Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Year 1 in Words and Pictures

Year 1 (2008/2009) began in June 2008 and ends May 2009.

Our academic year isn't officially over yet, what with at least five more weeks of reading and review to go but I figured I may as well begin this post now while I have the time, energy and memory to do so (I've been more than usually forgetful lately). If anything else exciting happens I'll update and republish.




JULY: Terrifically sunburnt after our trip to the Grand Canyon, DS holds on to one of our earliest read-alouds of the year, Brighty of the Grand Canyon by Marguerite Henry.




AUGUST: His favorite project of the year: a Prehistory Timeline. Details here.



AUGUST: Striking a pose with his Public Speaking (summer camp) teacher.

SEPTEMBER: A brief stint with a soccer class.




OCTOBER: He was very taken by his MagNext kit, and created a number of interesting geometrical solids.




NOVEMBER: It was a historical moment for the entire nation and obviously, great fun for us too.



NOVEMBER: Thanks to the wonderful charter school education specialist, who joined us in October, DS fell absolutely in love with origami.
NOVEMBER: First Piano Recital at his new piano school
(and fourth overall since 2006). He played "Dance of the Irish" (composer unknown).

NOVEMBER: Exploring squaring numbers and finding square roots with Dad.




DECEMBER: Another wonderful read aloud, A Rat's Tale by Tor Seidler.




DECEMBER: Exploring electricity with Snap Circuits.




JANUARY: We began Secret Treasures and Magical Measures: Adventures in Measuring: Time, Temperature, Length, Weight, Volume, Angles, Shapes and Money by Chris Kensler. It took us four well-worth months to complete the book.




FEBRUARY: We began our Ancient Egypt scrapbook project, based on The Egyptology Handbook: A Course in the Wonders of Egypt by Emily Sands.




MARCH: He began expressing great interest in learning fractions in February and since March, began working on random problems whenever we have the time.




MARCH: Enjoying proofreading grammatical errors with
Scholastic's Grammar Cop by the Staff of Storyworks.




APRIL: A discussion on recycling and a visit to the Cantor Art Center to see Rodin sculptures led to the making of Ciggers, his very own cigar-chomping, egg-carton mouthed, craft tube-bodied, styrofoam hat-wearing croc.




APRIL: Where he's at with memorizing The Periodic Table of Elements. (With some sort of scientific explanation from Dad below that's waaay beyond me).



APRIL: At a "one small square" plot study behind Dad's office.


Our Year 1 Curriculum:

Math:
MEP Math 2A and 2B,
Various Young Math titles,
Secret Treasures and Magical Measures by Chris Kensler
and various titles from the Living Math booklists.

Language Arts:
Grammar Land by ML Nesbitt,
and the Scholastic Parts of Speech and Scholastic Grammar Cop workbooks.

Latin and Word Roots:
English from the Roots Up Vol 1 by Joegil Lundquist (flashcards) and
Latin for Children Primer A Workbook, Activity Book, Chant CD and DVD.

Literature/ Bedtime Reading:
Titles suggested in the CM/WTM lists and Fiction/Sci-fi lists,
Shakespeare Stories by Leon Garfield,
Classic Myths to Read Aloud by William F Russell and
poetry compilations like A Family of Poems edited by Caroline Kennedy.

World History/ Ancients (focus is on Prehistory to Ancient Egypt):
Books listed here.
Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of World History (prehistory only)
The Story of the World text (till Ancient Egypt) and audiobook Vol 1 (all chapters)

US/ World History:
Free-reading misc. Jean Fritz books
Magic Tree House-themed History coop
American History for Little Folks by Blaisdell and Ball



Science:
Cyber Ed Plato Life Science (first unit)
Biology (fish & insects) and Earth Science (rocks and volcanos) co-op classes
Classic Science Life (first 2 chapters)
Robert Krampf Science Education videos
Lots of biographies and living books from Living Science Booklists

Nature Study:
The Burgess Bird Book by Thornton Burgess

Art/ Craft/ Music Appreciation:
The National Gallery of Art 2009 desk calendar
Mike Venezia Artists biographies
Origami calendar 2009
The Story of Classical Music
Music Monday posts at Rockhound Place

Delight-Directed Self Reading
What Einstein Didn't Know : Scientific Answers to Everyday Questions by Robert Wolke
The Great Naturalists by Robert Huxley (random chapters/ pages)


Life Skills & Special Interests
The Dangerous Book for Boys by Conn Iggulden and Hal Iggulden
Wushu
Piano

Literature/ Bedtime/ Free Reading for the year: Year 1 FunReading

All Year 1 posts: Year 1 Journey

6 comments:

  1. Suji, I can't view the video of your son's recital; it's saying it's a private video.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for letting me know Michelle. I forgot to change the settings. I've changed it now. Thanks again!

    ReplyDelete
  3. So what do you think about Snap Circuits? I've had people tell me they aren't worth it, but it also looks as though everyone has them!

    I went through a phase when I was a kid where I LIVED that Brighty book. I called my gerbil Brighty, I pretended I was a guide in the Grand Canyon. Loved all those MH books. Then I read Harriet the Spy and changed my name to Harriet (and took tomato sandwiches to school)...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you Michelle! He will be very happy to know you enjoyed it. This is a kid who practices like he wants to break the piano apart and then gives a polished (if somewhat jerky) performance. He does it each time and now, I have kind of stopped biting my nails to the quick. :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Harriet/sheila (LOL...and the tomato sandwiches are so apt too!), I think with Snap Circuits, my curiosity won me over...for the sole reason that everyone seems to have it like you said. That and the fact that we had just enough charter school funds left over last semester to get this kit. DS attacks it in phases...he's currently in the "bored with it" phase but for beginners like him I would say it's good exposure to electricity and building circuits. And lets him get creative when he wants to. He's also one of those super cautious kids so it really suits his worries about getting electrocuted. He absolutely loved Brighty...there were a number of sniffs and furious rubbing of teary eyes too when we were reading it aloud. We must get more MH books...keeps slipping my mind!

    ReplyDelete

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