stripe Posted July 9, 2012 Author Share Posted July 9, 2012 Junior Great Books. ... Also currently have a curriculum crush on William and Mary's CFGE Language Arts materials, Are you getting these (or thinking about it) or using the previews/booklists available online? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
serendipitous journey Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 Are you getting these (or thinking about it) or using the previews/booklists available online? I have in hand the first CFGE Language Arts unit from Kendall Hunt, Beyond Words -- it's meant to be a semester program for grades 1-2, and I'm planning to do it in the fall and, if I like it, I hope to do one of their histories in the spring but don't own a history unit yet -- if I wait until the fall to purchase, I get $ from our charter school. I also have in hand all the books from the Sun Series Jr. Great Books (a K-1 series) and the online sample lesson; I've ordered the Sun Series teacher manual so we can teach all 12 or so lessons. -- am happy to give more detail about these, if you'd like ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pen Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 (edited) Hi Pen, thanks for the recommendation for Through the Eyes of a Stranger. I succumbed to temptation. I'm really enjoying it. I'm a permaculture teacher, so its right up my alley. I think it'll do the rounds of my permaculture group, then I'll use it for a read aloud with DS11 Cheers D Only just noticed this. Glad you are liking it! I have done some permaculture also, and some biodynamics too. One thing that I wish were different in the book (and in the world) would be if it did not refer to rock dust as a great thing. Most rock dusts, rock phosphate etc. are radioactive. Where is fitting icon for that? Figure I'll share that with you in case you don't know, and maybe it will get passed on to your students, or up to Bill Mollison (is he still alive?). Also, I think maybe some things would be different if it had been written post-Fukushima--it is hard any longer to believe that modern society would just wind down into a post petroleum world as he describes without lots of major disasters since fuel pools would be needing cooling and so on. But, I still really liked it. As a read aloud I also really liked that Yaro is so very happy to be able to be learning things since in Anagaia he could not. That is true nowadays too, but it somehow came through more from hearing it from the fictional character. A friend now found another along those lines, I guess, but I cannot recall title just now. Edited July 10, 2012 by Pen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sagira Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 I only read page 1 of the thread, but here in our house we enjoy the books by Gwen Diehn et al: Nature Smart Science Smart This fall in 4th grade we're Science Smart as our spine and hands-on book for Geography (map) studies. They are very well done IMO and although I'm not a crafty person (not at all!) I think these are meaningful and not busywork. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deee Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 Hi Pen, in Australia most rock dust is just ground up basalt. We have very old, mineral deficient soils, so any additions are a big help. Rock dust still isn't that common here, though. All our radioactive rock is flogged off overseas (Australia, the world's quarry). Yep, Bill Mollison is still going strong, and still teaching. Have you read any of David Holmgrem's work? Future Scenarios details his 4 likely scenarios post peak oil and climate change. D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NittanyJen Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 No! I didn't -- thanks so much! I wish there were an interesting program for language arts. Besides MCT's, which, I don't know. Hmm. Well. Seems very expensive. I love the look of those Boston Children's Museum books -- I'm hoping to start using them very soon. Re: MCT. We recently switched to MCT. My 8YO finished third grade R&S, spelling WO C, and most of WWE 3. He is a 2E learner with language issues, and every tester I have had has insisted he has trouble with reading comprehension... I don't know. In the space of this year he has moved through Magic Treehouse and Elephant and Piggie to Beverly Cleary to Boxcar Children to... Ender's Game. In one year. There is your point of comparison. We are starting on Town level in everything (though I got used copies of Island to back up to, just in case). This is how it's going. Today I started feeling school had happened long enough, as it was now 6:30pm. I told DS8 to just skip vocabulary and geography until tomorrow. He got quiet and said, "I'm kind of sad to not do vocabulary, Mom. I really love it." So, at 6:35pm in the middle of July, we haul out Caesar's English and cover today's word. Happy boy went off to play while tired Mom started on dinner. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ecclecticmum Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 I guess I am giving this a bump :tongue_smilie: I wanted to say thank you to the person who replied with Tin Man Press & the Anti-Coloring Books. I'm after creative thinking stuff, and this is right up our alley (although, now, I have had to email Tin Man, to see if they'll sell to me, they only have US/Canada for the billing address (and I only had downloads in my cart!) I guess I can add this to my "Americans have it the best" thread :lol: yet another curriculum that has decided it doesn't want me to buy it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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