How can I make grade 1 LA more interesting/exciting

[plain jane]

Here's our grade 1 line-up for language arts:

 

WWE1

 

FLL 1/2

 

WRTR (spelling)

 

WriteShop Primary A/B

 

keeping a reading journal a la WTM style- illustration and sentence or two about favorite part

 

Logos School Literature Guide Questions

 

Some poetry writing here and there- Thanksgiving time, Christmas, etc.

 

Those are the main things anyways. :)

 

I'm finding that this child is vaguely interested in school and while it gets done quickly and there's lots of playtime, I have a nagging feeling that I should be trying to make school more engaging and "fun" for this age.

 

I'm not sure how to do that. I do know how to make History and Science better, but it's the LA portion that I'm wondering about. It's just so... I dunno, dry. :001_huh:

 

I feel like we should be doing more fun project-type things but I don't have any ideas. :o I'm also busy with younger kids and a child in grade 4 so I don't have a ton of time to come up with things like I did when my oldest was in grade 1.

 

Sigh. I really do feel like I'm short-changing this one. They'd like more, but I don't know what and I'm so busy at the same time. :willy_nilly:

 

I'm hoping the Hive will have some great ideas for me.

[KrissiK]

Well, I guess it depends on how much time you really want to put in to it. My boys are about that age, and for me, the cost/benefit analysis just doesn't pan out. In other words, I may put quite a bit of time into a project (like our Thanksgiving week activities), but they really didn't get in to it all that much, which made me think... why did I bother trying to make it fun? I'm not saying you shouldn't try, and maybe with some effort you can make school "fun and interesting", but my boys would rather play. Really. So, we do our thing with school and then they can play, and we're all happy. For us, though, what makes school fun and interesting is history and science. They really like that, so I focus on that and just let the other subjects be what they are. Here's what we're using, though:

LA - A Beka phonics, FLL1/2, WWE1

Math - Singapore & A Beka

History - SOTW2

Science - Usborne stuff

 

I completely understand, though, what you mean about shortchanging the youngers. When my boys were in preschool, we did all sorts of fun units - Johnny Appleseed, Thanksgiving/Pilgrims, Christmas, Spring, science units. It was great. And time-consuming, both putting it together and teaching it. Now, they're in 1st and 2nd grade, demand a lot of my time and poor dd is in preschool and she's lucky if I'm able to take a few minutes to teach her her letters and numbers each day, and that's it. I decided I could either feel guilty about it, but be unable to do anything about it, or just stop feeling guilty about it. There's a lot of perks she has by being the youngest (like being able to do things waaaay earlier than her brothers got to), so I'm not going to worry so much about her education being loads of fun.

[Dinsfamily]

We're using very similar curricula minus Writeshop. My ds really enjoys FLL and WWE so I count those as fun. I try to make our SWR enrichments (the reinforcement activities in between dictation and the test) as enjoyable as possible but school isn't always fun. He loves to read so that isn't a chore. He likes science, geography,and Latin better. I'm okay with that since the LA curricula are doing their jobs.

[Sahamamama]

Well, I guess it depends on how much time you really want to put in to it. My boys are about that age, and for me, the cost/benefit analysis just doesn't pan out. In other words, I may put quite a bit of time into a project, but they really didn't get in to it all that much, which made me think... why did I bother trying to make it fun? I'm not saying you shouldn't try, and maybe with some effort you can make school "fun and interesting", but my boys would rather play. Really. So, we do our thing with school and then they can play, and we're all happy. For us, though, what makes school fun and interesting is history and science. They really like that, so I focus on that and just let the other subjects be what they are.

 

:iagree:Your (OP) first grade line-up looks so similar to what we've lined up for our first grade (starting January 2011, with tag-along twin preschoolers). I have also thought that the English portion of our plan seems rather dry. I even said to my husband, "Well, I have Math and English all lined up in the file box, week by week. Now I need to get to work on Geography and Science, so we can have some fun!" :D

 

I do know that my daughter will thrive with this line-up in English and Math. I also know that it will be possible to get it done, without losing my mind. ;)

 

She's only six years old, so... she would rather play AND do crafts AND do art AND do little sewing or cooking projects with me. So we'll incorporate some of those fun (for her) activities into our weekly subject areas, and on a daily basis let Math be Math and English be English.

 

Then we'll go outside and play!

[Little Nyssa]

I'm not so good with making up fun projects---

the way I make LA fun for DS is to make our 'fun' reading the same things he uses for WWE1 instead of the short snippets of stories that are given in the workbook. Books he likes, like Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, Little House, Narnia, etc. And also his science text (DK Animal Encyclopedia for narration).

For LA we are using reading aloud from Philippians, OPGTR, WWE1 (with our own choice of full-length texts), FLL1.

