HOMESCHOOLING - Hatching Words/Stories Jar

You may have seen my post from earlier this week in which my daughter and I built a bird's nest. Although rather lovely, it is also a bit large to be sitting on my desk or the mantel or wherever else my daughter might have chosen for its new home at the moment. Enter brilliant solution: the Hatching Words Jar! Here's a picture of what we used:

We recreated the nest, only much smaller, inside an empty baby food jar.  To add to the understanding of how long it takes a bird to build a nest, I had my daughter use tweezers (pretending it was a bird beak)  to pick up pine needles, sticks, etc., placing them in the jar.  She seemed to get a kick out of the process - not tiring as quickly as I thought she might!  We formed some eggs from white playdough and she colored them with markers, adding them to the cozy nest as well.  HOWEVER, this time we did not end the project there.  Brainstorming words connected to the bird theme (a great review of words we had heard, used, or learned of), we came up with a list which I typed up and then cut out.  As a very gentle introduction into the world of verbs and nouns, I drew two circles on a piece of paper and labeled them "nests" - one being action and the other being things.

We sorted the words together into the appropriate nests, discussing why a certain word might fit better in one spot versus another.  Finally, I helped her glue all the thing/noun words to the jar itself and all the action/verb words to the lid.  So now she has, not only a great reminder of the theme for this week, but also a jar covered in bird-related words which she can use as story starters, science review (explaining to people how a word relates to the bird theme), or spelling help when writing about birds in her story journal!  :)

P.S.  For slightly older students, you might discuss the value of the noun and verb relationship.  You might point out how a lid without a jar or a jar without a lid would not be be as helpful as the two combined together.  So, a noun without a verb or vice versa just doesn't have as much use as when they work together to create a sentence.