*Note anything underlined in the table above or in the notes below is a clickable link for your convenience *
Key to Abbreviations:
GP- The Gospel Project- Home Edition
TB- Singapore Math Textbook
WB- Singapore Math Workbook
EP- Singapore Math Extra Practice
MM- Mental Math (see appendix in HIG)
AAS- All About Spelling teacher manual (click here to print any missing phonogram cards)
FLL- First Language Lessons
SF- Sounds First Phonemic Awareness Program (click here and scroll down to Grade 1)
OPG- The Ordinary Parents' Guide to Teaching Reading (click here to print OPG sight words)
SotW- Story of the World
G&B/A- The Good and The Beautiful, Arthropods
G&B/MB- The Good and The Beautiful, Marine Biology
Coming Soon:
Thursday, October 30- Historical Dress Up- students may dress in costume as a historical figure from their grade level history study. Details below.
Thursday, October 30- Spirit/Pizza/DOGS Day- Fortis spirit shirts and shorts or jeans may be worn
Historical Dress Up- October 30th: Costumes must be in the theme of our historic studies this year, which will cover nomads through the beginning of Christianity (see SotW Chapters 1-37). Guidelines: No weapons, no gore, nothing scary, students need to be able to move and sit properly and use the restroom on their own. Have fun thinking of ideas. I can't wait to see what you come up with!
Math:
Our students are being equipped with multiple strategies to add and subtract within 20. The ultimate objective of these lessons is to develop a useful strategy for subtracting numbers that are not so friendly to subtract. We want the students to have a strong conceptual understanding of math, not only a procedural understanding.
These strategies are probably very different from what we learned as children! Nevertheless, they are powerful strategies that emphasize flexibility with numbers and operations. Just be cognizant of the fact that even though a particular approach may seem confusing to you as an adult who learned a different way, your student very well may catch onto it and be able to use that strategy effectively.
Some students may find that rather than the strategy of subtracting from the 10 (HIG pg 72-73), they prefer the strategy of subtracting down to a "friendly" 10 (pg 74). Both are great strategies! We want to familiarize students with both strategies, but they will naturally gravitate toward using the one that makes the most sense to them. Therefore, I have modified workbook page 106 to allow them to choose the strategy they would like to use. In class, they will do the problems from page 106 on a handout that I will provide instead of writing in the actual workbook.
Here are a couple of short videos to give you a visual of both strategies.
If you need any more clarification on these different approaches, please reach out to me!
Help with MM 17:
Keep in mind that this exercise is about showing understanding of the "take from 10" strategy and not about finding what each side equals. Use manipulatives liberally!
Study the first paragraph on HIG pg 72, especially the 10-frame diagrams, for help with these problems. You can also reference the "take from 10" video above. Let's use the example given on HIG pg 72 of 15-7.
If 15-7 was written in the same format as MM17, it would look like this: 15-7=____ + 5. Since we're starting with 15, we show that on a 10-frame as 10 and 5. We want to take away 7, but looking at the ones, we only have 5 of them, so we cannot take 7 from there. However, we CAN take 7 from the tens. We remove 7 from the full 10-frame, which leaves 3 there. In addition to those 3, we still have the 5 ones. So 15-7 is the same as 3 + 5. (Some problems on MM 17 leave a blank for the other addend, so they might have 15-7=3+___ instead. The process is the same, but this time they want the student to fill in the 5.)
Here is that same strategy applied to the first two problems on MM17:
Spelling:
I'm noticing that many students are having trouble writing the correct phonograms when I say the sounds orally. Please make sure you're doing this exercise with them at home daily in addition to the reverse exercise: showing them the phonogram cards and asking them to say the sounds.
I'm noticing that many students are having trouble writing the correct phonograms when I say the sounds orally. Please make sure you're doing this exercise with them at home daily in addition to the reverse exercise: showing them the phonogram cards and asking them to say the sounds.
Lessons 11 & 12 are really both reviewing the same spelling concept: the Soft C Rule (c spells /s/ before e, i, or y). It is important to practice this rule in regard to Name Game (VCe) syllables as well as in initial blends, so I would like the students to practice and be familiar with the words in both lessons.
