WED AND THURS APRIL 2 &3

SCIENCE K - we reviewed all the parts of Ella's model farm. we talked about caring for crops and planted some corn and peas in my yard. if Nadia and Quinn's corn plants sprout in the baggies, you can plant those too. we made scarecrows and corn chips (turned out really bland, but they had fun making them). THEY NEED THE NEXT UNIT HANDOUTS FOR NEXT THURS.

SCIENCE 2 - reviewed plant parts, flower parts and pollination. we learned about how seeds get dispersed (wind, water, people, animals, gravity) and did some experiments with different seed forms. they saw photos on-line of the whirly-gig seeds that come off of maple trees - i grew up with those and had forgotten about them. they thought those were really cool. we learned about the other ways plants reproduce - traveling vines (strawberries), tubers (potatoes) and bulbs (onion). we planted the tulips bulbs I had and cut apart an onion to see the sprout inside. we looked at my sweet potato which is growing like crazy. THEY NEED THE NEXT UNIT HANDOUTS FOR NEXT THURS.

HISTORY 2 - took the unit assessment and aced it. we learned about King Lalibela of Ethiopia (the only Christian country in Africa) and how he built these churches carved out of single boulders. really amazing. no one knows how they were built.
THEY NEED THE NEXT UNIT HANDOUTS FOR NEXT WEEK. NEXT WEEK, we'll do Unit 13 Lesson 2 (on our own before Wed.), Unit 13Lesson 3 (Rachelle on Wed) and Unit 13 Lesson4 (Suzy on Fri.)

WRITING 2- worked on the next section of their stories. talked about keeping to the story line and how to work funny parts into the story (and not go off in some crazy direction for no reason :)). the stories are taking shape and they have very good ideas. they are getting good at critiquing each other by asking the writer good questions to clarify the story. they are started to use the vocabulary I've given them and it's so cool. ("the reader would be confused because those new characters don't have names"), that sort of thing. I told them we would try to publish these in a student journal and if they aren't accepted we'll "publish" them on our own.

Rachelle