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!
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