[JudoMom]

Here's our grade 1 line-up for language arts:

 

WWE1

 

FLL 1/2

 

WRTR (spelling)

 

WriteShop Primary A/B

 

keeping a reading journal a la WTM style- illustration and sentence or two about favorite part

 

Logos School Literature Guide Questions

 

Some poetry writing here and there- Thanksgiving time, Christmas, etc.

 

Those are the main things anyways. :)

 

I'm finding that this child is vaguely interested in school and while it gets done quickly and there's lots of playtime, I have a nagging feeling that I should be trying to make school more engaging and "fun" for this age.

 

I'm not sure how to do that. I do know how to make History and Science better, but it's the LA portion that I'm wondering about. It's just so... I dunno, dry. :001_huh:

 

I feel like we should be doing more fun project-type things but I don't have any ideas. :o I'm also busy with younger kids and a child in grade 4 so I don't have a ton of time to come up with things like I did when my oldest was in grade 1.

 

Sigh. I really do feel like I'm short-changing this one. They'd like more, but I don't know what and I'm so busy at the same time. :willy_nilly:

 

I'm hoping the Hive will have some great ideas for me.

 

Not LA based, but I've got my ds6 doing the Kumon Craft books. Could she do Evan Moor Literature Pockets with minimal involvement from you?

[Ellie]

Personally, with a little person who's just 6, *I* would only be doing Spalding and not all the other things. I'd look at history and science for more "fun," not at literacy skills.

[Susie in MS]

Personally, with a little person who's just 6, *I* would only be doing Spalding and not all the other things. I'd look at history and science for more "fun," not at literacy skills.

 

My idea of LA for a 6 yo looks a lot like the idea Ellie has. I would scrap most of the list. Depending on reading skills let him/her read Frog and Toad or simple chapter books. Occasionally read from Phonics Pathways when not reading from a reader. Add in simple copy work and call it a day. I know my suggestions don't really line up with the WTM ideas, but my little one is not rejecting school either. At that age they are still babies. Have snuggle time with your little one, mama. :)

Edited November 30, 2010 by Susie in MS

[Tarreymere]

I have a first grader and we were doing FLL, WWE, and we just switched to PR1 and are doing the acceleration thing. Yeah, dry. I actually pull out FLL for some relief.

I want dd to enjoy stories and books. So, we listen to audio stories and some I put on an mp3 so she can listen while she colors or plays. The one thing that really seems to be helping and pulling things together for her is that I picked out a long chapter book I thought she would really like (Spiderwick Chronicles) and we curl up on my bed while we read aloud a chapter a day. Sometimes she reads most words in the sentence and I read others, sometimes I do more reading. We go really slow and stop and talk about the sentences, I explain what a word means, I point out punctuation, I point out why that word is capitalized, ect. I comment on how interesting a certain sentence is the way it is written or isn't that just the exact perfect word for another sentence. I have been able to pull a lot of grammar into this. I haven't gone so far as to use this book for her copywork but I think I will.

I like it that she reads other books on her own and listens to stories, but this slow devouring of this book is really helping dd pull together what she was learning in FLL and it is something she likes and looks forward to more than she did the snippets in WWE. The book itself is so thick I think she feels we will never get to the end so she is okay with going slowly, morsel by morsel. Or maybe she just likes to cuddle and goof around while we do it, I'm not sure. But it is enjoyable and she remembers what a simile is, so I guess we will keep doing it for a while.

[leann_in_tx]

My oldest is not in K yet, so I'm enjoying all the different ideas in this thread. But I read about curriculum far too much, and I've thought about using some of these resources.

 

Games For Reading

Games For Writing,

both by Peggy Kaye, and can be picked up used.

 

Also, Evan Moor has some fun silly stuff I think. Literature pockets, as someone else mentioned.

 

And, there are a lot of picture books on language, things like Punctuation Takes a Vacation. I know the Veritas Press catalog has some fun grammar picture books like this for the first couple of years. If you visit Amazon, there are a ton of titles like this. Maybe your library carries some of them.

[lisabees]

I use a hodge podge to keep things interesting, many of which the PP mentioned (SpyCar, my dd loves ETC also - calls it "the funny book").

 

Also, I use a magnetic white board as often as possible. Let your dd use markers and magnetic letters. Just this small change makes things fun.

 

What if you do a unit study around some books like Little House on the Prairie? Maybe there are great ones that would incorporate some fun LA ideas?

 

How about Poetry Tea Time every week?

[walkermamaof4]

Not LA based, but I've got my ds6 doing the Kumon Craft books.

:iagree:My 5 y.o. does a page of mazes and a page of cutting in Kumon books each day. I emailed a wanted to buy email to my local homeschool group and got my copies for $1 each.