Tuesday, October 31, 2023

Quality of Numbers Booklist - 2023

This is one of my favorite blocks to teach, and a classic in Waldorf First Grade. After Form Drawing, children learn the Roman and Hindu-Arabic numerals and then begin an introduction to the Capital Letters. From there they progress throughout the school year to writing words, phrases, and then sentences. It is all done very gently and is meant to be stress-free.

The numbers are introduced in fairy tales (such as The Three Billy Goats Gruff) as well as places that children find them in the world (like 6 in the color wheel and 8 in the spider), so that the experience is one of wonder or joy in recognizing an old friend. The stories are always accompanied by riddles to solve and new symbols to be revealed.

I use a container story inspired by this one. My characters are two flower children, Calendula and Plantain.

I've written an entire Ruzuku course on this block which may be helpful if you are a homeschooler preparing to teach it, but here is the quick overview and booklist of stories that I used this year:


I / 1

    story - Sun Bread by Elisa Kleven

    poem - "The Sun" by Grace Nichols from The Hutchinson Treasury of Children's Poetry edited by Alison Sage, p.126

    riddle - sunshine

    hands-on activity - make Sun Bread (recipe in back of book)

    artwork - wet-on-dry watercolor painting of sun


II / 2


III / 3

    story - Jack and the Beanstalk retold by Joseph Jacobs

    riddle - seed

    hands-on activity - wrap three dried beans in a wet paper towel and place in a plastic bag

    bonus story - The Three Little Pigs retold by Paul Galdone

    hands-on activity - build little piggie houses with Teifoc mini bricks

    artwork - colored pencil drawing of three magic beans OR the giant's treasures (bag of gold, goose that lays golden eggs, talking harp)


IV / 4


V / 5


VI / 6


VII / 7

    story - Seven Blind Mice retold by Ed Young

    riddle - mouse

    hands-on activity - write numbers I through VII with sidewalk chalk (one, two, three, one-from-five, five, five-and-one-more, five-and-two-more)

    bonus story - "The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids" from More Tales from Grimm, translated by Wanda Gág, pp.241-249

    artwork - colored pencil drawing of seven mice in rainbow colors


VIII / 8


IX / 9


X / 10


This post contains affiliate links to materials I truly use for homeschooling. Qualifying purchases provide me with revenue. Thank you for your support!

Posted by at No comments:

Tuesday, October 24, 2023

Grammar & Charlotte's Web

Today we started Charlotte's Web by E.B. White as our new lunchtime read aloud story. There are lots of fun tie-ins you can do with this book. Penmanship is one, if you get the corresponding cursive workbook.


You can also do Structured Word Inquiry (like in this May 2023 blog post, The < Blood > Family) or Grammar.

As we read each chapter I'm keeping my eyes out for sentences that would be good to symbolize, and then I will give them to my oldest student for her Grammar assignments. If you like the idea of Literature for Grammar but don't want to have to hunt down your own sentences, try the packets from Mandala Classroom Resources.


an unsymbolized sentence


the same sentence, symbolized


Here are the Nine Basic Montessori Grammar Symbols. See also my March 2017 blog post, Teaching Prepositions Through Movement and Art.

In the Waldorf scope & sequence, I use the Montessori Lower Elementary symbols in grade 3, Sentence Analysis in grade 4, and the Montessori Upper Elementary symbols in grade 5 (four noun symbols, eight verb symbols).

So here are my sentences for each chapter! I'll also add notes for the parts of speech that sometimes trip children up.


Grammar Symbols

Chapter 1 - Before Breakfast

    Mrs. Arable put a pitcher of cream on the table.

    The children ran out to the road and climbed into the bus.
    ("out" = adverb)


Chapter 2 - Wilbur

    Wilbur was poking the straw with his snout.

    It was soon arranged.
    ("soon" = adverb)


Chapter 3 - Escape

    It smelled of the perspiration of tired horses and the wonderful sweet breath of patient cows.

    Here she sat quietly during the long afternoons, thinking and listening and watching Wilbur.
    ("here" = adverb, "during" = preposition)


Chapter 4 - Loneliness

    Wilbur did not budge.
    ("not" = adverb)

    The tunnel was an example of his skill and cunning.
    ("cunning" = noun)


Chapter 5 - Charlotte

    Through a small window, a faint gloom appeared.

    "I just naturally build a web and trap flies and other insects."
    ("just" = adverb)


Chapter 6 - Summer Days

    Early summer days are a jubilee time for birds.

    And on the under side of the leaf of the potato vine are the bright orange eggs of the potato bug.
    ("under" = adjective)


Chapter 7 - Bad News

    Her campaign against insects seemed sensible and useful.
    ("against" = preposition, "sensible" & "useful" = adjective)

    Turn you into smoked bacon and ham.
    ("turn" = verb)


Chapter 8 - A Talk at Home

    "Oh, everybody in the barn cellar."
    ("oh" = interjection, "everybody" = pronoun)

    "I've sometimes wondered."
    ("sometimes" = adverb)


Chapter 9 - Wilbur's Boast

    "Ooomp!" he grunted.

