Hey Parents,

I hope your week has been great! 

We just completed our book in the Lightning Literature class this week and will be starting with poetry next week. Mrs. Koh has provided us with booklets to work from in class, so there's no need to bring in the book we finished. The poems will remain the same as assigned on the syllabus, but we can write on the booklets.

"Math - Money, money, money!!! I hope you have all been having some fun learning about money. This is one of the best topics to learn at home because it has numerous real-life applications. Next week, we will have a review and a test on Wednesday."y."

We have been discussing space, stars, and constellations in our science class. We will continue to cover these topics in the coming week.

We are in the process of compiling information about Africa and organizing it into a folder. Last week, we worked on creating maps and listing the names of the countries. This coming Friday, we will be focusing specifically on Egypt. If you do not attend Oak Grove on Fridays, you are welcome to research and learn more about Egypt on your own.

Next week:

No poetry book is needed on Monday

Math Test 9 on Wednesday

Reader on Friday 

Have a great weekend,

Mrs. Latham

Hey Parents,

This week in math we took our Math 8 test. I hope you were able to look over the tests and see how your student is doing with the current concepts. We also revisited the topic of money.  I sent home a packet of money worksheets.  They worked on them in class and anything they didn’t finish they brought home for extra work if needed.  We will continue to practice on money for the remainder of the school year through games and other fun ways. 

Science-We learned about constellations.  This is like a real-life dot-to-dot.  I hope you can all take time as a family and look at the stars. It was amazing to talk about God’s promise to Abraham and then look at the stars.  

Lightning Literature- The new book is fun! I hope you all are enjoying it along with your student. We also worked on linking and helping verbs.  This wasn't very clear for some of them.  Teachers pay teachers, superteachers.com, k5learning.com, all have extra worksheets if you feel your student needs more work on this topic.  

We introduced Africa, this week.  We will take time to map the continent and read about the differences of the many countries through the rest of this study. 

Next week:

Monday- DRAGON REPORT

Wednesday- Bring Reader

Have a wonderful weekend,

Mrs. Latham

Hey Parents,

What a week!! Eclipse (kind of) and Asia Party. It definitely raised the energy level in the classroom.  It was a fun week of learning that looked a little different.  

We finished our book! The class seemed to enjoy My Father’s Dragon.  I hope that I didn’t mess you all up too much by concluding the book on a classroom day. 

Next week:

Math test 8- PLEASE SEND IN

We will have a new writing project next week.  Don’t forget you still have time to work on the Dragon project.  The due date is April 22

Have a great weekend,

Mrs. Latham

Hello Parents,

This week was short but full. The class seems to enjoy the new book!  We had a lot of fun talking about the dragon project in class on Wednesday.  I hope that you all have fun doing it! 

This post will just serve as a reminder for everything for next week.

• Early dismissal on Monday at 12:30.  We will have a snack and morning recess like normal.  Lunch will be at home.  
• Wednesday will be our Asia Party.
• Dragon Presentation April 22

Have a wonderful Weekend,

Mrs. Latham

Hey Parents,

Lightning Literature- You all should have completed the Boxcar Children this week on a home day.  We will begin My Father’s Dragon when we return from Easter break. Consider this your heads up 😎 if you haven’t purchased it yet.  

This week we did Uranus and Neptune.  It was a little faster than I would have liked because it was a shorter week and the Easter Party. Be on the lookout for fascinating information that will be coming out in news articles and weather channel postings about all of the celestial events happening with the solar eclipse.  I hope you are all making plans to experience this together!

Continent- We had a great time working on our Japanese watercolor painting.  This was a highlight of the Asian Studies. 

This week we have talked a lot about the goodness of God and all Jesus has done for us. I am praying that with each conversation that we have here and with each conversation that you all have in your homes they will draw closer to the Lord.  I pray wisdom for you all as you disciple your children.  And I pray for the journey you are on together to strengthen your faith and teach them to have their own.  

