WEEK 7: He Speaks to Me Everywhere…

Maltbie Davenport Babcock wrote the lyrics, “…He speaks to me everywhere” in the song “This is My Father’s World.” Our study of God’s nature definitely spoke to us in our painting activity last week. We hope that God spoke to you as you enjoyed rest on your week off. Read about some of our other activities at the Center before we took the break.

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

This is My Father’s World!

Artwork by the students of the SEEDS program

GARDEN - Pre-K and K

This week we learned about Abraham, who had Isaac who begat Jacob. Jacob had twelve sons! He gave his favorite son, Joseph, a special colorful tunic. Because of his brothers’ jealousy and hatred, Joseph was sold and went to Egypt. There he found God’s favor and became like a prince. His brothers eventually came back to Egypt looking for food because of a great famine and Joseph forgave them for what they had done. He still loved them even when they had been so unloving and evil towards him. God was always with Joseph during those hard times, and we need to remember that God is always with us during our difficult times. Always!

During the morning meeting, we have been practicing in English and Spanish our numbers, days of the week and months of the year. The children have done such a great job in learning these, we are so proud! We have also been practicing the sounds and how to write letters “Aa”, “Bb” and “Cc”. Ask them to write them for you using Big line, Little line, Big curve and Little curve.

For activity time the Garden children got to use our new colorful blocks and built amazing things. They also played with sand, drew and painted beautiful art pieces.

During park time they got to play freeze dance and freeze climb with Mr. Jared and they had a blast! It was another great and fun week at The Well.

SEEDS - Grades 1-6

Science

We had lots of great conversations this week about God’s favorite building block! We used Legos to show the difference between:

Atoms—the smallest unit used to create EVERYTHING,
Elements—a bunch of the same atom stacked up,
Molecules—two or more different atoms bonded together, and
Compounds—two or more different elements bonded together in a fixed ratio. They are often composed of a bunch of molecules.

The students also enjoyed learning about the anatomy of the atom. The nucleus is composed of positive protons and neutral neutrons while the teeny tiny negative electrons buzz energetically around the nucleus in the electron cloud (or orbital). They did a fantastic job drawing the atoms in their science journals!

We even learned a song about the first four elements of the periodic table according to the atomic number (determined but the number of protons), element name, symbol, and mass (determined but the nucleus). Click on the link to listen!

Arts

“She will be riding six white horses when she comes, yeehaw!” It was quite a workout to add a few more steps to our choreography on Wednesday. Even the students who missed the first workshop last week were able to join in and dance to the tune of “She’ll be coming round the mountain.” On Friday, we shifted gears and did some mixed media watercolor painting inspired by the word “arrebol” in our first hymn, “El Mundo es de mi Dios.” We defined the term as the colors that can be seen in the clouds during the sunrise or sunset. We marveled at some beautiful pictures of this effect in nature. Since the pictures showed the shapes on the ground below the sky as dark, we began by drawing the bottom of our piece with a black crayon. We then brushed the top of the page with water. Finally, we proceeded to paint wet on wet with a smaller brush. The children chose the color combinations that they liked best. They created some beautiful pieces!

History

In History this week, the students learned about some of the situations that were occurring in the United States right before the start of the Civil War. It is a sad thing to see that a nation that started off with hopes of unity under God would begin to unravel due to differences and even hatred for one another, but that is exactly what we began to look at regarding this period in American history. We learned a little bit about the early life of Abraham Lincoln, before he became president. And just as the issue of slavery was dividing the states, slavery was also still happening in Puerto Rico, under the Spanish government. As we continue to study the history of both the US and Puerto Rico, we will soon see the changes that would come by the end of the 1800’s.

Coming soon…we will be learning the songs for the middle states of the US and the East and West Coasts of PR.

OAKS - 7+

The students in worship finished their icons for part two of the book: “A Young Person’s Guide to Knowing God” and were also asked the important question, “now what?” We have read about who Jesus is and what He did to save the world from its sins, but the students were challenged to think about what this meant for them personally. This was their assignment for the break week. We also enjoyed honoring our 1st set of twins Eva and Kendall this week.

BIBLE readings:

John 20:1-23
Psalm 51:1-13

A Young Person’s Guide to Knowing God

“The Way Through” p. 69
“The Voice in the Dark” p. 73
“Whiter than Snow” p. 77

Science

Since the day we discussed the topics of the year in Chemistry, the Oaks students have been curious about atoms and the Periodic Table of Elements. On Wednesday we studied the anatomy of the atom and defined the properties of each component. On Friday, we learned about the different energy levels and how many electrons can be in each. The kids worked in teams to make their own water molecules out of paper plates and recycled materials. They had to count the protons, neutrons, and electrons and glue them in the corresponding nucleus or energy levels. Next week, we will look closer at the Periodic Table of Elements and how the elements bond together.

Arts

It was the older kids' turn to begin to learn about American folk music and Stephen Foster. We talked about the origins of the BANJO and how it has become one of the distinctive sounds of American folk music. They also were able to sculpt some banjos out of modeling clay.