Greetings Parents,
I hope you are enjoying your weekend. One good thing about living in the West is that the Superbowl starts pretty early so children should be well rested for the next day. That will be important because this week, our students, school wide, will be taking some assessments to see the progress they are making. It would benefit them if you ensured that they went to bed early enough to get a good nights rest and a good breakfast. Here is an overview of the lessons for the week.
Language Arts
Poem
"The Charge of the Light Brigade" (stanza 1-2), by Alfred Lord Tennyson
Idiom
"Let bygones by bygones."
Spalding
We will be learning new words and reviewing our phonograms. A number of students are seeing decreasing scores on their spelling assessments that we take each Friday. I send these home each week following. Please note the challenges your child is having. If you see that he or she is doing more poorly that usually, make sure that the your child is having these words dictated to his or her each night, as the homework assignment notes. It may be that students are copying them down and turning them in each day, but not memorizing them for the assessment and, more importantly, for life. The students will be assessed on their spelling and phonograms on Friday.
Writing and Grammer
The students are continuing their efforts at being better summarizers. Many have come a great way at this skill. Please encourage that skill by asking students what they are reading about during their nightly reading time. The students will also be reviewing many of the grammar rules we have learned throughout the year and strengthening their comprehension skills.
Literature
The students will be discussing chapter 2 of The Jungle Book. To this point, there has been a lot of action and conflict in the story. I would encourage you to ask your student about what they think is happening in the story, as it presents some pretty challenging moral situations. One of the greatest benefits to our great books curriculum in literature is that it grows the soul as much as it does the mind. They will have a quiz over chapters one and two on Thursday.
Math
The students will be introduced to the metric measurement of weight this week. They will be assessed on Friday.
History
Having finished up the Vikings, we transition to earliest Americans. To begin this study, we will be discussing the age of the earth. This lesson might go against some of the beliefs your family has about the age of the earth and the origin of man. If you fall into that category, it might be wise to discuss the lesson with your child beforehand. As a liberal arts institution, we believe it is important to give students a wealth of information in many disciplines, and at times it might be controversial. I will teach it as the scientific consensus, though not unanimously agreed on by all scientist.
Science
In science we will finish up our study of sound and the human ear. There will be an assessment on Thursday.
Best,
Michael Naaktgeboren
I hope you are enjoying your weekend. One good thing about living in the West is that the Superbowl starts pretty early so children should be well rested for the next day. That will be important because this week, our students, school wide, will be taking some assessments to see the progress they are making. It would benefit them if you ensured that they went to bed early enough to get a good nights rest and a good breakfast. Here is an overview of the lessons for the week.
Language Arts
Poem
"The Charge of the Light Brigade" (stanza 1-2), by Alfred Lord Tennyson
Idiom
"Let bygones by bygones."
Spalding
We will be learning new words and reviewing our phonograms. A number of students are seeing decreasing scores on their spelling assessments that we take each Friday. I send these home each week following. Please note the challenges your child is having. If you see that he or she is doing more poorly that usually, make sure that the your child is having these words dictated to his or her each night, as the homework assignment notes. It may be that students are copying them down and turning them in each day, but not memorizing them for the assessment and, more importantly, for life. The students will be assessed on their spelling and phonograms on Friday.
Writing and Grammer
The students are continuing their efforts at being better summarizers. Many have come a great way at this skill. Please encourage that skill by asking students what they are reading about during their nightly reading time. The students will also be reviewing many of the grammar rules we have learned throughout the year and strengthening their comprehension skills.
Literature
The students will be discussing chapter 2 of The Jungle Book. To this point, there has been a lot of action and conflict in the story. I would encourage you to ask your student about what they think is happening in the story, as it presents some pretty challenging moral situations. One of the greatest benefits to our great books curriculum in literature is that it grows the soul as much as it does the mind. They will have a quiz over chapters one and two on Thursday.
Math
The students will be introduced to the metric measurement of weight this week. They will be assessed on Friday.
History
Having finished up the Vikings, we transition to earliest Americans. To begin this study, we will be discussing the age of the earth. This lesson might go against some of the beliefs your family has about the age of the earth and the origin of man. If you fall into that category, it might be wise to discuss the lesson with your child beforehand. As a liberal arts institution, we believe it is important to give students a wealth of information in many disciplines, and at times it might be controversial. I will teach it as the scientific consensus, though not unanimously agreed on by all scientist.
Science
In science we will finish up our study of sound and the human ear. There will be an assessment on Thursday.
Best,
Michael Naaktgeboren