Children's Artwork

(as promised, the before and after drawings)

Enjoy!

Weeks 9 & 10

Hello everyone... Sorry for the long hiatus.  What happened?  Life happened!  I really am very sorry for this very very late update.  Anyway, here goes.

I would like to congratulate everyone for being on their best behavior most of the time in class.  I appreciate everyone (parents included) for trying their best to keep the class a very good and conducive learning environment.  Just so you know, I enjoy every moments I have with your children no matter how tiring it may be.  Thanks for keeping them all ready for class on Monday mornings.  Again, my kudos to everyone for knowing their materials really well.  Keep on reviewing your memory work everyday.

Here are what we did in class the last two Mondays (if I remember them correctly).

History
Music - CC CD
Week 9 - Absolute monarch
 We sang through the song and enumerated the monarch
Week 10 - History of Russia
 We clapped through the history sentence

Timeline
Music - CC CD
Hand Motion - what we do during opening ceremony (You can actually see this in CC Connected Timeline Videos with Handmotions.  just so you know, we changed some of the hand motions in our campus so there may be slight differences)

Geography
Music - CC Connected NoGreaterJoy
Week 9 & 10 Carribean and Southwest Asia
We memorize the places in order and point to where they are.

Science
Music - CC Connected NoGreaterJoy
Week 9 - Planets
 Everyone is assigned a planet and we arranged ourselves by the order of planets from the closest to the farthest
Week 10 - Phases of the Moon
 I made a black paper plate size circle and taped it on a stick (paint stick from Home Depot will work well).  We used it as a shade and our face(s) is the moon; slowly move the shade out of your face to make the phases of the moon.

Math
Music - CC CD
Week 9 Skip count 15
 We sang through the 15's while we erase the numbers
Week 10 Skip count the squares
 We sang through the Squares and I drew a visual aid similar to this.


Latin
Music - CC CD
Week 9 & 10 Pluperfect Tense
  We sang through the first conjugation pluperfect tense (I can't think of a way to remember the beginning of this.  If anyone has a suggestion... I'm open for it.  Or we can just use the one that half a hundred acre wood's suggestion - I'm tapping eram, eram, eram on my pluperfect drum)
**Please take note that the campus, for wanting to be teaching what is right, has decided to use i with the sound /ee/ for the 1st conjugation Present Perfect tense (Week 7 & 8) instead of i with the sound /eye/.  So, for remembering Present Perfect Tense, we can use this from halfahundredacrewood "When the present day is perfect, we jump and shout '(Wh)ee!'" Sorry for the delay in relaying the information.

English
Music - CC Connected NoGreaterJoy
Week 9 Interrogative Pronoun
 Handmotions
  Who - right pointer finger on right forehaed
  Whom - left pointer finger on left forehaed
  Whose- both pointer finger on both sides of the forehead
  Which - right hand out with palms facing upward
  What - left hand out with palms facing upward
Week 10 Demonstrative Pronoun
 Handmotions
  This - right pointer finger pointing here
  That - right pointer finger pointing out
  These - both pointer fingers circling around you
  Those - both pointer fingers circling around away from you

Fine Arts (Tin whistle)
 Week 9 - We learned the right hand and we played "London Bridge", I send the music with them.
 Week 10 - We played the D scale and we learned the song "God is so Good"
For music theory, we review what we learned the past weeks and learned something more (please refer to your foundations manual pp. 157-170 for what we have learned so far in music theory. Please review it with them.  They can play "Twinkle, twinkle.." for practice).

Christmas program announcement
The class decided to do a history sentence (Reformation).  Unfortunately, a younger class chose that, too.  Since we are older (and wiser), we'll have to do something else.  It is still up for discussion or I can just decide what to do (I am actually thinking of doing the Timeline beginning from the Middle Ages), we will finalize the decision on Monday.   For the last three weeks, I have been looking for a song (where the class can be divided into 2 groups for harmony... am I too ambitious???) to play on the tin whistle, so we can do something on the tin whistle plus the history sentence.  But it was difficult to find a Christmas song on D scale that can be harmonized that is simple enough.  Late last week, I finally found something where I have to rewrite some music and put the tin whistle code (really am ambitious, right???...hahaha) I will make sure to get the music to them on Monday, if not earlier, so they can practice it for the next three weeks (in time for our program).  For right now, I would appreciate it if they can practice the scale going up and down, because the music will start with the scale (beginning from the high D) and a lot of the music goes up and down the scale throughout the piece.  Thank you so much.  Even just 10 minutes a day will be really helpful.

