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

Week 21

Hooray! We are getting close to the end.  It has been an interesting day in CC.  Elle, we miss you a lot. Hope your rehearsal went really well.

Wasn't that funny that we met Mr. Brahms and he was very nice to give you candies... haha! If you want to learn more about Brahms, below are some suggested sites. I will also put in a book we are reading about Brahms at the end of this post.

http://makingmusicfun.net/htm/f_mmf_music_library/hey-kids-meet-johannes-brahms.htm
http://mjq.net/brahms/

Presentation was so much fun, too. It is interesting that we have different composers that we liked.  Isn't it amazing how God created us with different likes and dislikes, and in the process complement each other.  Thank you so much for preparing for Presentation every week.  Next week's presentation should be very interesting... Tell us why your Mom or Dad is special.

Straw Bridges, Yehey!!!  Good work everyone for creating your bridges and trying if it works.  If you want to learn more, I've posted some sites last week where you can read more and you can also go to youtube and search for straw bridges. I was so proud of you trying to work together as one team - one boy, one girl (I guess we have to this more often).  We took a lot of time on this that we were not able to do our Review game (oh well... maybe, we can do a longer review next week).

New Grammar
History: Song - CC CD
I sort of introduced Margaret Thatcher and how she believes the economic woes of Britain was because of socialism and big government; and Ronald Reagan's popularity in the conservative movement.  We repeated the more difficult words a lot of time since the song is a little bit too fast.  They seem to get it.  I have some hand motion that I wanted to teach but was unable to.  See below if you want to use it at home.

·         British…Thatcher	M-hand transitions to a T-hand.
·         President R. Reagan	Two r-hands
·         Worked together	Clasp fingers together with left hand on top and right on bottom
·         Cold War	Shiver then Palm-in curved 5-hands move from side to side.
·         Lessen big govnmt	G-hand, palm-out, twists around at the temple to face palm-in.
·         Strengthen	Make muscles with both arms
·         Conservative movement	Left hand palm-up, right C-hand slides up left palm, past the fingertips in a sweeping motion.

Timeline: Song - CC CD
We sang through the timeline and did the motion taught during the opening ceremony.

Latin: Song - CC CD
We reviewed pluperfect tense.  The hint for this is Pluto (pluperfect) like to play his drum (eram).  I know this is a stretch but if this help, I'll take it.

Science: Song - NoGreaterJoy
I drew three thermometer on the board and told them how temperature is measured (we went over boiling point, freezing point and absolute zero point.  I told them, when we talk about absolute temperature, it is Kelvin we are talking.  I will send the illustration via email. Hand motion are as follows:
   impossible - letter "y" right hand tap on the open palm up left hand twice
   reach - open palm up both hands with right hand going above the left hand
   absolute zero - letter "o" right hand
   temperature - thumb and pointer finger of the right hand form an "o" and goes up the pointer finger of the left hand

English: Song - NoGreaterJoy
I made an illustration on the board, which I will send via email, on the definition of the conjunction. I just gave examples of words, phrases and clauses and told them, your parents will work on the difference between phrase and clause at home. If it helps anybody, when Dawn asked me what is the difference between a phrase and a clause on our way to CC, I told her a phrase is something that has a noun and a verb but the noun is not doing the verb (no subject or predicate). E.g. listening to music and singing the song. A clause also has a noun and a verb and now the noun is doing the verb (subject and predicate). E.g. Dawn memorizes the word while she sings the song. And told her that sometimes, a clause can be a sentence in itself.  I am not even sure if she got it or not but I believe giving her the example made it a little clearer.  I am not even sure if I explained it correctly (just so you know, I have struggles with teaching her grammar, so correct me if I am wrong).

Math: Song - NoGreaterJoy
I am amazed as to why we started with Associative Law and not Commutative Law (last year, I was surprised), but anyway, I told them that the law apply only to Addition and Multiplication and not Subtraction and Division. We substituted a, b, and c with numbers and computed for the answer.  So I guess they got the idea.  It was just a long equation to memorize.  To help them retain it better, I have individual cut outs of (a+b)+c=, and I asked them to put the equation together.  You might want to do it at home for practice.

Geography: point, say and trace
We went over the first five countries of Central America (we will continue with the last three next week).  We used the enlarged box on the left side of the world map.

Sorry, we did not have time for Review... we were so engrossed with our straw bridges. We will do the review next week.

Let me know if you have any questions about class, I will be glad to answer them for you.  If for some reason I cannot provide an answer immediately, I will try to find the answer and get back to you soon.

Here are some of my book recommendations:
The Cold War by R. Conrad Stein
Fantastic! Wow! And Unreal! A Book about Interjections and Conjunctions by Ruth Heller (This will also be my recommendation when we get to Interjection in Week 24)
Thermodynamics (see last week's post)
Johannes Brahms and the Twilight of Romanticism by Donna Getzinger and Daniel Felsenfeld
The Young Brahms by Sybil Deucher(Dawn loves this book. This book is very very old but is available in the Delco System Library)

     

Announcement for class (please read)
1. Please start listening to the Presidents song as we only have one week to work on all the 44 Presidents.
2. The kids have been very tired and sort of bored in class this past Monday. I'm not sure why, but I had to keep asking them to get up and do the motions with me for them to stay awake (maybe because it is almost the end).  Remember, we want to finish strong.
3. Please tell the kids to take care of their tickets because I will not be able to replace them. If they want to leave it at home, it might be better since the weekly raffle is only for the tickets they got that day.
4. I've decided we are doing an auction for the last day of class. We might need extra time for this event (I haven't decided if we will just not do presentation or review that day, will let you know once I have a better idea about science project schedule for that day).  I am very excited because I've purchased a lot of the prizes already.  Fun...fun...fun!

