HW from 12/15/09

Due on 12/17/09:

* Your current Reading Log will be due on Thursday! Be sure it is signed by your parent.

* Bring in your treat to share with the class on Thursday while we make our "final drafts" of our papers. I'll bring pepperoni rolls and water, and we'll eat whatever treats you guys bring in, so you won't have to bring any lunch on that day.

-------
OPENING (Bible verse and prayer):
For Th: Katie B.
For Tu, 1/5: Kyernan

HW from 12/10/09

Due on 12/15/09:

* Continue to do assigned reading and mark your Reading Log. You are aiming for 20 minutes daily. Be sure to keep marking the list of books, and let me know when you need a new one.

* Your current Reading Log will be due, signed by your parent, on 12/17/09. This is the last class before the Christmas break.

* Complete your 3-paragraph essay on things you appreciate about your parents. You will turn in your notes in addition to your paper. (The notes should consist of the ten brainstormed ideas you wrote in class, with your three selected choices circled.)

* Your paper is due by the class period on Tuesday. However, you will receive extra credit for typing and emailing the paper to me before Tuesday, so that I can read and grade it before our class period on Tuesday.

-------
OPENING (Bible verse and prayer):
For Tue: Katie A.
For Th: Katie B.

HW from 12/8/09

Due on 12/10/09:

* Continue to do assigned reading and mark your Reading Log. You are aiming for 20 minutes daily. Be sure to keep marking the list of books, and let me know when you need a new one.

* Your current Reading Log will be due, signed by your parent, on 12/17/09. This is the last class before the Christmas break (Thursday).

* Choose a favorite Christmas carol which has a spiritual theme and at least four verses. Copy the verses like stanzas of a poem and bring it in on Thursday.

-------
OPENING (Bible verse and prayer):
For Th: Elana
For Tue: Katie A.

HW from 12/3/09

Due on 12/8/09:

* Continue to do assigned reading and mark your Reading Log. You are aiming for 20 minutes daily. Be sure to keep marking the list of books, and let me know when you need a new one.

* Your current Reading Log will be due, signed by your parent, on 12/17/09. This is the last class before the Christmas break.

* Navigate around the website we explored together today. Save the homework link on your computer. Read the "singular their" material on the website.

* Be prepared for a quiz next week on all the material we have studied so far.

* Finish your paper on your favorite season. Follow the guidelines on the handout I gave you. It should be approximately 200 words, double-spaced. It is not required that your paper be typed, but is is strongly recommended that you do so. It is easier for me to read and to grade, and it is easier for you to make revisions and changes, to keep track of the number of words, etc.

-------
OPENING (Bible verse and prayer):
For Tu: Elana
For Th: Katie A.

HW from 12/1/09

Due on 12/3/09:

* Continue to do assigned reading and mark your Reading Log. You are aiming for 20 minutes daily. Be sure to keep marking the list of books, and let me know when you need a new one. The current Reading Log will be due on December 17, before the Christmas break.

* Be prepared for a quiz next week on everything we've studied.

* Find and read about the "singular their" on the student website, if you haven't already.

-------
OPENING (Bible verse and prayer):
For Th: Elana
For Tu: Katie A.

HW from 11/19/09

Due on 12/1/09:

* Continue to do assigned reading and mark your Reading Log. You are aiming for 20 minutes daily. Be sure to keep marking the list of books, and let me know when you need a new one. The current log for November will be due the day we get back!

* Go to the website and read the information on the "singular they" that appears there.

* Have a wonderful Thanksgiving full of worship and family and feasting.

* For extra credit, you may watch "It's a Wonderful Life" and write me about your favorite part. Indicate what message you think the writer of that film was trying to get across to his audience.

-------
OPENING (Bible verse and prayer):
For Tuesday:
For Thursday:
For Tuesday:

HW for 11/17/09

Due on 11/19/09:

* Continue to do assigned reading and mark your Reading Log. You are aiming for 20 minutes daily. Be sure to keep marking the list of books, and let me know when you need a new one.

* Return your signed grade card.

* Transfer spelling errors from your writer's notebook and returned homework to your Spelling Error Log.

* Character paper due on Thursday. You will turn in both a rough first draft and a nicer second draft, which will be double-spaced, whether handwritten or typed.

Character Paper:
- approximately 200 words (no fewer than 150 and no more than 250)
- 12 point font (if typed). double-spaced (either way)
- use both description and dialogue to let us know about your character
- write your description in third-person point of view
- you may write in either past or present tense, but stay consistent with one or the other
- your character does not have to be a real person, but he or she must be human
(no elves, aliens, dogs, superheroes, etc.)
- due Thursday - both drafts

-------
OPENING (Bible verse and prayer):
For Tuesday:
For Thursday: Toluwani
For Tuesday:

HW from 11/10/09

Due on 11/12/09:

* Continue to do assigned reading and mark your Reading Log. You are aiming for 20 minutes daily. Be sure to keep marking the list of books, and let me know when you need a new one. The current Reading Log will be due, signed by the parent, on Tuesday, 12/1/09.

