Hello, hello!
We will meet again at my house next Monday, December 23, from 10-12 to watch another video that focuses on one of the units of creative writing that we will do next semester. Children are welcome.I hope to see you there. :D
Have a Merry Christmas!
Melissa
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Friday, December 6, 2013
IEW- Videos
Hi Everyone!
I trust you had a blessed Thanksgiving and are headed into a wonderful Christmas season.
Next semester we dive head first into some wonderful creative writing.
I am offering the opportunity for you to view the IEW videos over the break that will pertain to the lessons will be doing. These videos are wonderful overviews into the heart of this very unique curriculum. If this is your first tour, I highly recommend coming.
We will watch the first one at my house on Monday, December 16th from 10 am- 12 pm.
As always, let me know if there is anything I can do to help you along in your journey!
Blessings,
Melissa
I trust you had a blessed Thanksgiving and are headed into a wonderful Christmas season.
Next semester we dive head first into some wonderful creative writing.
I am offering the opportunity for you to view the IEW videos over the break that will pertain to the lessons will be doing. These videos are wonderful overviews into the heart of this very unique curriculum. If this is your first tour, I highly recommend coming.
We will watch the first one at my house on Monday, December 16th from 10 am- 12 pm.
As always, let me know if there is anything I can do to help you along in your journey!
Blessings,
Melissa
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
IEW- Week 12
What a fast paced day! Whew! It felt like a sprint to try to get it all in.
It was great to get to hear all the reports from the students that won't get to be at the Medieval Dinner. You will be very missed. What an amazing bunch of reports we had! Quite a few Oscar winning performances too ;) These talented writers really shine! My sincere apologies to all who didn't get to read. I REALLY underestimated the length of each report. Fortunately, I had heard two during Foundations but there is still one more that I'm quite anxious to hear! You get to go first on Thursday!
Keep reading through your "Presentations Skills Toolbox" handout and think of ways to continue tweaking your papers. We'll go through it much more slowly and in a more relaxed fashion on Thursday so that we can soak it all up.
While you are practicing, take a moment to shorten your papers if you wish (Several of you have asked if this is okay already.). Each student completely deserves their time on stage but if they are uncomfortable with reading all of their paper and wish to read just one or two paragraphs that is fine.
See you Thursday at 2 at Westside Chapel. Remember to come in street clothes with your costumes and a snack in tow. We will walk across to Christ Community together and have a dress rehearsal before having some relax -time before the show begins. (Girls have got to fix their hair, right?)
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and get ready for creative writing. We'll set our imaginations free to roam on week 13! Thank you for all the lovely chocolates and gift cards and candles, I feel very spoiled. This has been a blessing of a semester and I have enjoyed getting to know all of you!
Melissa
It was great to get to hear all the reports from the students that won't get to be at the Medieval Dinner. You will be very missed. What an amazing bunch of reports we had! Quite a few Oscar winning performances too ;) These talented writers really shine! My sincere apologies to all who didn't get to read. I REALLY underestimated the length of each report. Fortunately, I had heard two during Foundations but there is still one more that I'm quite anxious to hear! You get to go first on Thursday!
Keep reading through your "Presentations Skills Toolbox" handout and think of ways to continue tweaking your papers. We'll go through it much more slowly and in a more relaxed fashion on Thursday so that we can soak it all up.
While you are practicing, take a moment to shorten your papers if you wish (Several of you have asked if this is okay already.). Each student completely deserves their time on stage but if they are uncomfortable with reading all of their paper and wish to read just one or two paragraphs that is fine.
See you Thursday at 2 at Westside Chapel. Remember to come in street clothes with your costumes and a snack in tow. We will walk across to Christ Community together and have a dress rehearsal before having some relax -time before the show begins. (Girls have got to fix their hair, right?)
