1. Engage in close examination of artists’ works to understand how artists use composition, imagination, photographs, nature and other special objects along with different elements of art to create enduring masterpieces.
2. Utilize a variety of art media including pencils, paints, paper works, clay, chalk pastels, and oil pastels to explore the elements of art (space, line, form, empty space, and color).
3. Apply what has been learned about how artists create works to produce individual works of art using a number of different art techniques including drawing, painting, collage, and sculpture.
4. Understand the interrelationship between history and art and how a culture’s works of art can function as a historical record of how people lived long ago.
Resource to use to achieve all art goals: Artistic Pursuits, Book 1 (Grades K-3).
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
1st & 3rd Grade Science Objectives and Resource Plan
Physical Science
1. Identify and describe the properties and forms of matter.
2. Observe how matter can be changed.
3. Investigate how sound is made, how it varies, and how it travels.
4. Recognize a force as something that pushes or pulls on an object to make it move.
Earth Science
1. Identify that resources are things that we get from the living (e.g., forests) and nonliving (e.g., minerals, water) environment and that resources are necessary to meet the needs and wants of a population.
2. Identify the way people use resources and explain that the supply of many resources is limited but the supply can be extended through careful use, decreased use, reusing and/or recycling.
3. Observe and describe weather changes throughout the day and season by measurable quantities such as temperature and precipitation.
4. Identify the sun as a major source of energy.
5. Identify the planets in our solar system and their relative positions to the sun.
6. Identify characteristics and phases of the moon.
Life Science
1. Investigate the diversity and interdependence of life by examining how animals and plants depend upon one another.
2. Understand that there are many distinct environments that support different kinds of organisms but that organisms can survive only in environments that meet their needs and that changes to that habitat are sometimes beneficial and sometimes harmful.
3. Identify and describe different kinds of land and water environments and habitats.
4. Investigate the different structures of plants and animals that help them live and survive in different environments.
5. Identify characteristics and functions of the major parts of the human body that help us to live and survive.
Scientific Inquiry
1. Differentiate fact from opinion and explain that scientists do not rely on claims or conclusions unless they are backed by observations that can be confirmed .
2. Develop, design and conduct safe, simple investigations or experiments to answer questions.
3. Select and safely use the appropriate tools to collect data when conducting investigations and communicating findings to others(e.g.,thermometers, timers,balances,spring scales,magnifiers,microscopes and other appropriate tools).
4. Record the results and data from an investigation and make a reasonable explanation.
5. Explain discrepancies in an investigation using evidence to support findings.
6. Explain why keeping clear accurate records of observations and investigations is important and keep records of investigations and observations that are understandable weeks or months later.
1. Identify and describe the properties and forms of matter.
2. Observe how matter can be changed.
3. Investigate how sound is made, how it varies, and how it travels.
4. Recognize a force as something that pushes or pulls on an object to make it move.
Earth Science
1. Identify that resources are things that we get from the living (e.g., forests) and nonliving (e.g., minerals, water) environment and that resources are necessary to meet the needs and wants of a population.
2. Identify the way people use resources and explain that the supply of many resources is limited but the supply can be extended through careful use, decreased use, reusing and/or recycling.
3. Observe and describe weather changes throughout the day and season by measurable quantities such as temperature and precipitation.
4. Identify the sun as a major source of energy.
5. Identify the planets in our solar system and their relative positions to the sun.
6. Identify characteristics and phases of the moon.
Life Science
1. Investigate the diversity and interdependence of life by examining how animals and plants depend upon one another.
2. Understand that there are many distinct environments that support different kinds of organisms but that organisms can survive only in environments that meet their needs and that changes to that habitat are sometimes beneficial and sometimes harmful.
3. Identify and describe different kinds of land and water environments and habitats.
4. Investigate the different structures of plants and animals that help them live and survive in different environments.
5. Identify characteristics and functions of the major parts of the human body that help us to live and survive.
Scientific Inquiry
1. Differentiate fact from opinion and explain that scientists do not rely on claims or conclusions unless they are backed by observations that can be confirmed .
