First Grade Curriculum 2011 - 2012

This year, I decided to try out a few different options for our curriculum.

At the FPEA conference I walked through the vendor hall many, many times. I perused all of the merchandise multiple times. I decided that an all-in-one boxed curriculum was not the best choice for us, so then began the task of choosing curriculum for individual subjects. It was a bit overwhelming looking at all the options, and not every choice is even available at the conference!

In the end, here is what I decided to do:

Reading:

• Explode the Code workbooks - I purchased books 1-4 at the convention. I'm not sure how many books we will actually use this year, but they were discounted at the convention, so I grabbed them.

• Bob Books - I bought set 1 and 2 at the convention to use for reading practice. I already have the Abeka K5 readers from last year that we will be using this year. (Gigi is a little behind in her reading).
• Happy Phonics - Games that reinforce phonics lessons.
  

Handwriting:

• I did not purchase any formal curriculum this year for handwriting. Instead I bought a composition notebook where I will have Gigi do some copywork from various sources.

Math:

• RightStart Mathematics Level B - This was my biggest purchase so far this year. I bought the complete kit while at the convention.

Science:

• Again, no formal curriculum. The plan is to create lapbooks on various topics. I have quite a few topics in mind that I would like to cover, but of course that is all subject to change based on Gigi's interests.
  
• If the subject matter allows, I plan to use the Let's read and Find Out book series to research information for the lapbooks. I really like these books, plus they often suggest experiments that correlate with the subject.
  

Geography:

• I plan to have Gigi create lapbooks for this subject as well. We will make one lapbook for each state we learn about.
• In addition, I want to start letterboxing with her when the weather cools down a bit.

Bible:

• I will be using the Character portion from Hubbard's Cupboard as a guide.
• I will have Gigi do some notebooking pages based on the character traits we learn about
• We will also be referencing the God and Me! Devotions for Girls book that we already own.

Music and Art:

• I will teach some basic piano to Gigi myself. I took some lessons as a child and still have a book from that time that I can reference.
• For art, I will allow some free creativity time, providing a different material frequently

In addition to these things, we will be making many trips to various local museums, zoos, aquariums and theme parks. We will also be using the library for it's treasured resources as much as possible.

Goals for First Grade - 2011- 2012

We entered our second official year of homeschooling about 2 weeks ago. I came up with a basic outline of our goals for First grade just as had done for Kindergarten and curriculum has been chosen.

This year I will be including little man in much more school activities than last year. He will be three in October. Our goals for him this year include learning his alphabet, numbers etc. He is great with his colors, but needs quite a bit of help with everything else. We will go slowly and just cover basics since he is so young.

For starters, here are our First grade goals for the Princess:

The subject areas I want to cover include:

• Reading
• Handwriting
• Math
• Science
• Geography
• Art
• Music
• Piano
  
• Health
• Foreign Language
• Bible

I'm going to break it down now by subject what I would like to cover through the year. Som things are being carried over from last year since I do not feel they were mastered well enough.

Reading:

• Read common, irregular sight words (e.g., the, have, said, come)
• Make all the letter sounds and letter patterns, including consonant blends and long- and short-vowel patterns, and combine those sounds into recognizable words
• Be able to retell a story in detail and in her own words
  
• Read aloud with fluency in a manner that sounds like natural speech
• Write simple, short stories using sight words and phonics skills
• Respond to who, what, when, where, and how questions
• Follow one-step written instructions
• Identify and correctly use singular and plural nouns
• Identify and correctly use contractions and singular possessive pronouns in writing and speaking

Handwriting:

• Continue to improve manuscript with focus on lower-case letters
• Emphasize use of proper punctuation and capitalization
• Space letters, words, and sentences appropriately

Math:

• Recognize and Write numbers to 100
• Count orally by ones, fives and tens to 100
• Use symbols for less than, equal to, or greater than.
  