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and get ready for creative writing. We'll set our imaginations free to roam on week 13! Thank you for all the lovely chocolates and gift cards and candles, I feel very spoiled. This has been a blessing of a semester and I have enjoyed getting to know all of you!
Melissa
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
IEW-Week 11
The time has come! We're tying up loose ends so we can finish the semester with a bang.
Today in class we reviewed introductory paragraphs as well as conclusion paragraphs. We went through some very specific types of "Hook" openers and talked thorugh some examples. We also talked about using the pronoun "I" to turn our report into a first person story and went over some medieval words that we can sprinkle in to make our report sound a bit more "of the time period."
Several of you asked if the paper was due in first person or third person form. Over the years it's been done many ways. Some people write the report itself in third person and then present it in first person but that is a tricky task unless you're a second or third tour student. What ever mom is comfortable with is perfect. You know your student and your level of comfort with the material.
First class got really into the lesson and we had a blast taking our rough drafts and thinking of great hook openers. It was great to see moms working with their students and to hear the different ideas that were coming from everyone's imagination. It was also a lot of fun to hear your ideas on how to mix in medieval words.
Second class said they were set to go so we jumped into the vocabulary word search. They did really well! I was very impressed. Nearly everyone finished it. First class, I handed yours to you on the way out the door so that you can do yours at home.
Final papers are due next week and we will have everyone read their papers and work on public speaking skills. Next semester we jump head first into creative writing. Let's beef up our oral presentation skills so that reading those super fun papers is really exciting!
We also want to get a jump start on practicing for the Medieval Dinner. If you are not participating in that, you are invited to come in costume next week and strut your stuff! Your hard work needs its chance on stage too. :)
We will meet Thursday November 21 at 2pm (attention: This time may change but I will let you know if it does.)at Westside for a dress rehearsal. Please come in street clothes and bring your costume and a snack or two. Matt and Brie will be on hand to run through rehearsals with us so that we can get really comfortable in our skin in front of the crowd. Character development, stage business (what to do with your hands on stage), speaking from your diaphragm, and a little bit of fun and relaxing in character will make for a fun filled but productive afternoon. I am also hoping to have some theatre students from Guilford come to help fix the girls' hair!
We will dress for the show and walk across to Christ Community as a group. I know some of you have some conflicts during the day and will need to leave but the intent of this time is to really let the students have some genuine rehearsal time with a bit of coaching tossed in. Don't worry, they will get some down time to eat and dress and relax before "curtain" too!
Moms, once you drop them off, please consider wandering across to Christ Community to help Shelley, Amy, Patrice, Cynthia, and Sherry set up and decorate. These ladies have gone above and beyond to make this evening unforgettable for the classes and I am so grateful to all of them! JonVarnell will already be smoking the meat for dinner as well so please take a moment to say thank you. This is an amazing team.
I would also like to say a big giant THANK YOU to Karen and her team for putting together a wonderful Marble Jar party! These students have worked so hard this semester to earn this treat.
As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please email me. I am here to help.
Your children are such blessings and I am humbled and grateful to have been a part of your first semester.
Melissa
Today in class we reviewed introductory paragraphs as well as conclusion paragraphs. We went through some very specific types of "Hook" openers and talked thorugh some examples. We also talked about using the pronoun "I" to turn our report into a first person story and went over some medieval words that we can sprinkle in to make our report sound a bit more "of the time period."
Several of you asked if the paper was due in first person or third person form. Over the years it's been done many ways. Some people write the report itself in third person and then present it in first person but that is a tricky task unless you're a second or third tour student. What ever mom is comfortable with is perfect. You know your student and your level of comfort with the material.
First class got really into the lesson and we had a blast taking our rough drafts and thinking of great hook openers. It was great to see moms working with their students and to hear the different ideas that were coming from everyone's imagination. It was also a lot of fun to hear your ideas on how to mix in medieval words.
Second class said they were set to go so we jumped into the vocabulary word search. They did really well! I was very impressed. Nearly everyone finished it. First class, I handed yours to you on the way out the door so that you can do yours at home.
