Our Day and assignments for 2/24/09

Dear Families,

Another action-packed day! We had show-and-tell first. I've decided to put this off for two weeks and start having it every other Friday. It is so much fun but I think we're losing too much class time. We had a great Bible time. A "so what?" is when you think about a passage you've just read from the Bible and you ask yourself, "So what?" "How can I apply this to my life?" "How am I better now that I've spent time listening to God's Word?" We discussed our powerful God and how He has all our problems in the palm of His hands. We then read the Good Samaritan story and had fun acting it out.

Latin was fun, as always, when we play stump Mrs. Tkach. Mr. Robert (Milford's dad) was our morning time helper and joined in the game. Between us we were a pretty good team. By the way, we are going to retake the Latin test. Our grades ranged from 63 to 93. I don't think it was fair for me to give it after a weekend when there was not suppose to be any homework. It will be the exact same test so study before Tuesday.

I read the children a book about the French painter Redoute', painter of flowers. He lived through the French Revolution and the reign of terror. Your children seemed fascinated with him and it was just an after thought I threw in before we started discussing Russia and Catherine. Several of the students said they were too interested in Catherine to stop with just reading the first half of the chapter. WOW! We looked at some pictures of her and reviewed what we'd already learned about Russia and Peter the Great. We then read a beautiful Russian fairy tale about The Firebird. They loved it because it mentioned Baba Yaga, a fairy tale character we'd met weeks ago. Our history ended our day with coloring paper dolls of Catherine the Great. These came home for the children to finish. If you have clear contact paper, they will be more sturdy. There is no need to return them to me. (The boys weren't exactly pleased with paper dolls but they were good sports as the girls were when we sword fought!)

I think the grammar test went well. I stayed with the third graders and Mr. Robert helped the second graders. I kept reminding mine to slow down and think. When they did, they did great.
Literature is still my favorite! We tasted "wonders" rolled in sugar like Ann's mother made. We also tried traveling with a 10 pound baby and an iron pot. It was tough! Ask your student about it. (Baby Josiah Miller was invited but had a cold.) I really drilled them on personification and the beautiful imagery in this book. We had a great time. Have your student show you their illustration comparing a street with a road after reading the middle paragraph on page 43. We tried the thermometer experiment again in science and only did a little better. We'll press on next week.

Y'all stay warm and work diligently at your studies. I'll see you Tuesday.

love,
Mrs. Tkach

ASSIGNMENTS:
Grammar: 3rd: --begin memorizing poem on pg. 192
--review lesson 76 on page 196
--complete ex. A, B, and C

2nd: review lesson 1 of Unit 4
--complete Oral Drill with Mom
--complete "For You To Do"
--look for a copy of the poem The Swing by Robert Lewis Stevenson and begin memorizing it.

Literature:
--look over the list of examples of personification we made in class
--use your big art paper and especially use your imagination and illustrate your favorite example. Please take your time, use the whole page, and use color. Have fun! Get input from family members if you need it. I know the 6th graders did something like this earlier in the year.
--read chapter 6

History:
--finish reading ch. 26
--using outside sources, find facts about Catherine the Great not presented in SOTW (Third-graders at least 5 facts and second-graders at least 3) Turn these facts into a report to present Tuesday. I sent books home with all but Gamaliel. Feel free to use these or any other source you would like. (Tronda, I cautioned Chloe not to spend too much time in her book without your guidance since it came from the adult section of the library!)

Science:
--do some research to find which planet is hotter--Mercury of Venus. (no need to write anything, just be ready to discuss)

Latin:
--study for test re-take
--review lesson 16
--complete page 81

Bible:
--read ch. 34