Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one. Malcolm Forbes


Hi everyone-
Mr. Dick came in for me today since I'm home getting a woodstove installed and wood delivered. Back in the day I heated with wood exclusively and have really missed it; it'll be good to not rely so heavily on fossil fuels to stay warm this winter. This model sits right on the fireplace hearth. Anyway... I digress.


In Language Arts, we're continuing with our Sensory Writing: Hearing activities from yesterday. Today they needed to choose a location from a list provided or come up with one of their own, write it on their paper, then list all the sounds they might hear at that location. The assignment for today was to write several sentences/a paragraph that described the above event. This is not as easy as it “sounds” (no pun intended)—students need to carefully select descriptive sound words in their writing.

In Social Studies yesterday I introduced an activity that both classes worked on independently today. They are making “Wampum Belt” designs on a 3" to 6" strip of graph paper (landscape position). The directions were to create a pattern of symbols and designs that depicted their (family) history or somehow told their story (the idea being that pictures help us to remember better). They should have come with the designs all planned out and ready to transfer onto a final draft paper in today's class. Although the native people used shells that were purple and white, students were allowed to pick any two colors of their choice. (FYI: the Iroquois people used wampum belts to help them memorize important events or information, including the 117 sections of their constitution. They referred to these wampum belts often and used them in teaching their children. Remember, they had no written language.) If they completed their drawing, they were directed to begin the "caption” explaining their pictures. We’ll conclude tomorrow; there's no assignment for tonight. (We'll take some time to share our "stories" with our classes this week, then make them into a bulletin board--come in and see!)

My class needs to be sure that Tuesday's DOL, Grammar, Spelling, and Vocabulary (short!!) assignments are finished and ready to go over tomorrow.

That's about it for today. I hope you enjoy your evening with your families. I hope to relax in front of the fire. Ahh...

Take care-

Teri