Final papers are due next week and we will have everyone read their papers and work on public speaking skills. Next semester we jump head first into creative writing. Let's beef up our oral presentation skills so that reading those super fun papers is really exciting!
We also want to get a jump start on practicing for the Medieval Dinner. If you are not participating in that, you are invited to come in costume next week and strut your stuff! Your hard work needs its chance on stage too. :)
We will meet Thursday November 21 at 2pm (attention: This time may change but I will let you know if it does.)at Westside for a dress rehearsal. Please come in street clothes and bring your costume and a snack or two. Matt and Brie will be on hand to run through rehearsals with us so that we can get really comfortable in our skin in front of the crowd. Character development, stage business (what to do with your hands on stage), speaking from your diaphragm, and a little bit of fun and relaxing in character will make for a fun filled but productive afternoon. I am also hoping to have some theatre students from Guilford come to help fix the girls' hair!
We will dress for the show and walk across to Christ Community as a group. I know some of you have some conflicts during the day and will need to leave but the intent of this time is to really let the students have some genuine rehearsal time with a bit of coaching tossed in. Don't worry, they will get some down time to eat and dress and relax before "curtain" too!
Moms, once you drop them off, please consider wandering across to Christ Community to help Shelley, Amy, Patrice, Cynthia, and Sherry set up and decorate. These ladies have gone above and beyond to make this evening unforgettable for the classes and I am so grateful to all of them! JonVarnell will already be smoking the meat for dinner as well so please take a moment to say thank you. This is an amazing team.
I would also like to say a big giant THANK YOU to Karen and her team for putting together a wonderful Marble Jar party! These students have worked so hard this semester to earn this treat.
As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please email me. I am here to help.
Your children are such blessings and I am humbled and grateful to have been a part of your first semester.
Melissa
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
IEW-Week 10
Can you believe it? It's party time! A semester of hard work has paid off and our marble jar is full.
This week, continue to work on your FOH report. Many of you were able to bring in some rough draft paragraphs to dress up and first class got to play around with ideas a bit. Second class, we got a bit off track discussing colons and bibliographies but they were conversations well had.
Just to second the conclusion we came to in class, the colon is used when the second independent clause seems to confirm or explain what the first independent clause says. The semi-colon is used when the two independent clauses are closely related. I've Googled it again and every source seems to follow a variation of this. It does seem to be splitting hairs in some cases. THIS LINK from UNC-Chapel Hill Writing Center has a wealth of information about all things grammar. It also addresses the topic of whether or not to capitalize the first letter after a colon (either way is correct) and mentions some common incorrect colon usage.
This same site also has MLA bibliography information. Here is a link to the EasyBib site we talked about in class. I highly recommend that you allow your student to work through the process with you as much as is appropriate for their age/skill level. Afterwards, you can plug it into EasyBib to double check. Please let me know if you need any help with this. remember, no crying in Essentials!
If your student is first year, please do not allow these details to take the joy out of this fun assignment. I am concerned that for some, the topics we covered in class this week may overwhelm them. They do not need to use colons or semi-colons in each paragraph unless they find it fun. These punctuation rules are to stretch the skill level of the second and third tour students who are moving into Challenge not to frighten the first year students. However, it is a fun way to change up the sentence structures when they are ready.
Next week, bring your 3 rough draft body paragraphs and some ideas for introductory and concluding paragraphs. We will discuss how to make our reports first person and include some words from the time period to make it sound authentic! If you don't get all 3 done, bring what you have.
I still have not heard from some of you about a head count for dinner. We are trying to get food ordered next Tuesday evening so :) please, let me know as soon as you can. Also, if you have anything medieval-ish in your home that you would be willing to let us borrow for the evening, let me know: flameless candles, tapestries, fleur-de-lis decorations that might be appropriate, catapults or other presentation visuals from weeks past, ya know, that family suit of armor you keep for use when the castle gets attacked... hehehe, yep. They do exist in the closets of some of us!
