I hope our Moms enjoy the necklaces we made in class! We worked very hard on them. Please know that the pearls are real and the wire is sterling. I have decided that jewelry making as a career is not in my future! Hand-knotting and I do not agree!
Congratulations Katya for representing us so well at the state level of PSIA. We are so proud of your medal!
Congratulation to all our students who participated in PSIA. We won 37 medals and lots of pretty purple ribbons! I hope you enjoyed the day. I know it can be trying to spend a Saturday competing in academics but it certainly builds character (and muscles, if you take the stairs as many times as necessary). It is wonderful to see how the children gain skills through competition. It makes the effort worthwhile when you see the smiles of success.
12-08-09
I have been so impressed with our science and social studies projects! All students finished in time and did wonderful jobs! There was something unique about each and every one of them but to think that Annalisa went so far as to have a photo made of her standing on the edge of the San Andreas Fault to enhance her earthquake presentation is awesome! Jack's Fire Rainbow, Isaac's volcano slide show, Katya's rockslides, Shauna's tornado facts, Gabe and Ann's extinction projects, Grace's snow storms, Jonathan's sinkholes and Christian's lightening presentations were fabulous! What will do for an encore?
11-20-09: We have completed several class projects including one on endangered animals finished by each individual student. The students also worked on teams to build spooky houses and examples of earth's wonders. We have a fabulous example of a sink hole, a cavern and an aquifer on display. The students are now working individually to finish projects on weather disasters. The outlines and research was done in class this week so that the students could work on visual aids and presentations during their time off for the holiday. Some of my very motivated students have already finished all three parts of the assignment. Jack presented a wonderful slide show of a fire rainbow and other weather special effects. Grace did a great job of teaching snow storm facts. Isaac presented his slide show on volcanoes and Jonathan is finished with his project on sink holes. Ann did a wonderful job on explaining theories about dinosaur extinction. Gabe is working on extinction processes. Katya has finished her outline for rock slides. Annalisa is researching earthquakes. Shauna chose tornadoes. Winfield is researching floods. Our new student Christian, is researching ligntning strikes. If you have questions about the assignment, these are the basics: 1. Choose a topic related to natural disasters or extreme weather to be researched in class or at home. 2. Prepare a basic outline and present research in class. 3. Create a visual aid. 4. Write or type three to four paragraphs to be presented in class that teach five things we don't already know about your topic.
Family work-day is coming soon! It is on Sunday, May 16th. I'm looking forward to cleaning those sticky keyboards on our computers and having clean windows! Please try to come! You can bring the children, grandparents or friends. We'll share garden tools and picnic together.
I can't say thank you enough to our wonderful parents who went above and beyond anything I ever imagined by planning and catering a party for our students. I enjoyed it so much and the students made some wonderful memories. You are "AWESOME"!
11-20-09: We have the best families ever! Thanks for providing the food for the feast and driving on our field trips. Your children appreciate you!
10-26-09: I really appreciate those of you who spent time on campus last Sunday cleaning and sprucing up our classrooms and playgrounds. I can really tell the difference when you care enough to help out. Your children notice too..
Our Saxon program is proving to be effective for our students. Most are going through at least four or five lessons each week. I like teaching such a wide variety of abilities with appropriate curriculum. I have students in Intermediate 3 through 5 on various lessons. We are learning concepts quickly with reduced repetition. Of course, most of the students need to practice multiplication facts and some still need to memorize basic facts. I will be sending practice sheets homes today for students who need them.
1-05-10
Watch for take home tests that have some very nice grades on them this week. I was pleasantly surprised with gains from my math students. Two had perfect scores with not corrections needed.
We had such a short week last week that some students failed to get in the required four lessons to qualify for a test. Tests aren't just for Fridays anyway. As soon as they master four lessons they will test! I hope you are seeing the forward momentum I feel each time you view your child's progress report!
11-20-09: My math students are really moving quickly through their Saxon lessons. Our morning meeting board is so interactive that it should be patented. The students work through it like paid employees afraid of outsourcing. They make good use of all my manipulatives too. Watch for great strides in progress on your child's next grade report!
10-26-09: We have successfully promoted two of my math students onto the next level. Congratulations, Grace and Gabe! They worked diligently to progress to the higher level by using the book and everything I could teach them. I wonder who will be next to leave me? We have new books so it should be easier for the rest to move up. We have received our Saxon textbooks for level 4! I have provided book socks to protect the books from accidental damage but we are still only using them in class. Now that we have a book for each student, there is no excuse for not fulfilling the requirements of completing four lessons or more each week with a test to follow. The students will be required to correct any mistakes and return corrected assignments the next day. Some of the work will likely be finished as homework.
As we finish up week five, some of the students are moving more quickly than others but all have gained skills that they didn't have previously. some of the level four students need to review basic facts and most of the level three students need practice with number formation and paper placement for use during lessons.
In October, we will begin to use the Saxon method of five Instructional Components each day. We started the process earlier using my supplies from former assignments but now that we have the books it will make it easier to go through the steps properly. The components include using the meeting board around the calendar to review concepts, practicing basic facts, learning a new concept or reviewing as needed, using manipulatives to gain fluency, guided class practice to be finished as homework if necessary and assessments each Friday. (The students can do more than one lesson each day if they choose)
I will continue to enrich learning with the use of CSMP with the Pappy minicomputer as a support for the positional system of numeration, for calculations and estimation, for number patterns and mental math, for modeling operations involving whole numbers, integers and decimals. Of course, the students just see the Pappy sheet as a game so it makes math more fun! In case you missed open house Pappy Playtime, here's a refresher or the grid count: the bottom right square always counts as one set, bottom left counts two, upper right counts four and the upper right counts eight of whatever the place value is worth. When in doubt, ask your child! They love it when it works! Check your take homes for a practice mat.
