Good afternoon parents. 

 

I can hardly believe we only have a few weeks left of school. It seems like the year has flown by. This week included. Below are the things we covered.

 

Bible: We finished 1 Corinthians 13, started Mathew 7:24-29 and read the story of Blind Bartimaeus.

 

Language Arts: Daily Grams, day 121 and 123 were completed. WD Lit. guide pp. 12-14, 18 and 20. We discussed character, setting, plot. Students worked on rough drafts from the writing prompt on p. 18 and we had great class discussions with the questions on p.20.

 

Math: We worked on adding mixed numbers from pp. 149-151 and equivalent fractions from pp. 154-155. They all did really really well with these concepts. I am very happy with their progress. 

 

Spelling: We completed L32A, 32C and 32D. As always, they completed these with no problems. Their spelling overall was really good too.

 

Science: Alcohol and Esters was the topic we studied this week. Students studied vocabulary and completed pp.95-96. We discussed what alcohol and esters are, how they're used and what happens during fermentation. We culminated the study of the topic with a perfume experiment from rubbing alcohol and whole cloves and we were pleasantly surprised at our results. Science was fun this week.

 

History: The lessons covered where on "Television and Music" and "Civil Rights". The kids easily and happily engaged in the television and music discussion as they have a personal experience frame of reference and that made it even more engaging to them. 

 

Overall, we had a very good and productive week. I hope that everyone has a safe and blessed weekend and I'll see you all back on Tuesday. 

 

 

Blessings,

Mrs. Christman

Good evening Oak Grove Families. It is hard to believe that we only have a little more than a month of school left. Wow! It feels like it has gone by fast. I am impressed with how well the children are continuing to learn even though it is getting warmer out and nearing the end makes everyone get a bit restless.

This week we covered the following...

 

Bible: We are finishing up 1 Corinthians 13 and have read the stories about "The Nobelman's son and Jesus in the Synagogue".

 

Language Arts: We completed day 117 and 119 of Daily Grams. Then we worked on characters, setting, plot for Winn-Dixie. We answered discussion questions, wrote paragraphs from the prompt on p.8 of the literature guide and completed a story-maker activity this week also. I love how well our class has discussions. It doesn't matter if the discussion is on Winn-Dixie, a science concept or a history topic. This class holds whole group discussions really well. It is a joy to have them with this group.

 

Math: We worked with mixed numbers and fractions this week on pp. 142, 143 and 146. The kids did really well with these concepts. They have a very good understanding of them.

 

Spelling: Lessons 31A, 31C and 31D were completed. As always, they did very well. 

 

Science: Our topic this week was "organic compounds". More specifically; detergents, organic acids, where these are found, what things they are in and what they do. We wrapped it up with a "seeing fat residue" experiment that successfully showed fat in foods we eat. Unsuspecting students were very surprised by the results. It was a very good topic to study this week. Many good discussions on eating healthy and taking care of our bodies came from it.

 

History: We learned about the "War Ending" (WWII) and the "Post War World" in history this week. The children were very engaged as they usually are with History. They answered all the discussion questions with very thoughtful and insightful answers. They continue to impress me. Their critical thinking skills have developed so much from the start of the year. I am very proud of them.

 

Have a great weekend. I'll see you all next week. :)

 

Blessings,

Mrs. Christman

Good Afternoon,

 

We've had a great week at co-op, despite the rain. These are the things we completed...

 

Bible: We read the story of "The Woman at the Well" and then reviewed that and "Cleansing the Temple" and "Nicodemus." We are continuing to try and learn 1 Corinthians 13.

 

Language Arts: Daily Grams Days 113 and 115 were completed. Then we spent some time building the background for our study of "Because of Winn-Dixie". We discussed the genre, setting, plot, theme and characters. Then we made some text to text, text to self, text to world connections. This not only excites the students about the book, but it helps them to engage the text much better. I told them our final project will be to watch the movie, "Because of Winn-Dixie" and then we will do a compare/contrast essay on the book compared to the movie. They were very excited about that. :) 

 

Math: In math we deepened our understanding of triangles and identifying acute, obtuse and right angles. We also looked at whole and fractional parts. The children did very well in both of these areas. 

 

Spelling: We completed L30A, L30C and L30D. I was very pleased to see minimal errors in spelling when we did the dictation of the story on p.121 today.

