Wow! The children really studied this last week. Congrats to parents and students for reviewing this week! Here is a recap of what we covered today - hope it helps as you study this week. Please forgive the typos - I don't have the guide in front of me right now for double checking.
English Grammar (4 Kinds of Sentences)
Chant: ive, ive, ive and an ory - ive, ive, ive and an ory
Declarative (hand out like the "land" we did a few weeks ago
Interrogative (questioning tone with hands out)
Imperative (stern voice, point finger)
Exclamatory (hands up by face, animated/excited face)
History
Which started in 1914 and ended in 1918 (dance with arms up and down)
Clemenceau of France (eiffel tower stance we've used for France all year)
Lloyd George of England (drink tea)
Nicholas II of Russia (hands move up and out, like "HUGE")
Wilheim II of Germany (pretend to steer car, for "Volvo")
and Wilson of the United States (point to floor, as in "right here")
were leaders during World War I (dance with hand in front of eyes, move out/alternate)
Latin
Present Tense - took turns singing different verbs
Science
An acid donates (said silly) a hydrogen atom and a base accepts (higher pitch) a hydrogen atom.
We took turns donating/accepting a present (hydrogen atom)
Math
The area of a square equals length (put both arms out beside body) of its side (lean whole body over on the side so that your head is close to the floor) squared.
Geography - Sung loosely to the tune "Here Comes Santa Claus" I rearranged the order in which we recite them so that we recite them in the order in which they appear on the map
Baltic Europe, Baltic Europe, Estonia
Latvia, Lithuania, East Prussia
And then there's Poland at the bottom of Baltic Europe
Timeline - will (hopefully) get these entered into the Excel sheet and email to you soon.
For Review, we skipped to the Latin Future Tense conjugation and we did ballet to the Latin Present Perfect Tense. We also played a roll the colored dice game - I love seeing their excitement when they get to test an adult! I continue to be amazed at their skill in remembering the timeline cards. Just imagine how much ahead they will be next year!
Thanks for another great week!
As a reminder - we are studying great artists in fine arts, so remember your colored pencils!
Kristyn
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Cycle 2 Week 13
What a fun day back! We missed two of our boys - we hope Garret's family feels better next week and we will continue to miss Andrew (and secretly hope he returns to us!)
English Grammar - we did motions as we stated the definition of an Adverb
Adverbs (hold both hands in a "V" with base of palms touching & fingers diagonally up) tell
how (hold both hands out, as in "I don't know"),
when (tap wrist, like a watch),
where (hold circle hands up to eyes, like binoculars),
to what extend (begin with both hands together, then spread apart horizontally),
how often (hold fingers up 1, 2, 3),
how much (begin with both hands together, then lift top hand),
and modify verbs ("V" sign),
adjectives ("A" sign),
or another adverb (hold both hands in a "V" with base of palms touching & fingers diagonaly up)
Science - we did motions as we stated the states of matter
solid (think "rock, paper, scissors" - we did the "rock")
liquid (motion for "water")
gas (both hands lifte up with fingers "playing", like water vapor)
plasma (move body silly, like a silly mirror)
Math - we found various rectangles in the classroom. For each one, we stated the rule "The area of a rectangle equals length times width"). For length, we moved our hands DOWN our body. For width, we put our hands at our waist and stretched out for "width". The students had a tendency to say "width" twice, so please remember to practice this. You may want to give a written cue of "L" as a hint.
Geography - we looked at the compass to determine just WHERE Northern Europe can be found. Then we found Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Netherlands. We "echoed" as we listed. Example: NORWAY, Norway, Norway, SWEDEN, Sweden, Sweden, etc.
History - We did the motions a few times and then the students took turns holding up pictures of a steam engine, power loom, and cotton gin.
Motions:
Watt's Steam Engine (pump arm, like a semi horn),
Cartwright's Power Loom (both arms parrallel to each other in front of body & move back and forth),
and Whitney's Cotton Gin (act like turning something)
spurred the Industrial Revolution (move arms as if wheels of the train)
which began in the 1760's (hold up 7 fingers, then 6 fingers)
Latin - this is the same material as weeks one and two. We tried to take turns listing the conjugated verbs, but we've had a bit of a break so we'll practice a bit more :)
Timeline - I have sent an attached file to your emails with the hand motions. If I can figure out how to attach it to the blog, I will do so.
