Exams!

Home ed exams? Writing your own exams for your kids to do?
Unheard of here in England, but I have decided to start doing exams at the end of every term, as recommended by Ambleside Online (the curriculum we follow).

Last week B7 spent a couple of days doing an end-of-year exam, with questions incorporating topics we have covered during this academic year, since September 2015. No revision at all! He just answered them straight up as best he could remember. He did really well, considering the topics had only ever been covered once up to  9 months ago and not since.

(in future I will do end-of-term exams)


I put these questions together based on Ambleside Online exam questions, using suggestions from my favourite blog Joyous Lessons, and some I made up myself.


and now we are officially on summer vacation! hooray!
We still need to finished The Little Duke by Charlotte Yonge, and The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle, but they are enjoyable reads and we'll continue them over the summer.




For interest, here  is B7's exam.  The questions are in bold. I used a voice recording app on my ipad to record most of  B7's answers, and then typed them out underneath  (some I didn't record). All the answers are printed out, together with the drawings he did, and in a file which he can keep as a record of his learning.



Geography

1.      Draw a diagram to illustrate the water cycle. Tell me all you know about it.
First you have an ocean, and then the sun shines a lot, and it gets really hot so the water evaporates and turns into clouds. And then the clouds rain back into the ocean. And that is the water cycle!

2.      What do you know about how a stream changes in the seasons.
In the dry seasons, if it is really dry the stream will dry up. Then in the rainy seasons streams are very full.

3.      What are the four seasons? How do we get them?
Spring, summer, autumn, winter.
The earth tilts, and the part that is towards the sun has summer, and the other side not tilting
towards the sun has winter. And then when the part that is titling towards the sun moves round,
it has winter, and the other part has summer.
And spring is between winter and summer and autumn is between summer and winter.

4.       Can you explain why the sun never seems to remain still in the same place in the sky?

Well, because the earth is turning on its axis and that makes it night and day, and that is why the sun never seems to remain in the same place in the sky.

5.        Describe a compass. What does it tell us?
A compass is a magnet closed in a box which says north, east, south, west, and the magnet points
towards the magnetic north pole and tells you where north is.

6.      Show me where Venice is on a map of Europe.

Arithmetic

1.      Add 405 + 1422.      Subtract: 378 – 63 3.       What numbers do X, Y and Z represent in this sequence:  3, 6, 9, 12,  X,  Y,   Z
4.      Multiply  47 x 4
5.  Divide 147 by 3
6.      Use <, >, or = to make this statement true: 76 __ 69
7.      What is a quadrilateral
8.      What is the perimeter of a square with a side of 6 cm?  What is the area?  Write the addition and multiplication equations for each.
9.      Draw and define the following:
:: What is a parallelogram?
:: What is a hexagon?
:: What is a right triangle?
10.  What is the gradient of a line if the rise = 16, and the run =4
11.  Work out the answer to 31 x 24

Shakespeare


     1. Draw a detailed scene from one of our Shakespeare plays this year  (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Cymbeline, Much Ado About Nothing, The Tempest).
Narrate what the scene depicts.


(he drew a picture of Ariel trying to confuse Ferdinand).



Picture Study

1.      Describe one of Monet’s paintings that we looked at (from memory).

I am going to tell you about the paiting of Jean Monet on his hobby horse. It’s a painting on Monet’s son, Jean Monet, and he’s on his hobby horse. And he’s outside in the garden. I’d say he’s about 4 or 5 years old. I can remember there are some red flowers in the background.

2.      Tell me what you know about Vincent Van Gogh’s life.

Vincent Van Gogh cut off his ear and he painted, but only one of his paintings sold during this life. He wasn’t successful during his own life, but very successful after his life.

Bonus Question for L5 (who wanted a question to answer!):

Tell me what you know about Degas:

He was famous for painting dancers and horses. Sometimes he got a little bit fierce but he always apologised. He went blind so he had to do sculptures.

Piano/Composer Study

1.      Tell me all you know about Beethoven’s life.

2.      Name one of you favourite Beethoven compositions. Listen to it.
3.      Play any piece from your piano book, in full.

Recitation

1.      Daddy will choose a poem for you to recite from memory from our poetry memorization book.
2.      You choose a poem you have enjoyed from Christina Rosetti OR one of our poetry books, Recite it out loud to the family as well as you can.

3.      Recite two Bible verses learned this year.

Italian

1. Sing Jingle Bells in Italian, or the chorus from Il Pappagallo.
2.      In Italian tell me what you do on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays, using full sentences.3.      In Italian tell me the Getting Ready to Go Outside series.

4.      Look out of the front window, and tell me three phrases in Italian for what you can see.

Singing

     Sing your favourite folksong and hymn from this year.


Literature

1.      Tell your favourite part of the Wind in the Willows.

Toad was thrown in prison!

Stealing a valuable motor car:  12 months
Furious driving: 3 years
And then for the cheek, which was pretty bad, 15 years.

And that was 19 years altogether!

Then in prison there was a king girl who made toad give her aunt some pennies, and then she got a dress and he escaped!

2.       Tell me what you remember about Betsy at the fair.

I remember when she had to do work. Betsy didn’t have any money to buy a train ticket, she had to work for money. She needed the train ticket to get back because someone was supposed to pick her up but they didn’t get to pick her up. She had to wash plates.

3.      Draw one of the wishes the children made from Five Children and It. Describe what happened.

See drawing

History

1. Tell me about the life of one Saint who lived during the days of the Roman Empire
St. Felix. He hid in a hole when it was the Christian persecution, and a spider wove a web over the hole so that the soldiers couldn’t find him. He was the Pope.

