Friday, May 27, 2016

Finals review

This is a link to a variety of review games and exercises. Special thanks to Margo, Asher, and Noah for some of the suggestions!

REVIEW GAMES

Sunday, May 22, 2016

Another fun week ahead!

Be sure to scroll down to the post about the poetry recitations!
If I am missing a book from you, you need to be looking at home, in lost and found, in your locker, ANYWHERE you may have left it. If you cannot find the book, you need to bring me another copy or the money I can use to replace it.

This week we continue to review for finals.
Monday: "B" schedule - review will be focused on diagramming
Tuesday: Field Day! No classes
Wednesday: "A" schedule - review will be focused on diction, some grammar, literary elements
Thursday: "A" schedule - in class, you will take the Grammar Assessment (not graded)
Friday: "B" schedule, Kabbalat Shabbat in the morning at the Lower School
Review will cover grammar. If you will be out on Friday, look for a link to the activities which will be available beginning Friday morning.

NO SCHOOL Monday, May 30

Tuesday, May 31: "A" schedule - review, all topics
Wednesday, June 1: "A" schedule - Membean final
Thursday, June 2: Finals, 1/2 day
Friday, June 3: Last Day! 1/2 day

Saturday, May 21, 2016

In case you missed it...

Here is just a tiny sampling of the phenomenal work by my 6th (almost 7th) grade students.



Ms. Fields performed both Old English and Middle English for the students in the gym. Scroll down for the video. Here is the portion of the text of the "Prologue to the Canterbury Tales" that she performed:

The Canterbury Tales : Prologue

Here bygynneth the Book
of the tales of Caunterbury

Here begins the Book
of the Tales of Canterbury

1: Whan that aprill with his shoures soote
2: The droghte of march hath perced to the roote,
3: And bathed every veyne in swich licour
4: Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
5: Whan zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
6: Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
7: Tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
8: Hath in the ram his halve cours yronne,
9: And smale foweles maken melodye,
10: That slepen al the nyght with open ye
11: (so priketh hem nature in hir corages);
12: Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,

Translated into Modern English:
When April with his showers sweet with fruit
The drought of March has pierced unto the root
And bathed each vein with liquor that has power
To generate therein and sire the flower;
When Zephyr also has, with his sweet breath,
Quickened again, in every holt and heath,
The tender shoots and buds, and the young sun
Into the Ram one half his course has run,
And many little birds make melody
That sleep through all the night with open eye
(So Nature pricks them on to ramp and rage)-
Then do folk long to go on pilgrimage...


Sunday, May 15, 2016

May 16 - May 20

We had a lot of fun performing Shakespeare scenes from "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Blocks 7 and 3 will compete scene 9 this week.

You should be studying vocabulary via Membean and studying for your final a little bit each day. We have a number of assessment and review days over the next three weeks.

Day 1: Membean Assessment, review how to analyze a sentence, difference between parts of speech and parts of a sentence


Day 2: I will check in with each student on how the poetry memorization is coming. Students will have two activities to work on in class. One relates to sonnets, the other to analyzing sentences.

Day 3: Pronoun review - case/antecedent agreement/point of view

Day 4: "B" schedule will allow us all to gather outside for our poetry and Shakespeare scenes. If you do not perform outside, you will perform during our regular class time.

Sunday, May 8, 2016

"What fools these mortals be!" Dame Fortuna (Roman deity)

We move from Greek myths to poetry to SHAKESPEARE! This week we have fun with language and The Bard. We will be watching and studying "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Your homework is to be memorizing your poem for our recitation day on May 20, and to be completing your 90 minutes of Membean by 5/15.

As I explained in class, the most effective way to learn your poem is to learn only two or three lines per night, unless the lines are short. Each night, make sure you have the previous nights' lines in your memory, then add two more. Once you have all the lines memorized, begin working on phrasing - pauses, words that should have emphasis, and SPEAKING SLOWLY.

This week we also have:
Monday: regular schedule, you will receive your Study Guide for your final exam in LA
Tuesday: A schedule
Wednesday: A schedule for Yom HaZikaron observance, wear white/navy
Thursday: Yom HaAtzmaut - no regular classes, wear Israel shirt, navy bottoms or jeans, water bottle, hat
Friday: regular schedule