Hello Essentials families,
What a beautiful spring day we were blessed with yesterday! We covered a lot of information in two hours, but the students hung in their and are dashing to the finish line next week. It seems hard to believe, but the weeks have flown by. Some students were Memory Master testing or sick at home so I am going to be thorough in today's blog.
IEW Letter Writing Model: "Friendly Letters" Unit 7 Notes from the Brain
In today's world of email and texting many of us do not take the time to write a letter. Ending the year on a fun and friendly note, the students are writing a letter to themselves not to be opened until the year they graduate from high school. Next week they will literally "seal" the letters with a wax seal (to avoid the risk of burns I had adhesive seals made), to insure that they will keep their letters sealed.
When writing this week look at their take home packet for all that you need to have them compose their letter. This assignment will not be turned in to me and therefore will not be required to underlined, labeled, etc. On your checklist(mom's packet), you will see that I focused on the structure of a letter over the style elements they have learned. Encourage them to write with dress-ups and a variety of sentence openers, but allow them the freedom and enjoyment of breaking away from the checklist! As exhibited in class yesterday when the students created compound-complex sentences, they naturally enjoy putting in those vocabulary words, strong verbs, etc.
Structure: Each letter should follow the friendly letter format presented in class yesterday. There are 5 parts the students should include:
HEADING, GREETING, BODY, CLOSING with SIGNATURE, and POST SCRIPT.
This letter follows the Unit 7 "Notes from the brain": Introductory paragraph, body paragraphs (1,2, or 3) and conclusion. Your child may write a 3, 4, or 5 paragraph letter.
Introductory Paragraph: Background information (for ex. I am writing this letter for my IEW/Essentials class. I am in the fourth grade and I am ten years old.) Then, have them state their topic(s) for the body of the letter (A, B, C), "TELL THEM WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO TELL THEM."
Body: We brainstormed 3 themes in class that they may write about. Let them choose the details they would like to include in their letter and write 1, 2, or 3 body paragraphs. "TELL THEM"
Conclusion: In the conclusion, the students should restate their topic(s). Write the most significant idea and why? to conclude their letter. "TELL THEM WHAT YOU TOLD THEM"
******Topic sentence clincher rule should be followed on the body paragraphs!"Look at the example IEW leeters included in thier packet for an example.*****
This letter may be hand-written or typed. I want them to have fun writing this week. We did a lot of brainstorming in class, so today have them fill out their KWO and start writing. When your child gets to the final draft of their letter have them look for those punctuation and spelling errors. They have done an incredible job in class finding those "FOULS" and now they can apply these skills to their own writing.
Time Capsule:
This is where you can set them loose to create a capsule enclosing all of the things that your child loves and finds valuable to their lives today! We brainstormed ideas of what to include in their capsules: Newspaper, gas prices, pictures, CD's, favorite candy wrappers, menus, favorite movie and TV shows, church bulletin, their height and weight, a handmade piece of jewelry, etc.
Bring their completed time capsules, letters, and portfolios to class next week so they can "SHOWCASE" their work for the year. We will set up and display their time capsules and portfolios on tables(museum style) and allow them to show them off. We will spend the other portion of our time in Writer's Circle reading their poetry and papers aloud. It is time to celebrate all that the moms and children have accomplished this year! "Power of the Pen" writing awards will also be given to each student:)!
Celebrate with Sundaes:
We are going to celebrate with an ice cream sundae party next week to close out our year! In class, everyone signed up to bring a variety of toppings and ice cream. If you were not in class, just bring a topping of your choice to contribute.
Have a great week, remember to let the children have freedom and fun with this project. This is supposed to be stress free week for moms! Let them be creative and checklist free in their letters and let them have fun free time fashioning their capsules.
Happy Writing - it's time to celebrate,
Tina:)
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Weeek 22 - Poetry and Portfolios
Hello Essentials families,
I hope you all are enjoying your end-of-the-year weeks of memory work drilling and reflecting on what a profitable year of learning it has been with your children. I have enjoyed teaching IEW this year and I am amazed at each individual child's progress. What a blessing it is to have the privilege of home schooling our children.
Purposeful Poetry
This week was purposefully planned to be "light" in the writing load. Enjoy allowing your child the freedom to use alliteration and quality adjectives to their heart's content. The benefit of completing this poem at the end of the year instead of the beginning is Ancient World Poem is a wonderful opportunity to remember all of the ancient civilizations we have written about and to describe them accurately and with knowledge. If time allows let them use one day to enjoy illustrating and decorating their poem.
