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ELEMENTARY CURRICULUM READING TEST

Dear Parent, Teacher or Student,

The following is the "reading test" to see if a student is ready to start Connect The Thoughts Elementary Curriculum, generally for students ages 7-8, or students who are developing literacy.

Please have drawing paper, pencils or crayon or other drawing tools ready. Ask the student to do EXACTLY what it says to do. Let them know before starting that the drawing assignments are not art assignments; we just want the student to show that he/she understands an idea. These drawings can be stick figures and blobs of color, so long as the student understands the materials and that can be more or less "seen" in their drawing.

Each lesson should take about an hour. If the student can do this in an hour OR SO (give or take, say, 15 minutes) per lesson, he/she is probably ready for Elementary curricula.

To find out more about our reading tests, please watch the video found at the top of this page.

Table of Contents

TEST LESSONS

Course Title

Elementary - Living Your Life I

Elementary - Creative Writing - Semester 1

Test Lesson:

from ELEMENTARY CURRICULUM -- LIVING YOUR LIFE I

LESSON # 3: WORK, PLAY AND REST

(Before Starting - Have a ball for the student(s) to play with. Have some work the student can do, maybe three math problems in his current math.)

UNDERSTAND THE WORDS:
- Work- Doing things a person must do to take care of himself, take care of his own needs, and take care of other people and their needs.
- Play- Doing things a person wants to do because they are fun.
- Rest- Time spent without work or play, but just sleeping or doing as little as possible to feel better and be able to do more work or play.
READ ALOUD TO YOUR TEACHER:

There are three things a person can do with time. He can work, he can play, and he can rest.

Doing work is doing things you need to. These are things you do to take care of what you need. That means that being a student and learning is your work. You are learning what you need to, to take care of yourself in the world. That's why you are a student, and that is what you are supposed to be doing with study time, learning to take care of yourself. You are also learning how to help and take care of other people and things like animals or plants. This, for a student, is work. It can also be fun! But because you MUST study, though it may be fun, it's also work. Even eating can be "work", as you need to do it to take care of yourself. It can also be fun, if you like the food.

There are lots of ways to work, which we'll look at later.

Play is doing things you want to, only because they are fun for you. Play should never be a thing you HAVE to do, because then it becomes work. Remember, it's okay to have work that is fun, though! If you are on a baseball team, and you need to be there for practice and to play games, that is work because you agreed to do it and MUST do it, but it's also fun. Play is stuff you do to only have fun.

There are lots of ways to play, which we'll look at later.

Rest is when you do not work or play. Sleeping is rest. Lying around watching TV you really don't care about is rest. Lying down for a while after working hard is rest, too.
DO: Draw a person working.
DO: Draw a person playing.
DO: Draw a person resting.
DO: Do some work, get something done you need to do, for about five minutes. (Do math.)
DO: Play for five minutes. (Play ball.)
DO: Rest for five minutes.
DO: Explain to your teacher what is good about doing work.
DO: Explain to your teacher what is good about play.
DO: Explain to your teacher what is good about rest.
DO: Decide which of the below is work, play or rest. (The correct answers will be on the next page. If the student struggles with this, read # 2 in this lesson again.)

- Meeting friends to see a movie.
- Playing a video game you want to play and like.
- Eating a lunch you like so you can study.
- Doing history studies that you like.
- Playing piano because you want to.
- Playing piano because your parents say you have to.
- Pulling weeds you don't care about but that must be pulled.
- Sleeping.
- Sitting around and playing a video game you don't care about.

- Meeting friends to see a movie. Play
- Playing a video game you want to play and like. Play
- Eating a lunch you like so you can study. Work
- Doing history studies that you like. Work
- Playing piano because you want to. Play
- Playing piano because your parents say you have to. Work
- Pulling weeds you don't care about but that must be pulled. Work
- Sleeping. Rest
- Sitting around and playing a video game you don't care about. Rest

LESSON # 4: DIFFERENT KINDS OF WORK

UNDERSTAND THE WORDS:
- Physical- Having to do with bodies and things.
- Thinking- To try to understand something by really looking at it and its parts, and figuring it out.
- Plan- A step-by-step list of little things to do which, when done, will get a big thing done.
- Creative- To be able to "make things up" that do not exist until you make them exist.
READ ALOUD TO YOUR TEACHER:

There are many kinds of work. Here are some of the kinds of work you'll need to do.

There's physical work. This is work done by making your body and other objects move and do what you want them to, so you can get something done. Moving boxes around, cleaning dishes, pulling weeds, cleaning your room; these are all physical work.

There is "thinking" work. Study and school are mostly thinking work. You're thinking when you're trying to figure something out. You're thinking when you read and use what you read to do something. You're thinking when you are trying to understand people, or the world.

Being creative, and making new stories or music or art of any kind, is a sort of work that can be great fun. It can also be play if you don't have to do it, but want to.