Have a blessed week!
Melissa
This week, continue to work on your FOH report. Many of you were able to bring in some rough draft paragraphs to dress up and first class got to play around with ideas a bit. Second class, we got a bit off track discussing colons and bibliographies but they were conversations well had.
Just to second the conclusion we came to in class, the colon is used when the second independent clause seems to confirm or explain what the first independent clause says. The semi-colon is used when the two independent clauses are closely related. I've Googled it again and every source seems to follow a variation of this. It does seem to be splitting hairs in some cases. THIS LINK from UNC-Chapel Hill Writing Center has a wealth of information about all things grammar. It also addresses the topic of whether or not to capitalize the first letter after a colon (either way is correct) and mentions some common incorrect colon usage.
This same site also has MLA bibliography information. Here is a link to the EasyBib site we talked about in class. I highly recommend that you allow your student to work through the process with you as much as is appropriate for their age/skill level. Afterwards, you can plug it into EasyBib to double check. Please let me know if you need any help with this. remember, no crying in Essentials!
If your student is first year, please do not allow these details to take the joy out of this fun assignment. I am concerned that for some, the topics we covered in class this week may overwhelm them. They do not need to use colons or semi-colons in each paragraph unless they find it fun. These punctuation rules are to stretch the skill level of the second and third tour students who are moving into Challenge not to frighten the first year students. However, it is a fun way to change up the sentence structures when they are ready.
Next week, bring your 3 rough draft body paragraphs and some ideas for introductory and concluding paragraphs. We will discuss how to make our reports first person and include some words from the time period to make it sound authentic! If you don't get all 3 done, bring what you have.
I still have not heard from some of you about a head count for dinner. We are trying to get food ordered next Tuesday evening so :) please, let me know as soon as you can. Also, if you have anything medieval-ish in your home that you would be willing to let us borrow for the evening, let me know: flameless candles, tapestries, fleur-de-lis decorations that might be appropriate, catapults or other presentation visuals from weeks past, ya know, that family suit of armor you keep for use when the castle gets attacked... hehehe, yep. They do exist in the closets of some of us!
Have a blessed week!
Melissa
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
IEW- Week 9
It was so wonderful to hear such fabulous reports! I just love the days when we can hear their papers in their own voice and see their eyes sparkle when they read something that they just know they wrote extra special! For me, this is the icing on the IEW cake. It is my fervent hope to have time next week to let the rest of the classes read their papers.
Yea!- we kicked off our Faces of History report. Hopefully, the extra handout packet will help you walk through the process at home. Please feel free to shoot me an email about anything that puts a hitch in things. Time in class is so short and there are always more questions than we have time to get to.
This report is a culmination of everything that we have done in class so far with an added twist. When the paper itself is written, we will use it as the basis for a first person monologue. Ideally the graduating students will be so familiar with their own work that they only need keyword notes on note cards to present it. Of course this is way too high of an expectation for the younger and more shy students so don't let this scare you or them! It goes back to the one room school house idea of letting the younger children see what the bigger kiddos can do and be inspired to work towards those goals. As I said in class, we will work on this together on week 11 and 12. I know that for many adults the greatest fear is public speaking so please, please, please communicate with me about this if you have any hesitation or concern. My heart is to inspire each student to be all that they can be and not for one second allow anyone to become fearful or intimidated. I do not ever want my own enthusiasm to become something that brings stress to the tender-hearted students that I so dearly treasure!
So, what to do this week? Nail down your topic if you haven't already and then narrow that down to 3 specific aspects of that topic so that you can then build 3 body paragraphs around those aspects. Begin your research and work on those KWO/Fused outlines. If at all possible, I would love for everyone to bring in at least one rough draft paragraph next week so that we can spend some class time working on dress-ups and sentence openers. Also, if everyone has their bibliography information with them, we can work on that too. Because the bib. info. is not given to you in an easy to use format like it was for the Knights report it may be more difficult to sort and use so I would love to be able to work together on it.
