Nine Month Novena in Honor of the Virgin of the Incarnation

 

Prayed each day from the Solemnity of the Annunciation the Solemnity of the Nativity

March 25 – December 25

(This novena is offered for three intentions)

Salve Regina (Hail Holy Queen...)

O Virgin of the Incarnation, a thousand times we praise thee, a thousand times we greet thee, for the joy thou did know when the Son of God became flesh in thy womb. Because thou are most powerful, O Virgin Mother of God, grant what we beseech thee for the love of God: (here name the three intentions).

Memorare (Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary...)

Hail Mary

May the heart of Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament, be praised, adored and loved with grateful affection at every moment in all the tabernacles of the world and in the hearts of all, even until the end of time. Amen.

K-1st, Holy Week ideas

Religion -  Here is a craft for Holy Thursday, taken from the Catholic Icing blog, that I had planned to do with the class at co-op. In addition to the craft itself, there is a more formal art lesson involving DaVinci's Last Supper included as well, for older children maybe.

http://catholicicing.com/holy-thursday-last-supper-craft/


Another idea I plan to do with my own kids this week is simply to print the Stations of the Cross coloring pages from the St. John's website for them to work on during the week as we learn about each Station, and then create a booklet they can use to follow along with the Stations on Good Friday (or any Friday in Lent).

http://www.sjtb.org/releducolor.html#misc

History - This week, my Kindergartner and first grader will finish reading about Alexander the Great and begin reading about the founding of Rome.  If I'm organized enough, I'd like my older two (9 and 11 yrs. old) to do the History lapbook posted on the on line suite (Week 21) in order to wrap up their study of Ancient Greece. They too will begin reading assignments for Ancient Rome.

Have a Blessed Holy Week,

Kathryn

Snow! A perfect end to Lent!

Dear Families,

Due to snow, we will be having one more snow day tomorrow!

Please note we will probably add a week at the end of our year that is optional to attend. Have a very Blessed Holy Week, and teachers please feel free to post some Holy Week ideas on the blog!

Thank You all for a Blessed and inspiring school year!

We are taking the day off of regular homeschooling and maybe taking a nature hike,
 maybe going to the park,
 maybe having a special class on St. Joseph and what makes him the most manly of all (after Christ).  We are baking cinnamon buns and living it up a little.

 Happy St. Joseph's Day!

Co-op Meeting #14 Canceled due to Weather!

Please do not travel tomorrow for co-op!


Photo credit: angy from morguefile.com

K-1st, Please bring tomorrow......

TWO egg cartons per child, IF you have them (and assuming you saw this post before co-op). If you don't have two cartons, that's ok. I have several I'll be bringing myself and the project we are doing can also be finished at home another day, when you've been able to save a couple of cartons.

Meeting #13 2nd-3rd grade

History/Geography --  We began by finding the locations provided by CCM in geography this week.  Following this, the students were introduced to the Parthenon, the Greek temple built for the goddess Athena.  The children did a craft which included interesting facts about this topic.

Religion -- we talked about the 7th and 10th Commandment and the students drew pictures depicting what is commanded or forbidden by these commandments.

English --   Lesson 47 was covered-- a short story was read aloud and the children either retold the story in their own words in their notebooks, or copied the first two sentences of the story from the board.   During this time we also read the poem "The Months," and discussed the first stanza.   We also looked at some Latin and Greek roots, and tried to figure out what English words might come from them.

Science -- the enthusiasm was fantastic!  Though most were reluctant to start on the owl pellet dissection, once they began they really enjoyed this activity.  We found that most pellets contained rodents, though we had one bird, and the kids tried to match the bones with the ones found in the charts. 

Habemus Papam!

We have a new pope!

Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

His Holiness Pope Francis 

former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina

Co-op Meeting #13, K-1st

(I'm sorry I'm getting this out later than usual. We had a bit of a family emergency last evening and I'm still playing catch up :)

Religion - we studied "how to make a good confession", following the Lesson 10 catechism questions in O.H.F. (Our Holy Faith).  Then the children did a coloring page on the Sacrament of Penance.

English - our Picture Study was of a little girl and dog, possibly looking to share some of her food. The children were asked to write a story about the picture and they dictated it to us, or wrote it down themselves.  After everyone had had a chance to write, many volunteered to have their story read aloud to the class.

Poetry - we briefly discussed & recited the 12 months of the year, and began learning the first stanza (Jan. and Feb.) of our new poem (CCM Week 13).

