WEEK 8: Spreading Wings

This side by side picture shows just how much our OAKS students have grown since they were SEEDS back in 2019. Speaking of wings, the kids got to draw some birds this week in Studio. Check out the artwork below!

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

GARDEN - Pre-K and K

*Striking combos of rain and sun made for some rainbows this week.*

“D” was for dinosaur this week at The Well. We learned and practiced the letter “Dd” using “Big line” and “Big and small curve.” We also practiced the letter “Dd” using clay. The girls did great! Elena and Hallel enjoyed putting together a big dinosaur puzzle with Emma. The girls also loved finding bones in the sand box, pretending they had found dinosaur bones. They also made a mat using construction paper that resembled a basket since this week's Bible story featured baby Moses who was put in the Nile river in a basket. Elena and Hallel enjoyed park play as they climbed trees and invented a game with the ball. They had a blast!

This week we learned how God chose Moses to change and liberate a nation. Moses trusted and obeyed God when at the burning bush God told him he would use him for great things. God told Moses that He would help him do everything he needed to do. The same goes for us, God will always help us in whatever He asks of us. God will help us no matter the task, big or small. Like the new song we are learning at Garden says, “let’s keep fighting the good fight, because we are in the Lord’s army. Yes sir!”

SEEDS - Grades 1-6

Science

This week in Science we took a closer look at the Periodic Table of Elements. We briefly discussed how it was organized and color coded. They got to color a blank copy of the table according to the elements’ properties. We also took time to talk about how:

The noble gases, also known as inert gases, in the far right column have a full outer shell of electrons and are “introverts” that are happy by themselves. They don’t like to bond with other elements.
Isotopes are variants of elements that have a different number of neutrons in the nucleus (i.e. Carbon-14, Carbon-13).

The students seemed to really enjoy the activity we did with Easter eggs and Velcro to demonstrate two different types of bonding that occur with the elements.

Sodium Chloride (salt) is an example of an ionic bond in which sodium gives up an electron to chlorine (which is highly reactive and becomes “chloride” once it bonds and gains the electron).
The water molecule is an example of a covalent bond in which the one outer electron of each of the two hydrogen atoms is shared with the oxygen atom.

Encourage your children to practice the elements song. :-) This will give them a good foundation and help them be more familiar with the aspects of the periodic table when they study chemistry in high school. Some of the students were quick to notice that the atomic mass (protons+neutrons in the nucleus) is not always twice the atomic number (number of protons). An atom has the same number of protons and electrons but the number of neutrons can vary slightly.

🎶The first 12 elements of the periodic table, by number, element, symbol and mass:

1 Hydrogen H 1
2 Helium He 4
3 Lithium Li 7
4 Beryllium Be 9
5 Boron B 11
6 Carbon C 12
7 Nitrogen N 14
8 Oxygen O 16
9 Fluorine F 19
10 Neon Ne 20
11 Sodium Na 23
12 Magnesium Mg 24

Arts
We spent our Wednesday building with different kinds of blocks and resources in the classroom. It was perfect for reconnecting after the break. On Friday, we worked on our observational drawing skills. We used several pictures of the "ruiseñor" that we sing about in "El Mundo es de mi Dios" and each child chose which picture they wanted to copy. Mrs. Vivi encouraged them to break the drawing up into parts and to focus on the differe t shapes they could perceive in order not to get overwhelmed with the task at hand. We also listened to the ruiseñor's song as we drew. We will finish some details next week.

History

This week, we focused on major events and causes of the American Civil War. We learned that Abraham Lincoln was a strong leader whose faith in God was tested during the years of his presidency. Eleven Southern states decided to secede from the country and the North fought back, not only to keep the states in the union, but to take steps towards ending slavery in the entire country. By the end of the war, over 500,000 had been killed. A short while after the war, Abraham Lincoln was also killed by a man who was angry at Lincoln and his leadership. But faith in God remained strong in many people, despite the suffering, as we learned in the lyrics of the song we practiced, “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” As the song says, “Let us live to make men free!” and this inspired many to fight for the freedom of others, as Christ has purchased freedom from sin for all who would believe in Him.

We are learning SOOO much through music! We finished learning the rest of the states this week as we went over the middle portion of the U.S. You can listen to it here:

And finally, in our Puerto Rican study of the municipalities, we added the east coast to our collection of municipality songs. Check it out:

OAKS - 7+

*Students reading from the Gettysburg Address in the field.*

In our worship time, we focused on the meaning of the memory verse #4: “He himself bore our sins in his body on a tree, so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness.” The “so that” in that verse reveals to us the REASON we have to continue seeking to live lives that please God even though Jesus has already taken the penalty for sin on the cross. He took our place in death, so now, we can take his place, HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS, in life. Just like the story we read this week, “Whiter than Snow,” nothing can compare to the purity and goodness of Christ. So let us put on his righteousness, his clean clothes, and live to honor God today.

BIBLE readings:

1 Peter 2:24
Ephesians 2:8-9

A Young Person’s Guide to Knowing God

“Whiter than Snow” p. 77

Science

The Oaks students are preparing to research different elements over the weekend in order to share what they learned this week. This will conclude our overview of atomic bonding and the periodic table. This week they learned that atoms connect by way of ionic or covalent bonds and that this is happening around them all the time! We looked at the Periodic table and how scientists have organized the table by different kinds of elements. It is a marvel to see God's order in everything He created!

Studio

We used our Studio Time this week to reinforce and review what was learned in Science and History. On Wednesday, some of the students pretended to be Abraham Lincoln and delivered the Gettysburg Address to a multitude. On Friday, they chose the elements they wanted to research and worked on a crossword puzzle to review the concepts learned in the lesson before moving on to learning about crystals and polymers.

Check out the “History” section above in SEEDS for more about the History class this week.