Essentials Week 21 (2017-2018)

In Class...

EEL

• Reviewed through an Easter egg hunt
• Placed the sentences found in the eggs on charts on the board that were like charts B, G, and M
• One board was for declarative sentences.  One board was for interrogative sentences.
• We categorized the sentences by structure and pattern.
• New (and last structure)--Compound-Complex
• last piece of our grammar/Chart A puzzle!
• reviewed what it takes to make a compound sentence and what it takes to make a complex sentence
• discussed how we already know the parts to a compound-complex sentence; we just need to put them together
• reviewed visual reminders of sentence structure (houses and a family)
• Verbals
• Only touched on this briefly, because of time
• Infinitives 
• Reviewed Foundations definition
• one of the 5 verb principle parts, so it still maintains it's verb-ness
• acts as an adjective, an adverb, or a noun--so can do any of their jobs in a sentence (i.e. SPIDO PONA noun usages)
• Used myself as an example--I am a woman.  I can be a mom, a teacher, a friend, a tutor, a wife, etc., but I am still a woman.  Verbals are that way.  They may be acting like a noun in a sentence, which means they can take on the noun usages and adjectives, but they are still verbs.  So, they can also take direct objects and adverbs like a verb.
• Diagrammed a compound-complex sentence with infinitives (similar to practice sentence 1 in this week's lesson in the EEL). 

Math

• Played Multiplication Fact Relay Races
• Played Number Neighborhood

IEW

• Students shared 1 paragraph from their FOH papers
• Reviewed what is expected for Faces of History
• 3-5 paragraph paper, written in 3rd person, following Unit 8 guidelines, due next Tuesday, April 3
• Presentation for Faces of History night (April 12) can be as simple the original paper read aloud or as elaborate as a presentation written on notecards or paper and given in the 1st person
• Presentations should be 2-5 minutes 
• Reviewed Introductions and Conclusions
• Introductions have 3 parts
1. attention grabber (handout from a few weeks ago is a good resource)
2. background information (introduce your subject)
3. state your topics/thesis statement
• Conclusions have 3 parts
1. restate topics (repeat/reflect thesis)
2. tell which topic is the most significant and why (Why is this person still remembered?  What can we learn from his/her legacy?)
3. final clincher (It may repeat/reflect the attention grabber, but it does not have to.  It needs to sum up entire paper.  The title of the paper will come from 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 about what our day at home looks like.

EEL

• Review all charts as needed.
• P and Q are the new charts for this week.
• Practice charts B, G, M, and Q with a fun game like we did in class, using the sample sentences and trying to place them in the right places.
• Complete at least 1 ATS per day.  
• This week's practice sentences are set up wrong, in my opinion.  The easiest ones to do are 2, 3, and 5.  1 and 4 include verbals that might be above the heads of 1st year students.
• Optional--Editing exercises and Spelling List in EEL

This website is a great place to get your grammar and diagramming questions answered!

Math

• Practice and work on speed and accuracy of math facts through games and whatever method works for you and your student.

IEW

• Complete your Faces of History paper
• Should be 3-5 paragraphs long, including an introduction and conclusion
• Should be written in 3rd person
• Turn in a marked copy with a checklist on Tuesday for feedback and a clean final copy for the end of year published book.
• This project is not meant to be stressful, but fun!  
• It is part of the Unit 8 curriculum, but as with any other unit--modify to fit your and your student's needs!
• Try to get your presentation ready
• This can be as simple as reading the paper directly, or you can cut parts out of the paper or even rework it into a 1st person presentation.  This is entirely up to you!  Just be sure it fits into the 2-5 minute time frame!
• Practice--your child should be comfortable reading/presenting.  Have them practice several times.  They can do this in front of the family, in front of their toys, the dog, whoever will be a captive audience!
• If you are choosing to do a visual, be sure it is ready as well.

Reminders...

• Be sure to read your lessons for next week--Week 22 in EEL Guide and Unit 9 in the TWSS 

• We will begin covering Unit 9 in class this next week.  This is a fun unit on critiques and literary analysis

•  Faces of History--Thursday, April 12, 6:30pm
• I will be sending out a potluck sign up in the next couple of days.
• Be sure to be inviting friends and family!

• We will begin this week with having our students who are "graduating" to Challenge teach us a sentence during our EEL time.  Remember these can be any sentence of your choosing.
• Week 22 (April 3)--Ceci
• Week 23 (April 10)--Lauren
• Week 24 (April 17)--Elora

My Prayer for you this week...

