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Now that 8th grade graduation is behind me, I’m starting to get all geared up for 1st grade. I’ve got just 3 weeks before my family and I head off for our big summer trip, so I’m wasting no time getting going on my summer prep. Years ago a former colleague of mine put together […]
Are you thinking about Waldorf-inspired homeschooling for first grade? Waldorf-inspired methods might be exciting and intriguing when you first encounter them, but it can also feel overwhelming to figure it all out. But you don't need to figure it all out at once. First
I'm back to blogging after a long hiatus due to computer repair and a 3 week trip to Chicago to visit family... We have been taking our time with our first block, which is Language Arts. I am pulling from a variety of sources, including Kristie Burns' Earthschooling, Eric Fairman's Path of Discovery, Zonneveld and Schrager, and of course, the Brothers Grimm. Before you purchase a Grimms book, though, you might want to look at this website where you can access the stories for FREE. We usually begin our day by lighting a candle, playing our beginning song on our Auris glockenspiel, saying a verse and a prayer and then we begin. I will go back and do a master list at the end of our Language Arts block, but for now, here is the order of our lessons. I will add the next four letters to the blog tomorrow. We are only working on capital letters, consonants before vowels. We also decided to follow the order that Fairman suggested, with easiest letters first. Here's a wonderful blurb about teaching Waldorf reading from Kristie Burns' earthschooling blog, which I found so poignant. M - "Simeli Mountain" by the Bros. Grimm We love Kristie Burns' "Sixth Sense Language" ebook and I usually begin by reading her verse and have the girls guess which letter we are doing. I then reveal my chalkboard drawing and share the story with them. They work on their whiteboards sometimes and we then look at the pictures from our two alphabet books "LMNOP" & "Living Alphabet". We talk about which words begin with that letter and I often write them down on a whiteboard. Following "Sixth Sense Language", we also tie in the other senses to the letter and end with the three of us drawing in our MLB's together. Sometimes they copy mine. Other times they are inspired to draw something unique. For the letter "M", we bought some marigolds to plant and enjoyed the fragrant smells. Elena decided she wanted to form the letter "M" with some clay and even continued to make the scene from the story. Charley finished her whiteboard drawing inspired by Simeli Mountain. Drawing in our Main Lesson Books. The finished products :D Words that start with the letter "M"... V - "Valley of the Violets" by me For the letter "V", I just couldn't find a Grimm's story that I was happy with, so I decided to make up my own story, using inspiration from the Syrendell sprites and Mamma 4 Earth's "Norman the Storytelling Gnome". I used a felted playscape I made, the three Syrendell sprites and a basic gnome my sister made for us to represent Norman. I set up wooden blocks in the shape of a "V" as the valley and draped it with silks hand-dyed by Syrendell. The story was about Violet Sprite who had been captured by a mean giant who imprisoned her underground at the foot of a valley. Above her sprouted a large field of violets. Her sisters would watch her image in the mystical pond and long for her return. One day, Norman the Gnome heard their tears and came over to offer his help. He climbed the peach tree and found the golden peach and then traveled upstream to the Valley of the Violets, where he planted the golden peach. The ground magically opened and Violet was set free. The angry giant was so greedy that he leaped in after the golden peach and the earth promptly swallowed him whole. Thus, he forever remains. Norman brought Violet back to her sisters and they lived happily the rest of their days. The girls worked on their MLB's... And we ate some yummy vegetables for lunch! S - "The White Snake" by the Bros. Grimm We used wooden shapes and "dragon's tears" to make the shapes of the letters... And had fun thinking of words that begin with the letter "s". Worked in our MLB's... And the girls had sushi for lunch! T - "The Three Little Men in the Wood" by Bros. Grimm Had tea during lunch and smelled some spices beginning with the letter "T", including thyme leaves & turmeric. To be continued...
