Week 23

One more week and we are done.  Congratulations everyone... we have one more week to finish strong.  Really strong!!!

Thank you Mrs. Keeler for our review on the Orchestra and Beethoven.  For resources, see previous post.  And I believe I forgot to share one movie we watched about Beethoven, "Beethoven Lives Upstairs". I borrowed it from Dawn's choir conductor, maybe you can check if it is available in your local library.  I wanted to share this clip that we enjoyed watching while Dawn is learning to play "Moonlight Sonata".  Monika also shared this clip if anyone is interested.

Presentation today is fun though very short.  I am so glad that the children did enjoy their year in CC, It has been wonderful to see the children getting more and more comfortable speaking in front as the weeks go by.  Congratulate everyone for me. I believe I forgot to share my presentation since we lack time, maybe I'll do it next week (i.e., if we have time...hahaha). So, I guess that's it for presentation. Thank you very much for the preparation for presentation every week.

New Grammar
History: Song - CC CD
I told them how Kuwait used to be part of Iraq until they got their independence in 1932. When Saddam Hussein came to power he wanted to take Kuwait because it is an oil rich nation to pay his big debts.  President Bush (elder) then sent troops to prevent Hussein from taking over Iraq and later during President Bush's (younger) time, Hussein was eventually killed in 2006, when most of them were just born.  We sang through the song a lot of times and I do have hand motions but we did not use it in class.  See below, if you want to use it at home.

·         President Bush	B-hand. Both A-hands tap on the chest (left) and lower side of the body (right). (ASL sign for military).
·         Expel	One flat hand palm-up, while the other flat hand palm-down pushes somethingoff the other fl at hand palm-up.
·         Saddam Hussein	S-hand and H-hand.
·         War	Palm-in curved 5-hands move from side to side

Timeline: Song - CC CD
The end of timeline... we sang through the song getting faster and faster... hand motions are the ones taught in the opening ceremony which I am struggling with (hahaha).

Latin: Song - CC CD
This is a review. The hint is "Going to the future, you need an ero (arrow)."

Math: Song - NoGreaterJoy
I explained the distributive law a little bit through colors(mix red and blue, you get purple and mix red and yellow, you get orange).  I will send you the illustration via email. I used the cards to let them build the equation. This is a very challenging equation for most of the kids so you might want to work with them more at home.

Science: Song - NoGreaterJoy
I had and illustration (I will send via email) to make them understand heat flow - radiate, touch and travels.  Here is a resource on heat transfer you might want to use to know if they understand heat flow.  I enjoyed answering it. We sang through the song probably a 100 times... they are struggling with the word conduction (somehow, they are saying conjunction).  Work with them at home.

English: Song - NoGreaterJoy
This memory work is long and they are struggled through it.  We sang the song a lot of times - beginning part first and then the last part.  As before, I have to put "answers the questions" in one note to make sure they complete the whole sentence (especially for those doing memory masters).  I taught them hand motions (which they are not so eager to learn), which you'll see below. Work on this at home because it is very wordy.
   adjective  -  Left foot forward 
   noun  -  Flip right hand up
   pronoun  -  Flip left hand up
   describing  -  both hands okay sign facing down and going on opposite direction
   qualifying  -  Roll 1-10 fingers out like counting something
   limiting  -  Both hands palm down, one on top of the other with space in between
   what kind - Both letter "K" hands, one going over and the other under
   how many - Both hands close and then palms up
   which - Both hand thumbs up sign and goes up and down
   whose - Right pointer finger wiggle in front of your face and turn around to make letter "S"

Geography: Song - NoGreaterJoy
The countries' names were very challenging to say but it is not so difficult to find (we used the world map for this).  I have an illustration (will send via email) on the board to help them remember. Big K for Khazhakstan (biggest among the five countries), smaller k for Kyrgystan (smaller land area than K), Big T for Turkmenistan (bigger than the other t), small t for Tajikistan (smaller land area than T) and U for Uzbekistan. We "STANd and give the STANs an applause.

We finished the egg protector project and we will test it next week.  Let us see whose egg protector protects best... hahaha!  Oh, by the way, this week is Philadelphia Science Festival week, if the kids like science (which I believe lots of them do) you might want to check out some of the activities offered. This is the website.  We planned to go to the Astronomy night in our area last Friday, unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate, the event was cancelled. I am thinking the children might enjoy the Science Carnival on Saturday, May 3 at the Franklin Institute grounds. I am actually looking for someone to cover my call for me so we can go.

Review game was fun... good thing they are not real darts (hahaha).  The kids seems really challenge without help from their peers... but I think they had fun. Keep on working hard to finish strong. 

Here are some of my book recommendation for this week...
Gulf War by Suzanne Murdico
Hairy, Scary, Ordinary What is an Adjective by Brian Cleary
Quirky, Jerky, Extra Perky More about Adjectives by Brian Cleary
Hot and Cold by Terry Jennings (there are two pages with illustrations of heat flow)
Science Alive Heat by Darlen Lauw
The Magic School Bus In the Arctic A Book About Heat by Joanna Cole

          


Announcement for next week...
1. No presentation next week.
2. We will have a review game (probably a short one), to let them earn a little more tickets.
3. Auction is next week... explain a little bit about how an auction works... Thank you very much for those who donated to the prize pool. You are still welcome to donate but not obligated.  I am a little bit scared on what will happen but really excited for the kids to get the prizes (I want to be a child again with the prizes that is available).
4. For anyone doing memory masters, the "other proof" is due next week.
5. For anyone doing subject star (I encourage everyone to at least do this - pick their favorite subject, if not, maybe they can do Latin - since we only have six memory work... I know you can do this), I believe you have to let Lori know by May 6.
6. Anyone interested in doing our Ephesians 6, deadline is also next week.
7. For the closing ceremony, May 19, your child will have half a table to display the work they've accomplished this school year. You are welcome to participate but you are not obligated.
8. Again, we want to finish strong... next week is our last week to prove we can finish well!  I find that the children had been so restless the last two to three weeks during New Grammar time.  They are very excited for the review game but end up disappointed when they cannot answer the question on the new lesson.  Thank you for not doing the new grammar in advance, it gives me a chance to surprise them and get their attention (for most of the time) and give them something to look forward to.

