*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:
Tuesday, October 10- Spirit Day (no pizza)
October 11-13- Fortis Fall Campout
Tuesday, October 15- Teacher/Co-Teacher conferences; no class for students
Tuesday, October 22- Picture retakes
Friday, October 25- Fortis Fall Fest (more info to come!)
**Dear, Loving Parents**
It’s officially fall, y’all...or so they say! As we enjoy these longed-for cooler days, consider putting your child's boundless youthful energy to good use on those change-of-season jobs that must be tackled. They may not complete the job perfectly, but the lessons they will learn working alongside you are invaluable!
Math:
This week we will finish up Units 4-5 and complete a cumulative assessment. As with our prior math assessment, I will send home the students' ungraded tests for you to review with them the next day, and I will have a copy for myself to grade. Grades will be in Alma by the end of the week.
Heads up: Math will really ramp up soon when we introduce the addition strategy of making a 10. Your child will struggle if they are not already firm and quick in parts of 10. Prepare your child now for success! Practice parts of 10 for as long as it takes for them to gain automaticity.
Reading:
This week we'll work on the vowel pairs EA and IE. We already know EA can say the /ā/ sound, but now we'll discover its more common sound, /ē/. Add both of the sounds for IE to your phonogram practice, even though we will only cover /ē/ at first.
A reminder for teaching "sight words"- First, identify the letters in the word that are making their expected sounds. For the word friend, those would be almost all of the letters... f, r, n, and d. Then identify the part of the word that is making an unexpected sound. This part may be a true rule breaker/exception, or it may follow a rule we haven't taught yet. Regardless, it is making a sound we would not expect and therefore needs to be memorized. In our example of friend, this would be the letters "ie." We know they can make the /ē/ or /ī/ sounds, but they don't make the sound of /ĕ/ that we hear in friend. So we can sound out most of this word, but we will have to remember that the IE is a rule breaker, and that this word says "friend." Continue to reference the Routine for Teaching Irregular Words/Heart Words handout in your child's binder.
Speaking of friends, it's almost Frog and Toad time!! Get "Frog and Toad All Year," by Arnold Lobel ready as we'll begin this delightful book next week.
In Spelling we're working on compound words and words with two closed syllables. However, OPG does not touch on any multisyllablic words until the 2nd grade lessons, so 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 tell your student the word "are," as it is a heart/irregular word we haven't covered yet.
Remember to keep reviewing old phonograms as you focus on learning newly introduced ones!
Handwriting:
I'm noticing some students are forming their letters incorrectly and inefficiently. Please watch closely when they write to make sure students are making the correct strokes in the correct sequence rather than recreating the letter their own way. Here is a video of uppercase letter formation and one for lowercase letter formation if you need a visual. You can also reference the letter formation guidelines in your binder. I'm working on correcting errors when I see them made in class as well.
Spelling:
This week in Lesson 6, students will work on understanding how to divide multisyllabic words that have two consonants between the vowels. Though it is presented in our spelling curriculum, this skill is actually even more applicable to reading. When students understand how to divide a word into syllables and then identify what types those syllables are, they will know which vowel sound to use when they read the syllable. We will continue to work on syllable division rules in the weeks to come.
Lesson 6 does not introduce any new word cards. The assessment for this lesson will consist of sentences containing words students have been taught the rules for spelling.
History:
This week we venture into ancient China and revisit the silkworm, which we covered recently in Science as well. Students will discover something very interesting about the conditions in which rice grows!
Questions for discussion: Compare what you know about butterfly cocoons to silkworm cocoons. Why do you think no one has made fabric out of butterfly cocoons? Can you think of a way to help Chin and his father plant rice seedlings without getting their feet so cold?
Journal sentence: China became famous for its silk.
Science:
Look over the insects we've studied so far this quarter: termites, fireflies, mosquitoes, silkworms, bees, and wasps. Help your child prepare a short oral narration to share with us in class answering 3 questions: which insect they found most interesting, what about that insect intrigued them, and why they think God chose to make that insect that way. This can be as short as two sentences! For example: "I think the firefly is the most interesting insect because it makes cold light. God made them light up so they can send messages to each other." Students should memorize their presentation and speak in complete sentences when presenting. Reading the presentation is not allowed.
Oral presentation due date: Thursday, October 3
Students will be demonstrating that they know the characteristics of an insect by drawing a simple diagram in class. It will need to show the correct number of body parts, antennae, legs, and wings for an insect. Labels are not required.
Geography:
Northern Central Africa & Northern Africa, due 10/17
Memory Work:
"Persevere" memorization is due this Tuesday, 10/1.
