Important Dates:
9/21 – Picture Day!9/21 – Falcon Moms Meet-up @ Taco Kitchen – 9-10 am
9/25 – Fortis Lap-a-thon 9:30am – 11:30pm (https://fortisacademy.net/fortis-lap-a-thon/)
9/30 – Spirit Day/Watch D.O.G.S./Pizza Lunch
10/01 – End of the First Quarter
Monday (9/20):
Your homework today is to go to the local library, get a card if you don't have one and become good friends with the Children's Librarian. Talk to the Librarian about how to figure out suitable books for your student's reading level and let your student pick out as many books as they want (5-10 is a good start). I want students to pick books that are easy for them to read and are interesting to them. The subject is not important. If your student likes Captain Underpants or My Little Pony, let them read a billion of these books. If your student likes factual books on animals or weather or space, let them pick out books like this, but at or near their reading level. Sometimes factual books are harder, but if they are motivated to read a book, they will figure it out. I want students reading all the time. You can have them sit and read silently, or read aloud to you or have them tell you about the book after they read it, whatever works for you and them. Read the library books today and throughout the week. If there's free time or you feel they don't have enough to do, have them read a book. I want them in the habit of reaching for the book they're reading when they finish a task. They can bring the book they're reading to school.
Bible:
We're currently reading stories from the Children's Bible and discussing. When you read them at home, you can read it to your student or have them read portions aloud if they want. You can ask them questions about the reading if you like (e.g., "Who was the main character?" "What did God want them to do?" "Why?"). Essentially whatever you think would be interesting to talk about - I want students to learn to be comfortable asking questions about the Bible and thinking about the ideas and talking about them. Sometimes we may not know the answers to their questions, but we can model what to do in that situation (look it up, ask someone we trust, be patient with not knowing all the answers but look forward to asking God in person one day!). In school, we will also be practicing memorizing the books of the Bible, so you can go through them at home as well as time permits. I hope to also continue sword drills (where they try to find a verse in the Bible quickly), but we will take a break this week until I figure out how to not have your students carrying TWO Bibles to and from school :-/
Math:
Spelling:
Spelling words this week practice spelling words with single and double consonants. The rule of thumb to use is that double consonants usually follow short-vowel sounds. (Note: Number words do their own thing. English is weird.) Review what letters in the alphabet are vowels, what long and short vowel sounds are and practice saying the spelling words aloud to hear the individual letter sounds. Practice noticing if a vowel is short or long and guessing if the consonant is single or double. When writing spelling words 3x in copybook, emphasize neatness.
banner
hundred
fame
later
seven
hammer
twelve
barrel
dollar
letters
silent
wild
until
bottles
pineapples
film
gallon
traffic
eleven
In Math, the main focus will be on learning to copy work onto sheets of paper neatly. This is very important as it will help them learn how to be organized in their thinking, as well as work on correcting sloppy habits and mistakes in work. Putting in the hard work now will pay off later. The second page of each of your lessons (Les. 3 & 5) practices adding coins. You can use coins you have around, pretend play coins or pictures from the internet, but I suggest you skip it if it is proving frustrating. The first page of the lesson is sufficient for now, and I will be practicing adding coins in class. Additionally, the primary math goal for now is mastery of addition and subtraction facts. If you have flashcards, spend a few minutes drilling addition and subtractions facts daily. Students are working to know, without having to pause to think, what the sum and difference are for numbers 1-20.
Spelling:
Spelling words this week practice spelling words with single and double consonants. The rule of thumb to use is that double consonants usually follow short-vowel sounds. (Note: Number words do their own thing. English is weird.) Review what letters in the alphabet are vowels, what long and short vowel sounds are and practice saying the spelling words aloud to hear the individual letter sounds. Practice noticing if a vowel is short or long and guessing if the consonant is single or double. When writing spelling words 3x in copybook, emphasize neatness.
banner
hundred
fame
later
seven
hammer
twelve
barrel
dollar
letters
silent
wild
until
bottles
pineapples
film
gallon
traffic
eleven
Latin:
Latin is new. Let students be proud to "teach" you Latin. They will be learning vocabulary and some rules of grammar. After the vocabulary words here, I have listed the derivatives the book gives, as well as some extras for discussion. Start seeing if you can notice derivatives from our Latin vocabulary in reading or in life and point them out. You will make it a regular habit that your student will emulate to notice Latin roots in English words. They might even start to be able to guess what the English word could mean by looking at the Latin root. When writing Latin vocabulary (and English definitions) 2x in copybook, emphasize neatness.
amo - I love, like
laboro - I work
laudo - I praise
oro - I beg, pray
voco - I call
Derivatives: amateur, amorous, laboratory, laud, laudable, orator, oratory, vocal, vocation
What to bring to school:
-Exploring Arithmetic 3
-Spelling Workout D
-Latina Christiana
-Merriam-Webster's Dictionary for Children
-The World of Mammals (we're not starting this book till next week, so it can stay home this week)
-The Golden Children's Bible (this is big, so if carrying it around becomes a burden, we might have you keep them at home and just listen to me read aloud at school - we'll play it by ear)
-Copybooks (we'll start with three of them this week, one for Spelling, one for Latin and one for Reading and maybe add one for Science, we'll see)
-A folder with wide ruled lined paper for class use (primarily for Math)
Empty Sections and Giving Feedback:
You will notice some missing subjects. It will take us a few weeks to transition into the new way of doing things. I don't want to rush, and I want to see how things are going and then add from there. Please stay in communication with me about any questions you may have. If you don't understand a math lesson, email me. If you don't know if you're "doing it right", whatever "it" may be, email me. If you think we're not doing enough, email me. If you think this is too weird, email me. If you think this is great and things are going well, email me. I appreciate and respect your feedback, and what you tell me about how things are going at home will give me valuable input as we head forward.
Thank you again for your patience and courage and support!
Mrs. Chien
