thoughts on 5/13 and last assignments of the year!

Dear Families,

We had a whirlwind of a day. Helpers were plentiful--thanks to Mrs. Jennifer (Kitty's mom), Hayden (Kitty's baby sister), Mr. Michael (Wood's dad) and Mrs. Beth (Wood's mom).

The kids are beating me at incorporating Latin into our talks. This would be fun at home. "I want to wear the rufus shoes." "Look! I see duo, viridis, infans lacerta crawling up the screen!"

At history time, we saw a video on "The Lost Colony of Roanoke" that was quite informative. Mr. Michael pointed out that he and Woods had actually been there. Mrs. Jennifer and I commented on how much WE learned from it. It was a History Channel production and did a great job of showing how life was for the very first settlers to the new world. We moved into a discussion of the current SOTW chapter and John Cabot. We read a little from a biography on him, yet it was a bit dry, so we moved swiftly into grammar.

Everyone was so anxious to share their stories! They were awesome! Of the four types of writing presented in Shurley, this was by far our favorite. We had fun listening and then rated them on a spectrum of 100% true stories to 100% pretend. Some of the students are going to continue to build on their stories. Yeah!

We did a simple science experiment about water currents in the deep and their effect on plankton. This involved a hike over to the Episcopal church. Look for the Science Speculation sheets and be sure they get into the science section of their big notebooks.

Literature discussion time was heated! Similes were abundant in Chanticleer, but I stand by my teaching that there were no metaphors!!! My students challenged me and we discussed and talked. I've just gotten off the phone with an expert--Mrs. Fowler--and I am vindicated! One example we considered was "His comb was redder than fine coral and turreted like a castle wall". She called this personification, which is a writing element that we will encounter in later grades. The only phrase that might be considered a metaphor in this book is "Woe is me". Mrs. Fowler said if you really push the technical definition that this phrase could be considered a metaphor. Look on page 280 in the teaching text for further discussion with your student. Tell them I said, "Nanny nannay-moo moo!"

We ended our day with reading part of our last literature selection.

Please look at this blog site again later today or tomorrow. I plan to post my vision of what we will do at the end-of-year presentation next week. I shared some of this with the children yesterday.

love,
Mrs. Tkach

HISTORY:
--narration on ch. 41
--map and color page for ch. 41
--read ch. 42
--(I included color page and map for ch. 42. These don't need to be turned into me but I thought you might want to complete your notebooks by having them. We may do a narraton in class next week on ch. 42)

LITERATURE:
--finish reading A Midsummer's Night Dream

GRAMMAR:
--using my example from class and reference 61 on pg. 48, produce a descriptive paragraph. The teaching script on page 349 will be of help to you parents as you guide your students in this exercise.

SCIENCE:
--read 209 through 216
--produce a narration on this reading
--I apologize. I'm a bit lost on which words I've assigned. If some of these were assigned last week, just move on to the new ones that you haven't done. Enter planula (pg. 189), pinacoderm (pg. 203),ostia (pg. 204),osculum (pg.204) spicules (pg. 205),planarians (pg. 213), mimcry (pg.213) in your science spirals
--study the last 26 words we've entered--that will be starting with mantle. We won't have a test but we'll have fun playing around-the-world.

BIBLE:
--read chapter 99 which is taken from II Kings 24 and 25; II Chronicles 36; Jeremiah 37-40; Lamentations 1; Psalms 137

assignments for May 13, 2008

Hello!

I'm sorry to be so late posting my blog. We had a great day yesterday. I feel we hit all subjects well. We really had three history lessons. A brief review of Queen Elizabeth via a video Chloe shared with us. We spent a larger amount of time with Shakespeare through discussion, making eye-of-newt stew (from MacBeth) and reading the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. We ended by starting another video on the The Lost Colony of Roanoke. I plan to start the day with seeing the end of it next time. Mrs. Joy Avera, Emily's mom, was our helper--many thanks!

I'll be in touch this week (I hope) regarding what our class will be doing at the Open House on May 22. It is hard for me to try to contain all I want to show of our year into a reasonable time limit. There are so many things your students have done that I am so proud of.

