Poetry Contest~ Keila

Thank you Keila for this truly beautiful ode to Spring! You have a wonderful way with words!

~Springtime~

The balmy breezes of spring,

It’s the time for planting.

The cool rain is falling;

The rainbow is coming.

Now take your umbrella,

And come see the llama.

An unfolding drama,

Sweet song of the lyra.

The black soil is muddy,

All the paths are miry.

The plants will grow quickly -

A new joy for the bee.

Oh! spring is at the door;

For the rich and the poor.

Soon summer will decor,

Beauties none will ignore.

Keila M. Biddington

Poetry Contest~ Adrien

Adrien sent in his AWESOME entry into the poetry contest. Very funny!! He was inspired by having a new baby in the house. We can all realate to that Adrien!

"Old Man Talk"

Once there was a baby who talked like an old man.
He couldn't walk, so he drove a van,
To go play Bakugan Brawl with Dan.

Then he went back home and didn't take a nap,
And he went for a run after checking his map.
On his run he passed a bun,
And he ate it, even though it was in the garbage.

He went to work as an astronaut,
Then he decided to be an astronaut mascot.
He watched a TV that got trapped in space,
And got blasted off the space base.

The baby fell back to Earth,
Landed on a trampoline,
And bounced back into space,
And was never seen again.

Linky Monday~ Earth Day

Earth Day is April 22 and these links are all about celebrating our Earth and learning about protecting it for generations to come.

Earth Day Education

Earth Day Network

The Nature Conservancy

Education in Nature

EPA~ United States

Earth Day Projects

Planet Pals

Family Education

Earth Day on Kaboose

Earth Day Crafts and Projects

Earth Day Math~ Take it Outdoors!

Some ideas on making a difference~

This is a very cool idea and easy for kids to do too!

Pick 5 for YOUR Environment

Consider joining a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program and eat locally. We just joined one and I am really excited to see what goodies we will be receiving this Summer!

What is a CSA?

Here are some New Brunswick farms that offer a CSA Program

Amarosia Organic Garden

Alva Farm

Bantry Bay Farm

Buckwheat Flats

Chestnut Acres

Jemseg River Farm

Jolly Farmer

Sunshine Miles Farm

Windy Hill Farm

Check out what this awesome homeschooling family did to their yard in Hawaii!

So inspirational!

Akamai Backyard

Poetry Entry~ Finn

Thanks Finn for this great haiku poem!

Spring

Flowers start to grow

Birds start to come back to us

Brown ice disappears

It describes the feel of the season perfectly!!!

Too Cute....

Today the snow had melted enough that I could get to the shed in my backyard. The new fox kits were out and I got a couple of photos of them. I didn't think I would see them but Mom and Pop fox were out hunting so they were snooping!

This is their den and one little fella is right in the middle by the bush.

I zoomed in and you can see both of them. They are so dirty from rolling down the hill! They won't turn red for another month or so.

When I got back in, Mom had returned. She is starting to molt, that is why she has that dark patch on her back.

About an hour later, pop came back with a snack and mom went off for a little break. You can't see him well but he is a very bright red and has a gorgeous fluffy tail. He also is much more nervous than the Mom.

Poetry Entry~ Marley

We have a fox family that comes every Spring to have their kits in a den behind our house. Marley wrote this poem about the fox mama.

Fox

Creeping slowly in the grass

Watching for a mouse to pass

POUNCE!!

I can see her out there just waiting for her breakfast to come scurrying by!

Thanks for the wild entry Marley!

Poetry Entry~ Tansy

One of Tansy's favourite parts of Easter is the Easter Egg Hunt that her Nanny puts on every year. She wrote this acrostic poem about it.

Hidden

Use eyes

Nanny

Tasty

In baskets

Nests

Generous

Easter

Grampie

Great

Spring

She also drew this picture of the hunt underway. Thanks Tansy for this happy entry!

Poetry Entry~ Leah

Sammy's sister Leah sent in this fun acrostic poem that she worked on with her mom.

Leah

Hope you get lots of yummy chocolate for Easter Leah!

Thanks for the neat poem!

Poetry Entry~ Sammy

Our first entry is from Sammy!

This is her acrostic poem Sammy~

Super job Sammy! Those were great choices!

She also wrote this wonderful Easter poem~

EASTER

The Easter bunny hops when it is sunny

Then with eggs in his bags

And toys to find with noise

Spring comes with butterflies

Their wings are nice

Little bunnies roll in flowers

Chickies pick for hours

Easter time with lots of rhyme

Easter sounds great at your place Sammy!

