Week 18: January 15-19 - Why Good Soil is so...Good!
Why Good Soil is so…Good!
Seeds grow best in good soil as we learned this week in one of the parables of Jesus. And this rule is true in real life as we learned about the rich soil of Africa from our guest teacher who taught us about farming in Zimbabwe. Read below for more…
Scroll below to see this week’s home readings
God causes things to grow
One of the moms shared about her recent agricultural training in Africa
Family Book Package Readings
The readings listed below are optional, but are great ways to reinforce the lessons taught during this week. The entire family, from the youngest to the oldest, can explore new topics and enjoy great stories together.
Our Family Memory Verse for this week can be found at the end of this page.
The Bible - the Book of Matthew
Matthew 13:31-52
Window on the World
p.166-167 Tuareg
Children’s Atlas to God’s World
P.52-53 - Kenya
Additional Read-Alouds:
HERO TALES
p.56-66 - David Livingstone
The Usborne Living World Encyclopedia
P.42-43 - Grassland Plant Eaters
P.44-45 - Grassland Meat Eaters
P.46-47 - Survival on the Grasslands
THE GARDEN
Just like that, it’s a new year! What a privilege and a joy to be back with all the children. They were definitely excited to be in each other's company once again.
For worship this week we continued where we left off. Jesus had already been born and wise men traveled a long time to find Jesus, the King. They bowed and worshiped and offered gifts.
Speaking about gifts, the Garden students had a gift from the teachers. They were all excited to unwrap the present. They got a set of “Lincoln Logs” as a new present for them to enjoy in The Garden’s building area.
At the big park they enjoyed tree climbing, the park set, and pretending they were adventurers, cutting branches as they passed through the jungle.
This week for activity time we drew with pastel colors and painted with watercolors. They had the opportunity to be creative and they were. It’s amazing to see the progress they have had in this area!
To finish off our first week, we honored and celebrated Gillian in company of her parents and Garden children. Happy 5th birthday Gillian! It’s a joy to watch you grow!
SEEDS
Worship and Geography
It was absolutely wonderful to be back together again after a long and restful break. We are always amazed to see how much the kids grow during these breaks, but we're excited to get right back to where we left off in December.
We began worship time this week in the parables of Jesus as found in chapter 13 of Matthew. In both the parables of the good soil and the wheat and the tares, we see that God is a good sower, who plants love and truth, despite the fact that there are things that seek to rob the good seed in this broken and sin-cursed world.
Jesus calls his disciples to be firmly rooted in good soil in order to be fruitful in this life. So it was pretty amazing when Mrs. Cecilia came to be our guest teacher on Friday, that she spoke about the importance of the soil when farming in Africa. She spent several weeks learning methods of planting food in Zimbabwe and came to teach us about them. She shared about what the Lord was doing with the farmers in Zimbabwe and taught the Seeds kids how to plant certain vegetables that she saw being planted over there. It was a very fun and exciting lesson.
In case you hadn't guessed by now, our studies in World Geography have taken us to Africa this week. This is a continent so rich in culture that it is hard to focus on just a few things, but we did so both in Geography and in our studio time by looking at traditional African dances. The kids watched some videos and Mr. Jared then taught some movements. We all had a great time moving our bodies to the Djembe beats.
Finally, we enjoyed honoring our new music teacher, Mrs. Emily Aviles, whose birthday was last week. Elise’s mom will be teaching a choir session to the kids on Wednesdays for the first part of this semester during Studio Time. Welcome, Emily!
Studio Time
It is impossible to travel to Africa and not consider its vibrant music and dance. We loved watching a video that showed the top dances in Kenya. The children noticed that the movement was done together most of the time and that the costumes varied greatly from tribe to tribe. We discussed the drums and other instruments as well. Finally, we saw an amazing video that featured the Maasai jumping dance. The kids were in awe at how high they could jump as they danced. It seemed that they were on a trampoline! Then, Mr. Jared led them through a series of movements (or dance vocabulary) that they could string together to form a dance. The highlight was going around in the circle while skipping and then taking turns entering the circle and trying to jump as high as possible. Make sure to check out the videos to witness the joy they were all experiencing. We are adding some of these verses to learn our new memory verse as well.
Science
Did you know that one quarter of the world is covered in grass? This week we began to learn about grasslands, a biome whose major vegetation is grass. We learned that the grass ranges from a few inches to ten feet in height and that there are as many as 11,000 types of grasses around the world. Grasslands have different names around the world: they are called prairies in North America, pampas in South America, steppe in Europe and Asia, and savannah in Africa. We began with Africa’s savannah as it is the world’s most well known and largest remaining grassland in the world. We will take our time learning and discussing the particular animal and other vegetation that grows there.
On Friday, we learned more about grassland plants, including some wildflowers and a few trees that grow there. We then went outside to explore our own little grassland. The older students went out with rulers to measure the tallest blade of grass they could find. Noah and Emma found one that was more than three feet! Eli also found the tallest in his group. Both groups were also challenged to collect as many different kinds of grass and/or wildflowers as they could. Carolina found eight different kinds! They were delighted with the different plants they could find in such a small plot of land.
THE OAKS PROGRAM
Worship, Park and Geography
One of the most exciting things to watch is how the Lord integrates everything we do here in our programs. In our study of the Gospel of Matthew, we are in the parables of Jesus, many of which talk about planting good seeds. This perfectly ties into our geography studies of Africa this week. We learned a lot about the topography of the continent and even began working in our new book: “Exploring World Geography.” We went on a nature walk to look at the grass outside, to play soccer in the park (a hugely popular African game) and just be in awe at how God has designed all things so perfectly.
A highlight in our worship time this week was having the students create melodies for our memory verse this week. Check out this edited video to see the girls group and the boys group melodies mashed together!
Science
The Oaks students worked on their grassland chapter independently while practicing note-taking. We discussed what they had written in their notes and watched a video on the African savannah. We will explore the savannah animals and plants this week.
Studio Time
The art in a country often reflects its surroundings. It is very common then to see African art that portrays its majestic animals such as lions, zebras, and giraffes. In Studio, the Oaks made drawings of elephants while learning about the positive and negative space in art. The positive space is what the artist has placed in the front of the picture and the negative space is the background. After watching a brief video to understand this concept further, I handed the students both a black and a white piece of paper. The challenge was to copy a picture of an elephant first on white paper with a black marker. Then, they switched to a black paper and had to do the exact same lines but this time in white chalk. The white would now be the positive space. They all agreed that doing it with a black marker on white paper was easier than with chalk on a black paper.
Memory Verse #16
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
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