Here is a thumbnail of my intended class time for the next 3 weeks:
Week 10- work on adding dress-ups and sentence openers on our rough draft body paragraphs and begin working on our bibliographies BRING: AT LEAST ONE ROUGH DRAFT PARAGRAPH AND AS MANY REFERENCES AS YOU HAVE
Week 11- work on turning our research paper into a first person oral report and talk about creative/dramatic introductions and conclusions BRING: YOUR ROUGH DRAFT PAPER WITH INTRO/CONCLUSION IDEAS
Week 12- work on public speaking skills and practice reading our papers with dramatic flair BRING: YOUR FINISHED REPORT (You are still free to make adjustments if you would like to.)
Thursday November 21: If at all possible, I would love to have a dress rehearsal with the students at 2:00 at Christ Community. Dinner will begin at 6:00 :) We need a head count ASAP so we can make arrangements for food. A family meal that serves 4-6 depending on your appetite will be $10. The menu includes rustic bread, roasted chicken, vegetables, and dessert.
Don't forget to think about costume ideas!
Here's the list of chosen topics:
Andrew: The Bard
Sydney: Robin Hood and Maid Marian
Jessica: Queen Elizabeth I
Zoe Zielny: Feudalism ?
Rachel: Catherine of Aragon
Abbey Stewart: Isabella of Spain or Eleanor of Aquitaine
Will: Charlemagne ?
Luke: Castles
Ginny: Genghis khan
Abigail: Elizabeth Woodvill
Jennings: Medieval fashion
Sarah mackenzie: Medieval Entertainment
Mary Blake: Architecture
Grace: Marco Polo
Abby Stegall: Shakespeare
Hannah: Napoleon Bonaparte
Jeremy: the Hundreds Year War
Jacob: Medieval Food
We ended up with many personal letters to go into our Indonesia care package and we raised $61! What isn't needed to mail this package will be set aside for the next one. It will be so exciting to get a response from around the world! Click here to read the latest update from their blog. Do be sensitive in leaving comments as we mentioned in class.
See you next week, can you believe we are nearing the end of our first semester together?
Melissa
Yea!- we kicked off our Faces of History report. Hopefully, the extra handout packet will help you walk through the process at home. Please feel free to shoot me an email about anything that puts a hitch in things. Time in class is so short and there are always more questions than we have time to get to.
This report is a culmination of everything that we have done in class so far with an added twist. When the paper itself is written, we will use it as the basis for a first person monologue. Ideally the graduating students will be so familiar with their own work that they only need keyword notes on note cards to present it. Of course this is way too high of an expectation for the younger and more shy students so don't let this scare you or them! It goes back to the one room school house idea of letting the younger children see what the bigger kiddos can do and be inspired to work towards those goals. As I said in class, we will work on this together on week 11 and 12. I know that for many adults the greatest fear is public speaking so please, please, please communicate with me about this if you have any hesitation or concern. My heart is to inspire each student to be all that they can be and not for one second allow anyone to become fearful or intimidated. I do not ever want my own enthusiasm to become something that brings stress to the tender-hearted students that I so dearly treasure!
So, what to do this week? Nail down your topic if you haven't already and then narrow that down to 3 specific aspects of that topic so that you can then build 3 body paragraphs around those aspects. Begin your research and work on those KWO/Fused outlines. If at all possible, I would love for everyone to bring in at least one rough draft paragraph next week so that we can spend some class time working on dress-ups and sentence openers. Also, if everyone has their bibliography information with them, we can work on that too. Because the bib. info. is not given to you in an easy to use format like it was for the Knights report it may be more difficult to sort and use so I would love to be able to work together on it.
