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Halloween.

Today, Hunter reviewed his 20 new vocabulary words, and then read the following poems with me: "The Listeners" by Walter de la Mare and "Beware: Do Not Read This Poem" by Ishmael Reed. We discussed the purpose of a title, the poem's visual elements, tone changes, and poet/speaker role. He answered questions to recall, infer, and evaluate.

We used the text to explore cultural advances during the Hellenistic Era. We looked at Greek drama--the tragedies and the comedies. We examined scientific and mathematical advances, the library at Alexandria, medical advances, Ptolemy and Archimedes.

Hunter left early with Lance.

We began by exploring Macedonia geographically, then went on to research Philip II and his son Alexander who became known as "The Great." for using Greek Armies to unite an empire that stretched from India to Egypt. We went online and found that Philip II of Macedonia hired Socrates to tutor his son Alexander. Then we discussed Greek drama, Herodotus and his scientific way of exploring and writing about the past--a "modern" way of looking at history.

Continuing to build a physical understanding of motion by studying graphs of distance, displacement,speed, velocity and acceleration.Practiced solving with basic kinematics formulas to solve for acceleration.

Hunter began the session with a review of the long and short vowel sounds. He practiced reading real and nonsense words. Hunter charted 14/15 words correctly. We spent some time discussing and then practicing spelling two syllable words. These words have both closed and vowel-consonant-e syllables. The instructor also had Hunter redo a word page of one syllable words that included both syllable types.

We started with the textbook and read up on the Peloponessian War and Pericles. We then perused (shared reading) sections on Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Then we went to the computer lab for more in-depth on-line research on the same subjects.

Today, Hunter and I reviewed his second set of vocabulary words. We followed this up by watching a TED Talk on living a waste free life, and discussing the process essay. He wrote the introduction to a process essay on getting into a varsity football team--advice for high school freshmen. He has three main points and a strong thesis.