I thought it might be handy for others who are doing First Grade to have a recap of the letter and number fairytales we did, and a place to find info and links to them easily. Info about beginning First Grade, the order we did our alphabet in, and our container story can be found . Alphabet Letters Letter A Letter B Letter C Letter D Letter E Letter F Letter G Letter H Letter I Letter J Letter K Letter L Letter M Letter N Letter O Letter P Letter Q Letter R Letter S Letter T Letter U Letter V Letter W Letter X Letter Y Letter Z Quality of Numbers Number 1 Number 2 Number 3 Number 4 Number 5 Number 6 Number 7 Number 8 Number 9 Number 10 Four Processes Addition & Subtraction Multiplication & Division Equals Circle Time General information about gross and fine motor activities Winter Circle Time Spring Circle Time Summer Circle Time Autumn Circle Time
form drawing, 2 week block august 24/september 3rd resources: main lessons: Form Drawing for Grades 1-4, Ernst Schuberth & Laura Embry-Stine...
Waldorf Inspirations, a website designed to help inspire teachers as they go about the rewarding yet sometimes challenging task of bringing the Waldorf grades’ curriculum to their students.
Photo © 2009 Steven Depolo | more info (via: Wylio) Preschool is the perfect time to help your kiddos "fine tune" their fine motor skills. While there are a plethora of activities to consider, lacing and weaving exercises are great because they strengthen hand muscles, promote focus, test hand-eye coordination, and reinforce problem solving skills - all hallmarks of fine motor mastery! Here are some essentials for your fine motor activity station... Lacing Cards Lacing cards are actually quite simple to make and can be fully customized to fit any theme, unit, or lesson! My Montessori Journey creator uses recycled greeting cards to create unique lacing experiences for her kiddos! No scissors necessary, all you need is a paper punch and plenty of yarn! While greeting cards are usually made from sturdier paper, you might consider laminating them just in case! Photo Source: My Montessori Journey Shannon, over at Shannon's Tot School, recommends creating lacing cards from colorful craft foam sheets. The soft, "squishy" foam will provide a unique sensory experience for your preschoolers and stand up to the wear and tear of extended use. Photo Source: Shannon's Tot School Greeting cards from Arrowood Zoo. WonderFoam®. How about regular card stock? Print, copy, or trace the appropriate image onto the paper, cut it out, laminate it, and you're set! For more versatility and fun, create black and white cards, allowing students to color the pictures before laminating them! Photo Source: The Arrowood Zoo If you're not up for making your own lacing cards, Melissa & Doug and MPM School Supplies (among other educational toy suppliers) provide handy lacing card kits that make a great addition to any preschool classroom! Photo Source: MPM School Supplies Where To Find Lacing Card Images & Inspiration Online. Find free templates at Activity Village, Shannon's Tot School, and other preschool activity sites. Look for printable coloring pages and clip art that can be adapted/printed onto card stock and made into lacing cards. Or just browse for inspiration in making your own. Childcare Land offers some great cards to purchase or use to get the creative juices flowing! Word processing software. Most come with a gallery of clip art that can be printed onto card stock and adapted for lacing cards. Magazines. If you find fun pictures/objects that are big enough, cut them out, glue them to a piece of card stock, and laminate! Coloring books. Copy the desired page onto card stock, cut out, and laminate! Or, if you need just one, laminate the original coloring book page. Cereal box panels. No need to laminate, just cut apart, punch some holes, and get to lacing! Recycled storybook pages. Greeting cards. Lacing & Weaving Activities Try these toilet paper roll lacing tubes from Jenn at Totally Tots. Photo Source: Totally Tots Create a simple lacing activity with peg board like this one at Journey Into Unschooling. Photo Source: Journey Into Unschooling Recycle a round wooden cabinet organizer and make a unique lacing/weaving toy like this one at Journey Into Unschooling. Photo Source: Journey Into Unschooling Try this plastic basket and ribbon weaving activity from Teach Preschool. Photo Source: Teach Preschool Recycle metal closet shelves or a wire shelf organizer for a weaving activity like this at PreKinders. Photo Source: PreKinders Your students are sure to love each of these unique weaving and lacing activities! Be sure to check out each projects site for further insights, directions, and other early childhood resources!
