Essentials Week 10 (2017-18)

In Class...

EEL

• Reviewed (board work) by parsing and diagramming a simple, S | Vl \ PN sentence.
• Reviewed sentence structures and parts of speech through "Living Sentences."
• New Part of Speech--Adjectives
• Definition and Questions can be sung to "The Ants Go Marching."
• Chart L
• Learned through a sample paragraph that highlighted each type of adjective 
• explanations for each can be found on pages 161-162 (163-164) in the EEL Guide
• I intended to compare Adjectives and Adverbs and the different questions they answer in a sentence in class; however, we ran out of time for it.
• This is something that would be good to go over at home!
• New Sentence Pattern--S | Vl \ PA
• Subject--LinkingVerb--Predicate Adjective
• Very similar to S | Vl \ PN.  Diagrammed in same way
• Question Confirmation changes to "Can ____ rename or describe the subject?"
• A good help for this is helping your student look at what part of speech the "verb what?" is.
• If it is a noun then it will either be a direct object or a predicate nominative--if it can rename/replace the subject.
• If it is an adjective, it will describe and cannot be a noun.  
• See page 164/6 in the EEL
• Some of the linking verbs can also be used as transitive verbs (not the "to be" verbs).
• look for what the subject is/can do.
• page 163/5 in the EEL

• We also practiced for EIE next week.  
• We are doing all of chart A with the other class.
• Be sure your child knows all of chart A (including the sample sentences, if possible. (If not, the 2nd and 3rd year students that know those can probably carry the rest of us!) 😀

Cute Visual to use for practicing this week's and last week's sentence patterns.

You could do this on laminated sentence strips to where you could replace the words on either side of the verb.  (I'm not artistic enough to make the hands.  I'd probably just cut holes out of my rectangular sentence strips!) 😉

Math

• Whole class board slam, trying to knock off the numbers for each other's birthdays. 
• Did anyone ever get the numbers we missed?
• www.nationalnumberknockout.com

IEW

• Read entire papers in small groups.
• Used cards to identify dress-ups we heard.
• Shared some of the dress-ups we heard with the entire class.
• New Advanced Style--Dual Dress-ups
• Two adjectives, adverbs, or verbs used as a dress-up
• A dual verb can replace a strong verb dress-up
• TWSS page187
• USHBW, blackline masters page 14
• SRP, page 143
• New Unit--Writing from Pictures, unit 5
• This unit is so fun and gives quite a bit of freedom for our students to be creative.

• Remember:  Hands off content.  Hands on structure and style!
• We want to teach them how to write well.  What to write will come as they mature and learn in other areas.
• This is NOT story sequence (like unit 3), but rather an "event description."
• Each picture should be done separately, not as a whole group.
• However, they can (and should put all three together at the end to create a story)
• We just want to do a separate KWO and paragraph for each picture.
• To get ideas, we ask questions (5W's +1, and others)
• These are listed on the outlines in the SRP,  USHBW, portable walls, and in the TWSS
• 1st line of KWO is the central fact
• This is what we see in the picture--the facts--what everyone can see.
• The other lines are where they can come up with ideas of what happened before the "picture was taken" or why things are happening.
• Each paragraph needs a clincher sentence.
• This should still repeat or reflect the topic sentence (which is the central fact in this unit)
• Final Clincher, the clincher in the last paragraph, is what will be used to create the title.
• Past Perfect Tense
• When writing an event description, you will write in past tense.
• When wanting to give what happened before the event in the picture that you are describing, you will want to use the past perfect tense (uses the word "had").
• It is the "past of the past"
• TWSS page 70, USHBW page 107, SRP page 38
• Chart BB (in the excursions section of the EEL) is also a great explanation of this

At Home...

**Remember--There is no way I can cover everything in our lessons in class.  You will need to read the lessons to see what I didn't cover, so you can cover the entire lesson at home during the week.  😊

**Also, don't forget about the separate blog post I made last week about what our day at home looks like.

EEL

• page 166 (168) in EEL--"At Home" section
• Study Chart L (adjectives)
• Continue practicing all charts learned so far (A through K)
• Work on the vocabulary words and definitions at the beginning of each lesson covered so far.
• The names and definitions of the parts of speech are especially important!
• Analytical Task Sheet
• Try to complete 1 practice sentence each day 
• Sentences 1, 2, and 3 are basic and easy enough for anyone this week
• Sentences 4 and 5 are a bit more advanced, but don't have anything we haven't covered.  They just include adverbs modifying adjectives, which may be a bit advanced for our first year students.
• Don't forget the answers to each of the sentences are in the lesson and laid out step by step.
• 2nd and 3rd year students can be doing task 5 and even 6 (quid et quo), but 1st years should just be focusing on tasks 1-4
• Remember the section in Lesson 3 that gives all of the details for the ATS, and remember the steps are laid out for you on each sentence's page.
• Also, you can create your own sentences by simply changing part of speech for part of speech.
• Optional--Editing exercises and Spelling List in EEL

Math

• Practice Number Knockout at home
• Practice and work on speed and accuracy of math facts

IEW

• Lesson 13 from the US History Based Writing book
• Don't forget the brainstorming in each lesson. 
• If you need to modify the writing for your student, feel free to just have them do one or even two pictures.  
• Or, if they need more of a challenge, have them write extra paragraphs about pictures that might have happened in between the ones in the book or before/after the ones shown.
• Don't forget about vocabulary words!
• There are flashcards for these in the back of the student US history book
• Reminders:
• EZ+1---only require of your student what dress-ups and decorations he/she can do on their own easily, plus one more as a challenge
• You cannot help too much! 
• Model KWO, the writing structure, etc.
• Many times the KWO is the hardest part for our students.  Help them get through that, and they can possibly write the paragraph on their own.
• Hands ON structure and style.  Hands OFF content.
• Optional--Bring a completed paper to turn in and share on Tuesday
• This should be a marked copy with checklist (signed by the teacher), if you want feedback.
• Inspect what you expect!
• You, as the parent, are the teacher!
• Should also have a clean (and even illustrated) copy for the published student book

Reminders...