• Add and subtract numbers up to and from 10
• Addition and subtraction word problems
  
• Compare quantities by estimating, weighing, and measuring
• Use graphs to gather information
• Tell time
• Count coins
• Recite the days of the week and months of the year

Science:

• Animal Habitats
• Seeds and Plants
• Recycling
• Butterfly Life Cycle
• Ants
• Ocean life
• Dinosaurs
• Magnets
• Volcanoes
• Scientific Procedure
• Any other topics that princess shows interest in
  

Geography:

• Basic map skills
• How to use a compass
• Important US symbols
• The 50 states - we will do a lapbook for each state we learn about (all 50 will not be completed)
  
• Letterboxing
  

Art & Music

• Experiment with different materials and methods
• Learn how to draw some simple pictures
• Learn about music notes (different notes and what they mean) and sheet music
  
• Learn the notes of a piano
• Learn how to play simple songs on the piano by reading the sheet music
  

Health

• Learn essentials of nutrition
• Learn basic functions of the body
• Importance of personal hygiene
• Learn why our bodies are special and are to be kept private
• Safety in public places
• Proper manners in different situations

Foreign Language: (Spanish)

• Learn Alphabet orally
• Basic colors
• Common items in the home
• Animal names

Bible

• Character Traits - Respect, honesty, obedience, attentiveness, self-control, orderly, forgiving, content, thankful, humble, joyful, generous, compassionate, responsible, patient, diligent.
  

2010 - 2011 School Year End

Our first year of official homeschooling has ended!

My little girl is done with Kindergarten! We have had our end of the year evaluation, but I still need to mail it in to the school board. Tsk, Tsk .... I know.

I think we did a good job covering the majority of the goals we had set for Kindergarten. We did miss the mark on a few things, but all in all we did okay. Not great, but okay. We lost a lot of steam last year between living with family, searching for a new home and ultimately finding and moving into our new home. All the packing and unpacking and trying to get settled took a lot out of us and put a halt on a lot of things I had previously planned.

Anyway, here is what I had hoped to cover for Kindergarten as well as how the Princess fared.

Reading:

• Learn vowels vs. consonants and the sounds they make - Done!
  
• Read CVC words - Done!
  
• Read sight words (for Kindergarten level) - Most, but not all.
  
• Be able to retell a story in detail - Done!
  
• Put events of a story in order - Done!
  
• Write simple sentences using sight words and phonics skills - Has lots of trouble with this still.
  

Handwriting:

• Continue to improve manuscript with focus on lower-case letters - Improving, but still needs practice.
• Introduce script? - Never attempted on my part.
  
• Write own last name - Done!
  

Math:

• Recognize and Write numbers to 100- Done!
  
• Count orally by ones, fives and tens to 100 - Can count by ones to 100 only.
  
• Name ordinal numbers first through tenth - Done!
  
• Add and subtract using manipulatives - Done!
  
• Compare quantities by estimating, weighing, and measuring - Never introduced this concept on my part.
  
• Use graphs to gather information - Never introduced on my part.
  
• Tell time to the nearest hour - Done!
  
• Count coins - Pennies only
  
• Recite the days of the week and months of the year - Done!
  

Science:

• Understand the five senses - Done!
  
• Weather - Done!
  
• Animal Habitats - Never done on my part.
  
• Plants and Farming - A few plants and gardening concepts introduced.
  
• Recycling - Never done on my part.
  

Social Studies:

• Identify major religious and civic holidays - Done!
  
• Identify major Historical figures - Never introduced on my part.
  
• Understand our community- Done!
  
• Understand different roles in community (Community Helpers) - Done!
  

Art & Music

• Experiment with different materials and methods - Done!
  
• Learn how to draw some simple pictures - Done!
  
• Learn about music notes (different notes and what they mean) - Never introduced
  
• Learn the notes of a piano - Never introduced
  

Health

• Learn essentials of nutrition - Just a bit, but no detailed lessons.
  
• Learn basic functions of the body - Done!
  
• Importance of personal hygiene - Done!
  
• Learn why our bodies are special and are to be kept private - Done, but will continue this always.
  
• Safety in public places - Done, but will continue this always.
  
• Proper manners in different situations - Still working on this always.
  

Foreign Language: (Spanish)

• Learn to count orally to ten- Done!
  
• Basic colors - Knows some, but not all.
  
