Productive

It was a productive day in room 19, even if the teacher is still feeling under the weather. After our Independent Reading, we read and discussed "Sewed Up His Heart" in the Open Court textbook. This is a hard selection - students were really fumbling over some of the medical terminology - but worthwhile. It is the story of Daniel Hale Williams, the African-American surgeon who performed the first heart operation in the world. It seems particularly appropriate to read it on the eve of Martin Luther King's birthday.

We did a little grammar and cursive review from our Storyworks magazine after we finished our first reading of the story, in part because students were a bit restless after the long selection. We also read the adaptation of "Horton Hears a Who" in the same issue.

After lunch, we talked about the Mexican War of Independence, and connected it to the American and French Revolutions. We discussed how after the fall of Spanish power in the New World, the mission system collapsed in California with both good and bad results, particularly for our native peoples. We went out to PE where we are starting soccer skills. We came back to class, corrected our math test - results are on the gradebook - and got our homework.

Home Studies: Do Word Knowledge and Vocabulary for "Sewed Up His Heart." (2) Do the Chapter Review, in Science page A 126 only. Do NOT do page 127. (3) Do "Patterns with Multiples," Math, pages 206-207 and "Multiply by 10", pages 208-209.