Sophie has been a part of the Children's Theater Youth Voices troupe, and after several weeks of long rehearsals this show will open to the public tonight. This particular show will run throughout the weekend. Good job, Sophie. We're very proud!
So, what could we have completed this week between frantic typing and car rides to Portland?
- In Life Skills math, our students figured how to handle their second scenarios. The kids have been lucky so far in rolling positive scenarios. I think the most difficult has been when one student had to "train for a marathon". He had one week to train and then run a mile under a certain amount of time (in real life) in order to collect a monetary reward. All money is deposited into their accounts for discretionary spending or investments. He has been considering the stock market...
- In addition to our Life of Fred math, we've been drilling multi-digit multiplication and long division. I have noticed some improvement over the last few weeks.
- We sorted our Latin vocabulary into noun/verb/adjective/other lists. Then, we figured which of our verbs fell into 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th conjugations. For fun, we read from our Minimus text, learning about the history of Hadrian's wall.
- Our Logic class focused on continued work with the symbols of "If-Then", "If-And", and "If-Or" statements. Students are also learning the importance of sorting fully formed arguments into premises and conclusion.
- In Ethics, we had a very interesting discussion about politeness. We began with the somewhat quainter rules of politeness (see Emily Post) and moved on to the vaguer world of internet etiquette. We also examined some of the lessons taught American business men when traveling for work to Japan.
- Science class introduced students to the anatomy of trees. This week served as the first half of the introduction, and students learned to identify and labeled bark, phloem, cambium, xylem, and heartwood on their wood slices. We also spent some time doing our own "forest forensics". Students would consider the shape of a tree in addition to its ring history to hypothesize fire damage, drought, disease and other infestations, overpopulation, and wind damage.
- Students have been studying Mesopotamian and Sumerian irrigation practices. This week, each student was presented with a clay model that included a town, rivers, and streams. The students had to plant their "crops" and contain their "livestock" in an appropriate space relative to the houses and to the water source. They then had to construct an irrigation system (using only wood, clay, rock, and/or string) that was manually powered. This irrigation system had to handle excess water from the wet season; have storage facilities for the dry season; and it had to provide access for the inhabitants of the town. One other thing, the irrigation system had to prevent flooding of the houses. We'll try to get some pictures up to show you how they did. Be sure to look carefully for a shadoof and a working bridge made of twigs!
- Besides continued review in Grammar, we began the first step in diagramming sentences! You wouldn't believe how excited the kids are about this. I told them that it was quickly becoming a lost art, and somehow it's managed to nudge its way into their imaginations as something akin to hand balancing, flea circuses, and dime museums.
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- In Word Derivation and Spelling, we had a quiz and students received their new words and derivations.
- In Reading Comprehension, we continued our study of the Greek gods focusing on the epic of Perseus.
- Writing was really more of the same: two are working on novels; one continues (slowly) on his graphic novel.
In addition to co-op (we're loving our new classes!) and internship day (no Veteran's Day vacation here), we've had a busy week. So, that's it until next Friday; I need to practice my splits for next Grammar class...
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