First Grade

Our First Grade Curricula

For Michelle

Spiritual

• The Life of Muhammad
• Fazail-e-Amaal
• Chicken Soup for the Soul
  

Art

• The Story of Art
• Drawing With Children
• The Colored Pencil
• Illustrating Nature: How to Paint and Draw Plants and Animals
• Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Watercolor
  

Nature

• Keeping a Nature Journal
• Life Stories
• The Private Life of Plants

Literature

• Deconstructing Penguins

Current Read Aloud(s)

• The Virginia Burton Treasury
• Matilda (again)

General

• The Well-Trained Mind
• A Charlotte Mason Companion
• The Latin-Centered Curriculum
  

Reading

• The Road to Reading by T.H. MacDonald (I prefer the format of this book. I feel OPG is too thorough and at the rate we’re going, we won’t finish it for another 1.5-2 years. I want to be done teaching phonics by the end of first grade and I feel this book covers enough to create an independent reader…they don’t need to know every variation of every phonics rule in order to read; they can figure it out as they go. We’re not “doing” the lessons in this book, either. I simply explain the phonics rule and have him read a few examples. Almost inevitably the rule will turn up in whatever book he chooses to read for that day.)
  
• The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading (used purely for reference of new sounds to teach; we don’t ‘do’ the lessons)
• Modern Curriculum Press Phonics A & B
• Lots of good story books

Shakespeare

• Usborne Stories from Shakespeare
• Marcia Williams’ retellings

Literature

• Beatrix Potter
• Winnie the Pooh series
• The Aesop for Children
• The Adventures of Pinnochio
• The Tale of Despereaux
• Pippi Longstocking
• The Wind in the Willows (abridged by Inga Moore)
• Lots of Paddington (chapter) books

Poetry & Nursery Rhymes

• The Random House Book of Poetry for Children
• A Child’s Garden of Verses
• When We were Very Young
• Now We are Six
• Where the Sidewalk Ends
• Lavender’s Blue
• My Favourite Nursery Rhymes
• Songs and Verse

Handwriting/ Copy Work

• Getty-Dubay Italic Handwriting Book A
• Getty-Dubay Italic Handwriting Book B
• StartWrite Software

Writing

• Writing With Ease
• Games for Writing

Grammar

• First Language Lessons 1
  
• Grammar Land (pdf)
• Mad Libs
• A Mink, a Fink, a Skating Rink: What Is a Noun?
• I and You and Don’t Forget Who: What Is a Pronoun?

Spelling

• Sequential Spelling (We’re leaving this for now)

History/Geography

• Story of the World Volume 1: Ancient Times
• Story of the World Volume 1: Ancient Times Activity Book
• The Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of World History (we’re using this a bit more now)
• Evan-Moor History Pockets: Ancient Civilizations (seemed great, but a waste of time)
• How Children Lived We haven’t really used this. Most of the info is covered in other books.

Egypt (We read many, many books on Ancient Egypt; here are a few of our favourites)

• A Coloring Book of Ancient Egypt
• Egyptian Myths
• You Wouldn’t Want to be an Egyptian Mummy
• You Wouldn’t Want to be a Pyramid Builder
• Usborne See Inside Egypt
• Pharaoh’s Egypt

India

• Once a Mouse
• Ancient India Coloring Book (beware: lots of nudity; I photocopied the pages I wanted and put the book away)

China

• The Magic Paintbrush
• The Story About Ping

Greece

• The Iliad and The Odyssey
• Jason and The Golden Fleece
• The Librarian Who Measured the Earth
• D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths
  
• The Orchard Book of First Greek Myths
• The Orchard Book of Greek Gods and Goddesses
• Usborne Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece
• You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Slave in Ancient Greece
• Avoid Entering the Ancient Greek Olympics
  

British History

• The Usborne History of Britain
• Our Island Story We’ll do this next year
• Ancient Britain Colouring Book

Math

• Singapore Math 1A & 1B
• Singapore Math Practice 1A & 1B
• Family Math
• Math Wrap Ups
• Tangrams

Science

• Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding
  • Activity supplements for BFSU:
  • Super Science Concoctions
  • Fizz, Bubble, & Flash! Element Exploration and Atom Adventures…
  • The Geography Book: Activities for Exploring, Mapping, and Enjoying Your World
    
• The Story of Science
  

Natural History

• The Handbook of Nature Study (free here) We haven’t really used this this year. Maybe next year, or the year after…

• Keeping a Nature Journal
• Ranger Rick Magazine
• The Burgess Animal Book for Children
  • The following colouring books have many of the animals featured in the Burgess Animal Book:
  • Small Animals of North America Coloring Book

Reptiles

• Usborne Internet-Linked: Snakes
• Kingfisher Young Knowledge: Reptiles
• Slithering Snakes

• Reptiles and Amphibians Colouring Book

• DVD: Life in Cold Blood

• Verdi
• The Lizard and the Sun/La Lagartija y el sol
• Snake and Lizard
• Lizards, Frogs, and Polliwogs
• The Dangerous Snake and Reptile Club

Cats

• James Herriot’s Cat Stories

Birds (we’re leaving birds for now)

• The Burgess Bird Book for Children
• The First Book of Birds
• RSPB Complete Birds of Britain and Europe
• Bird Coloring Book
• Follow the Swallow: a lovely picture book about migration and friendship

• The Bee People (pdf) (next year)

Drawing

(We’re postponing drawing for a year or so)

• Drawing with Children
• The Anti-Colouring Book
• Drawing with Children: Nature Journal Style

Art

• ARTistic Pursuits
• Ancient Art -Jillian Powell

Composer Study/ Music

• The Very Best of Grieg
• The Very Best of Vivaldi
• Classics for Kids
• The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra

Artist Study

Monet

• Linnea in Monet’s Garden
• Great dowload for Monet
• Lovely documentary

Van Gogh

• The First Starry Night
• Katie and The Sunflowers
  
• Van Gogh Gallery
• Starry Night outline pdf