BB 02-04-2022

 BRADFORD BULLETIN

VOLUME XIV, ISSUE 24

FEBRUARY 04, 2022

 

FROM THE OFFICE

 

UPCOMING

NEXT WEEK:

  • Tues, 2/8 – 4:15 – Fun Game – Varsity bball team vs. teachers / coaches at MACC
  • Fri, 2/11 – Away basketball games

 

IN THE NEAR FUTURE:

  • Tues, 2/15:  Deadline for:
    • Changing payment plan for 22/23, if needed
    • Informing the office in writing if your child will not return for 22/23.
  • Thurs, 2/17 – Mentor / mentee Bonfire (6th – 12th grades)  
  • Fri, 2/18 – Teacher workday – No school
  • Mon, 2/21 – President’s day – No school
  • Fri, 3/11 – 
    • End of 3rd quarter – Report cards released on EDUCATE
    • Reading Day – upper school
  • 3/14 – 3/18:  Spring break

FROM THE TEACHER’S DESK

 

GRAMMAR SCHOOL

 

Transitional Kindergarten (Mrs. Davis and Mrs. Grubb)

Bible
  • This week we began memorizing Proverbs 17:17 “A friend loves at all times.”
  • TK students learned the story of Jesus calming the storm.  We learned that God is in control of all of life’s circumstances.   
Theme Adventure
  •  This week TK celebrated 100 days in school! Each student was invited to dress as if they were 100 years old or wear a shirt that had 100 things on it.   It was a great day of fun filled with activities surrounding the number 100.  We are proud of the children and the growth they have made this year.  
Literacy
  •  This week we explored books and used “Groundhogs Day” as a way to distinguish real from make belief.  
  • TK students had fun with tongue twisters this week!  
  • We continued to identify rhyming words, initial and final sounds, and counted syllables. 
Math
  •  We had a silly math lesson this week that involved TK students using their shoes to create a graph.  TKs took off a shoe to place it in a category of sneaker, dress shoe, or boot.  It was pretty obvious the day of our lesson that most kids wore sneakers.   
  • TK students also got to play store.  They took a shopping cart around the playroom to choose items that had a price tag on them.  They took it to the cash register and counted out pennies to match the total cost.  We hope you can play the same game at home!  Pretty soon we will be using dimes and pennies! 

 

Lower School P.E. (Mr. Davis)

K – 5th
  • Due to cold weather and rain we had PE inside.  We did stretches, strength training, and played four corners. 

Lower School Music (Mrs. Bennington)

K-5th 
  •  This week in music, students continued to work on the vocal warm-up, “Many Mumbling Mice”.  Students reviewed the meaning  of the musical term “Tempo” and practiced the songs, “Rise and Shine” and “Head and Shoulders” with fast and slow speeds. Students also worked on the second hymn for the quarter, “There is a Fountain Filled With Blood”. Fourth and fifth grade students continued to work on adding 2-part harmony to “Lo In The Grave He Lay”. Third grade worked on pages 8-9 for recorder and reviewed fingerings for G, A, and B. Fourth and fifth grade students worked on pages 10-11 for recorder and reviewed fingerings for G, A, B, C. 

Kindergarten (Mrs. Lopes and Mrs. Rivera)

This Week
  •  This week in history our students learned about the Roman emperor Justinian, which tied in with our Justinian mural we are creating in art. We continued our study of the solar system in science and learned a fun song to remember the order of the planets. In math we reviewed the doubles plus one facts and learned how to count by tens when there are many things to count. We started a new reader and learned multi-syllable and compound words. With the cold weather lately, we’ve had many indoor recesses; this has allowed the students to spend time trying to read  fun books from our communal bookshelf!
Memory Work:
  • Romans 11:33-36

 

1st Grade (Mrs. Morgan & Mr. Law)

This Week
  •  Our students have been breaking into three digit numbers more during our math time. We are using unit cubes to figure out numbers with ones, tens, and hundreds. In phonics, we are tackling the most challenging multi-letter phonogram yet, the “ough”. The students enjoy trying to remember all six sounds made by this phonogram. In history, we are learning about the Constitutional Convention. In science, we are beginning to look more closely at the planets of the solar system. Finally, in art, we are trying our hand at drawing the bird of the month, the American Robin. 
Memory Work:  
  • All verse review. 

