Joshua, Jeremias and Anaiah have a little fun in Biology class.

Getting back to classes is always fun when you love the people you see every day. The Garden, Seeds and Oaks started up again last week and are excited for another great semester of learning, loving God and making memories.

ARTS ACADEMY IS NOW OPEN FOR SPRING ENROLLMENT

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THE GARDEN

It was so fun to be back together this week! The kids loved having fun together at the park and singing together inside. We opened up a few of the stations and placed some new activities for them to explore in the mornings when they arrived. This week, we looked at the letter “W” for water. Isabella and Gillian enjoyed using the watercolors paints and Gillian copied the picture of the waterfall in the classroom. On Thursday, we used the water table with some kinetic sand outside. That was a new experience for all the kids and they enjoyed how “smooth” and “fluffy” it was. Inside, we practiced “sewing” with string and some boards in the classroom. We are getting our fingers ready to do more fine motor activities in the upcoming weeks, specifically sewing and weaving.

SEEDS

Getting back to SEEDS is always fun, especially when there is a birthday. This week, we honored Javvah who turned 9 years old! We also continued our study in the book of Judges during Bible time and began memorizing Psalm 23. In History class, we looked at what was going on in Egypt during the time of the Judges, and learned many things about two important pharaohs: Amenhotep IV and King Tutenkamen.

In Science, we jumped right back into studying what God made on the third day of creation. After discussing what we have already learned about land ad soil, we moved to plants and started at the very beginning: seeds. To help us with this discussion, I invited my friend Miss Cassey, who is studying agricultural engineering at Iowa State University, to come share some of what she knows with the students. Using the book A Seed is Sleepy from our library, Miss Cassey was able to show them different kinds of seeds and some of the fascinating facts about seeds. One of the most important facts is that a seed can live for thousands of years waiting for the right conditions to grow. Most importantly, a seed needs water to “wake up.”

I gave the students a regular bean seed to examine and asked them to try to remove the seed coat. This proved to be a tricky task. Then, they gave them another seed that had been soaking in water for a couple of hours. They couldn’t believe how “puffed up” the seed looked already. The seed’s coat, or testa, was wrinkled and loose. We learned that the seed coat protects the seed but that once water touches the seed, the coat begins to weaken and moisture comes inside the seed. Eventually, the seed loses its coat on the way to becoming a bigger plant, but on this occasion I asked the kids to try to do it themselves. It was so much easier than with the first seed! Then, we proceeded to open the seed and separate the two halves which are called the cotyledons. The cotyledons are the seed’s food until they can begin to produce their own food. Finally, we looked at another part of the seed, the embryo, or baby plant. We noticed that at the top was the part that would develop into the leaves and at the bottom was the part that would develop into the roots of the baby plant. These three parts that we examined helped support the following statement that the kids enjoyed very much: a seed is a baby plant in a house with its lunch.

OAKS

The OAKS were paying lots of attention during worship as they are in training for telling some of the Worship Stories this semester. In addition to that, they had fun in History class learning how to play Senet, an ancient Egyptian board game.

In biology, the students studied a bit about embryology. They learned about egg fertilization, how one single cell develops into a baby, and some milestones of pregnancy. They did an excellent job sharing all they learned by teaching the information back to Ms. Catherine.