2/20/18

2/6/18

Some highlights from today:

After some farm chores, the pledge, and a dose of Farm News, we began our day!  We started with our posters over the first 10 presidents.  Their presentations were informative and sometimes hilarious!  Those fun facts were really cracking the class up this morning! 

On their travels, Lewis and Clark encountered and documented 174 plants and 134 species and subspecies of animals new to science.  The students pretended to discover new species of their own, and described them in their field journals.

 

The class finished their yarn weaving today!

Thurs 2/1/18

Today began with our vocabulary test over list 6.  As each child finished, they were given a booklet to read that is based on their history unit.  It not only prevented down time, but it was a great history enrichment exercise! 

After our math independent study time, the class all combined together for a group language arts class. Both groups were given the same at-home grammar review to complete.  The younger group identified the prepositional phrases in the sentences and then diagrammed the rest of the sentence, omitting the prepositional phrase.  The older group diagrammed the entire sentence.  As a group, it was awesome to see the younger group want to learn how to diagram the phrases!  I explained that prepositional phrases can act as adverbs or adjectives, and they wanted to make changes on their sheets.  I call that a successful class!   We had a few challenge sentences to work through, and these kids really did wonderfully.  I love encouraging them to go above and beyond.  When we go back to the workbook, they are always amazed at how simple it is for them!

After grammar, the class broke up into groups to read their books: The One and Only Ivan and The Hobbit.  They were able to choose to read silently or in small groups… and the silent readers chose to go outside and soak up some sun, which I love!  The Happy Horses group read the stories that they wrote at home.  They all did a great job, and no one left theirs at home!  Win!  Each child was given feedback on their handwriting assignments.  It’s important to go back and review the corrections in order to move forward and progress.  I will make a note on the assignment site for them to review the comments first and before completing the next pages.

In history class, each child was given a packet of information on one of the first ten presidents.  They spend their time reading up about their president.  They also used different textbooks and sources to look for additional information.  We even had a lesson on how to use the index.  It seems that, in order to find a person, you must look them up by their last name instead of their first name!   I explained to the class that the posters will have rules.  We talked about the importance of large text, bold writing (NO PENCILS!), and they were unable to write directly on the poster.  Making a quality poster is a skill that does not come naturally to everyone!  I held up posters with only white paper versus posters with each item pasted to a construction paper border.  This way, they were able to truly understand the reason behind my silly poster rules!  These ten presidents will be hung across the top of our wall, and I have no doubt that they will look amazing!  They will finish them at home, show them to the class, and then we will hang them.

During science class, Ms. Sally taught about the earth.  They learned about rotation and revolution, the  seasons in each hemisphere, days/nights, and years.   After a discussion, they worked together to read, study, and complete a study guide.  Ms. Sally does a wonderful job making sure to work on map skills, graphs, charts, and diagrams.  These are important skills that are needed across the board!  The class finished up the day with a science based art project on the seasons.  It was a great day!