It's been awhile since I've posted anything or even wrote on the blog. We finished with MFW: Learning God's Story and loved it very much. Excited to start our next adventures with U.S. History now. Always loved history and just reading through the teacher's manual and prepping for our adventure has got me even more excited. I've talked with Kanani about some of the lessons we will be discussing this school year and she quickly begged to start. Of course that made me even more excited to start but I really needed to prep and organize everything. Here is how I've organized everything for this school year, of course as time passes things will probably change to fit our everyday learning. Hope this will help you in some way to make things easier for you.
Our books for this school year, we ordered the deluxe package. I've laminated the timeline pictures and the state cards. We ordered the suggested books: Language Lessons and Spelling by Sound and Language plus Singapore Math books 1B and 2A (which is not shown in the picture). Before ordering the math books I tested Kanani to make sure she was at this level just like MFW suggested.
TEACHER'S NOTEBOOK
In my notebook I've organized all the student sheets by week. In each folder are all the worksheets for the week, my plans for the week that I've written down by what we will do each day, and the spelling words flash cards for the week. Also have two zipper pouches: one has the timeline pictures in it and the other holds the state cards.
Here are the two zipper pouches and the timeline. I've laminated everything to hold better or you can say for durability. Got the timeline worksheets from The Good the Bad and the Truth website. For now I printed 8 worksheets. Use velcro dots to put the pictures on the timeline so we can move them around if we need to. Behind the pictures for the timeline I wrote down what week they are for to make it easier for me to know which one we need for the week we are on. For the state cards I wrote the number of when they became a state.
Here is a closer look of how I've planned our week.
Wrote the order of the states out so it would make things easier for when when we start to study the states.
STUDENT NOTEBOOK
In her notebook we will put her completed worksheets, spelling words, her work she copied down, and book list of the books we read together. Also have her Science, Nature walk, and Field Trip worksheets in there.
In her Science Journal section she will have her "Scientific Method" worksheets which I got from Google Document where she will document what she observes and does for her science experiments. Printed some "My Nature Walk" worksheets for our nature walks that I found on Teachers Pay Teachers website. Next I printed some Field Trip worksheets so we could write down what things we learned and enjoyed on our trip, got these on Kickin It In Kindergarten website.
Here is an example of one of the worksheets we completed for two of our field trips. I place the worksheet in page protectors with some fliers we get on our trips.
EXTRAS
We will be practicing our cursive this year, love the way cursive looks and hope this will get her into writing more.
Top left and Bottom Right are some state cards that a friend of mine gave me these awhile ago. I wrote on the back of the cards the name and number order from which it became state on the cards. Top right are state coloring books with facts about each state which we got at our local post office. Bottom right picture are some state cards I got from Target in the dollar section.
On the wall next to our Cock-a-tiel cage is a board with the month and day, where we will have our state card, pledge of allegiance, bible pledge, and christian pledge. Also on the wall is the days of the week, the weather, numbers, alphabet, and some information with our address and phone numbers on it (which is covered by the picture of books).
SUPPLIES/SET-UP
This is the laminating machine and pouches I use for all of our laminating needs. Got it at Wal-Mart and have used it for a year and have loved it.
In our hallway we have all of our maps on the wall, which we all love to look at.
This is where all of our art, school, and office are, educational games, Geo-boards, small books and puzzles, matching, projects, ABC activities, and much more.
Our living room is a family room and playroom. We have an indoor trampoline and a toy box full of different toys on one side and legos on the other. Have several baskets of different animals, cars, and blocks. In the plastic container next to the trampoline is our pretend foods items, with cups, plates, silver wear, and pots and pans.
Another part of the living room we have a shelf with different Melissa and Doug items: fruit/vegetables baskets, puzzles, word puzzle and wooden blocks, our music items, globe, and more food items items like cake, pizza, sandwich, and cookie trays by Melissa and Doug. Next to that is our toy bins, and then a shelf with lots of books, and items for little man and his bucket of super heroes and bat caves. Also have a big bucket full of dinosaurs, kids love all things dinosaurs.
On the other side of the chimney is our library book shelf and on the bottom of the shelf is our puzzles. Kids have their couches in front of the chimney which they move all over the living room. Also have a table which they usually eat their lunches on or do activities together.
This bookshelf is located in our dinning room area, we do most of our school work on the dinning table. All of our school books are here with some games, encyclopedias, kinetic sand, lapbooks, and much more.
This shelf is also located in the dinning room area, here is our Science stuff: microscope, materials for experiments, balance, and etc... Our big jugs of paint is here with a box of stickers, different types of scissors, containers with flash cards, moon dough, and tissue paper. There's also a tub full of materials we will need for the first 6 weeks of school, which I will fill again after the 6 weeks are up with materials for the next 6 weeks. Also have construction papers, and school supply materials like pencils, rulers, glue, etc..
This shelf is more like an educational shelf: manipulatives on the top shelf, educational games, life cycles, etc on the second shelf, and more manipulatives and puppet baskets on the bottom shelf.
On top of the dog kennel (which is located next to the educational shelf is our book basket, and some write on books for little man to use while I'm teaching his sister.
Well here is our setup so far, which is subject to change. I'm so ready to start the new year. Will be keeping track of all we do each week. I'll add a link to each week as we complete them on the bottom of the page. I've done the same with MFW: Kindergarten and First Grade.
UPDATE ON A FEW CHANGES
Moved the shelf with all the buckets to the living room so the kids could play with the items more. Noticed it being in the entry way it wasn't getting much attention.
Moved some of the items (Melissa & Doug toys) from the shelf that was in the living room and put them on this shelf.
All the containers are together in this area and some school supplies for the week are on the top shelf.
Moved the 2 supply carts over to the dining room area since that is where we do most of our school work.
The metal shelf got moved to the dining area next to the bird's cage and moved several games and toys that we don't use often to the garage. In the garage we have a shelf of toys that I rotate for the the kids so that way they don't get too bored playing with same toys all the time.
I like the new set up now, things seem a lot more organized now. Before I had everything in different spots which was a hassle to find sometimes.
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MFW: God's Creation from A to Z (Kindergarten)
MFW: Learning God's Word (1st Grade)
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