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Our Star-Spangled Story Curriculum Package
SKU
003242
ISBN
9781609991302
Grade 1-4
Charlotte Mason
Christian/Religious
Medium Teacher Involvement
Multi-Sensory
Other Materials Optional
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Teaching Method
Traditional
Teacher-centered curriculum commonly used in classrooms that may include a text, teacher manual, tests, etc.
Charlotte Mason
A methodology based on the work of a 19th century educator who maintained that children learn best from literature (Living Books), not textbooks.
Classical
A methodology based on the Latin Trivium (three stages of learning), including the grammar stage (memorization and facts), logic stage (critical thinking), and rhetoric stage (developing/defending ideas).
Unit Study
A thematic or topical approach centered around one topic that integrates multiple subject areas.
Montessori (Discovery)
A methodology based on the work of a 20th century educator that emphasizes student and sensory-driven discovery learning and real-life applications.
Other
Other methodologies
Religious Content
Secular
Contains content contrary to common Christian beliefs (i.e. evolution).
Neutral
Avoids religious or theoretical topics or presents multiple viewpoints without preference.
Christian/Religious
Faith-based or including instructional religious content.
Learning Modality
Auditory
Learns through listening, talking out loud or reading out loud.
Visual
Learns through seeing, prefers written instructions and visual materials.
Kinesthetic/Tactile (Hands-On)
Learns through moving, doing and touching.
Multi-Sensory
Curriculum that employ a variety of activities/components.
Presentation
Sequential
Curriculum progresses through well-defined learning objectives. Emphasizes mastery before moving to the next topic.
Spiral
Topics and concepts are repeated from level to level, adding more depth at each pass and connecting with review.
Conceptual/Topical
Focus is on the “why,” often with a unifying concept as well as specific skills; coverage may be broader.
Teacher Involvement
Low Teacher Involvement
Student-led materials; parent acts as a facilitator.
Medium Teacher Involvement
A mix of teacher-led time and independent student work.
High Teacher Involvement
Teacher-led lessons; may utilize discussions, hands-on activities and working together.
Additional Materials Required
No other materials needed
Everything you need is included.
Other Materials Required
There are additional required resources that are a separate purchase.
Other Materials Optional
There are additional resources mentioned or recommended but are not absolutely necessary.
Consumable
Consumable
Designed to be written in; not reusable.
Non-Consumable
Not designed to be written in; reusable.
Our Price
$95.00 
Description
The Curriculum Package includes all six items: Textbook Parts 1 & 2, Workbook, Answer Key/Lit Guide, Rhythm and Rhymes book, and Timeline Book. You will need another Star-Spangled Student Workbook for each additional student.
Publisher's Description of Our Star-Spangled Story Curriculum Package
Our Star-Spangled Story is a one-year American history and literature course designed for students in grades 1-4. It combines the flexibility and richness of a unit study with the simplicity of a textbook-based approach to history.
The Curriculum Package includes:
- Our Star-Spangled Story Part 1
- Our Star-Spangled Story Part 2
- Star-Spangled Rhythms and Rhymes (with access to stream or download audio recordings)
- A Star-Spangled Timeline
- My Star-Spangled Student Workbook
- Our Star-Spangled Story Answer Key and Literature Guide
This package does include one Student Workbook. You may also want to order the Literature Package or additional workbooks for additional students.
Category Description for Our Star-Spangled Story (Gr. 1-4)
Packed with stories about the people/families who lived their lives here in America and participated in the development of our country from its earliest inhabitants through colonization, independence, exploration/settlement, division, expansion, conflict, and space travel, this course from Notgrass Publishing brings their engaging, user-friendly, Christian worldview approach to history down to the elementary level. American history is covered in one year through 90 lessons (three lesson per weekly unit) that feature simple stories, easy-to-follow instruction, full-color photographs/illustrations and incorporate literature, music, creative writing, geography, and art. Lessons include instruction, map locations, timeline work, review questions, and hands-on history ideas/unit projects. A fun addition for this level that will have your whole family singing and memorizing is the Rhythms and Rhymes book with music recordings that can be streamed online or downloaded. Literature selections include eight family read-aloud books.
The Our Star-Spangled Story Textbooks, in two parts, are the heart of the course. Each weekly unit focuses on a major historical event/theme and tells its story through the eyes of several persons or families in three lessons. The carefully chosen photographs and illustrations are mostly in full color, but sometimes period photos are found in their original black and white. Lessons are 6-7 pages long and take 10-15 minutes to read through, concluding with a Bible verse. Lesson Activities (assignments from the Student Workbook, map locations, and literature selections), Review Questions, and Hands-On Projects (1 per Unit) are included with each Lesson. The beginning pages of Part 1 provides some very basic teacher/course instructions. Several maps are included with each Part including an All Around the USA Map which is used for lesson assignments. Part 1 is 322 full-color pgs, hb; Part 2 is 308 full-color pgs, hb.