 

Science: We talked more about acids and bases this week as well as salts and how to neutralize acids and bases. The kids did very well with their vocabulary recall and they were able to explain the concepts clearly. We conducted an experiment from p.160 of the book on acids and bases and the students completed quiz Q35.

 

History: This week began the study of WWII. We focused in on the Holocaust. Students completed a vocabulary word search and then got to have a TN history experience on Thursday where they had to learn how to meal plan on a minimal budget. They enjoyed the activities very much and learned a great deal from it. Shout out to our parents who came in to teach them about these very important things. The kids had a blast.

 

Reminder: 

1. April 17th -- 4th grade field trip

2. May 6th -- Field Day

 

Have a blessed and safe weekend! See you all next Tuesday.

 

In Christ,

Mrs. Christman

Hello Parents,

It has been an interesting week of weather. I am glad no one was badly affected by the storms. We did not get to spend as much time outside this week as we had hoped, but the students still worked well all week and overall, things went well.

 

Bible: We continue to study 1 Corinthians 13. We read the stories "Through a Roof and Beside a Pool" as well as "Cleansing the Temple and Nicodemus".

 

Language Arts: We were able to complete Daily Grams Day 109 and a story-maker activity this week along with our Tiger Boy map projects. The students did a great job on these, and they had a lot of fun presenting them and looking for each peer's hidden treasure. I was very impressed with the creativity that went into some of these and I'm glad they enjoyed doing them.

*I think for "Because of Winn Dixie" we will watch the film at the end of reading the book and just do an essay prompt where the students will compare and contrast the movie and book (in a Venn diagram) and then write a short essay on it after. If you are not comfortable with your child viewing this movie, please let me know.

 

Math: We completed pp. 100, 101,112-115 on drawing angles / parallel and perpendicular angles. Although we were short on supplies, I thought the students did a great job sharing and waiting patiently to use what they needed. They all increased their confidence in drawing and identifying angles and a number of them made comments at the end of the lessons that they like to draw angles now, so that was the best possible outcome I could have gotten. I have created some "angle" math stations for Fridays and am incorporating some into morning work for those not at school on Fridays.

 

Spelling: Lessons 28 E, 29B and 29 E were completed. There is a lot of highlighting at this stage, and they do it very well. Words that they struggled to spell in this week's dictation were Theodore Roosevelt, national, beautiful, believed, guard and a few used the word "were" instead of "where" in their writing.

 

Science: The science topic this week was acid & base. We had a lot of fun exploring these in greater detail. After we studied the vocabulary, we looked at a pH scale and discussed how to read it and then did an activity to place common objects where they rightly belonged on pH scale. We read a poem about acid and base, and we conducted an experiment to see how acid and bases interact and neutralize each other too. The experiment went very well, and the kids were rather fascinated by it. They finished the study on it by filling in their lab report on the experiment. A few students shared possible other ideas and were excited to go home and redo the experiment to see if they can get different results. :) 

 

History: In history we learned about the "Great Depression" and "FDR's New Deal". I am always so impressed by how much the students engage with the text and the discussions we have from it. They easily made individual choices of which programs of the New Deal they liked and found most appealing, and they gave reasons to support their decisions. 

 

Important Dates to Note: 

1. April 8th - Early Dismissal for Eclipse

2. Nashville Field Trip (Week of 15th - 19th) I'm not certain which day it is.

3. May 6th - Field Day

4. May 7th - Friday U Registration for families

 

Have a blessed weekend everyone! See you next week.

Blessings,

Mrs. Christman

Good afternoon Parents,

 

Another great week draws to a close today. There is no school tomorrow due to it being good Friday, as you all know, so I want to get this week's newsletter out to you today. 

 

Bible: We reviewed the story of "The First Miracle" (Jesus turning the water to wine) and we read the stories "Through the Roof" and "Beside a Pool". I am always delighted to see how engrossed the students are in these stories of our Lord. We continue to learn 1 Corinthians 13 and many of the students are picking up quite a bit of speed with the sword drill activities we do, giving each other good competition.

