Common, Proper, Singular, Plural 9-11

The title should give you a few hints about what was covered in class today! :-)

Our class today was sweltering hot because the church's air conditioning unit was broken. Thankfully, it was Teacher-To-The-Rescue with a few ice-pops to break the heat! Hee-hee!

Today we started with all six jingles, and your kids sang with enthusiasm and smiles! :-) I had them listen to the preposition jingles while they enjoyed the popsicles. We will be moving into prepositions soon.

We went over Ch. 2 test, reviewed some of the homework, labeled sentences from Chapter Three, and learned about the Subject/Verb Pattern of a sentence. (This is the first of seven sentence patterns.) We also reviewed finding the simple subject and simple predicate of the sentence.

Today, I introduced the "Noun Check." We walked through the terms in the title above...common, proper, singular, plural. Students were exposed to the roles and rules for each noun form.

After our grammar lesson, we moved into writing. Several of your children shared their papers with the class. I WAS VERY IMPRESSED WITH WHAT I HEARD! In the paragraphs I listened to, it seemed that your children are easily following the form of a three point expository paragraph. Yeah!

As part of the writing instruction, I introduced two "NO-NO Words." (I could have labeled them "banned" words, but NO-NO seemed more fun!) I have asked the students to avoid using good and bad in their writing. There are many quality adjectives that are enticingly more descriptive. I used the following two sentences in class to demonstrate the point. (These seemed fitting because of today's date.)

1 - September 11, 2001 was a bad day for America.
2- Firefighters performed some good deeds on September 11, 2001.

Don't these two sentences completely diminish the catastrophic happenings of this date in history? The students came up with more descriptive adjectives and we listed them on the board. As you review your child's writing assignments, please help them expand their vocabulary by choosing words that convey the purpose they desire.

Finally, to address writing. YOU have the freedom to alter the assignments I send home. If your child needs to write a thank you note; this can replace one journal entry. If your child is writing a report for a class; have them bring in a copy to me in lieu of a formal writing assignment. The assignments I send home are important, but, because we home educate, there will be weeks where other subjects requiring writing will need to take precedence. Please know you have that freedom!

Here is the homework due next week:
ALL Ch. 3 Exercises in Workbook (p.66-67)
ALL Ch. 3 Vocabulary
ALL Ch. 3 Sentences in Practice Booklet (p.2) - labeled with simple subject, simple predicate, type of sentence, and sentence pattern indicated as we have done in class.
2 Journal Entries (or writing assignments you choose)
3 Point Expository Paragraph on My Three Favorite Adults - Have FINAL DRAFT stapled to the rough draft to hand in - Avoid using the words good and bad :-)

Have a great week! Your children are doing FANTASTIC!