It's time again to start prepping for the start of a new school year! Here is our current plan for the 2024-2025 year, although it can always change along the way. Technically it is his 2nd grade year, but most of his work is 3rd grade or above.
Math:
- Beast Academy - Last year we did Beast Academy Level 2B, 2C, 2D and 3A. This year we will continue with Beast Academy Level 3. We also have the Puzzles 2 book as a summer supplement.
- Math Books - He also reads a math "story" every week. This might be a Mathstart book, a Sir Cumference book, a Life of Fred book (our library has most of them), or another math picture book we have. Some recent additions include Show and Tell! Great Graphs and Smart Charts, How Do You Share With Your Friends?: A Math Book About Fractions, Decimals, & Precents and How Do You Measure a Slice of Pizza: A Book About Geometry.
- Math Games - We play tons of board games as a family, but we have some dedicated "math" games. He likes the "Jump" series for practicing multiples. We also have Making Change, Adsumudi Fun Ones and some non "math" games that actually do work on some math skills like Flip7, One, Two Many Rabbits, and Panda Royale. I also just ordered Prime Climb and Sausage Sizzle.
Language Arts:
- Read aloud - I read him a chapter book. Either one that is a little above his reading level or one that may be the first in a series I think he will like, but is hesitant to start. I will also try to tie some of these to our science and history units.
- Spelling - we will continue with All About Spelling. We ended last year about halfway through level 4, so we will pick up from there.
- Grammar & Writing -
- This year we are adding Write Away writing curriculum as a more formal introduction to writing, but that still didn't feel overwhelming for my writing averse kid.
- While we liked our grammar curriculum last year, we are switching to the Write Away SkillsBook since it should fit with our writing curriculum better.
- Supplemental Books
- Reading Comprehension - we will use Daily Reading Comprehension Grade 3.
- Poetry - at least once a week I'll have him read a little poetry. He LOVES Shel Silvertein and Brian Cleary books. This year I got him The Poetry of Science: The Poetry Friday Anthology for Science for Kids and Follow Follow
Logic
- Solo Logic Games - we have a bunch of these. I want to make an effort to have him play one at least once a week.
- Those pictured:
- Logic Grids - he's currently on Mind Benders Level 4. He only does about one a week.
- Books - We have several logic and critical thinking picture books (and will get some from the library). I'll try to throw one book in his book basket every week.
Science
- Units - We're going to do units based on the 3rd grade Next Generation Science Standards for science this year. We will do some labs, watch videos and read books based on the different concepts. Here's the loose list of unit. If I can get myself organized this year, I will post about each one and link it here.
- Properties and States of Matter (probably broken into 2-3 smaller units)
- Weathering, erosion and natural disasters
- Biodiversity
- Plant Lifecycles (focusing on needs, seeds and pollination)
- Engineering (might be sprinkled into the other units)
- We will use lots of online and library resources, plus we have a pretty extensive home library. Here are some of the new ones I got him for this year.
History & Social Studies
- Instead of history units this year, we are trying a more regular history "curriculum." I went with Curiosity Chronicles Snapshots of Medieval History and will supplement with some other books on the middle ages.
- Supplemental Books:
- So You Think You've Got It Bad? a Kids Life in a Medieval Castle
- 100 Facts: Knights and Castles
- I Wonder Why Castles Had Moats
- A Year in a Castle
- You Wouldn't Want to Be in a Medieval Dungeon!
- You Wouldn't Want to be a Medieval Knight!
- Look Inside a Castle
- Fast Forward Castle
- If You Lived in the Days of Knights
- We will do the 2nd grade Little Thinkers units. We did the 1st grade ones last year and really liked them for hitting the social studies standards.
Art
- We will do 2nd grade art activities from a variety of internet sources (Deep Space Sparkle is great). My goal is to expose him to a variety of techniques and media. I also bought this Art Activity Book for the weeks we're really crunched.
