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!