2nd Grade (Mrs. Jones & Mrs. Batten)

This Week
  • Second grade has had a great week learning lots of new concepts, and strengthening the concepts we have already been introduced to! This week in math we introduced two new subtraction facts and students worked hard to learn their minus 5 and minus 6 facts. We also have been learning to tell time to the minute using an analog clock, adding money up to the hundreds place, reading a line graph, and learning how to properly write a check. These are all skills that students will continue to need throughout their lives! In reading, we finished Owls in the Family this week. Students seemed to really enjoy this fun, whimsical story. Ask your child what their favorite part of the story was! In history, we are learning about the Early New Kingdom and we learned all about how Queen Hatshepsut became the pharaoh. See if your child can remember what she did to take control of Egypt. In grammar, students were introduced to prepositions and learned a very helpful song that lists all of the prepositions. In art/science, we are beginning to prepare for Mummification Day by learning about and beginning to make our own canopic jars. 
Memory Work: 
  • Hebrews 11:6-7 (this week)
  • Hebrews 11:8-10 (next week)
Upcoming:
  • 2/8 – Fact Assessment 15-1
  • 2/8 – Fact Assessment 15-2
  • 2/8 – Written Assessment 15
  • 2/10 – Grammar Chapter 8 Assessment 
  • 2/11 – Spelling Test K-6
  • 2/11 – Early New Kingdom Test 

 

3rd Grade (Mrs. McDorman and Mrs. Meredith)

This Week
  • Through the story of Nehemiah and  his return to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls, we learned how you can accomplish anything when you align yourself with the will and plan of God. Only God can do the impossible. God allowed Nehemiah to not only win the favor of King Artaxerxes, but he financed his entire journey. In math, we introduced several brand new concepts: long division, improper fractions, and mixed numbers. Some students struggled, but they were reminded that their perseverance will pay off in the end. In Latin, we continued working with the imperfect tense, and they are gradually getting more proficient at parsing those verbs and nouns in order to translate. In grammar, we focused on action and linking verbs, and discussed the difference between an action and a state of being, another challenging concept.  Although we often face difficult challenges, we can learn from Nehemiah the importance of focusing on God who is our hope and strength. It is only then that we can rest as we take refuge in His unchanging love. 
Memory Work:
  • Psalm 19:7-8
Upcoming:
  • Science Experiment: Sugar Molecules

 

4th Grade (Mrs. Burtram) 

This Week
  •  We completed a wonderful week learning about verb tense agreement in English and how to edit paragraphs correcting verb tense in all three tenses.  Math was engaging as students learned about how to reduce fractions to their lowest terms using the GCF.  They did a wonderful job understanding this difficult concept.  We learned all about St. Thomas Aquinas and the Dominican Order in History and talked about the parts of the Earth in science along with a “rock walk” to discover different types of rocks.  C.S. Lewis’ The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe was enjoyed by all the students as we finished vocabulary, writing, comprehension,and creating art projects.
Memory Work:
  • Matthew 5: 15,16
Upcoming:
  • Science Experiment: fossils

 

5th Grade (Mrs. Erdt) 

This Week
  • We had a great week learning about how to turn fractions into decimals and working with percent to show probability. We also worked on units of measurement. Students enjoyed learning about British tyranny and the reasons behind the first continental congress in history.  We did a lot of sentence translation in Latin! They are getting so good at it.  We began our astronomy unit in science and learned about the heliocentric and geocentric models of the universe. We also learned about Galileo and Copernicus ( did you know he was Polish 😉 ) Students were excited to get to the end of The Witch of Blackbird Pond although they did not want the story to end. We will be having a little fun with the story and the students will present skits from the book next week in class. 
Memory Work:
  • Philippians 2:3-4*  Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.   Let each of you look out not only for his own  interests, but also for the interests of others.
Upcoming:
  • We will begin reading Duel in the Wilderness  next week.

