Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Memorization using Chants, Cheers and Poems



Last week, I shared about using songs and singing as a way of helping memorization.
This week, I'm going to mention using chants and poems. Of course, there a a lot of already written. 
I typed in "poem colors of the rainbow for kids" and found this within seconds.

rainbow clipart
A rainbow of colors,
In the light, after rain.
There are seven of them,
And, each one has a name.

Red is the first
Rainbow color in the sky.
Orange is next
Like jack-o-lantern pie.

Yellow is the third,
Lemons come to mind.
Color four is green,
Think of grassy hills to climb

Blue is color five,
Like the water in a lake
The sixth is indigo
Blue-gray blends that you can make.

Violet is the color
Of the last rainbow band.
Violet is flowery;
Like the pedals in your hand.

So, wave your arms above you
Cast your colors high
And, try to make a rainbow
Across a cloudy sky
Cute poem. Puts the colors in the right order, so it would be appropriate to tie into science which is what I would do.
I, however, have to make things difficult more challenging and come up with things on my own.
When we were learning when to read a soft "c" and a hard "c". I came up with a cheer, and yes, we did it like a cheer with pompoms and everything.
"C" says |s| before i and e.
"C" says |k| before the other three:
A! O! U!

We recently finished the Explorers chapter in Story of the World Vol. 2. (Yes, I know I'm running behind, thank you). I wanted to come up with something to help her remember the four explorers mentioned in the chapter. So, I adapted the well-known stanza about Columbus and added one of my own.
Columbus sailed the ocean blue
in 14 hundred and 92.
Amerigo Vespucci knew
He discovered a continent that's new.

Once mija got the concept, she helped me finish our composition! Here's the whole poem.

Columbus sailed the ocean blue
in 14 hundred and 92.
Amerigo Vespucci knew
He discovered a continent that's new.
Da Gama sailed to India.
He sailed around "dark" Africa.
Magellan found a stormy strait
and found a calm sea.
He named it the Pacific,
and around the world went he.
(FYI: He actually didn't make it all around since he died, but his ship did.)
She loves it and has gone around the house repeating it all the time. I think the fact that she partly composed it makes a difference. She has an investment in it. It also made a special memory with us working on it together besides being school work!

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1 comment:

Amy Maze said...

That's fantastic! I'm just the same way...making things harder by insisting on doing them myself =) Love the cheer and the poem! Thanks for sharing this with us at Trivium Tuesdays!

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