Thank you so much for bearing with me,
Zabrina

Week Seven & Eight

From 4 am to 5pm yesterday we drove heading West... As we are driving, it suddenly dawned on me, it is November and Fall will be over soon.  I have not even enjoyed my favorite season yet.  Thank you Lord for the long drive to enjoy the changing of colors... the nice weather... and most especially, the time we have together.  We arrive safely in Berrien Springs, MI and my husband is off to his big exam.  So before we drive to Chicago, I'd like to be able to send this out to you.

My sincerest thanks to everyone for helping make the class a wonderful learning environment.  So proud of the class because everyone seem to know their memory work.  Tin whistle is going great, the kids are making real music... can you believe that?

For a quick run down on New Grammar for the last two Monday...

History
 Music - CC CD
 Hand Motion for Week 7
  Matin Luther - sign for letters M and L
  Protestant Reformation - Both hands letter R, right fingers pointing left, left fingers pointing right, and wrist touching. Wrists continue to touch while twisting to reverse hand position.  Left palm down, right hand ends on top. (I can demonstrate this for you if this is not clear)
  95 Theses - Left hand is an imaginary nail and right hand imaginary hammer
  Pope Leo X -  letter L
  excommunicate - cross both arms
  John Calvin - letterJ and C
  Reformation - same as above
 For Week 8, I have a diagram which I will try to post as soon as I can figure out how to add photo for this blog.

Geography
 Music - NoGreaterJoy CC Connected
 Week 7 & 8 - we mainly just say, point and draw the European Peninsula and the Mid Atlantic World,  I was given an assignment about the Treaty of Tordesillas and here is the  link . The first three paragraph should be sufficient enough.

Timeline
 Music - CC CD
 Hand Motions - whatever is taught during the Opening Ceremony

Latin
 Music - CC CD
 Hint for these two weeks - Present Perfect vision starts with the i (eye).

Science
 Music - NoGreaterJoy CC Connected
 Hand Motions for Week 8 (you can always come see me for demonstration)
  Core - make a fist on the right hand
  Radiative Zone - letter R on the left hand goes to the fist
   *note that in the music it says radioactive zone, so we change it to ra-di-a-tive)
  Convective Zone - letter C on the right hand goes to the R
  Sunspots - left pointer finger point anywhere on the letter C
  Photosphere  - make a sphere using both hands by joining fingers
  Solar flare - open the sphere leaving the thumbs together and wiggle fingers
  Corona - keep the thumbs together but open the rest of the fingers

English
  Music - NoGreaterJoy CC Connected
  Hand Motion is the same for all Pronouns
   I, me, mine, my, myself - single hand on chest
   You, you, yours, your, yourself - single hand going away from chest
   He, him, his, his, himself - single hand going to the right
   She, her, hers, her, herself - single hand going to the left
   It, it, its, itself - pointer finger going wherever
   We, us, ours, our, ourselves - both hands on chest
   You, you, yours, your, yourselves - both hands going away from chest
   They, them, theirs, their, themselves - both hands going to the sides
  Week 7 Possessive Pronoun Adjectives
    It was agreed upon by the campus that instead of Possessive adjective, it is Possessive Pronoun Adjective.  My, your, his, her, its, our, your, their.
  Week 8 Reflexive Pronoun (imagine a mirror on your hand, who do you see?)
    myself, yourself and so on....

Math
  Music - CC CD
  Keep on reviewing because as the number goes higher, the trickier it is to remember the numbers.  My suggestion still is use a number chart and color in the numbers.

Fine Arts
  I gave a piece of paper with two music in it.  The music are in the key of C, but we are concentrating on the left hand these past two weeks so the notes we need to work on is just B, A, and G.  encourage them to practice even for just 10 minutes everyday.  You'll be surprise how much they will improve.  Please stress the proper posture and proper holding of the tin whistle (45 degree angle) so that you will not hear the high pitch whistling sound.
Some of my favorite sites for music theory...
Making Music Fun is the one we used a lot last year and is still using
Opus Music is fairly new to me and I love it.  If you want more in depth music theory, this is good because you can go lesson by lesson on music theory self-study.  If you have younger kids, there are theory sheets for younger children as well.
Color in my Piano  is more for piano students but still is a good site
Susan Paradis is new to me but I found she has a lot of fun stuff.

I still have other sites I'd like to share.  I will probably do it next time, if that is okay with all of you as I am not using my own computer and I have to check out of this hotel soon.  See you on Monday.

Don't forget...
Presentation for next week - a pet you have or would love to have.
Tin Whistle - practice left hand well because we are going to right hand next week.

Me,
Zabrina