Math- D completed her Right Start Math program. She can count to 100 by 1's, 2's, 5's, and 10's. She knows her even and odd numbers.We started listening to One Hundred Sheep skip counting CD and she really seems to enjoy that.
She can divide 10 into 2 numbers quite easily (eg 2+8)
When I showed her 100 to divide she quickly came up with a solution.
(and then my little artist added a face to it!)
Learning about volume.
Fractions of a whole. (Half & quarter.)
Breaking teens into tens and ones.
She has met all the outcomes for this year in math and some of next years so I am pleased with her progress.
Language Arts- D has continued to grow in her reading skills.She reads words on signs when we are out and is getting more and more interested in reading for the sake of reading rather than completeing a task.
She has completed all of the 100 lessons in First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind.
She writes daily and has been doing both copywork and creative writing. Her creative writing is often about personal experience and is factual, conveying both feelings and observations. She enjoys copywork because the artist in her likes to shape letters. She does copywork from the grade 2 HWT workbook and in copying Bible verses.
When she is writing and does not know how to spell a word she will frequently look in her Usborne Very First Dictionary or her Cat in the Hat Beginner Book Dictionary.
She is getting much more interested in reading and has read me some pretty wordy books like "Bad Kitty".
D read over 100 books this year. She likes it more and more as she gets better at it.
I read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to the kids this semester. D loved it. We are now reading Charlotte`s Web as a family. Her comprehension is spectacular and she can summarize what has happened so far in the story whenever we are about to read another chapter. She recognizes character, setting, problem, and solution in the stories we read. She recognizes the "bad guy" and the "good guy" in the stories we read. She has verbalized that the problems seem to get worse for the main character in the middle of the book. She makes predictions about what she thinks is going to happen in the story and will reflect on how it was different and how it was similar to what she had expected.
I have looked over the grade one outcomes for LA and she meets and/or exceeds all of them.
Fine Arts-
Valentine's card for Dad.
Rainbow D coloured and added "clouds" to for St Patrick's Day.
"Spaghetti and Meatballs" made with Bendaroos.
On Good Friday D and I made a playdoh scene of the cross and tomb.
We wrapped a little playdoh Jesus in cloth and placed him in the tomb.
The butterfly she coloured.
Dyeing eggs.
D hand stitched a pillow for her stuffed bunny to sleep with.
Playing with colored vinegar and baking soda.
Social Studies- We continued to work out of Come Sit By Me but I have lost all interest in this program for science, socials and reading purposes. So I read the majority of the story books to her but we didn't really do many of the activities for the latter half of the book.
Instead we actually saw western Canada via a road trip in which we travelled through the Shuswap, the Rockies via the #1, the Badlands, Drumheller, the Prairies into a prairie city (Saskatoon) and then home again via the northern route through the Rockies on the Yellowhead including an over night in Jasper. She experienced different cities and towns along the way and observed differences between various locations. We talked about the differences in the rivers on the flatland vs through the mountains. We talked about water sources, animal habitats, where humans can live and where it is not best for them to live. We discussed avalanches and avalanche control. We talked about highway maintenance and expansions. We talked about traffic and population density. We talked about bison populations on the prairies and how the native peoples use to hunt them. We talked about taking care of the planet by being responsible with animal populations and their habitats. We also talked about the gold rush and the part that the rivers played in the travels of gold panners.
We went to my brother's wedding this February. She got to observe the customs of a wedding ceremony and wedding reception.
D continues to learn about babies and their development through her little cousin.
We visited a local dairy farm where the kids learned about farm life and milk cows.
Our tour guide has lived there nearly her whole life and answered all the kids questions.
D got to observe the milking machine robot. It was her favourite part.
Exploring at the pond we found frogs, painted turtles, and yellow headed blackbirds.
The kids met a 7 day old calf and got to pet her.
I read over the outcomes and D meets and/or exceeds all the expectations for grade one Social Studies plus some for grade 2.
PE- D is active every day.
Science- This semester D was involved in a co-op class called "What's the Matter?" She learned that matter is a solid, liquid or gas that takes up space and has mass. She learned about atoms, mass, density, and molecules. She learned the about different properties of solids, liquids and gases, acids and bases through indicators, and identifying properties of matter.
At home she learned about plant life. She experimented with sprouting seeds. She learned the 4 things plants need and hypothesized about the outcome of various conditions for bean seeds.
Tried growing an avocado tree.
Learned about the parts of a plant.
These are some of the books we used.
D grew popcorn in a pie plate and lentil sprouts for our sandwiches!
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| She later explored the roots system of the corn using a magnifying glass to see the small "hairlike" roots. |
D was recently looking at some cut flowers and said "Mom those plants are missing something". I asked her what she thought was missing and she said "Well they don't have any dirt". I then said "Is there something else important for a plant that is missing?" to which she replied "They have no roots! (pause) And they have no leaves."
D learned about balance and center of gravity.
She experimented with air restistance.
We went to the Beaver Creek Conservatory which is just south of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. There D got to feed wild chickadees.
She got to play "beavers" inside a beaver lodge.
And she learned from a biologist about what beavers eat and how they use trees.
We ordered some caterpillars in from AB at the end of April. I ordered for everyone in the CHEK group so D got to witness the organization involved in that. Then we observed the caterpillars while they ate and grew.
D made a chart showing the differences bvetween a moth and a butterfly. She also studied the life cycle of butterflies.
D updated her Phylum chart by adding the identifiers of each catergory of animals. She will be taking this to the Nature Exchange as well.
D is very inquisitive and will ask me things like "Is a shark a fish?" or "Do birds have teeth?".
Her natural curiosity often has us researching Wikipedia online or the bookshelf for the answer.
She has been quite curious about what kinds of birds are in our backyard this spring and we have started identifying them. She can now distinguish golden finch, western tanagers, chickadees, sparrows, hummingbirds, robins, crows, magpies, doves and pigeons. I will be ordering a Birds of BC book with next year's curriculum to encourage her interests in the animals around us.
Health and Career-
D continues to learn about growing up and changes like losing teeth and getting adult teeth. Sh
D has learned about traffic safety, emergency services, and dangerous substances. This was the only grade one outcome that we had not previously covered for grade one Health and Career. She has now completed all of the grade one outcomes and several of the Grade 2 learning out comes for H&C.
We did a unit on identifying hazardous products in the home. We talked about what the symbols in general and which ones are signs of potentially harmful substances. D and Z then went around the house finding products with symbols on them.
