History 5/6 links for Manifest Destiny

http://michaelporath.com/projects/manifest-destiny/
141 maps progressing from the original 13 states to the statehood of Hawaii in 1959. Shows both territories and states. It's a bit difficult to follow what changes from map to map, but it's still an impressive presentation.

http://www.pershingms.org/MTT/index.html
This is a very helpful website. I suggest following the tour (although a few of the links lead to nowhere…) The painting "American Progress" and the map (scroll down a little) are interesting conversation starters.

Miscellaneous links

How a canal lock works

The Mississippi River drainage basin

History 5/6 - Comic strip paper

You can print pages for your "Memorize the Presidents" comic strip at donnayoung.org.  This website has tons of free printables (some specifically for homeschooling), so it's worth checking out.

Botany 5/6 - Seed Dispersal videos

From the Discovery channel: Seed Dispersal

Here's another one.

Botany links - Pollination on YouTube

The beauty of pollination

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zy3r1zlC_IU

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=V5yya4elRLw

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UChNJGo83D8

Memorize the Presidents

There are songs, there are raps and then, there's a story…


Song…quite sedate.


This has additional information about most presidents.


We're working on the "President's Comic" based on a YouTube video I found, but I'm no longer posting the link here. Naturally, if students' creative genius takes them into a different way of memorizing the presidents, that's perfectly OK. This is what we have so far…

An alien named WAJ (George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson) comes out of his spaceship eating M&Ms (James Madison, James Monroe) and wearing a hat with the letter A (John Quincy Adams) on it. He is met by Michael JACKSON (Andrew Jackson), who invites him to go for a drive in his VAN (Martin VanBuren). 

Michael’s very HAIRY SON (William Henry Harrison) is with them. The TIRES (John Tyler) of the van are huge (picture monster truck wheels)...but as they’re driving, one gets POKED (James Polk) and gets a rip in it. They have to take it to a TAILOR (Zachary Taylor) who fixes it. Then they have to go to the gas station to FILL MORE air  in the tire (Millard Fillmore). We hope the tires will never get PIERCEd again (Franklin Pierce).

Then there’s a big celebration because the tire got fixed -- it’s like a 4th of July celebration and they shoot off the CANNON (James Buchanan) and along comes the parade, led by President ABRAHAM LINCOLN. After Lincoln, there’s JOHNSON (Andrew Johnson -- 2 of the 4 assassinated presidents were followed in office by a Johnson). Lincoln & Johnson go and write a GRANT (Ulysses S. Grant) to buy 19 bales of HAY (Rutherford B. Hayes, 19th president). While they’re writing the grant, GARFIELD the cat (James Garfield) is there to help.

They get the shipment of hay from King ARTHUR’s (Chester Arthur) Round Table and ask to have it shipped to CLEVELAND, Ohio (Grover Cleveland). But then Michael Jackson’s HAIRY SON (Benjamin Harrison) gets things mixed up and he sends it to CLEVELAND, Tennessee (Grover Cleveland served two terms not in a row) instead. People are so angry that the order got messed up that they banish everyone involved to the top of Alaska’s Mount McKINLEY (William McKinley). 

On the way up Mount McKinley, they see a whole bunch of Teddy Bear ROSES (Teddy Roosevelt). It’s really cold on the top of the mountain -- the wind is blowing such a DRAFT (William Taft) that they get the shaky shaky WILLIES (Woodrow Wilson) and they start to HARDEN (Warren Harding) into ice because they’re so COOL (Calvin Coolidge). They pull out their HOOVER (Herbert Hoover) vacuum cleaner to try to warm themselves up, but it doesn’t work, so they head back down the mountain, again passing the ROSE bush which now has pictures of Ben Franklin on it (Franklin D. Roosevelt) and is the biggest rose bush they've ever seen (FDR had the longest presidency).

History 5/6 links - 3 Branches of Federal Government; State & Federal Governments

Here's a diagram showing the three branches.  Important phrases to understand are "separation of powers" and "checks and balances."

Ben's guide has an explanation of this, starting here.

Wanna rap about it? You can!

Compare: state & federal powers

Limitations of state & federal powers

I've only skimmed a couple of the articles linked here, but About.com's quick study guides look helpful.

Botany Class - reproduction in Flowers

Simple animation of the process of pollination & seed development in flowers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMQtLWpAdXI

You think this was done by a homeschool family? Caution: name-calling/pre-school style potty talk at the end.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htMZYR1nCOQ

Botany Class Alert: Carnivorous plants videos (she said, hopefully)...

I'm gathering a few videos of carniverous plants and thought I'd post them here. We'll be watching a few in Botany on Monday.

Here you can watch a pitcher plant growing...the music makes it almost creepy.

