assignments for January 15, 2008

Hello Families,

I apologize that my blog was not posted before now. I pledge to do better so that you can have the assignments for your Wednesday school day.

We had a great day yesterday. I didn't realize how much I missed my students until I had them around me again. It was great to be learning together again. Many thanks to Michelle Owens, Luke's mom, for assisting me. She worked hard and made the first school day of 2008 run a lot smoother.

A few notes/reminders:
--Report cards are coming out soon. I will send each of you an e-mail about missing work in the next day or two. I can make copies of anything you need. As we adjusted from homeshooling solely to a "school environment," I decided not to penalize for late work this quarter. If you get the work into me it gets full credit.
--Please read the Bible lessons with your family. This curriculum was chosen by the board of TCA. I dedicate at least 20 minutes at the first of each class discussing it. Sometimes I'm the only one who's read and it's not much of a discussion. I enclosed a new copy of the curriculum in case your old one is misplaced.
--With the papers your student brought home yesterday there is a handout about a reading program Trinity is participating in. The handout should be fairly self-explanatory. Any questions can be forwarded to Nicole.

History:
--Re-read ch. 19 in SOTW and produce a narration ( we studied this before Christmas)
--Using our classroom reading and discussion about The Diaspora (ch. 20 in SOTW), produce a narration showing all you learned. (We read this chapter in class as well as enriched it with activities so your student shouldn't need to read it again for homework.)
--Mapwork pg. 84
--Color page pg. 85
--Read ch. 23, The First Russians, for next week (NOTE!!! we're skipping a few chapters to stay on schedule)

Literature:
--Read through pg. 70 in King Arthur. If your child has finished the book but it's been a while,
have them refresh their memory by skimming or re-reading these pages.
--Begin memorizing the Knight's oath on pg. 70 We'll take two weeks to accomplish this but if anyone is ready by next week--great!!!

Grammar:
--Review ch. 11 and administer test.
--Complete ch. 12 from the teaching text this week.
--Have ch. 12 vocab with definitions AND SENTENCES ready to turn in next week.

Science:
--Read pg. 96--101.
--Produce a narration on this reading.
--Enter fusiform, nares, monocular vision, lateral line, hermaphrodites in science spiral.
--Bring science spiral to show you've kept it up to date with our vocab words.

Highlights and My Thoughts on our School Day--January 8, 2008

I had a "surprise" root canal on Monday morning so I called Mrs. Esther and bowed out of Latin for yesterday to lighten my load. We will be back "at it" next week.

I know I'm asking for two narrations in history in one week, but I also know my students can do it. This will help us stay on track with our SOTW schedule. We enjoyed our in-class study of The Diaspora. "The Clever Rabbi" story included in the chapter was very enjoyable and your student brought home the makings of finger puppets to act the story out for your family. If anyone wants to bring theirs back in next week, I'll try to make time for us to act it out in class.
After sitting still and listening to the chapter we got the wiggles out by going outside and taking turns pretending the be Yohanan ben Zakkai being smuggled out of Jerusalem in a coffin. It was a lot of fun.

Mrs. Michelle read the students a version of Esther recommended by SOTW author, Susan Bauer. They enjoyed it but several noted differences between it and the story from scripture. An excellent exercise this week would be to read the book in the Bible and have your student note differences and similarities.

We celebrated and discussed a Passover meal together (complete with candles for mood!) This was to enrich our knowledge of Jewish rituals. Ask your child about it and what they learned. I had a blast myself. Questions for you to ask: 1. Why a lamb bone? 2. How many cups of wine? 3. What did the apple/nuts mixture represent? 4. Why salt water? 5. What did the boiled egg represent? How about the bitter herbs? greens? I sent you a copy of the activity to look over.

Grammar was a bit dry. They were amazing, though, as we classified sentences, sang jingles, and reviewed all the different parts of speech we've learned. Luke earned a reward for "stumping Mrs. Tkach". I owe him a candy bar!!!

I didn't have a very exciting science lesson but your children were "tuned in" and I think we learned a lot. We produced a narration together in class. Look for it and be sure it gets into the science section of their big binders.

We tried to find common ground for where we had all gotten in our reading of King Arthur. We discussed Arthur's innocence which turned into a discussion of how we can be made innocent, no matter how sinful we've been, by accepting Christ as our savior. We researched and discussed the characteristics outlined in the knight's oath and how each of them can be traced back to Holy Scripture.

My college son is laughing over my shoulder at the size of my blog and the fact that such a technologically handicapped person even has one so I'll close and remind you that I love my students and will be praying for each them this week. I always covet your prayers as I prepare each week.

Until the 15th,
Mrs. Tkach