Week 20

In Class....

EEL

• Wrote all of the prepositions found in the verses Ephesians 4:7 (ESV) & Ephesians 6:18 (NIV)
• Made special mention of 2-word prepositions (according to, ahead of, away from, etc.).  These are on chart J, but they are often forgotten.

• Reviewed sentence patterns by finding the patterns for 8 different sentences.

• Practiced adding in modifiers (adjectives, adverbs, prepositional phrases, subordinate clauses, appositives)
• Students took the sentence with their name in it and added in at least one modifier. 
• This is the third part of Task 5 on the ATS (the back of the page).

• We didn't discuss this in class, but this is a great time to discuss misplaced modifiers with your child.
• I would only do this to the point of their understanding.  Don't push them into this, if they are not ready.  It might confuse them and cause them to start putting in misplaced or dangling modifiers in their writing, when they haven't been doing so before hand.  

IEW

• Revealed our Faces of History characters
• Shared the resources we were using as source texts
• Shared our 2 or 3 topics and/or our thesis statement.

• Went over bibliographies
• Remember the format is not as important as the fact that we do them.
• It is important to teach our children to site their sources and give credit to those they draw their ideas from.  It is teaching honesty and integrity.
• www.easybib.com
• MHBW page 212
• SRN page 18
• TWSS pages 126-127
• Citing Timeline Cards---Website that explains how to cite

• Reviewed Introduction
• 3 parts
1. Grab Reader's Attention
• Questions, Quotations, and Anecdotal (story) openers have already been discussed
• Learned today about Dramatic Opener
• This is a Short Staccato Sentence (like the 3sss decoration).  It must only have 3-5 words.  
• A short staccato sentence is also Sentence Opener #6
• This sentence opener can also be counted as a 3sss decoration, if 3 sentences are used together.
• My example: "She was England's first queen.  She was Mary Tudor.  She almost never became queen."
2. Introduce Subject and Give Background Information
• Tell who you are writing about and any background information that is important about them or their time period that will not be included in later paragraphs.
3. Mention the Topics/Thesis Statement
• This can be more than one sentence, if necessary.
• You do not want to simply list the topics.
• Make it interesting
• DO NOT use the words "I" or  "This report is about" or "I will tell you" or words like these.
• "Don't tell me what you are going to tell me; just tell me!"

• Reviewed Conclusion
• 3 parts
1. Restate the topics
• 1 sentence per topic is best
• Can repeat/reflect thesis statement
2. Most significant topic and why
• Why is this person still remembered?
• What can we learn from their legacy?
3. Final Clincher
• Repeats/Reflects the introduction
• If a Dramatic Opener is used in the introduction, a Dramatic Closer works well for the final clincher. (1 to 3 short staccato sentences as your final sentences)
• My example: "England's first queen was Queen Mary I."

Math

• Enjoyed some Pi day fun!
• Found the radius, diameter, circumference, and area for our mini pies
• Found the best buy for pizzas for 10" and 14'' pizzas at a given price.
• Enjoyed our mini pies!

At Home...

EEL

• Continue memorizing the charts, especially the ones from the Grammar Trivium Tables.

• Take some time this week to work on Charts H (conjunctions) and J (prepositions).

•  Complete tasks 1-4 on the ATS for at least 1 sentence per day 
• Tasks 1-6 should be done for second year students and those students moving on to challenge next year.
• Try out Task 5, at least the adding in modifiers part.

• Editing and Spelling exercises in EEL guide (optional)

IEW

• Continue working on Faces of History
• Finish with Phase 1
• Find your sources, Read your sources, Choose your topics
• KWO/Fused Outline for each topic
• Thesis Statement
• Move on and begin working on Phase 2
• Rough Drafts of your body paragraphs--1 paragraph for each topic
• After finish Phase 2, move on to Phase 3
• Introduction and Conclusion paragraphs
• Don't forget to do a KWO for each one before writing the rough drafts!

• Start gathering items for your costume (parents are welcome to dress-up as well).

• Start working on your visual.

• When we return from Spring Break, be prepared to share at least one paragraph from your paper.  Don't worry that it is still in rough draft form or that it may not even have all of the dress-ups and sentence openers!  You won't be turning this in to me; you will just be reading it to each other.

Don't forget to include plenty of Quality Adjectives!

Reminders for Teachers...

• ENJOY Spring Break!
• Read your lessons for next class.  Week 21 in EEL Guide.  Unit 8 in TWSS.
• Remember, you are the teacher!  Please adjust/scale assignments to meet your individual child's needs (be it to make it easier, more challenging, or just a little different approach.
• Always feel free to ask me anything.  If I don't know, we will find out together.  I'm not the expert, just the lead-learner.
• Let me know if there's anything I can do to help you and support you!

My Prayer for you

This week's scripture is lengthy passage but a beautiful one. With spring beginning this next week and things coming into bloom. I love this reminder that God has everything under control, and it is all under His timing. I especially love verses 9-13 as I think specifically on me homeschooling my kiddos. Many days don't seem beautiful, but God does "make everything beautiful in its time" (when He knows it is right). May you all enjoy a wonderful Spring Break and beginning of Spring!


