Week 14

Hello Everyone...

JEOPARDY!!! That's all I can say (with the jeopardy tune in my head).  Congratulations everyone for getting through the game... it was fun and very nerve wrecking. Next time we have to sort of refine the rules (hahaha).

It has been a wonderful week.  I feel like the class is ending so quickly, we barely have enough time to do anything. Anyway, good job on your presentations.  Next week's presentation is favorite game and how to play it (Bring the game if you can).

Science project was great.  Thank you Mr. Herson!  If you want more experiment on surface tension... Here is something Dawn and I did a little while ago, although we use a big pyrex mixing bowl instead of a glass. Have fun!

New grammar
History:  Song - CC CD
 We sang the song over and over (on the board, the names of the leaders are on one side and the countries on the other side).

Timeline: Song- CC CD
 Hand motions are from the opening ceremony

Math: Song - NoGreaterJoy
 Linear Equivalents This is the picture I have on the board (just to keep it fun).

Latin: Song - CC CD
 Review First conjugation Present Tense and as always, the HINT is when you get a present your reaction is "Oh".

Science: Song - NoGreaterJoy
 I sort of introduce what acids (something sour and chemical compound starting with H (hydrogen atom) and bases (something bitter and chemical compound ending in OH (hydroxide) are. But I guess it just went over their head.  Oh well, it will go over my head too if I am their age.  But we work on the song and it seems like their having a struggle with so many words so we broke it down to ACID - DONATES, BASE - ACCEPTS. We reopeated the four words over and over and eventually added the hydrogen atom part.
 Hand motions are as follows:

·         Acid donates	Sign an “a” starting at your chest.  Move the “a” away from your body, then
·         Base accepts	Sign a “b” and bring your hand back to your chest.

English: Song - NoGreaterJoy
 The memory work for this week is a bit long so we started with the first part of the paragraph (we just keep repeating the first sentence and hand motions are similar to the first week's hand motion for adverbs, verbs and adjective 
   adverb  - Jump   verb -  Run in place   adjective - Stomp left foot forward   adverb - Jump In the song, after the first sentence, the transition is just one word - asks.  And as I've mentioned to the class, in memory masters, the whole sentence is needed. So we kept the song and just keep the four words in the same note (and answers the questions).  The hand motions for the questions are as follows:   how - both hands palms out   when - point right index to where your watch would be on the left forearm   where - left hand on forehead (like you are looking for something)   why - touch forehead with the fingers of the right hand then while bringing your hand forward and down, change it to the letter "y," keeping your palm facing you.
   to what extent - two index finger pointing to each other
   how often - tips of the bent right "b" hand touch the palm of the left hand (near the heel of the palm) then separate and move forward a couple inches, then make contact again.
   how much - both hands moves upward while changing a palm-up "O" into a loose - 5 hand
   under what condition - bend both knees while both open hands face down and swoop up.

Geography: Point and say the countries of Baltic Europe
 We repeated the country names a lot of times since they are struggling with the names especially Latvia and Lithuania. Hint: ELLE Please!

Fine Arts
Great Artist today is Carl Linnaeus
 I shared a little bit about the life of Linnaeus and we drew plants - flowers, fruits, branches, etc.  This would be a perfect time to go to Longwood Gardens as they are having their Orchid Extravaganza.  Have fun!

Continue reviewing the memory work and keep on having fun.

Some books we borrowed from the library for this week's lesson. I'd like to share it with everyone.  Here is the list:
Eyewitness Books World War I
Why did World War I Happen? by R.G. Grant
Acids and Bases by Chris Oxlade
If You were an Adverb by Michael Dahl
How Tall How Short How Far Away by David Adler
Carl Linnaeus Father of Classification by Margaret Anderson

   

  

And the following are websites for Rembrandt and Linnaeus
Rembrandt
Carl Linnaeus

Okay, That's it for now.
Zabrina

P.S. This coming week, we will need watercolor for our Fine Arts, would it be too much to ask the kids to bring their art box (the one they got for Christmas) so we can all use watercolor and brush at the same time? Thank you!

Happy New Year, Everyone! Week 12 & 13

It is so sad, it is the new year and I am still late with my post.  Anyway, thank you so much for bearing with me.  Also, I would like to thank all the parents who have been so encouraging the last few weeks.  Thank you very much.

Science experiment rocks Mr. Herson! Thank you so much.

For more on constellation (Week 12), I would recommend a book called "Glow in the Dark Constellation A field Guide for Young Stargazers by C. E. Thompson.  I have a copy and I will bring the book on our next meeting, feel free to look at it.

For more on sounds through vibration I'd like to share a you tube site where music is created through different sizes of wine glasses filled with different levels of water and using water as a medium (instead of vinegar) to create the sound (This is close to my heart because it was one of the many science project I did back in high school... sentimental enough!!!).  Here are some of the links of the music with wine glasses.  Have fun...

