First Grade

I am having a grand time gathering my notes for the conference this weekend. I have 6 big bins lining one wall of the living room with books, art and handwork supplies, puppets, and so on. I am going to get a real workout lugging all this stuff around! But one of the things that I got good positive feedback on last year was that I brought my book collection for people to peruse and make their own notes on what resources they'd like to buy. There's nothing like actually seeing the book to know if it will work for you! First and Second requires a lot more books than Third and Fourth because you are getting into so many new things... like reading, for example. So I have even more books to bring in.

Since I'm taking the time to write up notes for the First Grade curriculum, I thought I'd post some stuff here. Some of it will take the form of articles which I will add to the website. Some of it you only get if you come to the conference. But the general outline of the school year (my version) I am happy to share. So here it is. This is using the Language Arts/Math/Social Studies/Science main lesson block rotation with -- obviously -- Form Drawing to begin the year. Knitting is the new handwork learned this year.


September: Form Drawing
(this then becomes the Monday Heart lesson for the rest of the year)

October: Capital Letters
(consonants that make one sound)

November: Quality of Numbers

December: Winter festivals/World Cultures

January: 4 Seasons
(this is a great time to begin the Weather Tree from All Year Round)

February: Capital Letters
(consonants that make more than one sound, vowels done in eurythmy)

March: 4 Processes
(equals the raven, math gnomes)

April: Spring Festivals/World Cultures

May: 4 Elements
(wind, water, fire, air -- continue into summer)


If you give 2 hours to Head (your main lesson block content), 2 hours to Heart, and 2 hours to Hands, you may end up with a schedule that looks like this:

8 am to 10 am
10 am to noon
1 pm to 3 pm