Week One- Great Fun!

We got off to a great start on Tuesday! It was a joy to get to know your kiddos a little more. I am excited about the things that we will be studying this year and I think the students are too.

We will be using two incentives for class & home memory drilling and I would like to tell you a little about those. First there will be memory marbles which the children will obtain as a group for correct answers. The filling of my container with the marbles will signify the opportunity for a fun class treat. Keep the answers rolling! Second there are Learning Logs in the front of your child's binder which should be filled in as your student prepares for his or her presentation, practices weekly mapwork, and studies general memory week at home. I will collect the Logs every two weeks so that I can assign a Classical Cash value which will accumulate in order to make purchases from the Shaw Store periodically. Fun times!

While on the subject of practicing for presentations, the impromptu speeches that began our morning were very telling and made it abundantly clear why having some sort of organization and practice is so important! The students did a fantastic job with these, but I don't think anyone would like to repeat the awkward silences that can come with lack of preparation. For the next two weeks we are focusing on body language; the complete description of the miming presentation can be found in your red folder.
Week 2: Hope, Meredith, Ryan
Week 3: Peytra, Gabe, Maren, Katie

Some notes about New Grammar:

GENERAL: There is a fantastic copywork sheet that will help your kids work practice their memory work at home. It is under CC Connected>File Sharing>Misc/NoGreaterJoy5/Cycle 2>Copywork Pages; you can print the appropriate weekly sheet, stick it in a page protector, and your child can use a Vis a Vis to practice.

SCIENCE: As a class we drew a man's face to work on the 7 biomes. Draw a circle with two ears; as you draw tufts of hair above the ears say Grasslands, as you point to the bald top of the head say Deserts, as you draw his 5 o'clock shadow say Scrublands, his capital letter T to represent his brow/nose say Tundra, his capital D right eye say Deciduous Forests, his sideways C smile say Coniferous Forests, and his left eye T say Tropical Rain Forests. Use it if it works!

We sang in class the audios for HISTORY, LATIN and ENGLISH. Let me know if you're having trouble locating the songs. There are drill sheets in the binder for Latin and English as well.

Remember for GEOGRAPHY to practice locating the European Waters on your maps at home. Give yourself credit on your Log!

Have a super fantastic rest of the week. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns, and I will plan to see you all (except Katie) on Tuesday.

Blessings,
Kim Shaw