I hope you are starting to see some "harvest" from your hard work during this school year!  Teachers, you have do a superb job with your Essentials students this year!  When we look back at how far they have come, it is nothing short of remarkable!  God has been our help and our strength, and He has seen us through!  The end is in sight!  Keep up the great work through these last few weeks!

Essentials Week 19 (2017-2018)

In Class...

EEL

• A HUGE "Thank you" to Lindsey for leading EEL on Tuesday!  She did an amazing job!  It was so fun to be in her class!  The EEL portion of this post comes directly from her.😄

• We reviewed Complex Structure, Interrogative Purpose, S-Vt-DO-OCN Pattern, Verbs, and Charts O, D, N (with O being a new chart [To Play])-Lastly, we compared Charts D & N to Chart O. Charts D & N are significantly more challenging since they are irregular verbs. Chart O (To Play) follows all of the regular conjugations for a regular verb (-ed ending for past tense, -ing ending for a present participle, and so on). Students worked to put a disassembled Chart O back together.
• A complex sentence consists of one independent clause and at least one subordinate (dependent clause).
• This structure first came to us in Week 13 and can be referenced there & on Chart M.
• The most common clauses in a complex sentence are adjectival and adverbial.
• Adjectival being who/which, and usually beginning with a relative pronoun (which becomes the subject pronoun of that clause) Relative pronouns are on Chart F.
• Adverbial being www.asia.wub beginning with a subordinating conjunction Remember that www.asia.wub are not the only ones – there are more listed on Chart H.
• We reviewed complex structure with the little sheet of sentences at the beginning of class. This could be a handy tool to review the other structures that were also mixed in.
• Interrogative Purpose asks a question. To change the purpose of a sentence to interrogative, remember the acronym CIA:
1. Change the end mark
2. Interrogative pronoun – change the subject to an interrogative pronoun
3. Add a helping verb to begin the sentence
• My sister called the skydiver a lunatic, though he considered himself a normal guy.
• My sister called the skydiver a lunatic, though he considered himself a normal guy?
• Who called the skydiver a lunatic, though he considered himself a normal guy?
• Did my sister call the skydiver a lunatic, though he considered himself a normal guy?* *see note in 'At Home' section
• Tasks 1-6 were completed with the above sample sentence. Thank you for your participation, students!
• S-Vt-DO-OCN Pattern – first introduced to us in Week 16. An object complement is a noun, it follows a DO, and it renames the DO (it will neither be in a prep. phrase, nor in a sentence with an IO). The OCN will rename what the DO has become as a result of the action of the verb.
• The sheet of sentences can also be used to compare the S-Vt-IO-DO pattern to the S- Vt-DO-OCN pattern because students will sometimes want to classify an S-Vt-IO-DO as an S-Vt-DO-OCN (see pg. 297 in EEL). The question confirmation for each word is crucial to distinguish the jobs of each word in a sentence, and it will serve to help students accurately identify the roles or job of each word.
• Verbs – we briefly reviewed verbs by using Chart C to verbally fill out the Quid et Quo for the verbs in our practice sentence: My sister called the skydiver a lunatic, though he considered himself a normal guy.
• Lastly, we compared Charts D & N to Chart O. Charts D & N are significantly more challenging since they are irregular verbs. Chart O (To Play) follows all of the regular conjugations for a regular verb (-ed ending for past tense, -ing ending for a present participle, and so on). Students worked to put a disassembled Chart O back together.

Math

• Played "Multiple Madness" 
• Use the number cards (and ace) from a deck of cards.  Deal out the cards to all players until they are gone.  Decide what multiples the group will work on (i.e. multiples of 2--2, 4,6,8,10,12, etc.).  These can be written down on a piece of paper or whiteboard.  Players lay one card down at a time and add to any previous cards laid down until the total reaches one of the multiples chosen.  The person who lays down the card to reach the multiple will keep all cards laid down (similar to the game of war).  Play ends when only one person is left with cards in their hand or when players choose to call the game.  (again similar to a game of war)

IEW

• Students read their "US Flag" papers in small groups.
• I really enjoyed reading their papers this week!  They were all so creative and descriptive!
• Began Faces of History 
• Practiced making a KWO from one of my source texts.
• Took that KWO and some from other source texts that I had already done to create a fused outline together.
• Assignment for this week:
• Find (if haven't done so already) the resources you will use--these really need to be simple for students to be able to understand them and get the information they need from them.  
• Try to have at least one book and not all source texts from internet articles.
• Should have at least 4 sources (not every source may have information about your child's chosen topic).
• Choose the topics that your child will write about in the body paragraphs.
• Read through the source texts and do the KWOs/Fused Outlines for each topic chosen on your child's Faces of History handout.

