Solar System Unit

SOLAR SYSTEM UNIT 

THE GLORY OF GOD


A sensory bin I put together for Kanani to enjoy.

BOOKS




Some of the books we used for this unit, most of which we actually own.  We love everything dealing with the Solar System.

WORKSHEETS



Working on cvc words and learning to distinguish long sounds and short sounds. 



Working on her reading



Poster I purchased at Dollar Tree



Here is a closer look at some of our maps on our Geography wall.  We took a close look at our beautiful planet Earth.

MATH 



Adding and Subtracting number that equal 10.

ART & CRAFTS



Bought this cute sun catcher at Dollar Tree, the girls painted them and then Kanani hung hers on the window.  



Printed out this planet worksheet from The Crafting Chicks website. They colored it in then cut them out and glued them to black poster board.  We have ours hanging on some hooks on the fireplace.  



Found this cute little worksheets on Twisty Noodle, after she colored in the planets she stapled them together to form a book.  

ACTIVITIES/GAMES

Found an activity book at Dollar Tree on Space, it has a lot of different activities in it which Kanani has really enjoyed.

Kanani took out her pattern activity kit, I love it when she picks activities to do on her own.

We made Galaxy Slime with our friend who was over for a playdate.  This was our first time making some and it came out great.  Got the idea from The Kindergarten Smorgas Board blog.  

Ingredients:

Clear Elmer's Glue (4oz)

1/4 cup of Liquid Starch

Glitter

Water Colors (blue, silver, yellow, and red)

The girls poured the entire bottle of glue in a bowl then mix in the watercolors.  They stirred it until it reached the color they wanted.  Then they added all the glitter they wanted, which was a lot of glitter.  Stirred it together and then added some liquid starch slowly while mixing together.  We only needed 1/4 cup to reach the way we wanted the slime to be.  

Froze some baking soda that I had mixed with water and food coloring for several days.  Once we got a chance I brought them out and handed her a bottle with vinegar in it.  Love how quickly they start to fizz the colors are so pretty.

Once Kanani saw the sensory bin she dove right in and began to play.  She picked out all the planets and matched them with the card they came with.

SCIENCE 

Used a couple of different items to show the solar system.  Top right picture is a solar system we made a couple of years ago, top left I ordered this set on ebay, and the bottom picture I bought at the Dollar Tree.

While Kanani was painting Dartanian was having fun with the interacting globe.

Observing her solar system cards and lithograph sets.

GEOGRAPHY

We had a busy day today so we decided to do floor puzzles, one was the World Map and the other the United State.  As we completed each one we would talk about what we saw on the puzzle and talk the places we want to visit some day.  Such a great quiet time activity to do with the kids. 

VIDEOS/MOVIES

Little Einsteins has a cute show on planets and we borrowed a cute movie by the Cat in the Hat.

SPANISH

Sistema solar (solar system)

MEMORY VERSUS

The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.

~Psalm 19:1

POEM

ALABASTER NIGHT

     By: Carrie Richards 

There is stillness in this chilly night

How peaceful is a planet that glimmers white
Where frost and moonlight weave a silver glaze
And sillhouetted trees are black as ink 
Where the only sign of life are whiffs of breath

Let me stand and drink upon the sky, 
Then rest my eyes upon the glory of the world 
Upon these strange and unfamiliar hills
I sense a night's aurora soothe my soul
 
Winter has buried our world in alabaster white
Familiar landmarks wear a cloak of new disguise
Yet still the same are scattered thorny lights
Splattered wildly in the blackness of a sky
Winter has polished up the stars against the dark
Brilliant, new, until their points are thistle sharp

How peaceful is a planet so glimmering white
To stand in voiceless wonder and gaze
Do not speak, the crystal world would shatter
Too fragile to bear the weight of words

CLASSICAL MUSIC 

Planets by Gustav Holst 

Kanani has always enjoyed all things dealing with the solar system.  She is always asking about the different planets.  It's so amazing to know that God has created our solar system.  I'm in ah with such beauty.  It's truly a work of art, thank you God for giving us such beauty for us to enjoy.  We have about 4 different solar system figures if not more.  Lots of books on the solar system.  Next week we will be learning more on the constellations.  I'll be posting about that at the end of next week.

GOD BLESS!