May the weekend be full of pictures of God’s mercy and grace in our lives. 

Blessings, 

Mrs. Latham

Hey Parents,

I hope you have all had a wonderful week getting back in the swing of school. In the classroom, we were able to revisit a few things from the week before spring break just to get their brains back in the swing of things.

Math- Regrouping with subtraction.  We did this 2 ways.  One was with the literal regrouping of manipulatives and the other was the traditional way. Some of the class thrives with the visual components of manipulatives while others like the other way.  Don’t be afraid to lean into the way that your student thrives.  The goal is LEARNING! However, you all get to that is going to be the “right way”.  I will be doing reinforcement-type activities in the class.  If you see incomplete worksheets coming home, I sent them home to work on them as needed.  They are not required. 

Lightning Literature- We will complete The Box Car Children next week.  We will begin My Father’s Dragon when we return from Easter break. Consider this your heads up 😎 if you haven’t purchased it yet.  

Science- We are continuing to work our way through the solar system.  They have begun to beg for our planet video of the week.  I have included a few for your viewing pleasure!

The Planet Mercury | Space Explained

What Is Mars? | 4th Planet From The Sun Explained!

Continent- We are concluding our Asian study with Japan.  This has included a virtual field trip to Tokyo, Japanese art, and mapping.  Next week we will do a watercolor activity with Koi fish. 

Things to remember:

3/27-Easter party/treat 

3/29- NO SCHOOL- Good Friday

4/1- NO SCHOOL- Easter Monday

As we enter Holy Week I pray that you all find time to rest and reflect on what Jesus has done for you and me.  

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord

Jesus Christ! In His great mercy, He has given

us new birth into a living hope through the

resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

—1 Peter 1:3 (NIV) 

Blessings,

Mrs. Latham

This is going out to my Red Days class and my Friday class.  If your kids haven't told you, or you haven't seen it in a previous post, there is a Space X rocket launch on Sunday, March 10.  There is a new launch window.  They hope to launch around 7:05 pm.  If you go to the YouTube link below an hour or so before the launch you will see some of the activities that happen before. 

The earlier window might allow more people to see it.

 

I hope you enjoy it!

 

Hey Parents! 

Math- We pivoted a little on Monday to make the lesson more classroom-friendly. I hope you were able to utilize pg. 72 for a fun home activity.  We also reviewed for the test on Monday.  If you find that your child gets nervous about the test you could always copy the test and use it for practice/review at home and then send a blank test into class on Monday.  That way nothing would catch them by surprise and you would see any area that they need extra support for. 

Science- Mars. The Red Planet has been interesting. Fun to talk about why it is the red planet and if they could ever imagine living there.  Crazy to think that in your children’s lifetime, they may see humans travel to Mars.  

Lightning Literature- We concluded A Mouse Called Wolf this week.  It was a fun read-aloud! It provoked a ton of class discussion about mice and musicians. LOL!

Continent- Asia. We have been working for the last 2 weeks to have a better understanding of the Asia map.  This week we touched on a little Chinese culture and the Chinese New Year.  Next week we will do more with China! 

Things to remember:

-No need to send the Book of Poetry next week.  I will make copies as needed. 

-The writing project for next week is a poem.  There will be a theme and some helpful tools that will go home on Monday. 

-Reader is needed for Wednesday.

-MATH TEST 7 

Have a wonderful weekend,

Mrs. Latham

A new command I give you: Love one another.  As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.  

“Love One Another”, John 13:34-35

Slugs and Bugs album 1 track 12

Hey Parents! 

No internet, Country experiences, and Valentine's OH MY!!!!!!

WHAT. A. WEEK!

Though it was a little crazy, it also provided many unique learning opportunities.  Corrie Ten Boom was such a great person to use in our European experience.  I love using a hero of the faith as the central point of our continent's learning.  

