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!"