1st Grade Activities: Week 33

Monday
(vacation)

Tuesday
1. Read Aloud: fairy tales from various collections.
2. Sewing: sew a button on a bear.
3. Science/Nature: test various objects to see which ones float; observe animals in the field: cows, horses, sheep, birds; watch two doves preening.
4. Art: drawings of pool and toys; rubber stamp art; draw a horse and Dino the dinosaur.
5. Handwriting: write notes to Mom and Dad.
6. Reading: signs on a trip;
Picnic, Phyllis Root.
7. Music: sing made-up songs.

Wednesday
1. History: read (twice): Landed, Milly Lee (picture book)
Summary from the book: "After leaving his home in southeastern China, twelve-year-old Sun is held and interrogated on Angel Island before being allowed to join his merchant father in San Francisco." Nice drawings, simple presentation of a real boy's journey and immigration experience.
2. Reading: Emily's Shoes, Joan Cottle.
3. Math: Easter eggs: group 8 paper chicks in 2 plastic eggs in different ways. Add the chicks in each egg and solve the equations: 1+7, 2+6, 3+5, 4+4, 5+3, 6+2, 7+1; telling time: hours.
4. Art: make twist tie animals to play with; draw deer, bee, chicks, butterflies, book and cartoon animals.
5. Science/Nature: watch A Day With Horses and Creepy Critters videos.

Thursday
1. Science/Nature: watch Bill Ny the Science Guy: Forensics (video); make and study fingerprints; attempt an experiment from the video.
2. Art/Science: draw bat, ants, silkworms, grasshopper, bees, butterflies, moths, snake.
3. Reading: Pop Pop Pop Pop Pop, David Martin;
Dr. Seuss's ABC.
4. Read Aloud: Baloney (Henry P.), Jon Scieszka;
Pigasus, Pat Murphy.
5. Religion: read short bio. of the saint of the day; read Bible readings for today.
6. Assisted Reading: Scaredy Squirrel, Melanie Watt;
Madlenka's Dog, Peter Sis*.
7. Library day.

Friday
1. Art: draw winged Pegasus; make a paper flower on a toothpick stem.
2. Cooking: make a milkshake: bananas, yogurt, juice, milk, syrup, jam.
3. Drama: sketch steps in a dance.
4. Religion: read short bio. of the saint of the day; read Bible readings for today.
5. Sewing: running stitch, repair small stuffed bear.
6. P.E.: practice bunny dance for a talent show.
7. Music: sing made-up song: "O let us proclaim Him".
8. Reading: The Puppy, Jane Buxton;
We Get Squished!, Philippa Werry.

1st Grade Activities: Week 32

(vacation)

1st Grade Activities: Week 31

Monday
1. Math: 5+4=9, 6+2=8, 0+15=15, 10+7=17, 10+8=18, 5+2=7, 5+1=6, 0+100=100, 4+3=7.
2. Art: Art Center Family Day: make a dolphin (clay) in a habitat (paper).
3. Science/Nature: read about dolphins and look at pictures online:
http://tinyurl.com/nsgfa
http://tinyurl.com/psrgs
http://tinyurl.com/m7fks
http://tinyurl.com/rw4bz
4. Music: singing; attend choir rehearsal.
6. Read Aloud: Benjy's Boat Trip, Margaret Bloy Graham.
7. Dictionary: look up the meaning of the word mobile (n.); find a place to hang up butterflies to function as a mobile.
8. Art/Handwriting: fill in a missing letter, draw, and label: GOAT, BOAT, DOG, PIG, CAT, BED, CALIFORNIA.
9. Relgion: attend a requiem Mass in Latin.

Tuesday
1. Art: study A Child's Book of Art: Discover Great Paintings again; draw another scene of monkeys in the jungle; make snail and other clay characters; make a habitat for the snail out of a cardboard box; make a rabbit mask.
2. Computer: type chat msg. to dad asking for 5 envelopes.
3. Handwriting: write names of family members on 5 cards to send to them.
4. Foreign Language: Braille -- after reading book; do online word puzzles; decode Braille characters and unscramble word to answer question; found and wrote the Braille letters for her name.
5. Read Aloud: Where Robins Fly, Anita Holmes;
Redwoods Are the Tallest Trees in the World, David A. Adler;
County Fair, Raymond Bial.

Wednesday
1. Music: listen to children's songs: On My Way to Sunday School (hymns).
2. Read Aloud: read from English Fairy Tales.
3. Computer: chat online with dad; learn to copy and paste text.
4. Spanish: story time at the library.
5. P.E.: park time.
6. Handwriting: copy fancy writing: NARNIA from cover of DVD.

Thursday
1. Art/Science: plan, make, and decorate a paper airplane from The Paper Airplane Book (Seymour Simon); practice flying it, modifying design, observing changes in flight.
2. Science/Nature: read Death Valley: A Day in the Desert, Nancy Smiler Levinson;
Switch On, Switch Off: a Let's-Read-and-find-Out Science Book, Melvin Berger, discussing magnets, coils, generators, circuits, lightbulbs, outlets, plugs, prongs, switches; watch Bill Nye, Science Guy: Dinosaurs, and Wild Animals videos.
3. Reading: What Have I Got?, Mike McClintock.
4. Music: sing about the paper airplane: Little Bird.
5. Read Aloud: Petook: An Easter Story, Caryll Houselander.
6. Art: make clay creations (people and animals); make mouse costume.
7. Drama: pretend to be a mouse.

