The Illustration Unit at Home: How my Illustration Unit can be used for Homeschool!

Here is a question I get asked all the time, “Can I use this at home?”.  And my answer is always a big fat yes!! The Illustration Unit (alongside so many of my other units and resources) is easy to adjust and differentiate based on the needs of your student(s) and school. Whether your students are learning in a traditional classroom environment, or at home around the kitchen table, my Illustration Unit will lead them toward stronger fine motor skills, better illustrations, and set a foundation for independent writing! 

Already heard enough and are ready to try it? Grab this freebie and try it at home today! 

Otherwise, keep reading to find out more about how you can use it at home! 

Will the lesson plans work well for one or two students at a time and in a home environment? 

Obviously, there are some huge differences between a school classroom and a classroom set up at home. A major one is the drastic difference in the number of students. Unless you are teaching a homeschool co-op of sorts (or you have quadruplets), you likely plan to use this unit for just one or two students at a time. In either case, the lessons are set up to work for any number of students. They are also self-paced making it easy to adjust when needed. For example, in lesson one the mini lesson involves identifying shapes. Maybe you are certain that your student has already mastered this skill, there is no need to repeat this lesson. Instead, move on to the ‘You Do’ portion of the lesson and allow the student to build with shapes. Maybe even challenge them by asking them to build something using only triangles and hexagons. The beauty of these lessons, and homeschooling, is that you can adjust to provide extra practice, or extra challenge, wherever you see fit. 

Another large difference is the availability of supplies. Classroom teachers are typically surrounded by a year's worth of manipulatives and access to a big, heavy-duty copier, making it much less expensive when a curriculum calls for a binder of lesson plans or ten different materials per lesson. You’ll notice that there are very few materials needed throughout the entire month-long unit. The lessons themselves can be accessed and stored easily on a computer or iPad. The directed drawings and examples can also be shown online rather than needing to print copies of both. Finally, there are just a few resources necessary to complete this unit with students (a directed drawing notebook, shape pieces, crayons, pencils, scissors, and glue). 

I do my best to keep it simple so that whether you are teaching these lessons at home or in a classroom, you can pull out the daily plan and get going without too much prep and little stress. 

If you would like to read more in depth about how the Illustration Unit is set up, go read this blog post! 

I have other children at different levels that I need to be able to teach during this time, is that going to be possible with this curriculum? 

One of the key goals of my Kindergarten Writing Units is to create independent, confident writers. Of course, this is not something that happens overnight but each lesson is designed so that students practice this independence. 

The use of the Illustration Unit slides (included when you purchase) will help your children begin drawing independently much more quickly. These slides include many things that will be very helpful to you (i.e. the lesson objective, materials needed, etc.) as well as many student-focused slides. For every lesson, students will see a slide that shows (using pictures) all the materials they need to complete the activity. The directed drawing of the day is shown in two different ways. One is a printable worksheet with a picture of each step. Another is a video that takes the student through the illustration step by step. Using this, a student can easily watch, pause, and draw each step of the illustration. 

After your child understands the basic structure of these lessons you’ll be able to set them up with the student task and directed drawing video and head over to help your other children on their work. 

If you would like to learn more about using slides to teach the Illustration Unit, go read this blog post! 

Wow, okay, I am ready to grab this! 

All in all, the Illustration Unit is an amazing first step into the writing world for your young learner! You can grab this freebie and get access to the first three days of this unit! You can also grab the full version here. 

All 8 of my Kindergarten Writing Units are designed to create independent, confident writers! And they all would be excellent resources for the homeschool learner! 

A list of all of my developmentally appropriate writing resources can be found here!