Valentine’s was a full day of “ all things hearts”.  We used hearts in Math, AAR, and Reading.  

Math- I hope you all have enjoyed measuring things as much as we have in the classroom.  We had so much fun mapping locations on Wednesday to see how far they are from us. 

Science- Earth! We have had many conversations this week about how God made the perfect place for us to live.  Exactly the right distance from the Sun, the right rotation, the right distance from the Moon. It was fun to point out the perfection of His creation!

Lightning Literature- The Mouse Called Wolf has been fun to read.  We have also gotten to work on my favorite….diagramming sentences.  (It really is a favorite 😁).  Thank you all for working hard to do the correct chapter readings at home.  

Things to remember:

Spelling- Lesson 25 (not 24)

Reader needed- Wednesday

Have a wonderful weekend,

Mrs. Latham

A new command I give you: Love one another.  As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.  

“Love One Another”, John 13:34-35

Slugs and Bugs album 1 track 12

Hey Parents! 

Math- We started our week with a math test.  I hope you looked over them and saw how your student is doing.  These tests are a great opportunity to see if you need to add supplemental work.  Either reinforce concepts they are struggling with or challenge them if they need to. All in all the class flew through the math test and did a great job.  

Science- Venus! We are continuing to build our Solar system.  We were able to watch an amazing video about the planet Venus, to help us understand why we weren’t able to live on Venus. We also were able to sit and watch live video feed from the International Space Station.

Lightning Literature- Book Reports!! What a fun time we have had watching each other story tell with all of the pieces they put in their paper bag projects.  They are ALL such storytellers and love being in front of the class.  

READER is needed on Monday!

Our reading in the new chapter book next week rotates like this:

In class- Read Ch. 1-2 (A Mouse Called Wolf)

At Home- Read Ch 3-4

In Class- Read Ch. 5-6

At Home- Read Ch. 7-8

We will work on the components of a personal essay on Monday and you can conclude this paper at home.  If your student finishes a writing project and would like to share on a Friday, we would love that.  

 

Things to remember:

Feb. 12- READER

Feb. 12- European Experience

Feb. 12- Valentine’s Dance

Feb. 19- There is a High School Open house at 8:30 in the Castle, for any of you who have highschool aged kids or if you know someone who may be interested in learning more about our High School program. 

 

Have a wonderful weekend,

Mrs. Latham

 

Hey Parents! 

I will be at school on Monday. My plans changed and I will miss next Friday instead.  I am so thankful because now I get to see their Paper Bag Reports.  I hope this has been a fun active way to reinforce summarizing a story. 

Math- Subtracting whole tens, Patterns, and Bar graphs.  They all did a great job learning a few new concepts.  But overall the lessons felt like some review.  We will have a test on Monday. 

Science- Planets, Planets, Planets!!! Due to food allergies, I haven’t done some of the experiments listed.  But we have had fun learning about Mercury!

Continent- They have been doing a wonderful job familiarizing themselves with the names of European countries.  It is amazing how far they have come in just the pronunciation of countries.  Mapping has been fun too!

Lightning Literature- The writing project for this week was a city research paper.  I hope that you all enjoyed learning something new about a city! Please note that next week we begin reading a chapter book beginning on Monday.  The syllabus has us reading Chapters 1-5 on MONDAY and you all reading Chapters 6-10 on Tuesday in The Bears on Hemlock Mountain.  

This will be the new normal for Lightning Literature.  We will read a few chapters and home days will read a few.  For your student to participate in conversations and activities fully, you will need to complete the assigned chapters. 

Spelling- Please double-check that your student is doing the correct lesson on the correct day.  

Mrs. Latham

Things to remember:

Registration for next year is currently open for current families!

Monday- Brown Bag Presentation 

Monday- Bring Reader to co-op (Shipwreck)

Monday- Math Test 6

Tuesday- Read Chapters 6-10

Feb. 12- European Experience

Feb. 12- Valentine’s Dance

Feb. 19- There is a High School Open house at 8:30 in the Castle, for any of you who have high school-aged kids or if you know someone who may be interested in learning more about our High School program. 