My Father's World: Learning God's Story 1st Grade Curriculum

MFW: Learning God's Story 1st Grade Curriculum 

I'll be sharing the way I've organized our curriculum below.  It's still a work in progress.  Going through everything has gotten me very excited to begin this new chapter in our school year. 

We were all so excited when we receive our curriculum in the mail.

Started organizing the curriculum by placing a tab for each week in the Teacher Manual and in the Student Workbook.  Put all the student worksheets into page protectors for each week.  It also has a tab to be used to move to which ever week we are, pretty to hold our place, same for the bible reader and notebook.

In the teacher notebook I've placed some cursive worksheets and some extra practice worksheets for Kanani to use.  Will continue using the Cursive Formation flashcards for more practice, I place each flashcard in a clear page protector also.  Kanani will be practicing more sequence patterns with her sequence cards.  I found these at one of our local thrift stores.

Also included in the teacher notebook is a copy of the attendance chart, and the art pictures.  I've placed each picture in its own page protector as well.  We'll be using A to Z flashcards from our Kindergarten curriculum to continue to practice on her handwriting in our salt tray.



Another thing in the teacher notebook is the pattern animals book, which I took apart and placed each page in its own page protector.  We will also continue to use our Pattern Block set by Melissa & Doug.



We'll practice our reading and spelling using word boards one (top) from Melissa & Doug and the other (bottom) from Classic Wood.



I laminated the expanded form cards and the 100 chart, since I'm sure we will be using them a lot.  The main reason I laminated the 100 chart is so she can practice writing her numbers over and over again.  Place a tab in the math book to hold our place in the book, I like using tabs better than bookmarks.  Bookmarks tend to fall out of the book easier.  



In the teacher manual the student was suppose to color the pictures as we reach that part of the timeline.  Kanani is not to keen on coloring, she's always prefered to draw or paint her picture.  Went ahead and colored each picture then I laminated the sheets for better durability and then placed them in a zipper pouch to keep them in till we need them.



TOP LEFT PIC: Here is a look of our wall by CoCo cage's (Cock-a-tiel).  There are two pocket holders (not sure if that is what they are called....lol).  The red one has the ABC chart which I laminated, color chart (mostly for review), it also has some cards of her name for her to practice spelling out her name.  The blue one has number cards from 1-120, great way for her to practice putting her numbers in order and great for skip counting.  Next to that is the days of the weeks and weather cards which I found at Target.  Under both of these is the 100 chart and the calendar that came with the curriculum.

TOP RIGHT PIC:  Has our reading chart and Bible book list.  

BOTTOM LEFT PIC:  By Larry Boy's cage (Bearded Dragon) is our calendar and a book shelf that holds some board books, blocks, color jars, and sequence toy by Melissa & Doug.  

BOTTOM RIGHT PIC:  In this book shelf we have our salt tray, some school supplies, bananagrams tiles, science materials, some of our sensory supplies, paint, kinetic sand, art supplies and abacus.  It also hold all the materials that came with the deluxe curriculum.  



Here is a closer look of the microscope and test tubes we use.  The top right picture is our box of "The Beginners Bible" cards.  On our other shelf it holds two globes, the blue one talks about different parts of the world and animals in each part.  I laminated our calendar which we went ahead and colored ahead.  Kanani will move the clothes pin depending on which month we are on.

Top right picture is what's next to the book shelf, which are some sensory bins (rainbow rice, rainbow pasta, moon sand, stamps, sensory tools, tissue paper pieces, and flash cards).  On this shelf is all our curriculum materials: teacher workbook and notebook, student notebook, bible reader and bible reader notebook, all our science books, art book, devotion books, and much more.  

Found a blog of someone who has done MFW 1st grade before and they made memory versus cards plus worksheets for each week starting with week 3 and on.  The link to her blog is Grafhaus Christian School there you can print out the versus and worksheets.

This is our supple station:  It holds all our art materials, school and office supplies, math activities, lace and trace boards, bingo games, geoboards, magnet activities, puzzles, small books, and many other buckets with different activities used mostly during quiet time.

Top left picture is our kitchen area and on the wall is her "My magnetic responsibility chart" by Melissa & Doug.  I had actually put it away and haven't used it in awhile, really thought she had out grown it.  The other day she asked for me to please hang it up for her again.  

The top right picture are 3 bins: Left holds the kids dinosaurs, the middle one are wooden blocks, and the right one hold animal figures. 

