Week 23: Spring is in the Air
WEEK 23: Spring is in the Air
We have been enjoying some lovely spring days these past few weeks…lots of sunshine, cool evenings, and it makes us all the more joyous as we remember how great the weather, and our experience was at our Family Day event was last Saturday, February 25.
Scroll down to see the supplemental readings for the week, galleries of our latest photos, and our current memory verse.
Time to water
Watering the plants became a sprinkle party pretty fast with students from OAKS, Seeds and The Garden all joining in.
Memory Verse #11
“Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.”
SEEDS and OAKS Programs Suggested Readings for the Week
The readings are meant to reinforce the topics covered in class last week and to have parents and other siblings be a part of what we’re learning. These readings are not required for the class, but can be a good supplement. You can try to read all or just a few of the selections. Use your discretion as to what to cover based upon the ages of your children.
HISTORY
The Last 500 Years / World History from Ancient to Modern Times
P. 76-77 / p. 272-273
The Story of the World
Black Tuesday and a New Deal p. 335
Red Spain, Black Spain, a King, and a General p. 349
GARDEN - Pre-K and K
We were so excited to have Juan Diego back with us.
The Garden was full of emotions this week! We were overjoyed to finally have Juan Diego with us again but also sad that Miss Nicole was in the hospital due to her skin condition. We praised and prayed as a family and thanked God because He is good and faithful in all circumstances. The kids made cards for me to take to the hospital when I visited Miss Nicole. The cards had messages and pictures of the things they enjoyed doing with Miss Nicole. As they were working on their cards, something very sweet occurred. Hallel softly began to sing a song and Elena joined in. I got closer to hear what song it was and they were singing in Spanish “...from the rising sun to the setting same, I will praise your name. Great is your faithfulness to me.” It was such a precious sound that was no doubt inspired by the Holy Spirit since the song goes on to say, “Though the storms may come and the winds may blow, I’ll remain steadfast, And let my heart learn, when you speak a word it will come to pass.” As we rejoice in the Colón’s homecoming and now intercede for our sister, we can trust that He has been faithful and will continue to be.
The kids loved being back together again! The girls showed Juan Diego the new format for worship and how they were making drawings of the story on Thursdays. Elena said, “I am so happy I’m making my own Bible in Garden!” Juan Diego liked the idea and jumped right in to do his first illustration of Jesus healing a 12 year old girl and a bleeding woman. As part of their “R” is for “rock” week, we enjoyed gathering for rocks at the park and examining them with a magnifying glass. We painted some of the rocks on Thursday and played with other ones in the water table. There were certainly some big splashes!
SEEDS - Grades 1-6
Worship
Little scientists
We were happy to celebrate Estrella this week for her birthday, thanking God for her life and as always, reading a brand new birthday book. We also had an amazing visit from one of our moms, Emily Áviles, who was a special guest teacher for a new hymn that she has written especially for the SEEDS kids. The kids did a great job learning this new song (in Spanish!) and praising the Lord for all that He has done.
Science
“Let there be light!” (Genesis 1:3)
Here are some fun facts about light that we discussed in class:
Light travels through space at 186,000 miles per second.
The sun is about 93 million miles away.
It takes sunlight about eight minutes to reach the earth.
God created light on the first day of creation but the sun on the fourth day.
Explosions are happening every second on the sun, a huge ball of burning gas (hydrogen and helium).
Incandescent light bulbs are filled with argon gas instead of oxygen to preserve the filament, allowing it to last longer.
We are so dependent on it for our regular daily activities that it is hard to believe we have only had electricity for about 150 years! For thousands of years people used fire for light and heat. Thomas Edison had a breakthrough in 1879 and created the first incandescent light bulb. Edison discovered that if he sent an electric current through a filament (a thread that conducts electricity), the filament would heat up and glow. Many other types of light bulbs have been invented throughout the years, including halogen, fluorescent, and the ever popular LED lights that give off very little heat, last longer, and are very bright.
As we know, light can pass through some objects but cannot pass through others. If an object is:
Opaque—light cannot pass through (like aluminum foil).
Transparent—nearly all of the light passes through (like clear glass or plastic).
Translucent—some light passes through (like wax paper).
For our next lesson, we will dig deeper into light waves and discuss the visible and the invisible spectrums of color.
