MFW 1st Grade - Week #21

This week of MFW we started our week on Day 98 of the Teacher's Manual.  Pretty incredible that we are already here...

BIBLE:   

Memory verse:   Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control  Proverbs 25:28

Bible stories for the week:  The Battle of Jericho, Israel and the Judges, and Samuel.

Bible reader:  I was really impressed with how well Caleb did in his bible reader this week.  He's getting a little more comfortable with his words.  I just wish he'd relax a little and be willing to read to dad.  He reads for me no problem, when I ask him to "show-off" for dad it's like a ton of pressure gets placed on his shoulders.

Timeline:  We added another piece to our timeline - The Battle of Jericho.

Reading concepts:    "e" spelled "ie";   "y" becomes "ie" and "oo" spelled "u"

Caleb is absolutely thrilled that we only have six, yes that is SIX, more rules to cover on our reading chart!  It's been a long road.  He grins as he colors every box!!

Here are a couple of worksheets from this week covering the different rules learned:

As you can see here, pictures cut and pasted.  I've said it before - - sometimes he likes to draw and sometimes not.  On this day we just googled some pictures and pasted them here....

I thought it would be fun to remind you that Caleb absolutely hates the Student Workbook, the one we call the bluebook.  Every so often we have to count the pages to see how many we have left.  Well, he noticed the other day when we had the book opened flat on the desk that the side we've completed is way higher than the side with pages we have left to do.  So, we had to count them.  At the beginning of this week there were only 21 assignments left!!  Talk about a smile on a little boys face!!

MATH:  We're continuing to work on our addition and subtraction skills.  Seems a little mundane to keep mentioning that, but it is what it is.  Learning to add and subtract is so important, yet it's not a fun thing to work through.  So, when other home school mom's share different things they find on the internet, like this worksheet from sparklebox.com - - we try to nab them up and give them a try.  These worksheets were fun.  Roll two dice, write the problem, and add them together.  Makes for great practice and changes the pace from just using addition flashcards.

SCIENCE:  I've opted to gather the materials for one more week of science and we'll have our science day soon.  Caleb is definitely having the mid-year blah's, so it's seemed important to stay on task with those things we really need to keep the priority on.  The science activities are somewhat simple, so we'll just have a science day and go all out in one day.

And we ended our week with Day 102....

Walking with the King,

Pam

MFW 1st Grade - Week #20

BIBLE/READING:   We're still memorizing the books of the bible and at the end of this week have gone through the book of Acts.  Caleb has them memorized up to Hosea and then needs a little help getting through the rest of those prophets.  He's doing way better at it than I am!  ;o)

Memory Verse:  Even a child is known by his actions, by whether his conduct is pure and right.  Proverbs 20:11

I have to say it's quite interesting how things work out sometimes.  This bible verse was perfect for this week.  I'm not sure what is going on, but Caleb's classroom behavior has not been at its best.  I do have to remind myself that he is recovering from bronchitis, which was followed by food poisoning.  I gave him a patient teacher and then sensed he was taking advantage.  His memory verse for the week came in handy while talking to him about his actions.

Stories for this week:  10 Commandments, the Tabernacle, 12 Spies, and Jericho and Rahab....

I need to point out that one of this weeks stories was special to our family.  Caleb's name came from the bible, specifically from the book of Numbers and the story of the twelve spies.  He had a few embarrassed giggles as we talked about this during the lesson.

Caleb continues to read from his Bible Reader and write summary sentences in his Bible Notebook.  While he does write his summary sentences I don't make him illustrate every time unless he wants to.  Our focus right now is getting him to write his sentences by himself.  We talk about the story and I help him think through a couple of sentences.  Previously, I would stay by him and I would do MY notebook as he did HIS notebook.  I would allow him to copy from mine.  I decided he is leaning too heavily on my notebook; such as looking at my pictures and/or looking at my sentences.  So, I've stopped doing mine and just encourage him to work on his own.  It is rather cute to see how he spells some of the words.....our focus for this activity is NOT on spelling and punctuation, but mainly to see if he can figure out the main point of the story.

Reading Rules:  "ed" at the end of words making it past tense and k spelled "ch"  He still has plenty to do in his bluebook, otherwise known as his workbook.  He has to complete sentences using a word list and unscramble words to make complete sentences.  On the opposite days he learns new reading rules and has new words to sound out using those rules as well as reading and sometimes illustrating sentences.

MATH:  Touching on geometry, which really at this age means going over shapes.  Caleb looks at me like I'm crazy - mom, seriously?  We did this LAST year!  Ha!   I also went on-line and found some math worksheets and had him do some addition problems when the circle, square, triangle "thing" got boring.  We ended the week with Caleb's # of the day being 78 and my TM (teachers manual) reading 97!!   My TM officially has 160 lessons - so we are quite encouraged and excited to be over the half-way mark!

ART:  We looked at a photo of a beautiful painting from our Come Look With Me book and I asked Caleb a few suggested questions about it, just trying to get him to think.  It's interesting when we do these as Caleb sees things differently than I do and it's fun to try to see it from his perspective.

