Party!!

We will be having a party on December 3rd. Families will be bringing food from around the world to share. We will eat at 11:30am. Then we will make a craft to put in the nursing home resident's goodie bags. The next craft table will be to assemble and decorate the bags. Students will receive prizes from their tutors. Essential students will have their "auction". We will go to Woodhaven to deliver goodie bags and sing Christmas carols at 1:30pm.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Open House - October 22nd

Learn how a Classical Conversations community can help equip, encourage, and support parents in their homeschooling endeavors. At 9:15 am, we have our opening ceremony and dismiss for classes at 9:30 am. Enjoy watching the class presentations, hands-on science and Fine Arts sessions of our Foundations programs.

We eat lunch together, so pack a lunch if you would like to join us.

Hear and observe our Essentials program from 1-3pm. This is when our 3rd - 6th graders learn grammar, writing and play math games.

Reservations are required to ensure enough space is available.

You may come and go as you like during day.

Essentials - 9/24/09

Here is the "interjections" video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhHpJ45_zwM
I found it helpful.
Here is a video showing how to learn multiplication tables http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZlBtMPrMyk

EEL Assignment – Week 4
1. Complete Charts daily, working toward mastery:
– Phonograms (S4)
– Sentence Patterns (S1D)
2. Complete Task Sheets
– For sentences 1, 2 and 3 (pgs 62 - 64)
3. Complete Editing Exercise for Week Four daily
– (teacher-directed level of editing)

IEW Assignment – Week 4
1. Cut out and learn the vocabulary words for Lesson 4 **Quiz next week on words from weeks 1-4**

2. Complete page 22, finishing the KWO, listing 3 key words for each sentence.

3. Complete your writing assignment:
– Use your KWO only when writing
– Create a paragraph in your own words from your KWO
– Use checklist on page 23 to get all your points!
– Mark all elements of style with correct markings - check email for color codes
– Bring a copy of your final back to class next week

I look forward to reading your papers!

Mrs. Griffith

Abecidarian 2 Class, Week 3

Greetings to my awesome 5-year-olds and their parents! We had a great week 3 and seem to be settling into our routine! Mrs. Lively's class joined us this past week since we've had so many folks out on vacation. It was a pleasure having Keiran Capuano with us, and being able to co-teach with Mrs. Lively!

I've sent an email to all of you with the week's hand motions for your easy reference, so check your inboxes! I'll try to email these to you each week!

For review time, we played a rousing chutes-and-ladders-style game which enabled us to cover ALL of our past 2 weeks' memory work! Very cool! The kids did an amazing job of remembering everything they've learned, and we all had fun reciting every answer together! I know that I'm learning just as much as the kids are -- a true testimony to the power of repetition!

See you next week!

-Mrs. Blugerman

Journeymen/Masters

We had a great day 9/17. Our new history sentence introducing the Greek and Roman gods was set to fun music and the kids did a great job with it. The new Latin noun endings are set to the tune of "Rain, Rain Go Away". The CD sounds as if it makes the singular 1st declension sound as a short (a) instead of the correct short (u) sound. This tune is really catchy. It seems as though my daughter and I had a hard time not singing it over and over again Thurs. and Fri.. Our Science was the Animal Cell which we learned hand motions to and discussed their funtions. Next week we will cover the plant cell. This group will probably be able to make a rough sketch of these during review time next week. The Prepostion song on the "weekly" CD track 25 is a great tool for learning the prepostions. The Timeline Cards had a new set of hand motions, as they will each week. The kids seem to be picking these up pretty well. However, if you notice an area where your child seems to be having a tougher time learning the new material, please let me know. Our science experients were outside and we spent more time talking about the Scientific Method and different variables (such as the weather/season)affect our results. We well continue to review 6 weeks of new material each week. I passed out tickets in ziplock bags this week and hope to pass out tickets for those who have been absent as well. At least for the first half of the year these are given for as rewards for being a part of our class and to reinforce the responsibility of keeping up with them. After the first 12 weeks we may use the tickets to reward those who are applying more effort on their memory work. The children are doing terrific on their presentations. I enjoy their stories and interests. What a terrific way for them to express their different hobbies and get to know one another better. We have a really special class with a wide variety of presentation topics. This is probably my favorite part of the day. I encourage the students to continue to think about eye contact and thinking about enough things to talk about for at least 2-3 minutes. The class is truly interested and seems to really enjoy hearing what each other has to say. I am looking forward to next week and wish you all terrific memory work in the meantime!
Mrs. Murphy

Apprentice - 9/17/09

Thank you to Mrs. Griffith for substituting for me last week! :) We had a great class on Thursday. We still aren't back to our full class yet but hopefully we'll have full attendance next week. We began our class with a new seating arrangement and Classroom Rules. Also, I gave out tickets to redeem toward prizes every 6th week. Since we learned to skip count by sixes this week that would be the 6th, 12th, 18th and 24th weeks. Your child can earn one ticket each week if he/she respectfully conducts themself. Each child will have three marks beside their name each week (this is good) but if they disrupt our class a mark will be removed. If they lose all three marks they will not get a ticket to redeem toward a prize for that week and I will speak with the parent regarding their behavior. Parents feel free to stop by after class (if you are tutoring or have multiple children) and check out how your child is doing.

This week's New Grammar had lots of music from the CC Audio CD. For the parent whose child missed class this week, I've emailed you the Latin handout and hand motions that we did. We used Timeline motions for our timeline cards, and hand motions for both Science and English prepostitions (we also listened to the preposition song on the weekly CD, track 25). We used the acrostic J'S SIP for Geography. For our Science Experiment we observed why desert animals go underground and also how animals can hide from their predators by their color by blending into their surroundings. We had upside down drawings that helped us recognize the OILS when we draw. Great job on the cat and bird! If you need help remembering any of the motions, please don't hesitate to email or call me and I'll email them to you. Check your child's backpack for a helpful handout in Latin and to see their great artwork. We played Connect Four in our class for Grammar Review for Weeks 1 and 2. Sharpen your review for games next week by using the flashcards this week. It's amazing to watch as they remember from week to week. I was so pleased when everyone stood up for Presentations this week!
For His glory,
Mrs. Goad

Essentials - 9/17/09

Hope these videos help a bit with the overload of information we received today. Your students are extremely (ly- word!) impressive. They are working deligently at home and it shows!

EEL Assignment – Week 3

1.Complete Charts daily, working toward mastery:

Nouns (S3A)
Pronouns (S3B)
Helpful Pronoun Chart (S2C)

2.Complete Task Sheets

For sentences 1, 2 and 3 (pgs 50 - 52)

3.Complete Editing Exercise for Week Three daily

(teacher-directed level of editing)

IEW Assignment – Week 3

1.Cut out and learn the vocabulary words for Lesson 3

2.Read page 18 to gather insight into the Sumerian civilization

3.Complete page 16, finishing the Key Word Outline (KWO), listing 3 key words for each sentence.

4.Complete page 17 to have quality dress-ups on hand

5.Complete your writing assignment:

a.Use your KWO only

b.Create a paragraph in your own words from your KWO

c.Use checklist on page 19 – get all your points!

d.Bring a copy of your final back to class next week