• Be sure to read your lessons for next week--Week 11 in EEL Guide (it is review weeks for the next two weeks!) and Lesson 14  in USHBW book. 

• We will not have another Pudewa night until after break.  Thanks for all of your hard work this semester.

• Our ice cream party will be during the last part of class during week 12.  Not everyone had a chance to sign up this week.  I will send out the completed list for your reference/reminder once everyone has had a chance to sign up.

•  Faces of History is already on many kids' (and some parents) thoughts.  For character choices, anyone who has made a historical impact on US history is acceptable.  If you'd like a list, the website below is a good one, or I can bring some ideas to class, if anyone wants.  Please let me know once you have decided (no rush to do so at this time...just some already want to!).  It will be nice to not have any duplicates to make the evening more interesting!

100 Most Significant Americans in History--great website from the Smithsonian

My Prayer for you this week...

4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.                      ---Deuteronomy 6:4-9

Whenever someone asks me why we homeschool, the above passage is almost always my answer (along with it is what God has called our family to do).  When Lara was just starting school, Larry and I attended a conference where God truly convicted both of us on how we were going to raise our children and how we conducted our ministry at church.  We as parents are to be the primary teacher and discipler of our children.  What an honor God has bestowed upon us!  And, what an amazing privilege we have as homeschool parents to bring God's teaching into every aspect of our children's lives, including their "academic education!"  

I'm praying for you always as you train your students "to know God and to make Him known!"   

Our Week at Home (for a first year student)

EEL

Day 1 (after community day)

1.  Practice Sentence #1 from EEL Guide

• First, I dictate the sentence to my student, who will usually write it on a laminated copy of the ATS (with dry or wet erase marker)
• Sometimes she also will write on a paper copy of the ATS chart.
• We like to use the chart, because of the handwriting lines that also give her some penmanship practice.
• As the sentences get longer, we will begin using regular penmanship paper, wide ruled paper, or even just blank copy paper.  
• Second, I work with my student to follow the question confirmation flow and label each word in the sentence.
• Several versions of this are available:
1. Directly on the sentence page in the week's EEL lesson
2. On the back of the Quid et Quo trivium table
3. Different options from CC Connected
• Username LauraBettis has one similar to the one pictured below
• My personal favorites are below
• I usually use both of these in conjunction with each other.
• Both of these came from fellow tutors and are not on CC Connected, but I'm happy to provide a copy, if desired.

 Front Page of my favorite one.  The only things I change are we underline the propositional phrase and we put brackets around each clause as we identify it.

 Backside of my favorite one.

 Front page of my second choice.

Back page of my second choice.

• The third thing we do after labeling the words in the sentence, is we go back and check Task #2 on the ATS.
• I choose to do this third, because it seems easier for my student to follow.
• Fourth, we determine structure of the sentence.
• Then, we determine the pattern and purpose of each of the clauses.
• Finally, we diagram the sentence.
• I use the entire time of when we are working on this practice sentence to go over parts of speech and things that are covered in the EEL charts and lesson(s).
• This is my teaching time for English grammar with my student.
• I ask her questions to help her better understand why she is labeling words a certain way, and I reteach any areas that I see a need.

2.  The only other thing we do on Monday for Grammar/EEL is we work on at least one chart.  

• Some weeks, we may work on more than one chart a day, but most days it is just one.
• I choose what chart my student works on based on the chart scope and sequence (page 445 in EEL Guide)
• I also choose what chart she works on based on what she is struggling with in the practice sentences.
• Many times, she simply copies or tries to write from memory onto the blank charts provided in the EEL Guide.
• I laminated and spiral bound all of the charts for her for easy access.
• We also do the charts orally quite often.  
• We use songs, chants, and hand motions to help remember each part.
• Sometimes she just tells the chart to me.
• Occasionally, we play games to practice charts.
• I copied the charts onto colored paper and cut them up to make chart puzzles.
• We play race the teacher to see if she can complete a chart before me.

Days 2, 3, and 4

• These days look very similar to Day 1.  
• We do other sentences in the same way I described for Day 1.
• Many times those sentences will come from CC Connected files
• Some of our favorites are the Star Wars ones under username lindsey.crews@gmail.com.
• Sometimes I simply take the sentence from the guide and change the words.  
• I try to be very careful in changing part of speech for part of speech in order to keep the same kind of sentence and not go over our heads.
• It is perfectly o.k. to simply use the same sentence(s) more than one day during the week.  Repetition is classical!
• We also continue to work on charts in the same way I described above. 
• We do try to mix it up and do different charts each day; however, sometimes it is good to work on the same chart all week to get it thoroughly memorized before moving on to another one.

That's It!  EEL/ Grammar practice is that simple each day!  It really should only take 20 to 30 minutes each day, and many times it takes less than that!