 

LOGIC & RHETORIC SCHOOL

 

Mrs. Byrd

Physics
  • This week we’ve been learning about conservation of linear and angular momentum.  We used Newton’s Cradle to see conservation of linear momentum in action and a clip of an astronaut in the International Space Station to see conservation of rotational momentum.  Related to this is the curious fact that a cat always lands on its feet – you  can ask your student how the cat manages to do this.
Precalculus
  • We’ve laid the groundwork for further study of trig functions.  We can now find trig functions of any size angle – with a unit circle, by hand, and with a calculator.  We are also becoming more comfortable with radian measure.  Next, we will try to connect what we know with graphical representations of these functions.
Calculus
  • With our techniques of integration now in our toolbox we are beginning to use them to solve various types of differential equations.  Soon we will see how these can be used to model various types of growth and decay situations.

Dr. Byrd

10th Bible Survey
  • We have finished the book of Ezekiel. It shows to us the glory of God, the judgment of God, and the promises of the New Covenant.  The children of Israel are now in exile in Babylon. We will be studying the books of Daniel and Habakkuk next week. 
  • Students also completed a test on Proverbs – Jeremiah. 
  • Students are also reading for their book analysis projects. 

 

Mr. Davis

6th -10th PE
  • This week we played basketball in the old Mebane Rec. Gym. 

Mrs. Frueh

6th Grade Science:
  • We completed our study of cell organelles this week. Cell projects are due on or before February 25th!
6th Grade Math:
  • We reviewed for and took a test this week. We also completed an investigation of basic geometric shapes.
7th Grade Science:
  • This week’s focus was the inferior planets. As the students learned this week, inferior does not indicate that these planets are less important than the others, but instead that they are closer to the sun than Earth. Ask your student which planets are categorized as inferior.
7th Grade Pre-Algebra:
  • This week we practiced solving word problems with implied ratios and percentages greater than 100%. We also practiced multiplying numbers in scientific notation.
8th Grade Science: 
  • The students were excited to begin our study of Fluid Dynamics this week. They asked many great exploratory questions about the movement of energy through fluids and the ways in which water behaves differently from other fluids.
8th Grade Algebra I: 
  • We have started the exciting, but challenging task of solving systems of equations. The students learned to solve by substitution and also how to manipulate equations before substitution.
9th Grade Biology:
  • Our focus this week has been cell transport. The students explored the difference between active and passive transport, as well as how to distinguish between simple diffusion and facilitated diffusion. We wrapped up our week with an experiment to determine if synthetic membranes are semipermeable in the same way in which cell membranes are semipermeable.

 

Mr. Hamilton

9th Theology
  •  Our main focus in theology this week was the East-West Schism.
9th Literature
  •  We have finished up our poems and our unit on Romantic poetry. Next up is the American Revolution and The Federalist Papers.
9th History
  •  Our focus this week was on Napoleon and the French revolution.
10th Literature
  •  We have had a great time studying Aristotle‘s classic treatment of literary theory, the Poetics. This week we focused on his principles of completeness, magnitude, recognition, reversal, and catharsis.
10th History
  •  Our discussion in Greek history this week has centered on the rise of Athens, its experiments with democracy, and the subsequent Persian war.
11th Philosophy/Apologetics
  •  This week our focus has been on apologetic method; specifically, the tensions between presuppositionalism and evidentialism.

 

Mrs. Hamilton

6th Music
  • In music history, we began our overview of the Classical period with the music of Joseph Haydn, while in performance students had individual mini-lessons. 
7th Music 
  • We continued our intensive practice time this week with individual lessons; students also received practice videos for each of their ensemble parts–something that should help them to practice effectively at home. Students are doing a great job diligently working on improving their piano playing skills. 
8th Music 
  • Students did a great job practicing intensively their piano and instrumental pieces; students also received individual practice videos for each of their ensemble parts–something that should help them to practice effectively. We also commenced our choral practice. 
Music History Elective (Baroque to Modern)
  • After briefly looking at the life of the great pianist, critic, and conductor Hans von Bülow, Wagner’s massive Der Ring des Nibelungen occupied the rest of our class time this week. Students enjoyed recognizing Wagner’s lasting influence on film music. 

