thoughts on 4/22/08 & assignments for 4/29/08

Dear Families,

I hope, by now, you have heard about yesterday from your student. We set up a Medieval hospital and invited two other classes in to be "doctored". We were eating spiders, smearing cow manure, swallowing cobwebs, crushing emeralds, brewing lettuce tea as well as cherry bark tea. There were egg yolks, vinegar, rose petals, leaches. Mrs. Nicole was our helper and she jumped in and made it even more fun (and cleaned up the huge mess afterwards!). It was a great exercise in working together and hosting other classes. I am so proud of my students!

Only four more meetings of Trinity! That makes me sad! We still have lots of work to do so let's not let spring fever keep us from finishing well.

We are continuing our emphasis on writing in grammar. Your student received a reference sheet that I typed up on the different types of writing. The 2 point outline that you received last week came right out of the Shurley teacher's book (page 78). Your child can reference it as they write more 2 point paragraphs for me. We talked in depth about revising and editing, using reference 13 on page 16 in their book. Then I modeled writing a 2 point paragraph in rough draft form, revised and edited it, and then wrote it over in final draft form.

We tried to plow through the book Good Queen Bess, but it is very long. I'll finish it at the beginning of next week. We examined the brittle star we created last week with salt crystals and we read about jellyfish and sea anemones. We said good-bye to Robin as we conlcuded our study of The Door in the Wall. Enjoy learning with your children this week.

GRAMMAR:
--write a rough draft of a two point expository paragraph on a topic of your choice
--revise and edit your rought draft according to reference 13
--make a final draft of your paragraph
--turn in both the rough draft (with revising and editing marks) and the final draft
Parents, walk them through this process. Again, I'm not looking for perfection just good, solid effort)

HISTORY:
--map and color page
--three short, interesting facts you've learned about Queen Elizabeth--be sure you use complete sentences (because of the heavy load of writing in grammar, I don't want history to be another big burden)
--READ CHAPTER 39!!! I always assume this has been done each week. We don't go over it. We just add to it and enhance it. Your child will probably be lost if the chapter hasn't been read prior to coming to class. The best idea is to read it Monday evening.


SCIENCE:
--over the next two weeks, read Lesson 12 and answer the study guide questions as you read. We'll go over the study guide and then have a test on May 6th.
--dust off your ocean boxes or make one (page 17 in the science text) and bring it next week. We'll make "critters" during science time. If you are a car-pooler and there isn't room for everyone's box to come to school, we can make the animals and you can take them home and put them in place.
--bring your science spiral. I plan for us to try to bring them up to date with science terms during class as well

LITERATURE:
--read through page 16 of Saint George and the Dragon
--complete the sheet you were assigned on that portion of the book. Some of you are artful artists, some are passage masters, etc. You will get together with your partner(s) for a few minutes and prepare a presentation that combines your efforts

BIBLE:
--read chapter 95 and 96. Chapter 95 is from II Kings 18--20 and II Chronicles 29--32. Chapter 96 is from II Kings 21 and II Chronicles 33

love,
Mrs. Tkach