** We don't do the spelling or editing practice in the EEL guide.  We cover that in other areas (see my explanation on Day 3 of IEW below)

IEW

Day 1--KWO, Vocabulary, and Brainstorming

1. Reread the source text and write KWO.
• This can be done independently by the student or together with the parent.
• Parent/teacher can not help too much!
• KWO is usually the highest thinking activity of the week, and it is important to get it done correctly.  This may mean the parent/teacher helps the most with this.
2. We try to go over the vocabulary words together on day 1 also.  This can be simply reading the words and their definitions or doing something fun with them like illustrating them or creating funny sentences.  It really depends on the amount of time we have to devote to this.
3. If we have time, we will do the brainstorming activity from the lesson in the history-based writing book.  If not, we do it on day 2 before writing the rough draft.  Sometimes we will split it between the two days.
• The brainstorming activity is the time to go over new style (dress-ups, decorations, and sentence openers) and review old style.  
• When keeping Pudewa's "EZ+1" mantra in mind, we may skip parts of the brainstorming in order to focus on the style technique that is in my student's current "EZ+1" set.  
• Those that we skip, we will come back to at later dates when we add that technique into our "EZ+1."  

Day 2--Rough Draft

1. Finish any brainstorming pages we didn't complete the day before.  This could include ones in the current lesson or ones from previous lessons that we need to cover, keeping within the "EZ+1."  (see notes on IEW day 1 above)
2. Write the rough draft.
• Pudewa suggests to have the student orally give their rough draft before writing it down.  We actually have never done that.  Usually, my student writes the rough draft on her own and only asks me questions when needed.
• She always writes in pen (no erasing allowed), and she skips lines on her paper to allow for editing later.
• She puts her style techniques in as she goes, not necessarily trying to check things off of a list, but just doing what comes naturally.  (That's "EZ+1"!!)

Day 3--Revising and Editing

1. My student takes her own paper and follows her checklists to revise and edit her own paper, many times before I ever look at it.
• She uses 2 checklists. 
• The first one is the IEW checklist with the style techniques and structure requirements.  We use the master checklist that I created and sent out to all of my Essentials teachers.  I simply draw an asterisk beside the items that are required for her to have.  She knows not to worry about anything else on the list.
• The second checklist is one I created with grammar, spelling, and punctuation rules that I feel she needs to work on or should already know well.  
• This is the only editing we usually do for Essentials work.  We do a different spelling curriculum than what is in the EEL guide, and it has some editing built in.  So, we do that editing practice as well.  
2. After she is finished revising and editing, she types her paper and prints out a copy for me to look at.  
• She highlights this printed copy for her style techniques, according to the IEW checklist.

Day 4--Final Copy

1. I read her paper and "grade" it.  
• I look to see if she has completed what was required per her checklists.
• I also revise and edit anything else that she might have missed.  
• I will talk to her about the things that she missed, and we work together to correct it.  
• I never actually assign a grade.  I just make notes for myself to know what she needs to work on and what I need to be sure and cover next week before she begins a certain day's assignments.
• At the beginning of each day, I will remind her of things she needs to work on, if necessary.
2. I sign her checklists to show that I have "graded" and inspected the work that I expected from her.
3. She adds in the corrections I made (or sometimes I do) to her paper on the computer and prints it.

Our Week in a Nutshell 

• Day 1--one practice sentence and one or two charts for EEL;  read source text, KWO, vocabulary, and some brainstorming for IEW.

• Day 2--one practice sentence and one or two charts for EEL;  write rough draft and finish brainstorming for IEW.

• Day 3--one practice sentence and one or two charts for EEL;  student revises and edits paper per checklists and types paper for IEW.

• Day 4--one practice sentence and one or two charts for EEL;  teacher "grades" paper and signs off on checklists, working with student to correct anything missed.

So, that's it.  Our week is pretty simple.  We usually only spend about a hour a day on all of our Essentials work.  Some days it is more.  Some days it is less.  My first year student is a very independent worker, so I know that our day is different from many first year students.  Your student may need much more help from you, especially in IEW, and that is just fine.  This is simply what works for us.

Essentials Week 9 (2017-2018)

In Class...

EEL

• Reviewed (board work) by undiagramming a compound, interrogative sentence.
• Reviewed verbs through "Verb Bingo"
• Songs and hand motions for Charts C and D
• Linking Verbs (Foundations Cycle 1, weeks 21-24)--"Jingle Bells"
• Helping Verbs (Foundations Cycle 1, weeks 13-20)--"This Old Man"
• 5 Principal Parts of Verbs (Cycle 3, week 4)--"George of the Jungle" (CC Connected username amandanease)
• Reviewed what we have learned so far on chart A
• a total of 16 sentence types and 7 out of 8 parts of speech!
• Parts of speech definitions are important to memorize (page 443/5 in EEL Guide)
• New Sentence Pattern--S | Vl \ PN
• linking verbs show equality between subject and noun that follows verb (predicate nominative)
• linking verbs never action verbs
• do not have a voice
• Only a limited number of linking verbs, so easy to memorize
• Memorize is necessary, as it can help you easily recognize the S | Vl \ PN pattern and take the guess work out of the process
• With this pattern, the subject = the predicate nominative (noun)
• They can be reversed (i.e.:  Mr. Pudewa is a teacher.  =  A teacher is Mr. Pudewa.)
• Predicate Nominatives can also be pronouns
• the pronouns should be in the nominative case
• i.e.:  "It is I."  or  "The giver was she."
• Compared S | Vl \ PN and S | Vt | DO patterns
• ways to tell the difference between the two
• look for the linking verb (remember they can never be an action verb, so cannot be a transitive verb--Vt)
• ask if the noun after the verb can replace or rename the subject
• Practiced a compound sentence with our new pattern.
• Included an adjective, because there are some in this week's practice sentences.  Feel free to just tell your 1st year student what they are and that they are diagrammed on a slanted line off of the noun they are next to.  
• We will cover the questions to ask to find these next week!
• 2nd and 3rd year students should hopefully be able to find these and parse/diagram them on their own.
• Also included an Appositive
• These are covered in Week 7's lesson, but we ran out of time in class for them.
• Also defined in Foundations Cycle 2, week 20 
• explains or identifies the noun or pronoun directly before it
• Commas can be used to set if off from the sentence, but are not always necessary
• Diagrammed in parenthesis beside the noun/pronoun it identifies.

