As much work as it is, Babe is semi-loving it. I say semi-loving because with a day off in the middle of the week, plus a field trip Thursday afternoon, it definitely took a toll. But she powered through and learned (and picked up on) so much.
"So in First Grade I'm going to be learning a lot of new stuff...?"
"Yes, a ton of new stuff. It won't be like Kindergarten where you pretty much knew it all. We will be learning how to do all new things. So that's why you need to start taking your time and going slow and making sure you understand things before you go to the next thing."
"OK, I can do that!"
So as I've said in the previous blog, I will be writing by subject, not by day. I think it'll be easier to organize and write that way, so I'm going to try it. For those who read, let me know what you think of the new set up.
---------
Math:
Babe has been blowing through Math like nobody's business. If you recall, she's been in First Grade Math for a few months now and this week she just finished up Chapter 6 - learning fractions and how to add and subtract fractions (half, third, fourth). I was so so so so nervous about this part because I personally can't stand this kind of Math. I hate it! haha
But of course she surprised me and picked it up like nothing. She is quite good at it, actually.
We started off the week by practicing recognizing what each fraction looked like. She figured out that half was the biggest fraction and fourth was the smallest. I showed her that even though the number on the bottom, the denominator, was bigger, the fraction was actually a smaller piece of pizza.
I cut out three equal-sized circles and then had her draw them into halves, thirds, and fourths. She did, even did the thirds one perfectly! Again, surprised.
When I knew she had a good grasp on knowing what each fraction looked like, it was time to start adding fractions. I then had her cut those circles up into their fractions. This made it tremendously easier for her to see that one third plus one third is two thirds! We used these a lot for the rest of the week.
On Friday, she completed her Chapter 6 test. Nearly halfway done with First Grade Math already! PHEW!
---------
Reading/Writing/Comprehension:
After being tested at the end of Kindergarten, we were told that Babe's comprehension is at nearly a third grade level, with her reading level at mid-second grade. I already know that the Houghton-Mifflin Reading Books that Calvert has provided for us are way too easy for her, however, the woman who tested Babe suggested I start having her dictate sentences I read to her.
So each day this week, I had Babe write the sentence I said. She kind of did this flawlessly, even adding an apostrophe s at the appropriate place.
"Where did you learn to do that?!"
"On PBS Kids remember? On Electric Company. They said if it's somebody's, then you add an 's because it's theirs!"
::falls over::
I don't even know where to go from there. haha
Babe read 30 books in June (!!!!!) but with this week being so crazy, she only got one down in her July reading log so far.
There was one story I had to read aloud for her to answer some questions about. The main thing she had to do was listen for the lesson the father taught his sons.
In the story, the three sons were always arguing and fighting, so the father asked each of them to break the pile of sticks in half. When each son couldn't, he then asked them to break one stick. They each broke one stick very easily.
"Ohhhh I get it. When the sticks are all together, in a pile, you can't break them because they are working together! Like the sons should work together! Cuz when they are alone, they are easy to break!"
Perfection.
I then had her try the activity, but with toothpicks. She couldn't break five toothpicks, but one snapped in half so easily!
----------
Science:
Science! A completely new subject for Babe (other than the small experiments we did in Kindergarten). But in First Grade, she gets an actual textbook that she already loves. Science looks like it will be intense this year, but with patience and fun, Babe will enjoy it in time. We had a rough first week, but like I said, I think it's because of the insane amount of activity.
On Monday she was introduced to Science as a subject. We read through new vocabulary, though because of her love for Sid the Science Kid (on PBS Kids), she recognized the terms observe and compare - things she had to do for her first Science activity.
We read through the designated pages, then created tables with the animals listed. She did pretty good with this, though exhaustion was starting to take over at this point.
For her first Science activity, she needed to observe three different kinds of fruit. However, there was a twist. She needed to observe them while blindfolded. So I cut up a strawberry, a kiwi, and an orange and asked her to only smell each one first. She was able to identify the strawberry and orange only. When I asked her to feel each one, she was able to identify each one correctly!