Friday
1. Art: make 6 paper airplanes, come up with list of names, name the planes; make a paper butterfly with twist-tie antennae; cut and put together paper strips to make a paper chain to hang the butterflies on.
2. Science/Technology: fly paper airplanes.
3. Choreograph a dance: a different ballet step around each object laid out on the floor.
4. P.E. dance around objects in living room.
5. Music: Sing made-up songs.
6. Civics: discuss taxes and where our tax dollar goes: fire dept., police, roads, bridges, schools, libraries, etc.
7. P.E.: play T-Ball game.
8. Foreign Language: learn Braille online: http://www.afb.org/braillebug/Games.asp ,
decode the Braille letters for: panda, lion, koala, crocodile, parrot, rhinoceros, gecko, raccoon, cheetah, hyena, ostrich, gorilla.
9. Religion: pray; read short bio. of saint of the day.

1st Grade Activities: Week 30

Monday
1. Religion: pray; read short bio. of St. John of Egypt; read Gospel for today.
2. Reading: Measure It, Gloria Bancroft;
Champions, Rebel Williams;
What Can Fly?, Brenda Parkes;
Legs, Miriam Frost;
Penguins ABC, Kevin Schafer.
3. Science/Nature: read and discuss North Pole, South Pole, Nancy Smiler Levinson; watch What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up? The Zoo Crew (video); chart temperature and time on a chart after running a fever.
4. Read Aloud: Oranges on Golden Mountain, Elizabeth Partridge;
Fishing, Diana Engel;
Not Yet, Elijah!, Harriet K. Feder.
5. Art: make a bouquet of paper flowers.

Tuesday
1. Religion: pray; read short bio. of saint of the day.
2. Science/Nature: videos: Pets: See How They Grow,
Nature Series: Kitten Companions,
Bill Nye the Science Guy: Forensics; care for garden snail.
3. Science/Technology: The Greatest Engineering Achievements of the 20th Century: The Golden Gate Bridge (video).
4. Phonics: Up With Phonics: Short and Long Vowel Sounds (video).
5. Math: making a small book: 1 sheet of paper = 4 pages; 3 sheets = 12 pages; 3 sheets x 4 pages each =12 pages for a book.
6. Music: singing.
7. Reading: read 6 pages of The Golden Picture Dictionary.
(More video learning on sick days.)

Wednesday
1. Handwriting: make tags (name and number) for stuffed penguin.
2. Art/Drama/Music: draw fish for the penguin, create a fishing game, fish and sing about fishing; then feed the fish to Lucy the penguin.
3. Science/Technology: watch mom unplug and very carefully disassemble the TV/VCR, unjam tape, and reassemble it [Hey, my dad and 3 brothers are engineers -- how hard could it be? I've watched them take things apart hundreds of times]. Tape unjamming was successful, hooray! Door operation was not. So it had to be done over again or we would be watching the same show for the rest of ... or until we upgrade to DVD ;) [now door is fixed too -- everything works again] (mini field trip -- inside the TV).
4. Economics: If we can't unjam the VCR, we will have to take it completely apart (break it), remove the tape to return to the library, and throw the player away. It would cost more to have it repaired (probably at least $100) than it would to buy a new VCR.
5. Civics: read a newspaper article about the sale of soda and junk food being prohibited in California schools. High school students are collecting signatures to get a proposition on the ballot to overturn the law. She said the students should make the choice whether to buy soda or juice. We read further, and there was more information about the law and its implementation, including other views. After reading the article, she decided that little kids should not have the soda and junk food available (let the parents decide what they eat and drink). For the medium-sized kids, let the teachers decide (somehow). For the teenagers, they should be given both options (healthy drinks and soda) and be allowed to choose.
6. Spanish: story time at the library.
7. Religion: read short bio. of today's saints.

Thursday
1. Religion: pray; read short bio. of the saint of the day; read Bible readings for today.
2. Reading: I Am a Little Monkey, Francois Crozat.
3. Art/Drama: make a monkey tail, and a banana out of colored pipe cleaners; monkey picks up items all around the room with her tail, peels the banana.
4. History: read Louis Braille: The Blind Boy Who Wanted to Read, Dennis Fradin.
5. P.E.: run and play at the park.
6. Geography: look at maps of California, U.S., and individual states; read some city and state names; play with puzzle pieces (states).
7. Music: sing songs.

Friday
1. Art: read A Child's Book of Art: Discover Great Paintings, Lucy Micklethwait; draw a monkeys in the jungle scene similar to "Tropical Forest with Monkeys", by French artist Henri Rousseau (1844-1910); wear the pipe-cleaner monkey tail again; create a character called Cyber Monkey; make sword, shield, and ring of keys for Cyber Monkey out of colored pipe cleaners.
2. Reading: read some of the captions in the book: Discover Great Paintings; read some text on a children's website.
3. Drama: play acting: Cyber Monkey kills the serpent (representing evil).
4. Music: singing.
5. Science/Technology: read from the book Footprints on the Moon, Alexandra Siy.
6. Read Aloud: from English Fairy Tales, F. A. Steel.
7. Math: demonstration: count to 12 by 1s, 2s, 3s; count to 15 by 5s; count to 16 by 4s; divide 10 items in half (into 2 groups): 5+5=10; another way to divide 10 into parts: 2+8=10; count to 20 by 2s.
8. Cooking: help make an apple pie.