History/geography for first grade?

Discussion in 'Homeschooling' started by LAmamaof3, Aug 17, 2008.

  1. LAmamaof3

    LAmamaof3 New Member

    Joined:
    Jul 30, 2008
    Messages:
    75
    Likes Received:
    0
    Hi, it's me again, the lost newbie.

    I have finally made up my mind on everything except history and geography. I have no idea how to teach that on a first grade level, or even what to teach. Is it even necessary?

    I'm getting a headache..........
     
  2.  
  3. Shelley

    Shelley New Member

    Joined:
    Apr 23, 2007
    Messages:
    1,396
    Likes Received:
    0
    I did Bob Jones for history last year--- it was basically a combination of history and geography. We spent time initially learning how to read a map---- up is North/down is South--- that kind of thing. They learned 'blue' is water and brown/green is land.

    The history was colonial America. So, maps tied in with the lesson by showing where the settlers came from and their routes to America. They also learned geography by looking at the different kinds of terrain the settlers encountered.

    History on first grade level, for me, wasn't an everyday lesson; it was clearly designed to be a 2-3 days per week kind of lesson. We did have some fun projects like making Indian necklaces from hard noodles and headdresses.

    So, I wouldn't look at history and geography as separate subjects at this age; they are easily combined. And I wouldn't plan on it as something that's time consuming or daily as none of the history curricula I saw for this level really seemed to need 5 days per week to cover.

    Honestly, depending on what you're reading, you could probably easily just do a history/geography lesson with that. For example, if you read Winnie-the Pooh, you could look up England on a map, learn about the time period when the book was written, and then have your child make a map of their own Hundred Acre Wood.
     
  4. mumtoo3

    mumtoo3 New Member

    Joined:
    Jun 11, 2008
    Messages:
    251
    Likes Received:
    0
    Were doing sotw for history.

    for geography we are doing earthquakes, volcanoes, houses and homes, water cycle and 3 countries of dd's choice. she loves this side of her education and is learning about the plates, etc, she maybe only 5.5 but she is wanting to learn way ahead of her years in geography. when we took her to the nhm she was asking very advanced questions and was understanding the answers :eek:

    when i was putting her geography curriculum together for the year i really struggled, as her age group dont really do it as a subject, and the year above is too basic, but we have just done what she wants, and she is excited about it (the olympics helps with countries locations ;))
     
  5. entropy

    entropy New Member

    Joined:
    Aug 22, 2008
    Messages:
    10
    Likes Received:
    0
    I found what seems to be a reasonable "workbook" - if you want quick and easy.

    For $29.99 Evan-Moor has a series called "Daily Geography Practice" that starts with grade 1. It has nice transparencies for every lesson that can be used to quickly cover the 18 National Geography Standards.

    I'm struggling to find history and geography stuff right now too and have decided to turn those lessons into "living" projects; we use whatever teachable moments come along and plug then into our wall map and timeline. But I also wanted to make sure I didn't leave any 'gaps', so the Evan Moor workbook seems like it might to do the trick quickly and painlessly. Now I just need history; I'm looking at The Story of the World. Our library carries it on cd; so that's an idea too.

    -Jodi
     
  6. TeacherMom

    TeacherMom New Member

    Joined:
    Apr 12, 2006
    Messages:
    15,458
    Likes Received:
    0
    okay, here is a simple answer, teach community helpers, jobs that are out there, who the dr dentist, etc is... Fire fighters, how to find your way home from a local store or something like that, reading maps of locations, who to call in emergencies, learning your phone number address and what to do fi you get lost etc.
    that is what I taught my kids, we used Aop Life Paks but thats basically what it taught for History and Geography... the geography was your neighborhood and town, if its a city or what, and how to find a place on a map.
    There are lots of things to learn on that sort of things, look at Scholastics if you want, scholastics.com has tons of good things some to buy some to use not buying!
     

Share This Page

Members Online Now

Total: 78 (members: 0, guests: 75, robots: 3)