* 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
HIG- Singapore Math Home Instructor's Guide (click to print addition or subtraction flash cards)
TB- Singapore Math Textbook
WB- Singapore Math Workbook
MM- Mental Math (see appendix in HIG)
CCC- Complete, check, correct
AAS- All About Spelling (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)
SotW- Story of the World
G&B/A- The Good and The Beautiful, Arthropods
G&B/MB- The Good and The Beautiful, Marine Biology
Hello, parents! Welcome to 1st Grade, and thank you for checking in on the blog! Weekly blog posts are written to and for parents to provide extra details and guidance for your homeschooling days. Blogs for the upcoming week will be posted by 4:00pm on the prior Friday.
As we kick off this new year, it's good to remind ourselves of the driving force and inspiration behind all that we do.
Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain. ~ Psalm 127:1
Therefore, through prayerful consideration, my aim is to bring every lesson - be it classroom expectations, the rise and fall of nations, God's marvelous creations, and even proper punctuation- back to our Maker, Savior, and Helper.
He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls. ~ Proverbs 25:28
With this verse in mind, one focus the first week is establishing a safe, controlled, and utterly loving environment through which the children can experience genuine peace and joy with each other while they are in my care. I'll emphasize Habits of the Heart and the Fruit of the Spirit this week as we focus on expectations.
I've prayed for and planned for you to find this week a gentle, peaceful introduction to 1st Grade. I will be checking my emails often, so please reach out if you have any questions!
Your faithful cheerleader,
Mrs. Kuhn
Coming Soon:
Tuesday, August 9- First Day of School! Morning Assembly begins in the sanctuary at 8:45am, with our school day officially starting at 9:00am.
Tuesday, September 6- No School- Labor Day holiday
As a school, we will be hiding Philippians 2:1-11 in our hearts this year, one verse at a time. I encourage you to learn the verses along with your child. It is always fun and encouraging for children to "test" their parent. It may be more challenging for you than it is for them!
Verses listed in the Discipleship section will be emphasized in assembly as a part of character building lessons, but are not required memory verses.
The Gospel Project: Home Edition will be our main Bible curriculum. I'm excited to walk through the Old Testament with the students, discovering as we go how God's redemption story has been in action all along.
The Gospel Project teacher guide will suggest that you complete workbook pages, videos, Bible dictionary activities, etc. Those are all optional. At the end of each lesson there is a Bible journal assignment. It is your choice as to whether you want to keep a Bible journal notebook at home. When we complete those journal assignments in class, they will be sent home on a loose piece of paper, which you can then insert into your 3-ring notebook if you desire. Otherwise, you do not need to keep them or return them to school. Remember, Friday Fun Day lessons are optional, but encouraged if you have the time! Teach your child to recite the answer to the Big Picture Question each week.
Math:
We start out with math lessons right away this week. Remember, the concrete portion of the lesson (in the HIG- Home Instructor's Guide) is extremely important and not to be overlooked. You may need to prepare manipulatives and the lesson ahead of time.
The "Reinforcement" section of each lesson is optional unless specifically mentioned in the blog assignment. You will see those sections assigned a couple of times this week.
On HIG pg 2, note that you are instructed to ask your student read number word cards on their own. However, number words are not decodable yet except six, five, nine, ten. You may have them read those cards, but for the other number word cards, you may just tell them the word for now.
On HIG pg 6 (including reinforcement), spend extra time counting backward. If your child can easily count backward from any number within 10, challenge them with counting down from a number within 20.
Spelling:
Spelling Journals will come home on Tuesday. There is no need to do anything with them this week; we are just building the habit of bringing the journal to and from home/school each day.
"All About Me Bags" don't have much to do with Spelling, but that's where it fit in the grid! A brown lunch sack will come home in your child's binder on Tuesday. Please read the attached instructions, and have your child bring three items (some can be photos) that are special to them or represent their uniqueness. They will be presenting these to their classmates on Thursday.
Grammar:
First Language Lessons includes several poems for memorization. However, we will be memorizing our quarterly poems in lieu of the poems found in the FLL curriculum. Each poem for the year can be found behind the Memory tab in the campus binder.
Writing:
In the Writing section of the campus binder, you'll find a convenient reference sheet for the proper formation of each letter. We follow the Handwriting Without Tears guidelines. Remember to sit with your child to coach them in correct pencil grip, letter formation, and letter placement. You can create your own copywork pages using this link.
Reading:
The first book from the required reading book list will be Little Bear. We will being reading it soon, so please locate your copy now if you haven't already. This week, begin reading aloud to your child from a book of your choice, and remember to aim for 20-30 minutes each day.
If you have any questions about administering the Phonemic Awareness Assessment, don't hesitate to contact me.
History:
We will generally do a lesson on Tuesday which corresponds to reading you've done with your child at home on the prior Friday.
Remember to have your child orally narrate the sections you read to them. This means that after you read, your student gives you a retelling in their own words. At first, you may want to ask for oral narration after a short passage, with the goal of working up to longer passages in the future. Another goal with oral narration is using complete sentences, so you may need to guide them on how to rephrase their summary into a sentence.
On the first available page in their history journal (which is the back half of the Science and History Journal), students should copy the sentence for Chapter 1: The earliest people were nomads. They may draw a picture to accompany their sentence, but a picture is not required.
Geography:
You'll find all maps for the year in the binder behind the Geography tab. We will practice maps in class various ways, but we always use a song as a memory aid. Practice outside of class will be necessary for success. You can access all the map songs for the year at this link.
If you would rather not depend on the main blog page for our geography songs this year, you will find the entire CD of Kathy Troxel Geography Songs to purchase through ChristianBook.com (scroll down a little to find just the CD).
Our first map is Continents and Oceans, due 9/8.
Science:
Similarly to History, readings at home on Wednesdays will lead to class activities on Thursdays, and there will be a journal sentence for your child to copy. However, there is no at-home assignment for Science this first week.Memory Work:
The poem for this quarter, "Persevere," is due September 27. Please start working on this sooner than later if you feel your child will need plenty of time to learn it. Find your copy in the Poetry tab of the binder.
Reminders:
- The Curricula section of the Main Page of the blog is where many of our links come from, and is great to peruse and become familiar with.
- Check the "Leave at Home" side of the folder in your child's binder daily for items to be removed and filed at home. Items in the "Return to School" side need to be brought back to school, though there may not necessarily be any action necessary on your part. If there are items you would like to keep in your student's binder for reference, please hole-punch them and insert them in the binder rings.