• Common items in the home - Nope.
  
• Animal names - Nope.
  

Bible

• Going to follow an age appropriate Lesson Book for bible instruction

In preparation for another year of schooling, I attended the FPEA Homeschool Convention back in May. It was a great motivator and slef-esteem booster as well as a new experience. The curriculum hall was HUGE! It was nice to be able to physically go through tons of curriculum choices in person. I have pondered over what i will use for first grade. There are so many choices, but I had to make a decision. I'm not certain if everything I ultimately decided on will truly be a good fit for us, but homeschooling is sometimes trial and error. Only time will tell if I have made the right decision for my family.

I'll post about our curriculum choices next time.

Here's hoping!

Tampa Bay Homeschool Convention ~ Who Knew?

Ok, so most of you know that this is our first year of homeschooling.  It has been a bit bumpy, but overall, so far,  I am really happy we decided to take this leap.

When my husband and I first discussed the possibility of homeschooling the Princess, we agreed we would re-evaluate her progress each year in order to determine if we would continue homeschooling her or find a charter school for her to attend.

The agreement is that when she has her annual evaluation, (which is performed by a board certified teacher and required in our state) if it is determined that she has progressed at or above where her same-grade peers have, then we will continue to homeschool the following year.  If her evaluation shows she is below where she should be, then we will consider finding a public charter school.

Unfortunately, with all the chaos of searching for a house and finally moving, daily lessons have taken a back seat.  Education is a priority in our household, yet somehow a structured day has still slipped away from us. 

In an effort to re-fuel my passion for homeschooling and get back on track, I went searching for a local homeschool support group.  During my search, I came across an announcement for a homeschool convention.

Now, the FPEA (Florida Parent-Educators Association) hosts an annual convention in Kissime.  I am a current member of FPEA and we have been considering attending this convention in May.  It is a HUGE convention, which unfortunately comes at a price.  We get reduced admission because we are members, but we would still have to pay for travel, a hotel for a couple of nights and our meals. I would like to go, but we will have to see how the finances pan out first.

In the meantime, I am super excited that I found out about a Homeschool convention right in my own city!

The Tampa Bay Homeschool Convention takes place TODAY, Saturday February 5, 2011.  The Keynote address is at 8:30am with the exhibit hall opening at 9am with over 50 vendors.

What is truly exciting to me about this convention is that it is nearby, only minutes from where I live and it is inexpensive!  Tickets are only $5 per person (Children 12 and under are FREE) at the door and all homeschooling families, as well as those considering homeschooling, are welcome.  For more information you can visit the official site.

I am hoping that this convention will not only get me excited about homeschooling again, but also afford me the opportunity to connect with other local homeschooling families.

But that is just one mom's opinion.

Are you going to attend this convention?
Let me know your thoughts!

Fall Lapbook

Last week I shared with you our very first Lapbook for this year about Pumpkins.  At teh end of that post  I promised to share our next lapbook about Fall.

Well, We STILL have not completed our Fall lapbook!  Don't get me wrong, we have been working on it.  We have most (actually everything but one) of the individual books and cards etc. completed.  Nothing is put together in the actual lapbook though.  Such is life.  We will put it together, it's just not happening today!


That doesn't mean I am not going to share our resources though!  I just don't have any nice pictures to go with this post.  To be perfectly honest, I probably will not ever get to posting them either.  Let's face it, it's already time to move on to the next project so this one will be soon forgotten - until my daughter pulls it out to review, but by then "Fall" will be irrelevant. Just being honest!  :)

Anyhow, I will still let you know what things we did for this lapbook.  I'll let you know where I plan to place everything, but I'm sure you can figure out a layout if you choose to do a Fall lapbook with your little ones!

For the front cover I plan to attach a leaf collage we made together.  We live in Florida, so unfortunately,  we don't get to see many Fall colors in the leaves (By the way, I am originally from up North, and Fall is my FAVORITE season, so this is tough for me to deal with!), but we were able to find a few red, brown and yellow leaves.  We took the leaves and pressed them between two sheets of wax paper and ironed.  Pretty neat way to preserve the leaves!


