1st Grade: Week 31 Highlights

Just a couple of "highlights" this week:

We started learning about Rome this week.  I read the story of Romulus and Remus to him, and he told it back to me as "Romulus and Regis".  Has he been spending too much time with his Regis Philbin loving grandma?

We also made our own fasces, the Roman symbol of power.

The other highlight of this week was "Rupert's" renewed interest in cursive.  He's been working in his workbook a bit, but mostly he has just been going nuts writing his name in cursive.  I'm finding papers everywhere with his cursive name written on them.  He even COVERED a sheet of paper in his newfound script while we were driving in the car the other day.  I love it!

We had several social opportunities this week, of course, including:  Play practice, kung fu, 2 playdates, story time, and art day.

Inspired

Seeing the book I made in the 3rd grade not only inspired "Rupert" to make his own book, but also to use the same type of writing I had used in mine...cursive.  All on his own, he got out his cursive practice book and went to work.  After doing a few practice pages, he decided it would be easier to just print, and that is what he is doing.  He is currently writing chapter two of his own book!  :-)

Cursive Tracing Printables

Every time I turn around, "Rupert" is connecting his letters up trying to write in cursive. I finally decided that if he's so excited about cursive, maybe I should print him up some cursive tracing pages so he can learn to do it correctly. I found this site the other day where I can customize my text so that "Rupert" can practice with words that are interesting to him. Fun little tool!

Space Man

A friend of mine shared this idea with me (thanks, Amy!), and I thought we'd give it a try. It's a space man! Yes, he looks like a little astronaut, but he's also used for spacing words so a child's writing doesn't run together intoonebiglongwordlikethis. :-) After each word, the space man lays down on the page and the next word is written on the other side of him. He is made from a clothes pin, aluminum foil, a cotton ball and glue. We also used markers to draw his face on.

Handwriting Worksheets

I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but if so, I think it's worth mentioning again. I've found a great website for making your own handwriting worksheets. You can use whatever words or sentences you want, type them in, and it makes a printable worksheet. G and I both like it!

Making Valentines

G had fun making valentines for some online friends. I counted this as handwriting time since he had to write the recipient's name and his own name on each one. He has a tendency to write in very tiny letters. It took some coaching to get him to write big enough that his friends could actually read it. :-)

Handwriting

G wrote a letter to his pen pal today for handwriting. He is so excited about his new colored pencils!