Our Garden kids have very much enjoyed the new monkey bar addition to the playground. But they aren’t the only ones reaching new heights: the Seeds students learned this week about interesting Roman structures that housed many people vertically while the Oaks had a new experience doing research at the local library.

SUGGESTED AT-HOME READINGS VARY 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

Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12.

Week 4 came with a new song: “I am the Light of the World” and we discussed what this means to us and how His word lights and guides our path! As we read the Bible, we are learning to trust and obey as He leads us. We expressed day 4 of creation through painting and learned that stars can be many colors.

We now have a new “routine chart” which has helped in knowing what comes next and the child of the day gets to move the arrow as we transition to the next activity. So far they have loved helping with this job. They also had a lot of fun using our antique projector and having the experience of playing with light using different shapes to create figures on the wall and seeing their shadows on the wall as they dance.

Our stories this week were, Does God sleep? and Peedie from the Gosling Collection.

The Seeds Program

This week we honored Hallel during our time of worship and enjoyed Joshua’s reading of her book, “Pigs Make me Sneeze” by Mo Willems. We continued learning more lyrics and movements to the hymn “Tis so Sweet…” and began learning the names of the first few books of the New Testament. We talked about how these books are called the gospels because they tell the story of Jesus’ birth, death and resurrection. These accounts end the long period of waiting for the Messiah, or “Seed” that was promised in the Scriptures of the Old Testament.

It was also fun for the kids to return to the center for volleyball on Friday and have their time with Mr. Jean and Miss. Ana.

SCIENCE

As part of our study of the brain, we learned about neurons and how they receive and send signals to the brain. We “sculpted” a neuron with our arm and drew what looked like a man with crazy hair in our notebook. On Friday, we did a review in class and made sure we finished the diagrams of the brain in our journals.

SCIENCE Readings

Encyclopedia of the Human Body
- pgs 6-7

History

We had to adjust the lesson plan this week when we moved the program online, but the students did an amazing job following along with the map-drawing exercise of the Roman world. We focused mostly on understanding where the waters were located around the lands controlled by the Romans. When we got back to the center on Friday, some of the kids turned in the maps they made at home and were so excited when a new visitor came from our time machine: Hannah! Hannah was a slave from Judea who worked for a family in a Roman Villa. She told us about what these houses looked like and pointed out some examples that were in our book, The Roman Empire. The students then worked in teams and tried to replicate these structures with the wooden blocks. Some of them got pretty high! Although it is sometimes hard to work in groups, it was good for them to share their ideas and work together to achieve the goal.

Watch our new timeline video below for the latest episode.

HISTORY Readings

The Roman Empire
- pp. 18-25

Studio Time

We learned in our Studio Time on Zoom that the Romans liked to decorate their buildings with mosaic floors. According to our book The Roman Empire, Romans could make mosaics as detailed as paintings by “cutting stones, glass, tiles, and shells into little pieces called tessarae.” (p.24) We looked at different pictures of the mosaics that are still preserved from Roman times as well as several modern ones. Finally, I showed them a picture of different examples of mosaics made with paper like the ones we were going to make together on Friday. Their assignment was to think about what they would like to make for their mosaic. When they arrived on Friday, I gave them strips of construction paper with different colors for them to choose. They cut or ripped them into smaller pieces and began to create! This week we plan on finishing our projects.

The Oaks Program

Our Oaks morning group took a trip to the library this week to prepare for the research paper they will be working on this semester. The group worked on learning how to find titles that would support their topics best. We were grateful for the assistance we received from the staff at San Juan Community Library.

Science

This week in Pre-Physics, the students learned some foundational concepts of basic statistics like measures of central tendency, probability, accuracy, and precision. They also got to perform their first virtual lab, which was about measurement in science.

This week in Chemistry, the students performed the same virtual lab of measurement in science. Like the Pre-Physics class, they learned what happens when you move explosive chemicals to lab area 2. Thankfully, the lab is still standing. In addition, the students studied the basics of biochemistry learning about the 4 main macro-molecules in living organisms: carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids.

History

The afternoon group continued to learn about the Roman World under the growing influence of Julius Caesar’s grand-nephew Octavius. We worked on labeling a map that detailed the power division of the Second Triumvirate under Octavius, Marc Antony and Lepidus. This was the period of transition prior to the establishment of the Roman Empire. As an extension activity, we started a read-aloud from a book called Augustus Caesar’s World, where the students are learning more about the backgrounds of the significant players between the years 44BC - 14AD.