Math

• A fun game with Ms. Lindsey while teachers had a few minutes to chat and catch up 
• We tried to hear from Mr. Pudewa, but technology is never my friend!😣

• www.nationalnumberknockout.com

IEW

• Read entire papers in small groups.
• Used cards to identify dress-ups we heard.
• Shared some of the dress-ups we heard with the entire class.
• New Style--Prepositional (#2) Sentence Opener
• Must be a prepositional phrase
• Another reason it is good to memorize the list of prepositions!
• Prepositional phrase must be followed by a complete sentence in order to be counted
• TWSS page180
• SRP page 117
• USHBW pages 99-100
• Continued working on Unit 4
• Reminders of why Unit 4 is so important
• It is foundational for rest of units in IEW/Essentials
• It is the type of writing that students will be doing the most of through Challenge and into college.
• Read source text "Trail of Tears"
• Brainstormed ideas of what topic/main idea of paragraph was
• Looked at title, first sentence, last sentence, and any key words that might be repeated in text
• Narrowed down those into what we thought was the best topic and put those key words for our Roman numeral I
• Not everyone would choose the same words, and that is ok!
• Worked with partners to find 1 or 2 facts that were interesting, relevant, or important about the chosen topic.
• Wrote these at the top of a "funnel" 
• Then discussed ways to narrow down these facts into 5-7 important ones for our KWO
• Remember if have so much information that you can't put in 3 key words (or have to have many symbols to do so), you probably have more than one fact.
• So, you need to separate the facts onto separate lines in the KWO to maintain the "some-a-rize" idea for Unit 4
• Hands on structure and style.  Hands off content.
• A piece written poorly about a good topic is not nearly as memorable as a piece written well about a bad topic.
• We teach content in all of the other subject areas we teach our children.  They will learn truth.
• When we teach writing, we need to focus on structure and style and teach them how to express themselves well.  That way they can share the Truth that we instill in them.

At Home...

EEL

• page 152 (154) in EEL--"At Home" section
• Study Chart K (verb anatomy for "to be")
• We didn't discuss this in class, but go over it at home (especially for 2nd and 3rd year students)
• "to be" is the most commonly used linking verb, so it is important to know it
• Continue practicing all charts learned so far (A through J)
• Work on the vocabulary words and definitions at the beginning of each lesson covered so far.
• The names and definitions of the parts of speech are especially important!
• Analytical Task Sheet
• Try to complete 1 practice sentence each day 
• Sentences 1, 2, and 3 are the most basic ones this week
• Sentence 4 is also pretty basic
• Sentences 5 is advanced, as it is a complex sentence
• Don't forget the answers to each of the sentences are in the lesson and laid out step by step.
• 2nd and 3rd year students can be doing task 5 and even 6 (quid et quo), but 1st years should just be focusing on tasks 1-4
• Remember the section in Lesson 3 that gives all of the details for the ATS, and remember the steps are laid out for you on each sentence's page.
• Also, you can create your own sentences by simply changing part of speech for part of speech.
• Optional--Editing exercises and Spelling List in EEL
• See the separate blog entry I posted the day after this one on what my Essentials student and I do daily at home each week

Some Helpful Websites

http://www.english-grammar-revolution.com

http://chompchomp.com

http://101daysofhomeschooling.blogspot.com

Math

• Practice Number Knockout at home
• Practice and work on speed and accuracy of math facts

IEW

• Lesson 12 from the US History Based Writing book
• Don't forget the brainstorming in each lesson. 
• Don't forget about vocabulary words!
• There are flashcards for these in the back of the student US history book
• Reminders:
• EZ+1---only require of your student what dress-ups and decorations he/she can do on their own easily, plus one more as a challenge
• You cannot help too much! 
• Model KWO, the writing structure, etc.
• Many times the KWO is the hardest part for our students.  Help them get through that, and they can possibly write the paragraph on their own.
• Hands ON structure and style.  Hands OFF content.
• Optional--Bring a completed paper to turn in and share on Tuesday
• This should be a marked copy with checklist (signed by the teacher), if you want feedback.
• Inspect what you expect!
• You, as the parent, are the teacher!
• Should also have a clean (and even illustrated) copy for the published student book

Reminders...

• Be sure to read your lessons for next week--Week 10 in EEL Guide and Lesson 13  in USHBW book.  
• We will be beginning Unit 5 in IEW, so be sure to attend the video viewing, if at all possible.  Be sure to read through that unit in the TWSS as well!

• Our next Pudewa night is this Thursday, October 26! (For many of you reading this--TONIGHT!)  
• We will meet at 6:30 at Jennifer Clinehen's home.
• Theme:  "Pumpkin and Pudewa"
• Join us for a teacher training video, fellowship, and a time to learn from each other.

My Prayer for you this week...

"Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain."                 1 Corinthians 15:58

This was our Essentials Class's theme verse last year for the teachers, and I was reminded of it today.  It was a tough day for us to homeschool.  We needed a costume for daughter #3's speech therapy today, and I hadn't even started on one.  Before breakfast was even over, the 2 year old had spilled milk, Elmer's glue, and toothpaste on the floor.  After breakfast, while we were homeschooling and working on a costume, he broke 2 blades on our blinds in the living room, dumped tea grounds on the floor and daughter #2's foot, spilled a box of craft supplies, and ripped daughter #3's favorite poster off her wall!  Oh, and did I mention that I was out of hot glue sticks while trying to complete a costume in less than an hour?

