One Generation to Another

The Psalms speak of the power of one generation declaring the mighty acts of God to another and this week at the program, the OAKS students got to experience that very thing. By giving of their time and energy, they witnessed firsthand the joy of our youngest generation - the students in the Garden - when they saw the playhouse that the OAKS students had built for them. The power of reflecting God’s goodnesss and love through hard-work and sacrifice…unforgettable!

Sheer delight!

The Garden kids enjoy their brand-new playhouse

READINGS FOR THE WEEK - Family Book Package

The readings listed below are optional, but are great ways to reinforce the lessons taught at the center and for the entire family to explore together the topics we cover from week to week.

Children’s Atlas of God’s World

pp. 4-11

Window on the World

pp. 104-105 (Navajo)

Additional Read-Alouds:

Hero Tales - Dwight L. Moody
The Usborne Living World Encyclopedia
- pp. 58-59

The Garden

This week we continued to discuss the days of creation. The children have participated with enthusiasm during worship and love singing and playing the instruments. Ask them to sing to you the song “En el principio”.

We started off the week by taking a walk around the big park. The children were so excited, and they ran off to play as soon as the instructions were explained. Afterwards in activity time they played with blocks and built ramps and slides for the wooden figures. Estela even did “parkour” with her block creation and wooden figures.

The kids were very happy that at last they could cook and play chef in our little play kitchen. When Estela put her apron on, she said: “I look like my grandma”. They made pizzas, sandwiches, soups and delicious desserts. Gillian was so sweet, she paused her playtime, went up to Miss Nicole and said, “Te amo maestra”. Whenever it is time to clean up and change rotations, the children do so well and are so willing to clean and organize what they have used. Estela got creative at clean-up time this week and while she was cleaning, she made up a new cleaning up song, “Vamos a guardar, vamos a guardar, vamos a guardar porque es hora de cambiar”. This song was a hit amongst them!

A highlight of the week was when the Garden kids got to play with the new house in the park that the Oaks students put together for them. Mrs. Vivi told the children there was a surprise for them in the playground. “Este parque es muy interesante. Yo me voy a poner muy feliz”, exclaimed Cesare. When they went outside they saw the brand new white house. They immediately ran to it and went inside to check it out. They started grilling hamburgers and hot dogs and served it for the teachers. They also made a pathway/bridge with some crates and walked on them a few times, giving them a chance to practice some important gross motor skills. “Es un restaurante en el agua”, said Lucas while he crossed over the bins.

The white house was not finished yet, the roof was missing. However, when the Oaks students finished it, the Garden students went outside to be greeted by them and for them to see the final product. They were a little timid when they saw all those big kids outside waiting for them. But finally, Cesare said, “Gracias por todo.” They finished off the week by making thank you cards for the Oaks students. Special thanks to Emma for this great idea.

The Seeds Program

SEEDS Worship

“World missions” is the focus of this year as we explore different countries and cultures. But why? Well, the Bible teaches us that when Jesus taught on the earth, His message included calling people to repentance because “the kingdom of God” was at hand. The kingdom exists for all people who acknowledge God as king, not only with their words, but with their lives. We learned that way back in the book of Genesis, we see accounts of people not submitting to the kingship of God, but trying to make a name for themselves, as in the story of the Tower of Babel. And even though God used the confusion of languages to intervene in this act of rebellion against Him, He still desires ALL people, from every nation, people, tribe and LANGUAGE to come to Him, and worship Him as their one and only God. The book of Isaiah, the Psalms, and the visions that John has in the Book of Revelation all teach us these truths. Our job is to tell His story, to make Him known…so that all the world will know that He is the KING!

Special congratulations to our first SEED with a birthday this year: Nick Bynum!

SEEDS Geography

For geography, we looked at different types of maps, and noticed that lines on the map help us to learn where things are. These lines form a grid and one set tells us the “longitude” and the other tells us the “latitude.” Both work together! The first and second graders were particularly amused by the little song we made for “latitude and longitude.” This inspired some creative time: check out their dance of the continents song!

