Descriptive Science Assignment- Flowers and Trees - By, Seneca

The Illinois State Tree
Did you know that the white oak tree is the Illinois state tree?  Well, now you know.  The white oak tree's leaves have round and smooth edges and is a rather dark green.  The lines or veins are almost white but actually a light green!  The acorns are green and brown.  The top is a darkish light brown that has a small amount of white in it's creases.  The body is green, brown and yellow.  The green is almost all of the body.  The yellow comes in at the bottom.  And finally, the brown is at the very bottom.  The twig is a reddish brown and some sort of grey.  There are lots of buds that are small round and hairless.  Twigs are almost all the time shiny.  The bark of w white oak is white or ashy grey.  Varying from scaly to irregularly platy and blocky in shape.  The white oak can grown to a massive height of 100 feet tall!

The Illinois State Flower
Did you know the native violet is the Illinois state flower?  Well, it's not the only one of it's kind.  The native violet comes in many different colors such as yellow, white, blue-violet, and purple and even an unusual green!  There are at the least 30 different species and 25 of them  can be found in the Chicago land alone!  A lot of the species are small and only have 5 petals.  1 violet species was nicknamed Johnny jump up, and many more are the subject of nursery rhymes and poems.  It is also called nature's vitamin pill.  Some you can even eat!

Homeschool Happenings - This Week's Lineup

After a few comrades, and compatriots have inquired as to Seneca's daily lessons, and other homeschool related questions, I have decided to post occasional lessons and lesson plans.
I shall begin with this week's skeleton of a subject plan.



Spelling - Unit 14 - receive list on Monday, folder due Friday with words rewritten in cursive and each word used in a sentence.  ***Challenge***  Use at least two words per sentence

Grammar - continue adjectives packet - parts of speech hangman - MadLibs Monday!!

Reading - continue and complete Homer Price writing/sketching assignment - complete vocabulary assignment - complete Shortcuts from newspaper - select a newspaper article to read and give oral report

Science - complete all assignments 1. Write a paragraph each describing the Illinois state tree and flower.  2.  Complete and color plant parts book and diagrams.  Begin lesson 2 - read section, complete review, ***Write It Wednesday*** write at least one paragraph about edible seeds around the world, accompany with at least two illustrations

History - Vaudeville project phase 1 - Choose and research your performers, write your paragraphs, include photos if you like.

Geography - Begin Mountain region packet, complete this region in your Geography project

Math - You have advanced to triple digit addition and subtraction with borrowing and carrying for your Wednesday Weeklies timed tests.  Continuing fractions (lesson 4), Wednesday Weeklies (15 min three digit addition 64 questions, 15 minute three digit subtraction 35 questions, 10 minute multiplication 30 questions), long division handout

Additional - calisthenics/exercise 10-15 min every day piano practice 25-30 min every day, helping friends with new house often as possible, Tuesday gymnastics 3:45-4:30, Thursday Calvin and Hobbes party @ Crete library, Saturday charity spaghetti dinner @4 and get together with friends @6, Sunday taking the family to Hollywood Blvd. for Gnomeo and Juliet and dinner.

Homeschool Happenings - History Project (Vaudeville)

Seneca has finished her lessons regarding the culture of the United States in the first decade of the 1900s, and while she was attentive throughout, one thing really caught her attention.  Vaudeville.  This does not surprise me as anything relating to the fine arts always catches her fancy.  So, I sat down with the hubby and we came up with an end of chapter history project that will really get her psyched.*que the music*

"The Show Must Go On!"

1.  Vauldeville performers.
Select at least two, but as many as five, well known vaudeville performers.  You can find a detailed list of the well known vaudevillians at these websites.
Famous Vaudeville Performers A-K
Famous Vaudeville Performers L-Z
Once you have chosen your subjects, research their vaudeville careers and write one paragraph about each person you chose.  You may include a photo of each performer, should you so choose.

2.  Vaudeville performances
You have briefly read about the acts performed during a vaudeville performance.  Now, read about them more in depth, discover what a typical vaudeville show would include.  Then, you are to describe a vaudeville show in at least one paragraph.  Be creative here, you can pretend that you are in the audience!  You may include a photo of a theatre, a vaudeville advertisement, an actual performance.

3.  Artistic project
You now have all the information you need.  Your final stage of this project is to create a vaudeville performance.  You have complete creative freedom here, kind of.  If you want to use your theatre box, or if you want to draw the stage yourself, the choice is yours.  You must meet the following requirements.