My work of homeschooling and raising my children, though, is work for the Lord.  He called me to it, so I know that it is not in vain.  And, our theme verse for the teachers in our class this year (Proverbs 3:5-6) reminds me that He is here for me to lean on and trust in, and I can rely solely on that.  My strength, will, and understanding are weak, but through him, I can remain "steadfast" and "immovable."

I pray that you are able to do the same and able to "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths."  (Proverbs 3:5-6)

Essentials Week 8 (2017-2018)

In Class...

EEL

• Reviewed sentence structure, purpose, and pattern with a paragraph of simple and compound S-Vi and S-Vt-DO sentences.
• Reviewed Adverbs through a simple activity of asking the adverb questions to find out more about a given sentence.
• New Part of Speech--Prepostitions
• Sung preposition chant from CC Cycle 1 
• Chant can be found on CC Connected under the Learning Center, Cycle 1 Memory Work Audio, "Other"
• Placed bees swarming "T. Jefferson" and used prepositions to tell where the bees were.
• Prepositions MUST be followed by an object (noun or pronoun)
• Prepositions and their objects (and any modifiers in between) create a prepositional phrase
• Prepositions can appear anywhere in sentence and can be used as adjective or adverb
• This is dependent upon what they modify and what question(s) the phrase answers
• Important to memorize list of prepositions to be able to pick them out in a sentence
• Once a preposition is found, look for its object to be sure the preposition is actually being used as a preposition in a prepositional phrase and not as a single word adverb.
• Continued working with Compound Structure. 
• Added in the interrogative purpose with the compound structure.
• Reviewed the 3 ways to change a declarative sentence to a compound sentence.
• Remember, when parsing an interrogative sentence, it can be helpful to turn it into a declarative sentence to see all of the verbs and such.

Two Different Videos using the CC Prepositions Chant and doing hand motions.  (The second video is the one we as a family learned during cycle 1, but I found the first one and really liked it.  So, I thought I'd share it too!)

Math

• Round Robin BoardSlam/N2K
• www.nationalnumberknockout.com

IEW

• Read either a sentence with a quality adjective or our topic/clincher sentence combination.
• Reviewed quality adjectives and banned verbs
• Added "got" to our banned verbs list
• Created a banned adjectives list with the adjectives pretty/ugly, big,  and a lot on our list
• Final Dress-up--The Clausal Dress-up
• www.asia.wub
• IEW uses just www.asia.b because Pudewa feels that "whereas" and "unless" are harder to write with for students.
• I choose to keep www.asia.wub to keep in line with our EEL memory work
• You can actually use any subordinating conjunction for the clausal opener, but the ones in the acronym are the most common and easiest for our students to use
• SRP page 109, TWSS page 174, USHBW page 94
• Remember:  Clauses MUST have a subject and a verb, but these clauses are dependent (meaning they must be attached to a main/independent clause to be a legal sentence)
• Continued working on Unit 4
• Read "The Louisiana Purchase" from USHBW
• Brainstormed ideas that we learned from the text
• Used this list to help create our topic sentence KWO
• Also took this list to help us find relevant information in the source text to use as facts in our KWO
• Not all students will be ready to work with relevant facts.  Some students may need to stick with what is interesting and important right now.
• Discussed that another way to help students get facts from the text is to go back and reread the text after you have gotten your topic sentence KWO.
• After each sentence in the text, ask your student if that fact is relevant or important or interesting.  
• This is another great way to help them find facts that are relevant to their chosen topic.

Punctuation rules for www.asia.wub clauses are found on TWSS page 174.

At Home...

EEL

• page 137 (139) in EEL--"At Home" section
• Study Chart J (Prepositions)
• It is important to have the list memorized
• Work on memorizing the multi-word prepositions, if the other list is memorized.
• Continue practicing all charts learned so far (A through I)
• Work on the vocabulary words and definitions at the beginning of each lesson covered so far.
• The names and definitions of the parts of speech are especially important!
• Analytical Task Sheet
• Try to complete 1 practice sentence each day 
• Sentences 1, 2, and 3 are the basic ones this week
• Sentence 2 is very similar to what we did in class.  
• Sentences 4 and 5 are advanced, in that they have verbals in them
• Don't forget the answers to each of the sentences are in the lesson and laid out step by step.
• Remember the section in Lesson 3 that gives all of the details for the ATS, and remember the steps are laid out for you on each sentence's page.
• Also, you can create your own sentences by simply changing part of speech for part of speech.
• example:  Sentence 3 says, "Jesus loved me, and He died?" (SN-Vt-DO, C SP-Vi)  It can be changed to "Jimmy played basketball, and he fell?"
• Optional--Editing exercises and Spelling List in EEL

• A fun activity I found for practicing prepositions was to write a poem, with each line being a single prepositional phrase.
• Example:

Here I come!

Within my bed

On the branch

Until it's time

In a little space

With much moving

Out of the chrysalis I come

Up in the air

Across the yard I fly!

Math

• Practice Number Knockout at home
• Practice and work on speed and accuracy of math facts

IEW

• Lesson 11 from the US History Based Writing book
• Don't forget the brainstorming in each lesson. 
• Don't forget about vocabulary words!
• There are flashcards for these in the back of the student US history book
• Reminders:
• EZ+1---only require of your student what dress-ups and decorations he/she can do on their own easily, plus one more as a challenge
• You cannot help too much! 
• Model KWO, the writing structure, etc.
• Hands ON structure and style.  Hands OFF content.
• Optional--Bring a completed paper to turn in and share on Tuesday
• This should be a marked copy with checklist, signed by the teacher, if you want feedback.
• Should also have a clean (and even illustrated) copy for the published student book

Some Helpful Websites

http://www.english-grammar-revolution.com

http://chompchomp.com

http://101daysofhomeschooling.blogspot.com

Reminders...