One of the hallmarks of Waldorf-inspired homeschooling, especially in kindergarten and the early grades, is storytelling. Storytelling can sound like a lot to take on but with some basic information and a bit of practice (plus a leap of faith!) you’ll start telling stories like a pro in no time. Sto
This simple beach ball math game is a fun way to practice math facts at home. Math ball games are perfect for summer and preventing summer slide.
Nature Art for Kids - making art in nature helps children to really see their surroundings and the beauty in it.
Hello everyone! Welcome to Kindergarten in Room 110! We are so excited to meet all of you and begin an amazing year together :) We have been working hard over the summer to prepare for a brand new classroom and create fun-filled activities to start the year off with a bang :) As you know, this is Gatestone's first year having Full-Day Kindergarten (FDK). There are many new changes that come with the new program and we are excited to share those with you! The first and most noticeable change you will see is the classroom environment. We have aimed to create a classroom that is, in our opinion, visually similar to one's home. In order to ease the transition of being at home all day and now coming to school 5 days a week, we wanted the classroom to feel like a second home for students, full of warm and neutral colours, greenery, and natural materials. Not only will this help with the transition, but it will also help students remain calm, self-regulated, and focused. We tried to stay away from bright, primary colours and store-bought posters. Posters bought at Scholar's Choice or the Dollar Store really don't mean anything to children, especially at this age. However, if students look and see their creations on the wall to demonstrate the same things a poster would, it becomes much more meaningful. We'd like to share with you some pictures of the transition that took place over the summer. Many hours went into creating our new classroom so we hope you like it! Inspiration The use of natural materials was a must. We loved the idea of using things we could find in nature. We also loved the idea of using brown kraft paper instead of bright-coloured fadeless paper. The black really pops! The picture frames with student work is also a fantastic idea :) Dollarama here we come! We loved the idea of having a wooden vase so of course we had to make one of our own! Miss Pliura also saw this decoration on the right at Roots- the whole store was an inspiration, really! Loved this idea for a writing centre. We purchased mini clipboards instead. How neat is this?! Jars with craft supplies in them is a beautiful way to showcase different colours. Before Mrs. Nighswander had a lovely classroom that was functional for her students. We loved the flow of her classroom and the sectioned off areas for different types of play. We wanted to keep this functionality while changing up the colour scheme. We are so fortunate to have a SMARTboard iRover in our class. We can move it to wherever we want! During We stripped the classroom bare, cleaned it from top to bottom, and began to set it up using new furniture and plenty of new classroom materials. We had a vision in our mind of what we wanted the classroom to look like; neutral tones, lots of greenery, and a minimalistic feel. We had to decide which furniture to keep and which was still useable. We were also getting some brand new furniture as well, such as a library shelf, work bench, and a storage unit. There was bulletin board glued onto the wall and peeled all the paint of with it. We didn't have any green paint left, so a light coloured brown was used instead (that's just the primer!) We aren't too sure how we were denied a new kitchen set, seeing as how the doors to the fridge would barely shut, so Miss Pliura took it home and sanded it down, used a wooden stain, and fixed the hinges (with plenty of help!). You can see on the left all the scuff marks it had. The picture on the right is what it looked like after sanding. You'll see the difference it made soon! We wanted the cork board and the chalk boards to match. Our original plan was to cover it all with kraft paper, like in the inspiration picture above. However, we couldn't keep it from creasing and it just didn't meet our expectations (see picture below) :P We found bulletin board contact paper that matched the original cork board perfectly, so we decided to use that on the chalk board to make it all match. We used white bins to fill up the cubbies you see on the right and used a black border to frame the bulletin boards. After We loved the idea of having some home decor as soon as you walk in the door. The tree trunk vase turned out great! Scrapbook pages filled with