Second Grade Exams, Ambleside Online Term 2

OK, so I haven't been keeping up with the weekly updates. We are now (obviously!) far beyond week 15. Here are Caiden's term 2 exams. I have never been able to video them and get the editing and all my hard work to save and post properly, so I did it the easy way this time. I was the secretary, these are his answers. 

These are selections from the things we have been learning about for the last 12 weeks. I get my exams, like the rest of our curriculum, from Ambleside Online. I may or may not post videos of him doing recitations of poetry and verses later. :) 

Caiden Snyder
Second Grade, Term 2 Exam
2-2014

Bible: Tell how Haman's evil plot was stopped

Mordecai, he was a good man and he was in one of the king's books about the best people that did good deeds, and he was in there. Mordecai was in there. But Haman wanted to kill him, hang him on a gallows about, what, fifteen feet tall or something! And then the king, he was like “What do you think I should make my favorite person?” And then, he (Haman) was like, (cause he thought it was him) and he said lots of really really cool things. And then when it was given to the other guy he was really mad about that and then he got hanged on his own gallows.

History: What do you know about Richard the Lion Hearted?

King Richard the Lionhearted traveled in lots of crusades. And one of the crusades to get some people back for taking the Holy Land, and then when they got there only... they went with 4,000 people but they didn't get there with very many cause it was such a long trip. And on the way back he got... he had to go through a town and he dressed up himself like he was poor and then one of them saw his gloves and he was like, “You stole gloves from the king?” And he was like no, I am King Richard. And then they went to the castle and they put him in a tall dungeon and he was not murdered there like most people were. And he was sent from castle to castle and he finally got let free. And then he finally went back. The end!

Science: Flitter the Bat

Flitter the Bat, he likes hiding in the... he likes hiding down in like, dark places to get away from the sun cause he does not like sun. And he will eat little bugs like wasps and bees or anything else he can get. His coat is black and you most likely will find him in caves. It doesn't fly like birds, it flies much faster and it does not glide.

Literature: Tell what you know about the Hill of Difficulty in Pilgrim's Progress

He was at the bottom and as he walked he fell asleep. Under a tree he fell asleep. And after that when he woke up he lost his scroll and then he walked on cause at first he didn't know that, and then, and he turned around after he figured out that he lost it and he went back and then he went back up and at the top of the hill there were two lions and he was afraid of them but a man told him not to be afraid of them but he didn't see their chains case they were chained up. And he asked to go in the house to spend the night and the other dude he said, (and this dude's name is Christian) then he yelled to a girl. The End. More to come.

Geaography: Tell about Greenland

It's very cold and even at summer time its a pain to grow anything cause its so cold and in the winter its even worse. There's vikings that discovered it and they decided to call it Greenland, I have no idea why. And their great-great- great-grandsons were like the Duke of Normandy and stuff. And the Blue-Tooth dude. Not much lives there cause they cant find much to eat. But there's like seabirds and stuff ….so the vikings they didn't stay there for long cause they didn't like it at all. The end about Greenland.

Science: Tell about a bird or a tree you have studied this winter.

American Coot
We were at Confluence park and we saw American Coots and they were not at all like ducks are, or geese, cause they didn't have webbed feet. They didn't have bills like ducks they have beaks. And so I think they got like, little tough stuff in the water like little minnows or something and they need a beak to like spear them like herons or something. They are black and their babies are red and white and black. And so I'm probably guessing that they were on land more then in water but hey still lived really close to the water and one time we saw a whole lot of them just going into the water.... and they really use a sort of, the only way they eat is by, they eat like ducks putting their heads underwater and pecking stuff under the water. Or else they eat grain and they have to use their sharp beaks to get up pebbles to help grind the food up. And they are a lot like birds that do not live near the water. The end.

Composer: Tell something you know about Tchaikovsky

He's a really good music player, cause he is a music player. Well his music is ballet music. He started by a piano, a piano class, and eventually he ordered a top secret music thing for a ballet called The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. And so he wanted to get that instrument by secret so no one would use it. (He is talking about an armonica, which that song was composed on. )

Literature: What was your favorite part of The Wind in the Willows?

The Mole and the Rat. Once they found the mole's house and they stayed in it. They were walking so they could try to find the rat's house. And then the mole remembered that he had left his house. So he told Rat all about that. And the rat remembered that and so he tried to look for it with him. And they found it, they found the mole's house! And then they went into it and some singer people came and they asked to eat with them. And they let them in. So they had a good day. And then they went to sleep. And then they woke up the next morning and they had a good day at the moles house. And they had a good breakfast. The End.

Artist study: Describe your favorite picture from Degas
It was a dance place and they were just learning, it was like a class, they were doing a class. There was a dude talking and telling them what to do, and there was people standing around and there was a door int eh back of the picture and they were just coming on or leaving. It was a bright day and they were near a window and it looks like their mothers and their fathers were there, well some of them, and it looked like they were just performing for their dad and mom. And the old man had a staff and was talking to them through the microphone.

Geography/science: Tell why the sun seems to move

Because we go around it. It stays in one place but we go around it. We orbit it, actually. Sometimes the moon and the sun, the moon arises too early and it gets over it. It's really rare and it's an eclipse.