Break Week: October 2-6 - "On Break!"
On Break!
Enjoy your week off everybody! We will see you all back on October 10 and 11!
On display
Some of the older SEEDS girls show off their work for the week.
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.
The Links to the Bible Readings connect you to a dramatized reading of the scriptures which are great for car rides. Our Memory verse can be found at the end of this page.
Review any past readings that you have not been able to get to this week.
The Gospel of Matthew
Window on the World
Children’s Atlas of God’s World
Properties of Ecoystems (OAKS)
Additional Read-Alouds:
HERO TALES
The Usborne Living World Encyclopedia
The Garden
On Tuesday, we went on our first outing as a group to watch the play, Cuando Yo Sea Grande. The children were very excited to be there together and were extra loving to each other. They kept hugging each other throughout the day. The children said they enjoyed the play and walked out singing some of the songs. Just as they learned about the different professions and occupations they can be when they grow up, we pray that they will continue to grow in their knowledge and love for Jesus. We pray God will bring out their talents at an early age so that they might start using them for the Kingdom and that when the time comes to choose a profession, God will guide them.
On Thursday for worship, we spoke about Jesus when he was young and a story of him at the temple. We emphasized how at an early age Jesus loved to be in His father’s house and enjoyed learning about His word. We told the kids that in the same way, we can cultivate our relationship with God at an early age and love reading our Bibles and talking to God.
When we were outside for park time, the teachers traced the outline of each child's body with chalk and then they decorated by drawing hair or coloring some clothes. Then we finished off this activity by singing, “God made me, God made me, in my Bible book I read that God made me”.
For activity time the children got to draw their favorite part of the play and talk about what they wanted to be when they grew up. “Yo quiero ser doctora bailarina”, said Gillian. “Yo constructor”, said Cesare. “Yo quiero ser bombero”, said Emiliano. “Yo voy a ser astronauta”, exclaimed Lucas. Mrs. Vivi brought in different costumes and the children had a blast playing pretend. They put out fires, went to outer space in the spaceship and reconstructed a house that had “burned down.”
Let’s keep growing in Jesus! We hope you have a wonderful break. Will see you soon.
The Seeds Program
SEEDS Worship
This week in our time of worship, we meditated on the teachings of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Jesus called his disciples to be like salt and like light in the world, making an impact in the lives of the people around them. He essentially said, what good is it to be a Christian if you don’t make a difference in the world around you? No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Rather, He calls us to shine in dark places intentionally. He also taught us about anger and how we relate to one another.
SEEDS Geography
We wrapped up our time in the lower portion of North America this week, before we head north again to Canada after the break. We played the Geography game and learned two new songs that would help us memorize the Central 7 and the Caribbean 6. This break week would be a great time to ask your kids to teach you how to play the North America Geography game that they took home. Check out the songs and sing along to our new videos here.
SEEDS Science
In class we talked about how God is omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent. So, what does this have to do with a science lesson on food chains and food webs??? Let’s find out!
Living organisms are producers or consumers. Producers use sunlight and water to make their own food through the process of photosynthesis. Consumers cannot produce their own food and must consume other organisms for energy. A food chain shows a series of organisms in the order that they consume one another, or rather the flow of energy from one organism to another. Food webs show the interconnections between many different food chains.
Consumers are described as being _____-vores. “Vore” means “one who eats.” So an herbivore eats only plants while a carnivore eats only animals. Many living organisms, including us, are omnivores. “Omni” means “ALL.”
Learning about this word root presented a great opportunity to talk about how amazing God is! He created everything to have a specific purpose in this amazingly diverse world of ecosystems. Throughout it all God is:
Omniscient—ALL knowing
Omnipresent—ALL present or ever present
Omnipotent—ALL powerful
After the break we will continue to study the intricate way that God designed living things and the relationships among them.
SEEDS Studio
The students finished their botanical prints this week and they are absolutely beautiful! I was impressed with the variety of plants chosen and the different details and borders the students added. When finished, we had some extra park time and/or played inside with the classroom resources. The Leaves enjoyed playing “restaurant” and building with wooden blocks.
On Friday, we used our time together to watch a short movie from the Torchlighters series. These videos are produced by Voice of the Martyrs with the intention of sharing the true stories of brave missionaries and heroes of the faith. The first one we chose to watch was the story of Adoniram and Ann Judson who left the United States to share the gospel in India. However, God had other plans for them and they were thrilled to go to Burma instead since it was a place where no missionary had gone before. Despite harsh opposition, they were able to translate the Bible for the first Burmese believers. Their legacy lives on as Burma (now known as Myanmar) has the third largest population of Baptist believers in the world. The children were very attentive to the movie and asked some great questions. We hope we can share some more of these movies in the future.
OAKS MIDDLE YEARS
OAKS Worship and Geography
In the student’s time of Bible journaling, they took notes on what it meant to be salt and light, specifically after discussing the Beatitudes taught within Matthew 5. We learned that we should expect persecution as a believer, and because Jesus reminded us that we have a great reward in heaven, we shouldn’t be afraid to share the truth of the gospel with others. To be salt and light means that our lives should be different; sometimes we will be received well, and other times not so much. But in doing so, we are like the many that have come before us. So we were reminded, once again, to go and tell the world about Him. This inspired the video below:
We spent time in our Geography class making sure that we knew the locations of all the countries we have discussed in North America so far. To review them, watch the videos in the SEEDS Geography section above.
OAKS Science
This week was time to review all that we had learned in the last six weeks of class. I set up a Jeopardy game to help us review the concepts learned. The categories were: “Forests”, “Deserts”, “Oases”, “Food Chains & Webs”, and “Extra.” After explaining the rules, I split the group into two teams that could work together to get points. The group had to choose a category and the amount of points they wanted to go for. They also had to remember to answer in the form of a question, not just yell out the answer (Ex. What is a coniferous forest?) The race was fierce and they were neck and neck throughout most of the game but in the end it was Judah, Olivia, Mateo, and Anaiah that won by a slight victory of 100 points! We are looking forward to the next round of Jeopardy in the future.
OAKS STUDIO
Música maestro! This week we listened to music from several of the countries we have studied so far. We began listening to mariachi music from Alex Campos. We loved hearing the bright trumpets in the music. Then we moved to the Caribbean and talked about the steel drum that is commonly used in calypso music in the islands. We heard a beautiful rendition of the song “The Goodness of God.” with the steel drum as the main instrument. Finally, we heard some of the more familiar music to us, merengue from the Dominican Republic and salsa from Cuba. We practiced a few moves for both merengue and salsa as these are common social dances in Puerto Rico. We noted the differences in the counts as we danced. We will continue working on this when we meet again after the break.
Memory Verse #5
“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.”