pictures will soon fill the holder on the left. Can we just talk about how amazing this kitchen set turned out!? It's beautifully sanded and appealing to the eye. We received some adorable pots and pans that resemble real life cooking tools - We think Dramatic Play will be a big hit! How great is this workbench? (with a real-life mini vise!) Students can use blocks, tools, and other classroom materials to make anything their little hearts desire :) Blueprints for blocks, anyone? As you can see, we're still working on putting up our alphabet, but soon these bulletin boards will be filled with words, child's names, etc. In the middle of our bulletin boards we have our animal character Reading Strategies which we will learn about throughout the year. We are also super lucky to have a SMARTboard, which is where all of our Literacy and Math lessons take place. The kids also have the chance to play on it during Learning Centres :) Did you notice the curtains? Not only do they look nice, but they also prevent little hands from touching things on the shelves during our important lessons. We got these adorable little chairs from IKEA; they are perfect for a comfy Book Nook where kids can sit down and read/browse through some books. We also received an iPod stereo where we will connect our iPod and students can listen to audio MP3s to certain books (the ones with the red stickers!) Lots of cozy stuffed animals and pillows to make them feel at home :) This is the beginning of our Science centre. We started off with just some small, natural materials along with some mirrors and magnifying glasses! Who doesn't love sand! The sand table will be lots of fun :) In our long IKEA shelf, we have stored Playdoh and our train set. In our storage unit, we have plenty of fun manipulatives for students to use. And last but not least, our Creative centre. Here, students can make beautiful pictures, write a letter, or build a crazy creation using all of our craft supplies (thanks, parents!). We are still waiting on our Art easel, and when that arrives, students will be able to paint here :) We hope you enjoyed this LONG post about our classroom transformation. We are so very proud of our classroom and can't wait to begin using it to learn, explore, and play. Have a great night! ~ Miss Pliura & Mrs. Tortola :)
Help your students become multiplication masters.
Free First Grade Homeschool Curriculum Getting Started How did I amass such a large amount of free first grade homeschool curriculum knowledge? When I first got started homeschooling I never realized how quickly your budget can be blown, or if not careful spiral out of control. In fact my first year of homeschooling I didn't
Now that we are homeschooling, I try to do everything possible to find exciting ways to teach the kids things that might normally be kind of a bore. This week AG is reviewing her Oak Meadow word families from the first grade curriculum, so I decided to make some fun (and colorful) sliders for her to review with. What you will need: Paint chips found at any store that sells paint. You will need large chips displaying only one color and the long strips that display multiple colors. The large chips will be for the "onsets" and the long strip will be for the "rimes." A large square paper puncher or you can do what I did and make a template and cut the squares using a hobby knife. A black permanent marker. Directions: There really isn't a whole lot to this DIY project. All you really need to do is make sure that you have a square cut large enough on your "onset" paint chip to display your "rime" paint chip. Decide how big your hole needs to be, cut or punch (again, I cut by making a template from one of the "rime" chips), and write your onset and rimes accordingly! For the Oak Meadow first grade curriculum, you will need the following twenty-one word families: ad ag an ap ar at aw ay ed et id ig ill in ip it go ot ow ug ut I copied the pages out of the Oak Meadow "Word Families" book so that AG could use the sliders side by side with the story.
Curious about how to put together a unit study? Join me as I take you through my process for putting together a unit study for Ancient Egypt. Much of the process is the same for all my history unit…
Pronouns Poster This poster / anchor chart will help your students understand the concept of how a pronoun functions and shows some examples. This is perfect for an introductory lesson / explanation and to display in your classroom for future student reference. Included is: 2 poster styles - simple and detailed student worksheet If you like this poster, find a whole packet of them in my Grammar Pack Find more games, centers, crafts, worksheets and activities for GRAMMAR HERE Click here to return to my store home page
