Helping Verbs

In grammar class today we learned the 23 helping verbs. We used this site to help us. After studying the helping verbs for a few minutes,I took the site down from the projector and handed out blank pieces of paper to see how many of the helping verbs they could remember. Seven of the seventeen boys were able to write all 23 of the helping verbs thanks to their new friend, Mr. Do. The rest of the boys remembered nearly all of them. The boys will study helping verbs in greater detail in the years to come, so this exposure should help.

Billy's Next Stop

The Walters Art Museum

Yesterday the Ninth Age went to the Walters Art Museum. We spent an hour touring exhibits and then an hour making an amulet. We had a great time!!!

The Dou Dou Bird

I am always trying to encourage writing and came across this website that has a monthly creative writing contest  which currently deals with a dou dou bird. Best of luck to all who choose to enter.

Stone Soup

Today in technology class, we talked about the future of literature and publishing and looked at a great website called Stone Soup.  We also looked at this infographic which has some astounding facts.

A Very Unusual Music Class

Mrs. Elliott was not available today, so I was in charge of music class. Given that I have no musical ability at all, I did a music/science experiment with the boys that illustrated the nature of sound transfer. It turns out that string conducts sound waves even better than air does in certain circumstances. We started with pieces of string about four feet long and a variety of random objects. We tied the string to the to the object at the mid-point of the string. Then we held the ends of the string to our ears and bumped the object against something to cause the object to vibrate. The results were unbelievable. The video below shows the activity, but not the results. To hear the results, get some string and a metal spoon and try it out yourself. You will be amazed!

The Elements of a Good Composition - The Writing and Corrections

Last week I posted about the planner, and this week I will discuss the writing and the corrections marks. Once the planner is completed (which usually takes about 30 minutes) the boys begin their compositions. We talk about possible topic sentences, and then the boys start writing. They have two full 45 minute class periods to complete the writing, but if they are still not finished they can use time before school to finish their work. In last week's composition the boys pretended that they were Athenian boys who had gone for a visit to Sparta. Their comfortable lifestyle was turned upside down in the rough and tumble city of Sparta that favors discipline over dessert. This composition was turned in for me to read and grade. I read it and returned it after making these marks. After the compositions are returned to the boys, they make the corrections using this poster that is hanging in the room to help them know what to fix. We write one composition per week with the planner being completed on Tuesday and the writing taking place on Wednesday and Thursday. The boys enter Ninth Age with many of the skills in place to be able to do this level of writing. It is a pleasure to work with them and see the progress they make as the year progresses.

Amazing Middle School Art

I have a special admiration for people who are good at art. We are very fortunate at Calvert to have wonderful art teachers in the Lower School and Middle School, and from time to time I see artwork that Calvert students produce that blows me away. I saw this post last night, and wished yet again that Mrs. Kamp was my art teacher. If you click on the first picture it will launch a slideshow of sorts that you can click through. 

Billy Goes Riding

Billy had a great time last week with his newest friend.

Grammar Class with Mr. Morton

In grammar class we studied subjects and predicates and this video was our introduction into the topic.

The "Huggle"

What a great day for a flag football game. As I looked out my window this afternoon I saw the Ninth Age boys playing their hearts out when the plays were being run and catching leaves that were falling from the tree that hangs over the field when there was a lull in the action. I also saw plays being planned in what I have dubbed the "huggle." The bonds formed here will last a lifetime.

The Other Mr. Howe

Today in technology class we went back to StoryJumper which is the program we did last week. The boys did a great job logging into the site, finding their saved stories, and editing them. When a question arose, I encouraged the boys to ask their seatmate or a friend close by. The video below shows one boy in particular who was incredibly helpful throughout our time. He had been exposed to StoryJumper in Miss Gentry's reading class and was very enthusiastic about sharing his knowledge. He embodied the teacher role so much that at one point one of the other students called him Mr. Howe!!

It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's an Asteroid

Below is an article and a video of the asteroid that flew by the earth on Tuesday:

(Reuters) - A black asteroid as big as an aircraft carrier zoomed past Earth on Tuesday, delighting astronomers who trained telescopes on the ancient body in hopes of learning more about its composition and origin. With a diameter estimated at 420 yards, or about a quarter of a mile, Asteroid 2005 YU 55 is the biggest asteroid to make a close pass by Earth since 1976. During its closest approach, which occurred at 6:28 p.m. EST, it was inside the orbit of the moon, about 200,000 miles above the planet. It posed no threat to either. Thousands of professional and amateur astronomers were tracking the asteroid with telescopes, seeking to learn more about what it is made of, how fast it spins and ultimately, where it came from. "It was pretty easy to find," astronomer Ronald Dantowitz, director of the student-run Clay Center Observatory in Brookline, Massachusetts, told Reuters. "It's moving differently than the stars are moving. It looks like a giant rock floating through space." With automated controls for tracking, the asteroid appeared to be fixed in position, while background stars were a blur, Dantowitz said. The asteroid, however, was moving at about 30,000 mph. Astronomers believe YU 55 has been visiting Earth for thousands of years, nudged out of the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter after a gravitational elbowing by Jupiter. Computer models simulating the asteroid's path for the next 100 years show there is no chance it will hit Earth or the moon during that time, said Don Yeomans with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Astronomers do not expect it will be a threat beyond that time either but have not run the models beyond 100 years. Asteroids are of interest to scientists trying to piece together how the solar system formed. "It costs millions of dollars to send a spacecraft for a close encounter with an asteroid," Dantowitz said. "Instead, this one is coming to us. It's literally streaming through our backyard." YU 55 is believed to be one of the more common type, carbon-rich asteroids, albeit a large one. Its ancient rocks may contain water, metals and other materials that could be useful for space explorers. NASA's next human space venture beyond the International Space Station, a $100 billion orbital research outpost flying about 240 miles above Earth, is a mission to an asteroid, targeted for 2025.

