Monday, March 23, 2009

3rd Grade Spelling

My third grader needs extra help with her spelling, so I create a weekly program for her to practice. In addition, both girls have to write their definitions for all spelling words. They also have to choose from assignments like writing in cursive three times, putting words in alphabetical order (elementary level) or writing a song, developing a crossword puzzle, writing a poem or story.

I've found that my programs have given my 3 grader the extra edge she needs. She went from f's on her spelling test to B+ & A's.
They are clickable, but I deliver them to her in pdf format. That way they can't be altered.

Here is a downloadable version
Here's version 2.

Here are some screen capture of the program.



Friday, March 13, 2009

To Kill a Mockingbird Book Report By Aja


To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

This year I read To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. It was published in the year 1960. This book has 296 pages. The genre is American Literature and Southern Gothic. This book is basically showing how diversity was frowned upon in era of time. The people who were not in the right circle had troubles with being themselves. The different people are forced to be like others but they are not,so everybody was trying to “kill their mockingbird”.

The purpose for this book was to explain some of the injustices that went on when the author was a child. The story took place in Maycomb County, Alabama. This story is told by and about the main character, Scout or Jean Louise. The many other characters are Calpurnia, the cook and their caretaker, Atticus, her dad and a lawyer, Jem, her brother, Dill, her friend, and Aunt Alexandra, her nosy aunt.

In the beginning, Scout and Jem meet Dill during the summer before she begins school for the first time. They begin talking about plans to make Arthur “Boo” Radley come out of his house. The Radleys are a very peculiar people because they stay in the house all day. They only come out on grocery days and on Sunday.

When Scout goes to school she gets into trouble. She gets into trouble for talking bad about the Ewells and the Cunninghams because they are not inside of the common class. The people in Maycomb don’t like the Ewells because they don’t value education and they also don’t like the Cunninghams because they are very poor. This is an example of classism Later on Scout’s Aunt Alexandra comes to town to “help” Atticus out with the kids. This is a god example of sexism. She keeps telling Scout to be a young lady because she is a tomboy. Atticus does not like this but he lets her stay anyway. During her stay, Atticus, a white lawyer, is defending a black man named Tom Robinson. He was accused of raping Mayella Ewell. Everybody is calling Atticus a Negro lover and Scout doesn’t like it. Sadly Atticus loses the case and his defendant goes to the Electric chair.


This book was a little bit difficult to read because of all of the very different events happening, however it all ties in and comes together at the end. I think that the author achieved her purpose to explain the injustices that were going on in the 30’s, like racism, sexism, and classism. This book has many strong points like expressing the many prejudices of the south in the thirties. I found this book very interesting because of the surprising series of events. In conclusion I think this book is well written and I liked it.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Uruguay Geography Project

The girls went to Globetrotters, a homeschool Geography club today. Here is their presentation on Uruguay. I didn't help them, they are pretty good at using keynote, so I just gave them feedback on what information they should include in their presentation.