Study Guide (printable version)

Here is the Study Guide, through Chapter 11.

Example: The people thought the gambler was aboveboard, but little did they know that he was very skillful with his toes and pulling cards out of his pants with his feet.

Example: To expunge his "back-ne", Jerry used a sponge to wash his back.

Why I use Anki
My flashcard program of choice is Anki. I haven't tried the others, but I like Anki for many reasons:

Anki is available for Mac, Windows and Linux (Debian/Ubuntu). It can also be used with iPhone/iPod touch, Zaurus and Windows Mobile.

Study strategy
It's pretty simple really.

Credit
I first read about the spacing effect and Anki at Mukokuseki.

The Plot is what happens in the story as a whole. In Jack and the Beanstalk the plot is that Jack steals treasure from the giant and becomes rich.

The Scene is one small part of the larger plot - Jack buying the beans could be one scene

The Theme.Don't confuse this with the plot. The theme is at a much deeper level altogether - it's what the story is really about (and often different people believe thay can see different themes in the same story). In Jack and the Beanstalk the theme is that there is hope that people can rise from dire poverty.

The Setting is the place and general environment where the story takes place. If it is a short story or anecdote, try to keep it to one setting; this gives the story unity.

The Protagonist. This what we used to call the hero of the story - the one who generates the action or has things happen to him, usually to one who gets most of the scenes. The protagonist can be male or female, child or adult or even (usually in children's stories) an object. Think Black Beauty, Winnie the Pooh and Thomas theTank Engine. In Jack and the Beanstalk the protagonist is Jack.

The Antagonist. The bad guy. Again it could be male or female, child, animal or inanimate. If the story is about the struggle of climbing a treacherous mountain or crossing a malarial swamp, and there is no human enemy, then the mountain or the swamp takes on the role of antagonist. If you are telling a personal story about fighting, say, an addiction, then that is your antagonist. In Jack and the Beanstalk, the giant is the antagonist.

Knowing these terms might not help you create a better story, but you will be able to discuss them like a pro and dazzle your friends with this new vocabulary.

What nationality are you? I'm Portuguese.

Aprende mais algumas nacionalidades aqui.

Escolhe oito países que te agradem mais.

Sobre cada país recolhe a seguinte informação e organiza-a em tamanho A4.

country: location; nationality: map; flag; capital city: other cities ; area; population; some photos

Não te esqueças que um deles à tua escolha irá fazer parte de uma página do teu Webfolio.

Os restantes serão lá arquivados como documento word no teu arquivador de files.

a + -a = 0

When you take a number, and add its opposite to itself , the answer will be zero. 

Example 1:

Let’s imagine the weather temperature this winter is at 5 degrees Fahrenheit.  A storm moves in and the temperature decreases by  5 degrees Fahrenheit.

5degrees +  -5degrees (decrease in degrees)  =  0 degrees

Example 2:

You have $100 and you deposit it into your bank account. Your current balance is $100. You withdraw $100 the next week to pay a bill.   This situation could be represented mathematically by additive inverse.

(+) 100 -100   Apply rule for subtracting integers….

(+)  100 + -100 = 0  Your balance is now zero.

Multiplicative Inverse

C=1/C                    12=1/12                    0.7 = 1/0.7              a-1=1/a-1

c/1=1/c                    12/1=1/12                 0.7/1=1/0.7            a-1/1=1/a-1

  c/c                            12/12                         0.7/0.7                   a-1/a-1

    1                                 1                                1                             1

When you have any value, if you multiply it by its reciprocal, the answer will be one. The value cannot contain 0.

It's grown considerably since then. I'm sure I'm forgetting many of them, but here's the almost-17 months-old addition, in no particular order:

dog
bird
baby
book
spoon
bowl
peas
bib
no (usually said quite loudly)
up
down
flower
banana (pronounced "nana")
apple
eyes
nose
ear
knee
elbow
socks
star
boat
water
help
chair
waffle

She also sort of has words for diaper, fork, and knife, but they don't seem consistent to me yet.

Her three favorite words are, of course, Mama, Daddy, and Elliot, all of which she says incessantly.

It's not too late to get your students involved in the election!  You don't have to spend a lot of money to do it either.

