History the WTM way - how do you combine elementary and middle school grades?

[KIN]

I'm very interested in doing WTM history, science, literature and the writing SWB recommends with them for 5th grade. Do I just need to have my 5th grader do his own history and science rather than trying to combine them with my 1st and 3rd graders next year? How do you do this?

 

I'm afraid that my 5th grader will feel left out. We will be reading SOTW, coloring pages, maps and narrations together. I think that for him to do all of that plus 5th grade history would be too much for him. How should I transition him to doing more on his own, rather than with us?

Edited May 9, 2010 by KIN

[Quiver0f10]

Maybe have him sit in as you read SOTW aloud to your 3rd and 1st grader, maybe still do the map work together too, then have him do the pages in KF and extra reading etc on his own.

Edited May 9, 2010 by Quiver0f10

[TengoFive]

My 6th grader listens to Story of the World with the littler ones. She also does the mapwork with us and usually chooses to color a picture too while we listen. Then I have different books for each level, all on the same subject (usually recommendations from the Activity Guide) and I have them read different history encyclopedias on the subject. She'll read the most involved, while the others read the simpler ones with me or on their own. She does the timeline herself, writes a paper on the subject she's chosen, and if I have any primary sources on hand she'll read those. I really like having us all on the same page, so to speak.

[Chris in VA]

:iagree:

Maybe have him sit in as you read SOTW aloud to your 3rd and 1st grader then have him do the pages in KF and extra reading etc on his own.

 

Have him write out his own narration in another room while you take down the narrations of your other kids. Have him do the one-level outline of Kingfisher (and read it, of course) at a time that you are working with the other kids, even on another subject. The one-level outline is just the main idea of each paragraph written as the A, B, etc in the outline--goes pretty quickly. Finally, have him add in his own fiction. Oh, and I would NOT have him do the SOTW mapwork--it's too easy for a 5th grader, imo. If you want him to do some sort of map, just have him label the countries using an atlas and add in a key (I mean, photocopy the map but have him do extra on it).

[KIN]

So, you all would have the 5th grader listen along with SOTW, do narrations on his own and then read and outline the encyclopedia? In the WTM it doesn't have the 5-8th grader doing SOTW anymore, but doing more research and reading on topics read in the encyclopedia.

 

Anyone else have any input?

[M&M]

So, you all would have the 5th grader listen along with SOTW, do narrations on his own and then read and outline the encyclopedia? In the WTM it doesn't have the 5-8th grader doing SOTW anymore, but doing more research and reading on topics read in the encyclopedia.

 

Anyone else have any input?

 

When you look at the way WTM does history and how it spells out each stage of doing history, you must remember that it is describing the oldest child in your family. The 5-8th graders outline and do research, but they can still use SOTW as the jumping off point. Keeping all of your children on the same topic in history makes teaching much easier and the 5th grader will only gain by having a bit of an intro with SOTW (especially if he has never heard it before).

 

Use what will work for your family, you want your children to be engaged and excited or at least not bored :001_huh: about history, if SOTW gets you there, then you are succeeding!

[rwjx2khsmj]

Maybe have him sit in as you read SOTW aloud to your 3rd and 1st grader, maybe still do the map work together too, then have him do the pages in KF and extra reading etc on his own.

:iagree:This is what we've done this year and it's worked beautifully.

[Colleen in NS]

Here is a schedule (look under history and geography for the link that says SOTW/KHE/UILWH) that correlates KF and SOTW for all four years.

 

Here's what we do:

 

-read SOTW to both kids

-have ds read the corresponding pages in KF

-have ds write a list of 6-8 most important/interesting facts from a two-page spread in KF

-have ds write KF dates on his timeline

-have ds do extra related reading, from lib. books or World Book encyclopedia

-have ds do either outline or narration from his extra reading

-look for and talk about the area under study on the globe, wall map, atlas

 

He finished doing all the Knowledge Quest maps (which I think are the same ones in SOTW AG?) in 5th grade (he had started them in grade 2), so he went this past year doing no maps. UNTIL. I recently discovered that KQ has come out with MapTrek (link in my signature, no I am not a seller, ha ha), which has map activities FOR ALL TWELVE GRADES!!!! I just gave him his first map from this last week, and I love it. The maps are pretty similar to the old KQ blacklines, but there are new features like a teacher's answer map, slightly coloured pages to differentiate water from land, and logic and rhetoric stage activities just reinforce what was previously learned. So I'm adding maps back in for logic stage.

 

Once I taught him how to do each of the above individual activities, he could pretty much do them on his own. Well, I do find passages for him to outline or narrate, but the other stuff is on his own. Still, if your child still wants to be involved with you and the youngers, you could certainly still do some things together, like searching the globe/atlas/wall map together, and doing the map activities together, and listening to SOTW together.

[KIN]

Colleen - I could kiss you!!!!!! Thank you for writing this out for me! I've been kind of stuck at "how am I going to put this all together?" Yay!

[Colleen in NS]

Colleen - I could kiss you!!!!!! Thank you for writing this out for me! I've been kind of stuck at "how am I going to put this all together?" Yay!

 

Mwah! You're welcome. It's so fun when you finally "get" how to go about something, isn't it.

[crimsonkelley]

My 5th grader and 2nd grader sit and listen while I read the chapter. My 5th grader has been through this book before, but it's amazing what you forget in 3 years. (One reasong I love the 4 year cycle!) My 5th grader also asked for coloring sheets. I had not printed her any for the first few lessons. I didn't think she would want to do them. However, she loves them.

 

We then do mapwork together.

 

Then, my 2nd grader does his narration and my 5th grader goes off to outline her KF book and put information on the timeline. (I decided to let my 5th grader be in charge of the timeline. This way it's her project, and my 2nd grader will have his turn in a few years.)

 

I also assign different books to them. However, I've found that I want my son to hear alot of them - so, I'm reading alot more to both of them - instead of assigning them to my older child. (This means it takes us longer b/c I can only read at certain times.)

 

Best of luck!!