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 about what our day at home looks like.

EEL

• Practice Chart O using whatever method you/your student desire
• 2^nd and 3^rd year students could further disassemble Chart O for an even greater challenge.Practice Chart O using whatever method you/your student desire. 
• Review other verb charts from past weeks, including the verb anatomies
• Parse and diagram at least one practice sentence daily. 
• First-tour students can try to complete tasks 1-4, while experienced students should go on to tasks 5 and 6. 
• Sentences 1-4 are pretty normal this week. 
• Do remember that verb phrases will be identified together in the question confirmation, and they will also be diagrammed together. This can come into play often with the interrogative purpose. Changing the purpose to declarative can often help you put the verbs back together if they are separated in the original interrogative sentence. 
• This can be seen when we added a helping verb to the first clause of our practice sentence: Did my sister call the skydiver a lunatic... your verb phrase is did call, and it will be diagrammed together.
• Scale for your student as you see necessary! This includes chart practice, what kinds of sentences you use in your daily practice, and how far you go with the tasks.
• Use he sheet of sentences handed out and the picture of the color-coded chart I mentioned in class. There really are so many ways this work can be reviewed! Try noticing patterns on the verb anatomy charts. How many patterns can your student find?
• Optional--Editing exercises and Spelling List in EEL

Math

• Practice and work on speed and accuracy of math facts through games and whatever method works for you and your student.

IEW

• Work through as much as you can of Phase 1 of the Faces of History handout.
• Remember, we will have Spring Break after next week's class, so that will give you some extra time to work through these tougher weeks (research, KWO/Fused Outline, and rough drafts).
• Scale as you see fit.
• You can just do 1 or 2 source texts. 
• You can just do 1 or 2 topics (body paragraphs). 
• This project is not meant to be stressful, but fun!  
• It is part of the Unit 8 curriculum, but as with any other unit--modify to fit your and your student's needs!
• Be sure to bring your resources and any KWO/Fused Outlines with you to class this week.

Reminders...

• Be sure to read your lessons for next week--Week 20 in EEL Guide and Unit 8 in the TWSS and the Faces of History handout.

• Our final Pudewa night is next Thursday, March 29.  Location is TBA

•  Faces of History--Thursday, April 12, 6:30pm
• This does give you an extra week to prepare for the presentation, but we will be doing most of our last unit in IEW (unit 9) before this, so don't procrastinate and not be able to do/enjoy the last unit, which is a fun one!

My Prayer for you this week...

May you find strength through Him! 

Essentials Week 18 (2017-2018)

In Class...

EEL

• Reviewed (board work) with a fun game of "Find Someone Who..."  
• I think the kids had a great time, and I heard many repetitions of the memory work from the EEL charts!
• Played a fun game of Living Sentences.
• This is a challenge of a game, but I always enjoy it and think it really stretches our minds!
• Reviewed finding the sentence patterns in different sentences, particularly those with reflexive pronouns in the direct object and indirect object spots.
• Went through all 6 tasks on the Analytical Task Sheet for the sentence: "Consider her a good friend because she prays for you."
• Always remember to ask questions!  I don't know if you aren't understanding something if you don't speak up!  😊

Math

• Allowed students to vote for our math game today.  They chose SNAKE.  It is always a fun one!
• I'd love to hear any ideas you have for fun math games or ones that you or your student would like to play again!

This is a fun one we haven't played yet this year, but it is easy to do at home!

IEW

• Students read their "hopes and dreams" papers in small groups.
• I thoroughly enjoyed reading their papers this week!
• Great job students & teachers!
• Introduced new sentence opener and decoration
• #6 sentence opener is a short sentence
• Must be only 2-5 words.
• "an occasional short sentence can pack a punch in paragraphs that otherwise have intricate and lengthy sentences."--A. Pudewa
• 3 Short Staccato Sentences Decoration
• similar to #6 opener in that it is short sentence of 2-5 words
• must be 3 together, in a row
• can double count as a #6 opener as well
• best to be all same length or of descending length
• Continued with Unit 7
• Lesson 23--Nationalism--The American Flag
• Brainstormed places where the American flag might be found
• Looked at pictures of some places where a flag is found
• discussed a few things a flag might see, think, etc. in those places
• talked briefly about personification and pretending to be the flag
• Briefly Introduced Faces of History and handed out resource packets

This is a funny video by the late Robin Williams on the American flag.  He actually personifies the flag like what our students are to do on this assignment.

