Challenge A - Week 7
Hello all! We had quite a busy day with lots of stuff to get done. Thank you to Mrs. Wolowitz, Zach's mom, for getting drinks to enjoy with the pizza. Thank you to Mrs. Harrell, Katie's mom, for those delicious chocolate cupcakes. And, thank you to Mrs. Gaines, and Meredith, for the Turkish Delights. (Mrs. Fogleman brought in a special treat too...look in the Geography section.)

Don't forget picture day on OCTOBER 15TH! I sent the order form via email last week. Orders will be due by OCTOBER 29TH.

Let's get right to business...

Math

Today...
We discussed the concepts from Lessons 29 - 32. We discussed rounding whole #'s and mixed #'s, as well as estimating answers. We took another look at common denominators and adding/subtracting fractions with different denominators. Reading and writing decimal numbers and decimal place value were topics from Lesson 31 that we practiced. Lastly, we read about the metric system.

For the week - Follow the guide!

Literature and Composition

Today...
We discussed The Magician's Nephew. Reading should be completed this week.We started the ANI chart and worked on developing our "inventory" using the 5 Common Topics found on pgs. 11 and 12 in the Student Book. They did a great job discussing the topics from the book. I love watching them develop an idea from the book and then deciding where it belongs in the chart.

I am strongly encouraging the students to come up with 20 items for each column of the ANI chart, as directed for them to do in the guide. Using the 5 Common Topics should help them with this task. That may sound like a lot, but it is part of LTW to really challenge the student to build ideas to use in their writing. It is easier to write an essay if you have lots of ideas to choose from. Do some each day. It will be tedious to try to do all of these on the same day.

For the week -
--The guide will direct you to Lesson 5...go there and take a look. It is working with comparing two concepts, which is one of the 5 Common Topics. Have them complete the lesson on page 67 on a separate sheet of paper using any two concepts they would like to compare. I would suggest that they use items that they might be able to use in their writing.
--They do not have to do the workbook pages "Introduction to the five Common Topics". I have ask them to use these 5 Common Topics in developing their ANI charts. I think this would be more useful than completing workbook pages for this assignment. I will be asking about the specific topics they used to build their inventory.

Latin

Today...
We reviewed how a noun is listed in a Latin dictionary, or in our vocabulary lists. We reviewed how to find the stem in order to decline the noun. We moved on to Lesson 2 and completed Exercise 10 together in class. We, also, worked through number 13 in Exercise 11. I believe that they are really understanding the Latin.

For the week -
--Exercise 11, odd numbers after #13
--Exercise 12, even numbers

Rhetoric

Today...
We had a "Round Room" discussion about the Theory of Evolution. The students worked in small groups to counter the statement, "The Theory of Evolution is fact." It was quite interesting to watch them work in groups...homeschooled students do not get the opportunity to do this very often! It was even more interesting to hear their ideas. We also had an opportunity to discuss how Jesus, being fully man, demonstrated anger and how his mildness was not weakness, but "strength under control."

Be sure to study those Catechism Questions. I am ready to get started playing games with them. The more they know...the more fun the games will be.

For the week - Follow the guide!

Science

Today...
We were visited by Anne Fogleman, Joe's sister. She is an avid shell collector with a wonderful collection of mollusk shells that she shared and discussed with the class. Several students shared their writings, and they were all different and well presented.

For the week - Spiders...EEEEEK! They do not have to write an research paragraph this week. I sent home a spider chart for them to work on this week. They are to go on a "spider hunt" and list the necessary items in the chart. Based on their descriptions, they are to identify the type of spider they found and write its name in the last column of the chart entitled "other comments". Lastly, they are to choose one of the spiders they found and draw/color it on the back of the paper.

Geography

Today...
The Central America, Greater Antilles, and Lesser Antilles map drawing test was done today. I look forward to seeing how they did. Please send in a note with the items you expect your child to do. I will honor that as I review and assign a number to their work. For the future...I am going to give them the list of features, so they do not have to memorize the words, just the locations.

I sent home a word search for those that wanted one with the 12 geographical terms listed that they can work and use to look up their terms for the term quiz next week.

Students worked in pairs to identify the countries, capitals, and features of South America. We will complete this task next week. 

For the week - Follow the guide! Study geo terms for quiz.

Thank you to Mrs. Fogleman for those delicious chocolate treats from South America. YUMMY!!

Blessings,
Mrs. Black