"With the wreck of her frail body, Beth's soul grew strong, and though she said little, those about her felt that she was ready, saw that the first pilgrim called was likewise the fittest, and waited with her on the shore, trying to see the Shining Ones coming to receive her when she crossed the river." - Little Women, Chapter 40, "The Valley of the Shadow"
Hello, Parents. We enjoyed a beautiful moment together in class on Friday as we read Chapter 40 of Little Women together, when Jo's sweet sister, Beth, passes away. The room was filled with sighs and tears, since we have come to love these characters in the novel, of which Beth was the favorite of so many. I encouraged the scholars to share this beautiful chapter with you this weekend, and hope that you were able to enjoy that time together. We are nearing the end of our novel, but I am thrilled that so many scholars have expressed the desire to read Alcott's, Little Men, this summer. Students were assigned Chapters 41-42 for weekend reading, Monday will be Chapter 43, Tuesday will be Chapter 45, Wednesday will be Chapter 46, and we will finish the novel on Thursday with Chapter 47. It is so important that students have read the chapters to be able to participate in meaningful discussion. Socratic style teaching relies on all the scholars to add to the conversation. Students are expected to participate every day, since their thoughts and the thoughts of their peers can be valuable and genuinely insightful. In Spalding, we will continue to focus on Rule 12, "Use the phonogram 'ie' unless it comes after a 'c', says /a/ or is in the list of exceptions." A sentence with the first group of exceptions is, "Neither foreign sovereign seized the counterfeit and forfeited leisure." Students will be learning more 'ie' and 'ei' spelling words, and a second group of exceptions this week. It is more beneficial to learning when Spalding homework is done with a parent, and not simply copied from the homework sheet. Thank you for your time commitment in this subject and all others. Your partnership is much appreciated. In Writing and Grammar, we ran short on time and were unable to hear all students recite, "Solitude," so we will complete recitations on Monday. Scholars will receive the next poem assignment on Friday, which will be recited at the end of March. Writing focus continues to be correct sentence structure, use of proper conventions in writing, and summarizing short articles into student's own words. We will use key word outlines as a tool to extract important details from paragraphs before restating the ideas into new sentences. Students will use thesauri to substitute or replace words as copia exercises. Congratulations to our courageous 5th grade representatives in the Bard Competition. What amazing recitations by all contestants! We look forward to Faith Copeland representing Archway Trivium East at the Great Hearts Network Bard Competition in April. Congratulations, Faith! Warm regards, Mrs. Baird 03/10 ACTE In-Service, No School 03/13-03/17 Spring Break!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Author
Mrs. Baird Archives
February 2017
|