Back in the School Room

It has been a busy two weeks in the school room.

History: We continued our study of the many trials in Europe. Mary, the Queen of Scots is sentenced to die by Queen Elizabeth, Sir Walter Raleigh campaigns his plan to the Queen to finance an expedition to the new world for what would become Roanoke, Virginia (the lost colony) , Prince William of Orange from the Netherlands has been assassinated and England promises to help in their fight for Independence from Spain, the Spanish Armada attacks England and loses, France's king, Henry III, has Henry of Guise (a Catholic fighting for Catholic control) assassinated, then he gets assassinated and Henry of Navarre (the Protestant contender for the throne) takes charge. This is the start of a five year French war.

Roanoke model of the tree that was carved with the word CROATAN.
Our scroll which I used as a sequencing activity to retell the story of Roanoke, the Lost Colony.

Geography: We continued maps of the regions as well as flags for each of the countries we have been studying.

Science: We continued our study of ships since so many expeditions and wars revolved around them. These two weeks we were studying buoyancy and different kinds of waves (wind, tidal, and tsunami). The first experiment had Bubbles discovering how water molecules moved when the wind affected them and for Prez, he was experimenting with different wind forces. A lesson quickly turned into a game which immediately turned into seemingly chaos. Check out this video: The next experiment was to test Archimedes' principle of buoyant force and discover the relationship between diameter and density of a boat. The last experiment was testing the capability of different shapes of boats to float and to hold cargo. We were trying to discover a mathematical ratio of mass of boat versus mass of cargo and when the numbers predicted floating or sinking.

Boat Number One:Boat Number Two:
Boat Number Three:
Boat Number Four:

Art: We took the opportunity to study famous paintings of the Spanish Armada attack on England. Bubbles immediately knew which ships belonged to which country based on our study of their flags. We also exposed ourselves to some paintings of Mary, Queen of Scots.

Memorization: We continued our academic vocabulary as well as our Anima Christi. Bubbles was having difficulties memorizing it so I suggested she put it to music. Little did I realize that she would compose a beautiful piece of music with the use of chords. I have asked her piano teacher for some sheet music paper for her to write out the notes. (She is not thrilled about what she considers "extra work".) Bubbles also memorized a poem by Sir Walter Raleigh entitled: The night before his death. As she puts it, "This is the worst poem ever." I explained to her that not every poem had to rhyme. I guess I've spent too much time memorizing Shel Silverstein. Prez had to memorize a poem entitled, Who can see the wind by Christina Rossetti. This was to complement his Science on wind and waves.

Writing: Bubbles had to write a message and then code it. This was based on our study of Mary, Queen of Scots, and her coded messages that were used to convict her of attempted murder of Queen Elizabeth. Bubbles also wrote a paper about something she did that she regretted. This was after learning about the French assassinations of the two Henrys.