Okay, that is all for now.  See you on Monday!

Miss Zabrina

Week 20

I can't believe we are in Week 20 already, four more weeks and we are done. Congratulations everyone for the hard work you've put in this year.  I am beyond words when I see everyone doing their very best to master their work. Keep on, everyone.  We want to finish strong. Nolan, we missed you and hope you are feeling better.

The class started with the Great Composers. Thank you Mrs. Asimos for sharing with us Antonin Dvorak and his life.  For more info on Antonin Dvorak, see below...

http://makingmusicfun.net/htm/f_mmf_music_library/hey-kids-meet-anton-dvorak.htm
http://www.last.fm/music/Anton%C3%ADn+Dvo%C5%99%C3%A1k
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/education/dvorak.html

Presentation today was so much fun... getting to know everyone when they shared something interesting about themselves.  Since the beginning of the school year, I was always the first one to give my presentation but this time, I told them I am going to be last. I am so proud of the kids for having grown from shy and timid to confident speakers.  It was much fun to know more about each other.  Next week's Presentation is "Tell us something interesting about a Great Composer."

Science project is a preparation for Straw Bridges Construction next week.  Thank you Mr. Herson! To read more and to prepare them for making their own straw bridges, see below...

http://www.msichicago.org/fileadmin/Education/learninglabs/lab_downloads/CS_straw_bridges.pdf
http://www.technologystudent.com/struct1/model1.htm
http://www.teachengineering.org/view_activity.php?url=collection/cub_/activities/cub_brid/cub_brid_lesson01_activity2.xml

Have fun!

New Grammar
History: Song - CC CD
We sang through the song a lot of times and we did hand motions to remember the words better.  And I did tell them that the History sentence today is very similar to last week's sentence, so if they know last week's sentence, it is easy to remember the sentence today and vice versa.  I believe I said Korean War a couple of times instead of Vietnam War.

·         Pres. Johnson	Johnson - J-hand.
·         US troops	Both A-hands tap on the chest (left) and lower side of the body (right). (ASL sign for military).
·         To stop	Right arm extended bent at the wrist with hand palm-out.
·         North Vietnam	Right palm-out fist is raised above the line of vision in the communist salute.
·         From capturing all	Two five-hands, palm-down. Open hands drop down while closing.
·         Of South Vietnam	Right-hand, letter V, salute by right eye, flick wrist twice.
·         Vietnam War	Right V hand transitions to palm-in curved 5-hands move from side to side.

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

Latin: Song - CC CD
This is a review from last week.  Hint: If you receive a perfect present, you say "Yiiii".

Science: Song - NoGreaterJoy
I explained a little about the second law by an illustration (which I will send via email), and a simple statement that a hot cup of coffee left on the table will cool down that get hotter, and that a frying pan out of fire will cool down.  I did not go into "entropy" because it will be way over their head (it was over mine, hahaha). We sang through the song a lot of times and most of them knows the law, but please continue reinforcing at home.

English: Song - Mr. Nick Reid's song (which I will send via email)
I gave them an example of what an appositive is "Gus, my cat..." Gus being a proper noun, cat, another noun directly beside Gus that identify it (my cat).  We sang through the song a lot of times but I know it will help if they continue on working on it.  This is a difficult one. See hand motions below.
   appositive - make a comma using right pointer finger (appositive always comes with a comma)
   noun -flip right hand up
   pronoun - flip left hand up
   directly besides - put both flipped hands close together
   noun - flip right hand up
   explains - shake right pointer finger

   identifies - point with the same finger to the palm of the other hand

Math: Song - NoGreaterJoy
We sang through the song a lot of times while we were around the circle - indicating the Circumference (only the outside of the circle), nobody can go inside the circle.  I also explained a little bit about where pi came from.  Measure the circumference of the circle and divide it by the diameter (because technically Circumference is pi x d). I told them to do the experiment at home find any circle and measure the circumference and diameter and divide and they will always get the answer 3.14 (or close to it), which is pi. The book I suggested last week "Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi" would be a perfect read for this week.

Geography: Point and Say
We went through the five countries of South Central Asia - Long Laos, Thick Thailand, Circle (sort of) Cambodia, and then North and South Vietnam.  I forgot to mention to them that Vietnam is unified already, it is no longer divided into north and south.

Rock, paper,scissors... a game for review.  it was fun while it lasted.  And honestly, I am so proud of all of them.  Keep on... Have fun reviewing at home.

Book Suggestion for this week;
Two Scarlet Songbirds by Carole Lexa Schaefer
Vietnam War by Martin Gitlin
The Law of Thermodynamics by Rose McCarthy (same as last week)
Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi by Cindy Neuschwander (same as last week)




See you next week and have fun reviewing...

Miss Zabrina