 

Miss Howell

6th Language Arts
  • This week we started a new book! Around the World in 80 Days, by Jules Verne, promises to be an exciting adventure in literature, geography, and culture. 
6th History,
  • The big question this week: what actually happened to the USS Maine during the Spanish-American War? 
7th Grade Omnibus
  • We begin studying the emergence of classical Greece with a summary of the Oresteia Trilogy by Aeschylus, and supplementing our primary texts with the Roman fairy tale of Cupid and Psyche as retold by C.S. Lewis in ‘Till We Have Faces. 
7th Logic
  • The war on fallacies continues apace– this week we move into Fallacies of Inductive Reasoning. These are characterized primarily by a premise that is too weak to support the conclusion–usually related to how the data has been gathered or applied. 
8th Logic
  • Review was the name of the game this week as we took our last test on syllogisms, schemas, forms, moods, and counterexamples. Next week we begin our study of “Arguments in Normal English.” There is much rejoicing. 

 

Dr. James

10th Chemistry
  • This week we reviewed for the first test of Q3; and the students took the test regarding calculations in chemistry. 
  • Next week we will learn about gasses, including various gas laws. 

 

Mr. Lopes

12th Systematic Theology
  • We completed our study of the Person of Christ and commenced our investigation into the Atonement

 

Miss Oldham

12th Grade Literature
  • We debated on whether The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn should be banned or not. 
12th Grade History
  • Students took a quiz over World War 1 and began to learn about the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, and FDR’s New Deal. 
11th Grade Literature
  • Students finished The Great Divorce and began their final essays. We will begin Machiavelli’s The Prince next. 
11th Grade History
  • Students worked on their research projects and we continued our notes on colonization. 
10th Rhetoric I
  • Students finished their final speeches and we played a fun impromptu speech game. 
12th Rhetoric II
  • Students are giving their theses to their mentors for editing. Please continue to be in prayer for them as they wade through the editing phase of thesis writing. 

 

Mrs. Palmer 

6th Art
  • Students worked on their Homer inspired pencil drawings using various techniques.
7th Art
  • Students worked on their Homer inspired watercolor landscape paintings.
8th Art
  • Students worked on their oil pastel drawings. We also began our Lord of the Ring oil pastel finals. 
9th Spanish 
  • Students took their Chapter 4 test. We reviewed vocabulary, added new vocabulary and talked specifically about how to use the verb “estar” with emotions and conditions. 
10th Spanish
  • This week we compared and contrasted the preterite and imperfect tenses. We worked on new vocabulary. Students were also assigned a group skit in which they will put both past tenses to practice. 

 

Mr. Palmer

9th Geometry
  • This week we worked with triangle proofs and took a test. 
9th Logic
  • This week we continued to work with the Rules of Replacement.
10th Algebra II
  • This week we worked with complex fractions and advanced substitution.
11th / 12th NT Greek
  • This week we continued learning about the present active indicative verbs.
11th/12th Geography
  • This week we learned about the countries of South America.

 

Miss Windes

8th Grade Omnibus
  • History: The students began researching their particular topics of interest for their small projects. This will be almost all in class research with a huge supply of library books that we have! 
  • Literature: We began Return of the King this week, with Gondor, Rohan, and part of the company preparing for war. We met Denethor, the prideful steward of Gondor and contrasted him with Theoden, the kind yet doughty king of Rohan. 
  • Composition: The students finished their short stories and submitted them to the Burlington Writers’ Club contest. They did a great job writing a wide variety of stories! 
6th Grade Latin
  • Sixth graders reviewed the perfect tense, practiced translations, took their vocabulary quiz, and began preparing for their ch. 8 test which will be next week. 
7th Grade Latin
  • Seventh graders learned about personal pronouns, reviewing what they learned in past years and practicing identifying and translating the pronouns in sentences.
8th Grade Latin
  • Eighth graders learned about reflexive pronouns, reviewing the personal pronouns that they learned in past years and learning the difference between a reflexive pronoun and a personal pronoun. 
6th Grade Logic
  • Sixth graders reviewed for and took their logic test covering all sixteen of the fallacies they have learned so far.