My Father's World First Grade
Introduction from the Teacher's Manual

My Father's World First Grade: A Complete Bible-based Curriculum is a complete first grade curriculum with a phonics-based reading program. Focusing on Genesis to Revelation, key Bible stories are used to develop reading and writing skills. It completes the learning-to-read process begun in the kindergarten program, My Father's World From A to Z. All necessary consonant and vowel sounds are presented using a logical and phonetic approach to produce an independent reader.

My Father's World First Grade is a full-year program with 160 days. The first 125 days focus on the Old Testament, presenting all necessary phonics skills. Once a week, students enjoy Exploration Day. On this day, there are no regular reading, math, or Bible lessons. Instead, students participate in science activities and time outside exploring God's wonderful creation. The last 35 days of the program focus on the New Testament and are less structured.

My Father's World First Grade includes:

• Teacher's Manual
• Student Materials

  • Student Workbook
  • Student Sheets
  • Bible Notebook
  • Bible Reader
  • Reading Chart, Books of the Bible Chart, and Timeline Figures
• Usborne science books: Things Outdoors, Science with Water, and Science with Plants
• 2 Easy Addition and Subtraction Facts Practice Charts

My Father's World First Grade Deluxe Package adds Honey for a Child's Heart, Drawing with Children, Come Look with Me two-book set, and Introduction to the Orchestra.

The student will also need a red pencil and standard school supplies such as pencils, crayons, paper, 3"x 5" cards, scissors, and glue.

1. As part of the reading curriculum, select interesting, high quality children's books to read aloud to the student for 15 minutes each day. Children benefit greatly when adults read to them regularly. It is an important factor in the learning-to-read process. If you need help selecting books, refer to Honey for a Child's Heart, which contains extensive lists of good books.

2. Science focuses on God's amazing world. The core of the curriculum is found in three Usborne books: Things Outdoors, Science with Water, and Science with Plants. This is supplemented with additional hands-on activities and science books from the library. The appendix has a list of children's literature books that may be used with the science lessons.

As part of the weekly Exploration Day, you will spend part of the day outside enjoying God's beautiful creation. This is a time to run, play, explore, watch an ant, and feel the rough tree bark. You may want to refer to pages 133-137 in For the Children's Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay for some practical how-to's and a better understanding of why this outdoor time is so foundational.

In addition, you may want to use some of the optional science activities listed below (these are not included in the daily lesson plans) to help your child appreciate the wonders in God's world.

• Visit the same park each month. Draw and write about what you observe: colors, leaves, weather, etc.
• Walk through your neighborhood each week and encourage careful observation: stop and watch ants, find as many different flowers as you can, give the student a leaf and see if he can locate the same kind of tree.
• Begin a collection of shells, rocks, seeds, or leaves. Set aside a specific area where your child can neatly organize his collection. Some collections may be stored inside, and others may be better stored in a specified location outside.
• Plan field trips to a farm, zoo, botanical gardens, or natural history museum.
• Begin a nature notebook. Purchase a blank spiral artist sketch pad. Each week, take a nature walk and encourage the student to find something special to draw in his nature notebook. For example, one week he may find a beautiful flower, sketch it, and later paint it with watercolors at home. Label his drawing with the correct name. Together, look at a book or encyclopedia and gather information about what he sketches each week.
• Enjoy exploring God's world together!

4. For art, we highly recommend that you consider using Drawing with Children. Even if you don't consider yourself an artist, these easy-to-teach drawing lessons provide an excellent foundation. The student will use these drawing skills as he illustrates Bible stories this year. The lessons also help students learn to observe details and develop eye-hand coordination. Suggested lesson plans are included in this manual but these are optional.

Two excellent resources for weekly art appreciation lessons are Come Look with Me: Enjoying Art with Children and Come Look with Me: Exploring Landscape Art with Children. Each book contains 12 large, full-color art prints accompanied by discussion questions and a brief history of the artist. Let the child choose one picture each week, alternating between the two books. Look at the picture together, using the suggested questions in the book as a guide to your discussion. See the appendix for ordering information. Later in the year, visit an art museum and use the same questioning technique to enjoy several of the paintings in-depth.

5. Listen together to a variety of music, from classical to modern. Choose a variety of new and familiar songs to sing together. Each month, choose one hymn to learn and sing it daily throughout the month. MFW's Introduction to the Orchestra is an ideal way to introduce your first grader to the names and sounds of the instruments in the orchestra. The CD features Peter and the Wolf, Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, and The Carnival of the Animals. As children listen, they may color in the corresponding Musical Instruments book so that they learn the look of the instrument as well as the sound.

6. Many of the lessons include sections taken from the Contemporary English Version (CEV) Bible. This simplified Bible translation is very interesting and easy for children to understand. The teacher's manual contains many Bible passages that you will read to the student this year, and the CEV is specifically designed for reading aloud. If you prefer not to use the CEV, we provide the Bible references for each story so that you may substitute another version of the Bible. Memory verses from Proverbs are from the NIV. Again, if you prefer, you may substitute another version.

7. If your child does not already know most of the letter names and consonant sounds, you may want to consider this: Our kindergarten program, My Father's World From A to Z, teaches the 26 basic letter names and sounds, handwriting, sound blending, reading short vowel words such as "hat," and reading very simple stories with short vowel words. In our first grade program, Days 1-14 quickly review these skills. If your child does not know many of the 26 basic letter names and sounds, he may be more successful at learning to read if you begin first with My Father's World From A to Z kindergarten curriculum, using a modified schedule to teach about three lessons a day, omitting some of the easier activities. After this, begin My Father's World First Grade.