This shows some of the plants in action.

This shows the partially digested bugs inside a pitcher plant.

As always, be careful what else your kids may see if they go on YouTube!!!

K-2 Art and Science

Hello moms,
   
     I hope your girls are enjoying their art and science classes  :)

    Each week in art class, we will be looking at 3 museum works of art and talking about the pictures and the artists. During the second part of the class we will work on art projects. During the music portion of the class, Jenny will be teaching a Bible verse set to music.  The girls have already done Beautifully, and Jenny has emailed you how you can take it a step further if you would like (if you'd like to play them on the piano, learn them with your family, sing them on the way to co-op?)

      In science, we will be exploring 30 different parts of science with "Miss Frizzle" on the PBS show "Magic School Bus." Then we will delve deeper into each area with books and worksheets.

     It would be helpful for each child to bring a pocket folder for each subject, with a pencil and pen in their backpack (or a little bag?)
   
      Looking forward to a great year,
                Cindy

History Grade 6 - Week of Sept. 16

Hello Happy Homeschoolers!

I hope the assignment sheet I handed to your students for History is clear. We already did the reading, map work, literature reading & timeline work for Lesson 6. All that's left for Lesson 6 is the creative writing activity.

Then, for each lesson, you'll see a checkbox for each activity that is assigned and an x for each activity that is not assigned. I thought this would be an easy way for them to visually see exactly what needs to be done for each lesson and if they're check-off-the-box types they can easily do that and see how quickly they make progress on their History lesson for each day.

If you have a question, please contact me -- you can click below to make a comment (It will either say No comments or ## Comments - just click there to comment). Blogger will then send me the comment and, when I answer it, you'll get an e-mail telling you my response. The advantage of this is that if I've been particularly confusing about something and you both have the same question, the second person to visit the blog will find the question and answer already there. (This may not be a big deal for this class, but for some of the bigger classes, this could save the teacher from sending out 5-6 answers to the same question.)

I'm looking forward to working with this group of students -- I really enjoyed the class yesterday!

Writing/Literature Grades 3/4

In this class we will be discussing the literature assigned each week, and using the handbook (Write on Track) to use and improve the students' writing skills. We will share about what the girls have written in their journals. Additional work will be assigned from the SkillsBook according to each girl's needs which will benefit her individually.

I have previously distributed the booklist and the assignment to accomplish before our first class. I will be emailing each of the moms with these handouts as an attachment which you can disregard if you still have yours.

It was made known to me that there are two editions of the handbook (Write on Track). I have already been working with the 1996 edition. I am sorry for the confusion this will cause if you have the newer version. Esther has both versions and compared them and says: "The two editions seem to vary mostly in layout, resulting in slight difference of page numbering -- they're mostly just a few pages off -- but occasionally they've taken a sub-section and completely relocated it." I do apologize for this. If you have trouble doing the homework for the first class, just do the best you can and the girls and I will inspect the books together on Monday. Each week when I give out the assignments I will make sure the girls all have the correct page numbers.

I am looking forward to meeting you and your daughters. May God bless you all!

In Him,
Jenny Zaloum

History Grades K-2

I am looking forward to teaching Ancient History to your girls this school year.  As I was looking through the curriculum I noticed that there is a lot you can do with the material.  I plan to do a combination of map work, narration/illustration, craft and game activities.  I found the narration and illustration book combo in Canada, therefore, you do not need to purchase them (hope you haven't already).  Since we will be doing several craft projects in class I will need a $15 supply fee for the full year. 

 

The 2013-2014 syllabus is complete and therefore, I will hand it to the kids on the first day of co-op.  The syllabus seems like a lot, but I may take away what is needed as we go along or if lacking time in the classroom.  

 

Yes, there will be homework due on the first day.  Intro. and Chapter 1 pgs.1-13 have to be read and Student Pages 1,2 have to be completed.  In class, we will do our first narration and map work.  The children will need crayons, pencils and their 1.5 in. binder.

 

I hope and pray that the class will be a fun and interactive learning experience for the girls.

 

Blessings,

Linda

History Grades 3/4

In preparation for the first day of Co op, would you please read (you may want to do this with your child in the beginning to be certain that she is comprehending the material) Christopher Colombus, pages 1-7, in the American Tales Reader. 

 

You do not need to do anything in the Activity Guide.  However, please have your child bring it to our first class.

Would you also please send her with a folder with pockets?  Thank you.

 

I'm looking forward to the 18th.


Maria Kriesel

Botany - Science 5/6

For Botany, the students need their Exploring Creation with Botany book and the corresponing Notebooking Journal.

Before the first day, please have your child read Lesson 1: page 1-5, 8-11.  You do not need to do the "Try This!" on page 9 or the "Paper Towel Activity" on page 10. 