My Star-Spangled Student Workbook, the only consumable book, is full color and provides one page per lesson (two handwork and one review page per unit). Activities vary but are always engaging and include matching, maps and pictures to color, and space for either drawing or writing creations. For activities in this book the student will need a pencil and a good set of colored pencils (the publishers recommend Prismacolor). There is a supply list of household items needed for the various unit projects (available as a download from our website). 91 full-color pgs pb.
The Answer Key and Lit Guide is for the teacher (in lieu of a Teacher Manual). It provides the Review Questions from each lesson with answers as well as answers to the Workbook Reviews. There are also notes for the various literature selections. 31 pgs, pb. Possibly my favorite book in the series is the Star-Spangled Rhythm and Rhymes book. This includes the songs (words in the book; link to music recordings) that Americans have sung for centuries (including me in Friday music class many years ago). Some of these are folk songs and some were written by American composers. There are also poems from different time periods which are about historic events and everyday life. But that's not all. There are instructions for folk dances and party games as well. 80 full-color pgs with access to online streaming or downloadable audio recordings, hb.
The Star-Spangled Timeline Book begins with Creation and includes the arrival of Native Americans prior to settling into dates associated with the European discovery of the American continents. Timeline entries include all the expected (and some unexpected) key events and people (45 presidents) of our nation's history referenced in the Textbook stories but won my heart with its homeschooling history entries. 61 full-color pgs, hb.
The Curriculum Package includes all six items: Textbook Parts 1 & 2, Workbook, Answer Key/Lit Guide, Rhythm and Rhymes book, and Timeline Book. You will need another Star-Spangled Student Workbook for each additional student.
Details
| Product Format: | Other |
|---|---|
| Grades: | 1-4 |
| Brand: | Notgrass Company |
| ISBN: | 9781609991302 |
| Length in Inches: | 11.25 |
| Width in Inches: | 8.75 |
| Height in Inches: | 3.25 |
| Weight in Pounds: | 9.35 |
Videos
Reviews
16 Ratings
1-10 of 16 Reviews
Rated 5 out of 5
Jan 11, 2025
Interesting and factual read.
Engaging history through a number of stories about people. This has been one of our favorites. One of my children, who seldom re-reads things, re-read the whole thing a few years after we did it together.
Rated 5 out of 5
Mar 12, 2024
Our Favorite
We love Notgrass! It's the only history curriculum we use in our homeschool. We enjoyed Our Star Spangled Story for my 4th grade student. The content is interesting, the textbooks are high quality and beautifully done. The recommended literature is great too.
Rated 5 out of 5
Mar 12, 2024
A MUST!!
My family is a HUGE fan on Notgrass. I got emotional when we finished OSSS. To this day my boys say this was their favorite and still remember it fondly. It was easy to follow and nothing over top crazy. Perfect speed for my struggling learners and it was easy to make any adjustments for my kids to cater to their needs.
Rated 4 out of 5
Jun 20, 2022
Main text was great, skip the extras
I like the main text, it does jump around a bit, but was very engaging for my 4th grader. I don't think the supplement text added enough value to be worth the extra cost, so I'd skip them if I was you.
Rated 5 out of 5
Jul 30, 2021
History through stories
This was my daughter's favorite subject when we used it for second grade. She loves stories and this text tells a lot of stories about people and places. She was able to retain a lot as a result. I liked the length of each section and that we could take turns reading. It wasn't too hard for her to read and the sentences flowed when I read them. (vs some short and choppy young reader texts). My daughter is an above average reader, so it's possible that the text might have been more accessible for her than for an average 2nd grade reader. It is definitely easy for young elementary children to understand when read aloud.
Rated 5 out of 5
Jun 25, 2021
WOW
This history curriculum will not disappoint. My children and I LOVED Notgrass history Star Spangled Story AND World History. We are so blessed to have found this curriculum last year! We just purchased for the 21-22 school year From Adam to US and Exploring American History. Can't wait to use these beautiful books!
Rated 5 out of 5
Jun 22, 2021
Engaging and beautiful!
I did this curriculum with our 7 & 9 yr old sons this past year and we really enjoyed it. I highly recommend this product. It is told as the engaging stories history truly is and not as a dry, boring list of dates. It is important to foster a love for history since we benefit greatly if we can learn from it. The Notgrass team has done well to start young learners on the path to appreciating the stories of the past.
Rated 5 out of 5
Jun 21, 2021
Beautifully written history curriculum
Our family has truly enjoyed this curriculum. It is the perfect balance of content for my 6, 8, and 10 year olds. Very easy to simplify for my 6 year old, while also simple to add deeper concepts for my 10 year old. I also really love reading it aloud, which makes for a very pleasant experience for my kids.
Rated 5 out of 5
Jun 2, 2021
Our Star-Spangled Story
I purchased this for our new school year so we haven't begun to delve into it. I have to say it is inspiring and enticing. My 1st grader and my 2nd grader are excited to begin. I'm anticipating a wonderful journey through American History
Rated 2 out of 5
May 10, 2021
To simple and had liberal thinking interweaved in it.