University of Virginia's Center for Politics Youth Leadership Initiative has a large number of teacher's resources, lesson plans and background information for schools to use when teaching about the election.  Enrollment is free and entitles you to a CD which tells you how to run a mock election at your school.

If you choose to do a mock election for your school, you can set up a computerized election  through YLI that will be held online between October 20-30, 2008.

The League of Women Voters has a great nonpartisan election guide. You can get it here.  The election guide has a section that tells all about the salary, duties, election requirements and term of the President.  But what makes this elections REALLY great is a non partisan short (read: kid-friendly) overview of the three major candidates (betcha forgot Nader!) and their take on the following five issues: global climate change, cost of health care, economic disparity and education.

Come to think of it NONPARTISAN is a great word to put on your spelling and vocabulary words this week! For that matter, if you want to learn other election terms and even play a bingo game with students look at this from Education World.

I really LOVE the things that Cybrary man has done with his website. I found his link at teachernet and I think he is one inspiring teacher.  Among other things I found at his site was a link to many pictures and ideas for election bulletin boards, doors and displays.  Here's a link to his election collection, but I recommend staying to see all the other things he has gathered at his website besides the election.

I had a vocabulary class a half hour later just down the hall in the same building.  It was a little bit more stressful.  There were about 30-40 students in the room but we had to each take a turn introducing ourselves and telling something about the country where we are from.  After that we had to dissect two different German dictionary entries defining Apfel (Apple).  You may think that that's not very exciting and you would be right.  To make matters worse, the teacher called on me to describe all of the abbreviation, pronunciation guide, etc.  I don't even like to speak in classes when I am comfortable with the language.  But I made it through this class and now it will just be a good lesson teaching me how to check my pride at the door.

The best part of the day was once I got back to the apartment.  Austin had gone out this morning and gotten me a piece of apple pie (not traditional all-American apple pie though) for a first-day-of-school-treat!  His mom usually makes him chocolate chip cookies on the first day of school but read the post from a few days ago and you will understand why he didn't do that.

There are so many tools available to us today to assist in guiding our children's learning. The internet is one of those.

One of our favorite sites, Starfall.com offers spelling games with simple words. (Go to the page here) They have games to play in which the kids can finish the word- easy words like fox, box, log, dog, etc. It sounds out the letters for them and then says the word.

Additionally, they can print out the words that they completed, and it creates a nice worksheet where they can trace and write the word, and then create a sentence and draw a picture about it.

The interactive capability on the internet is great for combining auditory, visual and kinesthetic. You can then transfer what they do on the computer to a worksheet that carries the learning further. It makes learning a little more fun than doing only worksheets.

Another way to make spelling fun is to make it informal. Don't require that your child sit down and study their spelling. Take a walk and review the words, spell the things around you, dog, bike, ball, book, spider- whatever you find in the world around you, especially the things that your children takes interest in like dragons, princesses, ballet or karate.

For older children, you can play online Wordfind or Spelling Match. For younger children, sing spelling songs and word games

Allow your children to type on the computer. Let them send emails, or post on a blog, to practice spelling and computer skills (a must for today's world) (Here's an idea that incorporates keyboard and flash cards)

Remember that teaching something does not have to be difficult or cumbersome. The more natural you can make it, the more you can relate it to your child's life, and the more fun it is, the easier it will be for them to learn and remember it. Our purpose is to make learning fun, incorporate it into daily life and develop into a lifetime habit, instead of for only a 7 hours a day, 5 days a week for 18 years. Learning is always!

For more ideas on teaching spelling (on and off line), click here.

staid adj. - fixed, settled, permanent

Example: Stanley, a character from "The Office", is staid; he is not looking for any excitement or change in his life and likes the stability of his 9-5 office job.

Also, if you have a even remotely funny idea for a sketch teaching an SAT vocab word, please post it as a video response to mine! It would be sweet if there was a library of hilarious SAT videos on the web that kids could learn from versus plain old flashcards.

Word Jar – For Independent Reading

Vocabulary Frames is a flashcard method for learning new vocabulary.

However, this strategy should not be used for every vocabulary word encountered.

Words that introduce new concepts or ideas are best used with Vocabulary Frames.

