Thursday, 2/2/17

Today, both classes did an awesome job with their spelling review game!  We have been talking a lot lately about the value in their assignments.  Although the students could simply complete their work in order to check it off the list, it is my hope that they will begin to see how doing so actually wastes their time.  By focusing and using the assignments to learn the material, they are able to better participate in class.  This is a great lesson for this age group!  

In vocabulary classes, the students have been working through list 10.  They have enjoyed creating their own sentences for these words, as well as playing "Think on your Feet"!  In addition, Mr. Jim asked them to create silly non-sense words to keep them engaged as they work to transfer their cursive lessons from the workbook to their own writing.  They are really making progress with this!

Over the past two weeks, the students have been focusing on Christopher Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci, and Ferdinand Magellan in history class.  They used the map and globe to help understand the routes that were taken across the ocean, and colored their own maps to keep in their folders.  This lesson really hit a chord with the class... and led to a very heated review game!  

In grammar, both groups have been working on learning about prepositions.  The horse group learned the Preposition Song last week, and many have recited the list for a prize already!  By memorizing the list of commonly used prepositions, it will help them to more easily recognize them.  The horse group learned to identify the objects of the preoposition, and to pull the prepositional phrases out of sentences before diagramming the sentence.  Later, they will learn how to diagram them, but for now, the goal is to leave them out! This week, the Horse Group learned how to diagram negative contractions, such as couldn't, shouldn't, didn't, etc.  It seems so odd to disconnect the "n't" from the rest of the word!  This will take some practice to master... but we will get there!

The Cow Group is also learning the Preposition Song, and quite a few students have already recited it for a prize!  This group has learned many parts of speech so far this year, and it is important to go back and review them often!  We use grammar cards and in-class activities to prevent these past lessons from being lost!

The class reviewed atoms, molecules, solutions, compounds, and more this week in science class.  They will be working through some videos over the periodic table at home, and we will start our periodic table lessons next week.  I see Periodic Table BINGO in our future!

Each child recited the poem, My Shadow today!  I was very impressed with each and every one of them!

We have been very anxiously monitoring two of our does for the past couple weeks.  The class has been on alert, as the does are due to kid any day now!  The students learned signs of impending labor, including "bagging up" (udder filling and tightening, or the 'making of an udder' for first fresheners), the softening of the ligaments due to oxytocin (student learned that the ligaments on their back usually feel hard like pencils, but will soften until they are almost unable to be felt), and the making of a 'nest'.  Because these two are yearlings, they may skip the nest-making stage.  Sometimes labor sneaks up on those first fresheners.  The class will continue to monitor for labor signs, and if we are fortunate enough for them to kid during class, we will halt our other lessons, shift gears, and learn through nature.