Please take a moment to read the notes below. The notes over these first few weeks give a pretty complete overview of the curriculum!
Poetry-This is a cumulative, oral program meant to develop linguistic and oratory skills. Students should be listening to the poems and reciting along, rather than reading (it might help to read the first few times, but after that, listening is much more helpful.) You are welcome to come in and listen to the cd so you have an idea of how poems should be recited and I encourage you to make your own audio file reciting the poems to listen to in the car to make frequent practice more achievable. Once we've mastered the first poem, you will see the second poem listed on the blog and then your practice becomes both poems 1 and 2; we'll then move on to 1-3, etc. Assessments will be of a less formal nature in class throughout the quarter. Remember, the emphasis here is on being enthusiastic and expressive with our recitations. Focus should be on inflection, volume, tone of voice, eye contact, etc. We'll be working on this frequently in class as well :)
History- Students will be assigned one chapter and corresponding journal entry per week to complete. This book can stay at home as well. In class we'll be utilizing living books, short videos, and projects to re-enforce the textbook reading. Our focus of study is on the 16 timeline events/people found in the handbook. Please practice these regularly. Students will be assessed on them quarterly and they are cumulative. Students don't need to know the date, but instead should be able to give a short description of what the event or person was. Examples are given in the handbook in the history section.
Geography-Students are learning the Continents and Oceans first. Songs can be found on the home page of the homework blog, under curriculum. Students don't have to sing, but do need to be able to point and identify for all geography maps. The maps for assessment do have a black dot marking the countries they should name so students will need to be able to identify the name without relying on the number on the practice map.