MUSIC:  We listened to the Peter and the Wolf soundtrack as we worked.  We do have something we are supposed to do WITH the CD, but we haven't gotten around to that activity yet.  Mr. Caleb isn't a fan of singing and while the activity doesn't involve singing, it does involve musical instruments and his eyes sorta glazed over the time or two I've tried the activity.  I attempt to stay with what is really important and needed in real life.  Is it important for Caleb to know what a clarinet sounds like?  Probably not.  Does he need to learn how to add and subtract?  Yes....priorities here...that's what's important.

SCIENCE:   This weeks science activity will be combined with next weeks activity.  Due to all the illness at our house, I chose to keep moving through the topics I felt were more important.  MFW really doesn't place a whole lot of emphasis on science in 1st grade anyway, so in order to keep our pace up around the sick days, we'll do some combining.  The activities don't take a whole lot of time and I have found that Caleb seems to enjoy them more when there's more than one to do.  He has the, "what's next?" mentality and I hate disappointing him with a, "that's it, bud."

I wish I had some pictures from this week, but the reality is we were sick and just getting school done was enough of an accomplishment each day without having the camera ready to go, too.   Honestly though, many of his daily worksheets, etc, are similar, so it is a little repetitive as far as photos go.

Continued prayers would be a blessing as Caleb struggles with what I feel has to be the middle of the school year blah's...

Walking with the King,
Pam

Nature Walk - Week #20

Our curriculum encourages spending time outside, enjoying God's creation.  This week was particularly fun because Randy was on intercession from school and was able to participate in it with us.  Honestly, with our busy schedules, this part of our school doesn't happen every week in our actual school setting.  We're outside nearly every day feeding cows and such and Caleb is always pointing out things he sees.  It's fun though, when it is your goal to really look at the things around us that God has created.

The following are pictures of things that Caleb found interesting.  One or two might be Randy's selections also.

Tree moss.  Our trees are covered in it.  Would be wonderful if I could thing of something to do with it.  It's rather unique really and makes sort of a neat picture.

Holes in trees standing up.

And holes in trees branches fallen on the ground.

More moss, just hanging there.

Another moss clump, stuck to the trunk of the tree.

Prickly looking cactus.

A not so happy looking cactus.   We've seen this one before looking pretty happy.  Not sure what caused it's demise, but it is definitely no longer happy.

If you look closely you can see the strange shape the thin tree made.  Swirly and curvy.  Randy thought this was quite interesting.  I wish the picture showed it better than what it does.

The neighbors bull.  We see him all the time.  But, he was pretty curious as to what we were doing and Caleb wanted me to take this picture.

I tweaked this one a little bit messing with the software settings.  They really thought they would find a 4-leaf clover amongst the masses.

I took this one as we first head out for our walk.  Tweaked it a little for the antique effect.

Such a pretty blue...

Just to prove I really was there - Ha ha!!  I don't get to BE in many school pictures, but we had Randy take this one since he was here on this day.

God is so good.  It is always a blessing to go outside and focus on what He has created all around us.

Walking with the King,

Pam

MFW 1st Grade - Week #19

Howdy folks!  I'm still here....between illnesses and a wedding I'm a little behind again.  So, let me see if I can do a quick catchup post.

BIBLE/READING:  Our stories this week were that of the Moses parting the Red Sea, the Israelites coming upon Bitter Water at Marah, the Lord providing Manna to the Israelites,  and Moses providing the Israelites with Water from a Rock.

Memory verse: we added to to last weeks Proverb - - Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.  Proverbs 3:5-6

New Reading Rules:  O spelled "ow" and O spelled "oa"

MATH:  We are still running through some review and our topic is numbers and counting....we're sorta breezing through math this week....

Bean cup, money cup, and place value chart all ended this week with number 74.  I still don't really understand why they don't let us count our science day/nature walk days as a school day.  While Caleb is on #74, my teacher's manual has us ending on day #92 this week.

SCIENCE:  We're continuing in the Science with Water book and had a little fun with boats.  We also floated items in the bathroom sink and placed marbles inside those items to see if they would continue to float or sink.

Okay - the hairy arm in this photo is NOT mine.  Ha!  Randy was on intercession from his school and was able to participate in some of Caleb's school activities.  This was a real treat for us.

HANDS-ON:  In honor of the Israelites praising God after walking through the sea on dry ground we made a tambourine out of paper plates and beans.  When I asked Caleb if he would like to decorate his tambourine - his reply was, "no thanks," as you can see.

I'm sure there are some things I am forgetting that I really wanted to add, but I figure I'd better at least post what I can when I have a few minutes.

God is amazingly good.  Through it all, bronchitis, food poisoning, momma/teacher getting sick....we've still managed to get through school.  We missed a few days when things were at their worst, but we did our best to try to keep trucking forward.

I ordered our 2nd grade curriculum and it arrived last week via UPS.  I do still need to purchase our foreign language curriculum and I will do that soon.  It was really exciting to go through the box and look at all the COOL stuff we'll be doing "next year," which really starts some time this summer.  I took some pictures and will provide a run-down of our 2nd grade agenda at a later date.

I am so blessed....

Walking with the King,
Pam