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What are you using for 1st grade LA?


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Looks like you have all the bases covered. :)

 

We will be using:

Reading: Pathway Readers 3rd and 4th Grade

Spelling: Spelling Workout C with cursive

Writing: WWE2 workbook with cursive (This will be separate from History/Science next year)

Grammar: He's completed Climbing to Good English 1 and 2 so I thought we would take a year off or I'm looking into Song School Latin if it can be done one or two days a week

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Meh, I keep changing my mind (and he keeps changing my plans). 

He'll read good books (maybe a few literature guides), we'll use something for spelling, something for grammar (he's working though FLL2 now, not sure where we'll go next), handwriting/copywork, and Jot-It-Down by Bravewriter for writing. 

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Things I have used in 1st grade:

-All About Spelling
-First Language Lessons
-Writing With Ease
-Michael Clay Thompson's "island" level
-Critical Thinking Press "Inference Jones" Beginning level (my kids were early readers)

One thing I didn't use until later that I wish I had started in first is Evan-Moor Daily Language Review. MCT does not really cover mechanics in the elementary books and DLR is excellent for covering those topics in 5-10 minutes per day.

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I'm not familiar with ETC, does that include grammar? If not that may be the one thing you want to add. Next year DD will  be in first and we're planning on:

 

Reading: Finish OPGTR

Grammar: FLL1

Writing: WWE1

Spelling: Spelling Workout 

 

Plus of course lots of read aloud books. 

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Looks good to me. First grade has looked different both ways I've done it here.

 

Kid #1 (reading at a mid-4th grade level at that time):

Spelling - AAS1-3

Grammar - FLL1/2

Writing - WWE1

Handwriting - HWT1 until letter formation was learned, then we dropped it (WWE has copywork)

Literature - assigned "good chapter books", one chapter a day

 

Kid #2 (still learning to read):

Phonics - R&S Phonics 1

Reading - R&S Reading 1

Literature - TOG Y4 LG Literature

 

Kid #2 isn't ready for spelling, and while we started FLL1 and he found it easy, I saw no point in doing grammar with him at this point. I'll wait until he's ready for MCT Island, which I think will be a good fit for him. We will probably continue with WWE1 in 2nd grade. His reading is picking up now.

 

Kid #3 will likely have something more resembling Kid #1 when he gets there, except I won't be using AAS, and he'll probably sit in on MCT Island with big brother at that point.

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We're going to continue Logic of English Foundations for phonics and spelling, HWOT and copywork for handwriting, an author of the week, and some Amish Pathways readers. No grammar (except some irregular plurals and irregular verbs as memory work).

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Grammar: First Language Lessons 1
Writing/penmanship: homemade copywork
Spelling: a combo of WRTR/Spalding and R&S Spelling 2
Literature: First Favorites volume two, and some from My Bookhouse and Collier's Junior Classics

That's for my rising first grader. My older kids used Phonics Pathways or a spelling book (not both), and they were in various placements of First Favorites.

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I'll have three first graders next year (1st grade-ish, anyway). They'll be doing the following for LA:

 

all:

  • listening to good books (AO Y1 inspired list)

 

the two who are reading fluently:

  • reading aloud to me daily from some source (maybe library books, maybe something specific like CLE nature readers or McGuffy, undecided)
  • continue with Spalding (spelling)
  • Queens language lessons (copywork and narration will count for handwriting and composition)

 

the one who is not reading independently:

  • AAS (spelling)
  • AAR (phonics)
  • ETC (phonics, plus I'm happy to discontinue this if it stops being enjoyable for him. I don't think he needs it on top of AAR.)
  • HWT (handwriting)
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Things I have used in 1st grade:

-All About Spelling
-First Language Lessons
-Writing With Ease
-Michael Clay Thompson's "island" level
-Critical Thinking Press "Inference Jones" Beginning level (my kids were early readers)

One thing I didn't use until later that I wish I had started in first is Evan-Moor Daily Language Review. MCT does not really cover mechanics in the elementary books and DLR is excellent for covering those topics in 5-10 minutes per day.

 

How did Island go for a 1st grader?

 

Did you continue with MCT for town in 2nd and voyage in 3rd?

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Are you planning on using anything for composition? That's the only thing I can see that would be missing. Some people do grammar, but I didn't feel that it was worth it to do a formal program at that age.

 

FWIW, this is what we used for 1st grade LA:

 

WWE1 (composition & handwriting)

WRTR (phonics & spelling)

Dancing Bears (phonics & reading)

read-alouds from a list I compiled from various sources (vocabulary, literature, reading)

readers on her level (like 10 Apples Up on Top, Frog & Toad or Billy & Blaze)

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How did Island go for a 1st grader?
 
Did you continue with MCT for town in 2nd and voyage in 3rd?


DS has a November birthday and needed a "transition" year between K as a not-quite-5 y.o. and 1st as a not-quite-7 y.o. He was an early reader so I started him in K. However, it became clear as the year went on that he didn't have the fine motor skills nor the attention span I would expect going into 1st. So he did "transition" instead.

MCT "island" I started with him 2nd semester of his "transition" year and went slowly. He finished it up 2nd semester of 1st and continued on to "Grammar Town", "Practice Town", and CE1. He's not yet ready for the writing in Paragraph Town or the poetry in "Building Poems" so we're holding off on those for now. He is in the middle of "Practice Town" and just started CE2.

My oldest did Paragraph Town 1st semester of 3rd and that was a real stretch for her. She probably would've been better off waiting another semester or two. She did CE2 but not any of the other components of "voyage". I wasn't planning on using any of the middle school MCT levels with her but then I found a copy of the 1st level at our charter's lending library. I actually liked ML1 a lot better than I had anticipated, so we're going to start that as soon as a slot opens up in her LA "loop".
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LoE foundations. Love it. My current 1st grader is finally making progress, and is doing it with my advanced 4 y/o. Hopefully E,F will be out by the time my 4 y/o will be in 1st. It is a complete program for us.