HISTORY:
--narration on ch. 40
--map and color page
--read ch. 41

GRAMMAR:
--using reference 54 on page 43, write a narrative on anything you like. First, produce a story element outline like in the reference and like I showed you on the board during class. Then write your story. Have both pages ready to turn in to me.
--do vocab work for ch. 22--definitions and sentences for all eight words

SCIENCE:
--read pages 201 through 208
--produce a narration on this reading
--enter Aristotle's lantern (pg. 179), nematocysts (pg. 186), mesoglea (pg. 188), smacks (pg. 189) planula (pg. 189) and pinacoderm (pg. 203) into your science spirals. Just enter the term and develop a simple definition from the text. We'll enter the last words of the year next time for homework. After studying these we'll have a rousing game of "around-the-world" with the science terms on the last day of school!

LITERATURE:
--read Chanticleer
--on a piece of paper write down 3 similes from the story and the page you found them on
--look for a metaphor (I haven't found one yet but I'm going to re-read looking for one)
--On the second to the last page, the two animals tell the lessons they learned in the story. In your own words, write down what Chanticleer learned and what the fox learned.

BIBLE:
--read chapter 98 which is from Jeremiah 1,20, and 36; 2 Kings 24; 2 Chronicles 36

See you Tuesday!
Mrs. Tkach

musings on 4/29/08 and assignments for 5/6/08

Good Morning!

I think it was a great day in our class yesterday. Messy, a bit disorganized, loud, even chaotic at times--never the less, great! Woods' mom, Mrs. Beth, helped us and I'm sure rested well last night! Many thanks!

We listened to a book-on-tape of Queen Elizabeth's diary. Ask you child about how King Henry VIII got on his horse. Also, ask them King Henry's thoughts on his son's physique! It was interesting and we were using our Medieval coloring books and decorating an E-shaped building while listening. Ask you student why there were E-shaped homes. We touched VERY little on Shakespeare for which I'm sorry. We'll do him justice next morning first thing before proceeding into chapter 40 of SOTW.

Mrs Esther shared a music lesson with us that was fun. We reviewed our Veritas history cards and finished the ones we'd not gone over. These later ones were easier because they meshed well with what we've been studying from SOTW. We then rolled up our sleeves and finished those timelines. I know they are not very well organized and not too "pretty". However, I think your child can sit down with them and review each bubble and I think they will have their memory's "jogged" as to what we've studied this year. I certainly hope so!

We still didn't get our science spirals updated. Please bring them back one more time and we'll be sure to next time. We did make a few "critters". It sounds like most ocean boxes have been kept up at home. Way to go families!!! I think there are plans for them to decorate our end-of-year open house.

We finished the day by acting out parts from our literature selection. This was the chaotic part of the day! We had a good time and a laugh as well. There was more practice of working in groups as we presented our different jobs to the class. I hope we are learning "give and take" through this as well as patience and selflessness. We'll do it one more time next week.

Spring fever is creeping in. I try to hold him at bay but he's relentless! Let's commit to each other that we will finish well. Enjoy each other and I will see you in May!

love,
Mrs. Tkach

SCIENCE:
--finish study guide. We'll go over these and then have a test.
--bring your science spirals

LITERATURE:
--finish or re-read the book
--do your assigned job and be ready to work with your group to present to the class next week
--NOTE: Our next book will be handed out next week. It is Chanticleer and the Fox and the ISBN # is 13: 978-0-06-443087-6. If you do NOT need one from Trinity bring yours in to show me. Otherwise, I'll hand everyone a book next week. The last book of the year will be the next week. It is A Midsummer Night's Dream, ISBN# 0 7845 1077 9.


GRAMMAR:
--look for an email today for your child to read. It will be an example of a persuasive paragraph. We ran out of time for grammar in class.
--produce a 3 point, persuasive paragraph on this topic: "Why Education is Important" Use page 221 through 223 in the teacher's manual to help your child with this assignment. Reference 40 on page 34 of their book will be of help as well
--complete vocab work for ch. 21 (all eight words!)