On the inside left flap I will attach a small book about Fall.  For this book I copied a poem by Dianne Waggoner that I found in The Giant Encyclopedia of Theme Activities for Children 2 to 5 on page 146.  I assembled a small book from blank paper and wrote out the poem, one line per page leaving plenty of empty space below each sentence.  Then, I read the poem to Princess and she drew pictures for each page.  It's really cute!


Below the Fall Poem book, I plan to add the Leaf Shape Bingo game that I found in Toss and Learn Games Science pages 15-18.  You're supposed to attach the "call cards" to the sides of a rolling die, but we just mixed them up on the floor face down and played that way. I had my daughter practice some handwriting with this as well.  She had to look at the call cards, find the matches on the game cards, then write the name of the leaf below the picture.  I kept them all as cards so that we could place them into a pocket envelope in the lapbook.


In the center I plan to attach two pages.  One page is a maze (my daughter loves mazes - she's really good at them too!)  that I found at DLTK (♥ this site!!).  I printed out maze #4 in black and white.  Princess solved the maze (in about 20 seconds) and then colored it in.


The second page in the center of our Fall lapbook will be another Draw Write Now activity.  We used Draw Write Now Book 2, page 40.  I really love these books!  I like to use it for copy work in place of repetitive writing of A A A A A (you get the picture!) Plus, Princess loves to draw and this is a great way for her to learn a bit more.


On the right hand flap we will have Leaf matching cards in a pocket envelope.  I printed these from pages 8-10 of a free sample from the "Harvest Festival Project Pack" offered by Hands of a Child.  This is a similar to the Leaf Bingo we did, but oh well.


The lower right flap will have some new words we have learned along with their definitions.  I have laminated these so Princess can use a wipe-off marker to practice writing the words.  The definitions are on the back.  I chose the words mostly from books we read about Fall.


Some of the books we read were:

Why do Leaves Change Color? by Betsy Maestro

Let's Look at Fall by Sarah Schuette

I Know it's Autumn by Eileen Spinelli

How do you Know it's Fall? by Alan Fowler

It's Fall! by Linda Glaser

These are just a few of the books we read...there are much more!!

Even though we have not assembled this lapbook yet, we have actually already started our Thanksgiving Lapbook.  There is less than a week to go until Thanksgiving, so I'll be sharing our resources for this soon, but again we won't have it completed for me to show you  :(  Sorry about that!

We may be slow going getting these completed, but we are still enjoying making them!

But that is just one mom's opinion.

Have you made a lapbook about Fall with your kids this year?

Mind sharing with me??

Let me know your thoughts!

Pumpkin Lapbook

Last week I wrote about our new use of lapbooks for homeschooling.  Lapbooks are definitely not a new concept, not even for us.  This is the first time I am using them specifically for homeschooling.

Our first lapbook for this year was all about pumpkins.  My daughter is on a Kindergarten level so tried to find activities appropriate for her level.  Finding items to add to lapbooks can be a lot of work and research, but it is also fun to see all the possibilities.


Here is the lapbook I did with my daughter along with the resources used;

For the front cover, I had Princess write "My Pumpkin Lapbook" on a piece of pumpkin shaped lined paper.  Below her title she wrote her name and date. The pumpkin paper was from here. I printed the page out and Princess wrote  on it, colored it and then cut it out all on her own.

Front Cover

On the inside, we pasted on a pocket envelope to hold small cards that showed the life cycle of a pumpkin.  Princess colored all the stages of the life cycle and them cut them out.

Pumpkin Life Cycle

 She now can remove all the pieces and put them in order while she explains the different stages to me.  We used the sequence cards found here.

 However, there are also some great photos that you can use for this activity as well found here.   I used the black and white drawings mainly because it allowed more interaction through the coloring and cutting.

Below the life cycle pocket we did a simple sizing activity of five pumpkins.  Princess sorted them in order of smallest to largest and then pasted them onto the paper after coloring and cutting them out.

 In the middle of the lapbook,  Princess colored a picture of a pumpkin and practiced some writing from page 5 from this Pumpkin resource set.

