Winter Themed Copywork (FREE Printable)
Looking for ideas and inspiration to teach writing in the New Year? Try my Winter Themed Copywork (FREE Printable)! This is the copywork my kids will be doing in the next few weeks of winter and I am excited to share this product with you!
No Time Now? Pin for Later! Winter Themed Copywork
When I first started homeschooling and I heard about the idea of copywork, I had my doubts. After my years teaching in the classroom, copywork seemed too simple to be effective. And what about all those cutting-edge writing methods I had learned to teach my school students? Surely copywork was outdated and impractical! What was it about copywork that so many other homeschool moms I knew were touting its praises?
I have been using the habit of copywork for thirteen years now with each of my kids and will say without a doubt, it is an excellent habit to help teach writing! You really have to try the habit of daily copywork over a period of time to see its effectiveness. Copywork is not the only curriculum I use to teach my kids to write, but it is my core method.
To see samples of the copywork I use with our kids and to read more about how we do copywork in our home, you may enjoy reading these posts.
Helpful Habits for Writing Well #2: Copying the Best Pieces from Great Authors
Video: How We Do Copywork | Everything You Need to Know
Does Copywork Really Work?
The main difference that I see between copywork and other writing methods is this. In copywork, the student first observes an excellent piece, slowly and carefully, copying with exact detail, and makes a conclusion afterward. The writing begins after the observation. Children can only express what they possess!
In many popular writing methods, kids in early elementary school are encouraged to begin writing but they have very little to no exposure to quality pieces of writing or time to reflect on them.
When used along with the habit of narration, children observe first and write later.
What Is Copywork?
Copywork is simply the habit of hand copying selections of text from great authors. Think about it. How do we learn to do anything? We observe someone who is doing it! Copywork challenges kids to copy the written work of excellent communicators.
What should a child copy?
A child should copy the best pieces from great authors! What quality books are you reading aloud to your kids? These are a great place to start! Copy passages of Scripture, Aesop’s Fables, poems, short stories or fairy tales, non-fiction books on topics that interest them, notable sections from each chapter of the fiction book they are reading.
You can download a list of copywork we use based off of the Ambleside Online book suggestions here.
How much should a child copy?
A good rule of thumb is to have a child copy one sentence a day for first grade, two for second, and so on. If they want to do more, sure! But this metric is a reasonable developmental goal for most kids.
How do you teach copywork?
Encourage kids to copy the text just as it is written. Capitalize the first letter of every sentence or every line in a poem. Write quotation marks, semi-colons, colons, and apostrophe’s just as observed in the line. Have them write the title appropriately making sure to capitalize the first letters in each word of the title.
When they finish, review the copywork with them. Have them correct spelling and punctuation errors. Ask them to spell key words. Refine their handwriting skills as needed. Ask them the meaning of any unknown words.
Is Typing Copywork the Same as Handwriting It Out?
Typing is a great extension to copywork, but not a good substitution to physically handwriting the text. I like to think of this as the difference between riding in a car and walking. When you ride in a car somewhere, you observe a few notable landmarks. But when you walk, you see and remember in much greater detail. This is what happens when you write things out by hand. It slows the brain down and you observe details closely.
“Writing is a distinctly human skill, and like speaking, it reflects thinking. If we utilize technology to make the process too effortless, we may lose not only the discipline and the basic ability to put words on paper, but the quality of thinking that writing well requires.”
Andrew Pudewa
What skills are covered in copywork?
- Handwriting
- Spelling
- Punctuation
- Vocabulary
- Good sentence structure
- Writing style and form
What Is Included in the Winter Themed Copywork Printable?
This PDF has 2 pages of help/FAQ about copywork and 5 pages of copywork samples for kids which amounts to approximately 7 weeks of work if a child practices copywork daily.
In this collection, you will find winter-themed copywork selections taken from quality literature: passages of the Bible, poems from Christina Rosetti, Sara Teasdale, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Robert Frost. There are also quotes from the picture books and chapter books listed below if you would like to add them into your read-aloud time.
Picture Books
Stranger in the Woods by Samms and Stoick
Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson
Katy and the Big Snow by Virginia Burton
The Mitten by Jan Brett
Chapter Books
The Little House Books by Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
House At Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne
How Do I Download the Winter Themed Copywork (FREE Printable)?
- Subscribe in the box above by entering your email.
- Check your email inbox to confirm your subscription.
- You will get a success message with the PDF link. Click on the link and print. Enjoy! Please remember, these are for personal use only!
What a very informative post! I have never heard of copywork before and how interesting. I love the concept of handwriting. I like to handwrite scriptures verbatim to meditate on them.
Thank you! Yes, when you write things out by hand, you really do tend to remember them throughout the day!
What a wonderful lesson that covers so many skills! I love the selection of works for the students to choose from: Bible verses, poems, etc. Great idea!
Thanks so much! It really is a simple skill that covers so much ground!
Copy work is almost a lost treasure. In my Gàidhlig education, there’s a few courses of copy work just to get the language down. I had not thought the obvious of using it for a language you already know.
Interesting! Agreed, it is a lost art, but definitely one that produces great results!
Good Evening Sheri!
Thank you so much for this resource, I truly appreciate it! For some reason, I cannot see a box (I’m on my desktop computer), where it says to subscribe? Do you have another way to add me to your subscription, to get the link for the copy work pages? If so, please let me know or take my email from my comments, if it shows up on your end. Thank you Sheri! Have a great night!
Love and Blessings Always,
Carly
Hi Carly
You are so welcome! I am glad you are enjoying it. You should be able to find it at the bottom of the Winter Themed Copywork post. It is showing on my end. But no worries, I added you to my subscriber list and individually sent you an email with the link. Let me know if you still don’t get it and I can troubleshoot! Thanks for reaching out!
Sheri
Actually, I did find a glitch on my end! I have contacted my website host to fix it, so thanks for sending this message or I might not have realized it wasn’t working!
I don’t see a box to subscribe to get the free download… thank you.
It’s at the bottom of the post. If you still don’t see it, let me know and I can email it to you directly.
Can’t wait to try the Winter copywork!
Yay! I hope you like it!
Hello! I am loving watching your YouTube videos, which I just discovered earlier this year. I would like to access the winter copywork download. I subscribed in the box and I did receive a “welcome” email, but I have not received the download. I put my email in for the download yesterday. Am I too anxious, and not giving enough time for the system to send it? Thank you. You’re doing an amazing job a in setting a more relaxed homeschool setting, which I am trying to implement in my homeschool. This is my second year to homeschool my little ones.
Hi Heather, I’m so glad you are enjoying my YouTube videos!
I’m sorry you’ve had trouble accessing the copywork. I just emailed it to your address. Please let me know if you don’t see it and I’ll try something else! Thanks for subscribing!
Sheri