Today, Farm News ended up changing my plans, and the class had
some agriculture lessons this morning instead of reviewing our vocabulary list. We always catch up on the happenings on the farm. But, today there were so many questions, and
I decided it could be a very interesting lesson all on its own! They learned that Ms. Kitty (the mini horse)
had her check-up on Tuesday afternoon.
The vet gave her and Delilah (the donkey) their shots, and it turns out
that Ms. Kitty’s sore spots on her legs and nose were due to a fly bite
allergy. The class was very interested
in the shots and how they were given. We
discussed the times where shots are needed, and I explained that some
injections are given sub-Q and some are IM.
The students learned that the Q stands of cutaneous and that “sub” means
“under”, so sub-Q means that the shots must be given under the skin. I explained how, with goats, we can pinch up
the skin to form a “tent” and inject easily under the skin. They learned that IM stands for
intramuscular, which means that the injection must be in the muscle. This lead to a lesson in the use of cc and ml
as equivalent units of measurement. We
talked about worming animals, and why it is needed. They asked about tapeworms, so we talked about
how to recognize if your pet is affected by tapeworms and what to do about it. They were surprised to hear that fleas are a
major cause of tapeworms in cats and dogs.
This is because affected tapeworms can be ingested by the animal, and
the tapeworm will inhabit the new host.
It wasn’t the morning that I had in mind, but it was definitely educational!
In grammar, the Happy Horse group had a big review day
today. They reviewed adjectives and
adverbs. They diagrammed sentences with
different types of adverbs, and we discussed each example. We revisited the different ways to form
plurals and practiced each. As we
continue with new concepts in grammar class, I will definitely keep reviewing
past material. This is the only way all
of this information can be retained! The
kids will be working on some review exercises at home, and we will move on to
new lessons next week. The Girly Goats
group also reviewed past concepts today, as we talked adjectives, adverbs, and
conjugating verbs for singular and plural pronouns. The class also revisited their lessons on first,
second, and third person. Although we
didn’t move on to new material completely, we did touch on direct objects today. They added this card to their grammar card
pile, and we worked through a few examples of sentences with direct
objects. They will be practicing what we
learned at home, and we will move forward next week.
In writing class, the students began by pasting their
homework into their interactive notebooks.
They then created flaps in their notebook that correlate with their sentence
lesson. They have been talking about how
to write descriptive and well thought out sentences. Ms. Hilary explained to the class the
importance of using descriptive words and vivid verbs. They also learned that stories could begin in
different ways. Sometimes, you can begin
your story with dialogue, with a location, with a time, or with an action. To practice, the students wrote different
story beginnings. They are doing a fantastic
job using what they are learning in writing class!
During history, Ms. Hilary helped the class learn the
importance of penmanship in the 1600’s.
They were given an example of typical cursive handwriting for the
Colonial time period, and they worked to see if they could duplicate it. They also learned about the hornbook. Because books were few and textbooks were
scarce, the students during this time period often used hornbooks. The boys were able to work on their cross
stitch activity. The class will continue
their lesson on Colonial America next week!
Minerals, rocks, and sediment, oh my! Ms. Sally had the class’s full attention today
as they dove deeper into their lesson on the earth and its resources. The kids were able to use their magnifying
glasses to observe the differences between different types of rocks. Ms. Sally taught them about sedimentary
rocks, igneous rocks, and metamorphic rocks. The students felt the smoothness
of river rocks and were amazed by the beauty of geodes. They looked carefully
at fossils, discussing their formation. They
learned about the rock cycle and reviewed weathering and erosion. In their science notebooks, they continued
last week’s lesson on comparing and contrasting. I absolutely adore how Ms. Sally integrates
her science lesson across subjects. For instance,
she stopped during today’s reading to point out how the word “rearranging” has
both a prefix AND a suffix. She even integrated
history into today’s lesson, as the students learned that the Native Americans
used igneous rocks to form into arrowheads because igneous rocks are stronger
and harder than other rocks. They ended
the day with a fun, jewelry-making activity!
Thursdays are awesome!
The Girly Goats Group has
been studying both direct and indirect objects.
They did a great job with this concept… until we added helping verbs,
adjectives, and adverbs to the sentences. I could tell that once the sentences became
more complex, it was much more difficult to pull out the parts of speech. We spent the day working through examples and
reviewing sentences that have both a direct and an indirect object. Both
groups will be reviewing today’s lesson at home on Friday. On Monday, both classes will attempt a
worksheet of challenge sentences to diagram.
In history class, the group learned about Colonial
life. They learned common names given to
children during this time period. They
learned about the clothing they wore, the jobs they had, and the games they
played. The class took their Colonial
cutouts and added them to their interactive notebooks. They then used the information that they learned today to create
a description of their cut-out Colonial American families. (We even noticed that some students used the
transition words that they just learned in the previous class! Yay!)
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. 
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 grammar, the Happy Horse group had a big review day
today. They reviewed adjectives and
adverbs. They diagrammed sentences with
different types of adverbs, and we discussed each example. We revisited the different ways to form
plurals and practiced each. As we
continue with new concepts in grammar class, I will definitely keep reviewing
past material. This is the only way all
of this information can be retained! The
kids will be working on some review exercises at home, and we will move on to
new lessons next week. The Girly Goats
group also reviewed past concepts today, as we talked adjectives, adverbs, and
conjugating verbs for singular and plural pronouns. The class also revisited their lessons on first,
second, and third person. Although we
didn’t move on to new material completely, we did touch on direct objects today. They added this card to their grammar card
pile, and we worked through a few examples of sentences with direct
objects. They will be practicing what we
learned at home, and we will move forward next week.
Minerals, rocks, and sediment, oh my! Ms. Sally had the class’s full attention today
as they dove deeper into their lesson on the earth and its resources. The kids were able to use their magnifying
glasses to observe the differences between different types of rocks. Ms. Sally taught them about sedimentary
rocks, igneous rocks, and metamorphic rocks. The students felt the smoothness
of river rocks and were amazed by the beauty of geodes. They looked carefully
at fossils, discussing their formation. They
learned about the rock cycle and reviewed weathering and erosion. In their science notebooks, they continued
last week’s lesson on comparing and contrasting. I absolutely adore how Ms. Sally integrates
her science lesson across subjects. For instance,
she stopped during today’s reading to point out how the word “rearranging” has
both a prefix AND a suffix. She even integrated
history into today’s lesson, as the students learned that the Native Americans
used igneous rocks to form into arrowheads because igneous rocks are stronger
and harder than other rocks. They ended
the day with a fun, jewelry-making activity!
Thursdays are awesome!