 

Language Arts: Daily Grams days 106 and 108 were completed. We discussed characters, setting and plot from pp.32-34 of the Literature Guide for Tiger Boy. We went over the writing prompt on p.38 that they needed to brainstorm about to write a rough draft. I gave them a variety of other writing prompts to accompany the one in the book, in the hopes that it would help them get ideas flowing and be able to write more from. The feedback from students was that they found the additional prompts to be very helpful as they wrote. So, I will continue to do this for them in the future. We also completed the discussion questions on p.40 but did not have time to get to a story-maker activity this week.

 

Math: Topics this week were lines, rays, angles and angle terminology. We completed pages 90-92 & 97-99. The kids did very well with these topics. We did not have enough protractors for each student unfortunately, but we shared what we had so that everyone could see and understand how to use them to measure angles and they all seemed to have a good understanding when we were finished. I was pleased with how these lessons went.

 

Spelling: L28A and L28C were completed. These involved all the types of chunks and took them a while to complete, but as always, they did very well with it.

 

Science: The children seemed to really understand and enjoy the topic this week in science on acids and bases. It wasn't complicated with a lot of scientific language as it sometimes is, and I thought they engaged very well with the content. We completed an acid and base experiment and the results turned out very well. There was a bit of "oohing" and "aahing" as they watched the liquid combination change in color as drastically as it did. I did a vocabulary recall exercise with them and many were able to give me the definitions without looking in their books. I count that as a win! 

 

History: We only completed a lesson in History on Tuesday as today was our Easter party and that was held during our history class time. We did learn about the "New Era in Tennessee" and as always, the lesson went well. Just so you are aware, there was a section in that lesson on evolution with a description and definition of it that we discussed. Most of the students already had working knowledge of it and it did not come as a surprise to them. Please note that whenever touchy topics come up our conversations are very surface level and brief. Though some students have more background knowledge than others and they bring that with them to the classroom. I will always do my best to guide those conversations to the truth of God's Word. Thank you very much for those of you who have given me feedback this year about how much your child is enjoying History. I enjoy teaching it to them. If you ever have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me. I'll do my best to answer them.

 

*Thank you to the moms who hosted our Easter Party for our class today. The students loved it and had a great time! 

 

**I hope everyone has a safe and blessed Easter holiday celebrating the Resurrection of our Lord. 

 

Blessings,

Mrs. Christman

Good afternoon parents,

I hope everyone had a great and restful spring break. The kids had lots of fun stories to share at school this week of all the things they did over break. We have had a good first week back. These are the things we completed...

 

Bible: We are continuing our study/memorization of 1 Corinthians 13. We read the stories, "Calling the Fishermen and Matthew" as well as, "The First Miracle." ** Please have your child bring a small Bible to school each day so they can participate in the sword drills.

 

Language Arts: We have completed Day 102 and 104 of Daily Grams. Pages 22-24 of the Literature Guide were completed on Tiger Boy (characters, setting and plot). We brainstormed p. 28 for their rough drafts and I gave students some additional sentence prompts to help them write more developed ideas for their drafts. We completed the discussion questions on p.30 and had additional time for students to complete a story-maker activity. On Friday we revised/edited rough drafts. Students completed peer/self-editing and then worked on final drafts of their writing.

 

Math: Topics this week in math were "Finding Factors" and Problem Solving: Area and Rectangles." They did very well with both of these. I was impressed by how well and how hard they worked on the Problem Solving of area and rectangles. It was a big lesson and it took every minute of our class time to get through what we were able to, but I felt like they worked so well on it and they seemed to understand it pretty well too. **Please have your child bring a protractor to school next week. These are needed for math class.

 

Spelling: We completed pp. 84-85, 88-89 and 90-91. All on tricky y guy, silent letters and endings. As always, they did well. They know the format of spelling so well, they really need very little guidance from me on it. The vocabulary I saw misspelled the most was words like; "Johnny, Appleseed, Indiana, and planted.

 

Science: Crystals was our science topic that we investigated and learned about this week. We had really good discussions about them. Where they're found. What we use them for. The differences between liquid and solid crystal, cleavage planes etc... We created a crystal experiment and we predicted that the 24 hours it called for, would not be long enough for the crystals to grow, so we have kept the experiment in class and we are going to keep observing it next week. Hopefully we'll get some awesome results!

