ENGLISH:
Reading:
All three boys read lots of books for their independent
reading time. I do not dictate what books they choose for their “free”
independent reading time. I keep a list of all the books the boys read in their
portfolio for easy review.
Monster:
Is no longer participating in Premiere’s Reading Challenge this year as he
completed it in Year 9. However, if he finds PRC books in the library that look
interesting to him, I’m certain he will pick them up and read them.
Monkey:
He is participating in the Premiere’s Reading Challenge again this year and
will be reading books from the 7-9 list as well as the 5-6 reading list. I will
be choosing his books for him.
Munchkin:
He is also participating in the Premiere’s Reading Challenge this year and will
focus on books from the 3-4 list as well as the 5-6 list. On my reading record
sheets there is a section to indicate which books are PRC books.
Writing:
All three boys continue to use the Institute for Excellence
in Writing: Teaching Writing Structure and Style curriculum. It allows each boy
to work at a level appropriate for their age and ability. It “grows” with the
child so to speak. See below for a list of the types of writing each individual
boy did during Term One.
Monster:
Gallipoli (Unit 4/6 non-fiction research), The Great Depression (Unit 4/6
non-fiction research), and Archer Fish (Unit 4/6 non-fiction research) – this
writing assignment will take him into Term Two.
Monkey:
My Time Machine (Unit 7 Creative Writing), and The Goop Monster (Unit 5 Writing
From Pictures)
Munchkin:
Common Wombats (Unit 1/Unit 2 Outline and Summarizing) – This writing
assignment took him all term to write due to health issues and schedule dramas
but the end product is wonderful.
Spelling:
Monkey and Munchkin are the only ones doing spelling this
year. I use the Ozspeller website to choose and create weekly word lists for
each of them. I quiz them orally Monday – Thursday and then they take a written
test on Friday morning.
Literature:
Below are the books I selected to read to the boys for their
literature this term. Munchkin’s books were read to all three boys, Monkey’s
books were read to Monster as well, and Monster’s books were read only to him.
Along with “classic literature” there are three books that
we read aloud repeatedly. The first is the Bible and then we also read “The
Book of Virtues” and “The Moral Compass” by William Bennett.
Munchkin:
This term we read the following books: “The Hundred and One Dalmatians” and
“The Starlight Barking” by Dodie Smith, and we also started “The Secret Garden”
by Francis Hodgson Burnett
Monkey:
This term I started the book “Watership Down” by Richard Adams. This is a much
more difficult read than I was anticipating (and I don’t actually believe that
it is a children’s book perse) so we will finish it off during Term 2 and then
move on to our next literature selection.
Monster:
This term I read “A Wrinkle in Time” by
Madeleine L’Engle.
Grammar:
Monster
is continuing with Analytical Grammar and has begun Season Three this year. In
Term 1 he completed Units 18 – 20 which are Comma Rules.
Monkey
is reviewing Junior Analytical Grammar this year. He worked through it once
before about 2-3 years ago and found it very difficult and frustrating. So I
gave him a break, now we are reviewing, and we’re taking it VERY slowly. Monkey
completed Unit 1 this term which focused on Nouns, Articles, and Adjectives. He
completed three exercises and a Unit Test.
Munchkin
is not doing any grammar curriculum this year. I have learned that (for our
family) grammar is best introduced in the late primary grades or early high
school grades.
MATHS:
Monster:
Continues to work through his Haese Mathematics for Australia Year 10A
textbook. Through the course of the term he completed chapters 13 – 15 which
covered the following content: Statistics, Financial Mathematics, and Non-Right
Angled Triangle Trigonometry. He commented to me during the term that he has
discovered that he LOVES statistics and Financial Mathematics.
Monkey:
Continues to work through his Haese Mathematics for Australia Year 6 textbook.
Through the course of the term he completed chapters 6-10 which covered the
following content: Decimal Numbers, Time, Measurement, Percentage and
Positive/Negative Numbers. The decision to review Year 5 mathematics last year
was absolutely the correct thing to do for Monkey as he is MUCH more confident
with his knowledge and skills and his frustration levels are much lower now.
Munchkin:
Continues to review Year 4/4th Grade math on the Khan Academy
website. Through the course of the term he completed three sections which covered
the following content: Place Value, Addition Subtraction and Estimation, and
Multiplication by 1 digit numbers.
SCIENCE:
For the remaining school subjects I try to teach all three
boys together as a group as much as I possibly can. So I will now start listing
Munchkin’s work first and work from youngest to eldest boy rather than
repeatedly recording the same things.
I rely heavily on our library for quality books to cover the
content we study in the remaining subjects. When I am planning a unit study I
do a subject search for books and reserve any and all that look like they will
be suitable for the boys. I include picture books, junior non-fiction, and I’ve
just started including adult non-fiction for both Monkey AND Monster.
