assignments for 1/30/09

Dear Families,

We had a busy day. We chugged through history and produced a narration in class. Mrs. Nicole was our scribe and you should find your child's copy in their homework folder. We had a hole in our day because our Amelia was ill and could not join us. We prayed for you!

I hammered grammar pretty hard. We reviewed and spent time on helping verbs. We went over and over past tense verbs and helper verbs (known as past participles in later grades). I was relentless and they seem to have it. Please be diligent about grammar. It builds and if you see holes let me know and we will work in class. The review you do at home of the lessons is VERY important. Please don't just send them off to read the lesson on their own. Walk through it with them.

We love this lit book. We enjoyed our simile illustrations and found some more. Ask your student the difference in a simile and a metaphor. We discussed Trudie and then made a handkerchief doll like the one that kept her quiet in the story. I hope they made it home. We are following up on some labs in science. The lima beans we planted are in various stages. Sarah's grew the most and pushed the plaster right up. It is a great illustration of erosion caused by plants. We looked at soil and discussed the difference in organic and inorganic material.

Please don't stress over the reports I assigned in history. You and your student should be able to find all the info asked for very easily. You second graders might want to simply answer the suggestions/questions on the assignment page and then have your student turn the answers into complete sentences and, voila, you have a report. Again, I will expect more from my 3rd graders. I'm following the schedule approved by the board for working through SOTW. We have a very short time on the American Revolution so I thought this was a way we can learn a lot from each other.

I was in the doghouse because I forgot the "ears". They will be there Friday and even more "ripe"!

I missed the PTA meeting and would have loved being there. Girl's Basketball consumes the Tkachs at this time of the year. I've mentioned many times how I miss my big, college boys. I'm striving to enjoy every minute I have with my beautiful, high school junior. I'm sure you all learned from Mrs. Fowler. She is amazing.

Enjoy the week of learning with your student.

love,
Mrs. Tkach

ASSIGNMENTS:
Grammar 3rd:--read lesson 63
--complete ex. A and B under "Using the Correct Verb"
--review lesson 66
--complete ex. A, B, and C
--complete "Writing Sentences"

2nd:--read lesson 23 on page 170
--complete Oral Drill with Mom on page 171
--complete ex. A
--read lesson 24 on page 172
--complete ex. A orally with Mom
--read lesson 23 in Unit 2 on page 112
--complete ex. A (only 5 sentences)

Literature:--finish reading the book (if you already read the end, you might want to read it again)

History:--begin reports which are due 2/3/09 (see handout in folders)
--read chapter 23
--map work
--optional color page

Science:
--collect soil from your yard and put it in the small bottle Mrs. Nicole prepared for us
--go over the labs we examined today with your parents

Latin:
--review lesson 14
--complete page 66

Bible:
--read ch. 24
--choose either the little girl brought back to life or the woman healed. Get quiet and put yourself in their place. In a few complete sentences, write down how you would feel, what you might say and/or do.