Two rules of poetry we mentioned in class:
1) Capitalize the first letter of each line of poetry.
2) Poetry does NOT have to rhyme.
Poetry Style - Personification, Assonance and Consonance p.48 and 49
Two poetry pages I had planned to introduce in class were replaced by going back to the #4 opener and (that) noun clause that had been missed by one class the week before. Please go over personification, assonance, and/or consonance poetic decorations with your children if time allows this week. There are some very short exercises to accompany them. CHALLENGE: Encourage them to incorporate at least one of the new decorations: personification, assonance and/or consonance into their poems. You can find these terms and their definitions on pages 48 and 49 GRAY pages of their notebooks. They will be surprised at how natural and easy it is to add these into their poems.
Personification gives human characteristics to things or ideas.
The fascinating book grabbed my attention.
Assonance: words that have the same internal vowel sound in sequence or in close proximity.
waves clapping and crashing
Consonance: words that end with the same consonant sound used in sequence or in close proximity.
black rocks speckled with snow
I also continue to encourage each student to gather their writings together into a notebook/portfolio of their writing for the 2012-2013 year. On week 24 they will be invited to bring their notebooks with them to "showcase" their writing and hard work!
Happy writing,
Tina
I hope you all are enjoying your end-of-the-year weeks of memory work drilling and reflecting on what a profitable year of learning it has been with your children. I have enjoyed teaching IEW this year and I am amazed at each individual child's progress. What a blessing it is to have the privilege of home schooling our children.
Purposeful Poetry
This week was purposefully planned to be "light" in the writing load. Enjoy allowing your child the freedom to use alliteration and quality adjectives to their heart's content. The benefit of completing this poem at the end of the year instead of the beginning is Ancient World Poem is a wonderful opportunity to remember all of the ancient civilizations we have written about and to describe them accurately and with knowledge. If time allows let them use one day to enjoy illustrating and decorating their poem.
Two rules of poetry we mentioned in class:
1) Capitalize the first letter of each line of poetry.
2) Poetry does NOT have to rhyme.
Poetry Style - Personification, Assonance and Consonance p.48 and 49
Two poetry pages I had planned to introduce in class were replaced by going back to the #4 opener and (that) noun clause that had been missed by one class the week before. Please go over personification, assonance, and/or consonance poetic decorations with your children if time allows this week. There are some very short exercises to accompany them. CHALLENGE: Encourage them to incorporate at least one of the new decorations: personification, assonance and/or consonance into their poems. You can find these terms and their definitions on pages 48 and 49 GRAY pages of their notebooks. They will be surprised at how natural and easy it is to add these into their poems.
Personification gives human characteristics to things or ideas.
The fascinating book grabbed my attention.
Assonance: words that have the same internal vowel sound in sequence or in close proximity.
waves clapping and crashing
Consonance: words that end with the same consonant sound used in sequence or in close proximity.
black rocks speckled with snow
I also continue to encourage each student to gather their writings together into a notebook/portfolio of their writing for the 2012-2013 year. On week 24 they will be invited to bring their notebooks with them to "showcase" their writing and hard work!
Happy writing,
Tina
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Week 21 - What do you think about Pandora's Box?
Hello Essentials families,
It was wonderful to see you all again yesterday and be back in the "land of the living." I need a healthy dose of my CC family to keep me going. You are all a blessing.
Editing Exercise - Foraging for Fouls
Yesterday, the students did an incredible job attacking the editing exercise and almost exhausted all of the errors. When they all work together competitively, an otherwise daunting task can become exciting and enjoyable. Please reinforce to your child that I am so proud of their enthusiasm and effort in class. What a joy!
Unit 9 - Critiques (5 paragraphs, 3 paragraphs, or oral)
This week is the second week on our critique of the Greek myth "Pandora's Box." Our goal in class was to discuss and brainstorm ideas for their conclusion paragraphs. If your student is just starting this assignment this week, I strongly encourage you to complete the 3 paragraph option. (The 3 paragraph checklist is in last week's packet.) Alternatively, if your week is full of memory master prep and/or you are still completing a past paper, a second option is to just have them read the story, KWO the critique, and orally present their critique to you. The advantage of this is that they have gone through the questioning process while completing the KWO and they have experienced the structure of a critique (Unit 9). The focus of this unit is on structure. Additionally, they love spouting their opinions about the story:). If you choose to have them orally present to you, they can turn in their KWO for writing rewards.
