Monday, December 28, 2009

Grade 1: Summary of Capital Letters Language Arts Block

Here is the order of the capital letters we did, along with a link to the stories that weren't my own. Before we began our Capital Letters block, we did two weeks of form drawing in preparation. See week one here and week two here:

BG stands for Brothers Grimm

M - "Simeli Mountain" by BG
V - "Valley of the Violets" by me
S - "The White Snake" by BG
T - "The Three Little Men in the Wood" by BG
W - "The Fisherman and His Wife" by BG
C - "Cat and Mouse in Partnership" by BG
F - "The Lambkin and the Little Fish" by BG
H - "The Hut in the Forest" by BG
J - "The Water of Life" by BG
B - "The Willow-Wren and the Bear" by BG
G - "The Golden Goose" by BG
K - "King Thrushbeard" by BG
R - "Rumpelstiltskin" by BG
L - "Louise Ladybug Looks for Friends" by me
D - "Saint George and the Dragon" by Margaret Hodges
N - "The Nail" by BG
P - "The Pink" by BG
Q - "The Queen Bee" by BG
X - "The Fox and the Horse" by BG
Y - "The Young Giant" by BG
Z - "How the Zebra Got His Stripes" Tales from the African Bushmen

We incorporated "6th Sense Language - Teaching the Alphabet Waldorf Style and Beyond" from Kristie Burns' Earthschooling program and it was not only fun, but it added so much to the girls learning and retention.

If you would like to see our drawings and more detailed posts on these lessons, you may find them as follows:
post #1 - M, V, S, T
post #2 - W, C, F, H, J
post #3 - B, G, K, R, L, D
post #4 - N, P, Q, X, Y, Z

Have fun with your Language Arts Blocks!

6 comments:

  1. What a wonderful record of your work! I'm so impressed with how thoroughly you are meeting the curriculum. Beautiful!

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  2. Hi Jen,
    Very beautiful blog and lot of inspiration.This year i am starting my first year of WE and first grade and your blog is one which is helping me in this journey.My deepest gratitude to you.
    I have a ques in LA block -how many alphabet you covered in each week.
    what is your weekly rhthym for this block.

    Gratitude
    Babi

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  3. Hi Babi! Sorry it took me so long to respond to this - we were visiting with family from out of town for 2 weeks and I wanted to check my notes before addressing your inquiry. But your weekly rhythm should depend somewhat on where your child is with letters. If s/he is completely new to letters (and you are schooling 5 days a week), then you might want to implement a 2 or 3 day rhythm (so do 2 letters a week). Day 1: intro to the letter with a story, day 2: retell the story while practicing the letter, day 3: MLB drawing with letter and have your child tell you as much of the story as s/he wants or can and then introduce the next letter on that day. The famous 3 day rhythm that was implemented in waldorf schools in Germany was based on the fact that they schooled 6 days a week - so with the usual 5 (or even 4) days a week of schooling in most parts of the world now, I tweaked it a bit. I originally planned to introduce the letters more rapidly, but by the end, we were actually doing only one or two a week and I did formal schooling 4 days a week during Grade 1 with the last day as a crafting/field trip/fun while learning organically kind-of day :D

    I would allow for a lot of time for learning letters if you go slow and of course, if your child already is familiar with them, then I think it's perfectly fine to do this block in a shorter amount of time - even do a letter/story a day with a nice review into the 2nd day and beginning the next letter that same day. It's nice if the child can sleep on it as much of the learning takes place that way and tying in stories to the letters brings them to the child in an alive and deep sense. It will be intense if you tell stories for each letter, but the wonderful thing about homeschooling is that you can completely tailor it to your child's pace! And as illnesses or other things come and go throughout the year, it's nice if you allow yourself some extra weeks to make up lost time...

    HTH! And thanks for your lovely comments! LMK if I can help further or you need a more thorough explanation :D

    Blessings,
    Jen

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  4. p.s. I think the BEST advice I got from anyone regarding how to teach Grade 1 was from Marsha Johnson of Shining Star and in her files section on that grade, she says:

    KEEP IT IN THE IMAGINATION!

    That is right where our dreamy 6/7 year olds need it to be and so try to remember to keep it simple for them and take your time. As our children develop, they can pick schooling up much quicker, so laying a solid foundation is key and what you didn't cover this year can be covered next. I'm a big fan of the Moore's philosophy on delayed academics, so this fits right in with that :D

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  5. Jen,
    I am so happy to have come across your blog, I do think I have come by here before and then somehow missed coming back.
    I am about to start 1st grade homeschooling with my daughter and how wonderful to have found all of your beautiful inspiration.
    Really looking forward to explore further.
    Thank you!
    :) Christina

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  6. Hi jen,
    Thanks for answeing my ques about Rhythm.
    Appreciate your time in writing in detail and inspiring us through your blog.
    Babi

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