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 about what our day at home looks like.

EEL

• page 284-285 (286-7) in EEL--"At Home" section
• Review all charts and work towards mastery of all 
• Analytical Task Sheet
• Try to complete 1 practice sentence each day 
• Sentences 1, 2, 3, and even 4 this week are basic and easy enough for anyone 
• Sentence 5 is definitely more advanced!
• 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 should be doing tasks 5 and 6 (quid et quo)
• 1st years students who are moving on to challenge should try to do tasks 5 and 6, at least some parts of each sentence.  Remember you can modify Quid et Quo to keep it simple.  (i.e. just do adjectives this week)
• Other 1st year students can just be focusing on tasks 1-4 and mastering those
• 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.
• Week 18 (and with our break) is a great time to assess your student!  Suggestions for this are found on page 284 (286) in the EEL Guide
• Optional--Editing exercises and Spelling List in EEL

Math

• Practice and work on speed and accuracy of math facts through games and whatever method works for you and your student.

IEW

• Lesson 23
• This is only one paragraph, but what a fun one to do!
• 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, decorations, and sentence openers 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.
• Process over Product!
• With the break, feel free to just take a break!
• However, if you want to work on something, you can cover lesson 22 or 24 with your student, as these are both unit 7 lessons
• Or, you can begin the research part of Faces of History
• See the packet for information.  
• Feel free to ask me any questions!

Reminders...

• Enjoy your break next week!

• Be sure to read your lessons for the week we return (March 6)--Week 19 in EEL Guide and Unit 8 in the TWSS (we will begin this unit, which is the Faces of History project on March 6)  We will not be working out of the US History books for this unit.

• Our next Pudewa night is next Thursday, March 1, at Holly Collins home, at 6:30pm  

•  Faces of History :  Be thinking about (and even discuss with your child) about the visual component of this project.  We will vote whether to keep it as a part of it or not when we return from break.

My Prayer for you this week...

May you experience some stillness and our Lord's presence this week!

Essentials Week 17 (2017-2018)

In Class...

EEL

• Reviewed (board work) by identifying all of the adjectives in the sentence "Old farmer John painted some parts of his barn bright purple, although he was colorblind and thought it was red."
• Some good dialectic discussion came about through this!  
• Remember grammar is not a science.  It is an art! There is not always one correct answer to every single situation.
• This is the sample sentence on page 268/270 in the EEL Guide.
• Review/Fun Activity--Adjectives about our Friends
• I hope the kids enjoyed getting to come up with adjectives to describe their friends as well as reading the adjectives that were written about them!
• Final Sentence Pattern!!---S | Vt | DO \ OCA
• exactly like OCN, except it is an object complement adjective, which means it describes the direct object
• uses the same verbs as for a direct object
• and, as seen in this week's practice sentences, synonyms of those verbs can also be used.
• Remember:  OCN and OCA complete the thought begun with the verb and direct object
• not "God calls us" or "God calls beautiful"
• but "God calls us beautiful."
• Remember sentences with an OCA or OCN will not have an indirect object 
• Always remember to ask questions!  I don't know if you aren't understanding something if you don't speak up!  😊

Math

• Valentine Candy Math
• BoardSlam/Number Knockout with the official competition board
• We did very well!  We only left 9 numbers after working on the board for less than 10 minutes!

IEW

• A few students read one of their topic/clincher combinations.
• Teacher Valentine Activity to Review Dress-ups, Decorations, and Sentence Openers
• I hope you each enjoyed the notes you received.  The ones I read as I walked around were precious!
• Thank you all for being flexible and completing this activity for each other!
• Continued with Unit 7
• Lesson 21--adding an introduction and conclusion to our papers we began last week
• Conclusion should be written first
• Take time to write a KWO before writing paragraph
• KWO should include:  
1. Restate topics
2. Tell which topic was most significant/important and why
3. Final Clincher--repeats/reflects from introduction paragraph
• Page 164 in USHBW book and page 109 in TWSS
• Introduction has the main jobs of capturing the reader's attention and introducing the paper
• Different kinds of attention grabbers (handout) and page 137-138 in SRP
• Write KWO before writing paragraph
• KWO should include:
1. Attention grabber
2. introduce subject (no "this paper is about...")
3. Give background information (if needed)
4. mention the topics (but don't give everything away!)