Okay this is way too much announcement already.  Have a wonderful week!

Zabrina

Week 22

Two more weeks and we are done... Hooray! Congratulations everyone for your hard work this school year.  I am so proud of all of you.  Continue on and remember we want to finish strong. Nolan, we missed you!

Thank you Mrs. Thompson for introducing to us Beethoven, one of the greatest composers of all time. For more on Beethoven, see below.

http://americanbeethovensociety.org/
http://www.lvbeethoven.com/Bio/BiographyLudwig.html

This is a fun clip that Dawn and I enjoyed watching so much. Beethoven's Wig is a vocal group that sings lyrics written to the greatest hits of classical music. They have a series of CD that you might enjoy and this is the website http://beethovenswig.com/ The CDs are available in the Delco Libraries.

We began our series for "Egg Protector" project for our Science project.  Thank you Mrs. Herson for explaining the concepts behind the project.  We will have the whole 30 minutes to finish our egg protector next week and on the last week, we will test the project we made. Start thinking about your project because we only have 30 minutes next week (and 30 minutes is not a lot). If you want to search more to prepare for next week,  just look for "egg protector project" or something similar to that.

Presentation today is exciting... getting to know Mommy and Daddy through the eyes of the child.  It seems like the theme is "Mommies are schoolwork/homework and Daddies are fun and enjoyment." It was so much fun (Just so you know, I don't do all housework in one day...I am not Superwoman).  I am thinking of skipping presentation on Week 24 instead of review so they can have more tickets to collect. So, the presentation for next week (this will be our last) is "What is your favorite thing in class and what will you remember on your year of CC?"

New Grammar
History: Song - CC CD
We sang through the song plenty of times with the four bell tolls as guide.  The tune is quite a challenging one so work on it at home. The hand motions are as follows:

·         Communist	Right palm-out fist is raised above the line of vision in the communist salute.
·         Fall…Europe	Left had palm-up, right 2-hand, fingertip “stand” on palm, then the 2-hand falls over. Right-E circles near temple.
·         Soviet…. Gorbachev	Both 5-hands are placed on the waist, hands in repeated movement tapping the waist between the thumb and index finger. G-hand.
·         Refused	Take right hand and sweep down to the left
·         Military force	Both A-hands tap on the chest (left) and lower side of the body (right).

Timeline: Song - CC CD
We sang through the song a lot of times and did the hand motions taught during the opening ceremony.

Latin: Song - CC CD
We reviewed the Pluperfect Tense.  Hint: Pluto loves to play on his drum. For the children doing the Memory Masters, make sure they are pronouncing the words accurately.

Math: Song - NoGreaterJoy
Same as last week, I told them this law only applies to Addition and Multiplication. We substituted the letters with numbers to show that even you switch them around, we still get the same answer. We sang through the song a couple of times and used the same cut outs form last week to form the equation.

Science: Song - NoGreaterJoy
We repeated the three words a lot of times because some of the children were having a difficult time remembering the BIG words. To make it easier to remember I have an illustration (will send via email) for them to remember.  You can see the mountain's reflection on the river and the bridge's poles are uneven because of refraction and of course, the rainbow is the spectrum. I also used my water bottle with the straw inside to let them see how the straw looked like below and above water.

English: Song - NoGreaterJoy
I made a fan with the acronym for the lesson and they filled it out with all the coordinating conjunctions.  You probably saw that in their bags. If they did not bring it home and you want a sample. let me know.

Geography - Point, say and Trace
We continued with Central America and one county in South America. It was short and sweet.  Monika has a memory help for all the countries of Central America which you might find helpful - BiG HEN Cooks in the Pan. Just add Peru (Home of the Incas) and you got both week's done.

Review game was an Easter egg hunt... it was fun and I am so encouraged that the children knows how to answer the questions inside their eggs.  Sorry we added to their sugar high for Easter.  Congratulations everyone!

Reminder announcement for everyone...
1. Please continue on working on the US Presidents, we will be doing that on Week 24. It is good to start now if you haven't so we will not be cramming for all 44 Presidents that day.
2. Auction in two weeks... really am very excited to be rewarding the children for all their hard work this year.  I am not sure how familiar the kids are about auction, I, myself was challenge in explaining it to Dawn. So, if you can sort of explain a little bit about how an auction works, that would be great.  I've prepared quite a good number of prizes and whatever you bring next week will help even more. Thanks so much!  You are welcome to join us for the auction that day... most likely sometime between 11:15am-11:30am until around lunch time.
3. For anyone doing the Ephesians 6 passage, you only have two weeks left to recite it to a parent in the campus that is not yours.  Let me know if anybody wants to recite it to me.  We have two in our class who recited the passage already.

My book recommendation for this week...
The Berlin Wall by Debbie Levy
When the Wall Came Down by Serge Schmemann
Science View Light by Steve Parker
Science Works! Light by Steve Parker
Light (This is fun for littler ones)
But and For, Yet and Nor What is a Conjunction by Brian Cleary
Ludwig Van beethoven Musical Pioneer by Carol Greene
Introducing Beethoven by Roland Vernon
     


That's all for now... have fun and enjoy your week.
Zabrina