Our First Grade Adventure

Here is an insight into what our first grade day is looking like so far.  : )  After Breakfast we spend some time getting our beds made and getting dressed for that day.  Then we gather together in the living room to have our Devotional time-circle  time.  Circle time for the younger children we are learning the Morning Verse:

The Sun with loving Light

Makes bright for me each day.

The soul with Spirit Power,

Gives Strength unto my limbs.

In Sunlight Shining clear,

I reverence O God,

The strength of human kind
Which Thou so graciously

Hast planted in my Soul,

That I, with all my might

May love to work and learn.

From Thee comes Light and Strength

To Thee rise Love and Thanks.

              By Rudolf Steiner

I also share with them an autumn poem after we have worked on reciting together or morning verse.  Then my first grader and I head to another room were we read together our story for the day.  This week we read Mt. Simeli together for our study of the letter M.

I drew this  to share with him while we read our story together then he drew his picture after the story.  I also then have him write the letter we are working on.  The next day after our story I have him tell me about the story we read the day before and then have him write a sentence about our story.
I also wanted to share with you,  for this story I made him some special blocks to go with our story of Mt. Simeli.

I was inspired by the element stacking blocks you can get at the Waldorf Educational stores.  This is our mountain stacking blocks and it does have a little door in it.  Its hard to tell in the picture though it will pop out.  Loch had fun using it during our story : )  One of my goals for making it was to have Loch help sand it and paint it.  So that is something he can work on after his lessons are over.
After we read together, and Loch has done his writing we go out for a walk around the block.  This has been so wonderful for him.  He is a really active boy and it is really hard for him to stay focused for long periods of time.  So getting out and having some fresh air and exercise has  been very helpful.  Im  trying to teach him out to jump rope, I think next week will try hopscotch.  I also have the book active math that Im going to try out with him.
After we have spent time outside we come in and work on math. We are using a mix of A Journey Through Waldorf Math and Knights of Knowledge Math program.    After he has done his lessons he is free to go and play independently or with his little sister while I work with the other children.  That is pretty much how his day is looking so far.

Weekly Planning Pages

Here are some more planning pages I hope this will help.  I will put up the daily ones toward the end of each month.  But I thought it would help having the weekly pages sooner : )  I also wanted to add that I have put a Label Tab at the top of the side bar so if you are wanting to just get to the Planning Pages it should be easier to find them : )

First Day of School

We are back in the swing of things.  It was an amazingly cool day its like the weather knew it was time for school to start and the temperature dropped down into the low 70.  Which is my kind of weather : )  I love to wear long sleeves shirts and a sweater.  The leaves have started changing also on some of the trees it has seemed to happen all to fast though.
The day went amazing well considering I didn't get very much sleep last night.  All my planning paid off. : )
We started the Morning off with devotional after breakfast. I would like to include some seasonal poems for the little ones more. Challee and the older boys were able to work independently on their different reading projects.  While I went to work with Loch on his school projects, and I had gotten some wooden blocks out for Emma to play with, she did really well she was either playing with the blocks or drawing with the other children so it worked out!
Here is a picture of Challee's Drawing and Summary of her book she is reading for History:

 Loch and I had a good first day together he wasnt to sure he wanted to start back up doing school but we kept it short and he did really well.  I read with him the story from The Little Garden curriculum for First Grade and then we did our form drawing.  After that we went outside and practiced jumping rope and counting the rocks around my flower garden : )  It really seemed to help having that outside break because he didnt have any trouble coming in and doing some writing which he usually hates.  Here is the picture he drew:

 While Challee was finishing up here drawing and summary.  I worked with Taylor on his math.  We are using Making Math Meaningful and we were trying to figure out how to count using number bases.  We worked in the eight base and it was really challenging but when we were all done Taylor shared that he had really enjoyed our math lesson. That it was the first time he had actally enjoyed doing math.  So Im excited to have him continue using that math program. : )  Challenging but rather fun. : )  I could feel my brain trying to expand : )  It was working hard to understand number bases and actually taylor was helping me learn it.  

So over all it went really well.  Im actually looking forward to tomorrow : ) and the adventure will have together : )

Our Fourth Grade Curriculum for September

We are using the curriculum from The Little Garden Flower for fourth grade.  We did tweak it just a little, as I was reading the main story she has that runs through the whole curriculum it inspired me  to study the countries our Ancesters came from with Challee this year.  To read the legends and myths from these different countries. So September looks like this:

Local History for Geography & History : )
We live in Virginia in the Shenandoah Valley so I found the neatest book at the Library called
A Valley and a Song The Story of the Shenandoah River
Im also hoping to squeeze in The Blue Hill Meadows in also and maybe A Little Maid of Virginia : )
We will also go and visit some of the neat Historical Sites around the area for this month. Im really looking forward to it.
Science:
We will be studying animals
We are using Charles Kovacs The Human Being and the Animal World
I also found this wonderful article called On the Animal Teaching in the Fourth and Fifth classes by L. Francis Edmunds it was really helpful and I have shared some of his ideas to day in our study of the human form.
We are going to study the animals around our area first, and then the animals from each country we visit this year in our studies.
Math: 
I am going to be using mostly the Noble Knights of Knowledge math program and also the math curriculum from the Little Flower Garden.
Writing:
Im going to have Challee keep a journal and write summaries for each chapter she reads in her history books.
Handiwork:
We are going to be learning how to knit and crochet this coming semester.  I sent for the book about Mary Frances Learns to Knit and Crochet.  Im really looking forward to reading this with Challee.  Untill the book comes Im teaching her how to use the niffity knitting loom I have.  She decided to make a hat for Emma. : )
I still need to find a grammar program I might go ahead and use one I already have.
Im not sure if this will help any one but it give you an idea of how we will be doing fourth grade this year
Im going try and get the older boys schedule on here to and also my youngest son who is starting first grade this year.