1st Grade Activities: Week 38

Monday
1. Reading: The School Play, Rosemary Wells;
Doris's Dinosaur, Rosemary Wells;
Pie Rats Ahoy!, Richard Scarry.
2. Read Aloud: Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle;
Nurse Matilda, Christianna Brand.
3. Art: make a large Nurse Matilda figure out of a lamp; draw dogs, landscape, bird, angel.
4. Science/Nature: observe seedlings in garden that she helped plant and water.
5. Religion: pray; read short bio. of the saint of the day; read Bible readings for today.

Tuesday
1. Religion: attend Mass.
2. Handwriting: write: THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD. THERE IS NOTHING I SHALL WANT in a booklet.
3. Art: make Mass booklet with: cross, dove, Mary, Jesus.
4. P.E.: run and play with friends.

Wednesday
1. Geography: look at and read the names of various places on the globe: Alaska, Australia, China, Canada, America, Spain, Algeria; locate where we live on the globe; feel the mountains on the part where we live (America): Rocky Mountains -- notice that they span two countries, notice the Sierra Nevada mountains; feel the high Himalayas too.
2. Read Aloud: Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle.
3. Reading: Push or Pull?, John Parker;
People Build Dams, Trent Johnson.
4. Religion: pray; read short bio. of the saint of the day; read Bible readings for today.
5. Art: clay creations: "a climbing post where you grab an apple; actually, there is no apple, a clay fish that can swim in the river, a little clay dog, a target, a bow and some arrows, books, hearts, a little bird tucked under a blanket and a mat for it to lay on, a cave, with a rock and some treasure."
6. Spanish: story time at library.
7. P.E.: run and play at the park.

Thursday
1. Religion: pray; read short bio. of the saints of the day; read Bible readings for today.
2. Science/Nature: color and paste planets on solar system chart (labeled in Spanish).
3. Art: draw abstract sunsets (felt pen and oil pastels); clay creations.
4. Read Aloud: Lucille, Arnold Lobel;
Water Buffalo Days: Growing Up in Vietnam, Huynh Quang Nhuong.
5. Geography: read Maps and Globes, Ray Broekel.
6. Music: sing made up songs; attend choir rehearsal.
7. Reading: Olivia Counts, Ian Falconer.
8. Math: measurement: connect 3 long wires of different colors, then use this "measuring tape" to measure people and things: "You are 2 tall." "You are 2-1/2 tall."

Friday
1. Math: "How much is a thousand?" Watch demonstration of 10 hundred squares laid out in a row, then stacked into a cube; the cube is 10 units wide, 10 units high, 10 units deep (10x10x10=1000 [10 cubed]); sort and stack coins in order to count them; review value of each coin: penny, nickel, dime, quarter, dollar.
2. Science/Nature: astronomy discussion: "Why don't we see the stars during the day?" "Do stars move?" "Is the airplane next to the star?" "Is a star a ball of fire?" Name a constellation. Make a booklet with planets and stars on the cover and two pages with constellations.
3. Religion: pray; read short bio. of the saint of the day; read Bible readings for today.
4. Art: draw Lowly worm; rubber stamp and fingerprint art; paintings: frogs and fish in water; construction: a stick to rest on shoulders with 2 buckets to carry things.
5. Reading: Pie Rats Ahoy!, Richard Scarry;
Dr. Seuss's ABC;
Green Eggs and Ham, Dr. Seuss (read the whole book fluently even though we have not read it much or recently).
6. Phonics: in context of reading: qu=kw, ph=f, gh is silent in midnight; make words (short vowels and blends) with alphabet cubes.
7. Music: sing the tune Joy to the World; sing Daisy, Daisy.

1st Grade Activities: Week 37

Monday
1. Religion: pray; read short bio. St. Isidore the Farmer and his wife, St. Mary de la Cabeza; read Bible readings for today.
2. Art: clay creations: robot and toys.
3. Handwriting: write the numbers 11-20.
4. Math: make up, write, and solve equations: 4+1=5, 5+1=6, 10+1=11, 9+1=10, 2+1=3, 1+1=2, 1+2=3 (all numbers correctly drawn).
5. Read Aloud: The Quicksand Book, Tomie dePaola;
Stuart Little, E.B. White.
6. Assisted Reading: Amanda Pig, Schoolgirl, Jean Van Leeuwen;
Tales of Amanda Pig, Van Leeuwen.
7. Phonics: phonics concepts in context, such as ph=f.
8. Reading: parts of Mickey Mouse comic book.
9. History: do two crafts from Little Hands Celebrate America, Jill Frankel Hauser: a scrap doll, simple model of a suspension bridge; read about Niagara Falls and Yosemite Falls from the same book.
10. P.E.: swimming.

Tuesday
1. Art: make another scrap doll from Little Hands Celebrate America.
2. Math: measure the diameter of a circle (7") in order to reproduce it.
3. Religion: pray; read short bio. of the saint of the day; read Bible readings for today.
4. Music: listen to Beethoven, String Quartets: Op. 135 in F major, Op. 131 in C sharp minor (CD).
5. Reading: Reader Rabbit's Interactive Reading Journey 1, books 33-37.
6. Read Aloud: Hank the Cowdog: The Case of the Swirling Killer Tornado, John R. Erickson.

Wednesday
1. Music: listen to Guillaume de Machaut, La Messe de Nostre Dame, Songs from Le Voir Dit (CD); sing Little Drummer Boy, America the Beautiful.
2. Art: clay creations: 4 lizards, 3 credit cards, clam with a pearl; a mechanical device for "shrinking things" (modeled after the one in Honey, I Shrunk the Kids).
3. Religion: pray; read short bio. of the saint of the day; read Bible readings for today.
4. Spanish: story time at the library.
5. P.E.: run and play at the park.
6. Science/Nature: visit the 4-H farm.

Thursday
1. Math: 5 colored wires plus one more equals 6 wires.
2. Read Aloud: Doris's Dinosaur, Rosemary Wells;
The School Play, Rosemary Wells;
Oliver and Albert, Friends Forever, Jean Van Leeuwen;
Mr. Putter & Tabby Make a Wish, Cynthia Rylant;
Amelia Bedelia, Rocket Scientist?, Herman Parish.
3. Assisted Reading: Pie Rats Ahoy!, Richard Scarry;
The Happy Hocky Family Moves to the Country, Lane Smith.
4. Religion: pray; read short bio. of the saint of the day; read Bible readings for today.
5. Art: draw Baby Hocky, draw a pig, make more "flies" for "fly fishing"; clay creations: bees; make a beehive for the bees, jar of honey, bee journal.
6. Music: attend choir rehearsal.

Friday
1. Science/Nature: dissect a daisy; ask questions: "What is an organism?" "What is yeast?" Discuss milking cows, and other aspects of pioneer life (as in Laura Ingalls Wilder books).
2. Art: make large wire character and a small wire doll; make another scrap doll.
3. Reading: chapter titles from Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle.
4. Music: sing Mary Had a Little Lamb.
5. Math: count to 30 (hide and seek); 3+3+2=8 (oral).
6. Read Aloud: Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, Betty MacDonald.
7. P.E.: swimming.

1st Grade Activities: Week 36

Monday
1. Phonics/Spelling: Explode the Code 2, pgs. 9, 31, 35; make words ending in un and og with letter cubes.
2. Art: make erasers out of eraser clay: great white shark, goldfish, funny eraser guy, daddy snake; make Twiddle Bug family out of wire and clay; make a garden (flowers and cabbages) for the Twiddle Bug family.
3. Religion: pray; read short bio. of saint of the day; read Bible readings for today.
4. P.E.: run and play at the park.
5. Math: count backwards from 13 to 1.
6. Read Aloud: Stuart Little, E.B. White.
7. Science/Nature: collect flowers, petals, leaves, rocks.

Tuesday
1. Religion: pray; read short bio. of saint of the day; read Bible readings for today.
2. Math: oral: 2x2=4, 3x4=12; identify 10 random numbers from flash cards between 1-100 (some of them teens); watch demonstration: add 100 squares up to 1000; add two 100 squares, then add ten 10 bars up to 300; telling time: current time to quarter hour.
3. Art: clay creations: pie, cherries, blueberries, doughnuts, syrup bottle and syrup, wash basin, 2 small dogs, bone, Jolly (pet fish), Piglet, Tigger.
4. Phonics/Spelling: Explode the Code 2, pgs. 10, 11, 13 (read and make words with sk, sl, pl).
5. Read Aloud: The Berenstain Bears and the Bully, Stan and Jan Berenstain;
Baseball Ballerina, Kathryn Cristaldi.
6. Reading: 28 book titles from the back of the Berenstain Bears book.
7. P.E.: run and play at the park.

Wednesday
1. Religion: pray; read short bio. of saint of the day; read Bible readings for today.
2. Reading: Baseball Ballerina, Kathryn Cristaldi (Step into Reading, step 3).
3. Read Aloud: Blackberries in the Dark, Mavis Jukes;
Spot's Bedtime Storybook, Eric Hill.
4. Art: clay creations: food: ice cream, cocoa, toast, buns; "little bird, dolly bird, more birds, bread for the bird, clam, books, dam to wash dishes in, swimming pool".
5. Spanish: story time at the library.
6. P.E.: run and play at the park.

