The Pretty Life: ivey league academy: week in review!

It's a little late, but here's what we did in week 2 of first grade!

I've started changing up our chalkboard every Sunday night as a surprise for Caleb as he starts a new school week. This week's had a Finding Nemo theme.

Reading: We started the second grade level of Hooked on Phonics. The first set of words featured the long "a" sound with a silent "e" ("game," "bake," "cave," etc.). Caleb knew some of these by memory, but he had trouble decoding the words and kept going back to the short "a" sound he's more familiar with. We incorporated some phonics readers and a new custom Snakes & Ladders board to help him practice. He's slowly getting it, but I don't want to move on until I'm sure he feels comfortable. We'll probably continue with these words into next week as well.

Spelling: We did the second week of spelling lessons. I'll probably incorporate more opportunities for practicing these words since sometimes the activities in the book aren't enough. I'm trying not to stress when Caleb makes spelling mistakes on the same words we've worked on all week. I was actually a little surprised at some of the words in this curriculum since it's written for first graders (the third week of lessons actually has the word "gentle" in there!). I think we'll continue on though, and just watch to make sure it's not hurting Caleb's confidence or anything.

Handwriting: We continued Handwriting Without Tears. Caleb's penmanship is looking awesome!

Vocabulary: This week's words were "shiver," "racket," "tame," and "permit." Caleb did great with all of these, and even correctly used the word "racket" later on (he was asking his brother to stop making all that racket!).

Math: We continued in his math workbook, and also learned about the concept of < and >. Caleb had his first math test and he got everything correct!

Bible: This week's lessons were about not being afraid (added in the story about Jesus calming the storm), saying helpful things, controlling yourself, and digging a pit (added in the story of Haman and how Esther saved her people from him).

Science: This week we learned about stars and constellations. We did an experiment to find out why stars twinkle using a flashlight, a bowl of water, and crumpled up foil. We watched an episode of "The Magic School Bus" about stars, and Caleb did a dot-to-dot activity with constellations, as well as made his own constellation.

Social Studies: This week's states were Maine and New Hampshire. Caleb colored pages for each state. We also learned about all of the lighthouses on Maine's coast and then made our own with plastic cups and battery-powered tealights. We read about Uncle Sam (who was born in New Hampshire), and since both states this week have apple orchards, we made apple cider baked doughnuts.