2/17

SCIENCE:

Today, Sera opened our day with a beautiful prayer. We crowned Diego for his birthday and Bryson led us in a "Happy Birthday" song. After a few deep breaths, we reflected on what makes up the air breath. Some students were surprised to hear that it is primarily (78%) nitrogen, even though we don’t absorb the nitrogen by breathing. Only 21% of our homosphere is oxygen. We discussed the meaning of “homo” (same) and “hetero” (different) and reviewed the different layers of the heterosphere. After a short AumSum video to go a bit deeper into the role of nitrogen in our atmosphere, we created a pie chart using a paper plate as a model of the composition of the homosphere.

GEOGRAPHY:

After the flag salute, Sera read a clue card that led us to Europe. We watched an intro video from Destination World to get a feel for the continent of Africa while I passed out our new African countries for our country project. We reviewed some of the physical features of Africa including the surrounding waters, Sahara Desert, Kalahari Desert, Nile River, and Atlas Mountains. We spent the rest of the time time painting and labeling its physical map using our watercolors again.

IEW:

The memory verse song kickd off our IEW time. We spent a moment digging into the verse a little bit as we reflected on ways the students have been or could be an example to believers. They had great ideas! I selected Lily R. and Hudson to read their rough draft for “Busy Beavers” from last week as they served as fine examples! Kaden, Lily F., Nixon, and Erin volunteered read their rough draft of “Tasty Nest” that we turned in today. They all did a wonderful job. We are continuing in our practice of writing summaries. Each week we are using a new resource for the summary. These first three are used as rough drafts. I will give feedback and attach a checklist so the students can see more clearly what elements they are missing. However, there will be no official score. Next week we will read the resource “Army Ants” for our first final draft, which I will score and not give grammatical feedback on. The students worked in table teams today on their KWO for “Honeybees”. They will use this for their rough draft summary this week. You can encourage them to try using their outline orally to retell the information before trying to write the summary. Often this helps them make sure their outline works as well as come up with the words to truly make it their own. Bees are certainly fascinating insects! Those completing the homework drafts are growing SO MUCH...I am excited to read their new drafts! We finsihed our time together celebrating Diego's birthday with some delicious cupcakes :)

*Note: Many students were missing a supply or two today. Please review the supply list with your student to help make sure they are prepared. THANK YOU!