Our First History Map

Today we started a map of Ancient Egypt. The boys began by labelling it and then started to color it in. At this level the students do not trace the map, but that will come in the next few years. The monsoon rains were a frequent topic of conversation, but there was never really a hope that we would close early.

Two Fantastic Compositions

Here are two outstanding compositions from the first few weeks of school.

A Great Day for Some Football

I was very fortunate to see a fantastic football game this morning. There were three 9-2 students playing in the game, and they all played extremely well. The game featured a play in which one of the Calvert students punted on fourth down, and then raced down the field and recovered the ball after an opposing player had difficulty picking it up. It also had its share of controversy as the other team was allowed five downs on a series at a critical juncture during the game. Throughout it all what struck me the most was the way in which the players never gave up on any play. In one instance the other team's star running back was sprinting down the field for what looked like a sure touchdown. One of the 9-2 students chased him down and tackled him before he could score. It was a great game with good sportsmanship displayed by both the players and those watching the game. Here are two pictures the show the three 9-2 students and another boy from 9-2 who had come to the field to watch his older brother play in a game that took place after the one I watched.

A Visit From Some Cave Boys

A Taste of Music

The boys have been working hard in music class learning a piece on the recorder. Their hard work can be seen in this video.

Learning From Our Mistakes

One of the themes that comes up from time to time in class is that it is okay to make mistakes. Many times we learn more from what we get wrong than what we get right. I make mistakes (like the way I spelled Spirit with an extra r in the title of a post a few days ago). I came across this picture and chuckled. This one teaches us to proofread before we go into our final draft.

A Difficult Concept in Geography

Today in class we discussed how the tilt of the earth causes us to have different seasons. This is a concept that Ninth Agers typically struggle to comprehend since it seems that we are standing still and the sun is revolving around us. There is a fantastic flash animation that can be seen here that helped the students begin to grasp the underlying concept. Clicking on the "Show Earth Profile" tab is one way to make the concept more clear. I will continue to review this concept as it comes up in other geography classes.

A Grammar Activity

Today in grammar class we talked about nouns and verbs. In technology class the boys got to go here to see how well they understood the lesson.

Spirit Day

We had a great day full of Calvert Spirit today. From the black and gold plates and napkins in the cafeteria to the streamers in the hallway, there was a lot of school spirit present. One of the 9-2 parents was kind enough to send in some delicious cookies, so we celebrated the success of our history test with a cookie. The boys asked if I would take a sleeping picture which I was happy to do.

Cave Tools

Today we made cave tools which was a lot of fun. The boys learned that it was more difficult that they thought it would be, but they persevered and succeeded. Great job, boys!!

History Study Guide

The study guide for Thursday's history test can be seen by clicking here. The students will need to be able to recall the facts given a choice of answers. They will not need to memorize the facts.

Four Kinds of Sentences

In grammar class today we learned about the four types of sentences: telling, asking, exclamation, and command (also called request). After studying these different types and thinking up some examples of each, we had an activity to reinforce what we learned. The boys each wrote a sentence on a piece of paper, balled it up, and threw it into the center of the room. Then each student picked up a ball of paper, unwrapped it, read the sentence, and walked to the corner of the room that corresponded to that type of sentence. After that they balled up that sheet, threw it into the center, and repeated the process with a new ball of paper. A few boys made it to all four corners of the room in the three minutes that the activity lasted. All of the boys did a great job. Be sure to ask them for examples of these four types of sentences.

Hubble Photos

In technology class we practiced getting to the blog since the Monday tech lessons will usually launch from here. Today we looked at this link, since it ties into our geography curriculum. The boys loved seeing the photos and all of the features that this site has to offer. It is amazing!!

A Great Day for a Game

I love to get the chance to see the boys of 9-2 outside of school. Today I got to see a very well-played soccer game featuring the two boys pictured below. It was their first game of the season, and they both played very well.

If your son would like me to come see him in action, you can email me a schedule and I'll try to make it to a game. My goal is to visit all those who would like to be visited.

Titan Pad - The Experiment

This summer I spent a while looking for a program that would allow the class to brainstorm collaboratively online in real time. I came across a program called TitanPad that looked hopeful. Today in technology class the boys logged into this link that I set up at on the TitanPad website. At first all went well, but as more and more boys logged in there were a few difficulties. TitanPad only supports sixteen users at once, and we were attempting to log in nineteen people. The sixteen that got in had some ability to use the site, but most did not. I think that our server at Calvert had trouble handling sixteen connections to TitanPad at once.

I have thought of modifications that I can make that may make this still a feasible site for us to use in technology class, and I will try those in the future. In the meantime you can click on the link and call a friend (or log in from another computer in your home) and have them click on the link and see it in action. My plan was to use it to brainstorm ideas that could be the basis for a planner in composition class. I was going to pose six questions and have the boys answer them. A few example of questions would have been, What would a cave boy have eaten? What would a cave boy do in his free time?

