MFW 1st Grade - Week #18

BIBLE/READING:  We had a pretty heavy bible week.  Our stories were "The Burning Bush, God Promises to Free Israel, The Ten Plagues, and Passover & Leaving Egypt."  Pretty intense for a 6 year old, but he really seems to enjoy it.  I read the bible story to him and some days he has to read it back to me from his bible reader, illustrate in his bible notebook, and of course, write the summary sentence.  On the days he doesn't have to read, those are the days we have new reading rules to cover.

Bible notebook illustration:

Bible verse for the week:  "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; Proberbs 3:5"

Reading rules:  /n/ spelled gn & kn, and /ough/.

I really didn't take a lot of pictures this week.  I was more focused on getting through the tough week.  Most of the workbook pages are similar to those I've shown already, except for the one he had for the ten plagues.  He had ten pictures and he had to write the number of the plague under each one of them as I read a description of each from my teachers manual.

This was a tough week for Caleb.  At the time, as we were going through it, I wasn't sure I understood why he was having such a hard time.  But, now, as I'm going back over it to write this post, I can see why.  Tough words to read and try to understand the reading rules, which ALWAYS have an exception.  Very involved bible stories.   A lot more reading that in weeks past.  He hates to write things out, but I haven't really noticed that he has more of that to do right now....but he still balks at having to write.

After a few awesome weeks in the beginning of 2012, I guess it stands to reason that we'll have a rough week now and again.  I am pleased that today was Friday, the end of week #18, and I was so grateful I'd saved up some of our science stuff to do all at once.  Caleb LOVES science and it was a very fun, hands on way to end our school week and make was a rough week, maybe not such a bad week after all.

LIBRARY BOOKS:   I haven't been very good about listing our library books, but then we weren't good about reading any of them for about a month either.  With the extra reading Caleb has to do now, I let our library book basket sorta take a break.  But, our little guy and his LOVE for being read to must have missed it because he asked time and time again to be read to.  Other than the Dolphin theme pack he asked me to check out for him on our last visit to the Northwest Branch Library, most of the books are specifically selected to go along with our different topics for the week, or at a minimum contain learning concepts for math in a really fun way.  And as I'll explain in the math section, we're half way through our curriculum, so I just love to find math books that help him to understand all the concepts we've covered so far this year.

*Room for Ripley by Stuart J. Murphy - this book is all about Carlos who is getting a fish, but he needs to make sure he has enough water in the new bowl.  It talked about cups, pints, quarts, gallons, etc.
*Super Sand Castle Saturday by Stuart J. Murphy - a fun tale about 3 kids at the beach participating in some contests to see who can make the tallest tower, the longest wall, and the deepest moat.  With this book they learn that it's important to use the same measuring tool or you won't get accurate results.
*Measuring Penny by Loreen Leedy - was a really fun book for us to read.  It was about a little girl with a dog named Penny.  We have a dog names Penny so even though Lisa's Penny didn't look like our Penny, it was still fun.  This book was all about measuring - the length of dog tails, noses, paws, and so much more.
*Dolphin books:  Dolphins, Animals of the Oceans-Dolphins, Friendly Dolphins, and yes, another book called, Dolphins.  ha ha....  Even though so many of them said the same things, he loved reading each and every one.

MATH:  We are officially 1/2 way through our curriculum.  We can count the days to determine that.  We can figure it off of our 100 day chart, or from out place value chart.  But, we can also tell we are half way because our math principles start over again.  We've cycled through all the concepts they want the first grader to learn and become familiar with.  Once we've cycled through, we then start over and go at them a little deeper and more intense.

So, this week we were back to classifying and repeating patterns.  VERY easy stuff considering this is what we did week #1 of MFW 1st grade....  ;o)   I was caught a little off guard also as we used EVERY math worksheet at the beginning of the year.  So, I pulled math sheets from the backup math workbook I have (a Horizon's math book) and used some worksheets from there.  As I'm typing this, it reminds me to look ahead at next week and see what our topic will be so that I can be sure to have some challenging work for him!!

SCIENCE:   We continued to study more on water.  This week the focus was on what things float and what things sink in water.  Caleb gathered some things from around the house to test in the bathroom sink.  I asked him to tell me ahead of time which items he thought would sink and which one's would float.  Out of the eight items he put in the water, he was only wrong about 2 of them; the hacky sack and the 4-wheeler.  Not bad guessing Caleb!!

Then we tried to work on another concept of using clay balls and tooth picks.  It is really hard to see in this picture because my sink will not hold water so I had to put a piece of rubber over the drain, which has green writing on it.  It's for that reason you really can't see the clay ball with tooth pick on top of it, setting on the rubber piece.

No matter what we did, they sank.  Our book indicated that if they were small enough they would float, but I guess we started off with ours too big to begin with because they all sank to the bottom.  Honestly, we got tired of trying, and the clay was dissolving as we worked.

This was sorta neat.  Caleb made a big ball of clay and we put it in a glass of water to see what it would do.  He noticed two things:  1) the clay began to dissolve and make his water 'foggy' and 2) the ball made the water level rise.

Our book showed that if we then changed the shape of the clay ball into a small boat that it would then float.  Well, the clay we had started dissolving the minute it hit the water and the more I tried to make a boat out of it the more it disintegrated in my hands.  I almost had a boat shape once and it started to float but the clay just gave way.  :(    We might try this again with a better clay and see what happens.

It's a relief to say that our Silver Creek Academy blog is finally caught up.  Yes!....Sigh....whew....
Onto another week.  I would appreciate your prayers as we start the 2nd half of our school year.  We can never have enough prayers...

