WEEK 4: Rain, rain go away…

The rain brought lots of mud, the butterflies brought lots of eggs, and science experiments brought lots of gooey fun to our programs during this particularly wet week.

Scroll down to see the supplemental readings for the week, galleries of our latest photos, and our current memory verse.

They’re back!

Emma shows the Garden kids one of the monarch butterfly caterpillars in her hand. The milkweeds we planted last spring attracted a few butterflies last week and we can already see the product of the eggs they laid on the plants.

GARDEN - Pre-K and K

This week's weather worked hand in hand with our Bible story: Noah’s Ark. Noah and all the people in the land had never seen rain before, nevertheless Noah trusted God when He told him a flood was coming their way and asked him to build an ark to be safe. Noah’s faith saved him and his family from destruction. Like Noah, we can trust God’s words always, even when we don’t understand. God knows best and He wants our obedience and love so we can be safe and live with Him forever.

The children enjoyed indoor park by building and playing together. They also played at our new water tables with different animals, containers and straws. They had a blast and could have stayed there for hours. Even though it had rained, we were able to go on a nature walk on Thursday and explored how everything looked after it had rained. They jumped in all the puddles they could find! We also discovered that the monarch caterpillars were back on the milkweed plants we planted last spring!

This week we also practiced our songs of the days of the week, months of the year and also practiced our numbers with our calendar (in english and spanish). In addition, we introduced the letter “Aa.” The children did an amazing job at writing the letter with their pens and had a chance to practice writing them on the board. We also reviewed the letter “Aa” sound in english and spanish. Make sure to keep practicing at home!

SEEDS - Grades 1-6

What a wonderful week to keep celebrating birthdays. This week Yosef and Alyssa were honored and presented with their birthday books.

Studying the 3 main states of matter in Science this week proved to be some solid fun!

On Wednesday we used our bodies to represent atoms in a solid (lining up in rows and being still), liquid (holding hands and flowing) and gas (dancing and jumping). We also watched a video of a water strider enjoying the surface tension that allows him to skate across the water.

On Friday we used water, honey, and ketchup to discuss different levels of viscosity, the resistance to flow. Then the students got to explore a Non-Newtonian liquid, aka amorphous solid in which pressure changes the state of matter instead of heat energy. An oobleck, a mixture of cornstarch and water, is a great example of this solid/liquid that doesn’t follow the typical states of matter rules.

We had a great time in History class this week as we got aboard our time machine to explore the lands of Africa, Italy and China in 1850s-1860s. We learned last week that there was conflict in India with the East India Tea Company and the local soldiers called the Sepoy, but about the same time this was happening, a missionary doctor named David Livingstone was using his gifts to reach people in Africa. We learned how David survived by eating caterpillars and frogs and loved Africa so much that he never wanted to leave. To imagine what that was like, we tried our own homemade “froglegs” (bread actually). Over in Italy and China there were many changes happening as well. The many states of Italy had joined together to become their own nation for the first time since the Roman Empire and social problems in China caused many to fight for change as well. While in the end, the people of China did not succeed in overthrowing their government, the seeds of change were planted and a bigger revolution would come soon.

In Studio, we finished working on our class posters this week and the children were very excited to put the final touches. You can see the photos of the finished posters below. The younger groups began to listen to the music of Stephen Foster, considered the father of American music by many. We had fun dancing around with the sound of the piano and banjo. We will continue listening to the music and learning more about him this week.

We wanted to take the opportunity to introduce you to our new assistant: Gilmarie Gandia! She will be working with us on Wednesdays and Fridays for the SEEDS program. She is a recent graduate from nursing school and a product of a homeschooling family. Make sure you say hello if you see her around.

And finally, you may notice a few “muddy buddies” in the photos below. As you can imagine, all the rain has made the parks very slippery. Make sure your kids have their change of clothes ready in their backpacks.

OAKS - 7+

This week we got to honor our first Oak of the year: Elisha! She received what we call a “Book of Mottoes,” a blank journal that she will use to collect inspirational phrases, quotes, drawings, etc to document the 2022-23 school year. It was decorated with special words and attributes that her fellow Oaks used to describe her. We also had the opportunity to reflect on the stories we have read so far in our book, “A Young Person’s Guide to Knowing God.” The students created icons to represent each story. We talked about the power of iconography, not only in religion, but in many areas of our world today, including on social media. In all, it was another great week at Oaks.

BIBLE readings:

Galatians 2:20
Romans 5:6-9

A Young Person’s Guide to Knowing God

Read p. 53 “ The Safe Place”

In Science, we moved from the properties of matter to the states of matter. We learned that heat energy is the key factor in determining whether a state of matter appears as a solid, liquid, or gas. On Friday, it was a blast to play with OOBLECK, an amorphous solid, or a substance that is neither a solid nor a liquid and is affected by the pressure applied to it. It is considered a non-newtonian liquid because it does not follow Newton's law of viscosity. We will delve deeper into gasses this week.

In Studio time, we finished staging our mini play and added some of the key props. This week, we will rehearse with costumes and without our script as we get ready to perform and finally share it with an audience on Tuesday, September 20 at 3:45pm. NOTE THE NEW DATE AND MARK YOUR CALENDARS! We are so excited!