12/9

SCIENCE:
Hudson opened the class in prayer this morning. I read a devotional about the greatness of the oceans (about 332,519,000 cubic miles of water) and the even greater-ness of our God. He holds the entire ocean in the palm of his hand! We reviewed our reading this week about Oceans and students who contributed to the review were given a seashell (fitting, right?). Next we made playdough balls to represent the world. We poked a hole in the top and bottom to reprecent the poles and then took a string to cut it at the equator forming the northern and southern hemisphere. We remembered how the currents move in different directions in each hemisphere so practiced moving the pieces clockwise for the northern hemisphere and counterclockwise for the southern hemisphere. Then we got out of our seats to form a giant circle and moved in the direction of the currents as I called out "Northern Hemisphere" or "Southern Hemisphere". The students had some serious ocean dance moves :) Our good friend Doug (Mystery Science) taught us about the depths of the ocean and its saltiness to finish our exploration of the ocean. Lastly, we sang our new Christmas memory verse and headed out to recess.

GEOGRAPHY:

Today, the students became the teachers. They have spent the last few weeks (as you know) becoming experts on their own country and today was the day they shared their wealth of knowledge. We jumped right into our country presentations today and it near knocked my socks off! The students had pieced together beautiful posters, well-rehearsed speeches, delicious delicaces (everything from croissants to sardines) , and even some cultural costumes and props. It was a room full of all things European and we were blessed to bask in it for our class today. What a treat! For homework this week the students will reflect (through words or pictures or both) on two of the presentations they saw today.

IEW:

I spent today in one-on-ones with the students who have completed rough drafts for Damocles. I returned the proofread sections I and II and then we read through their section III together. This will allow the students to complete their final draft for next week and enjoy Christmas Break without IEW homework - yay! It is not often we get this one-on-one time in class and I really enjoyed being able to talk with them directly to offer feedback and answer questions! Meanwhile, the table teams matched their vocabulary cards for Lessons 1-6 and then played "Memory" to see if they could find the right pairs.

We missed you Jessie!