The Two Minute Challenge

I had a talk with my math class about two weeks ago and gave each one a goal that at the time seemed audacious. I wondered if any of them could correctly complete 100 multiplication problems (from 0 X 0 up to 9 X 9) in under two minutes. Realizing the importance of committing multiplication facts to memory for this year and for years to come, I spent the bulk of a week practicing facts using a variety of techniques. The students took a daily timed challenge test in which they got 4 or 6 minutes to do as many of the 100 multiplication problems as they could. I gave them an adjusted score based on their performance had they been given 2 minutes. For example if a student correctly completed 60 problems in 6 minutes, his or her adjusted score for 2 minutes would be 20. For homework I assigned studying multiplication facts using flashcards or web-based flashcard programs. The two charts below show the progress that the students have made so far. When I started, I wondered if any student could meet the challenge...now I am wondering how many will. Stay tuned for updates along the way.

The Elements of a Good Composition - The Planner

Over the next week or so I am going to write about all of the things that go into an excellent composition. Today I will focus on the planner which is how all Ninth Age compositions begin. The planner is a sheet of paper usually containing boxes, that is designed to help the boys organize their thoughts. In history class we recently read a chapter that compared and contrasted Sparta and Athens. In this composition, each boy will pretend that he is an Athenian boy who has traveled to Sparta to visit a relative. He will write a letter to his parents about what he experiences in Sparta and how that compares to life back at home in Athens. Today I gave the boys a blank "Letter From Sparta" planner and it was their job to write down all of the facts that they thought they may use in the letter. I asked the boys to list all of the facts they know first about Sparta and then about Athens. I wrote all of their ideas on the board, and all the things that they mentioned may be seen below. At the end of forty five minutes, the planner should look something like this planner which was filled out today by one of the students. We had generated a sample sentence for the first paragraph and the second one, and I was very impressed that this boy had written them on his planner. The next step is the actual writing, but that is another subject for another post.

Extra Credit Question

In math class I have been emphasizing the need to read the directions and questions very carefully. I offered the following as extra credit on today's math test:

Sally's mother has five daughters. The names of four of them are Zaza, Zeze, Zizi, and Zozo. What is the name of the other daughter?

Once you have your answer, click on the comment section to see if you are correct.

Finding North Without a Compass

In geography class today we headed out to the boys' field to learn about the four cardinal directions: north, south, east, and west. The boys were not exactly sure which direction was north (which is evident from the fingers pointing in a variety of directions in the first picture which I took after asking the boys to point in the direction they believed was north.) When we first went out I stuck a yardstick in the ground and marked where its shadow fell. We discussed why the sun moves across the sky (or appears to move) and how its movement can help us find out the directions. After a brief debate, the boys realized that the sun rose in the east and set in the west but that didn't offer much help at mid-day. Since it had been about twenty minutes since we had put the pointer in the ground we checked it to see what if anything had changed. Lo and behold the shadow had moved. The boys were able to deduce that since the sun will set in the west that the shadow had moved to the east. This gave us an east-west line on which we placed a yardstick compass. I placed my phone with a compass app on top of our compass to see how we did. We were surprisingly close. We had a great time and learned a lot. When the boys are older they won't need to stop and ask for directions; they can put a stick in the ground and wait for thirty minutes to know which way to go:)

Billy Plays Some Sports

Billy and his newest buddy play some sports....with mixed results. Billy is lucky his friend was nearby during the tennis match. That was a close call!!

The Pit of Being

Today in grammar class we learned about verbs of being, and after doing a few oral exercises we had an activity. Each boy chose a slip of paper which either had an action verb or a verb of being printed on it. If his paper had an action verb he walked around the room doing that activity. After one trip around the room he chose a new paper which either contained a new action verb or a verb of being. If his paper had a verb of being he had to go to the Pit of Being and chant the phrase, "Am, is are, was, were, been, I'm stuck in the Pit of Being." He could escape if someone pulled a slip which said, "Free the Pit!!" It was a bit of a lively activity, but the boys handled it extremely well, showing me that I can do this sort of thing with them in the future. The best news is that at the conclusion of the activity, the boys had no doubt about what the verbs of being are.

Story Jumper

In technology class we started using a new program called Story Jumper. We are exploring the different aspects of this program, and the boys may certainly continue that process at home if they would like. The login name is MrHowe and the password is the name of my cat. If your son cannot remember you can email me, and I will send you the password. We are using this program for its online capabilities and will not be publishing any of the books.

Calling All Monsters

Billy had a great adventure last weekend!!!!!

Those Who Do Not Learn From History....

In history class on Friday we read about the Phoenicians who constructed boats out of the cedar trees that grew on the slopes of their hills. They were excellent sailors but lacked foresight, cutting down nearly all of the cedars of Lebanon. In class I gave each boy a small piece of cedar wood to put in his pyramid as a reminder to use resources wisely. We talked about the Lorax and resources that we waste today. We concluded the discussion with ways we could help eliminate waste. It was a great conversation.

Hidden Talents

It came to my attention on the way back from lunch today that the boys of 9-2 have some amazing talents that I had never witnessed before. Below is a video showing all of the boys who wanted to share their talents. 

Great Typing Website

Mrs. McGraw introduced Dance Mat Typing to the students. Given that the students will be using computers a whole lot more in two short years when they go to the Middle School, this is a great time to start learning how to type correctly.