• Be sure to read your lessons for next week--Week 9 in EEL Guide and Lesson 12  in USHBW book.  
• Also, we will be introducing sentence openers in IEW, so you may want to read over page 180 in TWSS

• Our next Pudewa night is next Thursday, October 26!  We will meet at 6:30 at Jennifer Clinehen's home.
• It is so important for everyone to attend these.   Even if you have seen the videos before, you will get new things out of them each time!

My Prayer for you this week...

"Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.  And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.  And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body.  And be thankful.  Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.  And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."   

  Colossians 3:12-17

As my husband says from the pulpit many times, the less of my words you hear and the more of God's words we hear, the better off we all are.

Essentials Week 7 (2017-2018)

In Class...

EEL

• Board Work/Review--placed conjunctions and pronouns in their appropriate categories on the board
• Worked through different sentences, identifying structure, purpose, and pattern.
• Changed sentences from declarative to exclamatory and imperative
• Changed sentences from simple to compound
• This is essentially task 5 on the ATS
• 2nd and 3rd year students can already be working through this task, even though we haven't officially covered it in class.
• Compound Imperative sentences need at least one noun of direct address in order to be a true compound sentence.  
• With no NDA, it is a compound verb/predicate.
• If there is only one NDA, it has to be in the second clause to make the sentence compound.
• Nouns of Direct Address are always followed by a comma.
• They are diagrammed on a line above the sentence, like interjections.
• They are NOT the subject of an imperative sentence.
• Imperative sentences always have an understood (or implied) "you" as the subject.
• An NDA gives that "you" a name.
• Adverbs (Chart I)
• Definition and Questions can be sung to "Cup Song." (found on YouTube, see below)

Adverb Song with cup "tapping"

Adverb Song, just vocals

Math

• Round Robin BoardSlam/N2K
• www.nationalnumberknockout.com

IEW

• Read our papers within our table groups
• Reviewed Topic-Clincher Rule
• Paragraph needs both!
• Paragraphs are like hamburgers.  The topic and clincher sentences are the buns!
• I skipped over this idea because of time this week, but I plan to mention it next week!
• New Dress-Up--Quality Adjectives
• Describing Words (including 5 sense words)
• TWSS p. 173
• SRP pages 105-109
• Other great places to find quality adjectives--thesaurus, TWSS p. 177, and IEW app. (free has limited lists; $4.99 has almost a full thesaurus from what I understand.  I only have the free one.😊 )
• Not banning any adjectives just yet.  
• Summarizing a Reference (Unit 4), cont.
• Topic Sentence is Roman Numeral "I" in KWO
• Many students have a hard time coming up with the overall topic of a resource.  If your student is having trouble with this, take some time to have them read short articles or paragraphs and pick out the topic/main idea.
• This is great and needed practice and skill for upcoming units in IEW
• Clincher Sentence 
• just write clincher on KWO (no need for key words)
• when writing sentence in paragraph, remember rule:  "The clincher sentence MUST repeat or reflect 2-3 key words from the topic sentence."
• In our use, a summary does not have to be short.  
• What we are working on is for students to understand how to pull some information from a source and use it in their writing/report.  
• This is preparing them for researching.
• They are free (and encouraged) to add in their own style and such to make the report interesting to read.  
• This is not simply a regurgitation of facts. 

The "conclusion" sentence in this graphic is our "clincher."  (You get the idea!)

At Home...

EEL

• page 124 (126) in EEL--"At Home" section
• Study Chart I (Adverbs)
• Continue practicing all charts learned so far (A through F)
• Work on the vocabulary words and definitions at the beginning of each lesson covered so far.
• The names and definitions of the parts of speech are especially important!
• Analytical Task Sheet
• Try to complete 1 practice sentence each day 
• The sentences are all over the place this week.
• Sentences 1 & 5 are just like we did in class.  
• Sentence 2 actually has two different purposes (first clause is imperative; second is declarative), but it is still similar to what we did in class.
• Sentences 3 & 4 are similar to what we did in class, but introduces an adjective.
• Don't forget the answers to each of the sentences are in the lesson and laid out step by step.
• Remember the section in Lesson 3 that gives all of the details for the ATS, and remember the steps are laid out for you on each sentence's page.
• Optional--Editing exercises and Spelling List in EEL

Math

• Practice Number Knockout at home
• Practice and work on speed and accuracy of math facts

IEW

• Lesson 10 from the US History Based Writing book
• Don't forget the brainstorming in each lesson.  This week is on topic/clinchers and quality adjectives.
• Don't forget about vocabulary words!
• There are flashcards for these in the back of the student US history book
• Optional--Bring a completed paper to turn in and share on Tuesday
• This should be a marked copy with a signed checklist if you want feedback.
• I gave feedback this week even for those without a checklist attached.  I won't do that anymore.  As the tutor, I don't want to grade, so I want to know what you the teacher are expecting!
• Should also have a clean (and even illustrated) copy for the published student book

Reminders...

• Be sure to read your lessons for next week--Week 8 in EEL Guide and Lesson 11 in USHBW book.  

• Our next Pudewa night is not until the end of October, but make plans to join us on October 26!

My Prayer for you this week...