Presentations - while most of us only remembered at the last minute, I thought the children did really well :) Thank you for observing our "no electronics" policy. For next week, I encourage you to have the children retell an event that has recently occurred. For example, tell about an experience they had in the snow, family they visited for Christmas, etc.
Please remember to send a folder with your child for his/her artwork. We are in the "Great Artists" section of Fine Arts and their "self portraits" were quite interesting today. What a joy to work with this age group!
Please let me know if you have any questions, suggestions, or concerns.
Kristyn
English Grammar - we did motions as we stated the definition of an Adverb
Adverbs (hold both hands in a "V" with base of palms touching & fingers diagonally up) tell
how (hold both hands out, as in "I don't know"),
when (tap wrist, like a watch),
where (hold circle hands up to eyes, like binoculars),
to what extend (begin with both hands together, then spread apart horizontally),
how often (hold fingers up 1, 2, 3),
how much (begin with both hands together, then lift top hand),
and modify verbs ("V" sign),
adjectives ("A" sign),
or another adverb (hold both hands in a "V" with base of palms touching & fingers diagonaly up)
Science - we did motions as we stated the states of matter
solid (think "rock, paper, scissors" - we did the "rock")
liquid (motion for "water")
gas (both hands lifte up with fingers "playing", like water vapor)
plasma (move body silly, like a silly mirror)
Math - we found various rectangles in the classroom. For each one, we stated the rule "The area of a rectangle equals length times width"). For length, we moved our hands DOWN our body. For width, we put our hands at our waist and stretched out for "width". The students had a tendency to say "width" twice, so please remember to practice this. You may want to give a written cue of "L" as a hint.
Geography - we looked at the compass to determine just WHERE Northern Europe can be found. Then we found Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Netherlands. We "echoed" as we listed. Example: NORWAY, Norway, Norway, SWEDEN, Sweden, Sweden, etc.
History - We did the motions a few times and then the students took turns holding up pictures of a steam engine, power loom, and cotton gin.
Motions:
Watt's Steam Engine (pump arm, like a semi horn),
Cartwright's Power Loom (both arms parrallel to each other in front of body & move back and forth),
and Whitney's Cotton Gin (act like turning something)
spurred the Industrial Revolution (move arms as if wheels of the train)
which began in the 1760's (hold up 7 fingers, then 6 fingers)
Latin - this is the same material as weeks one and two. We tried to take turns listing the conjugated verbs, but we've had a bit of a break so we'll practice a bit more :)
Timeline - I have sent an attached file to your emails with the hand motions. If I can figure out how to attach it to the blog, I will do so.
Presentations - while most of us only remembered at the last minute, I thought the children did really well :) Thank you for observing our "no electronics" policy. For next week, I encourage you to have the children retell an event that has recently occurred. For example, tell about an experience they had in the snow, family they visited for Christmas, etc.
Please remember to send a folder with your child for his/her artwork. We are in the "Great Artists" section of Fine Arts and their "self portraits" were quite interesting today. What a joy to work with this age group!
Please let me know if you have any questions, suggestions, or concerns.
Kristyn
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Review Ideas
Here's for the first post of the Abecedarian B class :)
I hope you all have enjoyed the break. We had a great time with family and friends. Somehow, I didn't get as caught up as I had planned, though! One thing is for certain - my family should definitely know week 13 with all the practice we've had due to two cancellations :)
I'd like to encourage you to review with your children. Even if you just do two subjects a day, it is enough to keep it fresh in their minds. This will make review time during class go much more smoothly as well.
Here are some ideas we've done during Christmas break:
Concentration with the English Grammar - I listed each week's title (Ex: Nominative Pronouns) on one card and the corresponding list of pronouns on another (I, You, He...). I did this with all the pronoun lists we've learned. We turned the cards over and played concentration. Each time someone turned a card over, we all worked together to remember the pronouns that matched and then we'd turn over another card. This allowed for many practice attempts per pronoun group - and also helped the non-readers listen and learn.