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 about what our day at home looks like.

EEL

• page 272 (274) in EEL--"At Home" section
• Review Charts L, M, and N, especially, but work towards mastery of all 
• 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 definitely more advanced!
• 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 should be doing tasks 5 and 6 (quid et quo)
• 1st years students who are moving on to challenge should try to do tasks 5 and 6, at least some parts of each sentence.  Remember you can modify Quid et Quo to keep it simple.  (i.e. just do adjectives this week)
• Other 1st year students can just be focusing on tasks 1-4 and mastering those
• 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

Myra saw this picture the other day and thought that we needed to try to "undiagram" this one in class.   I'm not sure the students are up for it, but I think you all can probably figure it out!  😉

Math

• Practice and work on speed and accuracy of math facts through games and whatever method works for you and your student.

IEW

• Lesson 21
• You will add an introduction and conclusion to the 1-3 topic paragraphs you wrote last week on "hopes and dreams"
• 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, decorations, and sentence openers 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.
• Process over Product!

Reminders...

• Be sure to read your lessons for next week--Week 18 in EEL Guide and Lesson 23 or 24  in USHBW book. **We will be drawing for teacher prizes next week!

• Our next Pudewa night is scheduled for March 1.  We still don't have a location, if someone would like to volunteer to host.  Our theme is Pizza and Pudewa.

•  Faces of History :  Go ahead and be looking for and even reading resources.  That will prepare you for when we actually begin writing.  We will only have around 1 week for research (KWOs and Fused Outlines), so having resources already in place that you know will work will save a lot of time!

• I plan to hand out Faces of History instructions next week.  I won't go over it much, as we won't officially begin on it until week 19.  However, since we will have a week off in between week 18 & 19, I thought some of you might want to get a head start.  I can't believe its already that time!

My Prayer for you this week...

We are finishing up the 3rd quarter of this CC school year!  It is so hard to believe that we have already come so far!  If you are fretting over what you may be behind on or may have skipped over hoping to come back to, stop!  We must not worry or fret, but simply keep our eyes on the goal (what God has called us to--disciple, raise, and homeschool our children).  If we keep our eyes on the goal and the One who set that God for us, the Author and Finisher of our faith, we will never have anything to worry or fret over!  He has it all under control!

God's got this!

Essentials Week 14 (2017-18)

In Class...

EEL

• Reviewed (board work) by studying a variety of review questions.
• Then played "Puffballs" with those questions, but without looking at our charts.
• Remember, this is an easy review game to replicate at home for anything!  (We use it mostly for Foundations review).  Simply gather some craft puffball/pompoms in different colors (or you could use colored cards, popsicle sticks, etc).  Assign points (some positive, some negative, some 0) to each color.  As students answer questions, they draw out a color and receive the points assigned to that color.  The game is never the same twice!
• Reviewed some of last week's lesson on Complex Sentences.  We mostly discussed adjectival clauses last week (begin with relative pronouns, IEW's who/which clauses, act like adjectives--modifies nouns/pronouns).  Today, we discussed adverbial clauses more.
• Adverb clauses begin with a subordinating conjunction.  They are IEW's www.asia.wub clauses.  They act like adverbs, modifying verbs usually.
• Discussed briefly active and passive verbs.
• Active verbs are when the subject is doing the action of the verb.
• "Cooper feeds his dogs."
• Passive verbs are when the subject is receiving the action of the verb.
• "The dogs were fed by Cooper."
• Only Transitive verbs can have a voice (be active or passive).
• When changing from active voice to passive voice, the Direct Object will become the subject.  The subject will become the direct object.  If there is an indirect object, it will need to find its pronoun again ("to" or "for").
• "Myra made Lily pancakes." becomes "The pancake were made by Myra for Lily."
• In an active voice sentence, an Indirect Object is just a prepositional phrase that ran away from its preposition to hang out with the Direct Object and now has to answer to that preposition in the question confirmation (to whom/what? or for whom/what?)
• In a passive voice, the Direct Object decides he is in charge and does not want to be Direct Object any more.  He wants to be the star--the subject.  Since Indirect Objects can't hang out without Direct Objects,  IO has to go find its preposition again.  
• Active and Passive voice may be above the heads of 1st year students.  No worries!  Just skip it.  Touch on it briefly with 2nd year students to begin their understanding.  3rd year students should try to completely understand it and even be able to write sentences that switch back and forth.  As they move on to Challenge,  active and passive voice become important in Latin.
• Always remember to ask questions!  I don't know if you aren't understanding something if you don't speak up!  😊

Math

• Four in a Row with partners
• There are several versions of this game.  I've searched, but I cannot find the link to the printable I used.  If you do a quick Google search, though, you should get several to pop up.
• Card Slam
• This is another easy one to replicate at home.  All you need is a deck of cards.  Say the operation and number before you turn the card over (i.e. "add 3").  First person to say answer with the turned over card keeps the card.

