For those of you who are unfamiliar with "Main Lesson Books", these are the books the children make while they are immersed in a certain theme or topic of study. Starting out with an absolutely blank page, students use crayons and colored pencils to make pieces of art-- almost every day! Often these pages are quite beautiful as they depict scenes from a story that was told in class, or writing by a student on a particular area of study. At the end of the year in our class the students actually sew these beautiful pages together. The resulting "book blocks" are bound into hardcover books to become anthologies of our school year. These beautiful collections are absolutely invaluable keepsakes, and a beautiful record of a busy school year!
Grammar
More from our Farming and Gardening Block (a focus on writing):
"Measurement" Block
This was our first main lesson block of the school year. Students explored non-standard measurement using the human body, and were introduced to the concept of the standardization of measurement. Then students practiced linear, dry weight and liquid measurement using rulers, a balance, and measuring cups.
Shelters and Houses
Students explore different forms of shelter and housing, beginning with the Earth as a house for everything and their own body as a house for "me". Next we look at different forms that houses and shelters take, depending upon where they are built: birchbark houses in the northwest forest region, tepees in the northern plains, stick-houses (or chickee) in tropical regions, and igloos in the cold far north.
"Farming and Gardening" Block
Students learn about different aspects of farming and gardening through the story of the Crescent Family, owners and operators of the Crescent Moon Organic Farm. During this block students also explore paragraph writing and the parts of the paragraph (lead & concluding sentences, detail sentences) and the beginnings of grammar (complete/incomplete sentences, subjects & predicates). Students also for the first time begin writing with a cursive font in their book-- a challenging task in a book with absolutely blank pages!