Ecclesiastes 3

1 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
       2 a time to be born, and a time to die;
          a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
       3 a time to kill, and a time to heal;
          a time to break down, and a time to build up;
       4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
          a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
       5 a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
          a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
       6 a time to seek, and a time to lose;
          a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
       7 a time to tear, and a time to sew;
          a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
       8 a time to love, and a time to hate;
          a time for war, and a time for peace.

9 What gain has the worker from his toil? 10 I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. 12 I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live;13 also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God's gift to man.

14 I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him. 15 That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away.

Week 19

In Class....

EEL

• Completed an ATS as came into class for the sentence: "The visitor, who came from Medieval Times, called an airplane a metal bird."
• Did all tasks together, including Quid et Quo for the words: visitor, who, came, and called.

• Practiced Chart D through charades
• Had to not just say verb, but all 5 parts of the verb
• Chart D is easy for us as native English speakers; however, we still need to know the 5 principal parts of verbs and how those parts/forms are made (i.e. present participle is the "ing" form of the verb).  This is sometimes not as easy, as we don't think about the forms of the verbs we are speaking, but these forms are important in written language and, especially in learning other languages.

• Practices Chart O through a scavenger hunt
• I gave out person, number, time, and form
• Students had to give the complete phrase  (pronoun, any helping verbs, and verb in correct form)
• Chart O is the verb anatomy for "to play," which is a regular verb.  Therefore, this could be changed and used for any regular verb (anything where the past tense or past participle do not change forms, but are merely -ed).
• The scavenger hunt activity is an easy way to practice charts O, N, and K at home
• Charts N and K are the verb anatomies for "to have" and "to be," both irregular verbs and both used often in English

Fayetteville 2's Faces of History 2016

IEW

• Shared or favorite section from our "letters from the 21st Century" papers.
• These papers were so creative.  I really enjoyed reading them!

• Played the Sentence Stretching Game to review Dress-ups, Decorations, and Sentence Openers
• It was so interesting to see how different dress-ups and such could affect a sentence and make it completely different!

• Began Faces of History
• Handout--this is your key for Faces of History.  It will guide you through the process.  If you follow the handout by weeks (i.e. Phase 1 equals Week 1), you should finish by April 4.  This will allow you to stay with the class schedule and give you time to practice the presentation for a few days.
• Faces of History presentation will be April 7 at 6:30pm in the building where we had the Christmas party.  It will be a dinner theater.  I will send around a sign-up sheet for potluck for dinner.
• Papers will need to be 5 paragraph essays (teachers adjust this as you need to), based on TWSS Unit 8.  
• Presentations will need to be 5 to 7 minutes long.  I suggest you finish your paper, then do a new KWO, using your paper as your source text, for your presentation.  It would be great to present from the KWO, but if you'd like to write something out, that would be fine too.  Just remember to keep it from 5 to 7 minutes.  You may also read from your original paper, as long as you cut it down to 5-7 minutes.  
• Papers will be written in 3rd person (he/she).  Presentations are suggested to be done in 1st person (I/me).

Math

• Played Quick Minute BoardSlam
• So fun to bring this back this week. 
• Many students were getting 15+ numbers crossed off in 5 minutes!

At Home...

EEL

• Continue memorizing the charts, especially the ones from the Grammar Trivium Tables.

• Take some time this week to work on Charts D and O

•  Complete tasks 1-4 on the ATS for at least 1 sentence per day 
• Tasks 1-6 should be done for second year students and those students moving on to challenge next year.

• Editing and Spelling exercises in EEL guide (optional)

IEW

• Begin working on Faces of History
• Start with Phase 1
• Find your sources, Read your sources, Choose your topics
• KWO/Fused Outline for each topic
• Thesis Statement
• Move on and begin working on Phase 2 if have time

• Start gathering items for your costume (parents are welcome to dress-up as well).

• Start working on your visual.

• Bring your resources (source texts) with you to class next week.
• Be prepared to share the resources you are using, the character you are researching, and the topics you have chosen to write about.

Reminders for Teachers...

• Read your lessons for next class.  Week 20 in EEL Guide.  Unit 8 in TWSS.
• Remember, you are the teacher!  Please adjust/scale assignments to meet your individual child's needs (be it to make it easier, more challenging, or just a little different approach.
• Always feel free to ask me anything.  If I don't know, we will find out together.  I'm not the expert, just the lead-learner.
• Let me know if there's anything I can do to help you and support you!

My Prayer for you

 This week's "Words of Encouragement" at the end of the lesson in the EEL Guide really spoke to me.  Take a moment to read it.  It is a reminder to slow down, be watchful, and devote ourselves to prayer for our children.  If you are like me, you get caught up in trying to do everything to the best that you can, rather than leaning on the one who can do it far better than we could ever imagine!  I needed the reminder this week that I must spend time in prayer for my children each day, and I must put them in the care of the one who loves them and knows them better than I ever could.  

"Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful."  Colossians 4:2

Week 18

In Class....

EEL

• Undiagrammed a compound imperative sentence.
• We discussed later how imperative sentences are hard to make compound.  Looking back, this probably should have been diagrammed as a compound predicate, rather than a compound sentence.
• We are all learning together!  😊 

• Reviewed how to change the purpose and structure of an S-Vt-DO-OCN sentence.
• This was practicing task 5 from the ATS.

• Practiced writing sentences in the structures, patterns and purposes we have studied so far and including different parts of speech.
• A roll of the dice chose the elements for each sentence.
• Below is a picture of the chart I used for this activity.

IEW

• Shared Introductory (or favorite) paragraph from our first 4-paragraph papers.
• Listened for sentence openers and shared these with the whole class.
• Their papers were great, especially for the first ones for this unit!
• Teachers, you are doing a wonderful job!

• New Sentence Opener--"ing" (#4)
• page 167 in MHBW describes this well
• The -ing word must be an action word.
• The -ing phrase must be followed by a comma, and it must be in front of a complete sentence.
• The subject of that sentence must be doing the -ing'ing.

• Reviewed Unit 7 requirements
• Ideas come from brain
• Still must do KWO's
• 5W's + 1 (6 big) questions
• Write body paragraphs first, then add introduction and conclusion

• This week's assignment--prompt from MHBW page 163
• Read samples from the book Marco Polo by Demi.
• Read part of student sample from page 240-241 in MHBW
• Brainstormed ideas of what might be very different for a medieval era person coming into the 21st century and how they might describe what they saw

Math

• Played "Won"
• This is similar to SNAKE that we have played before.  Also called PIG.
• Played with partners
• 1st player rolls and multiplies dice together.  1st player then rolls again, multiplies, and adds that number to the previous number, keeping a running total of his/her score in his/her head.
• 1st player may stop at any time, write down his/her score, and pass the turn to Player 2.
• Player 2 then follows the same steps as Player 1.
• If a one is rolled during a turn, all points are lost from that turn, and play passes to the other player.
• Once 100 points are earned, that player earns a letter in "WON."  Once a a letter is earned, it cannot be taken away.
• If double ones (snake eyes) are rolled during a player's turn, all of his/her points for the current letter are lost.

At Home...

EEL

• Continue memorizing the charts, especially the ones from the Grammar Trivium Tables.

•  Complete tasks 1-4 on the ATS for at least 1 sentence per day 


• Tasks 1-6 should be done for second year students and those students moving on to challenge next year.

• Take some time this week or next to complete the "TEST for the past Eighteen Weeks" on page 284 (286 in the newer versions) of the EEL Guide

• Editing and Spelling exercises in EEL guide (optional)

IEW

• Complete Lesson 24 in MHBW
• Do 2-3 body paragraphs during 1st week
• Complete Introduction and Conclusion paragraphs during 2nd week

• Remember to include the checklist when you turn in your paper.  This helps me to know that you, as teacher, have put your stamp of approval on the paper.  
• Remember, I don't grade the papers.  You do.
• The checklist helps me to know what you are expecting of your child, so that I don't make a suggestion to them to change something when you have told them differently.

• Remember "easy + 1" for stylistic techniques (dress-ups, decorations, sentence openers)
• Whatever is almost natural for your child to include, expect that from them every time, plus one thing they need to learn to do.
• What you expect does not have to be in the order that we introduced them.  If because clauses are easy, but they cannot do -ly words, then because clauses are in their easy category.  Put -ly words as their "+1" until they get it.
• Don't hold them back just because we introduced things in a different order.  😊
• If you (or your student) wants to include the other stylistic techniques that we have covered in class, that is perfectly fine.  They will just need you to model that for them and walk them through it.
• Don't feel that you have to do this, though!

Reminders for Teachers...

• No class on February 28.  We will see everyone March 7!
• Read your lessons for next class.  Week 19 in EEL Guide.  Unit 8 in TWSS.
• Begin preparing for Faces of History 
• We will begin writing this paper in week 19 (the week we return)
• We will go over this some on Thursday night

Party and Pudewa

• This Thursday, February 23 at 6:00pm at the Baber's home (1009 East Steel Rd.)
• Bring your favorite party food to share (if you'd like) for our last Pudewa videos of the year

My Prayer for you

 How many of us have mornings/days like this?  How many of us are stressed/done/ready for the year to be over?  It is easy to become weary this time of the year.  Especially with our break this week, it would be very easy for us all to give up.  Let's not give up, though!  You, teachers, are doing wonderful things!  God is working through you and is working in your children!  He's probably also working in you as well.  I know He is me!  Homeschooling has a way of being a tool that God uses to teach us parents as well as our children!  This week, I'm praying for strength and perseverance as we head into the final stretch (the last quarter) of our CC/Essentials year!  Take some time this week and look back over how far your student (and you) have come this year.  I think you'll be amazed!  

• "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."  Galations 6:9