    He crept down into his hole, pushed the goose egg out of the way, and returned with an old piece of dirty white string.
    ("down" = adverb, "out" = adverb)


Chapter 10 - An Explosion

    The frog jumped and landed in Mrs. Zuckerman's dishpan full of soapy water.
    ("Mrs. Zuckerman's" = adjective, "full" = adjective)

    And Lurvy dragged Wilbur's trough across the yard and kicked some dirt into the rat's nest, burying the broken egg and all Templeton's other possessions.
    ("some" = adjective, "all" = adjective)


Chapter 11 - The Miracle

    On foggy mornings, Charlotte's web was truly a thing of beauty.
    ("thing" = noun)

    She looked pale and frightened.
    ("pale" & "frightened" = adjective)


Chapter 12 - A Meeting

    "Wilbur's food is your food; therefore Wilbur's destiny and your destiny are closely linked."
    ("therefore" = conjunctive adverb)

    "I'll bring back a magazine clipping if I can find one."
    ("bring back" = phrasal verb, "if" = conjunction, "one" = pronoun)


Chapter 13 - Good Progress

    "Run around," commanded Charlotte.

    "Do you?" said Charlotte, looking at him with affection.
    ("at" = preposition)


Chapter 14 - Dr. Dorian

    Fern stood at the kitchen sink drying the dishes as her mother washed them.
    ("stood" & "drying" = consecutive verbs, "as" = conjunction)

    She stands on her head, lets out a lot of line, and is carried aloft on the wind.
    ("lets out" = phrasal verb, "lot" = pronoun, "aloft" = adverb)


The sentence analysis charts I like are found in Making Sense of Sentence Analysis, also by Mandala Classroom Resources. The charts are wonderful because they tell you exactly what questions to ask yourself, step by step.


Sentence Analysis

Level I - Direct Object

Chapter 15 - The Crickets

    A little maple tree in the swamp heard the cricket song and turned bright red with anxiety.

    Wilbur was now the center of attraction on the farm.


Level II - Indirect Object


Level III - Adjectives for the subject, direct object, indirect object


Level IV - Adverbs


Level V - Adjectives for the subject, direct object, indirect object & Adverbs


This post contains affiliate links to materials I truly use for homeschooling. Qualifying purchases provide me with revenue. Thank you for your support!

Posted by at No comments:

Monday, October 23, 2023

The Renaissance - The World Awakes

My oldest student is doing her study of the Middle Ages using the wonderful book The World of Walls: The Middle Ages in Western Europe by Polly Schoyer Brooks and Nancy Zinsser Walworth. This out of print and hard-to-find book contains biographies of the following key historical figures:

    Gregory the Great (born 540)

    Charlemagne (born 742)

    William the Conqueror (born 1027)

    Eleanor of Aquitaine (born 1122)

    Richard the Lion Heart (born 1157)

    Francis of Assisi (born 1182)

    Simon de Montfort (born 1208)

    Geoffey Chaucer (born 1343)


Today we learned about the Norman Conquest and the Battle of Hastings. In addition to the chapter from The World of Walls, we also used Hastings (Great Battles and Sieges) by Philip Sauvain. For a fun follow-up assignment idea, I recommend my Dec 2016 blog post The Norman Conquest - "Breaking Battle".


The Bayeux Tapestry: Complete Reproduction
amazing fold-out book


Note: The Eleanor of Aquitaine chapter is so well regarded that it has actually been released as a paperback book on its own, Queen Eleanor: Independent Spirit of the Medieval World.


Polly Schoyer Brooks and Nancy Zinsser Walworth wrote two other books, one on each side of The World of Walls. The one that comes before it is called When the World Was Rome and the one that comes after it is called The World Awakes: The Renaissance in Western Europe.


Here is a list of Renaissance biographies included in The World Awakes:

    Italy Awakes
    Lorenzo dé Medici (born 1449)
    Leonardo da Vinci (born 1452)

    Spain Awakes
    Ferdinand (born 1452) and Isabella (born 1451)
    Christopher Columbus (born 1451)

    France Awakes
    Francis I (born 1494)
    Francis Rabelais (born 1494)

    England Awakes
    Elizabeth I (1533)
    William Shakespeare (1564)


Although the out-of-print books can be expensive and hard to track down, I recommend getting them if your child likes long, detailed, and beautifully written biographies of interesting historical figures. I also just discovered that all three books in this series are available to borrow digitally for free at archive.org!


This post contains affiliate links to materials I truly use for homeschooling. Qualifying purchases provide me with revenue. Thank you for your support!

Posted by at 3 comments:

Sunday, October 22, 2023

Resources for Teaching About Clocks


The Story of Clocks and Calendars
by Betsy Maestro
this book was our main resource


The overview of our Clocks & Calendars block:

CALENDARS

Lesson 1 - Solar vs. Lunar Calendars (pp.10-11, 14-16)

Lesson 2 - Days of the Week (p.17)

Lesson 3 - Months of the Year (pp.24-26)


CLOCKS

Lesson 1 - Reading an Analog Clock

Lesson 2 - Sundials (pp.34-35)

Lesson 3 - Sand and Water Clocks (p.35)

Lesson 4 - Time Candles (p.35)

Lesson 5 - Pendulums (pp.36-37)

Lesson 6 - Pocket Watches (pp.36-37)

Lesson 7 - Time Zones (pp.40-41)

Lesson 8 - Elapsed Time

Lesson 9 - Sundials, reprised (pp.12-13, Field Trip)


Suggested Additional Resources:

Lesson 1 - Reading an Analog Clock (Montessori Teaching Clock from Hello Wood, The Clock Exercise from Nienhuis, Time Telling Game from eeBoo)


Lesson 2 - Sundials


Lesson 3 - Sand and Water Clocks


Lesson 4 - Time Candles


Lesson 5 - Pendulums


Lesson 6 - Pocket Watches


Lesson 7 - Time Zones


Lesson 8 - Elapsed Time


Lesson 9 - Sundials, reprised (Field Trip)


This post contains affiliate links to materials I truly use for homeschooling. Qualifying purchases provide me with revenue. Thank you for your support!

Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)