Thursday
1. Art: make a "fly" for fly fishing modeled after one in the book: Blackberries in the Dark; draw flower arrangement, palm tree, musical notes, horses, church and man; make clay creations:
2. Handwriting: trace the upper and lower case letters of the alphabet; take notes while attending a reception for a college professor; write first and last name.
3. Vocabulary: look up the word iridescent (from the description of the fishing flies): producing an array of rainbow-like colors.
4. Music: sing Christmas songs, learn the words; attend choir rehearsal.
5. Assisted Reading: Read Me a Story, Rosemary Wells.
6. Science/Nature: watch Secrets of the Bay: A Celebration of San Francisco Bay's Hidden Wildlife (video); observe and draw caterpillars.
7. Religion: pray; read short bio. of saint of the day; read Bible readings for today.

Friday
1. Science/Nature: build small models of T-Rex and Velociraptor dinosaur skeletons from a snap together kit; learn a little about them from accompanying book.
2. Math: write the numbers 1-6 for a list.
3. Music: watch Sound of Music video.
4. Art: make a "bottle" (box) by cutting and taping 6 rectangles together; label it VIKNENE BONE JUICE, a "medicine" for the dinosaurs' bones; dictate a list for directions for the medicine: 1. Buy, 2. Go home, 3. Roll the juice, 4. Pinch off a tiny bit and put the rest in the bottle, 5. Take a teaspoon, 6. Bone better. Read and follow the directions. The "juice" is made from modeling clay.
Draw cats chasing butterflies, Santa and sleigh.
Clay creations: Maria (from Sound of Music).
5. Creative Writing: dictate a story about a cat chasing butterflies.
6. History: watch Modern Marvels: Gothic Cathedrals, the History Channel.

1st Grade Activities: Week 35

Monday
1. Religion: pray; read short bio. of St. Joseph; read Bible readings for today.
2. Art: rubber stamp art; make clay caterpillars, eggs, babies, flower; make 2 bead necklaces.
3. Music: sing the Our Father.
4. History: watch Great Moments in History: A Visit with Betsy Ross (video).
5. Science: handle and observe caterpillars and pill bugs; draw them.
6. Telling Time: 2:56 (on digital, then analog clock), 3:00, 4:00.
7. Math: make cubes from clay: discuss the differences between a cube and a square, how many sides each has, that a square is flat (2 dimensional), a cube is 3 dimensional.
8. Reading: In a People House, Theo. LeSieg.
9. Science/Nature: visit and learn about three newborn goats and two young pigs at the 4-H farm.

Tuesday
1. Spelling: sun, ant, bug with red and blue tactile letters.
2. Science/Nature: make a model incubator with plastic eggs to hatch baby chicks; magnetism: test magnet with knife, nails and paperclips.
3. Art: clay work: make a bowl of soup with peas, spaghetti, ham, and a glass of punch for Wirey (a model wire man); make chicks for the incubator, a flower, Piglet, a goat.
4. Music: attend the musical: Ruddygore, Gilbert and Sullivan; sing This Old Man.
5. Reading: Big Fat Hen, Keith Baker;
Five Little Chicks, Nancy Tafuri.
6. Religion: pray; read short bio. of St. Athanasius; read Bible readings for today.
7. Math: solve equations: 5+4, 4+5, 10+2.
8. Drama: pretend to be a veterinarian; make thorn, bandaids, etc.

Wednesday
1. Art: decorate a paper kite; make a cell phone, fairy, ant, 2 pigeons, Casper the ghost, Monkey King and lady monkey friend out of clay; look at Mary Cassatt's paintings online:
http://www.abcgallery.com/C/cassatt/cassatt.html
We studied her work in art class last session. (Thank you to the ladies at
http://4real.thenetsmith.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=4146
for the links).
2. Phonics: watch Between the Lions: Trains and Brains and Rainy Plains (video).
3. Music: write musical compositions of pretend notes; make a wire "banjo" and pretend to play compositions.
4. Reading: Bravo, Kazam!, Amy Ehrlich;
Green Grass, Joy Cowley;
My Little Sister, Philippa Werry;
The Clown, Karen Anderson;
There Is a Planet, Gavin Bishop;
Trucks, Rebel Williams;
Snappy Little Bugs, Claire Nielson and Dug Steer.
5. Read Aloud: Safe, Warm, and Snug, Stephen R. Swinburne; fairy tales;
The Clown of God, Tomie dePaola.
6. Handwriting: make a business card with phone numbers on it.
7. Religion: pray; read short bio. of saints of the day; read Bible readings for today.
8. Spanish: story time at the library.
9. P.E.: run and play at the park.

