Week 16 - Inertia and Impressionists

Hello Masters families!
It was so wonderful to be back with everyone this week and resume activities. We missed seeing everyone and were glad to feel like "normal" again. Thank you again to Christi Mohl, who was an amazing sub on week 15. You are a blessing and I appreciate your loyalty and willingness to fill in during my absence.

This week was a fantastic week. We covered the material thoroughly and all of the students worked very hard at all of the activities. Thank you so much students your behavior was super!!! We have almost reached the top of the Memory Marble Jar and the CC store will be open next week.

Presentations - Excellent work on presentations this week, we all learned a lot from Jonathan, Harrison, Mollie, Carlyssa and Caleb as we visited topics from the timeline, science and enjoyed a demonstration speech. The presentations were well planned, practiced and exhibited improvement in areas of confidence (3 second rule), eye contact, introduction and conclusion, voice control and volume. Keep up the good work!

Next week our presentations will focus on any of our science topics this year.
Presenters for week 17: Zachary, Hannah, Sam, Shawn
*****Don't forget to complete your Learning Logs as you are drilling your memory work, labeling maps, and preparing your presentations each week. The store will be opened next week with a February Sweet Sale. All candy will be sold buy one get one free!!!*****

Memory Tips and Techniques:
History Timeline: The Constitutional Convention -Hands together like the church and the steeple, America's Founding Fathers - hand open at forehead ASL sign for father, Washington, Our First President - pretend to wash hands, The Louisiana Purchase from France - reach into pocket and pay for your purchase, The Lewis and Clark Expedition - use both hands to make Lewis and Clark walk together, The Second Great Awakening - Hold up 2 fingers then open eye for awakening, The War of 1812 - Hold right hand with left then punch through your grip, The Missouri Compromise - Shake hands with your neighbor
History Sentence: Tell me about how WWII began... We learned the history behind the atomic bomb and about how the US gained an advantage in the Battle of Midway. Listen to the CD and drill the sentence.
Science: What is Newton's First Law of Motion? An object at rest tends to remain at rest and an object in motion tends to continue moving in a straight line at constant speed , unless an outside force acts upon it. Inertia=Motion We discussed the concepts of friction and the correlation between Newton's Law and how God promises to protect us from outside forces when we are following in his will. The students enjoyed the experiments that demonstrated Newton's First Law and showed a strong understanding of it.
Math: We completed the Area of a Circle Drill Sheet located in their binders and used the example of eating the whole area of a pie to remember the beginning of the formula. The Area of a Circle is Pi (PIE) x the radius squared.
English: We used the grammar song provided by Mrs. Varnell to drill the ADVERBS (to what extent) not, so , too, very, rather, quite, somewhat.
Latin: Imperfect Tense - HINT "I'm a Bomb/AMABAM" Bombs make things imperfect. We sang the song, modeled the hand motions and completed the drill sheets in their binders to drill and review.
Geography: Balkans - Greece, Albania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia (former), and Romania
We marked each location with the first letter of each country and we traced the outline of former Yugoslavia on the colored map. The students then labeled the locations the same way on the blank map.

Extra Binder Challenges:
Map Drawing - To prepare for Challenge A practice map drawing 1-2 times a week.
Bible Memory - Drill Ephesians 6:1-24 using your drill sheet in your binder.
Peg Dates - We covered all of the peg dates for Semester 2 in class on Tuesday. The students were pleasantly surprised as they realized how familiar some of these dates are to them. This week the peg dates are The Mayflower Lands at Plymouth 1620 AD and 13 Colonies Formed 1607- 1773 AD.
Review Chart - Together the class competed against themselves to clock the best time in reciting the last 6 weeks of memory work in each subject area. Next week we will see if they can beat their times. At home you can use this sheet to encourage "Rapid Review" as you drill memory work in each of the subject areas you are focusing on each week. At home we are preparing for end of the year testing so we review all of the grammar(weeks 1-16) and use this sheet to record our daily drill times. In class we will continue to focus on 6 weeks in each subject area so we can spend time on review games and our end of the year program.

End of the Year Program - This week we walked through and played one round of the review game "On the Spot". Next week I plan to spend more time and show the students how the "skit" will go for the final program. All of the student answered their questions with 100% accuracy! Way to go MASTERS!

Thank you for a being such a blessing!
Love,
Mrs. Gaines