Week 8

I hope you guys had a great break! We had a nice family trip and are coming home tomorrow. 

We missed several of you in class on our last day. I'm including several things you can go over at home if you want to catch up. 

We went over Lesson 8 in our EEL guide. 

Our new part of speech was "prepositions" (chart J).

We also worked on compound, interrogative sentences. 

We went through "Charlemagne-Part 2" in our IEW book. 

No new dress-ups, but we wrote our KWO and paragraph together on the board. 

Definitely review Chart J, if you can. 

Here's a fun article about 20 English words we commonly misuse and how to properly use them.
http://qz.com/432285/20-misused-words-that-make-smart-people-look-dumb/

I look forward to seeing you all on Thursday!

Week 7

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made. John 1:1-3

Good morning, ladies! I included the above verse because it shows how God values language...so much that He refers to the one who became Jesus as "the Word". All things were created through "the Word", so words are powerful. Let's not grow weary in doing this good work of teaching our kids the intricacies of language. It has great value!

-You should be finishing up your paragraph on Charlemagne. Use checklist on bottom of p. 87

-Our new stylistic technique this week is the simile. 

-Try to review the Adverbs chart and the Nouns chart 

-Identify adverbs in your daily speech and reading

-Analytical Task Sheets begin on p. 129

Everyone is doing so great! Keep up the hard work! 

-Jenna

Week 6

Just a quick note. Wanted to include the School House Rock "Conjunction" song because it's fun.

At home: refer to pages 108-109 in your EEL Guide
My suggestions:
~ Copy and recite the charts.
~ Work through one to five sample sentences.
~ Look for the first two sentence patterns in your daily reading.
~ Identify conjunctions and compound sentences.
~ Optional: editing, punctuation, spelling exercises.
~ Visit the CC Connected Essentials Tier, if you are a member
~ Spend 20 - 30 minutes daily on this...no more.
~ Lesson 11 in IEW
~Write “Alfred the Great” paragraph

• Highlight everything from checklist p. 84 (including words from topic sentence and clincher that tell the topic of the paragraph)
• Strive to use as many stylistic techniques as possible, but don't let your kid be overwhelmed. If he/she uses a few, that will be fine. 

Also, if you have a set of multiplication flashcards, please bring those to class on Thursday.

Hope you are all preparing in case the hurricane comes our way. Kim will notify us all if there is any change in schedule, due to the storm. 

Have a great week!

Week 5

Grammar

-Review Charts A-F, as needed
-Point out Interrogative sentences in speech and as you read aloud
-Analytical Task Sheet, tasks 1-4 (shoot for 2 or 3 per week)


Writing

-Finish KWO for Lesson 10
-If time, write a paragraph (or 3) for the "Borrowing a Conflict" Lesson on p. 73
-New dress-up is "because clause"


Also, try to get some math drill practice in this week. My kids have enjoyed playing Multiplication War at home. This game is nice because all you need is a deck of cards. But any math practice that works for your kids will be great (flash cards, math board games, orally reciting times tables, copying times tables, etc.)

We will have our next DVD viewing Tuesday, September 27 at my house at 6 pm. 
I'll make some soup and tea we can all enjoy. 

See you tomorrow!

Great job on Week 4!

All you moms and kids are doing so well! Please let me know if you need clarification on any assignments or materials during the week.

If you are on Pinterest, feel free to follow my "Essentials Class" board. I post helpful tips and aids relevant to grammar, writing, and math. Here is a link:

https://www.pinterest.com/jenna_shea/essentials-class/?etslf=5536&eq=essent

Grammar:

-No new charts this week, so try to review any weaker ones. And of course, listen to your songs, if you can, which are basically charts in song form.

-Try to identify interjections with your kids, either in speech or books, signs, etc. (comic books have lots). Also, identify imperative sentences.

-Sample sentences for you Analytical Task Sheets begin on p. 84. Remember to walk the kids through tasks 1-4.

Writing:

-

-Refer to the checklist on p. 72 as you write your The Sword in the Stone paragraphs. They are striving to use one of each of the stylistic techniques we have learned in every paragraph. Also, trying not to use any banned words this week.

-It helps if you can put all the dress-ups, banned words, etc, on a white board or poster so you can refer to it while writing. It's also great to have all their reference lists handy (strong verbs, -ly adverbs, symbols for outlining).

See you Thursday!

-Jenna

Prepping for Week 4

I wanted to include a blog post I read this week about Essentials. It has some great practical tips for new and seasoned Essentials families, including a lot of lessons this mom has learned after going through the program for 6 years!

10 TIPS FOR SUCCESS WITH ESSENTIALS AT HOME

There was a segment of my lesson plan I was unable to cover due to time restrictions. I'm including it below for you guys to talk about at home.

• Now that we've shown the 5 types of Nouns, let's take a closer look at Personal Pronouns on Chart F, since we use these the most. There are 40 of them, which are determined by case, person, number, and gender.
• We've already noted that there are only three cases in English. 
• subjective
• objective
• possessive: however pronouns can take one of 3 forms when expressing possession.
• possessive pronoun
• possessive pronoun adjective
• reflexive: ends with "self" to show that the action affects the subject. (I hurt myself.)
• Personal pronouns, like verbs, show person; this is the perspective of the one doing or being what the verb expresses.
• "1st"; this is when the one speaking is the one being or doing something.
• "2nd" is when the audience (one being addressed) is the one being or doing.
• "3rd" is when someone else (neither the speaker or the audience) is being or doing something.
• And also like verbs, they show number. This is the number of the persons/things doing or being something. 
• "Singular": only 1.
• "Plural": more than 1.
• And they can show gender. 
• masculine
• feminine
• neuter

Here is a math game that helps hone multiplication skills. We will most like be trying it in class. I'm including the video in case you want to familiarize the kids with it before class. The operation could easily be changed to addition, also. 

Please, let me know if you have any questions or concerns. If your kid is having a hard time getting through 3 paragraphs this week, that's fine. Do 1 or 2 paragraphs. Y'all are doing great!

Preparing for Week 3

Good morning! I hope all of you made it through the storm ok. I know it's kind of a crazy week, with the storm and Labor Day, so just work on Essentials when you can and don't stress about it.  Here is your take-home sheet that I forgot to bring Thursday.