Hello Everyone,
Really really happy and proud of all of you for what we have achieve so far. Keep on practicing your memory work and remember to have fun doing it. Thank you so much everyone for being there and adding joy and excitement to the classroom environment.
I really enjoy it when it is their turn to be in front of the class whether they recite a poem, share a memory passage or share their daily experiences. Continue working on the skill we've learned so far - know the audience, confidence, eye contact and good volume. Next week, our presentation is "Show and Tell" about your favorite animal. I told them to bring pictures of their favorite animal/s, but if they are so inclined to bring the real animal, I will leave the discretion to you :) The skill that we will be focusing on is speaking clearly.
Science Experiment was on lung capacity. Our time was really limited so if you can go over the experiment with them at home to make them understand it better, it would greatly benefit everyone. Thanks! If you want to learn more about the respiratory system and lung capacity, this is a good site. If you are interested in doing a related experiment at home, try this site. Have fun!
New Grammar
Timeline: Song - CC CD
We sang through the timeline song a couple times and did the hand motions taught during the opening ceremony.
History: Song - CC CD
I am particularly challenged with this week's history tune... I guess I have to work harder on remembering the tune. We sang through the song a lot of times with the following hand motion:
Continental Congress (sign for congress) - Right C-hand move from left chest to the right.
Declaration - both index fingers move outwards from the mouth.
Independence - Both I-hands begin crossed over the chest and move away from the body.
announcing - same as declaration
intent - Bent right U-hand starts from forehead and becomes a V-hand as it moves down to the open palm left hand.
new nation (sign for America) - all fingers of both hands are interlocked and move in a semicircle from left to right in front of the body.
Science: Song - NoGreaterJoy
I briefly mentioned about how the signals are sent from our nerves to our brain. When we touch something hot or painful, our response is immediate, we removed our hands away from the hot item or the painful stimuli. How amazing and organized God made us! We sang through the song a lot of times with the following hand motions:
brain - both hands clasps together in front of your face
spinal cord - keep hands together and pretend to slide them down the rope
nerves - open and pull hands apart going away from the body
Some of them are having a hard time with the spinal cord (I believe it is because the anatomy grammar are new to them).
Math: Song - CC CD
We skip counted the 7's and 8's. Practice is needed for the the 8's. Work on it at home.
English: Song - NoGreaterJoy
I drew a hand on the board. Starting on the thumb as infinitive (to+ verb), it goes on to the ring finger as present participle (verb+ ing), and then the pinky (which I named Mr. Ed) as past participle (verb + ed). We chanted through the principal parts over and over again, and it seems like, they still to work on it at home more.
Latin: Song - NoGreaterJoy
We sang through the song while doing the following hand motions:
erat - wave the right palm goodbye behind the right shoulder
sunt - right R-finger moves away from the front of the mouth
est - right I-finger moves away from the front of the mouth
venit - two index finger coming to the body (like when you are calling someone to come to you), then both palms down moving away from each other
perhiberet - right thumbs up comes in towards your mouth, down to the chest and then away from the chest.
crederent - right index finger starts at the right forehead and moves down to clasp the left hand.
I told the kids that the Latin this year is a little bit challenging and so we really need to work harder. But it will be helpful to know the Latin words when we start memorizing the verse, it will be a little bit easier because since the Latin words are not as foreign anymore. So, this is my encouragement to all of us!
Geography: Song - CC CD
Trace, point and say the five states and their capital. I saw some confusion when it came to locating Alabama and Mississippi. Please work with them on this at home. I would also like to encourage everyone to go back and review what we've learned so far (East Coast of the US) in Geography.
Fine Arts
Abstract art is what we've learned today. I gave them three options to start an abstract art project. These are One Line Abstract Design (from Discovering Great Artists page 63), Mixed Media Lines (from Discovering Great Artists page 64) and Kandinsky Circles from this site. They did such amazing artworks. Just a quick reminder for everyone, make sure you keep all your artwork so they can pick from all of them for the Christmas program. By the way, please bring art supplies for next week's project.
Review Game
Muffin pans game - the kids had a wonderful time answering the questions and hopefully, they are encouraged to review more of their memory work. If they are going for memory masters, this is a very good time to start... but don't forget to have fun! make sure they keep their tickets for the end of the year AUCTION!
I mentioned before that the songs and the hand motions are optional (if you prefer other tunes or motions, that is totally fine) and are merely suggestions and my way of making learning fun. I try my best to cover the visual, auditory and kinesthetic learners in teaching the new grammar and I try to keep them excited in learning. As we always tell Dawn, "Learning is a lifelong process, we want you to enjoy learning because you are doing it for the rest of your life."
Book recommendation for this week...
American Documents The Declaration of Independence by Judith Yero
The Journey of the One and Only Declaration of Independence by Judith St. George (this is a fun one)
A True Book The Nervous System by Darlene Stille
Our Body Nervous System by Cheryl Jakab
DK First Human Body Encyclopedia (I have been using this book a lot for anatomy which have very good illustrations)
And before I forget, here is the link to the first twelve weeks of English and Science songs, I posted this on my Welcome post but I am re-posting it for everybody's sake. Have fun!
English (Weeks 1-12)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaPbQggHLFg&list=UUwqYEpNo3EP70BhYPwHVtsQ
Science (Weeks 1-12)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUZvCpniK2I&index=61&list=UUwqYEpNo3EP70BhYPwHVtsQ
That's all for now! Have a wonderful week!
Miss Zabrina