• You must have a stage.
• The performers on stage must be those about whom you wrote.
• The performers must be shown performing whatever feat for which they were known.

Here are some creative tips. 
This does not have to be drawn on a piece of paper and colored with crayons, as a matter of fact, YOU CAN'T DO THAT!  Be creative, make it interesting! 
Include the following, should you choose
Movable parts - attach your performers to straws or strings so that you can act out the performance.
A side stage stand - these were used to tell the audience who was performing and what they were doing.
Actual photographs - there is nothing wrong with printing and cutting out a picture of your chosen performer, as long as that picture shows them doing their vaudeville performance.  (Can't find a proper picture?  Cut out their head and paste it to a hand made body doing their performance.)

You have two weeks to complete your assignment.  Your timing should go as follows.
Week One

1. Select and research your performers.
2. Write your paragraphs about your selected performers
3. Research the actual vaudeville performances
4. Write your paragraphs about the performances

Week Two

1. Plan your artistic recreation
2. Gather all materials needed
3. Create your vaudeville performance

Chicago Bears Don't Quit.

I have to say that I am heartily disappointed to see all the garbage that the players are saying about fellow pro, Jay Cutler.  I have come to expect fans to use social media to further their inexperienced, uneducated, and grammatically disastrous thoughts to an uncaring audience, but other players?


Most of you may know that I am not a professional football player, that being said, even I know that the medical staff has the final word whether or not a player can get in the game.  Is this fact lost of other professional football players?  Long gone are the days when injured players receive a shot of morphine and a pat on the back and I am disgusted to see other players attempt to bolster their own twitter numbers by bashing one of their own.

If I could personally respond to them I would merely tell them this . . . It is very easy to criticize someone behind the perceived anonymity of the internet.  Most certainly, considering that you yourself are sitting at home, nowhere near a divisional playoff game, only a fool would heed your words. 


My personal gratitude for the multitude of fans who support Jay Cutler and dismiss the heckling and jibing.

More importantly, Chicago Bears teammates are supporting Jay, and at the end of the day, that's what matters most.  I am proud that Brian Urlacher and Olin Kreutz are vocal supporters of Jay, as well they should be.  My 30 years on this earth have taught me that the only reason why anyone will hate you, is because they want to be just like you.

Jay Cutler, you are one hell of a quarterback.  Chicago Bears, you have one HELL of a season.  I can't wait to get started all over again.  I am proud of you all.

Bears/Packers THIS SUNDAY

Click to enlarge.

Two Book Reviews, By Seneca Spencer.

Me at the Crete Library

Hi, I'm Seneca and I am going to review two books I just read for school (I <3 Home school).  I use <3s for my ratings, five is the highest possible score.

Let's start with The Scarlet Stockings Spy written by Trinka Hakes Noble and illustrated by Robert Papp.  It is a part of the Tales of Young Americans series.  The book was very interesting and very sad, but it was more interesting than sad.  The artwork was very beautiful, my favorite picture was of Maddy Rose (the main character) and her mother, they both looked very happy in their little cottage house.

Maddy Rose was a spy (kind of) during the American Revolution.  She had a code to let her brother, who was in the army, know what the British were doing.  Her brother died in the war, but another boy took over for getting the messages from Maddy.  One day, Maddy found out that her brother was dead, and she got her brother's coat, and used her stockings and her petticoat and sewed an American flag.

I would recommend this book for someone who is interested in American history, kids my age (9) to 15 or 16, and even some adults!

This book gets <3 <3 <3 <3 <

The second book I am going to review today is titled Fun With Roman Numerals by David A. Adler, and illustrated by Edward Miller III (that's 3 in Roman Numerals, lol).  This book is helpful, educational, and fun.  The artwork is really cool!  There are really great pictures of every day things that use Roman Numerals.  My favorite page is the Roman men playing in the Superbowl and they have Roman Numerals on their jerseys.  It's very cool.  The back cover even has a chart with Roman Numerals all the way up to 1,000!  I'm going to copy it into my math notebook, so I will always have it, it is very helpful.  I want to learn to play with them with every day math problems, and start using them.

I recommend this book because it's educational and stuff.  It's also very fun, so really I would recommend it for people that want to learn about Roman Numerals and I can't even put an age group on this because anyone who has a good sense of humor would like this book and could learn from it. 

This book gets <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

I hope that you enjoyed my reviews and I hope you find these books in your local library system!  Next time I will review Megamind!

<3
Seneca