"When I thought, 'My foot slips,' your steadfast love, O Lord, held me up.  When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul."           -----Psalm 94:18

How wonderful it is to know that when we fail, our LORD is there to hold us up and cheer our souls!  I'm so thankful we don't have to go through this life alone!  He who has called us is surely faithful!  I pray that you feel His presence ever near you this week as you continue the work He has called you to do!

Essentials Week 6 (2017-2018)

In Class...

EEL

• Board Work--True/False questions and Undiagram an interrogative sentence
• New Part of Speech--Conjunctions
• Chart H
• 5 types of conjunctions--will learn them throughout year
• 
  
• correlative (co-relative=2 words always go together)
• relative pronouns--also on pronoun chart (F)
• these begin who/which clauses
• subordinating conjunctions
• www.asia.wub for main ones
• coordinating conjunctions
• FANBOYS
• Did a cheer to help remember
• Also sang these, along with the definition of conjunction to "Father Abraham"
• Foundations, Cycle 2, weeks 21-22
• compound subjects and verbs are diagramed with a "rocket ship"
• Looked at Chart A and how much we have covered so far this year.
• It is a lot in just six weeks!
• New Sentence Structure--Compound
• 2 independent clauses (house diagram) combined using a coordinating conjunction (FANBOYS)
• Must have a comma before the FANBOYS
• Diagrammed with the FANBOYS on a "chair" in between the clauses
• New Sentence Pattern--S-Vt-Do
• Direct Objects are nouns/pronouns and must follow verb; answer who/what
• Transitive verbs transfer action from subject of sentence to the direct object
• Diagrammed like the pattern is shown on chart A
• When studying chart A, it is a good idea to have your child mark the diagram lines as well as the abbreviations.  (Thanks Jennifer B.!)

Conjunction Junction!

Math

• Played Battleship with partners
• www.nationalnumberknockout.com

IEW

• Read our papers within our table groups
• Silly Sentences at tables
• Dressed-up boring sentences with at least 3 given dress-ups or decorations
• New Structure--Summarizing a Reference (Unit 4)
• "Some-a-rize"
• Key words for outline come from interesting, important, or relevant facts
• NOT from each sentence!
• 5 to 7 facts (lines) in Key Word Outline
• Still only 3 words per line
• Topic Sentence is Roman Numeral "I" in KWO
• Clincher Sentence 
• just write clincher on KWO (no need for key words)
• when writing sentence in paragraph, remember rule:  "The clincher sentence MUST repeat or reflect 2-3 key words from the topic sentence."

At Home...

EEL

• page 108-109 (110-111) in EEL
• page 109/111 is a test/proof for the first six weeks
• This is great to do sometime over break to see where your student is and see where there might be areas you need to work on.  
• Remember, mastery is not expected for 1st or 2nd year students!
• Study Chart H (conjunctions)
• Also study chart G (compound sentence structure)--we ran out of time for this, but it is important!
• Continue practicing all charts learned so far (A through F)
• Work on the vocabulary words and definitions at the beginning of each lesson covered so far.
• Analytical Task Sheet
• Try to complete 1 practice sentence each day 
• Sentences 1 and 2 are the only true basic ones this week
• You can change the words in the sentence to create new ones (if you feel confident), or you can use the history practice sentences I sent out by email a couple of weeks ago or ones on CC Connected.
• Remember the section in Lesson 3 that gives all of the details for the ATS, and remember the steps are laid out for you on each sentence's page.
• Optional--Editing exercises and Spelling List in EEL

Don't feel that you always have to simply write the charts to practice.  Get creative!

Math

• Practice Number Knockout at home
• Practice and work on speed and accuracy of math facts

IEW

• Lesson 9 from the US History Based Writing book
• Follow this lesson as closely as you can/would like to.  
• I don't teach from this book (other than reading the source text) on purpose.
• I leave all of the great teaching helps and ideas in the USHBW lessons for you to use at home!
• There are some great ideas in there!
• The text on "The First Thanksgiving" is to help you teach the topic-clincher rule.
• It is a great resource!
• You are only doing one paragraph.  
• The idea is to take the 2 paragraphs and summarize them into one.
• Don't forget about vocabulary words!
• There are flashcards for these in the back of the student US history book
• Optional--Bring a completed paper to turn in and share on Tuesday
• This should be a marked copy with a signed checklist if you want feedback.
• Should also have a clean (and even illustrated) copy for the published student book
• Optional--If you are continuing to do school throughout break and would like more writing to do, don't forget about the blackline masters download in the front of the USHBW book.
• There is another source text that goes along with the one in lesson 9 that would work great for additional practice.

Reminders...

• Be sure to read your lessons for the week after break--Week 7 in EEL Guide and Lesson 10 in USHBW book.  

• Our next Pudewa night is not until the end of October, but make plans to join us on October 26!

My Prayer for you this week...

"By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches.  A wise man is full of strength, and a man of knowledge enhances his might, for by wise guidance you can wage your war, and in abundance of counselors there is victory."    Proverbs 24:3-6

May you remember not only the premise and philosophy behind Classical Education, but may you also be encouraged by each other ("wise guidance" and "abundance of counselors").  I love how we are all in this together, encouraging each other, learning from each other, and supporting each other!

Have a great break!

Essentials Week 5 (2017-18)

In Class...