Bottom two pictures is the easel with one side being a chalkboard and the other side being a magnetic dry erase board.  

This is in our hallway we call it our Geography wall.  The top two show how it looks at an angle.  Middle left picture is a poster showing where different animals live, middle right is a landscape poster.  Bottom left picture is the U.S. placemat and Continent placemat, the bottom right is a closer look of our map.  We use this wall a lot and the kids love identifying and looking for different places on the maps.

I ordered a laminating machine this year since last year I paid more to get things laminated then if I would have bought my own laminator.  Got to say I am very happy I made the decision to buy one.  It has worked great so far.  I ordered mine from the Wal-Mart website which they delivered to a nearby store so it was free shipping. 

Here is a look into some of the ways I've organized things for our next school year in 1st grade.  We are all very excited about our next adventure with My Father's World.  

I'll be posting after finishing each week.  As I finish each post I'll be updating this post with a link to each week completed which I'll place below.

PREVIOUS POST 

MFW: God's Creation from A to Z (Kindergarten)

WEEKLY POST 

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3


Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

Week 7

Week 8

Week 9 

Week 10

Week 11

Week 12

Week 13

Week 14

Week 15


Week 16

Week 17

Week 18

Week 19 

Week 20

Week 21

Week 22

Week 23

Week 24

Week 25

Week 26

Week 27

Week 28

Week 29 

Week 30

Week 31

Week 32

Week 33

Week 34

A Week to Relax

After completing our MFW Kindergarten curriculum we decided to take a week off from school work.  We had a lot of fun playing and relaxing, even though we didn't officially do school work we still learned through play.

The kids were fighting a cold so they couldn't go outside to play.  I decided to help entertain them and get their spirits up to make rainbow shaving cream.  As soon as I placed the bin down on the floor they quickly began to play with it.  Of course they loved mixing all the colors and adding some of their animal toys to the shaving cream.  I made this using sensitive skin shaving cream and food coloring.

Once they were done with the shaving cream I put together two wash stations.  It was suppose to be one station for each one but they played together with both.  This is one of Kanani's favorite things to do.  She loves washing all her toy animals and dinosaurs.

After their bath I wanted them to do something pretty calm and relaxing.  Brought out their pattern block set by Melissa & Doug.  Loved seeing Dartanian concentrate to get the blocks on the pattern block.

We went to Chuck E Cheese's to schedule a date for their birthday party in April.  While I set the date and filled the paper work out for their party my parents took the kids to have fun.  It's such a blessing to have my parents close.  Love seeing them have fun with their grandparents.

They really enjoyed themselves and we ended up with lots of tickets at the end.

This week at our local library was wacky Wednesday.  They kids had to stand on their head and then made picture frames with wacky stickers.

Spent a lot of time this week with my parents which the kids loved.  My mom made an outdoor tent for them to enjoy some shade while playing outside and they had a picnic in the tent.

Once we came back inside they had fun playing my mom's Shaffer, which to our surprise Kanani can play really good.  When we got home Kanani wanted to build a princess chair for her duck superhero she got when she went to Chuck E Cheese's.

At our co-op this week they had a ranger come in his mobile education unit.  Each group went in and the ranger talked to them about the different animals in the mobile unit.  While working in the nursery we decided to take the kids outside, it was too nice for them to be indoors.  

Layed in the grass and enjoyed looking at the clouds with the kids.  Its the little things.

Today was a special day one of our friends from the co-op came to visit us.  They moved to Raleigh so we don't get to see them as often.  Dartanian has really missed his buddy, its rare for him to let people get close to him.  

We finished our week at our usual workshop at Lowe's Build & Grow.  The kids build Blue Thunder Monster Truck.  Its always so much fun building with my littles.  

After a week of relaxing we are refreshed and ready to start school.  We'll finish up our Math U See Primer and practice on our reading and writing before starting first grade.  

My Father's World: Unit 26 Yellow

MFW: Unit 26 Yellow

THANK YOU, GOD, FOR THIS BEAUTIFUL WORLD.
























Our finds for the Yy unit.

BOOKS



We enjoyed everyone of these books for this unit.

WORKSHEETS



Working on her writing, cursive, and identifying the pictures that start with the letter Yy.



Reading her little book, working on her rods worksheet, and her cut and paste worksheet.  



Finishing her blend ladder, sight words, and drawing worksheets.


