It was a very physical week as we exercised our bodies and brains through many activities. We are super excited to have introduced volleyball this past week and are even more excited to announce that our FALL ARTS ACADEMY will open for registration this Friday, September 5!

SUGGESTED AT HOME READINGS DIFFER PER PROGRAM. PLEASE GO TO THE SECTION OF YOUR PROGRAM TO SEE THE SELECTED PAGES

Memory Verse

“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.”

— Galatians 4: 4-5

The Garden

This week we continued to learn about the days of creation. Reviewing each day, we finally reached day 7: the day of rest. God called His creation good and rested on the 7th day. We all agreed that rest is good but this does not mean that God went to sleep or took a little nap because God is always watching over us. Psalm 121:4 says, “He who watches over Israel will never slumber nor sleep.” We have some wonderful singers in our group, so worship time has been very happy and vibrant 🥰. The children continue to express what they’re learning about each day through creative painting and so far, they are doing a great job and enjoying the process. We hope to finish our creation book soon.

We also continue to practice the proper way to use the materials of each of our play centers and most importantly learn how to share and have fun together. This week, we opened the wooden block station. We are all getting to know each other better and friendships are growing. During playground time, they have enjoyed having Mrs. Doreen pretend to be a big dinosaur who wants to catch them. We call him the “misunderstood dinosaur” because he’s only trying to be their friend and play. They also like to play Happy Chef! They cook, serve and sell food with great big smiles, but the part they most like is charging outrageous prices for the food, like $80 for a hotdog!

At the end of our day together, we continue to enjoy a storytime favorite at The Garden from the collection of “Gossie and Friends” books by Oliver Dunrea. Thursday’s story was “Ollie” about a gosling in his egg who didn’t want to hatch. Ask your child to tell you about it.

Mrs. Vivi and Mrs. Doreen and our helpers are looking forward to what next week will bring.

The Seeds Program

In our time of Worship, we added new parts of our Galatians verse, as well as adding more movements to the hymn, “Tis so Sweet to Trust in Jesus.” Mr. Jared showed the children how the 400 years between the times of the Old Testament and the New were a period of waiting for the promised Messiah or “Seed” mentioned all the way in the book of Genesis. This talk of a “Seed” inspired a nature walk later in the day where we found many different seeds of various sizes, colors and shapes. We will be planting some of them in the small playground this week.

We kicked off our August birthdays last week with Emiliano turning 6 years old and this week, we honored Carib along with his family, enjoying reading his birthday book.

SCIENCE

Readings

Encyclopedia of the Human Body
- pgs 6-7

This week we began learning about the brain and the central nervous system. We learned that there are three main parts of the brain: the cerebrum which is divided into a right and left side with different but complementary strengths, the cerebellum or little brain, and the medulla or brain stem. After discussing the different functions of each part we used play doh to sculpt the pieces. I explained that using play doh as a way to review what we learned is one of the methods that we use in class to help them remember. Noah P. brought in his favorite microscope and shared it with his group.

On Friday, we reviewed the parts of the brain we had learned and enjoyed this fun video to reinforce it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qw8E9WnZTQk

We focused on the fact that the left side of our brain controls the right side of our body and that the right side of our brain controls the left side of our body. We did several activities with partners to test our brain agility and to get ready for our “brain gym” later in the day. Finally, we started to draw the parts of the brain that we learned about in our journal.

History

Readings

The Roman Empire
- pp. 16-17; 20-21
World History from Ancient to Modern Times or Ancient World -
- p. 91 (Julius Caesar)
- 94-95 (Life in Roman town)

What a week of history! The bulk of our time was spent talking about a major figure that moved Rome from a republic to an empire: Julius Caesar. We continued working on plays that help us understand the stories and were so excited once again when the Time Machine brought Calphurnia, Caesar’s wife to our classroom. She told us a lot about his life, and also his death. At the end, we colored our new student sheet of Caesar.

New Timeline Video coming next week!

Studio Time

This week we focused on our first composer that we will learn about this year: Joseph Haydn. We learned that he was a gifted musician from a very early age and that he had to move to Austria to receive the musical education that his family was not able to provide for him. He was good friends with Mozart and was part of the classical music period. One fun fact we learned was that in order to get people’s attention and distinguish himself from the growing competition, he got very creative with his music. One particular composition called the “Surprise” began with very soft music and all of a sudden had a loud sound. The audience attending the orchestra laughed out loud and some women even fainted. You can hear the song here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6mAN42YWQo

On Friday, we had a creative movement exercise with this song where the children were directed to move quietly around the space following the mood of the song and change their movements and/or speed when they heard the music change. They had a blast with all the changes in the music! After this fun warm-up, we proceeded with our “brain gym” activity which was a series of exercises that promote crossing the midline of their bodies and stimulate proper brain function. I shared with them that they can use some of these at any moment when they are having a hard time in school or concentrating on a task. Some of the exercises we did were balancing on one foot while clapping and patting their partners, cross crawls with the opposite knees and elbows, jumping jacks.

Physical Education: Volleyball

Miss Ana began volunteering with us last year and is a Pre-Med student at the University of Puerto Rico. She is also a former volleyball player. This year, she is taking an elective in volleyball at the university and we asked if she could do physical education on Fridays with an emphasis on volleyball this semester with the kids. She lovingly agreed and we were thrilled to use our brand-new volleyball net and balls. The kids learned about volleying the ball this week through some warm-up exercises and then had a chance to try out the net.

The Oaks Program

In our Oaks Program, we continued reading through our book “More than a Carpenter” and focused on the questions about purpose and identity that the author claims can only be answered through Christ.

As always, we continue to discuss these themes in our small group time, while the other group takes science with Mrs. Catherine. We also had a great time setting up the volleyball net for us and for the Seeds students. Mrs. Michelle also came in again this week for another exercise class.

History

Our time in History class was mostly devoted to understanding the differences between the government systems that Rome experienced before and after the time of Julius Caesar. We learned that the Republic was changed through the Triumvirate of Caesar, Pompey and Crassus, three consuls who rose to power replacing the standard system established by the republic. Caesar, surviving Pompey and Crassus, then established himself as Dictator for Life. Even though he was assassinated, his influence paved the way for his grand-nephew Octavian to become the first emperor of Rome.

Readings

World History from Ancient to Modern Times or Ancient World
- p. 91 (Julius Caesar)
- 94-95 (Life in Roman town)
Streams of Civilization -
- 170-172
- 183-185

Science

This week in Pre-Physics, we dove a little deeper into the basics of science. What is mass vs. weight? How do we convert Kelvin to Celsius? Those are some of the questions the students were able to answer after their self-study of the metric system at home.

And in Chemistry, the students are preparing to perform their first virtual lab on measurement in science. They reviewed the scientific method, the format of lab reports, and the various ways to graph the raw data collected from an experiment.They also learned about the very foundation of chemistry--the atom and its subatomic particles: protons, neutrons, and electrons.