Bible Memorization for January:

Psalm 139:23-24 

Search me, God, and know my heart;

Test me and know my anxious thoughts. 

See if there is any offensive way in me,

And lead me in the way everlasting.

Hey Parents! Welcome back!

Math- was quick and fun this week! If you find your student is flying through math feel free to go back in their workbooks and revisit some of the topics you know they struggled with.  You can also purchase supplementary math workbooks from Math Mammoth that support the concepts we are already doing. Math Mammoth

Science- The Sun and Mercury! That was our focus this week. We talked about different facts for both of them.  We also began building our solar system which they will bring home at the end of this study. 

Continent- We played a little catch-up this week to try and squeeze in as much information about Europe as possible. We will do more next week to learn about different cultures within the continent. 

Lightning Literature- We had a great conversation about real vs. fantasy.  The book Sam, Bangs, and Moonshine helps to distinguish between the two.  We are also able to talk about where truth comes from.  It was a great opportunity to talk about the author of truth and how we can always trust what the Bible says and God’s promises. 

AAR-Remember Shipwreck READER for Monday!  

Spelling- I can already see a huge difference in their handwriting.  The spelling book is giving them a great opportunity to use repetitive practice for spelling and work on handwriting. 

Mrs. Latham

Bible Memorization for January:

Psalm 139:23-24 

Search me, God, and know my heart;

Test me and know my anxious thoughts. 

See if there is any offensive way in me,

And lead me in the way everlasting. 

Parents,

I hope you have enjoyed all of the snowtime and family time you have all gotten this week.  Honestly, I'm a little stir-crazy and ready to get back to life. I've eaten a few too many cookies, failed a few more times at sourdough and my couch is a little molded to me.  But it has been restful and for that I am thankful. I wanted to touch base a little to make sure everyone is on the same page (Literally) as we head into next week.  I will list below where we will be on MONDAY and WEDNESDAY. 

Math-.  Pg. 33-34 (Monday)  Pg. 37-38 (Wednesday)

Science- We will be playing catch-up a little as I don’t want to miss any portion of studying the solar system. 

Continent- We will be working on mapping the continent and talking about the plants and animals of the continent.  I will focus heavily on the mapping portion because there are so many countries and I want to expose them to as many names of places as I can. 

Lightning Literature- 

Monday-We will read Sam, Bangs, and Moonshine. 

Student workbook 178-179 (grammar)

I will introduce the creative book report that will be due on Feb 5. 

Wednesday - We will re-read Sam, Bangs, and Moonshine.

Student Workbook 182 (summary of the story), 185, 186 (grammar)

*Please make sure that your student waits until Wednesday to do the summary in class.  We do this strategically after they have heard the story 3 times.  We also have a specific format that we are working on together as a class. 

AAR- Lesson 27 (Monday) Lesson 28 (Wednesday) 

Spelling- 20A (Monday) 20C (Wednesday) *20D (Friday) What you do on Thursdays and Fridays has changed this 9 weeks.  Please pay close attention to which lessons you do and that they match the syllabus. 

I hope this helps you all for next week.  

Mrs. Latham

Bible Memorization for January:

Psalm 139:23-24 

Search me, God, and know my heart;

Test me and know my anxious thoughts. 

See if there is any offensive way in me,

And lead me in the way everlasting. 

Parents,

Math- The class seemed to enjoy the “next level” of some of the basic concepts we worked on previously.  I think they can see how the foundational blocks we have been working on support the more complex concepts. Skip counting is basic but, skip counting with 10s, and 100s helps with larger addition.  

Science- Planets!  We started our planet folder this week.  We will continue to build on it throughout our solar system study. 

