Week 14: A Theatrical Week
WEEK 14: A Theatrical Week
In addition to the Drama Club’s final performance, we had the blessing of taking the Garden, Seeds and Oaks students to see “The Nutcracker!” Take a look at the gallery below to see some photos from rehearsal and the performance.
Scroll down to see the supplemental readings for the week, galleries of our latest photos, and our current memory verse.
Places!
The Drama Club students warmup before their final performance of the semester.
Drama Club
SUGGESTED READINGS FOR THE WEEK
The readings are meant to reinforce the topics covered from last week and to have the parents understand more fully what is being covered in the classes. They are not required for the class, but a good supplement. You can try to read all or just a few selections. Use your discretion as to what to cover based upon the ages of your children.
SEEDS and OAKS Programs
Review Memory Verse: Ephesians 2: (See bottom of page)
HISTORY
The Story of the World
p. 175 - Ethiopia and Italy
P. 157 - Brazil’s Republic
P. 188 - The Spanish-American War
GARDEN - Pre-K and K
Even in The Garden, we explored physics with our rocket launcher!
This week we continued learning about the life of Samuel. We saw how he grew up from being a boy in the temple to the last judge of Israel. God commissioned him to anoint the first king of Israel. Although God wanted them to be different and to have no other God but him, the people asked Samuel for a king and God allowed the people to have what they wanted. But no King could ever fill their hearts like the one true God and King. God didn't give up on them and hundreds of years later He would send the true king to be born in a lowly manger. We will meditate on this story in the upcoming weeks.
During activity time, we worked on some new animal puzzles, built with blocks, and went on a letter hunt for the letter “Ii”. The children loved filling the calendar for the new month of December together and remembering that this was the last month of the year. They thought it was so fun to be there on December 1st! They learned the song “10 Little Indians” with Emma and played rockets and built an amazing fort outside with Mr. Jared.
We finished the week preparing for our theater field trip by reading two different story books of The Nutcracker and joyfully dancing to The Nutcracker March. We took turns being mice and toy soldiers and the children wanted us to play the songs again and again. By the end, Mrs. Vivi and Emma were exhausted but the three little “mice” could have kept going for a few other rounds!! We loved seeing how engaged they were at the show on Friday and look forward to hearing their reviews this week in class.
SEEDS - Grades 1-6
We honored both Miss Gilmarie and Josie for their birthdays. Josie’s birthday book was…”the Nutcracker!”
We celebrated two birthdays this week and went to the theater. How exciting!
Science
We started the study of Physics by learning a new song about Newton’s 3 Laws of Motion and playing an exciting game. Miss Gilmarie read through the words before listening to the song that Mrs. Jenny picked for them to learn together. Then, Joshua explained a modified version of a marbles game called “Ringers” for all of them to play. This game is a great example of Newton’s first law of motion at work and it will serve as a wonderful point of departure for the students this week.
History
In History class we caught up our binders as we added seven new states to our collection. We learned that within a period of two years, many states were added to the nation as almost the entire country, as we know it today, was complete. There were many reasons why these areas were attractive to the United States, most importantly, the many precious stones found in states like Montana and Idaho.
Studio
As a way to prepare for our performance on Friday, we learned about the great composer Peter Tchaikovsky. We broke down his tricky Russian last name into three familiar syllables: “Chai-cough-ski” We discussed that he is most known for three famous ballets: Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, and of course, The Nutcracker. We looked at two different story books and listened to some of the most well known tracks in the order they appear. After that, we got up on our feet and practiced the ballet positions as a warm-up to our movement activity with the Nutcracker March. We took turns being mice and toy soldiers and had to listen closely to the change in the music as we danced. The children were so enthusiastic about the show and were wondering how they were going to portray the different scenes and dances that we talked about.
OAKS - 7+
Worship
Dressing up for a day out at the theater.
The Oaks were so excited for their first field trip together of the year. They helped out with the little ones and some dressed up for the occasion!
In OAKS History, we explored some of the unexpected reasons the Spanish-American War began, a war which for us here in Puerto Rico is very important to know about as it changed the future of our island forever. The territories controlled by Spain yearned for independence, but their freedom would not come about easily. In fact, it was the influence of American newspapers that drove the masses to seeing Spain as an enemy and ultimately declaring war on the country. The result: Guam. the Philippines, Cuba and Puerto Rico transferred from Spanish hands to American.
For our time in worship, we continued looking at the work of the Holy Spirit as it gives us special access to the Father, through the Jesus. We learned that it is not enough to know about God, we need to KNOW God personally through Christ.
Bible References & A Young Person’s Guide to Knowing God
Psalm 119:18, 97-105
P. 143 - The Book in the Bedside Cupboard
John 16:23b-27
P. 147 - Aisha’s Letter
This week we kicked off the second part of our science studies: the study of Physics. We learned that physics is the study of motion or moving objects. We noted that from the beginning there was movement in God’s creation as the Spirit of God hovered over the waters. God has set all its creation in motion and He keeps it moving and sustains it. He is indeed the master physicist! We learned that a man named Isaac Newton was able to define certain truths he observed in nature when it came to moving objects. These truths came to be known as Newton’s Three Laws of Motion. This lesson focuses on learning about these laws as a foundation to our studies in physics.
We discussed that the first law of motion is also called the law of inertia and basically states that an object will resist moving if it is at rest and will resist stopping if it is moving. All objects in creation resist this change unless they are affected by an outside force. We learned then, that a force is any push or pull on an object. Newton’s Second law of motion is all about force, stating that force equals mass times acceleration. We finished the week by playing a round of the “Ringers” marble. Mrs. Vivi is now the undefeated marble champion at Oaks!
As with all groups in Studio, Mrs. Vivi focused on preparing the students for the show on Friday by learning about Peter Tchaikovsky and the different pieces that they were going to see on Friday’s performance. We noted the differences in both story books learned that in E.T.A. Hoffman’s original story, the main character was called Marie and not Clara. Some of the Oaks students did not want to call her Marie as they were so used to this character being called Clara. We listened to the main pieces and wondered how the costumes were going to be designed and how the nutcracker would break in this performance. Would it be the same as in one of the books? Would they make it their own?
On Thursday, the kids were eager to jump back into their danza movement activities. We started to integrate the fans for the girls and this week we will add some extra movements. It was great to see some of these classic moves in the opening holiday party scene of the Nutcracker. Many of the Oaks students noticed and made the connection with what they have been learning in studio time.
Thank you families for joining us at the ballet, and afterwards at the park!
Memory Verse #7
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is a gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”