The Brook {Poetry Study - Alfred Lord Tennyson}

E (age 5.5) loves learning about the natural world and has a passion for art.  Since she's also my early-riser, I decided to give her a special project that we could work on together in the mornings before the rest of the family woke up.   Every day, E would copy one stanza of Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem, "The Brook".  Unlike transitional classical education, I didn't require her copywork to be 'perfect' - I just wanted her to practice her writing and have fun with it.  We looked up new vocabulary words, discussed spelling rules, etc...  but the best part was to find pictures online of the plants and animals that were included and try to draw them (I made my own drawings, but E's turned out better).  Here are some highlights of her project...

We also included some science experiments related to the poem..

We discussed eddies and made our own whirlpool using two plastic bottles (attach them, pour water from one to another, giving it a little swirl to get started).

Another day, we made our own tin-foil river and I let the kids make up their own experiments with fluid dynamics (umm.. water play).

We had so much fun with this little poetry study, and will definitely be doing more in the future.  Please check out my book of classic poetry for children on Amazon..