Munchkin,
Monkey, Monster:
We didn’t focus on science in term one so there aren’t many
books that we read specific to our science unit studies or curriculum. Next
term we will have several science unit studies on the go. But we did read, and
enjoy, “The Book of Inventions” by Tim Cooke, which finishes off our
“Inventions” unit study that we enjoyed Terms 3 and 4 of our 2020 school year.
There were no other science books that I read to only the
older boys.
HISTORY:
Munchkin:
(All books listed for Munchkin were also read to the two older boys)
We have been focusing on an Australian History unit study
for Munchkin and the following books are part of that unit study:
“Meet Grace”, “A Friend For Grace”, “Grace and Glory”, and
“A Home For Grace” by Sofie Laguna
“The Story of Australia First Peoples – 1805”, “The Story of
Australia 1806 – 1830”, “The Story of Australia 1831 – 1855” by Australian
Geographic
“Whose Land? 1770 – 2007” by Nicolas Brasch
“The Day We Built the Bridge” by Samantha Tidy
We have also enjoyed a short unit study on the history of
various modern conveniences. World Book Timeline has a great series and the
titles are as follows:
“Foraging to Supermarkets”, “Adobe Shelters to Steel
Skyscrapers”, “Counting Pebbles to Writing Code”, “Hieroglyphics to Hypertext”,
“Smoke Signals to Smartphones”
Monkey:
(All books listed for Monkey were also read to Monster)
Monkey enjoyed an Ancient Civilizations unit study in
preparation for his high school history unit study on Ancient Egypt, Rome and
Greece. I wanted to read some of the other early civilizations first as an
introduction.
“Ancient Sumer”, “Great Civilisations: Ancient Sumer”,
“Mesopotamia” by Don Nardo, “Ancient Mesopotamia” by Unlocking Ancient
Civilisations, “Technology in Mesopotamia” by Charlie Samuels, “How We Lived in
Ancient Times” by Ben Hubbard
Monster:
(All books listed for Monster were read solely to him)
During Term 1 we concentrated on a short Unit Study on The
Great Depression – focusing on how it affected Australia while also reading a
bit about how the United States and other countries were also affected.
“The Great Depression” by World Book, “The Great Depression
1929 – 1939” by Nicolas Brasch, “The Great Depression” by Lost Words, and
“Somewhere Around the Corner” by Jackie French
GEOGRAPHY:
Munchkin,
Monkey, Monster:
Our major geography unit study for Munchkin focused on
learning about the states/territories and capital cities of Australia. I read
two wonderful series of books aloud to the boys and then they completed two
notebooking/mapping pages to accompany the reading.
“Australian States and Territories: New South Wales” by
Linsie Tan
“Australian States and Territories: Queensland” by Linsie
Tan
“Australian States and Territories: Australian Capital
Territory” by Linsie Tan
“Capital Cities Across Australia: Sydney” by William Day
“Capital Cities Across Australia: Brisbane” by William Day
“Capital Cities Across Australia: Canberra” by William Day
“100 Things to Know About Planet Earth” by
These were the only books we read for Geography this term.
In Term 2 we will continue, and finish, our Australian states and territories
unit study, and move on to an Asian Australian Neighbours unit study as well as
a migration and refugee unit study.
PDHPE:
This key learning area encompasses Personal Development,
Health and Physical Education. Sometimes I borrow library books to focus on a
certain content and other times I allow life and our normal everyday
conversations and movements to cover this learning area. For Term 1 daily life
comprised this learning area well. Munchkin developed an infection in his leg in mid-January
after slipping on some rocks at the beach and badly scraping his leg while
camping. The infection was treated and seemed to be healing, but then returned
and appeared to spread to his foot and both his hands. The doctor then
diagnosed eczema on his foot and his hands and we commenced treating the eczema
as well as the recurrent infection from the original injury. All of this
required two trips to the after-hours GP clinic at our local private hospital,
as well as weekly visits to our family GP through February and most of March
for infection and eczema review.
I also began reading the book “Murderous Contagion: A Human
History of Disease” by Mary Dobson, to Monster. This book is long and detailed and will
likely take us most of this school year to finish. We will continue to read the
book when Term 2 commences. The chapters we have read so far include: Plague,
Leprosy, Syphilis, Typhus, Cholera, Typhoid, Tuberculosis, Puerperal Fever,
Encephalitis Lethargica, and Malaria.
Creative
Arts:
This term we did some free drawing lessons on Mark Kistler’s
YouTube page. We didn’t get in one lesson per week, which is what I was
originally aiming for, but considering our crazy term, I’m happy with what we
got and we’ll add more in Term 2.
Latin:
(Monster)
Monster is currently working through two Latin textbooks
independently. They are Lingua Latina Familia Romana and Lingua Latina
Exercitia Latina 1.
Marine
and Aquaculture Technology: (Monster)
For Monster’s Tech unit this term we continued to read
through the book “Ocean: The World’s Last Wilderness Revealed” by DK
Monster also began a research project on Archer Fish which
he will continue to work on (and complete) early in Term 2.
