Fourth Six Weeks Report
November 27 - December 19, 1995
End of Fourth Grade
Art: A few pages in Cartooning Machines, made a silhouette of himself for a Christmas present, traced characters from Calvin and Hobbes comic book. Piano: Working toward page 30, played a couple of melodies by ear.
Math: Borrowing with uncommon denominators, multiplying fraction and mixed numbers using cancellation, decimals as fractions, metric liquid measures, solving equations, geometry definitions (e.g., ray, congruent angles, perpendicular and parallel lines), geometric shapes (e.g., rhombus, trapezoid).
Building solids with various shaped DIME blocks (Development of Ideas in Mathematical Education) to match diagrams in DIME Build Up, Book 1. Multiplication and division flash cards. After the concepts of perimeter and area, T___ will be in the fifth grade of math.
Science: Put up outside Christmas lights, made paper airplane from assembly kit. Nature/Bible Study: Thinking creatively when faced with overwhelming odds: eastern hognose snake (playing dead), David (acting insane); expending whatever energy is necessary to complete a project: king salmon (determination to return to spawning ground), Jehoash (counterexample); providing specific areas for different functions (orderliness): chipmunk, Joseph; decisiveness: badger, Ruth.
English: (pages 203-238, 257-278) Adverbs (also pp. 182, 185 in Seventh Grade Super Workbook), prepositions, conjunctions, interjections, distinguishing parts of speech, and diagramming sentences, using words correctly (e.g., lie and lay; their, there, and they're; subject and verb agreement; never use "off of"). T___ finished fourth grade English.
From English from the Roots Up, "phone" and "mikros."
Saw "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat," "The Gift of the Magi," and "The Last Leaf" at community theaters.
Reading: Car magazines and books, Clue books, God's World Today news magazine (middle-school-age level, I read some of it to him), finished The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, by Avi, The Diary of a Church Mouse, by Graham Oakley (32 pp.), The Life and Times of the Honeybee, by Charles Micucci (32 pp.), A Dangerous Game, by Jeri Massi, The Mice of the Herring Bone and The Mice of the Nine Lives, by Tim Davis, Investigating Mysteries (three short stories from Scholastic, 56 pp.) Story time: Beverly Cleary - My Own Two Feet: A Memoir, Ramona and Her Mother, by Beverly Cleary, The Librarian Who Measured the Earth (Eratosthenes), by Kathryn Lasky (48 pp.), half of Dear Mr. Henshaw, by Cleary (depressing), Things Change, by Troy Aikman, The Story of Ruby Bridges (girl in just-desegregated schools), by Robert Coles, illustrated by George Ford.
Writing: A story about when it snowed, agenda for B.I.A. meeting (Bear Intelligence Agency), "Albert's Day," "Drag Racing by Albert's House," a constitution for home and school (unratified), stories on the computer. Practice on lower-case f. Spelling Units 11 and 12, review of Units 1-10 rules, and final "j" sound (-age and -dge); car-related words and words in original papers.
History: (pages 210-234, 268-296) The world wars; finished the Civil War; new frontiers; revivals the last half of nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth; acted out "George Washington Carver: the Scientist Who Saved the South," from Famous Americans, 22 short plays for the classroom; American History Brain Quest, modern-times and geography section. Learning capitals of the states playing "It's a Capital Game" (one-liner puns with cartoon on flash cards) and the Presidents from Yo, Millard Fillmore! (ten so far). Set up dome tent and read Powwow, by George Ancona (48 pp.), and listened to audio book The Education of Little Tree, by Forrest Carter.
Spanish: Numbers to 100 using "Triple Play Plus" computer program.
SWDHSA Activities Day: P.E., pencil sketching, and outer space, 9:00-12:00 every other Monday, semester ended in December.
Royal Rangers: Working on Powder Horn gold-track rating and Amateur Radio and Reading merits.
Cooking: Biscuit tamale pie.
Holidays: The week before Christmas till January 2.
Extra comments: We are grouping subjects together and letting art and music be up to T___. We start the day by praying that we'll spend time on what we're supposed to (Psalm 90:12,14,17).
Grades: Math A, Spelling A, English A, Writing A, History A, Citizenship B+