HISTORY:
--using your reading of ch. 39, produce a narration
--color page and map work
--read ch. 40 in SOTW


BIBLE:
--read chapter 97 (II Kings 22,23 and II Chronicles 34, 35)

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

thoughts on 4/15/08 and assignments for 4/22/08

Hello Families,

We had an eventful day and I'm exhausted! It was such a pleasant thing to see all of Trinity assembled. We were treated to a lesson from Matt L., the Director of Praise and Worship at Community Bible Church on the life and work of Martin Luther. This complimented out current study of the Reformation very nicely. We also trooped down to the kitchen to conduct a science project which we'll observe next week as well. We finished the day by making rose petal necklaces. I read in a book loaned to me by Mrs. Esther that often the children of the Medieval days made these because rose bushes were plentiful. Even the poorest could decorate themselves with these ornaments. Many of us, including myself, read our reports on our assigned reformer. We'll finish those up next week. We took a major detour in grammar by observing me write a 2 point paragraph as taught early in the Shurley teacher's manual. I actually modeled two different paragraphs using this method. Even in Bible time I detoured from our regular study to teach the children that Christ expects us to be kind to everyone--even those that are not easy to be kind to or are different from us. I FULLY expect this lesson to be practiced in our classroom.

Whew! As I said, it was not a normal day. We were treated to having Mrs. Loper as a helper today--many thanks! I regret most running out of time to have Ona classify a sentence while her Mom was with us. We'll just have to talk Mrs. Loper into coming back and Ona can do two sentences!!!

Here are the assignments for this week.

HISTORY:
--produce a narration on ch. 37 (try using the 2 point paragraph we studied in grammar)
--map and color page
--read ch. 38

LITERATURE:
--finish the study guide on The Door in the Wall
--memorize Rev. 3:7 and 8. This is a passage from the front of our book. Remember that memorization is encouraged in The Well Trained Mind. I hope to have some of us recite some of our memory work from the year at the end-of-the-year celebration
--NOTE: Next week your student will receive our next literature selection. It is Saint George and the Dragon. The ISBN# is 0-316-36795-8. If you have a copy and don't want to purchase this one through the school, be sure your student has it with them next week to show me.

SCIENCE:
--Write a narration on the last half of Lesson 11 (middle of pg. 178 until the end)

GRAMMAR:
--using the sheet I copied for you about a 2 point paragraph as a model, write a paragraph on this topic: Your thoughts on Trinity Classical Academy. Parents, I highly recommend your student receive alot of input and guidance from you. I'm looking for noticeable effort--not perfection.
--vocab from ch. 20 with sentences
--I leave up to you parent/teachers the decision about completing the grammar exercises in ch. 20. At this point, I plan to concentrate on the writing techniques we've passed over all year for a while. We will continue the vocab each week.

BIBLE:
--read chapter 94 which is taken from II Kings 16 & 17 and II Chronicles 28

PARENTS:
--Set aside some time this week to observe and enjoy your child. Grab some siblings or friends and run a relay race. Observe a butterfly. Take a walk after dark. Take it from me, it goes by too fast. My oldest turned 21 Thursday!

love,
Mrs. Tkach

thoughts on 4/8/08 and assignments for 4/15/08

Hello families!

We had a great day of learning. It was a relaxed day with time for reading some books and reviewing Latin and playing outside. We enjoyed all those things.

We spent time studying the Reformation in history and sea stars and sea urchins in science. We discussed Robin and the "doors" he's encountered so far in our book and hammered away at Shurley. We already recognized that sentences with double negatives just don't sound right. Now, we know why and how to correct them. We visited, again, verb tenses. I hope this helps your week with grammar go more smoothly. Bible time was interesting as we tried to keep the Northern and Southern kingdoms straight in our thoughts. We decided that not getting prideful and to always obey God were the lessons we took from our time with God's word.

Here are next weeks assignments. (I'm excited that my Music and Worship Leader from church will be joining us to enhance our study of Martin Luther. Join us, if you can, at 10:30!)

