* Note- anything underlined in the table above or highlighted below is a link *
Key to Abbreviations:
GP- The Gospel Project- Home Edition
HIG- Singapore Math Home Instructor's Guide
TB- Singapore Math Textbook
WB- Singapore Math Workbook
MM- Mental Math (see appendix in HIG)
CCC- Complete, check, correct
AAS- All About Spelling
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
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, March 31- Spirit/Pizza/DOGS day
Saturday, April 2- Fortis NERF Tournament- watch for details to come!
Tuesday, April 12th- Austin Aquarium field trip (see below for information)
Dear Parents,
Welcome back! I hope your break was relaxing, productive, OR both- whichever you prefer! Either way, I pray you've been strengthened and are ready to join with me as we finish out this year strong!
Love, Mrs. Kuhn
Math:
You will cover Unit 6- Halves and Quarters at home this week, while in class we will continue reviewing addition and subtraction with renaming. I will assess the students' progress on Thursday, and they will be allowed to use their base ten blocks if they would like. Please check their test on Friday to see if they are still struggling with this concept.
Mental Math 13-17 will continue to be assigned on a rotation until we reach Addition within 100 in Unit 8. If students were to take several weeks off from practicing these types of problems while we covered multiplication, division, halves/quarters, and time, they would really struggle when we returned to addition and subtraction of larger numbers. They need to keep those skills sharp and become confident in using the strategies. If your child is getting quite comfortable with these problems using manipulatives, begin moving to just a pictorial representation (they can draw lines for 10's and dots or squares for 1's). Ideally we are working toward not needing concrete or pictorial representations, so you can also move to completely abstract if they are catching on well. Feel free to make up your own problems if you'd rather, but I've found that the Mental Math exercises are a convenient set of problems to use for practice.
Flashcard Games for math facts (or phonograms!)
Reading:
Please note that Lesson 141 is incomplete. OPG presents these words as instances where GH is not silent, but the words in this lesson actually fall under two of the sounds of the phonogram OUGH: /uff/ and /off/. Extra practice is warranted for this phonogram card and its 6 different sounds!
We have completed the Sounds First phonemic awareness program for 1st grade! I have been very pleased with the progression of skills I've seen in the students as we've worked through the lessons this year. In class, I'm going to continue on into the 2nd grade program for these last few weeks of school. You are welcome to do that as well or go back and review prior lessons from this year, but I will not be assigning any more lessons on home days.
In the decodable book "Meg and Jim's Sled Trip," there are a couple of opportunities to practice dividing multisyllabic words.
On the first page, for the word "fantastic," students would use syllable division rule #2, which is: Locate the vowels. If there are two consonants between them, we usually divide between the consonants (see AAS pg 36). Thus, "fantastic" would be divided as fan/tas/tic. Then ask your student to label each syllable and ask them what kind of vowel sound (long or short) the vowel makes in each syllable. In this case, these are all closed syllables which have short vowel sounds, so we have făn/tăs/tĭc. You will hopefully get the question, "Why does fantastic end with c instead of ck?" Remind students that Key Card 4 which says ck is only used right after a short vowel applies to one-syllable words (see AAS pg 16-17). In multisyllable words ending with the /k/ sound, /k/ is often spelled with c. Examples include: frantic, fantastic, maniac and zodiac.
The word "until" on pg 15 would be divided in a similar way using syllable division rule #2 again.
The word "their" is a word we haven't taught the students to decode yet, so just give your child that word and tell them they will learn it later!
Decodable words in "A Boy Gets a New Home" from the Early Reader's Bible (sight words in parenthesis): A, boy, gets, new, home, so, much, God, boy, if, you, (give), me, (said), I, will, let, him, do, did, (was), with, call, she, and, to, when, took, house, man, (who), (of), help, my, yes, take, at, came, see, good, things, too, best, all
Decodable words in "David is a Brave Boy" from the Early Reader's Bible (sight words in parenthesis): is, a, brave, boy, come, and, fight, me, but, not, (one), (of), God's, (would), him, they, (said), I, am, will, how, can, you, the, king, as, big, he, God, help, me, so, went, took, his, sling, five, stones, man, ran, at, to, kill, with, too, then, put, in, down, they, (was), but, that, had
Spelling:
On Thursday, March 24th, we'll have a fun and friendly Spelling Bee! We will have 10 rounds where all the students will spell (in writing) the word from each round. Whoever spells the most words correctly will be the winner! All the words from Step 2 through Step 20 are fair game! This should be a fun activity for the kids.
