Thursday, June 15, 2006

Third Grade... The Plan

This is my current plan for third grade. I have a very detailed plan for each thing that I have been working on for months, however it is evolving and as opportunities arise and fall things will change. This is heavily influenced by the Enki Curriculum Chart which can be found on the Enki Website. I used this as my outline and then sat and thought, and researched just HOW I was going to meet these goals. So here is the basic overview and comparison with what Enki calls for...

Humanities:
  • Enki calls for "Multicultural creation myths and stories of life on earth (e.g. Mayan, Hebrew, Hopi.)"
  • We will be coupling this with our study of the Continents and incorporating the creation myths of various cultures from each continent while learning about the biomes and nature of the continent. In studying Creation Myths, the one thing that is not removable is the role the environment plays on the people and the myths typically include a lot about it. For instance the Hopi Creation story includes blue corn, and why it is essential to life. Some island cultures have the waters playing a large role in their Creation Stories; I just believe that bringing together the overview of the environment (biomes, geological features, native animals) with the creation myth will help bring foundation and understanding rather than having it be a story which floats above the earth and (in my mind) loses some of it's origin. NOTE: the coorelation between the two will not be "the lesson" it will just be presented within the same block, and GM will have the opportunity to discover the connection on his own.

Geography:

  • Enki calls for "Plotting homes, classroom and immediate environment".
  • We will be building an extension on our home and allowing GM to participate to the fullest extent of his ability and interest. He will use tools, measure, construct and even assist in the design of certain aspects. He will witness all the stages and be submerged within the process. Also we will be continuing our work in the Bosque with our adopted acreage, and hiking the area to learn more about our homeland and it's surrounding area. Working in the Nature Museum and the Naturalist Center also feeds this knowledge of the area and life in the high desert.

Language Arts:

  • Enki calls for "•rhythmic poetry•prose writing•journals•sight words•phonics skills•syllabication•reading groups•drama•independent writing skills•spelling•cursive writing•group writing•indep. reading
  • We will do basically that. We do a poem a week, write in journals at the beginning of each lesson, recite our verse for the candle etc.. We will be expanding our writing with short stories and extended recaps in our Main Lesson Book. Spelling we do via keeping a book of words that challenge us and using them within sentences as often as possible. We will begin cursive writing again, GM wanted to start that this spring and dabbled in it a bit for fun. Indep reading will be of his own choice and include the completion of the two Waldorf Third Grade Readers I have for him.

Math

  • Enki calls for "•cont. work with four processes, number rhythms and patterns•place value, carrying•multiplication tables•simple oral word problems•measurement - linear, volume and time•borrowing and carrying•simple graphing•number facts•written multiplic. problems•oral word problems
  • I am still working on this a bit. GM loves that darn Saxon and flies through it with joy, so I will continue to let him play with that while rounding it out with bean bag games, rods and having him help as much as possible in our construction and garden. He is strong in math and so I want to learn more about how to support this in him. I am currently reading Dorothy Harrer's book and the Active Arithmatic book from AWSNA to gather more ideas. I would LOVE to leave the Saxon behind, but Im not going to take something he enjoys and feels confident in away from him. It simply works for him at this point. NOTE: we dont do the teacher's guide with it, he just does the pages and asks questions when he has them, but this will change as Saxon 3 takes some pretty heavy turns and I want to have alternative means for teaching him these skills and concepts.

Science:

  • Enki calls for "•farming, including soil and climate•shelter, including soil and climate•food preparation science"
  • We are currently growing a nice organic garden in our backyard, which we started all from seed in our little greenhouse (which GM helped to build). He is raising twelve chickens for their eggs (also in our yard). He is taking a season long Organic Gardening class at our local CSA Los Poblanos Organics where they are preparing the soil, planting and harvesting plants and will then sell them at the Farmers Market this autumn. He is learning to bake, especially with all of our GF baking needs. I also feel that the biomes study from above brings in a lot of science as well as his ongoing work at the Naturalist Center, and with raising his dog, snake and the tree frog here at home.

Movement:

  • Enki calls for "•group games and exercises•circle and pair dances from all over the world •group and pair bean bag exercises•aikido and ice skating •cont. group games and exercises, bean bag exercises, aikido, ice skating•begin team games•archery•folk dance: circle, pair and opposite dances from all over the world"
  • We are just forming this portion of the curriculum for this year. Currently I am looking into Aikido and Fencing as options for an outside the home activity. He is not much on dance, although I did try to see if he wanted to do the Ballet Folklorico with a friend, and he wasnt having it. So we are working with our yoga, and our movement activities from the guides Beth has available now. Also we are doing more bikeriding (tandom) and swimming. We will begin our bean bag, rods and ropes work soon (during the summer).

Music

  • Enki calls for "•folk songs and more complex songs with fluid rhythms•recorder playing•work with hand signature•introduction to rhythmic clapping•work songs, marching and folk songs in the diatonic scale•more complex and diatonic recorder songs•formal introduction to written musical notation"
  • We are learning folk songs, playing our lap harp and xylophone, continually doing our rhythmic clapping, and will be choosing an instrument to begin learning by January of 2007. In the meanwhile we will spend some time experimenting with a variety of instruments to see what inspires him. Through this we will cover learning notation and reading of music. In addition to this we attend multiple (at least once a month) performances at the theatre here at UNM as well as evening and weekend performances all over town. It is important to me to tie in an appreciation for how music can inspire us and support us in our lives. The theatre performances also bring in lessons from many areas and play a large role in the overall concept of what I want for my kids in their childhoods.

Foreign Language

  • We havent begun this yet, and I really, really want to, but somehow it falls behind everytime. This yrea I wouldlove to get some Spanish going for all three kids.

Arts

  • We will use the Enki guides to do many of the ideas we havent done as a family as well as having GM help with the house remodel. He will also be doing a craft item from each continent using native materials (as best I can) and tying to the Creation Stories. We will continue with painting and modeling in our regular weeks lessons.

Extra-Curricular Activities

  • We will find some sort of a physical activity which he enjoys, either Aikido, Fencing, Rock Climbing or regular hiking outings.
  • He expressed an interst in joining a local Rock and Mineral Club out of the Natural History museum
  • He will continue with Science Club Coop once a week
  • He will continue with Science Class at Explora (he loves this)
  • He will continue to work with building his Lego Robotics and likely begin to program more difficult tracks and obstacles.
  • He will continue working at the Naturalist Center every other week where he is improving his eye contact, socialization skills, self esteem and knowledge of the natural environment here in town.

So this is the overview of our year. I have it written out lesson by lesson (one "lesson" per week) however I am constantly tweaking it here and there. I am currently focussing on the math portion and making changes as I find good resources. I will post more detailed info on each subject area in the future, as time allows.

2 comments:

Sunshine Alternative Mama said...

Amazing, thorough, inspiring! I hope your blog is still up when I need to plan grade 3!

Blissfulbee said...

LOL, why thank you ms. kimberly!!! :-) When I get it done I will email you the file. You however will likely be working with the actual Enki materials by then!!!