Fifth Grade Kinesthetic Learner: Curriculum and Organization

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I’ve talked before about how this is a big year for each of our children. I shared our plans for preschool and first grade yesterday. Tomorrow is for my 8th and 9th graders. Today we focus in on my Middle Girl. Fifth grade. Upper elementary. Last year before middle school. Transitioning to dialectic. That’s big.

I’ve also mentioned the hodgepodge of learners we have here. My 5th grader, Middle Girl, is a creative kinesthetic learner. She loves to make things. Do things. Move. Participate. Give her a display board for a biography report. Let her make a salt dough map. She loves to color while I read. Crafts, creations, busy. That’s her.

And while I’m not an expert in learning styles, I do know my children. I have studied learning styles and have noticed big improvements when I tailor our studies to my children’s individual learning styles.

As you might imagine, this child spreads things far and wide. So, in an attempt to corral somewhat, we’ve turned to baskets. And they are working pretty well by making clean up easier. She has an overflowing basket in our school room – mostly for crafts and writing materials. (The one overflowing, with the lid propped open). Her grammar book and writing binder are stored together in one spot under the printer.

Making writing easy for her gives her a practical way to practice spelling. She can send a card to Grandma and Grandpa or to a pen pal, using all her creative juices. How do you spell….? she will ask. All without the aid of a list of words in a workbook.

I’ve read that kinesthetic learners do well in math. She does her Teaching Textbooks (TT) at the computer. And she loves math. Let me type that again. She loves math. She begged to have TT like big brother and big sister. She was right – she loves the computer based program. Especially the bonus round.

Each of the older three take turns completing a Teaching Textbooks lesson here at the chalkboard desk. Chalkboard makes for an easy scratch surface. Work it out, doodle!

On the other side of the homeschool room, she has her own ‘catch all’ basket for binders, spiral notebooks, a planner and more.

In the family room, she has another basket full of craft supplies. Notice the stack of duct tape on the end table? Along with the iPod earbuds…She is heavy into duct tape projects. (She’s also my biggest blogger – with a duct tape series). And all the papers left out from drawing and crafting while watching Olympics the night before. Plus, a favorite Where’s Waldo.

Since she is a piano student, she also has storage for piano books. Standing up from a school lesson and darting to play a piano piece helps. Keep those fingers busy.

Fifth Grade Curriculum

• 365 Daily Devotions for Kids or whatever she chooses from our basket of devotionals
• Teaching Textbooks Math 5
• Rod and Staff English 5 – we often complete these lessons orally

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• Cursive handwriting practice with Lighthome Publications penmanship ebooks
• Tapestry of Grace Year 2 – Units 3 & 4

• Science: Answers in Genesis God’s Design for the Physical World: Inventions and Technology (this was a tough decision between the two pictured above. We’ll do this with the whole family).
• Extracurricular: weekly homeschool Drama Troupe, children’s choir, puppets, piano lessons. With chances to participate in homeschool park days, field trips and Creation Club.
• Arts and Crafts: plenty of Simple Afternoon Art Projects.
• Life Skills: using her very own planner, helping make snacks, meals, doing her own laundry, photography
• Multiple Ages: I’ll be sharing all the subjects we’ll enjoy together later in this series – many which meet the needs of this kinesthetic learner. So this 5th grade curriculum post is not complete.

In summary, we decided to hit our home organization head on to meet the needs of learning. With Hodgepodgedad’s help, we’ve added storage in the most used rooms, right where we use it. We’ve done this over the last year with trips to IKEA. IKEA is a frugal and practical way to redesign and make things work. Their baskets are the best price for the sturdy – take the abuse – design.

Middle Girl’s just for fun stack of books. She’s challenged herself to read them all by summer’s end. Kinesthetic learners are said to not read for long spells. She reads in short spells a few times a day.

For a kinesthetic learner with many ‘things’ this storage helps keep her supplies handy. Plus helps keep this mama sane. This organization has been a big part of our homeschool planning. To meet needs. To make learning centers natural. And, many times, to make storage vertical!

Additional Resources

• The IKEA baskets we use.
• My Craftiness Pinterest board is one I created to catalog projects mainly for my busy girl.
• Our Hodgepodge Curricula will be updated soon but many of the resources we are enjoying again.
• All of the favorite resources Hodgepodgedad and I have reviewed – all in an index.
• My 10 Days of Teaching Multiple Ages incorporates hands on projects for learning.

I hope you’ll be back! I invite you to subscribe to Hodgepodge so you won’t miss a post. Over the next several days I’ll be sharing the remainder of our plans for preschool, 1st, 5th, 8th and 9th grades plus those things we enjoy with multiple ages. Our Curricula 2012-2013:

• Preschool to First Grade
• 5th Grade Kinesthetic Learner
• Middle/High – 8th/9th
• Hodgepodge Curricula 2012-2013 – Multiple Ages

 Are you homeschooling a kinesthetic learner?