Our Tuesday and assignments for 3/13/09

Dear Families,

We had a busy Tuesday! I want to clear one humorous (I think) thing up. I did NOT have the children pretend to take opium! I love to have the children "live" the history we are studying so we often play act or actually do the activities we've learned about. We had studied opium in our last chapter on China then touched on it again in our poetry unit when we spoke of Coleridge's use of the drug. I guess that was just enough for the children to let their imaginations go. As we were outside planting grass seed during science, Mrs. Nicole brought us a drink of ginger ale and they began pretending it was opium! It made me smile but I wanted to be sure you knew the whole story. When we spoke about it last time I pointed out the Bible verse to them "Be not drunk with wine. . ." and applied it to the use of drugs. Whew! Hope I'm off the hook!

It was a great day. We did a matching activity in Bible and then acted out Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, complete with palm branches and cloaks to throw on the ground. (I couldn't find a colt for them to ride on. . .) In Latin, we did a few simple math problems that they answered in Latin and reviewed the constellations and pressed on into the next lesson. During history we viewed a PBS video on Napoleon that was very well made. We also did an activity about the Rosetta Stone together that was quite difficult. In literature, we learned about William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, two prominent poets of the time period we're studying in history. The children really seem to have learned alot and I am very proud of them. The poetry book we're making will be a keepsake. I'll send it home on Friday and there will be a quiz over parts of it the following Tuesday.

Grammar is progressing as scheduled. We may finish the book early, in which case I want to spend some time teaching some writing techniques that I taught last year. In science, we made a biosphere in our bottles and studied the Earth. We finished the day by going over the science study guide that I sent home. We will have a test on Friday.

Enjoy your time with your children--they are awesome!

love,
Mrs. Tkach

ASSIGNMENTS:

Grammar: 3rd--review lesson 85
--complete ex. A, B, and C
--review lesson 86
--complete ex. A, B # 1--3, and C #1--3

2nd: read lesson 12 on page 206
--complete ex. B and C
--read lesson 13 on page 208
--complete Oral Drill with mom
--complete "For You to Do" #1--5

Literature:--finish book and prepare book report. (Book reports should be low-stress. Please just write down what the book was about.)

History: read the last half of ch. 29
--write a narration
--mapwork
--optional color page

Science--review lab with parents
--color Earth pages in your Science Book
--study review sheet for Friday's test

Latin:--review lesson 19
--complete page 92

Bible:--read ch. 42
--write a narration or illustrate in story board (comic book) form