Week 7

Thank you all for making my birthday so much fun on Monday!  The flowers, balloons, and cards made me feel very special and loved.  :)  I enjoyed spending the day with each of you!  It's hard to believe we are a QUARTER of the way through Challenge B already!

DEVOTION:

Ms. Baughman led us in a devotion on meekness (Psalm 62:5).  Next week, Mr. Markel has sensitivity (Romans 12:15), and the week following, Ms. Thoma has self-control (Galatians 5:24-25).

Don't forget to pray for the request you picked up today!

LATIN:

We did a mini-review of lessons 1-7 in class (boys versus girls - everyone was quite enthusiastic, and we ended in a tie at the buzzer!).  I created a document loosely summarizing those lessons that I'll circulate via email.  This week we're on lesson 8 (adjectives of the 3rd declension).

Continue to practice vocabulary on Quizlet (there is a Mastery Review Vocabulary List for Units 1 and 2 on pages 91-98 in the purple book), and take a look at the lessons summary I email, too.

LTW:

Excellent job on your final essays for Little Britches!  Everyone followed the outline for Essay #4 well - I enjoyed hearing your exordiums, amplifications, strong verbs, and parallelism.  Students are starting to expand from the outline and include dress-ups and deeper context and background in their introductions and proofs.  You are all becoming excellent writers!  :)

After sharing papers, we passed out Kleenex and discussed Where the Red Fern Grows.  ;)  This week, you are to create your own issue and an ANI chart that has THIRTY (30) items in each column (Affirmative, Negative, and Interesting).  We discussed the importance of defining our terms and considered what questions might help us create issues and ideas for the ANI chart.  Some suggestions:

- Which characters are your favorites?
- What parts of the story stood out most to you?
- Would you have made any different choices than Billy?  

LOGIC:

We've finished Units 1 AND 2 in Logic - woo-hoo!  We began class with a quiz to draw the Square of Opposition, and everyone nailed it.  Great job studying this week!

We're on lessons 19-22 for one more week.  We're learning how to identify the premises (because, since, for, and given that) and conclusion (therefore, thus, so, and in conclusion), major, minor, and middle terms, the major and minor premises (MP and mP), mood, and figure - all to be able to write a categorical syllogism and schema.  Mr. McInturff prepared a detailed summary that he emailed to everyone - thank you, Mr. McInturff!  Appendix B in the back of your workbook also lists the 256 possible forms of syllogisms.

Continue to work on all the new vocabulary, as well as finishing the lessons and exercises.  

MATH:

For our lesson review, we discussed finding the area of rectangles by difference and the perimeter of odd-shapes, and calculating the mean, median, mode, and range of sets.  Ms. Thoma also shared a great problem with us - thank you!

Everyone improved on their multiplication drill - we even had a perfect score!  Keep practicing - your hard work is producing great results!  We also reviewed our Basic Math Facts, and everyone went home with a copy of the answers for that form.  Start studying those as well.

SCIENCE:

Nice job on your Faraday papers and demonstrations!  We had magnetized nails, electromagnetic cars, and spinning copper wires.  After lunch, we showed the Foundations kids our demonstrations and they were impressed!  I also demonstrated Faraday's Cage with some aluminum foil and a couple of cell phones.  

This week, we're researching Samuel Morse - inventor of the telegraph wire and Morse Code.  We watched video footage of Jeremiah Denton, Jr., a Vietnam POW who blinked out Morse Code with his eyes during a propaganda piece the North Vietnamese forced him to do - signaling to the US that he was being tortured (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgelmcOdS38).  There is an old TV movie detailing his experiences (he later became a US Senator from Alabama) - if you want to watch the film, you can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vh_4qUH6dHQ  (around minute 51, you can watch the Morse Code scenes).

Here are a few additional links on Morse:

http://www.history.com/news/six-things-you-may-not-know-about-samuel-morse

https://answersingenesis.org/creation-scientists/profiles/samuel-morse-the-artist-who-invented-the-morse-code/

And a few on Morse Code:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyr_C_us4vQ&feature=youtu.be 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsDk5_bktFo  (this is a longer, detailed training on how to space your dots and dahs and achieve the correct rhythm!).  :)

Students are writing a "brief" biography on Morse's life, focusing on his scientific endeavors, and they are to translate Morse's first telegraphic message ("What hath God wrought!") into Morse Code and be prepared to tap it out in class.  If anyone wants to try to rig a telegraph and bring it to class, that would be fun!  

I also let everyone know who their scientist is for the Shoebox Activity (see page 180 in the CH B guide) - you will need to bring your completed shoebox to class on October 31 (Week 10).

CURRENT EVENTS:

In class, students divided into two groups and outlined presentations on either side of the issue:  Should private gun ownership be restricted?  I had students argue the side they least agreed with - it was challenging but they did a great job.  We created an ANI chart from their collective arguments, then the students continued the discussion after their presentations, taking the side they actually agreed with.  It was fun to have time to talk through the issues and their arguments.  We'll continue with this format next week, in which students find one affirmative article and one negative article for our premise, and write a notecard for each article outlining three proofs, an exordium, and an amplification for each side.

Our premise this week is:  Should the federal government require GMO (genetically modified organisms) labeling?

Mrs. Thoma found a good video explaining GMOs: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rixyrCNVVGA

For class, make sure to bring:

- both articles and notecards (with exordium, 3 proofs, and amplification), and

- a relevant Bible verse on this topic.

On Monday, we will also begin discussing the issues surrounding women in the military for our premise next week: Whether the United States should add women to the draft?  

POSTREMO:

I'm looking forward to seeing you all at my house for movie night THIS SATURDAY, October 8, at 7:30 p.m.  We'll start the movie (Where the Red Fern Grows) around 8 pm.  Feel free to bring a treat to share.  Moms, you are welcome to stay if you need a good cry.  ;)

Also, Ms. Baughman is organizing a hike at Castle Wood Canyon on Friday, Oct. 14, at 10:00 a.m.  Pack a lunch and meet at the visitor center.  :)