Mercer and I researched the obsidian rock he purchased in South Dakota when he visited with his parents in 2020. We learned it is an igneous rock and naturally occurring volcanic glass formed when lava extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth. Mercer described its physical characteristics as that of shiny glass, and we saw that it is actually described as having a glassy lustre slightly harder than window glass. Mercer viewed a videotape of a man fashioning tools such as arrowheads out of obsidian and copied his method to shave off a few slivers of glass. He noted that the man was wearing two layers of leather while doing the demo. Mercer is fascinated by geology and enjoys doing research, gaining many ideas from the videos he watches.

Work on Mercer's color theory drawings for the duration of class. Use the end of class to go over the Space handout. Go over foreground, background, and middle-ground. Be able to identify the horizon.

Mercer became absorbed in the academic game, 'ABCYA,' this morning. He concentrated on math challenges, first guesstimating the number of marbles in a jar if permitted to view 3D angles of the jar. He then proceeded to rise to the challenge of answering Roman numeral questions and only needed help remembering that the D stood for 500. Mercer is not easily deterred and remains on task and focused when challenged and interested.

Mercer took his spelling and Wordly Wise tests and made a 100 on both. He completed an activity using his Wordly Wise words in context. We continued watching the movie, "From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler," taking notes and comparing how the movie and the book are alike, and how they are different.

Work with Mercer on finishing his color theory work so that we can move on to landscape and cyanotype printing. Work on adding final details to the first three drawings and completing his last drawing. He worked mostly today on the 4th snake's eye and the surrounding scales.

Mercer began exercises from the 6th grade math Envision textbook, percent of a number.

Lesson 1 Earth’s Layers: We learned to identify Earth’s compositional and physical layers and describe their properties. We identified Earth’s five physical layers: lithosphere, asthenosphere, mesosphere, outer core, and the inner core. Then we looked at the composition of the three layers: crust, mantle, and core. The crust is made mostly of oxygen, silicon, and aluminum which form silicates such as quartz.
Assignment: Add pictures and definitions of new vocabulary to science notebook.

Read/Computer-Social studies weekly: week #11.
Topic: Greek society and government.
Answer comprehension questions.

This afternoon, Mercer enjoyed some time outdoors with his peers after his 2:30 class. After about 15 minutes, we returned inside and he worked on Spanish vocabulary and pronunciation. The terms reviewed related to food. Mercer has good pronunciation of the various foods. He knew 20 out of the 25 words and pronounced them correctly.

Substitute - reviewed rocks, sedimentary, fossils, igneous, practiced writing and completing worksheet.