Steele, Kathy (2008). Four Vocabulary strategies for high school students. Retrieved October 7, 2008, from LitSite Alaska Web site: http://litsite.alaska.edu/workbooks/readingvocabulary.html

See all archived messages under Resources at http://www.hickoryschools.net/C10/Curriculum%20and%20Instruction/default.aspx

The doctor box was in fact a shoe box, filled with ... oh, this and that. A lot of it came from the kitchen: plastic measuring cups and spoons, a funnel or two, a mesh strainer. There was often a (carefully washed) pill-bottle or two in there. (Maybe that's where the name came from?) Fabric scraps, a belt buckle, a handful of jigsaw puzzle pieces, a couple of polished rocks, a feather. You get the idea. It was just a collection of interesting stuff. Interesting to a three-year-old, at any rate.

The contents of the box were not static. Some things were returned to their orginal spots, or used in crafts, or just lost somewhere. Other things were put in.

Whatever its contents, the doctor box was the favourite plaything for months and months. I could take it on car trips or trips to the doctor (maybe that explains the name?) or anywhere there'd be an otherwise boring downtime, knowing that the wonders of the doctor box would keep her happily occupied for as long as necessary.

Sometimes she was a doctor (name?), sometimes she was a chef, sometimes she was a fireman. (Not "fighter". She was a fireman.) Sometimes the items in the box had personas and characters: they tended to squabble amongst themselves a lot, the strainers and the feather and the rocks. A lot of chatter, a lot of imagination, a lot of very happy hours were passed with the doctor box.

It was the best money I never spent.

I take a similar approach to the daycare. People often assume that, as a daycare home, I must be overrun with toys. It's true, I have more toys stored in my dining room than the average mother of teens and a twenty-something! But I'm quite, quite sure I have far fewer toys kicking around than many (most?) homes with only one toddler. In part, that's simply practicality: I have a small house. I do not want piles of multi-coloured clutter toys littering my home. I do not want them, but, even more to the point, children do not need them.

Children do not need great mounds of toys. I am convinced that children with shelves and closets and cupboards full of toys are poorer at amusing themselves, and more in need of distraction, than children accustomed to fewer toys. Just because they have fewer toys does not mean they play less! They just play differently. One might argue, more creatively, using more imagination.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who's discovered the glories of the non-toy. I know I'm not because the writers and commenters over at Unclutterer have come up with a lovely long list of toy alternatives. Don't stop with the post. The commenters have a ton of good ideas!

One might note that a significant number of these non-toy playthings look to the adult eyes like work: sorting socks, making cookies, straightening the fringe on the carpet. Not to the child! With these kinds of activities, the children's play is not something remote and unconnected with the Real Life of the household, but is, instead, part of it. This sort of children's play models adult behaviour, helps children feel part of the family, gives them real, productive tasks in which to take pride. It builds self-esteem.

It is we adults who have decided that "play" is by definition frivolous, with no agenda but the activity itself. For children, play is how they make sense of the world around them. Everything and anything is play fodder: colouring, singing, sorting socks, putting dirty dishes in the sink (non-breakable, at this age!), blocks, puzzles, washing the car, counting to ten, sweeping up the dried leaves that fell off their leaf belts. Play is not frivolous, it is practicing life.

Life. Work, recreation, even conflict. It's all fodder for play.

My, I've wandered from my original idea... All right, given that we needn't feel guilty for "only" baking with our kids and "only" letting them help with chores, rather than playing with them; given that you can choose not to spend a heap of money on a mound of toys... Given all that, how does this manifest in your home? What are some non-toy playthings or activities that your child particularly enjoys?

a + -a = 0

When you take a number, and add its opposite to itself , the answer will be zero.  Let’s imagine the weather temperature this winter is at 5 degrees Fahrenheit.  A storm moves in and the temperature decreases by  5 degrees Fahrenheit.

5degrees +  -5degrees (decrease in degrees)  =  0 degrees

Ласк- (caress, cling)

ласк-а (caress, kindness)
В её глазах светит ласка. Kindness shines in her eyes.

ласк-ать (to caress, pet, fondle)
Мальшик ласкает кошку. The boy pets the cat.

ласк-овый (kind, affectionate)
Он принял меня ласково. He received me affectionately.

ласт-ить (to fawn, flatter)
В ожидании наследства он ластит старику. He fawns upon the old man, expecting to get an inheritance from him.