This morning Bobby and I reviewed the next section in chapter five which featured adding and subtracting fractions. Bobby admitted that he was having trouble with this concept and was not able to complete all of his homework. We spent half of the period going over the homework questions. We completed #'s 16-25. I am not assigning homework for Bobby over the holiday break given the fact that he will be traveling for much of the time.
This afternoon we reviewed the rise and fall of the Kush civilization and began a chapter five review. We will be having a chapter 5 assessment when Bobby returns from the holiday break. Homework is to complete problems 1-10 in the chapter five review.
This afternoon we continued our review of Gregor Mendel's experiments with pea plants and how he came to two important conclusions with regard to heredity: Gregor observed how a single parent plant self pollinated and produced identical offspring, and how two parents pass physical traits onto their offspring. Homework is to read pages 159-163 and complete the reading check, key concept check and visual check questions in this section.
This morning we began section 5.2 which features how to add and subtract like fractions. We spent part of the class practicing some of the sample problems and addressing any questions that came up. Homework is to read pages 229-232 and complete the problems 10-25.
This afternoon we examined the Kush during our exploration of post Egyptian society. We learned that the Kush were ideally located on the east bank of the Nile River and developed extensive trade relationships which resulted in developing an affluent or thriving economy. Iron, gold, ebony and ivory were some of the commodities that the Kush successfully traded. Homework is to read pages 127-131 and complete 1-3, read pages 122-126 and complete #'s 1-4.
Bobby spent the majority of this class debriefing from his recent math test. I shared with Bobby some of my observations regarding his behavior and the fact that he took an excessive amount of time during the assessment. We also discussed how his attitude or demeanor had a lot to do with his inability to focus during the first half of the test. Bobby acknowledged that he had "psyched" himself out before the test had started and agreed that his performance was negatively influenced by this behavior. I am not sure how much time Bobby had invested in preparing for the test which should have provided him with some confidence that he actually knew the material prior to taking the test. He did a much better job of answering the questions during our math class where we graded the math test.
We reviewed the similarities and differences between plant and animal eukaryotic cells. We created a booklet and participated in a few other activities to help us remember the organelles contained in each cell. Then we looked deeper at the process of photosynthesis performed by the chloroplasts in plant cells. We learned that chloroplasts contain a green pigment called chlorophyll which captures energy from sunlight. Then this light energy combines carbon dioxide and water which forms the sugar glucose and oxygen gas. Plants break down glucose for energy and store excess sugars in the roots and stem. Plant cells are very different from animal cells in that they make their own food. The oxygen and sugar that the chloroplasts produce is needed for mitochondria to perform cellular respiration. The products of photosynthesis are the starting materials for cellular respiration just as the products of cellular respiration are some of the materials needed for photosynthesis.
Bobby read an excerpt of "Water." Through discussion, he identified the details leading to the climax and resolution of the story. He identified prepositional phrases and objects of prepositions. He completed a spelling quiz and we continued to read "Holes."
Bobby read articles on the internet to gather information for a research paper. He noted interesting details and cited sources. He began to organize information into topics for paragraph development.