2. Draw a picture of the Colosseum, and tell me what you know about it

It’s a place where there were gladiatorial games. And it was a large building with an open area in the middle.

3. Who was Charlemagne and what did he do in Europe?

Charlemagne was a King…King Charles the Great. He travelled around on his horse converting people to Christianity.

4.      Tell me all you know about Pope St. Gregory the Great, and St. Augustine of Kent.

St. Gregory. He saw Angles tied up in a Roman slave market and he said “they’re not angles but ANGELS.” He was a Pope.

St. Augustine travelled to England to convert it to Christianity. He was a monk.

St. Gregory sent St. Augustine

5.  What do you know of Harald as a little boy? Tell everything you can think of.

When he killed the wolf by throwing his spears. He was in a mountain in the snow and he threw his spear at the wolf.
And then the funeral of Halfdan. And when Olaf was telling him about how he came.

6. Tell me everything you know about William the Conqueror and the Battle of Hastings

William the Conqueror fought the Battle of Hastings because Edward the Confessor died without any children and they made Edward’s advisor Harold, in to the King. But William the Conqueror was not happy because he wanted to be King. He came from Normandy, and sailed to England and burnt his ships. He won the Battle of Hastings.

7.      Describe one episode from St. Joan of Arc’s life

When she was taken to court by the English, they trialled her, and found her guilty. Then the burnt her. They felt sorry after that they had burnt a Saint, and she was innocent.



Natural History and General Science

1.      Think of one flower you have seen. Describe what it looks like and where you saw it growing.

Moon Carrot. It glows in the dark and is very rare. It is a white flower, it has one main stem which branches off and makes little white flowers.

2.      Draw an English bird of your  choice.

He chose to draw a raven, because he's recently heard the Edgar Allen Poem "The Raven", and
"nevermore quoth the raven" has become a bit of a catchphrase around here!

3.      Choose something you can remember from My Book of Bees and tell me all about it. Draw it.

When they add two hives together they put a layer of newspaper between the bee hives and the bees eat through the newspaper

4.      Describe one memorable thing you saw on your morning walks with daddy to the park in autumn, and spring.

We saw a plant with poisonous berries called Lords and Ladies. But we saw that with Grandpa.
I remember also a tree where it is always autumn under it. And I remember a tree with eyes. I remember our climbing tree, which is a wing nut tree. It grows in different countries.


Catechism & Bible

1.      Tell me everything you know about the Trinity.

The Trinity is three persons in one God. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Like a three leaf clove.

2.      Answer these Penny Catechism questions:
Who Made You?

God made me.

Why did God Make You?

To know Him, to serve Him and love Him in this world, so as to be happy with Him in the next world.

Of which must you take most care, of your body or of your soul?

I must take most care of my soul.

What is God?
The supreme spirit who is infinite.

3.      Tell me everything you know about the wedding feast at Cana.

I know it was Jesus’ first miracle. Jesus went to a wedding party with his mother Mary. And they ran out of wine, and Mary said, do whatever this man tells you. So Jesus told them to fill the barrels with water. He blessed them, and they the water turned in to wine.

4.      What are:

the Annunciation (what date is it celebrated?

It is when the angel Gabriel visited Mary to tell her she was going to have Jesus. 25^th March

the Nativity (what date is it celebrated?)
When Jesus was born. 25^th December! CHRISTMAS! (clap clap!)

the Transfiguration
When Jesus made Himself look different to the apostles. He was white.

the Resurrection
When Jesus rirses from the dead.

the Ascension
When Jesus goes to Heaven.

the Assumption (what date is it celebrated?)
When Mary goes to Heaven.
(doesn’t know)

5.      When is the Feast of St. Joseph?
March 19^th

6.      Tell me the seven Sacraments?


(yes – all correct)

7.      Say your Act of Contrition

(yes - Correct)

8.      What exactly is “genuflecting?”

When you kneel down and your right knee touches the ground.
     

Myths and Legends

1.      Tell me your favourite Norse Myth.

I liked the one about Heimdall, the watchman of Asgard. He stands on the rainbow bridge and looks out for danger. And when he sees danger he blows his horn. and one day wheile he was watching he saw a beuatiul young lady come up, but it was really a witch in disguise, but eh didn't blow his horn and she walked right in to Asgard. The Aesir gods all started quarrelling about how much gold they were going to give her, and then Odin said that she must be a witch who should be burned, because she had brought so much quarrelling between her. So three times they tried to burn her but each time she rose out of the fire.


Tales

1. Tell me the story of Mr. Vinegar, or the Three Sillies or Bearskin.


Mr. Vinegar and Mrs Vinegar lived in a vinegar bottle, and one day their vinegar bottle got smashed so they had no place to live. and they climbed up a tree , and went to sleep. When they awoke in the night they saw a band of robbers under the tree and they were divinding the golden guineas they had stolen......(cant quite hear the next part on the audio recording...!)....."go to market Mr. Vinegar with these golden guineas and buy a cow". SO he went to the fair and bought a lovely cow, the best cow in the world. But after he bought it he saw a man playing bag pipes and all the children were following him, and he swopped the cow for the bag pipes. But he couldn't play a tune so the children did not follow him, so he decided to swap the bag pipes for a pair of gloves because he was feeling cold. Then he saw another man along the road, and he swapped the gloves for a stick...I cant remember why....then when he got home his wife nearly broke all the bones in his body because he came back with a plain old stick.


Handicraft

1.      Show Nonna how you fold a short sleeved t-shirt.


2.      Bundle together a pair of socks.