Linky Monday~ Organization

As Winter melts away and Spring bursts forward, I am overcome by the need to declutter and organize. I think I feel pressure to get the house put together before the yardwork/gardening takes over all my freetime. As a single person, I was organized. As part of a couple, I was organized. As a homeschooling Mom of two, not so much. It doesn't help that I don't have a basement or attic in the storage equation. I know some moms who have very cluttered homes and it doesn't bother them. They just take it in stride and seem really relaxed about it. I have tried to be like that, let it go but I have the type of personality that thinks and feels better when things are organized. Can't change how you are hard wired I guess.

Regardless of your natural organization ability and home education methods, keeping your home like you want and need; is a challenge. This weeks links are dealing with organization/decluttering of our homes and homeschooling spaces.

Organization and Simplifying

Fly Lady

Organizing Junkie

52 Weeks of Organizing

Simple Mom

Simple Kids

Priciples of Decluttering

Home School Organizing

Simple Homeschooling

Get Organized for Homeschool

Homeschool Organization~ from Beauty That Moves

Practical Tips for Home Schools

Homeschool Rooms

Successful Homeschooling

Organizing Homeschool Supplies

Blog Hop~ School Rooms

Poetry Contest

In honour of this being Poetry Month, I thought it would be fun to have a poetry contest for the kids! Here are the rules:

• Write an original poem on any topic you wish. I thought Springy poems would be great but pick whatever inspires you.
• The poem may be in any form; haiku, free form, acrostic, limerick etc...
• One poem entry per MASHE kid. You can put in more than one poem but your name only goes in to the draw one time.
• The contest is open to members of the group and ends May Ist. This is open to all members whether you live in Moncton or not. The prize will be sent by mail.
• There will be a draw held the first week of May and one lucky poet will win a $25 gift card from Chapters. This is a random draw, the poems will not be judged.

How to enter~

Please send your entries to me at mashe_nb (at) yahoo (dot) ca.

Include with your poem your first name, age and a brief description of what you wrote. If you illustrated your poem too you can send me a photo of it and I'll include it with your entry.

I'll post all the entries here on the blog.

Don't take this too serious and just have fun with it!

Linky Monday~ Poetry Month

April is Poetry Month so I thought it would be a good topic to explore.

We do Teatime Tuesdays, a la Bravewriter, where we make a snack, have some tea, cider or hot chocolate in mixed fancy teacups, set the table nicely and read poetry. We also try our hand at writing them too. When we studied poetry in school, it was a very dry and uneventful topic. I find this activity is a great way to appreciate that form of writing and it is something we look forward to.

How do you go about introducing poetry to your family? If you haven't yet, this would be a great month to start! Check out these links and have fun with it!

Great Overview Sites

Poetry for Children Blog

Miss Rumphius Effect~ Poetry Blog

Poetry Teachers

Poetry for Homeschoolers

Teaching Poetry

Poetry for Kids

Celebrate Poetry Month

WordSmithery

How to help children write a poem

Charlotte Mason~ Waking the Poet Within

Specific Forms

Haiku

Children's Haiku Garden

Acrostic

More Acrostic

Read Some Poems

Giggle Poetry

Children's Poetry Archive

Poetry Foundation

Poets

Shel Silverstein

Jack Prelutsky

Kristine George

Activities

Crayola- tons of ideas

Math Poetry

Jabberwocky Activity

Shape Poems (K-5)

Rhyming Poems (K-2)

Colour Poems (3-5)

Moving Sports Poetry (3-5)

Make a Magnetic Poetry Set (3-8)

Make a Magnetic Poetry Set (5-10)

Teaching Poetry Through Riddles (6-8)

Swish! Pow! Whack! (6-8)

Poetry Printables- Scholastic

More Printables

Online Poetry Games

Make a Neat Poetry Tree

I'll leave you with a poem that I had to read three times last week!

The kids got a kick out of it.

Dawdle, Dawdle, Dawdle

By Denis Lee

Dawdle, dawdle, dawdle,

It's the uncles and the aunts,

Dawling with their shoes and socks,

Dawdling with their pants.

So hurry up

And scurry up

And hurry, scurry, worry up-

Thank goodness there are kids around

To make them stop their dawdling.

Dawdle, dawdle, dawdle,

It's the daddies and the mums,

Dawdling with their apple-juice,

Dawdling with their crumbs.

So hurry up

And scurry up

And hurry, scurry, worry up-

Thanks goodness there are kids around

To make them stop their dawdling!