The Gift of Giving

Grammar-  Today, the class had a review of prepositions, objects of prepositions, and prepositional phrases.

Math-  The 4A math class continued to work with angles, parallel lines, and perpendicular lines.  Geometry seems like a big hit with this group of kids!  They are flying through and enjoying themselves!  The 3A class continued in their multiplication and division unit.  Each class will be working toward moving along the multiplication table track with an at-home timed quiz!

Writing-  Right now, each student is in a different place with writing.  Ms. Bev is working with them, individually, to improve each of their papers.  Some of working on dinosaur research, some are working on insect papers, and others have moved on to a "free choice" paragraph.  Each of these are working through the same process, using the same outlined writing guide.  They have been making leaps and bounds as they have learned to choose a main idea, come up with subtopics, and back them up with supporting details.  They are also coming a long with in their sentence structure, narrowing down to a focused topic, and using transitional phrases to allow their thoughts to flow.  Ms. Bev and I are proud of each of them for the hard work and patience they are demonstrating!

Literature-  Ms. Gail and the class discussed the answers to the comprehension questions for the first 10 chapters of "Mr. Tucket".  There were a lot of at home questions this week, and the class really did a great job rising up and tackling such a huge assignment!  They read the next few chapters in the book.  I really love that they are learning to enjoy books that they may not have chosen for themselves to read.  Sometimes, kids can get very picky about their reading materials... deciding they simply cannot read something that isn't in their narrow concept of acceptable reading.  This class is hopefully helping them to broaden their interests, or at least learn to enjoy books that they didn't chose for themselves.

Science- Today was the day of the big midterm test!  The room was completely silent.  Nothing could be heard except the whirring of little brains and the flying of pencils over paper.  This was a closed book, closed note test over the entire semester of Chemistry.  This was not easy... and these children rose to the challenge, and then some!  The average grade on this test was 94! 

Social Studies- The class has been learning about territorial growth and the expansion of the United States.  They have read and watched videos about the Louisiana Purchase, Texas Annexation, Mexican Cession, the Gadsden Purchase, and others.  Today, they took what they have learned and applied it to a map exercise.  They used an outline map of the U.S. to create a visual record of territorial growth.  They created a legend for the map, completed a chart of the various purchases and expansions, and expressed how the map illustrates the idea of Manifest Destiny.

Agriculture- Today, we collected money for our Christmas charity project with World Vision.  The students were given a list of animals and prices from World Vision.  They each came up with their own selection and the reasons behind it.  They thought through animal reproduction, sustainability, and took into consideration the product that each animal supplies its owner with.  At home, they will be writing persuasive paragraphs making their argument for the animals that they chose.  On Tuesday, we will read the paragraphs and take a silent vote!