Copy Work ideas for Children

I have been creating lists of ideas for copy-work. For anyone reading this who doesn't know what copy-work is, it's just the act of giving a child a list of words or a phrase of some sort for them to practice handwriting/spelling/memorization. For younger kids, like Kindergarten age, the process would involve me, the teacher, writing down a short one-line something and then the child re-writing that a few times. It could be copied once or twice if the goal is to practice forming letters, but using the same list/sentence multiple times per week would certainly aid in memorization.

The older child could be giving a longer section and may move from copy-work to either memorization or spelling or both. For example, during a single week, for an older child using dictation to improve spelling and grammar might involve presenting him/her with a copy of a poem on Monday to copy out and the child works on remembering how to spell each word and the punctuation through the week. Then the parent, on Friday, reads the poem slowly aloud while the child re-creates it. This emphasizes the spelling and grammar, but instead of writing, the child could focus on memorization and speech skills by ending the week reciting it instead. Either method is a nice learning tool!

Anyway, I was searching out some ideas for copy-work for younger children and came across several ideas and thought it would be make sense to collect the scattered thoughts here.

Kindergarten/1st/2nd grades:

• Address/phone number
• Short proverbs (such as "No man is an island" or "The early bird gets the worm")
• Scripture - at this age I'd either start with small 'pieces' of verses (like "All have sinned" rather than the full verse) or do a larger section in multiple steps.
• Quotes - like proverbs, these can be very short. The difference between them is that these short sayings are not as universally known and have an original speaker attached. They can be quite humorous, silly, or profound.
• Lists of important 'groups':
• Colors of the rainbow
• Month of the year
• Days of the week
• Planets
• Continents
• Books of the Bible
• etc.

•  Rules (socially acceptable actions or behaviors you wish your child to remember. For example,  "Say 'please' when asking for something" or "Do not talk with your mouth full")
• Facts: Any 'everyone knows this' type of fact. For example, "There are 24 hours in a day.", "The Earth travels around the sun.", "Plants need sunlight to grow". These often fall under the category of science-knowledge. In fact, finding simply sentences out of a child's science text books might be a great source for these sentences. 
• Spelling words. You can use both lists of words, or the words incorporated into sentences. The child can even help create the sentences!
• Poems - Nursery rhymes, songs, and poetry are great to memorize, but I put this last on the list because these are often fairly lengthy and may work better as verbal memory work than written copy-work. 

3rd-6th grade:

• Limericks are perfect for this age. The often silly humor is very appealing. Just be sure to create your own list since many limericks can be pretty risque. 
• Geography - start memorizing countries, states and capitols
• Presidents/Kings/Pharaohs/Dynasties
• Quotes - you can get longer, more complicated quotes and really ruminate over the meanings. For example, "Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither." - C. S. Lewis. Although a younger child could copy out the words, it takes an older child to think about the meaning behind this. 
• Poetry (other than limericks) - There are so many great poems out there. Try 'Fog' by Carl Sandburg as a very short introduction or something like 'For whom the Bell tolls' for something longer. 
• Scripture - Memorizing the Bible is, in my opinion, one of the best things a parent can do for their children.
• More Science facts - there is a nearly limitless number of 'things to know' in the world, so this is a limitless category. Try doing some of the laws like "An object in motion stays in motion unless acted on by an outside force." 
• Grammar rules. (i.e. An adverb is...)
• Spelling words. As before, you can do either lists of words or  place the words into sentences. Here might be a good place to practice that complicated grammar you may also be studying (for example, make sentences that use quotes or prepositions).

7th Grade and Beyond:

• Scripture - always more of the Bible! At this point fairly large chunks can be memorized/dictated at a time. 
• Poetry - fairly lengthy poetry such as sections of Shakespeare, can now be attempted.
• Quotes - again, profound quotes that inspire thought are abundant!
• Speeches - Famous speeches, such as the Gettysburg Address or the 'I have a Dream' speech.
• Systems of the Body (i.e. names of the bones), Periodic Table, and other science facts.
• Pretty much anything from the previous age bracket, only these ages allow for both longer segments of everything and more complex ideas. 
• Sections of classic literary work or dramas. 

I think I'll post again on this topic, only giving specific examples of quotes and poetry and proverbs and such. I'm in the middle of organizing what I believe I'll attempt to do each week for the first few years, so we'll see how that goes. In the meantime, I'm still gathering an overabundance of the above material.