KIDDING! Geez!
She did learn about sonnets this last week. One night her homework was to scan and analyze Shakespeare's sonnet 46, "Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war," which I thought was a strange choice for them, as it's so thinky and fussy and wrapped around its own axle. But I can read the absolute shit out of a sonnet, so I was like, "Yes, FINALLY, I can put this PhD to use! Let's tee up this sonnet and knock the cover off! Go team!"
But then she didn't even really need me. After I helped her with some of the vocab, I asked her what the sonnet was saying and she goes, "Well, it's like the eye and heart disagree over who gets the pretty person they're talking about and they decide that the eyes will get the outside and heart the inside of the person but I don't think this is a real problem that anyone ever has in real life." I was like, "Okay. Pretty much just write that down."
Are y'all learning anything new or is it just one long slide towards summer?
xoxo
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11 comments:
Way to go Laura on analyzing that sonnet! Smart girl! Sounds like there's going to be a whole lot of wasted school days if they are already finished with teaching/learning. Boy! We never got away with that "checking out" in my days in the classroom. Oops, am I showing my age? "I Love Lucy" really.
Ah, the high ponytail. I spent many hours tending to mine back in the day. Of course, part of that time went into figuring out which color scrunchy to wear. These girls don't realize how easy they've got it.
Love the sonnet analysis. Can she come help me with my Jane Eyre chapter?
We have an agonizing eight more weeks of school. My seventh grader just finished "Lord of the Flies," and I think he was a bit too young to have read it because he looked stunned when I told him the "fly" was a metaphor. My other son is doing some geometry and was embarrassed to bring in a cereal box as instructed because it was "one of those gross kinds, not the cool kinds" of cereal.
I love, love, love Laura's analysis of the sonnet and dismissal of its real life practicality.
Wow that sounds very advanced for fifth grade. (but then many Ontario junior schools seem to give a very basic content and then slam them in middle school where they spend much of grade 6 getting whipped into shape)
When does your school year end? Ours ends mid June (private schools) or end June for the rest. And yes; they do seem to go into park mode after June 1 in many schools; spend a lot of time showing DVD's of such high literary content as "hotel for dogs" or similar.
Emma (also 5th grade) only has 3.5 weeks of school left. Last Thursday they began their final "Interest Group" week. They do this 3 or 4 times a year, taking a break from regular content and allowing kids to choose from several "interest group" topics. Her last one was "World Religions" (including a field trip to see the B'hai temple in Chicago); for this one she chose "Hand Made" and has so far made paper, worked with clay, and learned to crochet. I often want to go to school with her during these weeks :-)
Yay, pie chart!
My kids are young enough that they don't really do testing yet, although apparently this year in 3rd grade they will start doing a "practice" week of tests. I am told to expect an exhausted child. So they are still full force. He just finished his biography report, for which I had to dress him up like Louis Armstrong, and now he's working on producing an "eco-friendly" household product made with stuff from the garden for science. I think we are going with lip balm.
We, too, have about 8 weeks left, and no testing this year (thank goodness) but some parental agonizing over whether to think about private HS year after next is wearing me out.
No texting? I guess that phones aren't permitted in school. Does she apply lip gloss after adjusting her ponytail? I have two students who are fanatic lip gloss appliers.
Well, we have a full month longer than you of school to go, so nope, still in the thick of it. MSP (WA state tests) are happening now, and happily it's the ONLY standardized test our kids have to take.
But yes, once June rolls around, I suspect there will be much figurative gum-smacking and half-hearted book-reporting.
Yeah, I think our last day is May 22? And of course for the fifth grade there's a slew of celebrations and observances that also eat into what would be instructional time.
I think the testing does tire them out when they're younger, but it's funny how even in fifth grade some class moms are scurrying around arranging snacks and, wait for it, goody bags for these kids to support their test-taking stamina.
more like sliding into spring here in Norway - summer is still a good way in the future
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