Yes, it's that time again. This page may be a work-in-progress, but I wanted to get the ball rolling, so to speak, and put down some of my ideas for how I want next year to go. The first place I often consult when working on lesson plans (short term or year-long) is this Waldorf Curriculum site. A very brief summary of some of the things suggested for grade 6:
- Geology/Mineralogy
Physics: Acoustics, Heat
Ancient Rome
Economics
also, Woodworking projects and Handwork projects
Another link on that website has block schedule suggestions for the grades, and it suggests::
1. Math (Geometric Drawing)
2. History (Roman)
3. Science (Geology)
4. History (Medieval)
5. Science (Astronomy)
6. Math (Business Math & Intro to Percents)
7. Science (Physics)
8. Geography (Central and South America)
9. History (Buddha, Christ, Mohammad)
Now to marry that with the other resources and themes I want to do for the year. In the public schools, 6th graders are having more exposure to current events, which is why we are starting to incorporate CNN 10 into the mix (see previous post). We're also going to check out other humanities stories on Great Big Story (which are also fairly short human interest stories geared towards middle school and high school students).
We will continue to fill in an MLB, and we'll incorporate weekly worksheets in all of the subject areas. I ordered Brain Quest yearly curriculum workbooks for both of the kids, and have flipped through them already. I am very impressed that they touch on all of the common core lessons in a very succinct way, without bogging kids down with 20 worksheets just to cover one skill. There are suggestions for further reading - and of course we can find online videos to help with any of the skills we might not be 100% sure about - youtube has heeps and heeps of channels that cover every manner of grammar, history, science, math, music and art topics.
I love the idea that I don't need to do a ton of pre-planning for each lesson. If we turn to a worksheet page that isn't super clear in its explanation/lesson, we can immediately open up youtube and search for more in-depth explanations. This frees up my time to plan for other topics, like Ancient Roman History, for example, or Physics, both of which will be put into our MLB, and as such will require me to plan out ahead of time what I want to go into the MLB, and which stories to focus on that week.
Next up: The Brain Quest workbooks. They are a complete set of common-core aligned worksheets, stories, etc organized such that each subject matter for that grade is (fairly fully) covered, and yet there are not 180 lessons for each subject. It has only 300 pages in all, and so doing the math in our heads we can see that it's a little less than 2 pages a day. We will likely strive for about 10 pages a week (on average), which means that if kids want to plow through 5 or 6 in a day, they might only be doing worksheets for 2 days a week. We plan to get started on these workbooks in July, because we tend to go somewhat year-round (as I've mentioned in previous blogs). Also, we take lots of time off in December each year, so it tends to even out in the wash.
p.s. As always, we do not hold ourselves slaves to any curriculum. If there are worksheets in this book that we just aren't into, we'll skip them. We won't stress about finishing the entire workbook, and we may even leave out some subjects altogether if we find that other resources are working better for us. At less than $10.00 USD for the entire workbook, we can afford to pick and choose what we want to use out of the workbook and leave the rest.
p.s. As always, we do not hold ourselves slaves to any curriculum. If there are worksheets in this book that we just aren't into, we'll skip them. We won't stress about finishing the entire workbook, and we may even leave out some subjects altogether if we find that other resources are working better for us. At less than $10.00 USD for the entire workbook, we can afford to pick and choose what we want to use out of the workbook and leave the rest.
For art, I found the Artango site. It is loaded with FREE weekly art lesson plans for each grade!
For music, we will watch (and use as a jumping-off point for more exploration) a Music Appreciation for Kids playlist on youtube. We'll listen to all kinds of world music this coming year, and of course continue on with our musical instruments at home....as well as this free online site that teaches the very basics of how to read music.
Another resource I am considering including (but with tweaks) is the SQUILT music appreciation program. I have decided that using the SQUILT book on Christmas Carols would kill two birds with one stone: It will give us some music appreciation lessons as well as a fun way to learn them by doing them in November and December. We often slow down quite a bit that time of year, so this seems to me a perfect way to still be "learning", while keeping it holiday themed.
The 10 pieces from the Holiday Bundle include:
1. Carol of the Bells 2. Away in a Manger 3. The Little Drummer Boy 4. Angels We Have Heard on High 5. O Come, O Come Emmanuel 6. Bring a Torch Jeanette, Isabella 7. Go Tell It on the Mountain 8. In The Bleak Midwinter 9. The First Noel 10. Calypso Carol
Another resource I am considering including (but with tweaks) is the SQUILT music appreciation program. I have decided that using the SQUILT book on Christmas Carols would kill two birds with one stone: It will give us some music appreciation lessons as well as a fun way to learn them by doing them in November and December. We often slow down quite a bit that time of year, so this seems to me a perfect way to still be "learning", while keeping it holiday themed.
The 10 pieces from the Holiday Bundle include:
1. Carol of the Bells 2. Away in a Manger 3. The Little Drummer Boy 4. Angels We Have Heard on High 5. O Come, O Come Emmanuel 6. Bring a Torch Jeanette, Isabella 7. Go Tell It on the Mountain 8. In The Bleak Midwinter 9. The First Noel 10. Calypso Carol
Another site for listening to the classics is: http://www.classicsforkids.com/shows/pastshows.php
As well as games to learn about music: http://www.classicsforkids.com/games.html
I'll tease out some of these things a bit more specifically, but for now this is the outline and overview for grade 6. Have you started planning for next year yet?
As well as games to learn about music: http://www.classicsforkids.com/games.html
I'll tease out some of these things a bit more specifically, but for now this is the outline and overview for grade 6. Have you started planning for next year yet?
___________________________________________________
Notes to self: Memorize the Presidents: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkptLGSNlMc
Additional Printables: https://kidskonnect.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment