Unit 1: Sun - Jesus is the light of the world

We finished our first unit today! Each unit is 6 days. Each unit has a theme and a biblical concept. As you can see by the title our theme was the letter S, we learned about the Sun and the Son! ;-) We begin each day with prayer. After we pray we write the date on our monthly calendar. By doing this we will learn about the days of the week and practice counting to 30. We will also learn the concepts of yesterday, today and tomorrow. Each month we will have an additional focus on colors, shapes and patterns. This month our focus is on colors. I have Brayden circle the date in a different color each day.

Next we do our 100 Chart. Each day Brayden adds one straw to the bag and counts the straws. I write the number on the chart and we practice counting up to that number. We will bundle in tens to help him understand place value. I also ask him what number did we write yesterday, should we write today and what we will write tomorrow.

For this unit we have a poem to be read aloud each day. This is an important language arts skill. Our poem was "My Shadow" by Robert Louis Stevenson. At first Brayden didn't seem very interested in this part and I didn't feel like he was really listening. So after the 2nd or 3rd day I started stopping at a word and would see if he knew the next word. To my amazement he knew almost all of the words I left out! I continued doing this everyday and he enjoyed it more! :-)

Next we would do several different things each day that went along with the theme for this unit. We introduced the letter sound of s using a textured letter, did alphabet flashcards,  and sang the "A-a-Apple Song" which teaches the sound of each letter. We sang the ABC's while pointing to the correct letter on a chart. We also played the letter name concentration game where he had to match capital and lowercase letters kinda like the Memory game. We did worksheets that included picture cards of items that begin with the letter s, a handwriting page, a sound discrimination page where Brayden had to name all of the pictures on the page, circle the objects that begin with the letter s and put an X on the objects that do not begin with s. His worksheets also included a math page where he wrote the number 1 and counted 1 button. One number will be added in each unit. He also had a cut and paste page where he had to say the sound of the letter s, color the pictures and then cut the letters out and glue them under each picture. Another worksheet he had in the unit was a drawing page where he had to think of 4 objects that begin with the letter s and draw them as well as write the letter under the picture.

Next we did a different activity each day. One day we watched a short educational clip about the Sun on the internet. We are making raisins by putting a few grapes out in the sun each day and watching them change slowly since we haven't had a whole lot of sun lately.    

       Brayden painted a sun and we did noodle art!

One day I demonstrated how the earth revolves around the sun giving us day and night with a globe and a flashlight. Another day we made a sundial and put objects on black construction paper and set them out in the sun. The sundial didn't work too well because the sun was hiding behind the clouds most of the day. But the sun was bright enough to fade the construction paper to show the shapes! We also traced our shadows with sidewalk chalk.

We also did a tactile activity. I put salt on a pan and had Brayden trace the letter s with his finger in the salt!

Today we did our Cuisenaire Rods Alphabet Book. This is a math activity that develops skills in problem solving, counting, symmetry, area and addition. He did two pages on the letter S. He had to build the S with the rods and tell me what colors he used and how many rods he used. He then had to build the S using only light green rods and count them. He also had to build the S using only 2 colors, using only white rods and then he had to count the white rods. Then he had to build objects that start with the letter s.

Don't forget we only did a couple of activities each day. All of these were done over the course of six days! :-) Next we had our Bible lesson. Each lesson was based on the theme that Jesus is the light of the world! Just as the sun lights up the day so that we can see Jesus is like a light in that He guides us in the right way! Each unit has a biblical concept flashcard and he will also make a badge to go along with each theme.

Lastly, we would finish up by reading a book about the sun. The Teacher's Manual includes a list of the books that are needed for each unit. We borrow them from the library. After reading the book we close in prayer!

 Brayden asked if we could do show-n-tell and I said of course! So we did that today and he brought a straw and superman! I'm so thankful homeschooling is continuing to go well! We're looking forward to the next unit!