SEEDS Science

This past week we started labeling a map of the world with the five major ecozones. An ecozone is a large geographic region that has similar biomes and amounts of sunlight, The Tropical Zone lies between the Tropics of Cancer (23.5 degrees north) and Capricorn (23.5 degrees south), receives the most direct sunlight all year long, and includes most of the tropical rainforests and deserts. The Northern Polar Region is north of the Arctic Circle (66.5 degrees north) while the Southern Polar Region is south of the Antarctic Circle (66.5 degrees south). These regions include the tundra biomes and are colder even when they are experiencing long hours of light during the summer. The sunlight has to travel through more of the atmosphere to reach the polar regions and reflects off the snow. The Northern and Southern Temperate Zones are located between the polar regions and the tropical zone. They include most of the temperate forests and grasslands.

In addition to labeling the five major ecozones, we learned a song to identify the five oceans on the map. Here is a YouTube link to the song:

On Friday the students learned about the oxygen cycle and the water cycle. The older group of students did an impromptu play to demonstrate these cycles for the younger two groups of students. I was really impressed with how quickly they learned the information and how excited they were to show the other students what they had learned.

SEEDS Studio

When I met with the first two groups this week, I told them that Mr. Jared and I had prayed about their group names and we had decided that the names would have just one word this year. When I trimmed down the two names that were already decided upon (the Rivers and the Leaves), I thought about a reference in the Bible that talked about leaves that brought healing to the nations. When I looked it up in Revelation 22, I noticed that there was a river in that part of Scripture too:

“Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the RIVER stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the LEAVES of the tree are for the healing of the nations.”

I was so excited to share this with the kids and it resulted in some great conversations. How cool is that?

Then, when I shared the Scripture with the last group, one of the students heard that the Lamb was on the throne and suggested that they should be the LAMBS. Even more amazing.

Choosing the group names is a challenge as there are always many opinions and emotions associated with it. However, it is such a blessing to persevere and see how God can work and what He may want to do with these names. In the end, the students worked on their posters and are almost finished with them. I can’t wait for you to see the LEAVES’, RIVERS’, and LAMBS’ final posters this week.

OAKS MIDDLE YEARS

OAKS Worship and Geography

We have been discussing how to develop practical skills on the mission field in our time at OAKS worship. The song “The Commission,” by the band Cain, which we have been using in our time of reflection, reminds us of what our Lord said to his disciples when he told them to go and make disciples of all nations. For this reason, we began last week by going out into the neighborhood and learning about the homes there in order to pray for them. This week, we talked about how some mission organizations build homes in communities to show the love of Jesus. Therefore, the idea came to build a small playhouse for the children of the community, not only for The Garden and Seeds kids, but also for the ones who live in the area and visit our playground. One of the students also thought it would be a good idea to make signs with verses on them so that when children played, they could see and read the Scriptures. This was an excellent idea and we integrated it into the work plan for the week. The Garden kids saw the “big reveal” on Thursday and what a joy that was. Keep praying for the OAKS kids; that God continues to stir their hearts to love Him and do good works.

For geography, we studied different types of maps, learning what information is given and how we can interpret the data we see.

OAKS Science

In Science, the students worked on two different maps: the Ecozone worksheet from last week and one that helped them see the different climate zones. We labeled that map beginning with the Equator and worked North and South from there. After drawing the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn as well as the Arctic and Antarctic circles, we could see the different climate zones clearly. We discussed why these two maps help us understand the different BIOMES. In the case of the ecozones map we could see how different bodies of water and changes in the topography can affect the life that flourishes in a particular region. With the map that showed the climate zones we talked about how the climate affects the life in each biome. A coquí, for example, would not withstand living in the polar regions, in an extremely cold environment. A polar bear would not fare well in Puerto Rico either. This week, we will begin to study our first Biome: FORESTS.

OAKS STUDIO

In Studio, the students finished decorating their binders. They also used their art time to build the new playhouse and to decorate the wooden verses for the house.