Week 12

Hello everyone. Congratulations on completing the first semester of Cycle 3.  Thank you very much for a wonderful half year.  Looking forward to an exciting next semester with all of you.  Caroline, we miss you a lot.  We hope you are doing well.
  
Thank you all for preparing fun presentations of Aesop's fables. I personally love the fables even if I can't pronounce Aesop properly(ha!ha!). Aesop's fable is part of our curriculum last year and I remembered we always look forward to reading it every time. Love the moral of the stories. Dawn still reads the book every so often.

Science Experiment for body parts is finally officially over.  We've finished putting our body parts together and hopefully will enjoy learning from it at home.  I would personally like to thank all the parents who were there to help during that time.  We could not have done it without all of you.  I am very honored to be working with all of you.  I am really thankful to the moms who sacrificed their time with their children to help others.  I am so touched.  If I ever understand how twitter work... I would do something like #bestclassparentsever. Thank you again from the bottom of my heart. By the way, there is an intersting book Dawn and I read about the body system entitled "Your 206 Bones, 32 Teeth and Other Body Math" by Robyn O'Sullivan(this is also where I got the page I gave you about the body systems).



New grammar

Timeline: Song - CC CD
We sang through the timeline and did the hand motions taught during the opening ceremony. Please remember to practice the timeline from the beginning to the end of the Middle Ages for the Christmas presentation.

History: Song - CC CD
We ended Civil War today.  Gave them a brief line on Confederate and Union and who eventually won.  we sang through the song a lot of times and did the following hand motion:
 Robert E. Lee - right S-hand moves from shoulder height to waist height and then change to L-hand
 surrendered - both hands thrown up in the air with palms facing outward
 Ulysses S. Grant - right N-hand moves upward and then change to G-hand
 Virginia - right V-hand transitions to an A-hand

Science: Song - CCC NoGreaterJoy
I explained a little bit about how the blood do all the function.  If you want to learn more about the blood, the handouts I gave you might be helpful. We sang through the song a lot of times to get familiar with the new vocabulary and did the following hand motions:
 transportation - pretend to drive a car
 protection - hug yourself and rub your upper arm
 communication - pretend to talk on the phone
 temperature regulation - fan yourself
Please take note that the song has "regulate temperature" as the last purpose of blood, we changed it to temperature regulation so that it will be the correct way of saying for memory masters. If you want to know how it is changed in the song, Let me know. This is a powerpoint on Blood (Presentation #1: Blood Basics) that accompanies one of the worksheets I gave you entitled "Forensic Science: Blood Basic Notes".

Math: Song - CCC NoGreaterJoy
I drew something on the board that is very similar to the handouts I gave you.  Have fun with the worksheets.  If you want more of the worksheets, go to this site. The worksheets have been challenging for Dawn since we are just starting multiplication.  She skip counts really well and will tell me, "Mommy, skip counting ended in this number." ha!ha!ha!

English: Song - CCC NoGreaterJoy
I can't wait for the verbs to be over, but anyway, this is the last for this set of verbs.  In the handouts i gave you last week, sit and set was differentiated.  I hope it helps.

Latin: Song - Opening Ceremony's Song
We are in the beginning of the John 1:1 in Latin.  I included the handout of the whole of John 1:1-7 in your handouts.  Keep it as a reference for eventually memorizing the verses. And as I mentioned before, we are using the same song we use in the opening ceremony. For hand motions, please refer to the hand motions we used when we were learning all the words.  We used in, beginning, was and word for this week's memory work.

Geography: Song - CCC NoGreaterJoy
We continued the Appalachian Mountains and this time it is the southern mountains.  As I've mentioned before, these mountains we are studying are all the Appalachians, it is called differently in different states. The names are a bit challenging so make sure to work with them at home. The Great Valley is somewhat vague in the map, if you have the trivium map(which will be used for MM testing) at home, you can see it a little bit better - highlighted in gray. I am a bit frustrated with the map since it is not the same across the board so please really work on the Appalachian Mountains both weeks at home. Thank you! 

Fine Arts
We continued with dynamics this week - mp, p, f, mf. And then we rehearsed the song "Joy to the World" and the children did really really well. I guess we will be ready for Monday's program.  Please remember to bring your tin whistle and "Joy to the World" music on Monday. If anyone has a portable music stand that is available and is willing to bring it, that would be great, too.  I have one which I will bring.

Review Game
I believe the children enjoyed opening the present, I hope they were able to share their presents with your family and friends.  The final present is Jesus.  I told them that I hope they have Jesus in their heart.  Christmas is all about Jesus - God's gift to us born to us in a manger and came to save us from our sins. Have a wonderful Christmas! 
N.B. Just a quick clarification, when we were reviewing the respiratory system, we found out that there were some questions on pronunciations.  I am writing down the pronunciation of pharynx (far-ingks) and larynx (lar-ingks) to make sure that everybody pronounce it correctly especially for those doing the memory masters. I know these vocabulary are very scientific and it is sometimes really difficult to decipher. That is the reason we are learning it together. Thank you very much.

Book Recommnedations

Voices from the Civil War Southerners by John Dunn

Voices from the Civil War Northerners by John Dunn

The Emancipation Proclamation: Hope of Freedom for the Slaves by Michael Martin

Math All Around Measuring at Home by Jennifer & Gregory Roy

Squirt! The Most intersting book you'll ever read about blood by Trudee Romanek

A Drop of Blood by Paul Showers (fun read and good for younger kids)

Your Blood by Anita Ganeri

            

Thank you so much for a wonderful first semester.  Have a wonderful and blessed Christmas!  See you all next year!  Enjoy the long vacation time.

Miss Zabrina
P.S. For those doing memory masters (my encouragement is sent to all), review your memory work and make sure you have lots of fun doing it.