Winnie, the Guinea

Winnie, snoozing in her food bowl.

The student have been learning that not all birds take the same amount of time to hatch. Chickens incubate for 21 days before hatching, but guineas take 28. Although we set 5 guinea eggs in the incubator, only one has hatched so far. Today, on hatch day 29, we went over to see the lonely little guinea named “Winnie”. I told the class that if this is the only guinea that hatches, she may have to be our class pet! She's going to need a lot of company!

Spelling- This list is not a difficult one, but there are some words that require some extra assistance. We went over the list, discussing the meanings of the words and their correlation with Easter.

Poetry- It's the first day of spring! The kids shared the poems that they wrote about springtime. This is the first time that we have written a poem like this, and I loved hearing them! Most of all, I loved how comfortable each child is within this group. They are not just comfortable getting up and sharing their poetry, they are excited to do it! Why? Because it is a small group that gives support, love, and respect for each other. If this is “sheltered” or “unsocialized”, then that is exactly what I want my children to be!

Grammar- After a brief review of the four types of sentences (and how to diagram them), we continued our lesson on direct quotations. On Thursday, we learned about direct quotations that are located at the end of the sentence. In this case, the punctuation for the direct quotation (inside the quotation marks) acts as the punctuation for the entire sentence. You do not need to add extra punctuation. Today, we learned about direct quotations that are located at the beginning of the sentence. When these quotations are exclamations or questions, they end in the corresponding punctuation. However, when the sentence within the direct quotation should end with a period, the period is replaced with a comma. Have no fear, we will be reviewing this until it sticks!

Reading- The class read on in their “Hamlet for Kids” books. We ended with Prince Hamlet speaking with the ghost of his father, who informed him that he was actually murdered. The children left off with Prince Hamlet forming a plot to avenge his father's death. “Murder most foul!” The kids continued their summaries of the story... writing page after page their own rhyming versions of Hamlet. The mental block that most of our class had for writing at the beginning of the school year has slowly melted away!

Math- Area, perimeter, angles, and shapes! We quickly reviewed the geometry concepts that they have been studying... and then we PLAYED! Using a fractals set, the kids manipulated the angles on the parallelograms to form designs. We discussed why the angles fit together so well. The angles are all multiples of 1/14 of 360 degrees. For instance, the blue pieces have angles that are 3/14 of 360degrees and 4/14 of 360degrees. What it means for us is that we can make “Cool 3D pictures!”

Social Studies- Today's lesson was on the siege at Yorktown. We are slowly making our way to the end of our unit on the American Revolution! We will be adding the information from the last few lessons to the American Revolution time-lines that we are working on at home. We will bring them in the day before Spring Break!

Art- We finished up our story quilts today! Ms. Nancy will be assembling them. I cannot wait to see the final products! Next week, everyone will need to dress in really old clothes! We will be learning the art of Ukrainian egg dying, pysanky. The dyes are permanent, so dress accordingly!

Music- Mrs. Beresford worked with the children on their musical flashcards today, preparing them for a test over the material they have been working on. They also were given a new song to work on, “I've Got the Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy”.

I have mentioned this in the past, but today presented another example.  I love how these kids are able to let their collective imaginations fly during the non-instructive times at our little school house.  Today, after class was over, all five kids were in a buzz.  Somehow, they got onto the topic of "blogs".  They decided that it would be awesome if each one could write about the things they love to do so that the other four could read all about it... all the time.  This was the point that everyone burst at the seems with excitement.  They asked for clipboards... paper... their pencils and mouths were flying and their heads were spinning with ideas.  One wanted a Lego blog, one wanted one just for any kind of creations, one wanted a blog to discuss the armies that he makes on his bedroom floor.  All at once, they were BEGGING to go home.  Quickly.  So they could WRITE.  I really cannot make this stuff up.  I am not quite sure how, but we have been blessed with an atmosphere of free-range learning.  And, it is priceless to me.