2. Develop, design and conduct safe, simple investigations or experiments to answer questions.
3. Select and safely use the appropriate tools to collect data when conducting investigations and communicating findings to others(e.g.,thermometers, timers,balances,spring scales,magnifiers,microscopes and other appropriate tools).
4. Record the results and data from an investigation and make a reasonable explanation.
5. Explain discrepancies in an investigation using evidence to support findings.
6. Explain why keeping clear accurate records of observations and investigations is important and keep records of investigations and observations that are understandable weeks or months later.
Resource to use to achieve all science goals: Harcourt Science-2.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
How I Set Up Our Homeschool Goals:
There are probably as many different ways to set goals as there are different ways to homeschool. The way I went about planning my goals and objectives relates directly to what we want to accomplish in our homeschooling journey.
Our ultimate objective in homeschooling is to raise our children to be who God intended them to be and to instill in them a life-long love for learning and knowledge. Therefore our long-term academic goal is to prepare our children for a college education that will open up a lifetime of possibilities and provide them with substantial challenges and opportunities. With this as my goal, I know that there will be educational requirements they will need to complete during their high school years. In turn, that means I need to make sure I am helping my girls develop key foundational skills now that will help them meet those goals in the future. So the question for me became what are the key foundational skills needed for each grade to be able to sequentially build up my children's academic skill level.
I turned to academic standards. I searched online for various state educational objectives or goals. Every state has them but some of them were presented in such esoteric language that I couldn't understand what was actually suppose to be accomplished by each grade level. Other states had such lofty goals that I knew they would never be achievable for my girls. However I did find a few states whose objectives were foundationally skills-based, clearly defined, and appropriate to my daughters' maturity and skill levels. I read through those and selected the objectives I agreed with and omitted the ones that were inapplicable (i.e. we decided Ellie doesn't need to meet any standards for music since she has sound sensitivities and having her go through a musical program is tantamount to a torture program for her). If my girls had already achieved the standards set for their grade levels, I went up a few grades until I found the level that they were performing at and used those as this year's goals. The sites I found most useful for setting our goals were:
The goals that you will see coming up on my blog over the next few weeks will be our adaptations of the goals and objectives from the sites listed above.
Our ultimate objective in homeschooling is to raise our children to be who God intended them to be and to instill in them a life-long love for learning and knowledge. Therefore our long-term academic goal is to prepare our children for a college education that will open up a lifetime of possibilities and provide them with substantial challenges and opportunities. With this as my goal, I know that there will be educational requirements they will need to complete during their high school years. In turn, that means I need to make sure I am helping my girls develop key foundational skills now that will help them meet those goals in the future. So the question for me became what are the key foundational skills needed for each grade to be able to sequentially build up my children's academic skill level.
I turned to academic standards. I searched online for various state educational objectives or goals. Every state has them but some of them were presented in such esoteric language that I couldn't understand what was actually suppose to be accomplished by each grade level. Other states had such lofty goals that I knew they would never be achievable for my girls. However I did find a few states whose objectives were foundationally skills-based, clearly defined, and appropriate to my daughters' maturity and skill levels. I read through those and selected the objectives I agreed with and omitted the ones that were inapplicable (i.e. we decided Ellie doesn't need to meet any standards for music since she has sound sensitivities and having her go through a musical program is tantamount to a torture program for her). If my girls had already achieved the standards set for their grade levels, I went up a few grades until I found the level that they were performing at and used those as this year's goals. The sites I found most useful for setting our goals were:
The goals that you will see coming up on my blog over the next few weeks will be our adaptations of the goals and objectives from the sites listed above.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Thoughts on Setting Goals
This week I am doing something haven't done for a few years--establishing objectives for this year's homeschooling.
A few weeks ago my pastor gave a sermon that featured as an illustration a reference to a study about goals at Harvard MBA program. The results of that study have been stuck on my brain and I find my mind continuing to wander back to what he said. So I finally decided to look the study up.
