Second Week of Quarter 3

  

                             

 Salvete, Spartanae Familiae!

4th Grade

In 4th grade we've started talking about prepositions in Latin. These are important vocabulary words since we still use a lot of them in English. Words like Sub, Super, Ad, Ab, and In are just a few examples. This will help give us the puzzle pieces to solve longer English words- muscles that are adductors are muscles that bring limbs closer to the body, while muscles that are abductors move a limb away from the body. Ad is Latin for to or towards, and ab is Latin for away from. 

Looking ahead: We'll keep working on prepositions for another week or so, and then we'll move on to the corpus. Anatomy is another way we still use Latin today, and a lot of the terms will sound somewhat familiar. 

5th Grade

In 5th grade we've been looking at our new vocabulary lists and identifying different cognates and derivatives. We wrapped up our first story of Chapter 4 where we learned to ask important questions like: Quis tu es? and Quid tu habes? and learned important jobs like argentarius, artifex, and tonsor. 

Looking ahead: We're building up to our Chapter 4 story, 'In Basilica'. A Basilica for the ancient Romans was essentially a meeting hall. It was often were legal matters were carried out and business deals were made. Anton-Hermann Chroust writes "the grandeur that was Rome was actually the grandeur of the Roman Law and the grandeur of the Roman Law was in fact the concerted achievement of the Roman legal profession." 
Indeed, the Basilica's built in the ancient world were a testament to the Roman legal system, which long surpassed even the life of the Roman Empire itself. 

6th Grade

In 6th grade we started our new vocabulary lists and rounded out our discussion of Thermae and Palaestra. These were important fixtures of a Roman's daily life, and were the welcome symptoms of a stable society. 

6th grade students also got to try their hands at writing their own Latin stories using their new vocabulary lists. Expressing our own thoughts and ideas is why we use any language at all, and it helps put new vocabulary words into context. 

Looking Ahead: We'll continue to talk about Rhetoric and how important the art of argument is for both modern and ancient worlds. The original idea of school for the Romans was the idea of a social playground. Education was meant to be enjoyed, as we often learn meaningful lessons through games and competition. We use translation races and vocabulary games in our Latin classes to try and carry on that same spirit of learning through play, just like the Romans did before us. 

What a frosty ending to our second week of Quarter 3! I finished writing this post on my couch looking out at the frozen world outside. If one is lucky enough to have someplace warm to be, it's a nice reminder to slow down and enjoy the last quiet stillness of winter before the business of spring arrives. 

We've potted our bulbs in anticipation, Narcissus pseudonarcissus and Narcissus papyraceus to be exact. Quarter 3 is a lot like waiting for Narcissus bulbs to sprout - there is a lot of growth indoors but it's still too cold to go outside. Hopefully the ice will thaw soon and we can get into the garden where we belong. 

As always, if you have any questions you may contact me at emily.riedlinger@greatheartswesternhills.org.

Cura ut Valeas,

Magistra Riedlinger