*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 31- Historical Dress Up- students may dress in costume as a historical figure from their grade level history study. Details below.
Thursday, November 14- Spirit Day (no pizza)
Thursday, November 21- Spirit/pizza/DOGS day
Historical Dress Up- October 31st: 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. These are probably very different from how we learned as children! Nevertheless, they are powerful strategies that emphasize flexibility with numbers and operations. We want the students to have a strong conceptual understanding of math, not a just a procedural understanding.
Some students may find the first approach of subtracting from the 10 (HIG pg 72-73) confusing or uncomfortable. If your child prefers the second approach of subtracting down to a "friendly" 10 (pg 74), that is also a great approach. We want to familiarize them with both strategies, but they will naturally gravitate toward using the one that makes the most sense to them. The ultimate objective of this lesson is to develop a strategy, outside of memorization, to subtract numbers that are not so friendly to subtract. 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. If you need any clarification on the different approaches, please reach out to me!
A note of explanation for MM 17:
Keep in mind that this exercise is more about showing understanding of the strategy and less about finding the numerical answer to 12-10 (for example). Use manipulatives liberally!
Reference the first paragraph on HIG pg 72, especially the 10-frame diagram, for these problems. If the example of 15-7 on HIG pg 72 was on MM 17, it would read: 15-7=____ + 5, and your student would fill in 3 for the blank.
Here's why: 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.
Stated another way, build 15 on 10-frames as 10 and 5. "10 and 5" minus 7 is the same as "3 and 5."
Again, we are not trying to do algebra here. The idea is not for the student to figure out 15-7 by counting up and getting 8, then go to the other side of the equation and ask "___+5 =8? Oh, the blank is 3."
For those of you who are visual, this might help. These are the first two problems on MM17:
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!
Spelling:
I'm noticing that some 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 some 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 reivewing 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!
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 11/14
Geography:
Horn of Africa and East Africa Due 11/19
Memory Work:
Quarter 2 poem: Count Your Blessings. Due 11/21.
Quarter 2 poem: Count Your Blessings. Due 11/21.
Books of the New Testament, due 12/5. Here is the song we practice with in class.