Walking with the King,
Pam

MFW 1st Grade - Week #17

BIBLE:  As I mentioned in week #16's blog post, the Story of Joseph was long.  So, in actuality it carried over from week #16 to week #17.  After we finished Joseph's story we moved right along into the story of Moses.

We added two more pieces to our timeline.  This week was Egypt and Moses.  Yes, I still help him color.  He actually cracks me up.  On these little bitty pictures we both have to color.  He colors a spot, then I color a spot, then he colors a spot, then I color a spot until it's full.  Silly guy.  We then stack the timeline pieces together until we have enough of them to run through the laminator.

I am amazed at the amount of reading that Caleb has to do now in his bible reader.  The stories are no longer 1 or 2 pages.  One day this week he had to read 4 pages:

While he is still encouraged to illustrate in his bible notebook, MFW has added the concept of a summary sentence.  After Caleb read's the bible story to me, he is to come up with a one sentence summary of what the story was about.  He is to then write that sentence in his bible notebook.  We had about two weeks or so where mom/teacher came up with the sentence, but now I am to help Caleb come up with his own sentence and write it.  This is a little tough for him.  It's stretching him and the idea is that he should sound out the words and write them himself.  I haven't pushed him to do that yet, but I will soon.

Here are a few of his workbook pages from this week.  Sometimes he has to complete the sentences...

Sometimes he has to put the words in the right order to form a proper sentence.......with new reading rules and words to sound out at the bottom of the page.

Sometimes they want him to read sentences and illustrate a picture to go with it.  On the days when he really doesn't want to draw, we go on-line and find some pictures to go with his sentences.

Reading rules:  /aw/ as it is spelled "au" in the word 'daughter' and "o" as in the word 'soft'.

Bible verse for the week:  "Do not say, 'I'll pay you back for this wrong!'  Wait for the Lord, and he will deliver you.   Proverbs 20:22"

Bible Activity:  We had a bible activity this week and it was to create the family tree for the 12 sons of Israel, including Abraham & Sarah; their son Isaac & Rebekah; their sons Esau & Jacob and Rachel and Leah.    Sadly, I have misplaced the page we wrote all this on and I can't take a picture.  After we did that family tree then we were to create Caleb's family tree.  Unfortunately, mommy doesn't know all of daddy's ancestors, so his side of the tree isn't complete.  We really need to go back and talk to him about those people.

MATH:  Math this week touched on fractions.  Nothing too complicated, but just introducing the concept.

 I still pull worksheets from another workbook that I have to keep some of the other things he's been learning fresh in his mind.

SCIENCE:  Our science lessons have returned and this week we "Experimented with Water."  We put water in a variety of containers with different shapes.  The idea was to see that the same amount of water can go into many different containers.  

We even looked at this bottle of water and saw that the water was level with the counter.  When we leaned the bottle against mommy's recipe box, the bottle was tilted, but the water still remained level with the counter top.

Another blessed week has come to a close in My Father's World.....

Walking with the King,

Pam

MFW 1st Grade - Week #16

And here we are - - as promised....    ;o)

BIBLE/READING:   This week we read the story of Jacob and also talked about his twelve sons.  This lead into the Joseph's story, which was rather long and took us about 3 school days to complete it.  After the first day, the story ended with Joseph in prison and Caleb was on the edge of his seat wanting me to continue reading.  It was SO hard for me to make him wait and hear the story as it was set up in our curriculum.

With these stories we added a few people to our timeline:

In his workbook he now has sentences that he has to complete.  It involves figuring out which of the four words at the top of the page should be used to complete each sentence.

Sometimes he still has dictation words, which is still NOT his favorite thing to do.  

His bible verse for this week was:  "The eyes of the Lord are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicket and the good.  Proverbs 15:3"

In his bible notebook he was to illustrate "Jacob leaves home."  In this picture, my little boy who hates to draw, drew a ladder and a picture of Jacob sleeping on the ground.  

This is a picture of Jacob and his coat of many colors....   ;o)  Some days he does attempt to draw something.  When he's flustered over it, he'll look at my bible notebook and sorta try to "copy" what I'm doing.  This is encouraged by MFW for those kiddo's who really don't want to draw.  All I want is for him to try.  I try to tell him that not everyone is an artist, but if we give our best effort at everything we're doing, that's all that God wants.

Reading rules:  He learned a few more reading rules this week.  The sound "ph" and "u" as it sounds in "put."  It's crazy how many rules we've covered since the beginning of 1st grade.  

MATH:  We talking more about counting money.  It's not a totally new concept to Caleb because we count the money in his money dish every day, but these worksheets reinforce the value of the different coins and how to count them out.

This worksheet tied in some math problems.

 SCIENCE:  There wasn't a science topic this week.  We are transitioning into a new science book "Science with Water."  We'll be back to hands-on projects in a week or two.  For now, we'll enjoy not having science to do!

Walking with the King,
Pam

Let the Record Reflect.....

Okay - so the last post you saw was week #15....We are NOT still on week #16....even though this blog doesn't show it we've continued our studies.  This momma just hasn't had time to sit and blog the last couple of weeks.  I hate that but sometimes life gets in the way of the "important" things we think we need to do.  Ha ha!!  For me, I love to blog....but when the business of life gets in the way I have to make choices and needless to say, updating what we have done at school gets pushed to the back burner.  That doesn't mean we aren't still doing school - - because you can't see it here.  We are and Caleb is doing great!!   ;o)

So, stay tuned....updates are coming soon I hope.

Love and blessings,
Pam