Thursday, November 14, 2019

11/14/19

Goodness gracious... it is COLD!  Thankfully, today was free of wind and rain, so the kids could get out and play.  We had a lengthy Farm News session before heading out to do chores.  In this week's news, the silkie hen assigned to the Tuesday class hatched out her babies this week.  After candling the eggs, we found that some were infertile and some had blood rings, signifying that the embryo had died.  There were 4 viable embryos that we set back underneath her... and from those, 3 hatched!  This class's hen is still setting.  Her eggs, which we also candled, are due to hatch in the next week. It's awfully cold outside, but I had a guinea hatch out eggs during hurricane Irma... so we'll just have to wait and see what happens!


 The class read their Thanksgiving Farm Fusion stories, which were great!  Some wrote about things they were thankful for, and some chose to write what they thought the animals on the farm would be thankful for.  Some even wrote poems and a talk show script!  Next, the class drew names for Secret Santa.  We will be exchanging small gifts on the last day of class before Christmas break.  The kids are so excited!  It's such a small thing, but to all sit around the tree and find out who drew your name is a sweet childhood memory!

We continued our fall themed art project.  This is a simple project using crayons, but it creates a quilt-like design.  I think it's good to alternate difficulties in arts/crafts, and we've had some doozies!  The kids asked to listen to Christmas music as we worked, which was just awesome!

In science, the class turned in their comic strip activity that they completed at home.  We will be doing something fun with these next week.  They received a graded copy of their online quiz, which we discussed in detail.  We also checked the kids' Quest Guide pages for the week.  Then, I taught the class how to read molecular formulas.  We worked through many together on the board, and the class found the elements on the periodic table.  They really did a great job grasping this today!  Next, each student created 6 different molecular compounds using toothpicks, marshmallows, and round colored cereal.  We talked just a little bit about single and double bonds, as well.  My goal for this lesson is not an in-depth chemistry lecture, but to give them base knowledge that they can build on.









In grammar, we corrected lessons 33-35 together, making any needed corrections.  I talked to the class about prepositional phrases, objects of the preposition, adjectives, and predicate adjectives.  They will be completing the next 3 lessons at home.


We are almost finished with The Whipping Boy, and even those who didn't like it at first have changed their tune!  It's a simple story, but a good one.  Everyone did a great job on their reading comprehension questions.  We did talk about avoiding sentence fragments and how to avoid the dreaded "Because ___" answer.  My goal is to help these kids not only increase their reading comprehension, but also answer questions in thorough and well formed answers.  Finally, the class read their ransom letters!  It seems crazy to have them write ransom letters... but it directly relates to the literature book, and learning proper letter formatting is an important skill!  These letters were a RIOT!  One of the kids wrote that she'd taken my cow hostage and I'll only get it back if I leave grammar off of the homework site!  Ha!



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