The study is referenced in What They don’t teach you at Harvard Business School by Mark McCormack. Conducted on students in the 1979 Harvard MBA program, the study asked students, "Have you set clear, written goals for your future and made plans to accomplish them?" The answers were 3% had written goals and plans, 13% had unwritten goals, and 84% had no specific goals at all. Ten years later, the study followed up with the members of the class with the following findings:
A few weeks ago my pastor gave a sermon that featured as an illustration a reference to a study about goals at Harvard MBA program. The results of that study have been stuck on my brain and I find my mind continuing to wander back to what he said. So I finally decided to look the study up.
The study is referenced in What They don’t teach you at Harvard Business School by Mark McCormack. Conducted on students in the 1979 Harvard MBA program, the study asked students, "Have you set clear, written goals for your future and made plans to accomplish them?" The answers were 3% had written goals and plans, 13% had unwritten goals, and 84% had no specific goals at all. Ten years later, the study followed up with the members of the class with the following findings:
- The 13% of the class who had unwritten goals were earning, on average, twice as much as the 84 percent who had no goals.
- The 3% who had clear, written goals were earning, on average, ten times as much as the other 97 percent put together.
The study provides evidence that if you have greater success in what you do if you have clear, measurable, time-bounded goals that you work towards.
I want to have that success. I don't want to lose momentum half-way through the year and get side-tracked by whatever new curriculum passes in front of my computer screen. I want to feel I have accomplished something and know what that something is. I want to have order and organization without wandering all around forgetting where I am and what I am doing. I want success in this homeschool journey!
So I am setting goals, writing them down and posting them to put myself out there for accountability. I also plan on taking a step further. I will be praying over my plans for the year and trying to lean more on my faith to carry me through the journey. It's a bit scary for me to try to surrender all of my schooling plans as I am afraid of what will happen if I loosen my reigns a little. I mean honestly my heart screams, "but what if the Lord wants me to put them in public school. I don't want to do that. I can't hand that! I want to lead the way and make sure I am carefully dotting every "i" and crossing every "t"." But I truly feel like this is what I am being led to do this year; still in my selfish human way, I really hope it goes the way I want. Ooops! Sorry...surrender, surrender, surrender....
"The mind of man plans his way, But the Lord directs his steps."
Proverbs 16:9
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Joint Topics Work Schedule
Monday
- Read Story of the World pages.
- Have girls color coordinating coloring sheet.
- Have girls complete journal sheet for time period.
Tuesday
- Have girls answer review questions about Monday's reading.
- Have girls complete map work per activity guide.
- Read picture book.
- Complete activity from activity guide.
Wednesday
- Read book or watch movie related to science topic.
- Read science text pages.
- Complete science activity from text.
Thursday
- Evan Moor geography lesson.
- Artistic Pursuits lesson.
- French lesson.
Friday
- Scouts.
Savannah's 1st Grade Work Schedule
Monday
- Reader.
- Explore the Code.
- Language Lessons.
- Veritas Press First Favorites.
- Math lesson.
Tuesday
- Reader.
- Explore the Code.
- Language Lessons.
- Write About Me.
- Math lesson.
Wednesday
- Reader.
- Explore the Code.
- Language Lessons.
- Math lesson.
Thursday
- Reader.
- Explore the Code.
- Language Lessons.
- Math lesson.
Ellie's 3rd Grade Work Schedule
Monday
- How to Report on Books skill lesson with read aloud.
- Spelling lesson.
- Grammar and Punctuation lesson.
- Just Write exercise.
- Math lesson.
Tuesday
- Independent reading of assigned literature selection.
- Read & Understand Poetry lesson.
- Spelling lesson.
- Grammar and Punctuation lesson.
- Cursive copywork.
- Math lesson.
Wednesday
- Independent reading of assigned literature selection.
- Early Reading Comprehension lesson.
- Spelling lesson.
- Real-Life Writing Activity.
- Math lesson.
Thursday
- Independent reading of assigned literature selection.
- Complete How to Report on Books skill lesson.
- Spelling lesson.
- Grammar and Punctuation lesson.
- Math lesson.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
