Ipsa Scientia Potestas Est

Today we continued work on our persuasive essays. The kids have now chosen what they're going to try and persuade you, their parents, to do. They have carefully picked out the reasons to sell you on what they've decided. By next Monday, they should be typed up and ready to be presented. This brings us closer to the end of chapter 2 in our Rigby Reading.

The states and capitals quiz tomorrow will cover the following states, just in case your map has come up missing: North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. This is the biggest one we have, other than the final big test at the end of the whole states and capitals shebang.

In other Social Studies news, Ms. Mellinger began a lesson today on Sioux Winter Counts. Ask your child what they learned today about the symbols used in writing back in the olden days and often to this day in some tribes. Soon, the students will be creating their own autobiographies using pictographs.

We also began our Caesar's English today in lieu of spelling, since we don't have a spelling list or test this week. We will be studying these heavily in class, and I will be assessing how well they know their Latin roots (a.k.a.: quiz) on Friday. Don't worry, though. We will do most of our studying in class, but it wouldn't hurt to review them.

• bi: meaning: two, modern examples include bicycle, biped, and bilateral
• sub: meaning: under, modern examples include submarine, submerge, and subtract
• de: meaning: down, modern examples include descend, defeat, depressed
• pre: meaning: before, modern examples include predict, prepare, preschool
• super: meaning: over, modern examples include supervise, Superman, and superb

For the quiz, all they will need to know is the meaning of each root, and one modern example. I don't care if their modern example is from the list above or not, but the one thing that I do want is for the root or stem to appear properly in the word. (For example, deer is not an example of a word where "de" means "down".)

This is a light version of what they will be doing in middle school.

I hope everyone has a great rest of the week.