Thursday, 9/15/17

Today was one full day!  We are starting to get the hang of the routine of class, but there are still some bumps with bringing books/binders to class.  As a busy mom of four, I definitely understand!  I'm hoping to help these kids take ownership of the responsibility, and hopefully things will run more smoothly once the school year really gets rolling.

Today's classes worked on spelling review using the letter tiles.  Sometimes getting off the page and dong something more tactile helps the words "stick"!  The Chicken Group began learning about special sounds.  The Abeka program uses special sounds to explain quirky or frequently used phonics rules.  We will be learning a lot of them throughout the school year, and it really helps!  I love being able to recall a special sound for the older children (like "tion" in nation) to help them figure out spelling/reading problems without just giving them the answer.  It may seem tedious, but it truly works!

 

In grammar class, we are continuing to work on plural nouns in the Horse Group.  The Cow Group began their lesson in linking verbs today.  In order to illustrate how linking verbs can connect nouns to adjectives, they made linking verb "links" using different colors of paper.  Each color represented a part of speech, and I think it helped them to get a better grasp on the concept.  At home, you may want to work on the difference between a verb like hopping and an adjective like hoppy!  Helping verbs helps another verb, like in "The frog is hopping," but linking verbs can connect nouns to adjectives such as in, "The frog is hoppy." There was some confusion today, and I will be spending time on this distinction in class on Tuesday!

The Guinea Group is working on memorizing the poem, The Duel.  In class, we began creating stick puppets of the characters.  These will turn a simple poetry recitation into a fun puppet show!

The kids played a fun geography review game to end this unit.  They will now begin diving into their Story of the World books at home.  First up: Rome!

In our writing classes, Mr. Jim is connecting the upcoming history lessons with their writing journals!  The classes will be making flying carpet stories... and their carpets are about to take them on some awesome adventures to far away lands! 


The end of our day was spent on the farm, spending lots of time cuddling silkies and petting donkeys... and chasing the crazy goats back into their pen!