Today's weather was gorgeous! We began with some Farm News. Last night, coyotes came closer than they ever had. The howls woke us up, and I was outside in a pasture at 1am! Something with green eyes was standing in the back field, and it had knocked down some of the electric fence lines. I was able to fix the fence lines, and we managed to get through the night with only one animal injury... a cat with a hurt paw. Han and Chewie (the livestock guardians) did a great job keeping danger away from their herds!
Next, the class read their animal stories for the week. We then moved quickly into discussion of chapters 6-10 in Island of the Blue Dolphins. There was a lot to talk about this week! We dove into the comprehension questions, and we talked a lot about how certain parts of the story made us FEEL. The class agreed that this book was a little harder to understand than My Side of the Mountain, but I explained that it is important to challenge yourself! We worked through a vocabulary crossword that covered chapters 1-10, and then we moved into our descriptive writing assignments.
The descriptive writing passages that these students created were just amazing! They took turns sharing them, and their peers would erupt into applause. That's exactly what I love about this class!
The group took their Central America countries quiz today. I listed all of the countries' names on the board, so spelling was not an issue. I feel like things like this are important every once in a while for homeschoolers. They were able to practice some test-taking skills and tackle some nervousness. I keep telling them that, beyond the actual material that we cover, my class is really about learning how to work together, how to study, how to be responsible, and how to give things your best effort. After the quiz, we discussed the study guide chart for four major Central American countries. We'll be wrapping these up soon and beginning our study of South America.
In science, the class went over the six kingdoms. They really did a great job learning the specific characteristics of each! Afterward, we talked about viruses. It's cold and flu season, and I think it's very important for children to learn the how viruses are spread. They thought it was fascinating that viruses are not actually classified at all! They are not considered living things because although they contain genetic material, they are unable to replicate at all without taking over a host cell. In perfect Halloween fashion, I explained them as if they were creepy alien robots... or zombies! We went over the different parts of a virus and how the virus is able to replicate in a host. They added this information to their science notebooks. We'll be learning more about them this week!
Information about the big field trip in April to the Rock Eagle 4H Center will be going out soon!
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