* Return your signed grade reports.

* Translate the passage I gave you from past tense to present tense. It is due on Thursday.

* Copy any words from your Writer's Notebook that need to go onto your Spelling Error List.

-------
OPENING (Bible verse and prayer):
For Tuesday: Kyernan
For Thursday: Rey (or Toluwani if Rey is still sick)
For Tuesday: Elana

HW from 11/5/09

Due on 11/10/09:

* Continue to do assigned reading and mark your Reading Log. You are aiming for 20 minutes daily. Be sure to keep marking the list of books, and let me know when you need a new one.

* Complete the handout I gave you. Do the colored underlining on the handout itself (used colored pencils or highlighter to underline, rather than thick markers or crayons). Write out the copywork on your own paper. Do NOT do the underlining on your handwritten copy of the paper.

-------
OPENING (Bible verse and prayer):
For Tuesday: Kyernan
For Thursday: Rey
For Tuesday:

HW from 11/3/09

Due on 11/5/09:

* Continue to do assigned reading and mark your Reading Log. You are aiming for 20 minutes daily. Be sure to keep marking the list of books, and let me know when you need a new one.

* Translate the rest of your handout from first person to third person point of view.

* Those of you who need to, don't forget to email me your paper!

-------
OPENING (Bible verse and prayer):
For Tuesday:
For Thursday: Kyernan
For Tuesday: Katie B.

HW from 10/29/09

Due on 11/3/09:

* Continue to do assigned reading and mark your Reading Log. You are aiming for 20 minutes daily. Be sure to keep marking the list of books, and let me know when you need a new one. The current Reading Log will need to be signed by the parent and turned in at the end of the month.

* Revise your "place" paper one more time, so that it will be perfect! You will turn it in on Tuesday.

-------
OPENING (Bible verse and prayer):
For Tuesday: Katie B.
For Thursday: Kyernan
For Tuesday:

HW from 10/15/09

Due on 10/20/09:

* Continue to do assigned reading and mark your Reading Log. You are aiming for 20 minutes daily. Be sure to keep marking the list of books, and let me know when you need a new one. The current Reading Log will need to be signed by the parent and turned in during class on Tuesday, 11/3/09.

* Come up with 5 more "said replacements" that we did not already mention in class.

* Copywork.

* Take care of the "starred" sections of your writer's notebook.

-------
OPENING (Bible verse and prayer):
For Tuesday: Katie A.
For Thursday: Elana
For Tuesday: TBD

HW from 10/13/09

Due on 10/15/09:

* Continue to do assigned reading and mark your Reading Log. You are aiming for 20 minutes daily. Be sure to keep marking the list of books, and let me know when you need a new one. The current Reading Log will need to be signed by the parent and turned in during class on Tuesday, 11/3/09.

* Write a dialogue between two individuals, being sure each person speaks at least four times. Punctuate correctly. Try to demonstrate character in the dialogue.

-------
OPENING (Bible verse and prayer):
For Tuesday:
For Thursday: Toluwani
For Tuesday: TBD

HW from 10/8/09

Due on 10/13/09:

* Continue to do assigned reading and mark your Reading Log. You are aiming for 20 minutes daily. Be sure to keep marking the list of books, and let me know when you need a new one. The current Reading Log will need to be signed by the parent and turned in during class on Tuesday, 11/3/09.

* Correct and complete first draft of your "place" paper, due Tuesday. It should be approximately 250 words in length, double-spaced (whether you type it or hand write it, it must be double-spaced). If you type it, please use size 12 font. You will turn in all old work for the paper at the same time as the paper.

-------
OPENING (Bible verse and prayer):
For Tuesday: Rey
For Thursday: Toluwani
For Tuesday: TBD

HW from 10/6/09

Due on 10/8/09:

* Continue to do assigned reading and mark your Reading Log. You are aiming for 20 minutes daily. Be sure to keep marking the list of books, and let me know when you need a new one. The current Reading Log will need to be signed by the parent and turned in during class on Tuesday, 11/3/09.

* Copywork from Red Sails to Capri.

-------
OPENING (Bible verse and prayer):
For Tuesday:
For Thursday: Katie B.
For Tuesday: Rey

HW from 10/1/09

Due on 10/6/09:

* Continue to do assigned reading and mark your Reading Log. You are aiming for 20 minutes daily. Be sure to keep marking the list of books, and let me know when you need a new one. The current Reading Log will need to be signed by the parent and turned in during class on Tuesday, 11/3/09.

* Please select your place for your paper and make a "chart/grid" similar to the one we did together in class on Tuesday. We posted our five senses across the top, and created three descriptions under each, for the place "the school room."