Making a plan is work. This is a very important kind of work that makes other work easier. Making a plan is making up a list of things to do. By doing the things on your list, you will get something big done. Let me give you an example. Let's say you wanted to go to Disneyland, but you had no money. The first thing you might wish to do is figure out ways to make some money. Most ways to make money are work, so you will be working (making a plan) so that you can do work, like cutting someone's grass or taking the trash out, so you can make money. The next part of your plan may be to find a way to get to Disneyland. You would figure it out.

A plan is made of little things that need to be done, so that a big thing is done. These are just a few ways you can work. There are others.
DO: Do some physical work the teacher needs help with, for five minutes.
DO: Math problems that need you to think to solve them, for five minutes
DO: Explain to the teacher what the difference is between physical work and thinking work.
DO: Do something creative for ten minutes. Make up a song, or draw something, or dance, or act, or sing a song.
DO: Explain to the teacher the difference between thinking work and creative work. How are they different? How are they the same?
DO: Explain what you like about physical work to the teacher. Explain what you don't like.
DO: Explain what you like about thinking work to the teacher. Explain what you don't like.
DO: Explain what you like about creative work to the teacher. Explain what you don't like.

-- End Lesson # 4 --

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Test Lesson:

from ELEMENTARY CURRICULUM -- CREATIVE WRITING I

LESSON # 6: WORDS USED TO DESCRIBE ACTIONS

(Before Staring -- You'll need a TV or computer which plays DVD or has access to films or TV. You'll need to select a show with lots of interesting actions and emotions in it, and a five minute section of that show.)

UNDERSTAND THE WORD:
- Adverb- A word used to describe an action, something that has happened, is happening, or that will happen.
READ ALOUD TO THE TEACHER:

You've learned about NOUNS, which are words used to NAME people, places and things. You've learned about VERBS, which are words used to NAME actions. You've learned about ADJECTIVES, which are words which DESCRIBE THINGS.

An ADVERB is a word used to describe an action (a verb).

If you say that you saw a boy "RUN", the verb is "run". If you say that you saw a boy run VERY QUICKLY, both the words very and quickly are ADVERBS.

There are many verbs. A person or an animal, or even a thing can do many things. The wind can blow, it can howl, it can whisper. These are all verbs.

But HOW did the wind blow, or howl, or whisper? Did it blow LOUDLY? Loudly would be an adverb, a word used to describe the verb "blow". Did the wind whisper "softly?" Did it howl "angrily?" Did the wind blow "quickly", or "calmly" or "happily?" These are all adverbs.

There are words that describe how fast a thing was done, such as "slowly" or "quickly". These are adverbs when used to describe how fast or slow an action was DONE.

There are words that describe an emotion. Some of these words are "angrily"; "happily", "cheerfully", "sadly", "miserably", "joyfully". When used to describe an action, or something that is happening or has happened, these words are adverbs. If you said "The boy ran FEARFULLY", fearfully would be an adverb. If you said "She HAPPILY skipped rope", happily would be an adverb. If you said "Betty will UNHAPPILY do her homework tonight", unhappily would be the adverb.

There are words to describe how well an action was done. Some of these are "well", "poorly", "brilliantly", and "badly". Used to describe an action, these words are adverbs. If you said "The house was built WELL", well would be an adverb. If you said "The boy BRILLIANTLY played baseball", brilliantly would be an adverb.

You use adverbs all the time. Everyone uses adverbs to describe HOW things were done, or are being done, or how they will be done.
DO: Have your partner do an action. Name it (a verb). Have the partner invent ways to do the action. He can do the action any of these ways, or pick some of his own:
- Sadly;
- happily;
- grandly;
- foolishly;
- broadly;
- meanly;
- joyfully;
- fearfully;
- coldly;
- boldly;
- angrily;
- cheerfully;
- bitterly;
- well;
- poorly;
- tiredly;
- energetically;
- smugly;
- wearily;
- confusedly;
- merrily.
Let the partner do the action in ONE way, using the adverb he picked, while you pick an adverb to describe the way the action is being done. Tell the partner the adverb you picked. Get at least three right. (You should get three guesses each time!)

When you get three right, switch places. You do an action, using one way to do it. Let your partner guess which adverb describes the way you're doing the action. Get at least three right. (You should also get three guesses each time.)
DO: Repeat exercise # 3 with new actions and ways to do them.
DO: Repeat exercise # 3 with more new actions and ways to do them.
DO: WATCH a show selected by the teacher for five minutes. As you watch, every time you see an action, use a VERB to say what the action was, and an ADVERB to describe the action. (The teacher should pause the show each time you spot an action.)
DO: WATCH the same five minutes of the show. Every time you see an action, name it as a verb. Then try to describe the action without using any adverbs. Do this for about 10 minutes.
DO: Explain to the teacher how using adverbs makes describing actions much easier.

-- End Lesson # 6 --

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