MATH



Identifying her colors, counting, and graphing.



Continuing her tally mark worksheets, working on her subtraction, and addition.

ARTS & CRAFTS



Gave her two sets of yellow cupcake liners, she wanted me to do one with her.  So we completed this activity together, I love any activity I can do with her especially when she invites me to join her.



While reading the story "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?" I had her color in the picture as we went through the book.



This activity was a mix of math, cutting practice, and color recognition.  It came out really neat, we used the pieces that was left over to make another small rainbow.  

ACTIVITIES/GAMES



Kanani loves to read to her pets, today she chose to read to Larry our bearded dragon.  She read him her Elmo's book and showed different painting in one of her art books.



This fell on Dr. Seuss' birthday (3/2/2016), we enjoyed several activities and even did a photo prop.



It was rather interesting trying to get Dartanian to hold the sign for a picture, needless to say he was more interested in running around with it then standing still for a picture.  Such a silly boy full of lots of energy.



Wrote out a scavenger hunt for Kanani to find different objects for 10 different colors.  She really enjoyed looking for everything and asked to please do this activity more often.



Made a game matching game for her.  One some cards I wrote out the name of some of the colors and on another card I colored it.  She would read the color and match the color with it.



Made 10 different color containers for each one we placed different objects that would represent the color.  For example: Red=crayon, ball, hair clip, toy, sticker, and an egg all with color RED.

SCIENCE



Poured a little bit of the primary colors in her tray (red, yellow, and blue), gave instructions to mix two colors to see what colors they would make.  Before she did that I asked her to predict what two colors would make.  After finishing her picture we read several stories about mixing colors but these two were our favorites "Mouse Paint and Emile".

Red + Blue = Purple
Red + Yellow = Orange
Blue + Yellow = Green



Found this neat color puzzle at Target, we discussed the colors and how combining two different colors would make a completely different color. After we finished discussing it I took the pieces out and had her put the puzzle back together.

MOVIES/VIDEOS



Watched several movies about colors that were on Netflix, Curious George one was Season 2 episode 7.

SPANISH

amarillo (yellow)

MEMORY VERSUS

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.  His love endures forever.
~Psalm 136:1

POEM

WHAT IS PINK?
     By:  Christina Rossetti

What is pink?  A rose is pink.
By the fountain's brink.
What is red?  A poppy's red.
In its barley bed.
What is blue?  The sky is blue.
Where the clouds float through.
What is white?  A swan is white
Sailing in the light.
What is yellow?  Pears are yellow, 
Rich and ripe and mellow.
With small flowers between.
What is violet?  Clouds are violet
In the summer twilight.
What is orange?  Why, an orange, 
Just an orange!


CLASSICAL MUSIC

Ravel: Habanera



Found this beautiful picture online to go great for our Yellow Unit.

This has been a rather bitter sweet week.  I say that because this is the last unit of our MFW Kindergarten curriculum.  We have enjoyed every unit and have learned so much.  Definitely enjoyed this one a lot with all the color activities we did and just appreciating all the wonderful and beautiful things God has done for us.  Colors are all around us, we thank God we live in such a colorful world.

GOD BLESS!

PREVIOUS UNITS

Unit 25: Q
Unit 25: Quail

Letter V
Unit 24: Vegetable

Letter X
Unit 23: Fox

Letter F
Unit 22: Frog

Letter B
Unit 21: Butterfly

Letter J
Unit 20: Jewel

Letter R
Unit 19: Rock

Letter Z
Unit 18: Zebra

Letter K
Unit 17: Kangaroo

Letter P
Unit 16: Penguin

Letter E
Unit 15: Elephant

Letter H
Unit: 14 Horse

Letter C
Unit 13: Cow

Letter G
Unit 12: Goat

Letter I
Unit 11: Insect

Letter W
Unit 10: Water

Letter O
Unit 9: Octopus

Letter D
Unit 8: Dinosaur

Letter U
Unit 7: Us

Letter T
Unit 6: Turtle 

Letter N

Unit 5: Nest      

Letter A

Unit 4: Apple 

Letter L

Unit 3: Leaf      

Letter M

Unit 2: Moon   

Creation Unit and Letter S

Creation Unit and Unit 1: Sun 

Classical Music Composers
Say Hello to Classical Music


Curriculum Organization

Organizing MFW Curriculum