We are back to our regular spelling schedule on Friday with AAS Step 21. This lesson can be tricky for some students because the sound of /ū/ (as in cube) and /o͞o/ (as in zoo) only differ by a quick /y/ at the beginning of /ū/. In words like rude, flute, and June, we drop that initial /y/ altogether. Similarly, in the "words ending in /ū/" in our spelling list this week have more of an /o͞o/ than a true /ū/. You can reference OPG L109 where we taught the students to read the vowel pair UE as /o͞o/ to help you teach this AAS lesson.
We are back to our regular spelling schedule on Friday with AAS Step 21. This lesson can be tricky for some students because the sound of /ū/ (as in cube) and /o͞o/ (as in zoo) only differ by a quick /y/ at the beginning of /ū/. In words like rude, flute, and June, we drop that initial /y/ altogether. Similarly, in the "words ending in /ū/" in our spelling list this week have more of an /o͞o/ than a true /ū/. You can reference OPG L109 where we taught the students to read the vowel pair UE as /o͞o/ to help you teach this AAS lesson.
Geography:
Southern Africa Map and Song will be due 4/14. Students should be able to point to each country as they sing/recite the names. This is the final remaining part of Africa that we have yet to memorize!
History:
Here are some questions for discussion as you teach SotW Chapter 32: When Qin Zheng became emperor of China, he changed his name. Why do you think he chose the new name that he picked? Why did he bring his enemies to live near his palace? Tell why this could be a good idea and why it could be a bad idea. Do you agree with his strategy? When Shi Huangdi told his builders and architects to build a great wall, they told him that stone was scarce. He told them to think of another way. What way can you think of to build a great wall without stones? The Emperor went to great lengths to try to live forever. If you could talk to Shi Huangdi now, what would you tell him about finding everlasting life? (See John 3:16)Journal sentence: Qin Zheng united the Warring States into the country of China and began building the Great Wall.
Reminder: This semester's at-home project will allow students to tap into their inner entrepreneur as they set up shop in a recreation of the central Greek gathering place and marketplace, the Agora. Students will create a product they wish to sell, a price point, and a sales pitch to entice their friends to visit their stall in the marketplace. Fortis students from other grades will be "window shopping" in our Agora before we buy and sell amongst our class (currency provided)! Project guidelines can also be found here. This project will be presented by the students on April 26th. They are encouraged to wear Greek attire/costume to school that day to lend authenticity to their project.
Science:
This week we'll learn about those infamous, sharp-toothed villians... sharks! Are they really so ferocious, though? Despite their scary reputation, there is more to sharks than teeth and Jaws. We'll discuss shark body parts and their amazing senses and do an interesting demonstration to compare human and shark sense of smell. We'll also take a look at the great variety of shark species. Have you ever heard of a carpet shark?
Field Trip to Austin Aquarium!
**Click here to register and pay for the field trip**
Details:
Tuesday, April 12th, 2021
Depart Fortis 9:55am
Return to Fortis between 12:30-1:00pm
Cost: $6.95 students, $8.95 parent chaperones (siblings age 3 or older attending with a parent chaperone, $8.95)
Payment and permission slip due by March 31st
I will need parents to help transport students, so if you are able to drive, please let me know!
Also, include your name as a parent chaperone and driver on the permission slip form.
We will bring sack lunches to eat at the picnic area inside the aquarium after our tour.
Memory Work:
Quarter 4 poem: Rock of Ages will be due 5/3. In addition to the title, I would like the students to recite, "Written in 1763 by Reverend Toplady" before they begin reciting the poem. Here is a link to the song that we practice in class. This artist does substitute "commands" for "demands" in the 2nd stanza, so I will accept either of those words as correct.
Books of the Old Testament: Psalms - Malachi due 4/28. When we finish this section, we'll have memorized the order of all the books in the entire Bible! Here is a link to the song we practice in class. As always, if you or your child are already familiar with a different song, I'll assess that no problem, as long as the books are said in order.
