Bible: Praying for God's voice to speak

Prayer Journal: Pray silently for 5 minutes for God to speak to you. Then, choose one of these:

1. Write a 13-line poem about what God said to you
2. Draw something beautiful about what God said to you
3. Write a 2-3 paragraph diary about what God said to you. Write your feelings, thoughts, ideas, emotions, worries, fears, and desires.

Activity: Today we did something exciting and started playing through the game, "Five Warriors" (about the life of King David).  Please review the following verses in preparation for tomorrow, as we will continue to story from where we left off.

• 1st Samuel 17:1-3
• 2 Samuel 23:18-19
• 1 Samuel 17:34-36

What kind of man was King David as a young man? What are some ways God prepared David to be a king even before he became a king?

In tomorrow's class, you will need to write a response to these questions.

English: Typing the Story

Activity: Continue your typing story you started on January 31st. Keep typing from where you left off, and see how far you can get in 45 minutes.  Try to not look at your fingers at you type!

Remember that on Wednesday, we are going to have a quiz on Unit 2 in the Grammar Packet you received last week. The quiz will be open book, but it might be helpful to review the packet just in case and refresh your memory after an exciting weekend.

Planning: Tomorrow we are going to continue writing our story by working on scene-building. To prepare, make sure you have finished all preliminary character development stuff, such as your character sketches, backstories, Hero's Journey outlines, foolscap, character dreams, and clothing scenes.

English - Stepping into Kim's World

Today, we started something new, listening to the audiobook of Rudyard Kipling's novel "Kim". We are going to vary between Rudyard Kipling and Jules Verne this semester, using the Librivox recordings of their novels.

Here are the links:

Kim, by Rudyard Kipling

Around the World in Eighty Days, by Jules Verne

Today, we listened to the first 15 minutes of Kim. You can watch it here, or go to the Librivox website and listen there:

Activity: As you are listening to the reading, write down interesting descriptions you hear. What words or phrases does Kipling use to describe the world, people, places, or ideas? For example:

• sleek and shiny young men of fashion
• thy father was a pastry cook
• stinking artemeshia
• old tortoise in the sunlight

...and so on. Try to fill up a page (if you can) with descriptions.

Bible: Learning to Listen

Prayer Journal: Ask God to help you listen better. (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24)

We are upping the quality on the prayer journal this semester.  Take some time to carefully craft a beautiful note to God. You can write down the verse on a piece of paper, draw a lovely design or picture to illustrate it, and then write a 5-7 sentence prayer on that design to fully express your desire to connect with God.

When we pray, we engage in a spiritual discipline. Art can also be a helpful spiritual discipline, so don't be afraid to use art and color to step closer to God's heart for you, and use your art and words as a way to grow closer to Him.

English: Dream a little

 Activity: Today's assignment is quite simple. Choose one of your character sketches (you should have completed all three by now, your protagonist, antagonist, and protagonist's helper) and then write down a dream that character has. Try to write around 500 words.

Be creative. Let the little voice in your head that criticizes you for all of your mistakes, let that little voice wander around outside and give that voice some fresh air (away from you), and then just enjoy writing whatever comes to your mind. Dreams are important to characters, because they will reveal new insights you have insight your mind about that character that you've never put into words. 

That's all for today!

English: Finish your Character Sketches

 Activity: Today is a catch-up day. Finish all three of your character sketches. You should have 3 sketches:

1. Your protagonist (or hero)
2. Your antagonist (or villain)
3. Another character who helps the hero somehow

Don't worry too much about making these sketches perfect. Try to get as many ideas as you can on the papers, and worry about the details later.

This is also a good chance to finish up the backstory for your protagonist if you haven't already (from last week).

English: Backstory

 Activity: Read the first chapter of Moby Dick out loud. Notice how Melville uses different paragraphs to describe Ishmael's ideas about sailors, America, why he enjoys sailing, and how he came to board a boat. What does chapter say about who Ishmael is and what he believes?

Worksheet: please fill out the following Backstory, and then write a 500 word backstory to explain as many details as you can. Why are these details important to your character?

Bible: Asking God for Strength

 Prayer Journal: Write a 5-7 sentence prayer about asking for strength from God, as well ass patience, kindness, compassion, and a sense of humor. [1 Corinthians 4:9-13]

Activity: Write an encouraging letter to Mr. Qin. Encourage him to stay strong during his tribulations. Use 2-3 Bible verses, some encouraging words, and illustrate your letter.

English: Phrases and Clauses

 Quiz: Answer the following questions -

    1. Does a phrase contain a subject that acts through a verb?
    2. What is missing from a sentence with a dangling modifier?
    3. Is "but" a coordinating or a subordinating conjunction?
    4. Rewrite this sentence so the modifier is clear: "Before they melted the kids decorated the snowmen."
    5. Can a dependent clause work as its own sentence?
    6. State all the coordinating conjunctions.
    7. How many independent clauses does a simple sentence have?
    8. What type of sentence has a dependent clause -- a compound sentence or a complex sentence?
    9. What must any clause contain?
    10. Which of these is NOT a kind of clause? Adverb clause, verb clause, noun clause, adjective clause

Other work: please continue your character sketches. This time, start sketching out your antagonist and the protagonist's helper, using the same form from Monday's class.

Bible: Righting my Ship

 Prayer Journal: Write a 5-7 prayer about asking God to keep your head in the right place.

Bible Journal: Share your 10 observations with another person and talk about your questions, concerns, or curiosities. Add some art to your observations to make them more colorful and interesting.

English: the Character Sketch

 Students, please complete the Character Sketch below.  

Character Sketch                                                                                          

1	Height/weight
2	Sex
3	Hair
4	Dress
5	Body
6	Shoes
7	Face
8	Mouth
9	Poses Hands/head Torso/legs Feet/gestures
10	Build
11	Arms
12	Legs
13	Imperfections
14	Age
15	Birth Date
16	Birthplace
17	Home (imaginary)
18	Favorite room
19	View from window
20	Habits
21	Vehicle
22	Name
23	Motive
24
25

Key Dates

	Year	What happened
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35

 

adapted from Robert J. Ray's "The Weekend Novelist"