 

History: We learned about migration and suffrage this week along with the "Roaring 20's". As always, we had great discussions each day about these topics. The "Roaring 20's" was especially fun and interesting. We listened to some of the various genre's (Ragtime, Jazz and The Blues). As it turns out you all have 4th graders that love "The Blues". They asked for my background music to be "The Blues" on Friday, lol. We had a lot of fun in history this week.

 

Also, I just want to say THANK YOU all very much for the awesome gestures this week for teacher appreciation week. It is a privilege and honor to teach your children. I enjoy my time with them so much. They are very special people. Each and every one of them. So, thank you again for trusting me to teach them well and for going above and beyond to make me feel special this week too. You all are the best! 

 

Reminder - Next Friday, March 29th is Good Friday, NO SCHOOL

Monday, April 1st is an Easter holiday, NO SCHOOL

 

Please reach out if you have any questions. Have a great weekend and I'll see you all next week!

 

Blessings,

Mrs. Christman

Good afternoon Oak Grove Families.

 

We have arrived at the greatly anticipated "Spring Break". The kids have been so excited for it and sharing, with great excitement, all the things they have planned to do. It was tough to stay focused this week with the excitement and anticipation, but they did it, lol.

 

These are the things we covered...

 

Bible: We read about the "Temptation of Jesus" and "The First Disciples", then we reviewed these stories today. We have begun studying 1 Corinthians 13 verses 1 and 2 this week and students continue to sharpen their sword drill skills.

 

Language Arts: Daily grams day 98 and 100 were done. We also completed pp. 12-14 in Tiger Boy Lit. book (characters, setting, plot). We drafted papers from p.18, answered discussion questions from p. 20 and worked on self/peer editing and final drafts today.

 

Math: We worked on "Problems to Solve" pp. 60-62 and students made great connections and picture representations of the word problems. Then we completed a prime number activity in place of pg.67 in the book, but went back after and worked on p.66 as long as time allowed for. These were for the topic of "Divisibility and Prime Numbers". 

 

Spelling: Lessons completed were 26A, 26C and 26D. Dictation was completed on p.81 today. The most common missed words were; Missouri, California, daily, skinny, wiry, carried, express, and stations.

 

Science: Separating Mixtures was our topic and experiment this week. We defined chromatography, completed pp. 74-75, and explored many questions about mixtures. For example; What is and what happens during filtration?, What is and happens during chromatography and evaportation?, What happens during distillation and what it's used to separate?, and what is centrifugation. Much of the scientific language is difficult for the students and the ideas too abstract. We kept things as basic and simple as we could and they did pretty good with that.

 

History: We discussed the Progressive Era and Becoming a World Power. Our history discussions are always very interesting and engaging to the kids. They did fantastic with these topics as usual. 

 

The email at school is down and has been since yesterday. I have not been able to get my emails to go through to you all. Administration is aware and are working to fix the problem, but I do not have a time yet for when it will be up and running again. If you email me with any questions, I will get back to you just as soon as it's working again.

Thank you for your patience and I hope you all have a fantastic Spring Break!

 

Blessings,

Mrs. Christman

 

Good afternoon Parents,

 

Wow, it has been a full week! The only thing I wish, is for it to feel a little more like spring outside. I am anxious for warm weather again. I think the kids are too, so we can get outside for more fresh air. We have had a great week nonetheless. The TN history project is finished (Kuddos to all of you for an incredible job supporting your children with the project.) I was so proud of them on Thursday. They did a fantastic job!!

 

This is what we covered in class...

 

Bible: We read the story of Jesus' baptism. We finished our study of Isaiah 9:6-7 and will be starting 1 Corinthians 13 next. The children continue to do very well with our scripture and sword drills as well.

 

Language Arts: We completed day 94 and 94 in Daily Grams. We also completed pp. 2-4 of our literature guide on Tiger Boy and p. 8 of writing a draft for the prompt on "continuing our education". Students who finished this on Friday had an opportunity to self/peer edit before moving to their final draft.

 

Math: We completed pp.52-53 "Averaging" and pp.55-57 "Finding Fractional Parts with Division. The children did very well with both of these concepts. They have a very good understanding of each.

 

Spelling: We completed lessons 25A, 25C, and 25D "silent letters". Difficult spelling words from this passage this week (on average) were; choice, choose, supplies, trail, families and when to use the correct "too" in context.

