3/29/18

It was another blustery day out here on the farm!  I don't know about you, but I'm ready for some wonderful spring weather!

Our day began with a test over our vocabulary list.  We'll begin a new list at home tomorrow.  The class then worked on their math independent study, followed by a spelling review game with our favorite stuffed anteater!  

In grammar class, the Happy Horse group learned how to diagram sentences with compound subjects and compound verbs.  We decided that sentences with both two subjects and two verbs look like X-wing fighters when you diagram them!  We worked through many examples of sentences, reviewed different parts of speech, and practiced recognizing prepositional phrases.  They took a very long sentence and removed all of the prepositional phrases to find one simple sentence hidden inside.  Memorizing that preposition song really helped them point them out easily!  The Girly Goat group did an excellent job pointing out and correcting run-on sentences.  If I can help them to avoid run-on sentences, fragments, and comma splices, I will be one happy teacher!  The class then learned about comparative and superlative adjectives and adverbs.  They will be working on this more at home Friday and Monday.

In history, the class shared their papers on important inventions, and reviewed their Pony Express reading comprehension activity.  Then, the class further incorporated writing into the lesson by writing letters to distant family members as if they were in the time of the Pony Express.  They did an excellent job writing formal letters!  Next, they rewrote the letters as if they were written in modern language.  Some of these had us in TEARS!  They were great!

The class headed out side for a Pony Express relay game.  They were positioned at different stations, and had to ride their "ponies" as quickly as they could to deliver the mail all the way to the destination.  Along the way, they had to switch "horses" and "riders".  Ms. Hillary timed them to see how quickly they could get the mail to its delivery location.  They will be completing another writing/history combo assignment next!

Science class was a blast!  Ms. Sally continued the lesson on states of matter.  After a great discussion, the class performed an experiment using different liquids.  They stepped through the scientific method, writing their hypotheses, results, and conclusions in their notebooks.  Then, they stepped outside and had some fun!  Between this week's excitement and last week's gooey, fun experiments, these kids have had physical science lessons to remember!