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