 

Science: The science topic was "mixtures". We learned what a mixture is (crude oil, seawater, air, ink, gunpowder), what miscible, immiscible and emulsion means and what it means when two liquids are miscible. The kids stayed pretty interested and intrigued with this week's topic. We finished with an experiment and a cut/paste activity for mixtures and solutions.

 

History: We got to do a TN traveling trunk this week on the "Life of a Civil War Soldier". It was a super cool trunk of artifacts. The students were able to tangibly hold a number of items a soldier would have had on his person during the Civil War. We studied some of the object, tried on a soldier uniform and got to make some choices of what we would have carried with us if we were soldiers then. We wrapped it up with a fun Jeopardy game. Then we learned about Tennessee's First Century. It was another great week in History. 

 

 

As always, have a safe and blessed weekend Oak Grove families. 

 

Blessings,

Mrs. Christman

Good afternoon Parents,

 

We have had a great and productive week at co-op. The kids continue to work so well. I'm so proud of their efforts and their work ethic. These are the things we completed this week...

 

Bible: We've read the story about "The Boy Jesus" and we continue to work on memorizing Isaiah 9:6-7.

 

Language Arts: We completed Daily Grams Day 90 and 92. Students have been practicing their speeches in class and are doing an amazing job!! Their papers are so good. I am so excited for presentation day. You all are going to be so proud of them. They have worked hard and so well on these.

 

*As a reminder -- Arrive any time from 8:45am on. Parents can hang out in our classroom or the hall. Students will be setting up in Jan Sanders. We will present from 9am to 10am. It will be a walk-through style. Pause and listen as you wish while students present collectively around the room. Hopefully the noise level won't be too loud as our class will be the only one in Jan Sanders. Please let me know if you have any other questions.

 

Thursday, I introduced Tiger Boy, and we had a great time discussing the book as I set the background for it. We identified literary elements and looked at a number of pictures that represent the books setting. I was delighted by how intrigued the kids were. They are pumped to read this one and for the map poster project at the end of it.

 

Math: We completed pp. 42-44 "More Long Division" and pp. 47 & 48 "Remainder Problems". These lessons were long, but the kids worked well and did pretty good with it. They could still benefit from exposure and practice to more problems like this, to move them to more independence with the problems. Some still relied heavily on step-by-step instruction from me.

 

Spelling: We completed Lessons 24A, 24C and 24D. Most commonly misspelled words were Crockett, officer, and Alamo.

 

Science: Oxidation and Reduction was our science topic this week. We spent some time focusing on vocabulary too; from last week and this week ( catalyst, enzyme and redox reaction). Understanding the vocabulary better is helping them make better connections with the material. We answered questions like; what is oxidation? What is reduction? What happens during combustion? What happens during photosynthesis and then we wrapped it up with a simple apple/lemon juice science experiment to see oxidation in action.

 

History: We focused on Lessons 2 and 3 from Chapter 3 this week; "The Second Civil War" and "Revolutionary Growth". Our class discussions went so well, that we didn't get time to complete worksheet questions at the end of the lessons. We talked about the rising tensions then, the riots and made some great text to world connections there. We discussed racial divides and mistreatment with examples like the poll tax to quiet voices. Once we moved into the topic of the "New South" we were able to have great discussions on the economy and everything that was affected and its impact on the people. Students were able to think about what kind of industries they would have chosen to work in and why. And last, but certainly not least were able to take a closer look at immigration and the difficulties of homesteading in the Great Plains. The students really enjoy being able to put themselves in the scenes of history and critically think about how they would handle things and what worked well from what didn't and why. Great discussions were had.

 

March 7th -- Progress Reports

March 10th - 16th / Spring Break

 

As always, have a wonderful and safe weekend!

 

Blessings,

Mrs. Christman

 

 

Hello Parents,

 

This has been a fun week at co-op. We had a Civil War party for history and a Valentine's one too. The children have had so much fun this week! These are the things we covered...

 

Bible: The kids are working hard on memorizing their new scripture verse and doing a fantastic job of it too. We read the stories of "Angels Bringing the News to the Shepherds", "Wise Men Worshipping the King", and "The Flight into Egypt".

 

Language Arts: We completed days 86 and 88 of Daily Grams. The students worked on edits for their final draft of their speeches and then self/peer edited before starting the final draft. 