She really liked doing this, but when it came time to record her observations (in complete sentences) she had a meltdown and didn't want to answer in complete sentences. I gave her a fifteen minute cool off, and when she came back to the table, I calmly explained to her that in First Grade, her brain needs to work extra hard to explain to others what she saw and did. After a little coaxing, she completed her Science worksheet.
Friday was the next Science day, and Babe was introduced to more Science terms and I taught her how to use a ruler to measure objects. She practiced measuring some bugs that were in the book, and made a table to organize her data. I then threw in a curve ball. After she had all bugs measured, I showed her three more bugs and had her add them to her table in the correct places (she created her table with the measurements going smallest to biggest).
She did this so smoothly, like it wasn't even a curveball. Seriously. I'm trying to make it hard here, people!
Anyway, after she added the three new bugs, she made an official table and while Babe was very good at reading the ruler to find the measurement, using the ruler as a straight edge was another story.
Since she is so particular and perfect about everything she does, she had a fit when I wouldn't help her hold the ruler as she drew a straight line. I told her that I wanted to see if she could do it first, by herself. When the ruler moved a centimeter due to the pressure of her pencil, she had a fit and grew so frustrated.
I again gave her a fifteen minute cool off. When she came back to the table, she tried again. I asked her to go slow and be patient. She finished her table with no more movement from her ruler. When she drew her last line, she looked at me with a huge smile.
"I DID IT!"
That she did.
-------
Social Studies:
I think out of all the subjects, I had the most fun with Social Studies this week. I personally love US History, and love even more the little trivial bits of information that most people don't know.
The first day was spent introducing Social Studies as a whole - explaining that there are four different themes: civics, geography, history, and economics. We went over what each one meant, and what each one had to do with.
Tuesday we reviewed the Pledge of Allegiance, and after she recited it, we went through word by word and learned what the Pledge was about, who wrote it, and why it was written. I read her "The Pledge of Allegiance" by Norman Pearl and it was the perfect, perfect book on all things Pledge. It is written from Francis Bellamy's point of view and it really helped Babe understand the meaning and time of when he wrote it.
"That means this is history! Because we are learning about the past, when The Pledge was written!"
"Yep! You are right!"
Awesome.
As a craft to go along with Bubs' "F is for Fireworks" lesson, we painted fireworks with toothpicks on Tuesday to ring in the holiday.
At the end of the week, I introduced Babe to The National Anthem. I played her an instrumental version and asked her if she's ever heard of it. She said she heard it before while watching the Olympics (the gymnastics trials). I told her that was very good because they play it a lot at the Olympics! I then read her another Normal Pearl book with the same kind of theme - written from the point of view of Francis Scott Key. Again, this really helped her understand how the words came about.
The book had a trivia fact that the flag at Fort McHenry (the spot Key was in when he wrote his poem) was 42 feet long. After I read the book, I immediately took Babe outside and we measured out 42 feet! After measuring ten feet, I realized it was one square of the driveway. So I took the ruler away from Babe and had her figure out how many squares 40 feet would be.
"Hmm...four squares would be four sets of ten. That's 40. So four squares!"
"Yes!!! Let's go to the end of four squares. Now, how many more rulers do you need to measure out to be 42 feet?"
"Two more feet!"
Amazing.
I finished drawing out the huge rectangle, and if it was nearly 100 degrees outside, we would have actually colored the flag. But standing 42 feet from each other still had an effect and Babe really liked seeing how big the flag was.
It's hard to see, but in the last picture the flag would be the light blue chalk line. In the middle picture, the camera is set at 50mm, which is what the naked eye sees. So I'm standing at one end of the flag, and Babe is standing on the other!
"That's a huge flag!"
haha
-------
With that, Babe's first week of school was complete!
Bubs and Z had an extra week off from bin work and will resume this week with more beach-themed activities.
First week done! What a ride!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment