This was our shortest scheduled week of the year! Nevertheless, we managed to fit in a couple things. I hope everyone has a wonderful little break and a very happy Thanksgiving. Know that I am thankful for all of you, and especially for the students you're raising, and the opportunity to teach them this year!
Faith and Literature
This week in Faith, we discussed highlights from the rest of Exodus. We thought about the incident with the golden calf, why Moses's face was shining after speaking with God, why there are so many instructions for the Tabernacle, altar, Ark of the Covenant, etc., and the parallels and continuities between worship as prescribed by God in the Old Testament and the worship of the Church today. We also attended Liturgy for the Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple. In Literature, we hit a couple of famous Greek myths. We discussed Prometheus, Pandora and her box, Phaethon and the chariot of the Sun, Echo and Narcissus, and Hades and Persephone. We found morals, discussed characters, and found parallels. This is an exciting moment in Literature: Students should have brought home a copy of *Black Ships Before Troy*, which we're beginning to read. (Chapters 1–3 are due by Monday.) This is a retelling of the *Iliad,* which is possibly the most famous and influential story in existence after the Bible. We'll be working through that for the next couple weeks!
Composition
This week for Grammar, we reviewed direct objects. In Writing, we worked a bit more with parable models. We wrapped up with "The Rich Fool," and then considered a couple parables that aren't in Scripture: one from the Talmud (medieval Jewish), and one from China. We continued to work with description, setting, morals, and story structure.
History and Geography
This week in History, we wrapped up our consideration of the Minoans by learning about their economy, and their dramatic collapse as a result of a volcanic eruption! We then considered the Mycenaeans, which gives us the background we need to learn the story of the Trojan War.
Logic
No Logic this week--we went to Liturgy this morning!
Latin
No Latin this week--we went to Liturgy this morning!
Science
In Science, we took the data we had collected last Thursday on the amount of salt, fresh, and frozen water on Earth, added it up, and put it into a graph. We worked especially on graph elements and neatness in presenting data.
Mathematics
Math this week was a combo with Science--we reviewed the power of the commutative and associative properties for addition by adding up the long string of numbers we had counted. We covered how the commutative and associative properties allow feats of mental math and shortcuts to tedious arithmetic problems. Try asking your student what the sum of every integer from 1–20 is, or 1–50, or 1–100! Mr. Schwartz (the elder) also came in, and students enjoyed the chance to try a Lego project. They were asked to build a simple machine with a color sensor that, in conjunction with some basic code on an iPad, would play sounds when pointed at specific colors. Students got a chance to see how programming logic works--and to try some troubleshooting!
Specials and Other Notes
We finished out this week by joining Grammar 1 for some apple turkeys and (vegan) apple pie. Mrs. Schwartz always makes those as part of her Thanksgiving party, and this year she thought of us and asked if our students could come help hers with some of the instructions that the young ones find a bit challenging by themselves! I was pleased to offer our students a chance to be helpful role models--and a bit of pie. Our students met with Mrs. Northend this week for Music and PE. I saw them bust out some floor hockey sticks, and I know they're gearing up for the Nativity program! The forts out in he parking lot seem to be doing well, in case you're curious--I was told the rampart wall is done now, and both forts seem to be looking forward to decorating for Christmas!
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