There are tons of other pages at this same site for a Pumpkin Lapbook so look through all of them.

Under that page is a maze featuring Clifford found here.

 Below that is the poem "Five Little Pumpkins".  I printed that from page 9 and 10 found here.

As the site suggested, I laminated the page and the pumpkins, cut out the pumpkins and attached Velcro so Princess could remove and count them.

On the right hand side, Princess practiced her handwriting with some copy work and also learned to draw a pumpkin all on her own.  We used pages 34-35 of Draw Write Now book 2. 

Under that is an envelope with a Happy Pumpkin Puzzle.

This is a very simple puzzle for a Kindergartner, but I wanted to include it because it allowed Princess to work on her cutting skills.  She colored in the picture, then I laminated it and she cut out all the pieces.

On the very back, there is a spelling game.  I made a very crude envelope to store all the pieces.  This is Princesses' favorite part of the entire lapbook!  They are cute little pumpkins with pictures of simple CVC words.  The letters are cute little pumpkin seeds too! The printouts for this literacy game can be found here.

Looking back, I should have used cardstock for everything, not just the printouts!  I actually used construction paper for the envelope on the back as well as some of the background pages for hte activities to be glues on.  Through use over the last couple of weeks, these have begun to tear and fall out of the lapbook.  I need to use better quality stuff!!

When doing our lapbook, I actually placed one component of the lapbook into one of our workboxes each day.   So it took Princess about 9 days to complete all the activities.  On the 10th day, we constructed the actual lapbook.  Princess has reviewed this lapbook quite often since it's completion.

To accompany this lapbook we also read a few books about Pumpkins including:

From Seed to Pumpkin by Wendy Pfeffer

and The Pumpkin Book by Gail Gibbons

We are currently working on a Fall lapbook and I will share those resources with you soon!  I think that lapbooks will continue to be a much enjoyed addition to our curriculum!

But that is just one mom's opinion.

Do you use lapbooks with your children?
What are you currently working on?

Let me know your thoughts!

Lapbooks

I am always looking for new ways to make homeschooling fun for my kids.  I had heard, years ago, about lapbooks and had even made one or two, but had actually forgotten about them.  I recently found some things in our homeschool file cabinet from a while back and it renewed my interest.

Now that Princess is on a Kindergarten to First grade level, I think these lapbooks could be much more interesting and useful! So I began researching them all over again.

Not sure what lapbooks are?  Well, lapbooks are a fun, creative way to organize all the details of what you are learning.  You basically make a a bunch of mini books on the topic of your choice and then assemble all of those books into one larger book that is made up of file folders.  This completed book is a great review tool as well.  Children can look through them and remember what they've learned.

Although we do use a curriculum for phonics and math, lapbooks are a great way to reinforce what those lessons are teaching.  Also, since I don't follow a set curriculum for other subjects, this is a great way to integrate Science, Social Studies and Art into our routine.

The best way to really get a good grasp on lapbooks is to see them.  There is a Lapbooking Flickr Group that has an amazing amount of awesome lapbooks to look at.

So far this year, we have only completed one lapbook.  We focused on Pumpkins.  We are beginning a lapbook on Fall now ( I know, a little late) and should have it completed in two weeks or so, depending on my daughter's pace.

As soon as I get my pictures organized, I'll share our Pumpkin lapbooks with you - complete with all the resources I used to put them together.

I'm going to try my best to share all of our lapbooks and the resources so you can try it if you want.

There are lots of great things about lapbooks.

• They can be customized to suit any level since you choose the materials. 
• It's a great way to utilize scarpbooking supplies and skills and get creative.  
• It's an awesome review tool when it's completed.  
• It works great with the Workbox system we are already using
• It allows you to cover multiple subject areas in one place
• It's a great addition to our portfolio, which will have to be evaluated at the end of the year

I very much enjoyed the creation of our pumpkin lapbooks and can't wait to share them with you!  I am excited to get started on our next lapbook about Fall!

But that is just one mom's opinion.

Have you used lapbooks?
What are you currently working on? Have any pictures to share?

Let me know your thoughts!