Week 23

One more week to go... we are close to the end.  And I would like to thank all of you for being the very best class ever - children and parents included. We will all finish strong!

Thank you to the Challenge kids and Mrs. Keeler for a wonderful introduction to Stravinsky and The Rite of Spring. If you want to learn more about Stravinsky, this is a good site.  This is a simple and easy to read biography for kids.  Have fun. Sorry, I was not able to find a worksheet on him.

I am so excited to see how the kids are confidently speaking in front of the class.  Thank you for all the preparation throughout the year.  It has been exciting to learn from the kids. Next week, I will veer off our campus' suggested topic.  Since this is our last day, I would like the kids to share what is their favorite memory of our CC class (not the campus) this school year. I would encourage everybody to share. Parents are also welcomed to share their favorite memory of our class. Please keep the presentation between 2-3 minutes.  Thank you!

Science with Mr. Herson is more on odds... what are the odds?  The odds are in my favor or the odds are against me.  If you are interested to learn more about odds and probabilities, you can visit this site.  Have fun.

New Grammar
Timeline: Song - CC CD
We sang through the end of the Timeline doing the hand motions taught during the opening ceremony. Hooray!

History: Song - CC CD
As mentioned before, this is a long memory sentence.  Most of the kids know it already.  I briefly told them what a preamble is - an introduction.  Also, I mentioned that the preamble has six goals (I gave them an acronym FEIPPS), to make it easier for them to remember.  In the worksheets I gave you, the first page has a brief explanation of the six goals.  This is a good summary for explaining the Preamble.   I hope you'll find it helpful.  We sang through the song a few times and I taught them some hand motions (this is the link for the hand motions) which is so cute and I feel would help in memorizing the Preamble.  

Science: Song - CCC NoGreaterJoy
I briefly explain the theory of natural selection, which is the component of Darwin's evolution theory and your worksheet has the details... they have some questions which I tried to answer to the best of my limited knowledge. But as I mentioned to you before, we believe in God as the creator of the world.  I did some hand motions but did not stress on teaching them to the kids.  If you want the hand motions, you can always come see me.

Math: Song - CCC NoGreaterJoy
We learned about the Distributive Law, I told the kids that you distribute, hence the name. The illustration on my board is my favorite way of explaining the law.  I will email the picture of the illustration.

English: Song - CCC NoGreaterJoy
I briefly told them a little bit about the sentence structure - simple (contains only one independent clause), compound (contains at least two independent clause joined by a coordinating conjunction -FANBOYS), complex (contains one independent clause and one subordinate clause joined by www.asia.wub) and compound-complex (contains at least two independent clause and at least one subordinate clause).  I told them they will learn it in Essentials with Mrs. Thompson.

Latin: Song - Opening Ceremony
We did the hand motions for the words witness, bear and light.  The sign for bear I change to give since in this context bear witness means give witness. And the sign is hand out, palm out (like when you are handing out something).

Geography: Song - CCC NoGreaterJoy
We went over the first part of the prominent features. If I am not mistaken, the tricky part for today is the Grand Canyon (it is not the whole area but just the hook part) and the Olympic Rain Forest (is not the coast but the area in the middle).



Review Game was so much fun.  Thank you so much for all the parents who were there to help (I was so surprise I think all the parents are in my class)... I am so happy to see the children motivated to answer the questions for every subject in the last six weeks.  As I promised, I will give one ticket per hole punch they got. Please let them know that I will give them their ticket next week.  Keep on reviewing. I hope if they are not doing the memory master, they can at least aim for subject star, even for just one subject.  Just a reminder, we will not have a review game next week.  We will have our auction instead and please be advised that we may go a little over but will try my best not to.  The prizes I have right now will be my gifts for them for a wonderful year of learning.  If you want to bring additional prizes, you are welcome to but are not required.

Book recommendation:
Here are some fo the books I found at the local library:
We the Kids by David Catrow (this a fun one, good for younger kids)
We the People The Story of Our Constitution by Lynne Cheney (we loved this)
We the People The Constitution of the United States of America by Peter Spier
American Documents The Constitution by Paul Finkelman
When Stravinsky Met Nijinsky by Lauren Stringer (a fun one for younger kids)
Introducing Stravinsky by Roland Vernon

          



Again, my sincerest gratitude to everyone for all the support and encouragement in class. Have a wonderful week!  By the way this Friday, April 24 is the start of the Philadelphia Science Festival.  You can go to this site to learn more about it. There are a lot of free sessions which the kids might enjoy.  May 2, 2015 (Saturday) is the last day of the festival and it ends with a Science Carnival on the Parkway.  We have been to the Carnival last year and it was so much fun.  we will be going again this year.

Miss Zabrina