Wine Glass Music
Fur Elise
Canon in D
Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy

The kids are doing so well in our class presentation.  I am very proud of them.  Though I would want them to ask more questions. I believe they just want to have a longer time to eat and chat (no complaints there...haha)

New Grammar
History
 Week 12 Battle of Waterloo - we sang through the song a lot of times
 Week 13 Industrial Revolution - there are so many new vocabulary here that I showed them pictures of the steam engine, power loom and cotton gin. Then we sang the song with hand motions.












The hand motions are shown below

Week 13: Tell me about the Industrial Revolution (Timeline Card 106) Watt's steam engine, Cartwright's power loom, and Whitney's cotton gin spurred the Industrial Revolution that began in the 1760s.
·         Watt’s steam engine	W hands then Alternate moving your  fists up &  down in front of you like pistons in an engine
·         Cartwright’s power loom	C Hand Left 5-hand. Right hand palm down weaves up and down between the fingers (ASL sign for weave).
·         Whitney’s cotton gin	W Hand. Left hand rests on the side of an imaginary cotton gin.  Right hand cranks.
·         Industrial Revolution	Palm-in curved 5-hands, fingers interlock and bounce twice, representing the gears in an engine.

Timeline
 Week 12 & 13 -We sang the favorite Timeline song and followed the hand motions during the opening ceremony.

Latin
 Week 12  Future Perfect Tense - Review from Week 11.  Our hint so we will know how to start are in the previous blogs. (Future & Future Perfect - Bow and arrow)
 Week 13 Present Tense - Review from the past.  Our hint: (Present & Present Perfect - If you received a present, your reaction is either Oh! or Eeee!)

Science
 Week 12 US Space mission - song from NoGreaterJoy and hand motions are:
  Mercury - right hand letter M, fly to the left
  Gemini - left hand letter G, fly to the right
  Apollo - right hand letter A, fly to the left
  Shuttle - left hand letter S, fly to the right

Here are some pictures of Gemini, when we visited the Adler Planetarium in Chicago last November.

 Week 13 States of Matter - song from NoGreaterJoy, hand motions are shown below.

Week 13: What are the states of matter?
·         Solid	Make hands into a fist so it looks like a rock (like in “rock, paper, scissors”)
·         Liquid	“Drink” from a cup.
·         Gas	Fan hand in front of nose as if you are smelling something stinky.
·         Plasma	Open both hands at the same time

Geography
 Week 12 Eastern European Seas - Point and say the names of the five seas.
 Week 13 Northern European Countries - Point and say the names of the four countries.  We sort of have an acronym (courtesy of Monika) to remember the four countries - NSFD - No stinky feet, Dawn (we only had no stinky feet when we began and since Dawn is the only student whose name starts with a "D", I used it to complete the acronym).

English
 Week 12 & 13 Indefinite Pronoun - song from NoGreaterJoy, we reviewed the whole song beginning from all and ending in such.

Math
 Week 12 & 13 Liquid Equivalents including Teaspoon and Tablespoon - Song from NoGreaterJoy is one song with both weeks' memory work.  I brought all the spoons and bottles to give them a visual of the difference of the measurements.  For Week 13, I introduce them to a friend of mine called the GallonBot.  Here is the Link for the worksheet about the liquid equivalents because I forgot to copy it for the kids last Monday. I guarantee they'll have fun answering it.

  

Fine Arts
 Week 12 Tin whistle Final Week, I gave them a music "Three Blind Mice" (both hands).  We finished all the music theory with dynamics - forte, mezzo forte, mezzo piano and piano.  As a final project for music theory, I showed them three different music scores and allowed them to look for notations in music we've already learned (tempo, dynamics, notes, rests, bar lines, repeats, accidentals, etc.).
 Week 13 Great Artists starts with Rembrandt - I gave them a brief history of Rembrandt and we focused on light and dark.  i showed them a lot of Rembrandt's paintings from books I borrowed from the library (you'll see the list below).  Thank you to Miss Monika for being our model and for explaining to the kids more about how to do our project for the day.  These are the books I think would be interesting read for the kids:
 Rembrandt and Seventeenth Century Holland by Claudio Pescio



 World Almanac Library Lives of the Artist - Rembrandt



That's all for now, everyone.  I believe this is way too long already.  Have a fun week off from CC. Keep on doing your memory work.  Presentation next meeting is Tell us about your favorite food and how to make it.  Our Great Artist for next meeting is Linnaeus.  

Yours,
Miss Zabrina

P.S.  For those who are not subscribe to CC Connected, you are welcome to come to class during New grammar time (10:30-11:00) and learn the songs for Math, Science and English.
P.S.S. Week 18 is midway of our Second Half of CC, for the review game, I wanted to do something that will need at least five more (six is even better) parents aside from me for it to work.  I know you have nursery duties and all that but if it is not too much to ask, would five parents volunteer to be there for the review Game (11:30-12:00) on Week 18 (March 3)? Let me know, if this is not possible, it is okay, I'll think of something else. Thanks so much!