IEW

• Read entire papers in small groups.
• Used cards to identify dress-ups we heard.
• Reminded of what is expected for papers turned in.
• 1st--It is NOT required to turn a paper in every week!  You are the teacher, and you decide what your student does each week.  However, I do encourage you to have your student complete at least one paper per unit, at minimum.  
• My personal recommendation is to try to do a paper each time one is assigned, but adapt it to fit your student (i.e. maybe only do a KWO one week or only take a paper through the rough draft another week or have your student only do one paragraph when 2-3 were assigned)
• REMEMBER--It is process over product.  Skipping doing the work is not allowing your child to learn from the process.  The final product is not important!
• If your child does turn in a paper and they/you want feedback, please follow these guidelines:
• 1 copy marked with dress-ups, etc.
• checklist signed by teacher (feel free to write me any notes here!)
• 1 "clean" copy for their end of the year books (Even if you don't want feedback, please turn in any papers to be placed in your child's book.  It really is a wonderful keepsake at the end of the year!)
• Answered questions regarding Unit 6 and this week's assignment.
• Remember to put "source name" at top of each KWO
• Remember Roman Numeral "I" is for the topic.  Should write something such as: "I. Topic--Alexander Graham Bell"  This will turn into the topic sentence, which each paragraph will need.
• Paragraphs come from the Fused Outline.
• Don't forget to write the clincher!
• Sentence Openers
• Reviewed why these are needed with a paragraph that had all subject openers
• Reviewed prepositional (#2) openers.
• Discussed -ly (#3) openers, since I failed to cover them in class last week
• Learned about -ing (#4) openers
• Remember: the thing after the comma (the subject) must be the thing doing the inging!
• Easy way to create these--decide what two actions your subject will be doing and move one to the front with an -ing ending.

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 about what our day at home looks like.

EEL

• page 222-223 (224-225) in EEL--"At Home" section
• Review Charts A, E, H, I, L, and M 
• 2nd and 3rd year students can be studying Advanced Chart DD
• 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 adjectival phrases modifying the object of a preposition.  Since prepositional phrases are hard enough in and of themselves, these 2 practice sentences are definitely harder.
• Also, all of this week's sentences are still adjectival subordinate clauses.
• 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 and work on speed and accuracy of math facts through games and whatever method works for you and your student.
• Arcademics is a website we enjoy this time of year.  It is normally a paid site for many of the games.  However, for the next couple of weeks, you can get a free trial to participate in their "Arcademics Cup" which is a competition of earning points through playing their multiplication games.  I believe the competition is the 1st and 2nd of February.

IEW

• Lesson 17 & 18 from the US History Based Writing book
• Over the next 2 weeks, we will combine our writing into one 2-3 paragraph essay about inventors.  This week you are to choose either Thomas Edison from lesson 17 or Alexander Graham Bell from lesson 18.  Then, do KWOs from each source text about the chosen inventor, create a fused outline, and write a paragraph about that inventor.
• 1st year students are encouraged to choose 1 this week and another next week.
• 2nd and 3rd year students should try to do all 3 inventors.
• Papers can be brought to class for sharing this week, but wait to turn in your clean copy for memory books until the entire essay is completed.
• 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, decorations, and sentence openers 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.
• Process over Product!

Reminders...

• Be sure to read your lessons for next week--Week 15 in EEL Guide and Lesson 19  in USHBW book. 

• Our next Pudewa night is scheduled for February 1 at Jennifer Clinehen's home. Please see email sent out concerning this

•  Faces of History :  Go ahead and be looking for and even reading resources.  That will prepare you for when we actually begin writing.  We will only have around 1 week for research (KWOs and Fused Outlines), so having resources already in place that you know will work will save a lot of time!

My Prayer for you this week...

I pray that you find yourself trusting in our Lord and keeping your mind focused on Him this week, so that He may keep you in perfect peace!