SNOW!!!!!!! (and assignments for 1/23/09)

Good Evening!

We had a great day. Tough to keep their interest with snow outside the window. Add to that, watching a piece of history take place with the inauguration--it was really tough to hold their interest. I do, however, believe learning happened.

I spent a lot of years confused about the French and Indian Wars. I am determined to make every effort to keep my students from operating in confusion over these misnamed wars. Along those lines, I found the most incredible book on the subject at the public library. It is called Struggle for a Continent: The French and Indian Wars 1689--1763. The author is Betsy Maestro. Outstanding! It is too long for me to read in class so I tried to summarize today and share the fabulous illustrations with the students. I hope they learned from it. I'll have it Friday to share more from. I'm going to check with Nicole and make an offer (with her approval) to anyone that checks it out and reads it thoroughly with a parent to a lunch date with her. We'll see. . .

We conducted a great project in history about The War of Jenkin's Ear--you've probably heard about it. Science was fun with a little more of a hands-on lab about erosion. Grammar covered some difficult topics so, once again, please give these lessons extra attention.

I love our little literature selection! We went to the youth suite and Mr. Tim helped us watch a youtube video of a matchlock gun being fired. We read the Foreward in class and looked up the places on our map. Enjoy this book with your child--it's great. I love when our lit selection meshes with where we are in our history studies.

We played in the snow and the children were a pure delight as they squealed with pleasure as they raced about trying to catch flakes on their tongues. As we had our closing prayer, we asked God to help our new president and we asked for a little more snow to play in. I received some at my house! Hope you each did, as well.

Many thanks to Mrs. Beth who has a daughter in the upper grades and joined us today. She was great!

love,
Mrs. Tkach

ASSIGNMENTS:
Grammar: 3rd:--review lesson 61 on page 155
--complete ex. A and B
--complete "Review and Practice"
--review lesson 62 on page 157
--complete "Using Different Verb Forms"
--complete "Writing Sentences with Different Verb Forms"

2nd--read lesson 12 on page 148
--complete ex. A on page 149
--read lesson 13 on page 150
--complete Oral Drill with Mom
--complete "For You To Do" numbers 1 and 3
--read lesson 14 on page 152
--complete Oral Drill with Mom

Literature:
--look over information sheet and define vocabulary words
--read Chapters 1,2, and 3
NOTE: The directions on the information sheet are confusing. Please do lit homework in this order: look over information sheet, define vocabulary words, read the chapters THEN do the illustration and the thought question.

History:
--finish reading ch. 21
--complete a narration on this section

Science:
--explain our lab to you parents

Latin:
--review lesson 13
--complete page 64

Bible:
--read chapter 20
--begin memorizing the Beattitudes (Matthew 5:3--12) 2nd graders: verses 3--9. Hopefully you have a NIV. I'll have a handout with it printed up by next time. We haven't done any memory work in a while and it is an important part of the Classical Education Model that Trinity follows. We may recite at the Winter Ball.