Hello Masters!
I hope you are enjoying a blessed week of homeschooling. We enjoyed a shorter, yet very productive day on Tuesday. Our new seating was taken on with enthusiasm by the students and I believe we will continue with the arrangement of the tables and just adjust where the students are sitting on a week-by-week basis. Thank you to all of the students for participating, listening, and learning together so well. We covered a wealth of information in a short time! Our science was filled with three awesome examples of acids and bases and their pH values. We then ended with a refreshing conclusion. Our time in art class produced some beautiful watercolor paintings - great concentration and effort among all of the students. Caleb we missed you and look forward to your return next week!
Presentations - Thank you to all of our presenters. Interestingly all three chose to present on Bible cards from our timeline and revealed detail and great visual aids to communicate their message. Jonathan, Harrison and Carlyssa you demonstrated excellent eye contact, volume, and articulation. The audience also showed great attention to the presenters. We are looking forward to all of the presenters for next week! Parents remember that I provided the students with an outline sheet to prepare their presentations, you can find this in their binders behind the sheet "Masters Presentation Schedule".
Week 15 presenters - Mollie, Shawn, Sam, Zachary
Caleb and Hannah you are welcome to present Week 15 on a timeline card or you can jump back in on Week 16 and present on a science question.
Memory Tips and Techniques for Week 14:
History Timeline - Pilgrims build Plymouth Colony (saw back and forth), Massachusetts Bay Colony Home of the Puritans (hold up right hand in an L shape to represent the shape of the bay and use left hand to point to it), Roger Williams, Founder of Rhode Island (step forward and bow), Salem Witch Trials (hold up both hands and say "witch" in a scary way), 13 Colonies formed (hold up a 1 and a 3), The First Great Awakening (Hold up 1 finger for "first" and then use same hand to open your eye wide for awakening), Colonial Trading With England (left out palm up and then take item out with right hand), The French and Indian Wars (place left fist next to right fist in front of body then push forward)
History Sentence - Tell me about the leaders of World War I... Clemenceau of France, Lloyd George of England, Nicholas II of Russia, Wilhelm II of Germany, and Wilson of the United Stated were leaders during WWI, which started in 1914 and ended in 1918. Each student was provided with a handout picturing all of the leaders of WWI - use this to color silly faces on each of the leaders as your student listens to the audio CD. We also pointed to all of the locations on the map to reemphasize the countries involved in the war.
History Peg Dates - Otto I and the Holy Roman Empire 962-973AD, The Crusades 1095-1291AD/1250AD either will be accepted. I had several students indicate they are interested in going the extra mile and learning the peg dates. Please let me know if your child is interested in mastering these dates so that I can recognize their extra effort at the end of the year. The dates for this semester are much more familiar to our students and I know they can tackle these!
Bible - We added the drill sheet for Ephesians 6 :13-24 to their binders continue to learn this at home, it is not required for Memory Master, but can be used for a subject for Memory Power or Excellence.
Geography - We labeled the following Baltic Europe Countries on the map - Estonia (E), Latvia (Lat), Lithuania (Lith), Former East Prussia (EP), Poland (P)
At home we are working on the Map Drawing Exercise #2 Europe/Asia found in your student's binder.
Latin - Present Tense "God is AMOpresent" Memorize these conjugations orally and you can use the additional drill sheet in your binder to write and identify the conjugations and their meanings.
Math - The area of a square is the length of it's side squared. We completed a practice sheet to accompany this mathematical formula.
English - What are the four types of sentences? D. I. I. E. The students enjoyed this memory tip!
Declarative (.), Interrogative (?), Imperative (.), Exclamatory (!)
BINDER UPDATE - Caleb, we will give you all of the handouts that we added to each of the student binders this week. The following drill sheets were added to their binders to aid you in drilling memory work at home .
Review Race Sheet - I am using this sheet at home to help prepare my girls for the testing at the end of the year. It is a fun way to encourage your child to race against themselves each week and improve their speed and accuracy. You can start new times over at the beginning of each week as we add new material. It greatly improves the amount of time needed to review each day - ENJOY!
We also added - Bible (Ephesians 6:13-24), History Peg Dates (Semester 2), Latin Drill Sheets for remaining conjugations, Math Formula Sheets for the rest of the semester, and Copywork sheets for Weeks 14-18. I will provide additional Copywork sheets when they become available on the forum.
Thank you Mrs. Mohl, Mrs. Lilly and Mrs. Varnell for helping load the binders on Tuesday!!!!
Classical Cash and Memory Marbles:
We added 35 Memory Marbles to the jar on Tuesday after the students eagerly completed their Latin drill sheets, geography, and answered questions to earn these marbles!