One quick corollary I will add is that if you've been having your student write the vowel, leave a space for the consonant, write the silent e, then go back and fill in the consonant (see Week 10 blog for full explanation), this upcoming lesson where they have to decide whether to use C or K for /k/ in a Name Game (VCe) syllable will be much easier.
In addition to the new teaching that "we always use K in the middle of Name Game (VCe) syllables," you might find this chart helpful for recalling rules that tell us when to use C vs K in other spelling situations.
Take special note of the initial blends in skunk and skull, which your student might expect to be spelled with C rather than K. Skull is related to skeleton, so using K instead of C connects the meanings of those two words. Some think that the spelling of skunk is related to its original Native American roots, but there isn't a specific reason why K is used instead of C. It's just something students will need to remember!
Reading:
The Sounds First phonemic awareness curriculum generally gives detailed explanations of new exercises on Day 1 of the week they are introduced. Since your home assignments begin on Day 2, if you ever need more information on an exercise, flip back to Day 1 to see if they addressed it at the beginning of the week.
Note for OPG L101: This week at home, you will be teaching OPG Lesson 101. Similar to OPG Lesson 96, Lesson 101 says that O alone is "disobedient." Disregard that! Instead, we teach the concept found in AAS (Lesson 19- we aren't there yet!) which is known as the "Find Gold" rule: I and O often say their long sound when followed by two consonants. We taught the students this rule for I, so they have heard it before, and will now add O along with I to the rule.
Note for Long Vowel Review Day assignment: Ask your student to read the words from the OPG pages listed above. If they are having trouble with any of the vowel pairs or patterns we have covered so far, spend time today going back to those OPG lessons and practicing those types of words. If they are not having any trouble, encourage them to improve their fluency by reading more smoothly and naturally.
Keep reviewing all of those phonograms! A good practice is to make the connection between the phonogram cards/flashcard practice and actual text your child can read. In "Frog and Toad," for example, take time to preview the upcoming paragraph and let your child point out the phonograms they know. Have them practice what sound they will make when they get to that word.
Words from "The Surprise" that students should be able to decode, plus sight words (in parenthesis): It, (was), the, had, off, trees, they, on, will, go, to, Toad's, (said), Frog, rake, (of), that, (have), his, be, a, shed, these, run, ran, so, not, see, him, grass, came, is, he, who, got, home, pile, clean, up, leaf, wind, land, that, had, must, get, and, my, both, when, each, went, bed.
Read Aloud:
The students have enjoyed getting to know all of the little critters- and the Folks- who inhabit Rabbit Hill! For our next read aloud, we adventure to Africa in Quest for the Lost Prince. Get your copy ready for next week!
The students have enjoyed getting to know all of the little critters- and the Folks- who inhabit Rabbit Hill! For our next read aloud, we adventure to Africa in Quest for the Lost Prince. Get your copy ready for next week!
History:
Questions for discussion: Can you list the steps for making glass? Why do you think blown glass was the most expensive kind of glass? What shape would you like to make with blown glass? Why did Dido want to live close to the water? What was her clever trick for buying lots of land?
Journal sentence: The Phoenicians were famous for blown glass and purple dye.
Science:
Science:
"Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise!" Proverbs 6:6 NIV
They are the most commonly found insect in the world... ants! This week we will take a closer look at these tiny but mighty insects. Scripture says we can learn from their ways. What did God want us to learn from ants, I wonder?
For the Ant Farm Observation section, setting up an actual ant farm is optional, but please do watch this video on YouTube and discuss the questions in the text. Pro tip- you can slow down or speed up YouTube playback speed as desired.
For the Ant Anatomy review section, you do not need the student journal page. You may use pg 30 of the textbook and review the body parts that way.
For the Amazing Ants section, you may simply show your student the pictures on pg 31 rather than removing the page from your textbook.
Please skip the Mound Maze section on pg 29, as we will cover it in class.
Journal sentence: Each ant has a special job that benefits the whole colony.
Arthropod Project due 11/13
Geography:
Horn of Africa and East Africa Due 11/18
Memory Work:
Quarter 2 poem: Count Your Blessings. Due 11/20.
Quarter 2 poem: Count Your Blessings. Due 11/20.
Books of the New Testament, due 12/4. Here is the song we practice with in class.