*There seems to be some confusion about the presentation boards. The students are designing their own trifold poster board, not small brochures. The brochure example was for them to use that as inspiration to create their trifold posters. Some suggestions of things to include on the poster boards are the key features or ideas they talk about in their speeches. Illustrations, pictures, maps, diagrams or interesting facts and things of that nature. 

My understanding of presentation day is for parents to arrive at 8:45am and hang out in the hall by our classroom or down by Jan Sanders where we will be presenting. Students will be setting up and getting ready in Jan Sanders and we will begin at 9am. We have an hour or so for our presentations. Please let me know if you have any questions. I'll do my best to answer or get you answers. 

 

Math: We completed pp. 34-35 "Long Division" and pp.38-39 "Long Division with 4 digit Numbers. Everyone did really well with these lessons this week, but I encourage you to give your child some more long division problems to practice. They can always benefit from additional practice.

 

Spelling: Lessons 23A, 23C and 23D were completed. (Consonant/vowel and bossy r chunks) On Friday we added dictation. The most commonly misspelled words were, settlers, colonies, Boone, owned, Daniel, and arriving.

 

Science: We talked about Types of Reactions in science this week. Ten specifically. Then we conducted a chemical reaction experiment that unfortunately didn't work the way we had hoped. We discussed what catalysts and enzymes are as well as what endothermic and exothermic reactions are.

 

History: On Tuesday we had our Civil War experience (which the students really enjoyed). They got to learn how to do morse code and other fun activities. On Thursday we had a Valentine's party. So we did not cover as much in history this week as originally planned. We'll be back on track with it next week.

 

I hope everyone has a great weekend. I'll see you all next week.

 

Blessings,

Mrs. Christman

Good afternoon families,

 

It's a rainy Friday, but it has been a great week. The children have been working so well and as the weather has been warming back up we've been able to get outside for some fresh air. Yay! We continue to pray for those who have been out sick and those traveling. 

Below are the things we covered this week...

 

Bible: This week we reviewed "The Promise of a Savior" "The First Thanksgiving" and read about the "Birth of Christ. We are finished with Isaiah 53:7-12 and are now focusing on Isaiah 9:6-7. We were so excited to celebrate a number of students who were able to recite the memory verse for us and for others who were able to recite the Lord's Prayer. They all continue to get faster and faster in the sword drill practices.

 

Language Arts: In Daily Grams we completed Day 82 and 84. We worked on conclusion paragraphs for the kids TN history projects. They were to make a decision of whether to end their paper with a final thought or a call to action and then try to write it out. Once that was complete they were able to begin writing their second draft which really was just putting all the pieces together in one place. Then today I gave them a revision checklist so they could go back into their writing and make sure they have covered everything they need to have in it. Many students are either caught up or pretty close to it at this stage, so hats off to you parents. I know you're working hard on this trying to help them as much as you can. Hang in there, we're almost at the finished line and they're going to do great! 

 

Math: We completed pages 26,27, 29,30 and 31 on remainders in division and long division. The children did really well with these. I felt like they had a pretty good handle on it and clear understanding. Many were even able to offer a variety of ways to reach the same end results, (which I loved). The lessons were greatly enriched by these discussions and examples they contributed.

 

Spelling: The "Bossy r" has been our focus this week. We completed lessons 22A, 22C and 22D. The words misspelled the most were Lincoln, homestead, settlers, freezing, tornadoes and acres.

 

Science: Chemical Reactions was our topic this week. We discussed things like; "What happens in a chemical reaction?", "What is the law of conservation of mass?", and "What are moles?" (In chemistry, not the rodent as I liked to say to the kids.) They seemed to enjoy learning about chemical reactions this week. We conducted our experiment on it with vinegar and copper pennies on Thursday and had great results which the students were very pleased with. 

 

History: This week has been all about the Civil War in history class. We read about the fighting beginning in chapter 2 and then the ways in which it continued. They were pleasantly engaged in this material this week. I know they are going to greatly enjoy the TN experience we have coming up next week, all on the Civil War. And if they haven't said so yet, I have encouraged them to talk all of you into stopping at Appomattox Court House in Virginia and Gettysburg battlefield in Pennsylvania if ever you find yourselves visiting either of those two states. My family has enjoyed numerous visits to those battlefields, and they are incredible. Worth the visit for sure. 