10-06-09: What great results we had for our unit test in math. Most of the students mastered all areas taught on lessons 1-10. They were thrilled to learn that mastering the test material meant that they did not have to finish all materials in the books. I think they know more than they realize! We will do the investigation, flash facts test and review each Friday. We covered our books with book socks on Monday but I still don't feel confidant sending the books home so your child might continue to bring home a copy of a lesson if they fail to finish during class. If they are past lesson ten, the answers should be written on separate paper instead of on the packet. I am so proud of my diligent math students!
10-15-09: Two students are ready to test out of the book tomorrow! Good luck Grace and Gabe. They are working diligently on their basic facts and concepts. I hope they do well but if not they will try again next week. All of the students are working on pictographs, time, temperature, measurement and solving for the unknown. I have five nice pictographs on display and I am looking forward to the rest tomorrow!
1-11-10
We are so proud of Isaac and Katya for participating in the school-wide spelling bee! Their words, efficacy and pernicious, were from the final round so they should feel elated with their success. It's as if they lasted though nine rounds to get to that level. They earned free time and a popcorn party for their efforts.
Our current spelling lessons come from a new book of spelling essentials with all the Spalding rules. Each Monday the students will receive a copy of at least four of the most common spelling rules and pre-test over examples of words involved. This week's words include c and k words with initial consonants that sound alike: company, cupboard, cucumber and cubby start with cs that sounds like ks. Kangaroo starts with k but sounds like c. Other spelling words for this week include words that end in k preceded by double vowels as in: speak, week, cloak, creek, book, weak, oak, spook, beak, leak, steak and look. The students know which words are nouns or verbs and will be expected to add affixes to the words to use them in sentences. This week's test is Wednesday.
Each student has a different list this week in spelling! We have studied 104 root words, added affixes and conjugated verbs. If your child needs to practice at home, the individual words were sent home Monday. If you need a complete list, it's still page 38. If you have lost it, let me know. We will use the same page next week!
11-20-09: Almost all students mastered last week's words. Those who missed more than four words will get the missed words added to the next test. We are using page 38 for the last time this week as we continue to review words with affixes. The words for the week are: roof, float, heavy, repair, scissors, hopeful, tongue, bravely, peaceful, swimming, whisper, garage, wharf, buddy, donkey, monkey, life, search, finish and belief. Everyone spells the words listed. Spelling Bee aspirants will add or subtract affixes or turn singular words into plural ones.
11-16-09:
We had some great results in spelling last week! I used the Spalding Method and grades really improved. I will try to continue the system this week with the words from review sheet number 38. The words are: proof, false, freeze, parent, teach, treatable, friendly, careless, emptiness, jogged, spelling, wheel, curtain, sandwiches, scarves, berries, dairies, journeys, puppies and leaves. The students pretested on Monday morning. some of the students have proven that the words can be changed with affixes to make them more interesting so they are welcome to work on bonus words as needed.
11-02-09; Spelling words for this week come from our review unit on page 38 that was passed out recently. The words to work with include:chief, bought, follow, length, queen, dangerous, hopeless, friendless, bravely, happiness, sillier, thinnest and ceiling. The students are responsible for spelling the root words and all conjugations of verbs.
10-23-09: This week's scores were fairly consistent but some seem to need more time with the words so here is the list for the week: nonfat, rebuild, subway, imperfect, incorrect, nonsense, repaint, uncertain, disappear, impolite, indirect, nonskid, research, uncommon, defrost, dislike, improper, misplace, preschool, subfloor, unhappy, below, decode, derail, disobey, incomplete, misspell, preview, submarine. If some of these words seem familiar, it's because we've used the root words in past weeks.
Spelling scores were awesome for last week! We spelled words with dipthongs /ou/ and /ow/ with great success! This week we will concentrate on pluralization rules such as adding /es/ to words that end with consonants and review or learn patterns that help. The words for the week include:
address, batch, beach, branch, brush, cause, cheese, class, coach, duplex, glass, finish, porch, radish, sandwich, search, watch and wax. The students will pluralize some words to use in sentences.
10-06-09: The students did so well last week in spelling that I decided to skip sending home an assignment sheet this week. They did receive a list with all the words we've worked with this year to review. The list will also be used for next week's words. We did our Monday spelling bee to decide on the words that need more work. The words for the week are: calves, gnats, knobs, calm, debt, halves, doubt, enough, ghost, neighbor, taught, alphabet, hyphen, geography, nephew, pharmacy, gopher, orphan, duplexes and radishes. We have pretested already and the students know how to study at home if necessary. Aren't these wonderful words?
10-14-09: 90% of my language arts students mastered their spelling words on Wednesday! I was pleasantly surprised, especially since we had a day off from school. Of course the words were reviewed from previous lessons but the students remembered and were mostly successful with use of the pluralization rules. Monkey and donkey caused a few problems but basically, my students RULE! Some students are struggling with possessive nouns and pronouns. Others need more work on recognizing parts of speech so the lessons continue. We are almost finished with W.I.T.C.H. Five, so the Inquiry Questions are due Friday. I just require one question for each chapter and the results are listed on the progress reports as a percentage as they are finished.