Today was an early release day, so on the shortened schedule we stuck to the more formal aspects of English: spelling and vocab.
1. Then/Than Notes. Students took the following notes:
then = used for time
memory trick: then = next = time
then, next, and time all have “e”s. You can usually replace “then” with “next.”
For example, “Then I went to bed” -> “Next I went to bed.”
than = used for comparisons
memory trick: than = compare
than and compare both have “a”s. Only use “than” when you are comparing two things.
For example, the lyric “I can do anything better than you,” compares what I can do with what you can do.
2. Odyssey verb charades. Because students typically think of verbs as “action words” like “run” and “jump,” we started by listing verbs that can’t be seen. Some of these verbs are hope, wish, want, think, be, and feel. Then, students drew infinitive verbs from a box to act out for the class. One or two students acted out the verb in front of the entire class. Then, each team of 3 – 5 students guessed what verb the team was trying to show and wrote it in the infinitive form on their team’s small whiteboard. For an extra point, teams wrote sentences using the word with a character from The Odyssey. Some sentences were: “Odysseus escaped from Polyphemus’ cave under the ewes,” and “Calypso seduced Odysseus.”
HW: Read “The Enchantress Circe,” p. 673-674 by Friday and take reading notes on stickies, at least 2 stickies per page. Bring textbook/The Odyssey to class tomorrow. We will continue working on “The Cyclops” episode.
ALEXA GARVOILLE 