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Writing With Ease 1

Reviews from OPGTR and she will choose a reader each day.

First Language Lessons 1

Handwriting Without Tears (Finished 1st grade, into 2nd grade book)

All About Spelling level 1

 

That's what we do each day. My K4 and K5 kids do HWT and OPGTR at their levels and then join us for WWE, FLL, and AAS.

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1st grade this year- ds is 6.

OPGTR on and off. He hates it. I have dropped it now that we are doing AAS because he is doing very well with reading at this point and just needs to enjoy it and practice it.

AAS1

Jot it down. New to us but we are enjoing it so far.

Sentence family for grammar. We are just starting this and will continue as he gets older.

HWOT

We started the year using starfall for reading. He loved that. We also did a little of progressive phonics.

Lots and lots of read alouds. Like hours a day of me reading or audio books. He can't get enough.

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I'm not familiar with ETC, does that include grammar? If not that may be the one thing you want to add. Next year DD will  be in first and we're planning on:

 

Reading: Finish OPGTR

Grammar: FLL1

Writing: WWE1

Spelling: Spelling Workout 

 

Plus of course lots of read aloud books. 

 

ETC is explode the code.  It's mainly a phonics program that works through reading.  I'm going ot wait of grammar till 2nd grade and use Rod & Staff English. 

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Are you planning on using anything for composition? That's the only thing I can see that would be missing. Some people do grammar, but I didn't feel that it was worth it to do a formal program at that age.

 

FWIW, this is what we used for 1st grade LA:

 

WWE1 (composition & handwriting)

WRTR (phonics & spelling)

Dancing Bears (phonics & reading)

read-alouds from a list I compiled from various sources (vocabulary, literature, reading)

readers on her level (like 10 Apples Up on Top, Frog & Toad or Billy & Blaze)

 

We'll probably start writing letters to family and maybe some dictation.  Not sure what yet.  It depends on how her writing is coming along.  she's still struggle with writing skills, so we'll take it slow till she's ready for it.

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Reading with me on the sofa. Not sure what he'll be ready for by then. Right now we're about 2/3 through Phonics Pathways and he's making steady progress. Reading Frog and Toad easily and working on harder things most days. We mostly use real books, though I do have some Pathway readers.
AAS 1
FLL 1 - gently and without a zillion lessons on what is a noun. I have the old book.
Handwriting - homemade copy work, possibly beginning NAC

Lots of RA, audiobooks, poetry memorizing and picture books.

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Mostly I am doing my own thing for LA for my first grader (Jan-Dec year)

 

Reading: she is fluent so just reads aloud to me daily 

Spelling: working through the Dolch list phonetically with dictation

Writing: Dictation and own writing (letters, sentences, copywork etc)

Grammar: have been teaching and then following up with grammarland

Comprehension: she has started doing standard comprehension exercises which also help with writing.

Vocabulary: just comes from what she reads and what I read to her

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This year we used several workbooks for LA, and that has worked very well. It's not the most rigorous, but it is efficient and since my son is young, it's a good fit.

*Spelling: Evan-Moor Building Spelling Skills 1(finishing this week, moving right on to 2)
*Grammar: McGraw-Hill LA (free download). We use the practice one day, reteach & extend the next. This way 90 lessons takes 180 days.
*lately I've been making copywork from a literature treasury, reinforcing the grammar lesson
*Evan-Moor Daily 6-Trait Writing 1... Boring, way too easy .... But painless and hits grammar from a different angle.
*Evan-Moor Read & Understand Fairy Tales and Folk Tales (1-2). Usually I scribe for him and help him phrase complete sentences.

My son reads various books from our collection, and he writes letters & emails to family, plus he keeps making advertisements for his Minecraft and Pokemon lessons, so I am happy with all of that.

Next year we are going to try out McGraw-Hill Treasures. I am going to use the grade 2 textbooks with the "beyond" practice book and the grammar book. I think we will keep doing Evan-Moor spelling. I have a ton of reader response forms and made a cute little notebook, so we can do extra activities with more challenging books. I have Write About Me and Write About My World workbooks but I'm not sure if I will schedule those or just let him work through at his pace.

We also have writing in our history (copywork and narration) and science, so I think we are well covered.

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*Finish Phonics Pathways, including dictating words from lists (spelling), then have her read aloud to me from real books (reading)
*finish HWT through grade 2, then begin copywork (handwriting, grammar)
*I will read aloud to her and she will orally narrate (comprehension, composition).

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My 1st grader will do:

AAR 3
AAS 2 (maybe 3)
HWOT (she needs some serious work on output-always struggled with writing)
Possibly FLL 1 (we have it-just not sure if I want to do it just yet-we'll do R&S once she reaches Bigger)

We will hold off on any formal writing. I want to work on building up her endurance and getting the handwriting thing down.

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This is what I am thinking about right now...........

 

Reading w/easy readers: McRuffy Phonics K transition and then McRuffy's 1st grade curriculum

 

Phonics: Explode the Code and lots of word sorts and games such as from Take it to Your Seat Phonics Centers

 

Spelling: All About Spelling

 

Copywork/Dictation: Language Lessons through Literature Level 1

 

Handwriting: Either Handwriting Without Tears or Pentime

 

Literature: Memoria Press Guides for 1st grade —More Story Time Treasures; possibly LIghtning Literature (includes some composition and grammar) and Evan-Moor Read & Understand Fairy Tales and Folk Tales (1-2)

 

Lots of Read Alouds such as The Wizard of Oz, Mr. Popper's Penguins, Shel Silverstein and assorted poetry selections, etc.

 

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