Continue to complete your Learning Logs each week as you drill and prepare your presentations at home. We are planning to open the CC store on February 1st!
Have a blessed week, I will see you all on Tuesday!
Mrs. Gaines
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Week 13 - Sweet Science!
Hello Masters families,
Welcome back! I hope you are all adjusting back into your school and activities schedule this week and easing back into the pace of Foundations and Essentials. We enjoyed an unusual schedule on week 13 with an extra sweet and special focus on science and our new art schedule. Next week we will settle into a regular schedule during class and I am sure the students will be ready to focus during class and make the most of our awesome 3 hours we share together each week. Thank you for sharing your children with me each week. I will try to make the most of our time together and I can already see that the students are working hard at home with their memory work. I expect we will see amazing end-of-the-year accomplishments.
Parents, please continue to ask a lot of questions about the end-of-the-year testing and program.
Here is a short recap of the memory goals for the kids:
Memory Power- 1 or 2 subjects, Memory Excellence - 3 or more subjects, Memory Master - all subjects (Timeline, History Sentences, Latin, English, Science, Math, Geography)
A guideline for testing and assessing what subjects your child will be ready to test for are:
Proof 1 (Week 21) Test through week 20/21 with a parent -3 or fewer misses per subject
Proof 2 (Week 22) Other tester test through week 21/22 - grandparent, neighbor, other mom from CC - 2 or fewer misses per subject
Proof 3 (Week 23) Tutor test through week 22/23 (all material for all subjects - if week 23/24 needs to be perfected the next week that is no problem, we will just share that with Mrs. Varnell and she will include this in final Director testing) Average miss of 1 per subject maximum means that your child will go forward and test with Mrs. Varnell for Memory Master!
****Please do not feel any pressure to study ahead, just focus on the weeks that we have covered in class and have your child learn them very well! Your student will be a memory expert by the end of the semester and those last few weeks will naturally fall into place. Our family has done this for years and it is a gradual, natural process because it is the way God created us to learn. ****
****Final Testing for Memory Power or Excellence can be tested by any other parent in the CC program or by me. ONLY MEMORY MASTER STUDENTS NEED TO TEST DIRECTLY WITH THE TUTOR AND MRS. VARNELL. If you are a parent willing to test students just let me know it would be a huge help.****
Presentations: All students will be focusing on the same subject areas each week for presentations. Weeks 14 and 15 will be on a timeline card of your choice. Continue to stress the presentation techniques outlined on your child's Learning Log to help them prepare. (3 second rule, pronouncing words well, volume/expression, organization, eye contact, use of time, and visual aids) We placed a handout in the front of their binder with the groups and topics for each week listed. On the back side of this handout please use the sheets provided (I included 3 per student) to help your child prepare and practice their presentations.
Week 14 presenters: Caleb, Carlyssa, Hannah, Harrison, Jonathan
Memory Tips and Techniques for Week 13:
History Timeline: John Calvin and the Institutes (stroke beard), Cortez, DeSoto, De Leon, and Coronado: the Spanish explorers (hand over eyes look out), The Council of Trent (make a T with fingers from each hand and do a semi-circle in front of your body), John Knox, the Scottish Explorer (knock in the air), Explorers of the Northeast: Cartier, Champlain and Cabot (point to the Northeast), Raleigh Settles Roanoke (take hat off of head and bow down), Jamestown is Founded in Virginia (place stake in the ground), The Mayflower Lands at Plymouth (right hand in the air sails down to left hand/Plymouth Rock)
PEG DATES DRILL SHEET WILL BE PROVIDED NEXT WEEK FOR ALL STUDENTS!!!
History Sentences: Tell me about the Industrial Revolution... We discussed the importance and significance of each invention. Drill using Audio CD.
Latin: Each student received new charts to aid in drilling their Latin this semester. We are repeating the same conjugations as last semester. Use hand motions, Audio CD, charts, and memory tips to master the material. PRESENT TENSE - God is AMO-present (omnipresent)
English : Use the Grammar Song provided by Mrs. Varnell to master the definition for Adverbs - add the following part - "and modify verbs, adjectives, or another adverb."
Science : What are the states of matter? solid (hand in fist on top of other hand), liquid pretend to drink), gas (wave the air in front of you), plasma (take hands and wiggle fingers)
Math: Area of a Rectangle = Length X Width
A drill sheet was included in your student's binder to practice this formula.
Geography: Northern Europe - We labeled the following countries with the first letter of each.
Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Netherlands
Map Drawing Exercises: I included new map drawing exercises in each student's binder to help with their cartography skills. Include this as time allows in your homeschool. It will aid in preparing your child for Challenge A.
Have a wonderful week. Students, don't forget to record your Memory Drilling and Presentation preparation on your Learning Log. We will open the store on Week 16!!!