 

I hope you all have a safe and blessed weekend!

 

In Christ,

Mrs. Christman

Good afternoon parents. We have continued to work hard this week and we are making progress. We are praying for our classmates that have been out for sickness and travel and we look forward to them being back with us soon.

Below are the things we covered this week...

 

Bible: We read about the First Thanksgiving and the Promise of a Savior. I know that sounds odd because we are not in the holiday season anymore. These lessons were forcused more on The voyage, arrival in the New World, the work, the people and how the Lord provided and drew them unto Himself in the process. We are finishing our Isaiah 53:7-9 study and practicing the books of the Bible with our sword drills.

 

Language Arts: We completed days 78 and 80 and then we focused on our THP's. This week was completely centered around writing the 3 paragraphs for the subtopics of the students papers. Many seems to find the worksheets very helpful in organizing their thoughts and helping them stay focused by writing the details or examples out and then having to explain the purpose of the details/examples they chose helped them to see whether or not the picked good details to talk about. This helped them to see if their writing had purpose or if they were just writing words. I was very pleased to see these connections being made by them. 

As you know, this is a big project for them. Thank you so much for your hard work supporting them at home with this. Your efforts truly make a difference.

 

Math: Pages 18 & 19 "Order of Operations and Division" was completed along with pages 22 & 23 "The Remainder Part 1 & 2". The children did very well with both of these. Sometimes Order of Operations still trips them up, but they persevere. Division with remainders was quickly mastered by them. 

 

Spelling: Lesson 21A, C & D were completed; highlighting vowel and consonant chunks as well as writing from dictation. They all did very well with spelling as always. Frequent misspelled words were Martin, friend, their, ordered, junior, judged, and African.

 

Science: "Bonding" was our science topic this week. We investigated and discussed questions like; what an ion is, how ionic bonds are formed, covalent bonding, as well as metallic bonds, how they are formed and what types of elements form metallic bonds. We finished it with a "moving drop" experiment where we used water, toothpicks, and wax paper to show the way water molecules attract to eachother and bond. Experiments are always enjoyed by the class.

 

History: In History we covered the first 2 lessons in chapter 1 of TN in the Later Years. Topics were "A Decade of Crisis and The End of the Union". We focused our history activities around group work questions that challenged the students to make inferences and use higher order thinking to answer questions. This isn't their favorite thing to do, but they gave a great effort.

 

February 13th -- TN History Experience (Civil-War Era)

February 15th -- Valentine's Day (card exchange) 

February 29th -- History Fair (8:45 am in Jan Sanders)

 

As always, please feel free to reach out if you have any questions or if I can be of help in any way. Have a blessed and safe weekend!

 

In Christ,

Mrs. Christman

Good afternoon,

It has been a busy week at co-op. We have worked hard to get back into the swing of things and to get caught up on work that the snowstorm put us a bit behind with.

Below you will find the things we successfully completed and an update on what still needs to be completed to stay on track.

 

Bible: We reviewed a few of the stories we've read about Joseph. His family, his slavery, his rise in rank in Egypt. We are finishing our memory verse in Isaiah 53: 7-9 and the children are getting faster and faster with the sword drills.

 

Language Arts: Daily Grams Day 74 and 76 were completed.

I was able to assess where the students are at in their THP (TN History Project). There is quite a gap. Some are caught up to the point I'm teaching from the outline (We're one day behind due to the snow.) Others do not have their sources/research started or done yet. This makes it very difficult to work on their papers at co-op. Many who have their research, have not read their articles and do not know what they have that will support their subtopics. This also has made progress very difficult to achieve at co-op. Please, if you are able, have the kids work on these this weekend to get caught up. On Tuesday we will begin "Day 8,9,10 -- Body Paragraphs: Main Idea and Details". We will do one paragraph a day for each subtopic. 

*Also -- some students who have been working on their papers from home seem to be treating it like a final draft and not wanting to rework/rewrite any parts while we're working at school. Please help them understand that this is a necessary and important part of writing and to approach the process expecting to do this. We have lessons coming that will be specifically focused on editing and revision and they need to be willing to do this. Thank you for your efforts to support your child in this project. It's a big one for them.