HISTORY:
--be sure to put your "web" into your notebook to take the place of a narration on the reformation this week
--map work and color pages
--Each student is to produce a report on their assigned Reformer. This report must be at least a half page in length. It is to include : 1. His life span 2. his country 3. his contribution to the Reformation 4. any interesting facts you discover 5. what you liked or disliked or what impressed you about him. The second page is to be an illustration. This can be printed off the internet or your own drawing. We will present these reports in class next week and then bind them together to form our own book on the Reformation. I promise I drew the names from a hat to decide who had who!!!
John Wycliffe--Libby
Martin Luther--Whitney
Philipp Melanchthon--Emily
Huldreich Zwingli--Woods
Conrad Grebel--Kitty
John Calvin--Chloe
Henry VIII--Noah
John Knox--Ayla
William Tyndale--Luke
Elizabeth I(Queen Elizabeth)--Ona
Sources of information can be the World Book, library books, internet, etc.
--read ch. 37

SCIENCE:
--produce a narration on the first half of lesson 11 (pgs. 173--178)
--read the rest of lesson 11

LITERATURE:
--complete you section of the study guide
--read pgs. 86 through the end of the book

GRAMMAR:
--administer test on ch. 18
--complete ch. 19 from the teaching text
--be sure to complete the vocab from ch. 19 with definitions and sentences

BIBLE:
--read ch.93 from our Bible book. This story is taken from II Kings 16, 17 and II Chronicles 28

Did everyone notice a new name sprinkled throughout our assignments? We may have a new student next week named Chloe. Let's make her welcome as she joins us for the rest of this year.

I love each of my students. Enjoy them and treasure them this week.

Mrs. Tkach

assignments for 4/8/08 & thoughts on 4/1/08

Greetings Families!

It was great to be back at Trinity yesterday. We worked very hard and your children were a pleasure to teach--as always.

We spent a huge amount of time in history. The Renaissance just cannot be brushed over lightly. We discussed the divisions that historians have placed on this time period and learned about several artists from each division. We looked at LOADS of art work. My challenge was to show the students a fair representation and yet keep it G-rated! Ayla has just returned from a trip to Europe. She was able to add greatly to the discussion and had just seen many of the pieces I was showing in person. She also shared a souvenier that was the Bayeaux Tapestry in miniature. We spread out down the hall and got a clearer perspective on the tapestry's immense length and detail. Thank you, Ayla!

I had a poster of the Greek alphabet that we looked at. As this language was re-introduced during the Renaissance, we made an attempt at writing our names or initials. I showed them how to write Jesus Christ if they wanted to try. We ended our day with an exercise of printing and thought about Gutenberg's great contribution. I hope the bookmarks made it home.

We spoke about the place and purpose art has in our lives and how it is a gift from God. We listened to Nicole Mullins' song "I Know My Redeemer Lives" and thought about how beautifully it presents the Gospel. We looked around at the flowers blooming and thought of God and how He paints the earth each spring. What a great gift art is!

We discussed out answers from the study guide for Door in the Wall and touched on science by playing Emily's science game. Thank you, Emily. We started into the chapter in grammar and the children were awesome. Their memories amaze me--even after a long break, they were as clear as ever with classifying sentences. We started learning about proper / improper verbs. Time was running out so I, again, made them promise they would work hard with you on grammar this week.

A theme we are finding weaving through each subject of our school day is how God is able to take something bad and find a way to bring good from it. We spent a little time discussing this--from Jonah during Bible to the printing press to Robin in our book to the plague, slavery, fleas, to some present day examples. This would be a great subject for you to draw them out on. Ask them about our discussion and guide and teach them your views. A few weeks ago I suggested a movie about Corrie ten Boom called The Hiding Place. The gentleman that manages our web and blog pages contacted me to say it is available in the Netflix catalogue and for sale on Amazon.

I love each of your children--enjoy learning with them this week!

Mrs. Tkach

History:
--put the page about the three divisions of the Renaissance in your notebook. Also, place the page with Greek letters in as well.
--produce a narration on Gutenberg
--two color pages
--map work
--read ch.36 in SOTW

Grammar:
--administer test on ch. 17 if you haven't already
--complete ch. 18
--complete vocab definitions and sentences for ch. 18

Literature:
--complete your section of Study guide
--read pgs. 62--85

Science:
--read pg 173 through the middle of pg. 178

Bible:
--Chapter 92 which is from 2 Kings 14 and 15 and 2 Chronicles 26 and 27