1st grade curriculm, planning the next stage Options

[ucfgizmo]

What curriculm do/did you use for 1st grade? What did you like or not like? Why?

My daughter has been working on a 1st grade program for awhile. I created our plan from a mix of sources including the Core Knowledge K & 1st books, our state guidelines, Virginia's and Georgia's (which I like better), her interests, and have used mostly internet and library sources to build our studies. For Kindergarten the only thing formal we used were letter books called Beginning to Read, Write and Listen. These were great for beginning writing, letter sounds, and listening/reading comprehension. I just planned out each month on the fly based on what we had accomplished the previous month.

Since I have a better idea of what we are doing now, and we are pretty set in our schedule patterns, I decided to take the opportunity while DD has gone to visit my parents for a couple days, to plan out our next steps. Here is what I was thinking about for the next six months. Any suggestions or comments would be appreciated.

Handwriting (10 minutes a day) start Zaner-Bloser 1st grade

Spelling -- no clue, we have just been doing words lists I have found on the web as well as dolch words, and words that pop up in her writing. Any suggestions?

Reading (15-20 min) continue to have her read one or two new books a day (from library or our collection)

Literature (read to her daily 1.5 hours, spread over three 30 min blocks) continue current pattern: AM - poetry reading and memorization, Noon - afternoon reading focus non-fiction, PM -- bedtime focus fiction, her choice

Phonics (15-30 min. 3 days a week) Phonics Pathway is our spine, continue word wall using lists from this book; word families and rhyming word units from ABC teach; Dolch word practice sheets

Math (3 days a week) start Math U See Primer, then Alpha (from the samples I reviewed skill-wise she should be half-way through primer, I haven't ordered either set yet).

On this I'm a very hesitant. We haven't done anything formal yet. I print a lot of stuff off the internet and she has the Total Math 1st grade workbook which she loves to do. We basically have just been playing with the teddy bear counters, pattern blocks, measuring scales, cups and tapes, food, lego, a floor mat number line, playing cards, games, etc. to teach skills. We have done all the basics of shapes, counting, number writing, number words, 100s place value, geoboards, patterning, fractions to the quarter amt, standard measures, graphing, probability, estimating, and ordinals, etc. I have introduced addition and subtraction, and she knows most sums up to 10 from our games. She loves to do word problems, but we really haven't focused on memorizing the facts yet or writing out equations, so I know that's next. She still needs work on skip counting, money, and analog time quarter hours and smaller. Her drawing of certain shapes needs some work.

Social Studies (as time and interests permit) continue history unit studies following Well Trained Mind schedule. We are currently working on Greece, so we will do Rome next, then on to Medieval Times. We will also include State studies as trips and interests arise. We also do globe/map look-ups whenever we read a book from another state or country. Attend Culture Club with Co-op once a month. Schedule monthly trips to local museums.

Science (as time and interests permit) Theme-based studies and experiments as our interests and opportunities arise. Resouces: Evan-Moor Science Resource Book, several experiment books, and internet print outs. Planned topics include:

On-going: weather, star gazing, mammals, our body

Mar: Forest/Rainforest Habitat, Birds, Insects, Air, Flying, Solar System III (focus on inner planets)*, Spring, plants, vegetables, terrarium, ant farm, worm observation, veggie garden maintainence
Apr: Grassland/Savana Habitat, enegy, sun/shade, light, prisms, rainbows, solid/liquid/gas, day/night
May: Ocean habitat, fish, invertebrates, various water experiments, Solar System IV (focus on outer planets)
June: Pond Habitat, Amphibians, Summer, temperature, electricity, tadpole study
July: Desert Habitat, Reptiles, rocks, magnets, simple machines, Solar System V (Comets, Asteriods, etc)
Aug: Return to the beginning of our science units, beginning with Soil Habitat, Care of the Earth, Endangered Species, Recycling, Scientific Method

*Solar System I introduced the concept of the Solar System and its parts, then we focused on the sun and the moon. Solar System II focused on Earth as a planet, and how it was similar and different from the others.

Spanish (as time permits) -- Finish Teach Me Spanish Tape, finish learning rest of songs from TMS tape, move on to Passport Spanish for Children workbook and tape, introduce simple familiar stories in Spanish print -- Goodnight Moon, Where the Wild Things Are, etc. Possibly check out DK word books like My first Farm, Colors, etc.

[quiltinmommy]

It looks like a great plan.... but since you asked, this is what we did for first grade....

Saxon Math
Spelling Workout
I used Bob Jones Reading, I ended up switching to the Ordinary Parent's' Guide to Teaching Reading, because my daughter has struggled with Reading.... I still love Bob Jones and hope to go back to it later.
First Language Lessons ( I REALLY like this, it's easy to use and my daughter is doing really well with it.... we are actually using it in 2nd grade but it's a 1st/2nd grade book. )
Explode the Code
Bob Jones History and Science.... neither of which I loved but hey did the job.... I am still doing the history in 2nd grade, but it's still not my favorite...

[cctabb]

Looks like you are doing a lot more than we are in first grade this year. We have

Handwriting without Tears
Spectrum spelling
Spectrum Phonics
Reading is a variety of things from home/library. We are also using the Spectrum Reading workbook periodically
Literature we are focusing on Greek mythology since we are using TWTM as our spine (now, not at the beginning of the year)
Math is Moving with Math
Social Studies is focusing on map skills now and land formations later in the year
Science is now or going to be solar system, oceans, air science, magnatism, matter, and something else I can't think of right off
For history we are studying Ancient Greece then Rome and I may try to get to Ancient China and possibly touch on India some
Spanish
Catholic Catecism and bible history/stories

[Sherinova]

It looks very well planned and I think you have some excellent resources!

We didn't do spelling and are using Spelling Power now....which is recommended to start in 3rd grade.

[MomofBunbun]

I think you have all your bases covered.

We are using:

• Alpha-phonics (completed)
• back tracked and are almost done with Teach your Child to read in 100 Easy lessons
• Explode the Code
• A Reason for Spelling
• Story of the World Vol. 1
• Did a solar system study, a body study and working on classification (mammal, fish, insect, etc)--will do a [indent]plant study last quarter
• Story of the Orchestra
• Art Adventures at Home
• Miquon Math

[gsmp]

My kids were all in christian school thru first grade.....they used Abeka and Bob Jones....We've had stayed with that since homeschooling because they were all ready familiar with it.......

Abeka and Bob Jones are awesome for teaching phonics.......I guess I can't help you much on that....

[alisonamsb]

We are doing classical. Primarily following A2 (accelerated achievement). In this -

reading: the old revised mcguffey reader, dolch words, phonics worksheets from workbooks/web. We are just finishing the 1st "grade" reader and will begin reading some classics.

math: focusing on memorizing math facts ; all other items are pulled from the internet or basic life activities. Once they have their math facts, we will start saxon math 5/4.

writing: copywork, journal writing, letters to relatives and "book reports"

spelling: spelling dictionary in which I write words they don't know as they complete their writing assignments. No testing at this time. Not sure I will do this either. They are doing well remembering words from their reading.

all other subjects just come from a daily life and some internet worksheets.

I also have my school district's curricular objectives for each subject per grade. So I make sure we are at least touching upon each topic briefly, just incase they need to go back to PS in the future.

[foxchild]

My kids were all in christian school thru first grade.....they used Abeka and Bob Jones....We've had stayed with that since homeschooling because they were all ready familiar with it.......

Abeka and Bob Jones are awesome for teaching phonics.......I guess I can't help you much on that....

We are using Bob Jones for Kindergarden and I have been planning out the school year. It looks so good in the reading department. I think Timothy is going to love it.