Week 11 :: EXAM WEEK!

This week we worked hard on exams for our first term of school. The children were asked to do reviews in math, recall stories they read weeks ago, recite poems and explain their natural history topics. It's been a good week overall, giving us all feedback on what we need to focus better on, and also what each strength is. Below you will a narration they each gave in their different subjects.

Eli:

Math
This week I did an exam for school. On my math I did patterns, even and odd numbers and did mental math for 42+10, 2+7 and other problems. 

LA 

Hansel and Gretel

Hansel and Gretel’s stepmom was a mean stepmom and they only had one loaf of bread and the mom and dad gave them each one piece to eat. The mom said we should send the kids into the forest so we won’t have to deal with them but the dad was nice and didn’t think they should do that. But the mom went into the forest with them and left them and lied about going to chop wood. But before they went into the forest Gretel cried about sending them into the forest and Hansel came outside and pockets full of pebbles. On the way into the forest he said he was looking back at his bird on top of the house and he kept making a trail of pebbles. Once they got far into the forest and the parents didn’t think they could make their way out they stopped and made a fire for Hansel and Gretel. When they were about to go to sleep Hansel told Gretel that he made a trail so they could make their way back home. The next morning they followed the trail back and found home. The next day the parents lead them farther into the woods. Hansel was crumbling up his bread to make a trail of bread. The parents tried to leave them again. The next morning the bread was gone because the birds ate it. They found a tiny home made of candy so they snacked on it. There was a witch inside and she said, “Who is nibbling on my house?” And the old lady walked out and they saw her and she said, “Would you like to come in and eat?” She made them a bed and told them to go to sleep. The witch carried Hansel to the barn and shut him in and told Gretel that he could yell as much as he wanted. And every morning she fed him lots of food to get him fat so she could eat him and every time she fed him food he would push out a dog bone so she would think he was skinny, and she wondered how he was still really skinny. Then Gretel rescued him and they the witch opened up the tiny door of the oven and stuck her head in and they pushed her all the way in and locked her in. Then they collected a lot of jewels and Hansel filled his pockets full of them and made a trail so they could go back another. And they were rich. 

Science

Tommy Smith’s Animals

Tommy met a rook. Tommy used throw rocks at rooks so the rook talked to him. The rook told Tommy not to throw rocks at rooks because they are really useful to farmers. They eat little critters that kill the crops and eat the lettuce. They also eat a little of the farmers corn.

Tech
I made a ball track with my KEVA blocks this week.

Piano
I had my recital this week! I played two duets with my teacher: School Bells and Jingle Bells.


Kai:

Math
When explaining 2 ways to solve 39+41:
1. First add 9+1=10. Then add 40+30=70. 70+10= 80
2. first add 9+1=10. Add that to 30, =40. Then, 40+40=80.

LA

Odysseus and the Enchantress

Odysseus and his crew came upon an island. No one was at the shore and they got onto the shore. Odysseus climbed the tallest hill he could find. He couldn’t see any farms or towns, just a tiny stream of smoke from the woods. Odysseus came back down and told his crew that they needed to go see what it was. When the crew found it some tigers came up to them and leaned against their legs like a house cat. They saw a lady making a loom blanket. They called her to come and she bid them into her house, except one. He stayed behind and watched through a window. He saw her give them wine. When they were drunk he saw the lady take a stick and tap them each on the forehead and they turned into pigs. She put them into a pig corral. The guy ran back to Odysseus crying and told him what happened. Odysseus said they need to go and help but no one would go with him. He went alone and on his way and the messenger of the gods met him them and gave him a flower and told Odysseus that the flower couldn’t be picked by any mortal and told him to keep it. Then he told him that when he came to the Enchantresses house she would give him wine to make him drunk and then would tap him with her wand to make him a pig and put him in the corral. Then he would jump out at her and take her sword and pretend to stab her in the chest. She would duck and beg him to be her friend. The messenger told him to make her swear that she would never ever do the spell on any of the men of his crew and told her to release his other men from the spell. So Odysseus did these things and she did everything that the messenger said she would do. After the Enchantress set the men free she fed the whole crew. They stayed for a whole year. Then his crew asked if they could go home. And they went to the Land of the Dead.

Recitation of "Welcome"

Science

Seed boxes are seed pods for plants. A dandelion, when it dies, it lets its seed boxes fly away. Other plants’ seed boxes have the seeds grab onto animals and humans and drop when it is ready. Some seeds fall from trees and get eaten by small animals. Some get buried and sometimes the animals will dig them back up to eat them, but some animals forget about them and the seed grows. 

Tech
We didn't have tech class this week because of exam week. Our brains were fried! However, we did build some awesome stuff with KEVA blocks this week. This is a sand quarry that I made:

Orchestra

Mozart’s 1^st movement of Eine Kleine Nachtmusik

I like that it goes loud in the very beginning, but then really quiet and then really loud again. Back and forth. Up and down. He just likes to do all kinds of music and this one is super jumpy. When I listen to it I first here mostly violins and violas in the beginning and the cellos and basses come in. So when it is louder I here mostly violins, but then when it is softer I can hear more basses and cellos

Emmie:

Math
I did a math review this week. I had to find the area of a triangle, some add shapes and define many other shapes.

LA 

Aristaeus, The Beekeeper

Aristaeus lost his bees. When he went to his mom, who’s a nymph, she was a little mad at first, but then she told him that to get back his bees back he should go to a sorcerer who is under the sea and Aristaeus would have to capture him with a rope. The sorcerer would turn into fire, then a flood, then a great beast and then back to the sorcerer. Then we would ask Aristaeus what he wants, and that’s when he would need to ask for his bees back. So he did those things and the sorcerer asked him what he wants. Aristaeus told him he wants his bees back and the sorcerer said that to get your bees back Aristaeus has to kill a deer and put it by a waterfall and then he would find his bees there the next day. So Aristaeus did this and it worked. 

Science

Some plants are pollinated by the wind. But normally when it is pollinated by the wind the pistol is really far out of the flower. That way the wind can get to it and hopefully blow it to another of the same flower. Or it can be pollinated by insects, like bees, and midge flies (a pollinator for cocoa trees), butterflies and wasps. There is a type of wasp the pollinate figs. It lays its eggs inside the fig flower. And when the eggs hatch and the baby bees come out they carry the pollen out with them. Butterflies drink the nectar and the pollen gets stuck on them. Fruit bats pollinate mango trees. Spider monkeys stick their faces into large flowers to eat the insects that live inside and when they do that the pollen will get stuck on their face and when they go to eat the insects of another flower they pollinate it. It’s a symbiotic relationship because they are getting their meal and at the same time they are pollinating the large plant. 

Tech
I didn't have tech this week, because of our exam week.

Orchestra

Thoughts on Eine Kleine Nachtmusik by Mozart, comparing movements 1 and 2

The first movement is kind of wild and all over the place. The second movement is a lot smoother. It reminds me of a stream, a super smooth stream. They sound like completely different songs that wouldn’t belong in the same group together. The second movement is quiet, while the first one is very loud. Although the second movement does get louder.