EEL

• Board Work--editing a sentence
• New Sentence Purpose--Interrogative
• Played a game of "Guess Who?" or "Twenty Questions" to introduce the concept of questions
• Handed out "CIA" certificates to each student because they were such good interrogators
• Talked about relationship between interrogate, questions, and interrogative
• CIA is acronym for 3 ways to change declarative sentence into interrogative sentence
• C--change end mark; voice inflection is also necessary and can change meaning of sentence
• I--interrogative pronouns; this list can be sung to "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." (Foundations, cycle 2, week 9)
• A--add a helping verb; this list can be sung to "This Old Man" (Foundations Cycle 1, week 13-20)
• different helping verbs can change the meaning of the sentence
• some helping verbs require a different form of the main verb (i.e. a different principal part--chart D)
• Analytical Task Sheet
• Took a simple S-Vi declarative sentence through tasks 1-4
• Then changed the sentence by changing subject to interrogative pronoun and took that sentence through tasks 1-4
• Finally took the same declarative sentence and added a helping verb and took that sentence through tasks 1-4
• Remember you can change a interrogative sentence into a declarative sentence to help see the verb team and such.  It still needs to be diagrammed as an interrogative sentence.
• Remember verb teams go together on the diagram.
• Don't forget about the great explanation of how to do these that is included in Week 3's lesson in the EEL (pages 49/51-61/63)
• Also, remember, all 5 sentences, each, have their own page in the week's lesson that walks you through step by step for the tasks. 

• English Grammar Revolution is a great website for grammar rules and diagramming help!

Fun Way to practice verbs and Chart D!

Math

• Played Battleship with partners
• www.nationalnumberknockout.com

IEW

• Read our favorite descriptive paragraphs at our tables.
• Held up signs for when we heard dress-ups.
• New Dress-up--Because Clause
• Discussed how this is probably something they are already doing in their papers
• Helps one to think more deeply about their writing and add in more detail
• Dependent adverb clause
• Cannot stand on its own, but must still have a subject and verb
• If at beginning of sentence, it needs to be followed by a comma.  
• If at end of sentence, it does not need a comma.
• Marked by yellow highlighter/underline
• TWSS page 173, USHBW page 57, SRP page 103
• New Decoration--Conversation
• TWSS page 184, SRP page 132 & 153
• Punctuation rules on page 153 are what is important when trying to add in conversation 
• Decorations are only required to be 1 per paper (not in every paragraph)
• Banned "said" as a verb
• Continued Story Sequence Chart
• Just discussed the longer passage and not to let it intimidate you or your student.
• Discussed the fun ways to practice Story Sequence Chart--movies, novels, picture books, etc.
• Discussed the fun ways to write from Story Sequence Chart--borrowing a conflict, changing the characters, etc.
• This is what Lesson 8 in the USHBW book covers.   This is not an assigned lesson, but something fun to do if your student is ready.  (maybe over break?)

At Home...

EEL

• page 92-93 (94-95) in EEL
• Continue practicing all charts learned so far (A through F)
• Work on the vocabulary words and definitions at the beginning of each lesson covered so far.
• Analytical Task Sheet
• Try to complete 1 practice sentence each day (honestly, we sometimes only get every other day in, and that is ok!)
• Remember, it is important to ask the same questions in the same order each day to help solidify them in your student's brain.
• 1st year students should only be working on practice sentences 1,2 and maybe 3.  Each week is different, so many times, even the basic ones are harder.  You be the judge for what your student can do!
• Remember the section in Lesson 3 that gives all of the details for the ATS, and remember the steps are laid out for you on each sentence's page.
• Optional--Editing exercises and Spelling List in EEL

• Reed-Kellogg Sentence Diagrammer is another great website for diagramming help!

A bit of classic humor to lighten up the study of questions!

Math

• Practice Number Knockout at home
• Practice and work on speed and accuracy of math facts

IEW

• Lesson 7 from the US History Based Writing book
• Don't forget to do the brainstorming for the dress-ups and decorations that are included with the lesson.  
• If your student isn't ready to put the ones we covered this week in their writing, you can do brainstorming for the dress-ups they are working on, or go ahead and do the ones in the book.  It will simply give them more exposure, even if they don't use it in their writing just yet.
• Remember:  
• You can't help too much!
• Model, let them dictate to you, suggest sentences, or whatever you find works!
• You are the teacher.  Whatever you expect of your student is what I expect!
• EZ+1---They do not need to be doing all of the dress-ups and decorations introduced, unless that is where they are with the EZ+1. 
• This goes for 1st years, as well as 2nd and 3rd years.  Although, I believe most 2nd and 3rd years are farther along.
• The Unit 3 "how-to" on page 31 in the TWSS is great!  Also, the question and answer section for this unit is good.  Its on page 34.
• Checklist is up to you as teacher.  What works for you is fine; just be sure you inspect!
• Checklists can be found in USHBW book at the end of each lesson, on the USHBW blackline masters, attached to the email I sent out last week, or you can even make up your own.
• Feel free to cross anything off or add to any of the ones you choose.
• Optional--Bring a completed paper to turn in and share on Tuesday
• This should be a marked copy with a signed checklist if you want feedback.
• Should also have a clean (and even illustrated) copy for the published student book

Reminders...

• Be sure to read your lessons for next week--Week 6 in EEL Guide, Unit 4 in TWSS, and Lesson 9 in USHBW book.  (We are beginning Unit 4 in TWSS, so it would be good to review that!)  

• Our next Pudewa night is not until the end of October, but make plans to join us on October 26!

My Prayer for you this week...

I always enjoy the "Words of Encouragement" section of our EEL lesson each week!

This week, we are reminded that God knew we needed to be able to ask questions.   Even though He knows all of the answers, we most certainly do not.  Questions are how we learn about the world that He created and even how we learn about Him!  Asking questions is important and will draw us closer to God.  So, "interrogate to your heart's content," and in doing so, may you be drawn closer to the one who has all of the answers!

"You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart."  Jeremiah 29:13