"Give me liberty, or give me death!"

Instead of Spanish, we began our day with a Multiplication Mosaic. The kids answered multiplication problems, plotting the answers on a grid. The hundred place being the horizontal spaces and the tens place being the vertical. We have discussed mosaics in art class, and I was excited to integrate the two subjects. The students loved it! I can see more of these type activities in our future!

Spelling- The class went over each and every word in the spelling list today, discussing “special sounds” and rules as we went.

Poetry- Everyone is doing a great job with their poetry memorization! We are going to try to have “Hide and Seek” completely put to memory by next Thursday. For those who are still working on it, I suggested that they set a timer for themselves when they study at home. I'm excited for the next poetry video... which for this poem will be an illustrated video recitation!

Grammar- Today's grammar lesson was on abbreviations, initials, and titles of respect. We worked on writing full names, abbreviated names, and the names of our parents including their titles of respect. The kids studied the abbreviations for the days of the week and months of the year, as well. It was a bit of a review, but a needed one!

Math- In the last two lessons in Teaching Textbooks, the kids have been learning about angles. We delved deeper into the lesson today. Not only did we review naming angles, right angles, and measuring angles with a protractor, but we also worked problems where the students had to use the angle measurements that were given in order to extrapolate the measurement of the other angle. I was very impressed with each one of them as we worked through the first problem. Without having to be told, they were able to apply the knowledge that a right angle is 90 degrees, the knowledge that one of the angles within that angle was 60 degrees, and come up with the remaining angle's measurement. Once I realized that the concept was not difficult for them, we worked some more complicated problems. Excellent!

Social Studies- Today was a lesson full of new ideas for the students! The topic of the day was “Declaring Independence”. They learned of the patriot Patrick Henry and his thrilling speech where he exclaimed, “Give me liberty or give me death!” They learned of Thomas Paine's Common Sense, and how it spread the idea of independence among the colonists. They also read about the making of the Declaration of Independence. All of the terms from today were reviewed in a Declaration of Independence crossword puzzle.

Reading/Writing- Each child read their book report paper on “The Earthshaking Earthquake Mystery” today. They wrote excellent letters to movie producers, giving extremely convincing arguments for making this book into a movie! Now that this book is behind us, we will be moving on to a Shakespeare For Kids book.... Hamlet!

Art- Ms. Nancy brought in fabric squares today so that the kids could start work on their story quilts! We will continue to work on creating our stories at home... and work on the quilts in art class on Tuesdays. I think these are going to be great!

Music- Today was a very productive music day. After flash card review, the students went through their recital piece, “In the Morning”. Mrs. Beresford explained how things will lay out for the big night. They are getting excited about sharing their talents!