 

Math: We completed pp. 198-200 of book 1 on Metric Units of Volume, and pp. 13-15 of book 2 Division Terms / Division with Zero / Dividing with Whole Tens and Hundreds and they did a very good job with both of these lessons. I felt confident they had a solid understanding of the material.

 

Spelling: Lessons 20A, 20C and 20D were completed. The children also seem to have a good handle on the material presented for spelling. They finish with ease often. "Ordered and decided" were the most misspelled words.

 

Science: "Gas Behavior" was the topic we learned about this week in science class. We had some really good discussions on diffusion, Brownian Motion and Temperature/Pressure. After completing p. 54 in their workbooks, we conducted a temperature/pressure experiment that turned out to be a great success. The students were very engaged and seemed to really enjoy learning about gas behavior this week.

 

History: We used class time on Tuesday to catch up on the THP. So on Thursday we read about how Slavery Leads to War from chapter 10. As always, we had great discussions. The students answered all my questions well. I gave them an activity to do, to analyze and interpret the meaning of a "political cartoon" picture from the text. They struggled a bit with having to think in this way, but they didn't give up. I was proud of their efforts.

 

Dates to Remember: February 13th -- Civil War Party at the end of the day during History class.

February 15th Valentines Day -- We will have a treat to enjoy together during snack or lunch.

 

Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions. Have a wonderful weekend? 

 

In Christ,

Mrs. Christman

Hello Everyone,

Boy has this snow storm made the roads an icy mess. I really hope it melts off in time for us to get back to co-op Tuesday. 

I tried to upload some files on here to give all of you the TN History Project worksheets from last Thursday and Friday, but for some reason it would not let me. So, I sent them to you all in an email attachment. Please check your e-mail for those. I had one e-mail that kicked back to me as undeliverable, so I want to make sure that it was just that one. 

Once we get back to school I will go over the material from the days we missed (on the project) in a condensed way to keep us on track, unless there is a greater need to move slower. I won't know until we get back together and I can see where everyone's at in their work. Thank you for your hard work at home as we navigate through the unexpected setbacks of the storm. I hope everyone has been able to enjoy the snow a bit while off.

Please let me know if you have any questions and I'll do my best to get you answers.

Blessings,

Mrs. Christman

Good afternoon families,

I can't believe how fast this first week back from break has gone by. The children have done a great job picking back up from where we left off. This week we covered the following...

 

Bible: We read the stories of "Joseph in Pharoah's Palace" and " Joseph's Brother's visiting Egypt" Students continue to memorize Isaiah 53:7-9 and get quicker doing sword drills every day.

 

Language Arts: Days 68 and 70 of DG's were completed. Then, per the outline I sent home on the Tennessee History Project, we worked on that. We discussed Informative Writing style writing. We observed a sample writing and learned how to look for the necessary elements in the writing. We discussed and defined what informational writing is. Then we made a T-chart to collect and organize our thoughts so we could get some focus for our writing. From this students learned how to look for themes in what they know and want to learn about their topic and they began selecting subtopics from this. *Students are free to make the 3 prior selected subtopics theirs for their papers also. The choice is theirs. On Friday we discussed what makes a good source (type of websites, authors, publication dates, current or dated information etc...) and all the different resources they can look in to find sources for their papers (online, bookstores, library's etc...).

 

Math: Topics covered were "Measuring Units for Length" and "Customary Units of Weight" pp. 185-187 and 190-191. Everyone did really well on these concepts.

 

Spelling: In spelling we are focusing on recognizing vowel chunks again. We completed 19A, 19C and 19D.

 

Science: This week science was a continuation of states of matter we were investigating before Christmas break. We discussed the things that happen when the states of matter change (melt, boil, condense, freeze) from one physical form to another (solid, liquid, gas). Then we did a fun little experiment with freezing orange juice and observing/discussing the physical changes and the reasons why. Students seemed to really enjoy the science lessons this week. 

 

History: Topics covered were Andrew Jackson and Changing Politics. We had great conversations from the chapter discussion questions.

 

*Reminder - Monday, January 15th is Martin Luther King Day (no co-op)

                     Tuesday, January 16th is a teacher-in-service day (no co-op)

 

As always, if you have any questions, please let me know. I'm happy to answer anything I can. Overall, we had another great week! Have a wonderful weekend!

 

Blessings,

Mrs. Christman