Have a blessed week!
Mrs. Gaines
Welcome back! I hope you are all adjusting back into your school and activities schedule this week and easing back into the pace of Foundations and Essentials. We enjoyed an unusual schedule on week 13 with an extra sweet and special focus on science and our new art schedule. Next week we will settle into a regular schedule during class and I am sure the students will be ready to focus during class and make the most of our awesome 3 hours we share together each week. Thank you for sharing your children with me each week. I will try to make the most of our time together and I can already see that the students are working hard at home with their memory work. I expect we will see amazing end-of-the-year accomplishments.
Parents, please continue to ask a lot of questions about the end-of-the-year testing and program.
Here is a short recap of the memory goals for the kids:
Memory Power- 1 or 2 subjects, Memory Excellence - 3 or more subjects, Memory Master - all subjects (Timeline, History Sentences, Latin, English, Science, Math, Geography)
A guideline for testing and assessing what subjects your child will be ready to test for are:
Proof 1 (Week 21) Test through week 20/21 with a parent -3 or fewer misses per subject
Proof 2 (Week 22) Other tester test through week 21/22 - grandparent, neighbor, other mom from CC - 2 or fewer misses per subject
Proof 3 (Week 23) Tutor test through week 22/23 (all material for all subjects - if week 23/24 needs to be perfected the next week that is no problem, we will just share that with Mrs. Varnell and she will include this in final Director testing) Average miss of 1 per subject maximum means that your child will go forward and test with Mrs. Varnell for Memory Master!
****Please do not feel any pressure to study ahead, just focus on the weeks that we have covered in class and have your child learn them very well! Your student will be a memory expert by the end of the semester and those last few weeks will naturally fall into place. Our family has done this for years and it is a gradual, natural process because it is the way God created us to learn. ****
****Final Testing for Memory Power or Excellence can be tested by any other parent in the CC program or by me. ONLY MEMORY MASTER STUDENTS NEED TO TEST DIRECTLY WITH THE TUTOR AND MRS. VARNELL. If you are a parent willing to test students just let me know it would be a huge help.****
Presentations: All students will be focusing on the same subject areas each week for presentations. Weeks 14 and 15 will be on a timeline card of your choice. Continue to stress the presentation techniques outlined on your child's Learning Log to help them prepare. (3 second rule, pronouncing words well, volume/expression, organization, eye contact, use of time, and visual aids) We placed a handout in the front of their binder with the groups and topics for each week listed. On the back side of this handout please use the sheets provided (I included 3 per student) to help your child prepare and practice their presentations.
Week 14 presenters: Caleb, Carlyssa, Hannah, Harrison, Jonathan
Memory Tips and Techniques for Week 13:
History Timeline: John Calvin and the Institutes (stroke beard), Cortez, DeSoto, De Leon, and Coronado: the Spanish explorers (hand over eyes look out), The Council of Trent (make a T with fingers from each hand and do a semi-circle in front of your body), John Knox, the Scottish Explorer (knock in the air), Explorers of the Northeast: Cartier, Champlain and Cabot (point to the Northeast), Raleigh Settles Roanoke (take hat off of head and bow down), Jamestown is Founded in Virginia (place stake in the ground), The Mayflower Lands at Plymouth (right hand in the air sails down to left hand/Plymouth Rock)
PEG DATES DRILL SHEET WILL BE PROVIDED NEXT WEEK FOR ALL STUDENTS!!!
History Sentences: Tell me about the Industrial Revolution... We discussed the importance and significance of each invention. Drill using Audio CD.
Latin: Each student received new charts to aid in drilling their Latin this semester. We are repeating the same conjugations as last semester. Use hand motions, Audio CD, charts, and memory tips to master the material. PRESENT TENSE - God is AMO-present (omnipresent)
English : Use the Grammar Song provided by Mrs. Varnell to master the definition for Adverbs - add the following part - "and modify verbs, adjectives, or another adverb."
Science : What are the states of matter? solid (hand in fist on top of other hand), liquid pretend to drink), gas (wave the air in front of you), plasma (take hands and wiggle fingers)
Math: Area of a Rectangle = Length X Width
A drill sheet was included in your student's binder to practice this formula.
Geography: Northern Europe - We labeled the following countries with the first letter of each.
Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Netherlands
Map Drawing Exercises: I included new map drawing exercises in each student's binder to help with their cartography skills. Include this as time allows in your homeschool. It will aid in preparing your child for Challenge A.
Have a wonderful week. Students, don't forget to record your Memory Drilling and Presentation preparation on your Learning Log. We will open the store on Week 16!!!
Have a blessed week!
Mrs. Gaines
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