This article will also be helpful to lovers of Latin:

50 Fun and Educational Websites Keeping Latin Alive

http://www.onlineuniversities.com/blog/2010/06/50-fun-and-educational-websites-keeping-latin-alive/


Folks who are learning (or want to learn) several languages will perhaps enjoy this site:
https://conjuguemos.com/
Think of Conjuguemos as an online workbook for your Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese or Latin language students. The site stores a large amount of practice activities, with more exercises added during the year by our users. Teachers can also create their own activities.

Related articles

• Gladiator Latin (rogueclassicism.com)
• Mark Your Calendars: February 21 ... International Mother Language Day (rogueclassicism.com)

Free Poppy Digital Scrapbook Embellishment in Honor of Veterans Day etc.

Although born in the United States I grew up in Canada, and I remember how huge and solemn an occasion "Remembrance Day" was in school there. We each received a poppy to wear (I think they were made of fabric?) and had a huge assembly honoring those who served and especially those who were lost.
Well today Veterans Day Nov. 11 the French company Studio-Scrap is offering a FREE poppy...for you to use in scrapbooking, school papers or you name it:

Here's what they say: "Show respect and your love of traditions and use our Free poppy. It is the time of the year where we celebrate the end of World War I. Poppies are now less a means to help the last war veterans and more a sign of respect for memories.

What can you do with your poppy?

You can use it to add to your favorite social network profile picture, like Facebook...

You can create new family scrapbooking layouts paying tribute to your ancestors with this symbolic poppy.

Where can you get your free poppy?

In their boutique.
Add the poppy to your cart, proceed to payment (it's free !), and then use the link you will receive by email to download your poppy.

. "Click here to get yours too~! November 11th poppy | CDIP Boutique - genealogy and scrapbooking software:

'via Blog this'

Fun Color Christmas Flash Cards Free

I love flash cards for homeschool. We use them for fun games to make learning more exciting. Just found these and thought I'd share them really quick
Christmas Flash Cards Word List: Bell, Candle, Stocking, Candy Cane, Red, Green, Cookie, Gingerbread, Ham, Pie, Holly, Mistletoe, Poinsettia, Wreath, Angel, Jesus Christ, Gifts, Presents, Magi, Star, Christmas Tree, Rudolph, Lights, List, Ribbon, Toys, Wrapping, Chimney, Elf, North Pole, Reindeer, Sled, Sleigh, Hat, Santa Claus, Snowman.