Poetry K – 2
We had a wonderful day in class today! It was our end of the month poem presentation day. Each
child not only memorized our monthly poem, "How Doth the Little Crocodile," but each
child followed the steps we reviewed about presenting well, and looked and sounded so
professional as they presented the poem! After their presentations we discussed our new poet of
the week, Alfred Lord Tennyson. We then read one of Tennyson's poems called "The Eagle"
which is our new poem of the month and discussed the three steps to reading poetry which are:
First, read the title to try to figure out what the poem will be about, second, read the poem to find
the rhythm the author gave the poem, and third, read the poem again to find the meaning of the
poem and look up any difficult to understand words in the dictionary to help you find the
meaning. Lastly, the children glued a list of poetic categories into their poetry folders and we
discussed each of the 7 categories which are: narrative poetry- poems that tell stories, nature
poetry- poems about creation, love poetry- poems that speak of love and friendship, descriptive
poetry- poems that explain or describe something, historical poetry- poems about countries,
peoples, wars, etc, religious poetry- poems about God or man's relationship with Him, and
humorous poetry- poems that make you laugh. The children then discussed what categories they
thought their new poem "The Eagle" would best fit under. It was an exciting day and your
children are such a joy to work with.
LEGOS 2 – 4:
In our Lego class we read The Spider and The Fly. The challenge was to build a trap for a spider
or for a fly. After this they had free build time. Those who were interested read The Spooky Old
Tree. The second challenge was to see who could build the tallest structure with only 30 pieces.
Home Ec. 5 – 8:
Today we learned how to work with a recipe by making waffles. Double it, half it. Making sure the kids
knew how to read and understand the "code" ie. tsp, tbsp, etc.
In the first introduction class of Home Ec. one child expressed interest in learning to use a blender, so
what a better way to learn than to making Green Smoothies!! It was such a fun class with the boys
against the girls in teams, racing to finish their product and hoping theirs tasted the best!
Story of the World K – 2:
In Story of the World we read You Wouldn't Want to Be Mary, Queen of Scots and reviewed
that section in our book. We colored pictures and played hangman to guess the words
"Catholics and Protestants."
Rocks and the Earth 2 – 4
Students learned the difference between metamorphic, igneous and sedimentary rocks. They explored
granite, sandstone, shale, marble, gneiss and basalt rocks with a magnifying glass. Using scientific
discovery, they tested the surface of each to see if they were 'soft' or 'hard' rocks. Each student made a
'Rock Wheel' of samples to take home.
Famous People and Events 5 – 8:
We learned about Calvin Coolidge. The roaring 20's,the requirements to become president, we
also played a game naming all the presidents we remember.
Art 4 – 8:
Today in class we continued working on our drawing projects. Students explored values using
shading pencils such as graphite and charcoal pencils 2B, 4B, 5B, and 6B.
5 in a Row K – 2:
Today in class we continued on the mail theme and learned how to write our mailing address, write a
letter and address an envelope. We started with writing down our mailing address on a piece of paper
and passing it to the classmate on their right. Then each student wrote that classmate a letter. They
then learned how to properly fold their letter and insert into an envelope. They then addressed the
envelopes to their classmate and stamped the envelope. Each student will now have addressed a letter
to their classmate and received one in the mail before their next class.
This will conclude our lessons on the mail system. We first started with reading the book, THE GIANT
HUG by Sandra Horning, where a little boy wanted to send a hug to his grandmother for her
birthday. He did that by hugging the mail carrier at the post office and requesting that the mail carrier
give his hug to his grandmother. The mail carrier then hugged the mail sorter, the mail sorter hugged
the driver, and so on until it reached his grandmother across country. Through this book we created and
sent our own hug by making Valentine Day cards with traced hands extending from the letter. We then
talked about all the channels a letter goes through to get cross country. And, lastly we ended this
week's class with learning how to write a mailing address, a letter and envelope and sending it to a
classmate.
Poetry 2 – 4: same as above
Earth Science 5 – 8
Students divided into pairs and learned how to 'power their cities'. Strategizing which power plant
would power the most cities for the least amount of resources. Using the funds given students had to
buy power plants, buy raw materials, power cities, and cash in. Students came to understand that some
natural resources can become more expensive as their supply diminishes.