* 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
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)
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...
Tuesday, October 11- Parent/Teacher Conferences (no school)
Thursday, October 13- Spirit Day (no pizza)
Saturday, October 15- Fortis Lap-a-thon, 9am-1pm
Tuesday, October 25- Picture retakes
Thursday, October 27- Spirit/Pizza/DOGS day
Friday - Sunday, October 21-23 Fortis Fall Campout @ Cedar Breaks Park, Georgetown
Friday, October 28- Fortis Trunk or Treat
Tuesday, November 1- Historic Dress Up- students may dress in costume as a historical figure from their grade level history study. Details below.
Historic Dress Up- November 1st: 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:
For the upcoming strategy of "Making a 10" it is IMPERATIVE that the students be quick with their math facts. Please spend extra time now building the facts on a 10-frame and practicing with flashcards and fun games to make this important strategy easier for them to grasp. Also note that it is still necessary for your child to be progressively mastering all of the math facts listed in the HIG, even if they are not remembering to tell me they are ready for their next rainbow card.
Reading:
In Spelling we're introducing compound words and VCCV words (VCCV=Vowel, Consonant, Consonant, Vowel; these words are two-syllable words that have two vowels separated by two consonants, such as basket, muffin, picnic, rabbit, etc). For practice reading compound words, I'm sending home a passage called "The Piglets." Before your child reads this passage, please have them highlight the compound words and help them draw a vertical line in each word to show the two smaller words that make up each syllable. Big words don't have to be scary when we know how to divide and read each syllable! Note that you will have to give your student the word "are," as it is a heart word we haven't covered yet.
OPG L94 begins common spellings for the /ī/ sound with IE as /ī/ and Y alone as /ī/. We will focus dictation for that lesson on the words ending with Y as /ī/, as we have already studied in AAS. This is by far the most common way to spell /ī/ at the end of a word. OPG teaches /ī/ as one of the sounds for IE, even though there are only about 4-5 English words that are spelled with IE as /ī/ at the end. Here's a little more information if you're interested.
We will start reading from "Frog and Toad All Year" this week! As with Little Bear, allow your child to read the words they know how to decode, while you fill in by reading words they haven't learned to decode yet. I know they will fall in love with Frog & Toad!
Words from "Down the Hill" that students should be able to decode: the, hill, Frog, wake, up, he, and, see, is, I, will, not, am, in, my, bed, fun, came, things, top, hat, help, best, kill, me, went, they, we, ride, this, big, on, sled, be, with, it, fine, fast, sit, go, bump, fell, past, trees, rocks, glad, that, steer, can, than, but, bang, hit, thud, plop, well, by, did, that, home, may, much.
Irregular/heart words in "Down the Hill": said, have, do, to, of, friend.
Spelling:
Step 5 introduces the first two syllable division rules. Students will be gluing a page in their Spelling Journal to use at home to practice compound words. In class, we will practice more with the VCCV syllable type (see explanation of VCCV in Reading section, above). AAS spends just one lesson on these important syllable division rules, so expect to see more practice exercises sent home in the weeks to come.
In Step 6, we continue to work on open and closed syllables, as well as learning another syllable division rule. These rules are essential for decoding unknown multisyllable words. I've recently added a page to your Language Arts tab as a reminder of the syllable division rules.
Science:
We'll continue our study of bees and wasps this week by comparing and contrasting the two and making a Venn diagram in class. Would anyone like to make the Honey Candy recipe on G&B/A (pg 28 old version, pg 30 new version) to bring in on Thursday? It sounds delicious!
Journal sentence: Bees and wasps both pollinate plants.
This week your child will be bringing home information for this semester's science project. The Arthropod Project will be due November 10th. You will receive hard copies of the choice form, the instructions for each project, and the presentation guidelines. There are two options for you and your child to discuss and decide upon. These are intended to be fun and educational for you and your student to complete together!
By Thursday 10/13, please decide which project you and your child would like to do and return the choice form to school.
History:
SotW Ch. 12 questions for disucssion: Why did Amenemhet want to conquer Nubia? What kind of weapons did the Hyksos use against the Egyptians? What was the turning point that lead to the Hyskos being defeated?
Journal sentence: Egypt became powerful during the Middle Kingdom.
Geography:
Due October 13
Memory Work:
Time to start learning our Quarter 2 poem, "Count Your Blessings." Click here for a version of the melody you can use to practice at home (our poem only contains the first and fourth verses and the chorus). Due 11/17
We're also beginning to learn the books of the Bible in order, beginning with the New Testament (we will go back and do the Old Testament after Christmas). Here is the song we practice with in class. Your child is free to learn the books with that song or another song they may perhaps already know. Due 12/1
First Quarter complete! We've officially completed the first quarter, and several assessments have been completed for report cards. I've listed some objectives for each subject below to give you a fuller picture of the growth we want to see happening with the students.
Math Objectives: Your child should be:
1. FIRM and QUICK adding and subtracting with "Friends of 10" (8+2=10 and 10-2=8, as examples) by now, approaching mastery of other bonds (addition and subtraction) within 10. If not, put in some flashcard overtime!!**
2. able to write appropriate subtraction/addition equations for a given "story problem," knowing which numbers in the story are parts or whole.
**Note- (yes, I'm repeating this again!) If you've looked ahead to upcoming chapters in math, you'll have noticed that for the strategy of "Making a 10" it is IMPERATIVE that the students be quick with their math facts mentioned in objective 1 above. Please spend extra time with flashcards and fun games to solidify those facts to make this important strategy easier for them to grasp.
Reading Objectives:
1. By the end of every week your child should have practiced reading aloud to you for at least a total of 1 hour from OPG. Their reading fluency should be continually improving.
2. Use phonograms to decode the OPG lessons from each week.
3. Say phonogram sounds from assessments 1-2; be working on sounds from assessment 3.
4. Know how to identify open and closed syllables and their corresponding vowel sounds.
Handwriting Objectives: Your child should be:
1. leaving appropriate spaces between letters and words.
2. forming letters properly- generally top-down, counter-clockwise.
3. beginning sentences with a capital letter and remembering the end punctuation.
Grammar Objectives: Your child should be:
1. able to define a noun and the difference between common & proper nouns
2. capitalizing all proper nouns.
2. capitalizing all proper nouns.
3. able to give you examples of nouns.
Spelling Objectives: Your child should be able to:
1. answer AAS key cards #1-6 of Level 2 (for card 6, they only need to answer "i" at this point) and all of Level 1 found here.
2. write all 30 words from Steps 2-4 correctly from dictation.
History/Geography Objectives:
1. Practice oral narration skills that will translate to written narration skills.
2. Become comfortable and successful presenting information to a group.
Science Objectives: Your child should be:
1. lead to worship the Creator in response to the awe inspired by a deeper understanding of our world.
2. able to identify the major characteristics of an insect: six legs, three body parts, two antennae
3. able to name several insects and describe their special qualities.
