Today was the day for both the spelling test for list 7 and
the vocabulary test for list 2. Once we
made it through those tasks, the classes moved into new material. The Girly Goats class reviewed helping verbs
and how to diagram them. They then
reviewed last week’s lesson on direct objects.
Next, the group learned about indirect objects. Although they are easy to point out in these
shorter sentences, it is important that we review, review, review! As the sentences grow longer and more
complex, it will be harder to point out the role that each word plays in the
sentence. We’ll keep working with direct
and indirect objects until I feel confident that they have each mastered the
concept before moving on! We have been
talking a lot about pronouns in class, and the students have memorized the
pronoun list. Today, I explained the
difference between subject pronouns and object pronouns. They worked on identifying each type in a
sentence, and we will continue to work through examples at home and in class.
The Happy Horses were introduced to helping verbs today, and
they created a new grammar card for the list.
They will be working on memorizing the helping verb list so that they
can identify them more easily. After we
reviewed the parts of speech that they have learned so far, the group worked
through the helping verb chant. Then, the
class learned how to diagram sentences that have helping verbs in them. We will continue to work diagrams that contain
helping verbs for the next few days.
In literature class, the students learned about idioms. They talked about many common idioms, some of
which they had never heard before! They
used different idioms such as “an arm and a leg”, “raining cats and dogs”, and “the
cat’s out of the bag”.’
In history today, the students were each given a colonial
occupation. They were given their wages
in candy…. BUT… before they could partake of their wages, they were read a list
of laws that were passed. As a new law
was passed, a new tax was enacted. The
students were taxed on having blue eyes, on wearing shorts, on having hair that
was shorter than their shoulders, and so on.
Two students were given the job of tax collectors working for Parliament
(Ms. Hilary) to collect the taxes for the queen (Ms. Holly). It didn’t take long before the students
realized how unfair the taxes were! By
the end of the activity, they only had a little bit of their wages left, and
some students had barely any wages at all.
In the end, Ms. Hilary explained just how unfair
the tax laws were for the colonists. She
explained how the colonists were beginning to feel very upset about their situation. Once the class was nice and frustrated, they
wrote about their feelings! Although they were supposed to write paragraphs, they ended up writing scathing letters to the queen. This was an
excellent way to get the kids to think past facts and dates!, and to get a feel for the atmosphere at the time!
In art class, Ms. Nancy brought out the chalk pastels. The class worked on creating a silhouette of a
tree. They were told to let the limbs go
off of the page, which created many different spaces on the page. Then, they used the chalk pastels to fill in
the empty places, changing the color for each new space.
It was a great day for an agriculture lesson! Tootsie gave birth to a beautiful doeling on
Sunday, so I was able to explain to the class the signs of impending
labor. I had moved Tootsie into a
kidding stall, so she kidded away from the herd, the dogs, and the donkey. Even if we are not sure of a goat’s due date,
I am able to observe her udder, her ligaments near her tail, and her behavior to
help me anticipate the big day.
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| Counting the Guinea Keets |
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