To simply written which bored my kids. The author also emphasized their opinion over facts ie condemns people for being Christians but never let their slaves go free etc. Overemphasized slavery over other important facts even listed slaves by name and jobs they held. I felt it was liberal thinking interweaved with Christianity which isnt possible. The Israelites had slaves throughout their history and God never condoned it. He only condoned the way they treated their slaves ie they were to be kind to them and not harsh etc. I disagree with slavery but to criticize a Christian in that time period for owning slaves and implying they might not be saved or Christians because of it was too much.
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Why did you choose this?
Next year I will have a 3rd and 5th grader. Will our spangled story be good for those grades? I know it says 1-4 . I was gifted the curriculum and wanted to use it
I agree. The material works well for 3rd through 5th. You would skip the block building stuff which is better for younger grades that are tagging along. They have a great online community on Facebook with great support from Notgrass and those that use their curriculum. They should be able to answer any and all questions you have!
I am brand new to homeschooling this year, and am torn between Our Star Spangled Story and Our Fifty States. I will be teaching my second and third grader, who used Abeka History at their private school prior to this year. Do you have a suggestion on which option to go with? Thank you!
Our family used Our Star Spangled Story last year, and we loved it. It was very easy to teach both my first and fourth grader from this curriculum, even my preschooler joined in from time to time with the games and dances taught through the online resources. Since I have not used Our 50 States or any Abeka history curriculum, I cannot compare or contrast.
I found this textbook to be well written and the supplemental activities and work are flexible to your family’s dynamics and preferences.
We often did our own deeper dives into people introduced by the text through library books, online videos, or podcasts. I appreciate that this curriculum opened up pathways for us to explore the things we found most interesting. I would expect Our 50 States would do the same.
How many lessons do people average per wk over a 9 mo/average school year? How long is each lesson? (1st grade)
We do one lesson a week, sometimes two at a time if the kids are engaged and wanting to keep going. My kids are 2nd and 5th grade. We read the lesson, discuss the questions, and complete the workbook activity. It takes us about 20-25 minutes. If they are wanting more info we find a few videos on YouTube. We love this curriculum for the ease of use, Biblical perspective, cross grade adaptability, real photos, and relevant to elementary age information.
Would you buy this if you only had a 4th grader going through it? I see it’s for grades 1-4. Would I be wasting my money to start late?
Absolutely! It's a delightful one-year course and both you and your 4th grader will love it. The grades 1-4 designation just means there are adaptations so you can use it with younger students also - say, if your 4th grader had a 2nd grade sibling.
Hello! I have 2 questions about this curriculum. First of all, I would be using it with a 2nd grader and a kindergartener next year. In your opinion, would kindergarten be too young for this history program? I'm not expecting my younger one to get as much out of it, but I also don't want the material to go completely over his head. Second, do you think this program could possibly be split over 2 years if all of the projects and activites were completed? We only have 3.5 days per week for school becasue my kiddos attend school on Tuesdays through an HSAP program and we attend Bible Study Fellowship on Wednesdays. Due to this, I am thinking of only spending 2 days per week on social studies. Thanks so much for any help you can give!
I have been using this curriculum with a 3rd grader, a 1st grader and a preschooler this year. I don't always require my preschooler to listen to the lesson (some of them can drag for younger kids), but she loves listening to the songs and participating in the crafts. The program has suggested literature to read aloud in addition to the lessons, and my children have loved every book that we have read so far. We already had other books that I wanted to use for read alouds, so we take a few weeks off from lessons about every two months and spend that time reading the literature instead. Because we did that we are only halfway through the program, so we're planning on finishing the rest next year. The units have 4 parts to them: 3 lessons and a larger craft project. We only have time for 3 days of history a week, so we've been trying to do the last lesson and craft project on the same day, but it makes for a long day. I think spreading a unit out over two weeks where you do two lessons one week and one lesson and the craft on the other week would be an awesome way to split it up. At that rate you would only make it through half the curriculum in a year. It's been a fun program for us. My favorite part has been the songs/poems that are included with most of the lessons. My kids love listening to them and it has helped them remember things that we talked about earlier in the year.
Does the CD of music come with this package?
The MP3 Audio CD comes with the Rhythms and Rhymes book and is part of the package.
So excited! Cannot wait for all the pictures and life in these books. We have been using Story of the World for the last two years but I feel as though just using the books we have lacked history…
We love Notgrass! We have used the 50 States Curriculum and are excited to give this a try! Hoping to use Mystery of History in the future for its comprehensive world history, but trying to amp up our…
We're excited to try Notgrass history for the first time! I plan to use this for a young elementary student over two years. Our 6 year cycle history stream will be covering ancient and Bible history…
I was looking for a curriculum that covered up to recent us history in one year