Critique Conclusion:
In class we created ideas for their conclusion paragraphs. Because each student's opinion of the story is unique to them, we did not complete the KWO in class. The students enjoyed the story and had strong opinions on whether they liked or disliked "Pandora's Box." We brainstormed their literary criticisms both positive and negative. Please reinforce to them that the key to a strong critique conclusion is backing up your opinion with examples from the story. Be sure to avoid the banned words. The students enjoyed incorporating vocabulary words in their descriptions and examples from the story. I love to see them using their vocabulary words in writing discussions, this illustrates mastery of the vocabulary. Also, while they are writing, use the critique vocabulary thesaurus distributed last week in class. This is a very helpful tool for critique writing.
Optional Checklist:
I included an expanded checklist in the take home papers this week that lists all of the STYLE elements we have covered this year. This was provided as an opportunity for your child to check off any additional elements of style that they include in their paper. ALL OF THE STYLE ELEMENTS ON THE BONUS CHECKLIST ARE NOT TO BE INCLUDED IN EACH OF THE FIVE PARAGRAPHS!!!! Just use the Critique Checklist for all of the required style and use the Optional Checklist for bonus/additional elements. Most of the students are naturally using many of the dress-ups and sentence openers and I wanted to give them a place to check it off:). (Can you tell I am a list maker that likes to check items off my list?)
Have a wonderful week writing! Remember there are no tears in Essentials so make the choice that best suits your family this week: 5 paragraph critique, 3 paragraph critique, or oral critique.
Happy Writing!
Tina
It was wonderful to see you all again yesterday and be back in the "land of the living." I need a healthy dose of my CC family to keep me going. You are all a blessing.
Editing Exercise - Foraging for Fouls
Yesterday, the students did an incredible job attacking the editing exercise and almost exhausted all of the errors. When they all work together competitively, an otherwise daunting task can become exciting and enjoyable. Please reinforce to your child that I am so proud of their enthusiasm and effort in class. What a joy!
Unit 9 - Critiques (5 paragraphs, 3 paragraphs, or oral)
This week is the second week on our critique of the Greek myth "Pandora's Box." Our goal in class was to discuss and brainstorm ideas for their conclusion paragraphs. If your student is just starting this assignment this week, I strongly encourage you to complete the 3 paragraph option. (The 3 paragraph checklist is in last week's packet.) Alternatively, if your week is full of memory master prep and/or you are still completing a past paper, a second option is to just have them read the story, KWO the critique, and orally present their critique to you. The advantage of this is that they have gone through the questioning process while completing the KWO and they have experienced the structure of a critique (Unit 9). The focus of this unit is on structure. Additionally, they love spouting their opinions about the story:). If you choose to have them orally present to you, they can turn in their KWO for writing rewards.
Critique Conclusion:
In class we created ideas for their conclusion paragraphs. Because each student's opinion of the story is unique to them, we did not complete the KWO in class. The students enjoyed the story and had strong opinions on whether they liked or disliked "Pandora's Box." We brainstormed their literary criticisms both positive and negative. Please reinforce to them that the key to a strong critique conclusion is backing up your opinion with examples from the story. Be sure to avoid the banned words. The students enjoyed incorporating vocabulary words in their descriptions and examples from the story. I love to see them using their vocabulary words in writing discussions, this illustrates mastery of the vocabulary. Also, while they are writing, use the critique vocabulary thesaurus distributed last week in class. This is a very helpful tool for critique writing.
Optional Checklist:
I included an expanded checklist in the take home papers this week that lists all of the STYLE elements we have covered this year. This was provided as an opportunity for your child to check off any additional elements of style that they include in their paper. ALL OF THE STYLE ELEMENTS ON THE BONUS CHECKLIST ARE NOT TO BE INCLUDED IN EACH OF THE FIVE PARAGRAPHS!!!! Just use the Critique Checklist for all of the required style and use the Optional Checklist for bonus/additional elements. Most of the students are naturally using many of the dress-ups and sentence openers and I wanted to give them a place to check it off:). (Can you tell I am a list maker that likes to check items off my list?)
Have a wonderful week writing! Remember there are no tears in Essentials so make the choice that best suits your family this week: 5 paragraph critique, 3 paragraph critique, or oral critique.
Happy Writing!
Tina
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