Week 31: Fruit of our Labor
WEEK 31: Fruit of our Labor
Some fresh strawberries and drawings were some of the precious gifts we received this week from the kids.
Scroll down to see the supplemental readings for the week, galleries of our latest photos, and our current memory verse.
Thanks!
Some gifts from our students on Teacher Aprreciation Day were such a blessing.
Memory Verse #14
“God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging…
He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”
The Lord Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
”
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 Story of the World
The Death of John F. Kennedy - p. 471
Civil Rights - p. 477
The Vietnam War - p. 487
GARDEN - Pre-K and K
A drawing lesson with Emma.
This week’s letter was “Yy”. “Yes, Jesus loves me”, says our new worship song. “Jesus loves you too”, we said to each other.
For worship this week we studied the Parable of the Great Pearl. The children said it was similar to the Parable of the Hidden Treasure. We emphasized how in both stories, the men found something so valuable that they sold everything they owned to buy this great treasure, in this case a great pearl. They left it all for this great, incomparable prize! In the same way, we are to leave it all behind for the Kingdom of Heaven, which is of more value than anything else we can ever have.
Letter “y” is for yarn also. The children played with water tables with different size and color yarns. On Thursday, they also made decorations using sticks found outdoors and using yarn to decorate them. They were truly pieces of colorful art! The children also drew animals, played one of their favorite games (mom, dad and baby) in the park, and finished off designing and drawing imaginary friends. They also had some time to play with some of the Oaks students as well! YES!.
SEEDS - Grades 1-6
Worship
The kids really enjoyed the animal gifts we got for them from the Creation Museum.
We got a chance to honor Grant this week in worship for his birthday. This was also our week to start our final memory verses which come from Psalm 46. We are so excited to begin working with these in the coming weeks as these verses remind us so much of God’s amazing strength and his help for us in times of trouble. We also shared about our trip with the kids and were so excited to give them these little animals we found at the Creation Museum in Kentucky. They are a great reminder of God’s amazing design in creation and what an awesome God we worship. We highly recommend all families to make the effort to visit this museum along with the Ark Encounter.
History
The 1960s caught the United States by storm as the death of President John F. Kennedy rocked the nation to its core. While there were already a lot of problems under the surface already, Kennedy’s assassination made them explode like a volcano. After his death, the country grappled with problems regarding the civil war, continued threats from the Cold War, and a new war across the world in Vietnam. All of these problems made it hard for Lyndon B. Johnson to be successful. Ultimately, due to the unpopularity of the Vietnam War, he did not run again and Richard Nixon became the new president. As we rode on our time machine, we left the 1960s and entered the 1970s.
Science
A machine is any device that changes the amount of force required to do an action. Last week we studied four of the six simple machines and how they make it easier to do work.
Inclined planes are examples of sloped or slanted geometric planes (flat surfaces). The students learned that it is easier to get a racecar and a unicorn to the top of the castle if they use a ramp. :)
Screws are examples of twisting planes. They hold things together and are used in everyday things like lids and light bulbs that twist.
Wedges are made of two inclined planes placed back to back as in axes, knives, scissors, and the blade of a shovel. They make it easier to separate things.
Levers go up and down over a point called a fulcrum. Levers make it much easier to lift a load. We studied three different classes of levers including seesaws (first class), wheelbarrows (second class), and fishing poles (third class).
This week we will study the remaining two simple machines, pulleys and the wheel and axle. These six simple machines can be combined to create an endless number of compound machines.
Studio
This week we paired a Seeds classic and favorite activity with our current artist study. On Wednesday, we did self-portraits with flair pens. The kids were not allowed to use pencil to draw and erase but rather, were encouraged to take risks and commit to the lines they made on the paper. Most of the students had done this at Seeds or the Garden before but for many it was the first time doing it. I was happy to see many children begin to feel more free in their drawing as well as being able to witness the growth of all of them with this activity through the years. On Friday, we returned to our Picasso study but I had a surprise for them. I had made a copy of the portrait they worked on on Wednesday. I invited them to cut out all the different features of their face in order to make a new and mixed up face on cardboard that looked like the Cubist style that Picasso loved so much. After cutting the different items, they were able to color the pieces in different colors.This week, they will put together and finish their Picasso-inspired faces.
OAKS - 7+
Worship
So great to have Esteban back with us.
We were praising God in the highest this week as we welcomed back: ESTEBAN! We are so grateful to God for the tremendous miracle that He did in his life. This helped us to really focus on the topic that will carry us through to the end of this year: becoming a witness to the world. We certainly can witness what God did with Esteban, but God calls us to continue speaking of Him to anyone who will hear. We are going to be going over scripture in the coming weeks that will inspire us to be bold in our faith and make sure the world knows who our Lord is, particularly 1 Peter 2:9, which tells us that WE are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and GOD’S special possession. That would be amazing by itself, but the verse goes on to tell us that we are these things FOR A REASON! We are to DECLARE the praises of God because He is the One who pulled us out of the darkness and into His light. Wow! What a perfect reason to praise Him and be His hands and feet in this world. We put this into practice as we spent time sharing the love of God with the Garden kids by spending time with them and playing with them in the little playground.
History
As we explored the 1960s in our History class, we delved into the ways communism led to the start of the Vietnam War. Once again, fighting broke out between two nations with two different governments, the northern communist government and the south. The U.S., threatened by the idea of another country falling under the communist influence, chose to enter the conflict and remained there for 8 years. For these reasons, many U.S. citizens opposed the war and wanted an end to the conflict as soon as possible. Sadly, millions died in this war and many were never found.
On the other hand, the 1960s gave birth to a lot of new art styles, like Pop Art. The students saw some examples of this and were assigned a project at home. Hopefully, we will see some great work this week.
Science
I was so excited to begin teaching about simple machines this week. After an introduction to what simple machines are and how they differ from compound machines, we began to learn about the six different types of machines. First, we learned about inclined planes, screws, wedges, and levers. It’s great that they are recognizing simple machines all around them and how they work together. We were all so surprised that a screw is an inclined plane wrapped around a cylinder and that a wedge is two inclined planes back to back. Finally, I asked them to brainstorm a compound machine they could build together to perform a simple task. This will be our final science project for the year.
Studio
It was the Oaks' turn to learn about Picasso this week! They began to sketch the picture of the rooster the Seeds students worked on and will begin to add color with oil pastels this week.