* After you've made your chart, write one good, descriptive sentence that could serve as the opening sentence for your descriptive paper.

*You will turn both of these things in on Thursday.

-------
OPENING (Bible verse and prayer):
For Tuesday: Mrs. Sitterding
For Thursday: Mrs. Sitterding
For Tuesday: Kyernan

HW from 9/29/09

Due on 10/1/09:

* Continue to do assigned reading and mark your Reading Log. The September Reading Log will need to be signed by the parent and turned in during class on Thursday. This is giving you an extra day of "mercy" for getting your signature this month, as I had posted earlier that it would be due on Tuesday (yesterday).

* Quiz Thursday on everything so far. (This includes information on enhancing description, using figurative language, and any other writing or grammar lessons we've had... see the website for more information.)

-------
OPENING (Bible verse and prayer):
For Tuesday:
For Thursday: Kyernan
For Tuesday: Katie B.

HW from 9/24/09

Due on 9/29/09:

* Continue to do assigned reading and mark your Reading Log. The current Reading Log will need to be signed by the parent and turned in during class on Tuesday, 9/29/09.

* Write two sentences (good ones, according to our definition): one containing simile and one containing metaphor. Also give a new example (which we haven't mentioned yet) of idiom in the English language.

* Copywork (poem "Velvet Shoes")

-------
OPENING (Bible verse and prayer):
For Tuesday: Mrs. Sitterding
For Thursday: TBD
For Tuesday: TBD

HW from 9/22/09

Due on 9/24/09:

* Continue to do assigned reading and mark your Reading Log. The current Reading Log will need to be signed by the parent and turned in during class on Tuesday, 9/29/09.

* We will have a quiz (on the things we've studied so far) on Thursday, 9/24.

* Look for and find one of the following (in print):
+ a description you like of a place, OR
+ an example of both a simile and a metaphor.


------- (I will explain the following on Thursday.)
OPENING (Bible verse and prayer):
For Tuesday:
For Thursday: Mrs. Sitterding
For Tuesday: TBD

HW from 9/17/09

Due on 9/22/09:

* Continue to do assigned reading and mark your Reading Log. The current Reading Log will need to be signed by the parent and turned in during class on Tuesday, 9/29/09.

* Create your Spelling Errors page, and add all words from your writer's notebook to it.

* Write three different sentences like the ones we did in class using "The man walked," only begin this time with "The child cried." Use all five ways of enhancing description that we discussed in class.

* Do copywork #2.

* You are not required to bring your Writer's Inc book to class until further notice. It should be available to you at home for reference, but you do not need to bring it to class with you unless I tell you to.

* Don't forget to bring your writer's notebook back to class after you make the list of spelling errors.

------- (I will explain the following in class on Tuesday.)
OPENING (Bible verse and prayer):
For Tuesday: Mrs. Sitterding
For Thursday: Mrs. Sitterding
For Tuesday: TBD

HW from 9/15/09

Due on 9/17/09:

* Continue to do assigned reading and mark your Reading Log. The current Reading Log will need to be signed by the parent and turned in during class on Tuesday, 9/29/09.

* Come up with
- 1 boring common noun, and three better, more specific ones
- 1 boring common verb, and five better, more specific ones

HW from 9/10/09

Due on 9/15/09:

* If you have not already, return signed forms and/or fees that are due. (White parental/student form, signed by both parent and student; yellow student information form, completed by student.)

* Sign onto the student website each Wednesday and Friday, after 8:00 a.m., to verify your understanding of the homework. Send me an email from the link on the website if you have not already (Elana, Toluwani, Rey).

* Copywork: Copy, in your best penmanship, the passage from E. B. White's Charlotte's Web. Write down how long it took you to do so.

* Memorize the list of linking verbs that correspond to the five senses. Memorize them using these exact terms in this exact order: Look, smell, taste, sound, feel.

* Look up the difference between a homonym and a homophone. Be prepared to explain the difference to the class, and to identify whether hear/here are homonyms or homophones.

* Begin keeping the Reading Log. It will be graded beginning with the 9/10/09 date. You are expected to read 20 minutes per day, five days a week. See handout entitled "Explanation Regarding Required Reading Log," the HW post from 9/8/09, and/or link in the left sidebar of the student website for more information.

HW from 9/8/09

Due on 9/10/09:

* Together with your parents, select the book you will read for your Reading Log and bring it in for approval. (You will read this book for 20 minutes a day; it is to be "free reading" for no other class and should be high-quality literature at or slightly above your reading level.)

* Return your signature sheet, signed by you and your parents, and your fees. Contact me if paying the fees right now at the beginning of the year is a hardship, and we will work out a payment plan.

* Return your completed Student Information Sheet.

* After you have come to this class website, save the address on your computer (with your parents' permission) and then send me an email using the link below.