Here is a thumbnail of my intended class time for the next 3 weeks:
Week 10- work on adding dress-ups and sentence openers on our rough draft body paragraphs and begin working on our bibliographies BRING: AT LEAST ONE ROUGH DRAFT PARAGRAPH AND AS MANY REFERENCES AS YOU HAVE
Week 11- work on turning our research paper into a first person oral report and talk about creative/dramatic introductions and conclusions BRING: YOUR ROUGH DRAFT PAPER WITH INTRO/CONCLUSION IDEAS
Week 12- work on public speaking skills and practice reading our papers with dramatic flair BRING: YOUR FINISHED REPORT (You are still free to make adjustments if you would like to.)
Thursday November 21: If at all possible, I would love to have a dress rehearsal with the students at 2:00 at Christ Community. Dinner will begin at 6:00 :) We need a head count ASAP so we can make arrangements for food. A family meal that serves 4-6 depending on your appetite will be $10. The menu includes rustic bread, roasted chicken, vegetables, and dessert.
Don't forget to think about costume ideas!
Here's the list of chosen topics:
Andrew: The Bard
Sydney: Robin Hood and Maid Marian
Jessica: Queen Elizabeth I
Zoe Zielny: Feudalism ?
Rachel: Catherine of Aragon
Abbey Stewart: Isabella of Spain or Eleanor of Aquitaine
Will: Charlemagne ?
Luke: Castles
Ginny: Genghis khan
Abigail: Elizabeth Woodvill
Jennings: Medieval fashion
Sarah mackenzie: Medieval Entertainment
Mary Blake: Architecture
Grace: Marco Polo
Abby Stegall: Shakespeare
Hannah: Napoleon Bonaparte
Jeremy: the Hundreds Year War
Jacob: Medieval Food
We ended up with many personal letters to go into our Indonesia care package and we raised $61! What isn't needed to mail this package will be set aside for the next one. It will be so exciting to get a response from around the world! Click here to read the latest update from their blog. Do be sensitive in leaving comments as we mentioned in class.
See you next week, can you believe we are nearing the end of our first semester together?
Melissa
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
IEW -Week 8
Sorry this post is a bit late. We had some family needs to tend to but I didn't forget about you!
We certainly got a lot done in class this week!
Let's start with the important things first:
*PAPER DUE NEXT WEEK: introductory paragraph, 3 body paragraphs on 3 topics (A is on Duties/Purposes of a Knight, B and C are student choice), conclusion paragraph and be sure to include a bibliography!
This paper encompasses everything we've learned in lessons #10-13. In class I only briefly mentioned lesson #13 (how to do a bibliography). If it's been awhile since you've done one, it's clearly shown in a labeled example on p. 89. Each of the source texts include fictional bibliographic information for them to use. Please email me with any questions and I will be happy to walk you through it!
A few extra tidbits of import:
Yea! We got our class letters to Indonesia written and I was absolutely thrilled by the wonderful thoughts that went into them! A multitude of thanks to the moms who took pictures. If you will please email them to me, I will put them with the appropriate letters. The moms in the first class talked it over and we think that printing the letters out so that the students can sign them next week will still allow us the time we need to get the package in the mail in time for Christmas.
So, you can still write personal letters and contribute money. We accumulated $12.45, not bad! That's almost half-way to the $30 VCR sized box and we have several people that wanted to donate. Remember, 4 marbles for any letters and 4 marbles for any donation! ;)
Speaking of marbles, we're nearly there and we want to get our party in soon so I'll be giving marbles away left and right..... hmmmmm, how about 2 marbles for every paper turned in with a picture on it? They still get 1 marble each for turning in a paper and for saying the admission ticket.
Lesson #13- p. 90 has a grammar practice exercise about semicolons. This is certainly not a requirement but if you feel the need for extra help it's there.
If you would, leave a comment on the blog with their FOH paper topic. I would like to formally announce it next week so that we can make sure that we have as little overlap as possible.