 

Also, while reading, please open to page 14-15 in the Journal.  Have the student write down anything--that is anything-- that is interesting from the lesson.  If they want to draw, there is a space to do that as well.  Finally, please answer the Review questions on page 16 of the Journal.  They can write the answers right in the Journal.

 

Looking forward to the 18th.

Maria Kriesel

Writing/Literature - Grades 5-6

[Esther's Note: Hi all! I'm posting a couple of e-mails I've gotten about the classes, just to get more stuff posted so we can all begin to see how this blog might help us all out. Here's the info from Yami on the Grade 5/6 Writing & Literature class.]

Hello ladies and fellow students of this year’s 5/6 grades Literature/Writing class. My name is Yami Lasval and I will be your teacher along with Maria Kriesel.  

As you all know we will be using Write Source 2000 as our handbook and the following list of book titles, which we will be reading this year.  I have selected them in chronological order to coincide with your America the Beautiful History class in the hopes that you can more easily make timeline connections with one another. 

There will be comprehension questions for each of the books which will have to be emailed back to Mrs. Kriesel, at; mkriesel@optonline.net  each Friday by 3pm.  

I am looking forward to meeting each of you and I am ready to enjoy reading and writing along with you.

The Sing of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare

Amos Fortune, Free Man by Elizabeth Yates

Bound of Oregon by Jean Van Leeuwen

All – Of – A – Kind Family by Sydney Taylor

Blue Willow by Doris Gates

Homer Price by Robert McCloskey

Witch of Blackbird by Elizabeth George Speare

Your first week’s assignments will be to

1)   Read “Using the Handbook” page iii

2)   Complete the scavenger hunt that I will be emailing you. (at the moment my     scanner is not cooperating)

3)   Read the first six chapters of The Sign of the Beaver.

If you cannot complete the reading assignment for the first co-op class, don’t worry too much about it, we will make adjustments as needed.

I am also attaching the comprehension questions for The Sign of the Beaver. [Esther's note: check your e-mail for this file, I haven't figured out yet how to post this...]

I am exited about this school year and I look forward to working with all of you!

Test

Hi everybody,

This is just a test to see if this works. If it does, I'll post about my 3-4 grade Literature class early next week. Have a great weekend, everyone!

In Christ,
Jenny Zaloum

History: Grades 5-6

What students need to bring to class
Map book, timeline book, the week's assignments

What they'll need at home, but don't need to bring to class
I don't think they'll need the text books (hardcover); they're heavy! If I change my mind about this along the way, I'll let you know.
Something to store papers in -- binder or folder; whatever you prefer.


The work that will be done at home for a typical week
Read at least 4 lessons.
Do Map & Timeline activities for each lesson.
Read Literature assignments from "We the People" any time they're assigned.
Do other activities I'll assign (2-3 short activities each week).


What you expect to do in class
Review highlights from the previous week's reading.
Take questions on map work, if any.
Discuss prepared assignments.


What needs to be done for the first class
Read lessons 1-5
Do the following activities at the end of the lessons:
L1: Map, Lit
L2: Map, Lit, Vocab
L3: Map, Lit
L4: Map, Timeline, Lit, Vocab
L5: Map, Timeline, Lit

Any long-term assignments you anticipate
none!

What to post...

When you're posting your basic beginning information, please include the following information:

The grade & subject of your class (This would make a good title for the post.)

What students need to bring to class

What they'll need for class, but don't need to bring to class

What needs to be done for the first class

What you expect to do in class

The work that will be done at home for a typical week

Any long-term assignments you anticipate

Any other information that you think will be helpful

Some of you have already typed this information up; perhaps you'd like to copy/paste that info or just post the file; I think that's easy to do!

So I'll go try to do it and see if it works!  :-)

Esther

Greetings!

Hello lovely ladies! I was hoping that I'd be able to write the e-mail inviting you to join this blog, but Blogger has sent the invitation off without me putting my two cents in. The thought is that this blog could be the one-stop place where all the information about the co-op is available. It's set up so each of us who are participating in the co-op can post. It is a closed blog, so no one else can view it. In case you're wondering, Maureen thought this was a good idea, and I'm considering that "official approval." I'd like this to be a place where we can each post information for the classes we're teaching in co-op. Anyone who has questions about your class can then respond in a comment, so you'll get an e-mail telling you that someone has commented on your post. You can respond with another comment or, if you think it's necessary, with another post. In the interests of streamlined communication, let's limit this to co-op information, OK? I don't have much blogging experience, so please don't consider me an expert. This is an experiment; it will be helpful if you all would participate (sorry, I guess that makes you guinea pigs) at least as far as posting basic beginning information about your class. Thanks! Esther