CCA Feudal System!

The castle project is finally finished! The students thoroughly enjoyed crafting their castles, and after adding the finishing touches of wells, drawbridges, and flags, they named their castles and presented them to the school. On the school's feast day before Thanksgiving break, all the CCA students and families voted on their favorite castle. The house of Tauros' castle named "Divinity Castle" won the contest.

Aetos "Knights of Fame Castle"

Tauros "Divinity Castle"

Leon "Lion's Pride Castle"

Class Room Solar System

The class finished their study of space, and created paper-mache planets which we hung from the ceiling in the classroom using on of the lights as the Sun. The students love seeing the planets floating over their heads, although at times they have been known to fall and interrupt class!

Baby Shower!

 

 The class threw Campbell, my soon to be first child(girl), a baby shower! They are so very thoughtful, and it was such a blessing. We had a blast with the students and families, devouring sweets, and playing games. Soon my newborn daughter will meet my class full of girls!

We Scream for Ice Cream!

Our class was awarded an ice cream party this week for coming in 2nd place in the school's box top competition!  I was happy to feed them frozen energy and send them home to their parents!

Castles!

In our History class, we have begun discussing, and moving into the time period of the feudal system and the prominent use of castles.  The class was split into houses, and began by researching different castle types and designs. After they had agreed upon a castle design, they began drawing blue prints of how they wanted the castle laid out. It was a great opportunity for them to learn about mathematical measurements, and the drawing of blueprints.  They turned their measurements into the head engineer (myself), and I cut styrofoam to their specifications.  They colored land and moats, and erected their outer walls this week, as is seen in the pictures.

Leon

Tauros

Aetos

Louisville Sceince Center

Picture coming soon!
On Nov. 9th we had our second class field trip. We traveled to the Louisville Science center! Unfortunately, in the hustle and bustle of the morning preparing for the commute, I forgot the camera. Therefore, there is a lack of adorable picture of the class having a blast while learning all about science.  We started off doing a lab where the class learned about states of matter. They were able to explore liquids, solids, and gasses, and really enjoyed the dry ice experiments! Afterwards we watched the Imax: Molecules in Motion, it was fun, albeit a little over their heads. The class spent the remainder of the day exploring the exhibits to the utter exhaustion of teachers and parents!  The girls seemed to really enjoy the virtual simulators, and building things, and most of all the bubble maker which allowed them to stand inside of a bubble! The gift store was a big hit too, no surprise there, for it is a class of all girls.

Solar System Girls!

In science the class has been studying the solar system. Each student has been assigned a planet to research and present to the class. They have learned a solar system song to help them remember the order of the planets. I would be very surprised if you haven't heard them singing this song at home over and over and over and over.

Charlemagne

In history class last week we discussed the great emperor Charlemagne.  Each student created a crown complete with sparkling glitter and jewels.  On the crowns they depicted themselves as great rulers by writing on the front their name followed by "the Great".

Jonah and the Great Fish

Last week in Bible class we discussed God's prophet Jonah and the story of being swallowed by the great fish. It was fun to delve into a story the students had already heard and knew, and see them understand it more fully. We spent one class session discussing the "great fish" and how to answer skeptics and concerned believers.  They each had a balloon taped to their desk, and were able to decorate their fish using some cut outs and construction paper. Did I mention that the balloon had a tack inside which represented Jonah! The great fish stayed on their desk for 3 days, the amount of time Jonah spent in the fish, and on the third day they shook the fish to make it vomit Jonah on dry land!(the balloon popped)

Picture Day!

Today was picture day. The weather was perfect and we were able to take great photos of all the students, classes, families, and one shot with the entire school.  We are looking forward to seeing the pictures!

Quidditch!

To add a competitive edge to the housing system, there will be some academic challenges, as well as some physical challenges.  One of the physical challenges will be a game that Mr. Anderson has developed along with the upper school called Quidditch.  It is a combination of soccer, basketball, dodgeball, and deception( Not in the bad sense, just in keeping the location of the snitch a secret).  Students will be eligible to make the Quidditch teams from 5th grade and on.  The students have already grown to love the game, and it is extremely exciting to watch. Hopefully in the near future we will have parents and friends coming to watch scheduled matches between houses! Here are some pictures of the first game ever played.

Mosaics Worthy of The Louvre

                                                   For History this week we have been learning about Justinian The Great, the Roman Emperor who led from the Eastern Empire capital Constantinople.  He had the amazing church, Hagia Sophia built, a monument to byzantine architecture. This sparked the use of mosaics and paintings throughout Christian churches. Therefore, our class made mosaics of our own. We started by taking hammer to tile. I figured this would be a great way to let out some aggression.  The smashed and smashed to their hearts content, of course with my supervision.  We wrapped the tiles in a thick quilt before they went barbarian on them.
   They designed and created their mosaics in their houses.

Classroom MOM !

Our class has finally filled the position of Classroom Mom, which is simply one of the students mothers who will graciously devote some of their time to helping me in various ways.  Mrs. Leonard is our classroom mom, and we already owe her a debt of gratitude.  Hopefully you have noticed the students have new Agendas to record homework on. These will be helpful for the students organization skills, they are easy for the parents to decipher, and take less of my time in class to get filled out properly! Therefore, thank you Mrs. Leonard. You will also notice next to my signature every day in their agenda a colored dot that represents the color the student ended the day on.(Green, Yellow, or Red)  Hopefully this will enable you to question your children as to the cause of their color letting them explain and learn from their faults.

