Working with Level 1
Many of you have asked for more details about how I work with my son, who is in Level 1 (6 years old). Here goes!
I use the workplans as I've mentioned before, but I also try to incorporate a lot of choices into a typical week. So, he always starts the day with a work that he chooses. The one requirement is that it be something that's already been presented to him. Having him work independently right away also gives me time to get my daughter (2 1/2) started on some work as well.
After he completes that first work is when we have a short "line time". We talk about the date (looking at a calendar) and the weather. I write this sentence for him on a dry erase board: "Today is [day], [month] [date], [year]." So today I wrote, "Today is Tuesday, October 3rd, 2006." Then he copies that down on his own paper. This gives him a chance to practice capital letters, ordinal numbers, days of the week and months of the year, punctuation, and of course just generally become familiar with our calendar.
I've tried to start with line time right away, but that never seems to work. For example, my daughter might need to go to the bathroom right when we're starting out (we're potty training right now), and if my son is left with nothing to do he loses his focus. So having him choose a work first really works for us. I did something similar when I had a classroom too.
He receives a lot of presentations in these early months of the school year. Sister Mary always recommended doing math and language presentations in the morning, and cultural in the afternoon. That worked really well in a multi-age classroom, since smaller groups could be pulled out of the larger group for math and language for grade-specific presentations. In the afternoon, most of the cultural presentations were to the entire group.
For me and my son, this method also works best because we can do cultural presentations in the afternoon when my daughter is napping. They tend to be more involved (a clay earth, a volcano demonstration, etc.) so it works best when she's not around. I'm excited for next year when I think she can be included in a lot more of these kinds of presentations.
Most definitely, a 3rd grader will learn something different from a volcano demonstration than a 1st grader. But, they can still both be given the same presentation. The differences come out in the type of work they will do afterward - the 1st grader may only copy down one of the volcano definitions, while a 3rd grader may choose a specific volcano to research.
One of the many differences between elementary-age children and preschoolers is that they can be interrupted (for the most part) without losing their focus. So, if my daughter is engaged quietly but my son is in the middle of a work, I have no problem pulling him away for a few minutes to do a presentation. He's generally able to go back to what he was doing before without a problem. It's much easier to do that then to wait until he's finished. Inevitably she will need me right at that moment and we'd never get anything done.
More soon!
I use the workplans as I've mentioned before, but I also try to incorporate a lot of choices into a typical week. So, he always starts the day with a work that he chooses. The one requirement is that it be something that's already been presented to him. Having him work independently right away also gives me time to get my daughter (2 1/2) started on some work as well.
After he completes that first work is when we have a short "line time". We talk about the date (looking at a calendar) and the weather. I write this sentence for him on a dry erase board: "Today is [day], [month] [date], [year]." So today I wrote, "Today is Tuesday, October 3rd, 2006." Then he copies that down on his own paper. This gives him a chance to practice capital letters, ordinal numbers, days of the week and months of the year, punctuation, and of course just generally become familiar with our calendar.
I've tried to start with line time right away, but that never seems to work. For example, my daughter might need to go to the bathroom right when we're starting out (we're potty training right now), and if my son is left with nothing to do he loses his focus. So having him choose a work first really works for us. I did something similar when I had a classroom too.
He receives a lot of presentations in these early months of the school year. Sister Mary always recommended doing math and language presentations in the morning, and cultural in the afternoon. That worked really well in a multi-age classroom, since smaller groups could be pulled out of the larger group for math and language for grade-specific presentations. In the afternoon, most of the cultural presentations were to the entire group.
For me and my son, this method also works best because we can do cultural presentations in the afternoon when my daughter is napping. They tend to be more involved (a clay earth, a volcano demonstration, etc.) so it works best when she's not around. I'm excited for next year when I think she can be included in a lot more of these kinds of presentations.
Most definitely, a 3rd grader will learn something different from a volcano demonstration than a 1st grader. But, they can still both be given the same presentation. The differences come out in the type of work they will do afterward - the 1st grader may only copy down one of the volcano definitions, while a 3rd grader may choose a specific volcano to research.
One of the many differences between elementary-age children and preschoolers is that they can be interrupted (for the most part) without losing their focus. So, if my daughter is engaged quietly but my son is in the middle of a work, I have no problem pulling him away for a few minutes to do a presentation. He's generally able to go back to what he was doing before without a problem. It's much easier to do that then to wait until he's finished. Inevitably she will need me right at that moment and we'd never get anything done.
More soon!
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