3GRD MODG Do-Aheads

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THIS POST WILL NO LONGER BE UPDATED AFTER 5/2015. NEW PAGE HERE.
This is one of the TWO most mom-intensive years in MODG (according experienced moms). There’s a lot you can do to help yourself out, before next year begins. You don’t have to do all of this; any little bit helps. The biggest time saver for me is the online syllabus through the school, but the following list doesn’t assume you have that.

NOTES FOR NEWBIES

The knee-hugger grades aren’t as fleshed out in math and language arts as most newbie parents expect. If you have never taught this grade before, be sure to see my newbie notes HERE.

THINGS THAT MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE:

  1. Check out my OUT OF PRINT LIST so you know what you’ll have to substitute or skip.
  2. Look over the book levels and read aloud times for History. Check out History Read Aloud Times 3GRD-5GRD and see the book levels and how long it would take you to read it aloud. If it’s too hard and your library has it on audio, have them FOLLOW ALONG IN THE BOOK as they listen. It increases fluency to follow along. If none of these options will work, then put it in your daily read aloud time (discussed below). For more discussion about dealing with a mismatch here, see this post.
  3. Print out my 2015-2016 liturgical PLANNER booklet or email me for the syllabi one. There are no retellings this year or scheduled books, but it will help you plan your read alouds just the same. My planner is mostly picture books and we use the same rotation every year.
  4. Bundle your memory work resources; try to do it in one sitting. See my pretty cards for the dates, mountains, and rivers and English from the Roots up. Also, print out my MEMORY BOOK.
  5. Order your blank books. If you don’t need a bunch of other stuff from Emmanuel, Barebooks.com is the best pricing. I get the “kits” that have a plastic cover and line guide. See the very bottom of THIS post to figure out how many books you need and what sizes.
  6. Gather the “get ahead” supplies on my science supply lists.
  7. Buy 2 sewn composition books in different colors: If your child isn’t ready for wide-ruled paper, get two 2GRD-3GRD lined composition books (one for spelling, one for language arts.)
  8. Make sure you understand WRTR. It’s not rocket science, but it seems like it until you understand it. I have a post on it HERE. Also, in the past, the school has offered a one-day online course for parents. It was really helpful.
  9. Go ahead and cut out your art cards. I have an attractive, cheap way to store them HERE.
  10. Make your music copies, test copies (if you do them).
  11. Read Aloud Plans: I find that many of the history books are still out of reach for my kids. Knecht is too. So, I read those during read aloud time. If your kid is cool on all that and you want a schedule for the all the fiction reading for the year based exclusively on MODG picks, see THIS POST.
  12. Write in your Mom Notebook: “USING YOUR OWN WORDS” for retellings and “USING COMPLETE SENTENCES” (Subject, verb, end punctuation). That’s the Language Arts focus this year.  It might seem silly at first, but if your kids are great memorizers like mine, you’ll hear the author’s actual words in the retellings. Also, mine tend to use incomplete sentence phrases to tack on details in retellings. It’s something experienced authors might do, but that’s not where we are. See the following WRONG example. “On the right side of the picture was a cave. Round, quite dark.”
  13. Make decisions about handwriting.  The plans assume you are DONE with this subject.  None of my kids were that way.  Sometimes we did poetry stanzas, sometimes I did the “This daily assignment is your handwriting too, make it pretty,” sometimes we just added a workbook.  That’s the one that works best for us.  It’s quick and dirty and DONE.  We continue with the same series as last year.
  14. Check out the rest of my printables for 3rd grade, like composers coloring for Music Masters here.

BONUS POINTS

  • Start a CRATE SYSTEM: a walmart crate, 32 hanging file folders with tabs, printer paper, index cards.
    1. Put 32 folders in the crate and number the tabs 1-32.
    2. Tear out/copy/print out all of your worksheets, tests, and whatnot.
    3. Drop in any weekly flashcards or music masters CD’s.