Fw: Fwd: Challenge A

 

 
 

 

I just sent you an evite to the Thanksgiving Banquet on November 12.  You don't have to participate but it is fun and lots of good food.  They are asking families to sign up for a main dish and a dessert or drink, I think.  We will take an extra 15 minutes for lunch on that day so we can enjoy some food and fellowship.

 

Good day on Tuesday-lots of creative (sometimes silly) juices were flowing.  We worked on some mnemonics and hand motions to help us memorize countries and catechism questions. 

 

Math-a test is due this week.  I continue to encourage students to take tests.  If they are not doing them regularly, I would maybe let them do the problems that they know and then review before completing the other problems.  We continue to review math skills in class.  This week, the students were given three number dice, one fraction dice and one function dice.  Their task was to manipulate the numbers to find the smallest sum.  There was lots of thinking and contemplating going on between the two teams!!

 

Latin-we continue to review, review!!  This week, we practiced 'reading' Latin and the students did very well.  They are being encouraged to memorize their noun endings and vocabulary for their mid-term.

 

Geography-we continue working through Europe.  Students came up with some mnemonics to help them remember the order of the countries.  I will post a few you tube videos on the blog that might help in learning the capitols.

 

Lost Tools of Writing-this week a worksheet on amplification is due as well as a full outline for 'Number the Stars.'  I reminded the students that the outlines contain statements, phrases....not sentences.  We have a whole list of 'tools' or techniques that they will be using in this next paper.  They are to start reading "Amos Fortune, Free Man".

 

Biology-from now on, we are not using common language or slang in our papers.  We are shifting to straight research type papers but still using the techniques that we are learning from Lost Tools of Writing.  If you check your students paper, they should not include statements like "I really enjoyed this subject", "now, let's move on to other things", "let me tell  you about my favorite frog", etc  We talked about a technique to end their papers in LTW.  They can answer the questions, "Who cares" and "Why"? to find a good concluding statement.  So a good concluding statement might be.....It is important for all residents of the United States and Mexico to learn more about this fascinating amphibian.  The _________________ will pass from existence if aggressive conservation measures are not continued in these areas.

 

Rhetoric-we continued with some skimming of articles and 'reporting' to the class.  If students struggle with this skill (or just don't want to try), I will send them home with their article to work on during the week.  Most of the class did very well.  We are working to learn the skill of discerning the most important information in articles as well as presenting those facts in a manner that helps their fellow classmates.  We also created some hand motions to help us remember the catechism questions.

 

Blog-we have a blog!! for all of the Covington campus.  Here is the address http://ccofcovington.blogspot.com/2013/10/this-is-fun-extension-to-our-lesson.html

 

I will post the weekly email there as well as additional information that might help your student in learning some of our subjects.

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Just a reminder that the final tuition payment will be due in January.  I will send invoices in a few weeks but the amount is roughly $550. 

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Let me know if you have questions or concerns,

 

Candy

 

Youth Music Supervisor

St. Timothy on the Northshore UMC

Mandeville, La

985-626-3307

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=K6oGNMDKxfs&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DK6oGNMDKxfs

 

 

Latin-we are progressing very slowly through this third lesson and doing a lot of reviewing.  I am giving hints and study suggestions for our mid-term exam each week.

 

Math-I am encouraging students to take a test and if they do poorly, review those problems and possibly try the test again the following day.  We also did some reviewing of multiplication and will try to do that each week for a few minutes.

 

Geography-we are working our way through Europe.  This week, the class is drawing Central Europe and continuing to work on the Nordic countries and Eastern Europe.  We are working on features and capitols for Europe.  Yesterday the class colored a map of Europe, using different colors for each section.  They also received a sheet that breaks down each section along with features and capitols.

 

Lost Tools of Writing-we heard some really good papers yesterday.  I believe that LTW is becoming a bit more fun now.  We talked about one of the canons-Circumstance- and they have a worksheet to help them think about the time and place, events in the world, etc for "Number the Stars".  They also have an ANI chart due for next week-25 items for each column!!

 

Biology-this week the papers are on owls and/or birds of prey. 

 

Rhetoric-we tried some impromptu presentations yesterday.  In teams of two, the students analyzed a chapter in "It Couldn't Just Happen" and presented to the class.  We will do this more in the coming weeks.  I am hoping to give them some skills in learning to skim the reading, find important concepts, organize thoughts and present their findings as well as ask some discussion questions. 

 

I will be planning an open house for weeks 13 and 14.  If you know of anyone who is interested in Challenge for next year, please let them know.  Young people are welcome also.