First Grade Curriculum

[DiannaC]

For 1st grade I am planning to use:

 

Spell to Write & Read (it has been great this year)

Story of The World: Ancients

Shurley English (not completely decided)

AIG Science (not completely decided)

Singapore 1a & b

Copy work?

 

Recommendations for copy work? And is Writing With Ease basically copy work? I saw it last night at B&N, but was unfamiliar with it. Also, some thoughts on LA and science would be helpful. This is my first time around and I'm learning as I go!

[SilverMoon]

I see grammar, spelling, writing (copywork or WWE) and reading (assuming you're using the booklist with SOTW and reading good children's literature), math, history and science. Every major base is covered. :001_smile:

 

WWE will do the copywork for you. There's a workbook that you can just grab the next page out of, or a hardback instructor text that guides you through doing WTM-style writing yourself. Which way to go really depends on you as the teacher. With the workbook you'll be writing about random topics and books that don't connect to what you're learning about. Wiith the instructor text the writing topics are easily customized, but you have to pull them out of your other books yourself.

 

For science, I've used AIG before. I wouldn't go that way with a first grader, personally. The book we used was written to a logic stage child, but the fact depth was more adequate for a grammar stage child. I don't remember the title off the top of my head, but it was an animal kingdom one. Have you looked at the WTM recommendations? The recommended first grade biology plan is gentle, simple, effective, and enjoyable.

[Hunter]

I found the reading level of SOW to be too high for K-3 reading level, even as a read aloud. When introducing so much new vocabulary and so many new concepts, I prefer shorter sentences and simpler language. When teaching content, I like "baby" sentences. Pretty sentences are fine for enjoyment and pleasure, but I struggle to drag preliterate students through lessons that attempt to teach with them.

 

I would use AIG with a 1st grader if I was already using it with older students, but it wouldn't be my first choice for a 1st grader without older sibling. Take a look at Evan-Moore Daily Science. There are some threads here about it.

 

I like the ORIGINAL edition (from the early 1990's) of What Your 1st Grader Needs to Know, for content subjects, but...that's me.

 

I like the Dictation Resource Book for copywork.

[boscopup]

Your lineup looks great. We loved SOTW in first grade. :)

 

I agree that AIG probably isn't a great choice for that young. My friend used it for 2nd grade, and she was a bit ho-hum about it. I can't really recommend anything else though, as I have been bored by every science curriculum I've tried. We ended up just doing library books instead. We're doing some Ellen McHenry now (started last week), but that's with an advanced 3rd grader. My current K'er will do Magic Schoolbus videos next year for science. We got the set of 52 episodes, so I let them watch 1 per week.

 

WWE includes copywork and narration. The passages for narration can get pretty hard because of the high level language, but that's GOOD to increase the child's vocabulary and listening skills. When we first started, my then-first grader (DS1) could not listen to a chapter book that well (except SOTW, which really engaged him). After doing WWE, he was more into listening to longer pictureless text. Doing the hard questions taught him to really pay attention to what was being read. And the narration is done orally at that age, so they don't have to worry about writing it down (they will copy one sentence of their narration once a week). I plan to use WWE with my DS2 in first grade next year... He's ready for the narration stuff (he can retell a story better than his 3rd grader brother). I'm still not sure about the copywork yet, just because he's not reading much yet, but we'll see. A lot can change in the next 6 months!

[Michelle My Bell]

I really like the way Memoria Press uses the Lets Read and Find Out series of Science books along with a great picture book to teach Science. It is gentle yet effective.I like to add in videos I find. You wouldn't have to buy NO to put this together yourself.