Thursday
1. Spanish: watch Stuart Little video in Spanish.
2. Phonics: Explode the Code 2: pgs. 3-4.
3. Art: lots of clay creations: ladder, pillow, blanket, cat dish, cat, butter dish, shelf, lamp, glass, plate with toast, books, curtain rods, Stuart Little, 4 ducks, pen, snake, squirrel, bag of oatmeal, bowl of oatmeal, sled.
4. Religion: pray; read short bio. of saint of the day; read Bible readings for today.
5. Read Aloud: Mickey Mouse Adventures 2, Darko Macan, Andreas Pihl, Francesco Artibani.
6. Music: attend choir rehearsal.

Friday
1. Art: clay and wire mesh creations: fish in a fishbowl, ruby in a box, 2 "feelers for the blind and the seeable with horses on them so they can guess what kind of animal", scoops of ice cream (4 kinds: rainbow, chickseed, crazy icecream, egg ice cream), baby bottle, baby rattle, baby Pebbles from Flinstones.
2. Religion: pray; read short bio. of saint of the day; read Bible readings for today; read and discuss Faith and Life 1: Our Heavenly Father, chapters 4, 5, 6.
3. Drama: play store.
4. Phonics/Spelling: Explode the Code 2: pgs. 5-8 (bl, cl, fl, gl); form clay letters, then make them into a sign: BLACK BEAUTY.
5. Read Aloud: Little Town on the Prairie, Laura Ingalls Wilder.
6. P.E.: T-ball game.

1st Grade Activities: Week 34

Monday
1. Drama: perform in homeschool recital.
2. Read Aloud: A Child's Book of Art: Discover Great Paintings; Albert's Thanksgiving, Leslie Tryon; Thesaurus Rex, Laya Steinberg;
Maurice Maeterlinck's Blue Bird, Brian Wildsmith.
3. Art: draw monkeys in the jungle scene from Great Paintings; handprint art on steamed glass; make a paper turkey from the book Albert's Thanksgiving.
4. Reading: the Our Father from handwritten text;
Animal Sounds, Aurelius Battaglia;
What the Sun Sees, What the Moon Sees, Nancy Tafuri.
5. Religion: pray; read short bio. of the saint of the day; read Bible readings for today.
6. History/Folktale: Imani's Music, Sheron Williams (Summary: Imani, an African grasshopper, brings music to the new world when he travels aboard a slave ship.)

Tuesday
1. Read Aloud: D is for Dragon Dance, Ying Chang Compestine;
In My Heart, Molly Bang; several fairy tales from A Child's Book of Stories: Best-Known and Best-Loved Tales from Around the World.
2. Science: read Me and My Shadow, Arthur Dorros.
3. Handwriting: write phone number legibly so that a notebook could be returned if lost again.
4: Reading: read Baby Blues comic strip from the Sunday paper (13 panels with text).

Wednesday
1. Phonics: watch Between the Lions: Three Goats, No Waiting; The Ram in the Pepper Patch (videos).
2. Art: draw separate parts of an elephant to make a puppet with moveable head and legs; make a Twiddlebug from twist ties, and a cardboard box house.
3. Math: measure four equal lengths of string (for puppet).
4. Religion: pray; read short bio. of the saint of the day; read Bible readings for today.
5. Reading: Puppy, Steve Shott.
6. Read Aloud: The Twiddlebugs' Dream House, Pat Tornborg.
7. Music: listen to Mozart Horn Concertos (CD).
8. Library trip.

Thursday
1. Spelling: spell words with short vowels and consonant blends using letter cubes (blue for consonants, red for vowels, green for consonant blends).
2. Art: make a colored wire lamb, a large wire person with clay feet and hands, a colorful clay fish, cat, dog, rock, snakes, playing pieces for a game, make the game board to go with the playing pieces (hand-drawn on cardboard).
3. Phonics: Explode the Code 2: pgs. 1-2 (consonant blends with l); Between the Lions: The Lost Rock.
4. Reading: My Friend Goes Left, Barbara Gregorich;
Using Magnets, Margie Burton;
I Can Breathe Underwater, Pat Malone.
5. Read Aloud: Elizabeti's Doll, Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen (then make a "rock doll"); several fairy tales from Blue Fairy Book, Andrew Lang.
6. Religion: pray; read short bio. of St. Zita; read Bible readings for today.

Friday
1. Homeschool meeting; present projects and artwork.
2. Library day.
3. P.E.: run, skip, climb trees.
4. Arts and Crafts: draw a fish in aquarium; make a fishing pole and pretend to catch fish.
5. Read Aloud: fairy tales from Celtic Fairy Tales, Joseph Jacobs.
6. Reading: signs, book and video titles.