The class with their science teacher Mrs. Robinson have been studying the oceans and ocean creatures. Each student researched a particular ocean animal to present to the class, and the class then made an Ocean Box with clay replicas of their animals. 

The class also made a model of the Earth that shows the Earth's layers, and as they moved on to rock studies they were able to produce crystal rocks! You will be able to see these at the open house!

3rd Grade Latin Class

My 3rd grade Latin class are learning even more quickly than I could hope for.  This week we are covering ch. 5 which is a vocabulary review chapter covering all the vocabulary from the previous chapters. A great way to study at home for any of the chapters is via a Latin game from Classical Academic Press.  The website will ask you which book you are using, and we are using Latin for Children: Primer A. The website lets you study by chapter and makes it enjoyable for the student. The website is http://www.classicalacademicpress.com/lfcflash/
This website will also be posted on the side bar of information in case you forget and would like to use it throughout the years. Have Fun!

Thank you for your patience and understanding

To all my parents, I hope this blog and homework calendar have been a beneficial and enjoyable home resource. Thank you for you patience and understanding as the class moves through out first quarter. It has been a work in progress as I figure out all the intricacies, and organization skills that enable the class to run smoothly. After the first quarter I feel confident the class will be moving much more smoothly, and I will have an even better grasp of what the students need concerning homework time, and study time and materials.

Church Council Banners

This week in History we have been studying the church councils.  In order for them to remember what each council decided upon doctrinally, each student made a banner for each council. Each banner has the council name, date and doctrine established.

The Miracles of Elisha

In Bible class this week we have been studying the ministry and miracles of Elisha. Therefore, the students all made Elisha hanging banners! The banner spells out the name of Elisha, while on the back of each card is a depiction of one of Elisha's miracles. Five of the miracles came from their cards and worksheets, but the sixth miracle had to be chosen from Elisha's other miracles found in 2 Kings. The students were very creative, and now the banners hang from the ceiling to decorate our room.

Gaslight Festival in J-Town

The Covenant Classical Academy booth at the Gaslight Festival in J-Town was successful in terms of enjoyment and meeting new prospective families.  Hopefully the students who were able to attend had a blast, I know the ones I was able to see at the festival were having fun. We met many new families, and the bucket for the drawing for free tickets to the Creation Museum was filling quickly.  Even Sir covenant (our knight) made an appearance at the festival!

Covenant Classical Academy of Witchcraft and Wizardry?

     As shown on the calendar, today is the day in which all students were placed into houses.  For the most part the house system brings with it the connotation of Harry Potter's school Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, but J.K. Rowling was not the first to implement this idea.  This system has been in place in many schools long before the writing of the Harry Potter series.
     Throughout a child's educational career their social development is mostly "horizontal", meaning for the main part they are only interacting with other children of the same age and grade.  One beneficial aspect of the house system is enabling children to have "vertical" social development, being able to engage relationally with students younger and older than themselves.  This will in turn give the students a chance to become student leaders, role models, and serve one another.  This system allows for healthy, family style camaraderie and competition athletically, academically, and behaviorally.
     There will be four houses named after the visions Daniel had of the 4 faces of the cherubim: man, eagle, lion, and ox.  One house will be made entirely of staff and adults, and this will be the house of man which will be called Anthropos( Greek for man). The other three housed will be made up of students with each house being led by student officials, and they will be called Tauros (ox), Aetos (eagle), Leon (lion).

Discipline and Rewards

     I thought it would be beneficial for everyone to know and understand the punishment and reward system in my classroom. The punishment system revolves around the changing of colors via the color chart and clothespins. Everyday the students begin on green.  Upon an infraction of the rules the student would then move to yellow or possibly red depending on the severity. Moving to yellow means loss of half (15 minutes) of recess, where as moving to red would mean losing all of recess (30 minutes), having a note sent home to the parents, and possibly meeting with Headmaster Harris. Once your color is changed, there is no going back until the beginning of the next day.
     At the end of each day any student remaining on green will receive a ticket. If the entire class has remained on green all week then each student receives two additional tickets on Friday. Twice a month these tickets can be traded in at "Smither's Bazaar", the name of our classroom marketplace shop where various items can be purchased using tickets!

Invaders!

This week in history class we studied the Barbarians and Vikings as they invaded the Roman Empire.  As a class project, each student made a viking boat and prepared to plunder the coastlines!

The Feared Viking Joanna

Mount Carmel!

In Bible class the first week we studied the Bible story of "Elijah Destroys the Prophets of Baal" found in 1Kings 18.  To help us remember the event, the students created Mount Carmel on which the event took place.  They colored pictures of all the characters including King Ahab, Elijah, the Israelites, and the Baal and Asherah prophets. They also created little alters, and showed that Elijah's alter to God was the only one burning even though it was doused in water! 

Puellae, Puellae, Puellae

The site is now officially launched, and my hope is that it will be a great help for your families throughout the year.  Puellae is Latin for "girls", and that is exactly what my entire class is made up of this year.  Feel free to check out more about me under the "About Mr. Jones" page, and about my discipulae (female students) under the "About My Class" page.  We are looking forward to having a great year working and learning together. Also, feel free to reply with a comment about any post, and check the calendar at the bottom of the page for updates concerning homework, tests, and other important dates!