It's easy to leave a comment and it keeps it all in one place. Just click on the heading of the subscription email and it will take you to the actual blog post. Then, click on "leave a comment." You can leave it anonymously (with your name signed in the comment box) if you don't have a google account.
To review what we did in class:
Lesson #12 is all about taking the 3 paragraphs that you've already written and adding an introductory paragraph at the beginning and a conclusion paragraph at the end. We dissected what each one looks like and talked through the mirror imaging of it all. The book gives some really good instruction (pp. 82-83) on this if you are a bit lost but as always, I really am here to help so please don't shy away from asking.
Don't forget to put it in MLA format and to check off the Final Checklist and label in the margins!
I've really enjoyed reading everyone's papers. This is a talented group with lots of style. Their papers have made me laugh, look up words on the internet, and shake my head in amusement at their word choices (primarily the boys - blood and guts everywhere! Girls are very "frilly" even when writing about war!).
These children are a joy and a blessing. Thank you for allowing me the privilege of being a part of their Tuesday afternoons!
Have a great week,
Melissa
We certainly got a lot done in class this week!
Let's start with the important things first:
*PAPER DUE NEXT WEEK: introductory paragraph, 3 body paragraphs on 3 topics (A is on Duties/Purposes of a Knight, B and C are student choice), conclusion paragraph and be sure to include a bibliography!
This paper encompasses everything we've learned in lessons #10-13. In class I only briefly mentioned lesson #13 (how to do a bibliography). If it's been awhile since you've done one, it's clearly shown in a labeled example on p. 89. Each of the source texts include fictional bibliographic information for them to use. Please email me with any questions and I will be happy to walk you through it!
A few extra tidbits of import:
Yea! We got our class letters to Indonesia written and I was absolutely thrilled by the wonderful thoughts that went into them! A multitude of thanks to the moms who took pictures. If you will please email them to me, I will put them with the appropriate letters. The moms in the first class talked it over and we think that printing the letters out so that the students can sign them next week will still allow us the time we need to get the package in the mail in time for Christmas.
So, you can still write personal letters and contribute money. We accumulated $12.45, not bad! That's almost half-way to the $30 VCR sized box and we have several people that wanted to donate. Remember, 4 marbles for any letters and 4 marbles for any donation! ;)
Speaking of marbles, we're nearly there and we want to get our party in soon so I'll be giving marbles away left and right..... hmmmmm, how about 2 marbles for every paper turned in with a picture on it? They still get 1 marble each for turning in a paper and for saying the admission ticket.
Lesson #13- p. 90 has a grammar practice exercise about semicolons. This is certainly not a requirement but if you feel the need for extra help it's there.
If you would, leave a comment on the blog with their FOH paper topic. I would like to formally announce it next week so that we can make sure that we have as little overlap as possible.
It's easy to leave a comment and it keeps it all in one place. Just click on the heading of the subscription email and it will take you to the actual blog post. Then, click on "leave a comment." You can leave it anonymously (with your name signed in the comment box) if you don't have a google account.
To review what we did in class:
Lesson #12 is all about taking the 3 paragraphs that you've already written and adding an introductory paragraph at the beginning and a conclusion paragraph at the end. We dissected what each one looks like and talked through the mirror imaging of it all. The book gives some really good instruction (pp. 82-83) on this if you are a bit lost but as always, I really am here to help so please don't shy away from asking.
Don't forget to put it in MLA format and to check off the Final Checklist and label in the margins!
I've really enjoyed reading everyone's papers. This is a talented group with lots of style. Their papers have made me laugh, look up words on the internet, and shake my head in amusement at their word choices (primarily the boys - blood and guts everywhere! Girls are very "frilly" even when writing about war!).
These children are a joy and a blessing. Thank you for allowing me the privilege of being a part of their Tuesday afternoons!
Have a great week,
Melissa
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