 Continent- Europe is our new continent.  This week we worked on visualizing all of the countries that are in Europe.  We looked at maps and pictures to help us understand how many countries there are. 

Lightning Literature- Snowflake Bentley was a wonderful story.  We discussed how God designed us perfectly and differently from others, just like the snowflakes.  We also took the opportunity to look at some pictures of snowflakes to help us better understand the story. *Please make sure that your student is not doing the summary on a home day. The syllabus has it listed for Wednesdays and I have plenty of time to do this in class.  If they do it outside of class, they are sitting and waiting for the class to finish. 

Spelling- I am sure you have noticed but spelling looks a little different in volume 2.  We are not doing as much spelling as we are doing with writing practice and identifying vowel chunks and letter blends. Please pay extra attention to the lesson number and letter as it is listed on the syllabus, especially for Thursdays and Fridays.

Have a great long weekend! (and hopefully some snow)

Mrs. Latham

Bible Memorization for January:

Psalm 139:23-24 

Search me, God, and know my heart;

Test me and know my anxious thoughts. 

See if there is any offensive way in me,

And lead me in the way everlasting.

Parents,

Happy New Year!!  I hope you have all had a great time of rest and being together during this break.  

As we hit the ground running next Monday I wanted to touch base about a few things:

Going into the 2nd part of the year we will be taking strategic steps in the classroom to help prepare for 3rd grade. One way will be in reading comprehension another will be with writing. 

We will shift from writing our Rocks and Rubies each morning to a more formal journal style. (They will still have the opportunity to share R&R each morning in group time :-) They will take their R& R journal home on Monday and will not need it back in the classroom. I have journaling folders that they will receive and be used for the remainder of the year in class. Lightning Literature does a great job of teaching listening comprehension and story summarizing; journal writing will push them more with writing length, sentence structure, and handwriting.  At the end of the school year, they will have a complete journal folder with many fun topics for you to read. 

We will also be working to strengthen reading comprehension skills.  We will do this by reading about different random topics and highlighting the document to find the answers.  This will also help with future note-taking skills and research skills. 

At home please take any opportunity you have to stretch them a little on how much they are willing to write.  If they typically get tired about 1-2 sentences, push for 3-4.  If they are tired after 3-4 sentences, push for multiple paragraphs.  The same is true for reading!  Encourage a reading log of how many books they can read this year.  As you see them getting comfortable with a specific length of book, push for longer books and longer reading time.  

Math-.  We will be on Ch. 6 pg. 18, 19, 20 for Monday.  

Lightning Literature- We will be reading Snowflake Bentley in class and learning more about homophones in our LL workbooks.  Our writing project will be a research paper about a famous scientist. I will send home questions and or helpful tools with this project.  

Continent-  Europe is our new continent. We will be building a Europe folder to collect all of the fun ways we will learn about this continent. 

Science- I am the most excited about science as we come back. We will begin by talking about Earth, but in the coming weeks, we will talk about space as a whole.  I love this topic!!!   There is so much mystery and exploration regarding the topic of space.  We will watch videos about planets, stars, meteor showers, and how God created everything.  What we will not do is talk about scientific dating.  We will not talk about how old or young our Universe or Earth is.  However as much as I wish I could prevent it, sometimes those things pop up in videos.  When it does, I will say, “Talk about this at home”.  I will consistently point your children back to you on topics like this.  You are the primary educators and disciplers of your children.  I want to make sure that your voice is the loudest regarding topics of this nature.  

Reminders
Please ensure your child comes to school with the following items:

• Water bottle
• Snack (no nuts or sesame)
• Coat
• Reader (needed for Monday)
• Math book
• Lightning Literature
• Spelling book
• Folder

 

See you Monday!

Mrs. Latham

Bible Memorization for January:

Psalm 139:23-24 

Search me, God, and know my heart;

Test me and know my anxious thoughts. 

See if there is any offensive way in me,

And lead me in the way everlasting.