We did have fun trying it, and many boys were making plans to meet online and have a discussion. I will be online at the link on Saturday at 12:00 and then again at 6:00 if any students or parents want to see the TitanPad in action. This may be a good way to have school on snow days. Of course the students may not like this site nearly as much if they hear of this possible use. If the link has trouble establishing a connection, and you see a bar on the right side of the screen that says "Connecting" try refreshing the page. That works for me.

Meteorites

Today in class, we wrote about NWA 869, which is a meteorite that landed in Algeria in 2000. The boys were given fifteen short facts about the meteorite and given the assignment of writing a good paragraph using as many of the facts as they would like. We generated a topic sentence together, and then the boys took it from there. For inspiration I gave each boy a meteorite. He should have brought it home today, and he should store it in a safe place at home. Here is a picture of one of the meteorites that I gave out. When all of the boys have finished I will post a few of the paragraphs in a future post.

Number Patterns

In math class we explored number patterns. We were primarily working with a ten by ten grid in which some numbers were filled in, and the boys figured out what number should be filled in lower in the grid where there were blank spaces. After the boys had mastered that activity we filled in the first thirty numbers in a series and looked for patterns. The students were very excited about this project and asked me to post a grid on the blog so that they could fill in a grid and look for more patterns. You may click here to get the 10 by 10 sheet. It was a fantastic lesson, and I learned something new today about the way numbers work. When we get to prime numbers later in the year we will examine Eratosthene's Sieve.

I was exploring different applications this summer, and I came across a great screencast program that I have been using a bit. I made a screencast that helps explain more about the number patterns we were doing in class today. You can see it by clicking here. If you have questions or other ideas we could try in math class feel free to send me an email.

A Special Rock

In history class, we studied that it is probable that cave people discovered copper when a rock containing copper ore was placed near a fire, and some of the copper got so hot that it liquified and came out of the rock. I have a specimen that I passed around in class, and the boys asked if I would put a picture of the rock on the blog. It can be seen below.

Monteverdi and Palestrina

In music class, Mrs. Elliott is teaching the boys about the late Renaissance period featuring Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (imagine how long it took him to learn to spell his name in school) and Claudio Monteverdi. I have added some of their work to the Playlist in the red box on the right side of the blog. As the boys progress to other composers I will feature their work as well. Although I had never heard of these composers before, I was fascinated by the fact that Bach's Mass in B Minor was influenced by Palestrina.

Amazing Cave Art Website

We studied cave people in history class today, and spoke a bit about the artwork that has been discovered in caves. This summer I found a great website that can be seen by clicking here. Once the site loads click on "A visit to the cave."

Two Great Pictures of Earl

Here are two great pictures of Hurricane Earl. The first is from the GOES satellite that was used to make the Hurricane Katrina video that we saw in class and is listed in a post from yesterday titled "A Hard Working Weatherman." The second picture was taken from the International Space Station.

A Banner Day

After an absence of eight or nine years, the Seventh through Tenth age classes proudly posted a banner at the start of our Lower School assembly this morning. It was a fantastic tradition to bring back. There are plans in the works to include the Sixth Age and Pilot Class in the future as well.

9-2 Day

Today was officially our "Day of All Days," given the date and our class name, and we celebrated as much as we could. There was even an all school assembly to honor our class (and all of the other classes :). Below are some pictures that show the opening assembly and our recess after it.

A Donut Celebration

In honor of 9-2 day we had delicious chocolate frosted donuts as a treat. As you can see, the boys enjoyed them very much. They even insisted on me taking a "sleeping" picture in honor of their relaxed pose yesterday.

A Hard Working Weatherman

One of the new class jobs for this year is that of class weatherman. The primary role is to check the indoor/outdoor thermometer located in the room to see if we need to wear jackets when we go to recess. Since there is a zero percent chance of that happening this week, our weatherman took it upon himself to do a bit of research and let the class know about Hurricane Earl. His information led to a great discussion and the question of how hurricanes form. We did a bit of research as a class, and after a quick trip to weather.com to check out the forecast we found a great website that can be seen here. The video at the bottom of the website is fascinating. Below there is a picture of the weatherman and a picture of what the boys see on the big screen when project my computer image.

A Visit From the Head Master

In the old days a visit from the Head Master usually meant trouble, but today Dr. Martire brought words of encouragement and pop-sicles. The treats were greatly enjoyed by one and all.

More Highlights from Day One

Today has gone extremely well. I have had a great time starting to get to know the boys, and I have told them a bit about me. The boys have learned a lot today about what it means to be in the Ninth Age. It's going to be a great year.

Day One

As you can see from the picture, the first day has been a bit rough on the boys.......actually we are having a fantastic first day, and I will post more pictures later. This staged picture was taken as I was giving the boys a tour of the blog and showing them a place where they could play music that goes along with the composers we are studying in music class. The piece I chose was slow and very relaxing. A few of the boys commented on how soothing the music was, hence the picture.