*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 14- Teacher/Co-Teacher conferences; no class for students
Tuesday, October 21- Picture retakes
Friday, October 24- Fortis Fall Fest
Thursday, October 30- Historical Dress Up- students may dress in costume as a historical figure from their grade level history study. Details below.
Thursday, October 30- Spirit/Pizza/DOGS Day- Fortis spirit shirts and shorts or jeans may be worn
Historical Dress Up- October 30th: Costumes must be in the theme of our history 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.
Dearest Parents,
You are raising up the next generation of teachers, missionaries, pastors, businessmen and women, doctors, parents and maybe even politicians. In whatever they do, may they always maintain their desire to share the truth of God's redemption plan with those He places into their spheres of influence!
You have my love and support,
Mrs. Kuhn
Math:
Math is more complex this week, so we will slow our pace and spend several days on each lesson. Spend time each home day making sure these fundamental concepts really sink in deep. The concept of making a 10 to add is foundational for the entire rest of 1st grade (and beyond!). We will introduce it now with sums up to 20, but we will revisit it again later for sums to 40 and eventually sums to 100. It is essential that your student understands this concept rather than relying on counting fingers or pictures to add. If your child struggles because they're not yet solid in parts of 10, build in review time for this.
Here is an optional alternative format for Textbook pg 64, task #2 (assigned for Friday). If it helps your student, feel free to use it.
Spelling:
Because the silent e is necessary to spell the long vowel sound in VCe words, teach your student to include it as part of writing the vowel sound. For example, to spell "made," instruct them to spell the sound /m/. They would write "m." Then ask them to spell the sound /ā/, and have them write "a_e" leaving a space between the a and the e. This highlights the connection between the silent e and the vowel sound /ā/ in this word. Then ask them to spell the final sound /d/, writing the "d" in the space they left between a and e. This is how I model spelling silent e (VCe) words in class. Eventually students will master spelling these types of words and the scaffold will become unnecessary. Until then it's very helpful conceptually, and it also prevents the silent e from being left off the end of the word.
Sometimes students want to use a vowel team to spell the long vowel sounds in this lesson since we have been reading vowel teams. If your child does that, remind them that right now we are practicing spelling silent e words, so we won't use any vowel teams for these words. Unfortunately, many times there aren't specific spelling rules that dictate when to use silent E vs a vowel team, so familiarity with reading and writing the words is the only way to learn. This week, it's perfectly fine to say "You just need to remember this is a silent e word" if they press you about why a vowel team isn't used.
Reading:
I have seen gains in everyone's reading since the beginning of the year! This is just one of the reasons first grade is so exciting and definitely #1 in my book!
**Important note about OPG Lesson 96**
This lesson states that the letter I alone is "disobedient" in words that end in "nd" or "ld." However, we will teach this lesson according to AAS Rule Card 11 (The Find Gold Rule), which says "I and O often say their long sound when followed by...two consonants." We won't teach this rule in AAS for several weeks yet, but there is no reason to teach something incorrectly now, only to have to correct it later! So for now, please disregard the entire 2nd half of the Instructor paragraph on pg 174, starting where it says "There are certain words that don't follow either pattern." Rather, teach your child that the letter I followed by two consonants often says it's long sound.
The decodable passage "Nile and the Bike Ride" has several multisyllabe words (a compound word and several VCCV words) for your student to practice syllable division rules from AAS. Before they begin reading, you may want to preview these words with them, asking them to divide the syllables and mark the vowel sounds. The discussion questions on the bottom of the page can aid your child's oral narration, but they do not need to be answered in writing or turned in.
Encourage your child to read words that they should be able to decode in "The Corner" from Frog and Toad All Year (sight words are in parentheses): Frog, and, in, the, rain, they, ran, (to), Frog's, I, am, wet, (said) day, is, (have), tea, cake, will, stop, if, stand, stove, be, dry, tell, while, we, waiting, when, (was), not, much, than, my, me, this, gray, but, spring, just, went, find, that, path, in, until, came, see, on, side,(was), it, no, pine, tree, three, grass, did, an, stump, mud, his, tail, home, got, go, (too), sun, yes.
Science:
We are full swing into our butterfly study! The children are going to continue observing, collecting data, and journaling about what they're seeing with our caterpillars. This week our main focus is the life cycle, how God designed each part, and how He provides just what the butterfly needs through each stage of its life. What a great reminder that God is in the details! If He cares about the intricacies of each individual insect species, imagine how great a love He has for us who are called to an intimate relationship with Him!
Journal entry: student draws life cycle stages on the paper that has been glued into their journal
History:
Questions for discussion: Why did Hatshepsut choose to pretend to be a man? Do you agree with her choice?
How was Amenhotep different from other Egyptians? Why do you think he worshiped the sun god instead of the true God?Journal sentence: Many pharoahs kept the New Kingdom of Egypt strong.
Geography:
I will be assessing the Northern Africa and Northern Central Africa map and songs on Thursday, 10/16.
Horn of Africa and East Africa will be due 11/18.
Memory Work:
We've begun 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 11/20
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 12/4
