4-6 grade update

Well, another great class!! Happy Birthday to I Cummings!!
Note to parents: Your children will all have a 3x5 index card in their binder.  This is the new accountability program for behavior.  If your student is speaking out of turn in a disruptive manner, he/she will be told to write a check on the card.  You need to check these cards and then discuss the matter with your child if they have checks.  We also have assigned seating which has helped attentiveness, but separated some friends.  Sorry for the socialization factor, but we have a large class and need the focus.  Thank you for your attention to this matter.  Overall, EVERYONE in class behaves very well, but the few interruptions can deeply distract  others.
(We switched our order so I will follow that order today; normally we will remain in the order of history and geography first.)
Science: We began with a presentation on best bugs by I Cummings.  Mr. Cummings told of the life cycle, eating habits, natural habitat, and unique screaming ability of the beetle. Congratulations on a terrific project! We worked on filling in our chart of dog/lion classification with all the classifications (similar to the chart in the teacher's edition).  I will copy out the chart for week 7 when we will finish the chart to bring home.  I will also have a smaller project for those who finished today and thus won't have something in week 7.  We also examined the mealworms to see the process of metamorphosis.
Art: We began many differing sewing projects which were sent home to be continued.  My understanding is they would be finished next art class> I am sure Mrs. Rolling will clarify if I am confusing things (please!).
Latin: We read pages 8-9 in the reader and completed pg 7 of the worksheets.  Page 8 was to be completed at home.  We mostly filled in section B (answers are: 1-woman, 2-church, 3-road, 4-family, 5-country house, 6-girl, 7-land, 8-peninsula). Please have your children practice the pronunciation in section C.  Section D is grammar check-up to aid in latin. (Answers: 1-Singular, 2-adjective, 3-singular, 4-plural, 5-Est, 6-Nouns, 7- -a, -ae, 8-declensions, 9-First, 10-subject.)
English/ ILL: We completed lesson 16 orally. We then charted on the board using the classification of size, color, food, nest, song to show how we could organize a paragraph to match.  Once the concept was somewhat grasped, we moved to using the same charting form of organization to build our concepts for history.
History: We were to write a comparative paragraph of the similarities or differences between a ziggurat and a pyramid.  The classifications which the students devised were: What/purpose, size, material, color, length of time to build, who built it.  The students are at various levels of writing so some finished the paper in class and others may not have begun.  As always it is up to mom to decide if they wish to do the homework: write the comparative paragraph.  The information agreed upon by the class for the ziggurat was as follows.  The ziggurat was the first religious building ever constructed.  It stood approx 170 feet (my info in class was wrong at 300>sorry!) and was made of mud, thus having a gray/brown color.  The process of building took tens of years and was completed by Sumerians (also Babylonians and Assyrians-not mentioned in class). The pyramids were built as tombs for kings and we focused on the Giza Great Pyramid so that the size was 450 ft (one and one-half the Statue of Liberty!).  These were made of mud/stone and were originally white, now more sand colored.  The pyramid took hundreds of years to complete by the Egyptians.  There was much discussion as to whom exactly.  We agreed to include all ideas: local farmers/tradesmen, slaves of the Egyptians( including the Hebrews), and regular Egyptians.We ended class with a presentation on Abraham by J. Cummings.  He did a nice job of looking up during his presentation and giving a lot of information.  Thank you and congratulations!!
Music: We discussed theory a little bit with handouts to come!! Many students are taking lessons with instruments and had some of the information already!!
Religion: We read out most all of Chapter 9.  The discussion of the divine office and who prays it was truncated because of time.  We did mention the psalms and the main known author (besides God).  The main idea was the REQUIREMENT of prayer on the part of the church and her members!!
Poetry: We quickly read and discussed The Village Blacksmith again.  This week's assignment is to find five words which are uncommon and define their meaning.  Any words that are unknown to your student work.
Geography: Speed geography!! We discussed the geography from CCM and reviewed the work from last week.
Memory work: Some students wished to do memory work and so we tried our best--without actions!! C. Powell tried to add actions for us--thank you! Sorry if we missed the final dismissal prayer! I am not sure if our late dismissal made students miss prayers or not, if so I apologize.
THANK YOU to our new assistant Mrs. Pullen!! My apologies for consistently using her first name in class!!Thank you to students who did not!! I will learn!
Also a belated congratulations (now that I am posting) to Miss Schaffer for being the first to do a presentation.  She did a wonderful job as well!! We hope the Speirings and all who were unable to attend due to illness feel well soon! Thanks!