However, one day, we will not need the sun, moon, stars, or electricity, for the Lord our God will be our everlasting light! (Isaiah 60:19)
History
I was surprised to see how interested the SEEDS kids were in learning about stocks this week! Maybe because we explored the idea of stocks by breaking up “slices” of a pizza pie to demonstrate how companies sell parts of their businesses to investors. A bunch of bad investments led to the Stock Market Crash of 1929, which is where we spent most of our history study this week. We learned that the 1920’s were a decade of HIGH highs and LOW lows. The good times that were experienced after WWI by many in the US gave way to some very bad times as the Great Depression set in after the crash. In addition, the students learned how to dance the Charleston, or “cucaracha stomp” as I liked to call it. Finally, we discussed the rise of another dictator, Francisco Franco of Spain.
Studio
“Are we studying history in this class too?” This was one of the questions that came up as we continued on our journey of music appreciation this week. I explained to the students that the historical context is important to knowing why certain music developed and who were the people writing and enjoying the music. We learned that after John Philip Sousa and the March music came Ragtime music. Ragtime was played on the piano and although it preserves some of the form of the march, it is played in a syncopated way. We listened to the music of Scott Joplin considered the “King of Ragtime” music. I invited them to close their eyes and listen to one of his most famous pieces, “The Entertainer,” and tell me what images came into their mind. Many of their responses were humorous and fun, demonstrating the upbeat nature of the music. At the end of the week, we explored how Ragtime led to Jazz music. Jazz, however, was played with multiple instruments and included an element of improvisation as well as a call and response among the musicians. I mentioned a few of the jazz pioneers like Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald. We heard them sing and play and practiced the Charleston dance move they learned from Mr. Jared in History class. It was hard not to get up and move when they heard the catchy jazz music!
OAKS - 7+
Worship/Studio
Presenting Esteban’s mom with the money raised.
A lot of what we did this week was reflecting on WHAT GOD DID at our “Family Day and More” event. This was truly a project-based learning experience for all of us as we concluded this project evaluating what we had started working on several weeks ago. We began by thanking the Lord for helping us accomplish what we set out to do and making the day such a success. We determined that the event was a success for three reasons: 1) Families came! This was important because it was titled a Family Day and therefore, we wanted many families there; 2) We had a lot of fun! This was also on our poster - to have fun and creative outdoor activities. Check! 3) And finally, we raised a lot of funds for Esteban. This was of course our main goal, but the Lord provided above and beyond what we expected. We are so happy that Esteban is back in PR and were so excited to present the gift to his mother this week. Please check out our events page, if you haven’t already to see photos from the day.
We began working on a creative writing project next. More of that to come next week, but it will be based on what we have been learning about Patricia St. John’s writing style in the book, “A Young Person’s to Knowing God.”
History
This week, we learned that the 1920’s were a decade of HIGH highs and LOW lows. The good times that were experienced after WWI by many in the US gave way to some very bad times as the Great Depression set in after the Stock Market Crash of 1929. The students learned about stocks in History and learned how to dance the Charleston in Studio Time. In all, we got a good idea of how difficult times were then. Check out the supplemental readings this week as they will be important foundational information as we approach our study of WWII.
Science
After meditating on the Scriptures that talk about light and God’s amazing creation, we began to explore light and its properties. “Why can light travel through space but sound can’t?” I posed this question to the students to get the conversation started. They thought it was so interesting that light does not need matter to travel. Instead of vibrating air particles, light travels electromagnetically from the Sun to the Earth! Nuclear fusion is occurring all the time on the Sun, creating explosions and producing light and heat. We noted that these explosions are making the Sun hotter and hotter. This debunks the idea of the world being created millions of years ago because it would mean that the Sun would have been much cooler than it is right now and thus unable to sustain life on Earth.
On Thursday, we took our prisms outside to catch a beam of light and watch it split into the beautiful rainbow of colors contained inside of it. We took a second prism and tried to place it underneath the rainbow light in order to see it come together again on the other side just as Newton had discovered. We learned that Newton added the Indigo color to the rainbow, even though it is not very visible, so that the rainbow would have seven colors, instead of six. He did this because seven is the perfect number in the Bible and he thought it would be better like this. So cool, right?.
Arts Academy
In this week’s photos, you will see a couple of shots from our rehearsals for “Charlotte’s Web” and the Drama Club Jr. class practicing movement with props as well as the Art Club, continuing their study of tree drawing.
