Saturday, March 12, 2016

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 

WEEKLY POST 



Week 3


Week 4

Week 5




Week 9 



Week 19 

Week 20




Week 24

Week 25




Week 29 

Week 30





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.  

Friday, March 4, 2016

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

Letter L
Unit 3: Leaf      

Letter M

Creation Unit and Letter S
Creation Unit and Unit 1: Sun 

Classical Music Composers
Say Hello to Classical Music


Curriculum Organization








































Monday, February 29, 2016

My Father's World: Unit 25 Quail

MFW: UNIT 25 QUAIL

I DON'T GRUMBLE OR COMPLAIN; I AM THANKFUL.



Some of the things we picked for our Qq unit.


Kanani was telling me which are her favorite birds.  Her favorite is the Blue Jay.

BOOKS



Great books we used for this unit.  Love learning about all the different types of birds.

WORKSHEETS



Practicing her handwriting, cursive, and writing in her salt tray.



Working on her rod worksheet, identifying the pictures that start with the letter Qq, and reading her little booklet.



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



Reading her small booklet again, these little books have helped to give her confidence to read more.  Learning about the short i sound.

MATH



Subtracting worksheet



Learning about tally marks in her Math U See worksheets.

ARTS & CRAFTS



Drew a small love quail for Kanani to color in and then glue the quail on her pink paper.



Read over the memory versus "I don't grumble or complain; I am thankful." and then we cut out a quail to hide in the grass.




Drew the letter Q to look like a quail for Kanani to color in using paint and q-tips.  She wanted it to blue so it could look like the California Quail.

ACTIVITIES/GAMES



Made her a little quail in a egg with the versus for her to remember each time she plays with it.  I wanted to put it on a clothes pin but it just didn't work out, she loved using the craft sticks.  Kanani said it was a lot easier to play with the craft sticks instead of the clothes pin.


We talked about bird wings and then Kanani pretended to fly.  Zeus kept jumping up on her each time she pretended to fly, he is a hunting breed so I kept telling her he was hunting her because he thought she was a real bird.  She couldn't stop laughing, such a silly puppy.




Made bird feeders using pipe cleaners and cheerios, one very easy activity to do with the kids of all ages.  Little man loved this activity since he was able to eat some cheerios while making the feeders.

SCIENCE



Found a quail card in our Beginners Bible card set.  Learning that God will always provide for us the same way he always provides the birds for what they need.



We looked at different pictures of quail on the computer and fell in love with the California Quail.  It has such vibrant colors and that blue is just awesome.



Read about quails and general information on birds.

VIDEOS/MOVIES



Sid the Science Kid season 1 episode 27, Wild Kratts season 1 episode 17 and 19, we also watched the cute movie Rio.


SPANISH

la codorniz (quail)

MEMORY VERSUS

Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life.  
~Philippians 2:14-16

POEM

ALL THINGS BRIGHT AND BEAUTIFUL
     By:  Cecil Francis Alexander

All things bright and beautiful 
All creatures great and small, 
All things wise and wonderful, 
The Lord God made them all.

Each little flower that opens,
Each little bird that sings, 
He made their glowing colors, 
He made their tiny wings.

The purple-headed mountain, 
The river running by, 
The sunset and the morning, 
That brightens up the sky;

The cold wind in the winter, 
The pleasant summer sun, 
The ripe fruits in the garden, 
He made them every one:

The tall trees in the greenwood, 
The meadows where we play, 
The rushes by the water, 
We gather every day;

He gave us eyes to see them, 
And lips that we might tell, 
How great is God Almighty, 
Who has made all things well.

CLASSICAL MUSIC

Saint-Saens: Carnival of the Animals (Birds)



Our beautiful cock-a-tiel CoCo, he has been with us for 9 years.  Very gentle bird just a bit lazy.  He prefers to walk around the house instead of flying.  Loves to eat off our plates and is very noisy.  His favorite thing to do is look at himself in the mirror.  He's the first cock-a-tiel I have that doesn't sing or mimic.  He's pretty quiet and only makes noise when he hears someone outside or wants more attention.

This week we learned about quails and a review about birds.  I say review due to learning about birds in Unit 5: Nest.  We enjoyed going outside and trying to identify as many birds as we could.  Another great lesson was to always be grateful for what we have and not complain or whine.  God has always provided for us with exactly what we need and will always provide for us the same way he provides for the birds. 

GOD BLESS!

PREVIOUS UNITS 

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

Letter L
Unit 3: Leaf      

Letter M

Creation Unit and Letter S
Creation Unit and Unit 1: Sun 

Classical Music Composers
Say Hello to Classical Music


Curriculum Organization