Timeline cards - we'd review the week, then remove two or three and have them guess the missing ones. What really worked well, though, was reviewing and then seeing if they could list the first three or four without the cards present (for readers - I let the nonreaders see the cards). We worked up to them listing all eight for that week without many prompts. Challenging, but effective!
Geography - We'd list the items and then find them on our maps. What was interesting was that in this subject, sometimes the littles helped the older ones! What was also interesting was that I had COMPLETELY forgotten where some of the places were! (RIVERS?!?)
History - mine love to listen to the CD, so we rarely practice this separately. They're even learning some of the future weeks.
Bible - we have not done as good of a job with this as I would have liked. Do you guys have suggestions for memorizing the verses?
Latin - again, mine listen to the memory CD. However, I think I will make concentration cards for this as well. If mine hear the tune, they can finish. But for the Memory test, they won't have that tune to jump start their recitation!
Math - listening to the Memory CD over and over has helped tremendously. Glad I finally put it in the van! I also will stop them as soon as they are incorrect and point out the correct number and start the song over again. I don't know about you, but I'm not sure I'll ever learn the cubes!
Misc - Mine also enjoy playing the Bozo game of throwing a beanbag into a bucket. If they get the question correct, they have a chance to toss the beanbag. Geography - two chances if they get both the list of items AND locations correct. There are three buckets spaced in a vertical line. It is interesting when the person getting all the questions correct has the lowest points because she can't make a bucket!
Each week, I will try to post the latest motions, tunes, etc. so you can come here to find the information. That way, you'll be able find past weeks in one spot instead of trying to sort through a bajilion emails.
Have a great week and hopefully I'll see you Tuesday!
I hope you all have enjoyed the break. We had a great time with family and friends. Somehow, I didn't get as caught up as I had planned, though! One thing is for certain - my family should definitely know week 13 with all the practice we've had due to two cancellations :)
I'd like to encourage you to review with your children. Even if you just do two subjects a day, it is enough to keep it fresh in their minds. This will make review time during class go much more smoothly as well.
Here are some ideas we've done during Christmas break:
Concentration with the English Grammar - I listed each week's title (Ex: Nominative Pronouns) on one card and the corresponding list of pronouns on another (I, You, He...). I did this with all the pronoun lists we've learned. We turned the cards over and played concentration. Each time someone turned a card over, we all worked together to remember the pronouns that matched and then we'd turn over another card. This allowed for many practice attempts per pronoun group - and also helped the non-readers listen and learn.
Timeline cards - we'd review the week, then remove two or three and have them guess the missing ones. What really worked well, though, was reviewing and then seeing if they could list the first three or four without the cards present (for readers - I let the nonreaders see the cards). We worked up to them listing all eight for that week without many prompts. Challenging, but effective!
Geography - We'd list the items and then find them on our maps. What was interesting was that in this subject, sometimes the littles helped the older ones! What was also interesting was that I had COMPLETELY forgotten where some of the places were! (RIVERS?!?)
History - mine love to listen to the CD, so we rarely practice this separately. They're even learning some of the future weeks.
Bible - we have not done as good of a job with this as I would have liked. Do you guys have suggestions for memorizing the verses?
Latin - again, mine listen to the memory CD. However, I think I will make concentration cards for this as well. If mine hear the tune, they can finish. But for the Memory test, they won't have that tune to jump start their recitation!
Math - listening to the Memory CD over and over has helped tremendously. Glad I finally put it in the van! I also will stop them as soon as they are incorrect and point out the correct number and start the song over again. I don't know about you, but I'm not sure I'll ever learn the cubes!
Misc - Mine also enjoy playing the Bozo game of throwing a beanbag into a bucket. If they get the question correct, they have a chance to toss the beanbag. Geography - two chances if they get both the list of items AND locations correct. There are three buckets spaced in a vertical line. It is interesting when the person getting all the questions correct has the lowest points because she can't make a bucket!
Each week, I will try to post the latest motions, tunes, etc. so you can come here to find the information. That way, you'll be able find past weeks in one spot instead of trying to sort through a bajilion emails.
Have a great week and hopefully I'll see you Tuesday!
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