History - this week we learned a little about Greek theater, which tied in so nicely with their art projects.  We read a short passage from the text Old World's Gifts to the New, and discussed the difference between a tragedy (sad play) and a comedy (funny play). The children were then given an illustration of an ancient Greek amphitheater to color. We suggested they draw some masks around the margins, so you may see  happy, sad, or scary masks around your child's coloring sheet.

(no Geography today to allow more time for the Science project)

Science - ooo, what fun! We reviewed the first three classes of vertebrates we have learned thus far: fish, amphibians, and reptiles. This week we add birds. We recited their characteristics and discussed "what makes a bird a bird?" and sets it apart from other animals (feathers).  We talked a little about owls and their nocturnal eating habits and then jumped right in to our owl pellet dissection. Some of our little scientists were so meticulous about separating their bones into neat little piles, and several tried to match their bones to the ones on the bone chart.

4th-6th Grade: Co-op Meeting #13

• Religion: Mrs. Powell taught religion; please see the lesson plans for Chapter and topic.
• Latin: Mrs. Powell helped students complete another chapter in Puella Romana; please check their work and that they finished.
• English: Mrs. Rolling subbed for Mrs. Shaffer today. They started the Intermediate Language Lesson for this week; we talked about "good transitions" in creative writing. I walked around the room and noticed some students could use some extra practice on the rules of capitalization and the possessive.
• Science: Mrs. Cummings led the owl pellet dissections with students and graciously shared her microscope with which to view findings!
• Presentations: Mrs. R. subbed.  Two this week! We pulled out the prompt signs and used those today! The students seemed to like the idea very much. 
• History: Mrs. R. subbed. With two presentations, we ran short on time. Students were broken up into 3 groups "to practice" a section from the Greek Tragedy Oedipus at Colonos. There was not enough time to finish, but the actors among them liked the idea. Perhaps, it would be fun to act out the play within the family!
• EXTRA ASSIGNMENT: "The Numinous" from the Latin word "numen". Students were asked to find out what this word means. Parents will receive an article via email to help. It is still a struggle for a few students to understand why we learn about mythology when learning about Ancient Greeks (or Romans, for that matter). Parents, Mrs. R. will be sending out some more helpful literature on the topic to guide their understanding. 

*Tickets were not distributed this week due to Mrs. S's absence. Please have students hold their assignments until next Monday.

Field Trip to Blandy Experimental Farm - A Great Day!

We had a wonderful turn-out on this cool and blustery day! The Preschool and Kindergartners enjoyed a program about Plants and Trees; while, the 1st-3rd Graders enjoyed the Snake Savvy program! After a picnic lunch, the 4th-6th graders enjoyed the Birds program! What a day and just before the snow, too!

Thank you, everyone, for coming and being such good examples of homeschool families! The park staff was greatly impressed with the children.

Art: Making Greek Masks

At CoOp #12, our goal was to create masks out of paper mache, like the Greeks used to both wear and decorate their theater walls with. We combined two recipes to make our paste which included flour, water, glue and table salt. The children used torn strips of newspaper from old editions of our Catholic weekly, and dipped their strips into the paste. They learned to use their fingers to smooth the paste along the entire strip and then to let the excess paste drop back into the bucket underneath. These strips were then laid on one at a time over a balloon inflated to about the size of a child's head! The children were encouraged to cover only half of the balloon, so that a "mask " would truly be created. We didn't worry about leaving air holes in our project, those will be cut into them next time we gather.

We discussed the concept of "Complimentarity" and it's relationship to Symmetry ( see the Art Handout for CoOp #12, in binders). They were encouraged to try to create a nose, eye brows and lips but with our 30 minute time constraint, most children were able to cover their balloon in a flat layer only and were very happy to achieve that because the balloons wanted to roll! It was only until after our K-1 class was finishing up that we realized that this activity required the Art smocks that we own!!! Many apologies to all the Moms of these students who had laundry to attend to when they got home. We did use smocks for our next two classes which was a tremendous help. This was a VERY messy activity and most of the children really enjoyed it. Thank you to Mrs. Q who helped us by washing the classroom walls afterwards as the drop cloths over the tables and entire floor did not protect the walls that the tables were up against!

We also learned that the wet balloons covered in wet pasty newspaper did not accept the felt tip marker or pen marks with the student owner's name when we tried to label them when finished. In later classes we wrote the child's name on the balloon as they came into the classroom. We placed all of the wet balloons on long tables covered in newspaper to dry until our next meeting when the students will paint them. Mrs. R. has seen them all since they are mostly dry and said that they have turned out well.