BB 02-05-2021

BRADFORD BULLETIN

VOLUME XIII, ISSUE 20

FEBRUARY 5, 2021

FROM THE OFFICE

We had an exciting week with the 100th Day Rodeo Roundup for our TK – 1st graders, followed by our Used Uniform Sale on Thursday and Friday. Many thanks to our volunteers who work so hard to make the uniform sale useful and a blessing to all! The sale brought in over $1,400 for our athletic fund, which is fantastic but also such a help to our parents clothing growing children. So thank you Bonnie, Leah, Dana, Lisa, Jammie, and Caroline.

UPCOMING

NEXT WEEK:

Thursday, 2/11: Bradford Merch Sale! Hats, bags, magnets, key chains, and stickers! Please see our FB page for details on when, where, cost, and payment methods.
Friday, 2/12: Teacher Workday – no school
Monday, 2/15: President’s day – no school **Also, the deadline for informing the office in writing if you do not plan to continue with us in 21/22. Withdrawing after this date will result in a $500 fee.

IN THE NEAR FUTURE:

March 12th: End of 3rd quarter. Report cards released
March 15th – 19th: Spring break

FROM THE DEAN’S OFFICE:

Third Quarter Mastery of Material for Lower School: By third quarter, students will no longer be allowed to retake tests and have scores averaged, except at the teacher’s discretion, so that both parents and teachers can assess the student’s progress without the retake intervention. A mid-quarter parent/teacher/student conference may be requested to evaluate study habits.

FROM THE TEACHER’S DESK

GRAMMAR SCHOOL

Transitional Kindergarten (Mrs. Davis and Mrs. Grubb)

Bible

TK students began learning a new memory verse, Proverbs 17:17.
Students enjoyed learning about Jesus feeding the 5000.

Theme Adventure

Rodeo Roundup was a big success. It was wonderful to see all the little cowboys and cowgirls playing around school. We played many games. Jelly Bean, a real miniature horse, visited the school and allowed the children to pet her and take pictures. A fun day was had by all.

Literacy

This week TK students continued to work on identifying beginning and ending sounds. They also continued practice with rhyming.
This week’s handwriting focus was letters R and K.

Math

We introduced estimation in math class this week.
We also introduced counting by tens.
TK students practiced rolling dot cubes, counting the dots, and matching the numbers to number cards.

Arts and Sciences

TK students learned about Groundhog’s Day by identifying what was real and make-believe about the legend surrounding the day. Students voted on whether they thought the groundhog would predict 6 more weeks of winter or an early spring.
Students enjoyed an experiment demonstrating light and reflection.

Kindergarten (Mrs. Rivera & Mrs. McDorman)

This Week

The highlight of our week was Rodeo Roundup Day. Our cowpokes lassoed a bull, honed their shooting skills at the shooting range, tossed snakes into cowboy boots, sang songs around the campfire, participated in sack races, tossed bean bags at the Barnyard, and rode their horses in the relay race. Our students enjoyed dressing up in their best cowboy and cowgirl garb. This year we had a special guest named Jelly Bean. She is a miniature horse who came to celebrate our 100th day of school. We reviewed all of the many ways they were 100 days smarter than their first day of school. Our students have mastered math facts, poems, Bible verses, spelling words, and read four books! This year, we were particularly thankful to complete 100 days of in person learning. It was an excellent opportunity to illustrate God’s faithfulness and answers to prayers. In math, we added two-digit numbers and learned how to add doubles plus one facts. Our kindergarten scholars were excited to be reading their third primer! Our focus in history was Constantine the Great and the Edict of Milan. He was the first emperor to profess Christianity and stop the persecution of Christines. He played a major role in spreading Christianity by legalizing its practice and fiscally supporting the church’s activities. He made one of the largest contributions to the faith by summoning the Councils of Arles (314) and Nicaea (325). These important councils guided church doctrine for centuries afterward.

Memory Work:

Romans 11:33-36

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

This Week

Our terrific students have been having an exciting week! They have been tackling three-digit numbers for the first time in addition. They have also been doing more and more complex fractions, as well as more challenging subtraction problems. In phonics, we have been putting together more vowel sounds and rules to sharpen spelling and reading skills. In penmanship, the students have been getting a refresher on print (after doing so much cursive this year) and remembering their D’Nealian letters. In history, the students have been studying the early life of American painter Benjamin West and his cat, Grimalkin. In science, the students have been working on a study guide for the various layers of the earth. The quiz will be next week. Finally, the highlight of this week was the Rodeo Round Up, a cowboy/cowgirl hoe-down in celebration of being in school for 100 days. We are so thankful for the Lord’s mercy in enabling us to have such a great year!

Memory Work:

Philippians 4:19-20

Upcoming:

Layers of the Earth Quiz, Pronoun Quiz

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

This Week

Second grade finished reading My Father’s Dragon this week and celebrated the baby dragon’s long awaited freedom. “Bum cack! Bum cack! We dreed our nagon!” Ask your child if they remember what this silly phrase means. Later, to echo one of Elmer’s escape tactics, each student got to pull a pink lollipop out of a crocodile’s mouth to enjoy while answering their reading questions. In math we have begun learning about fractions. The class used pattern blocks to divide one shape into halves, thirds and sixths. Then, they worked on adding and subtracting fractions. This is a hard concept that we will spend much of our time over the rest of the quarter focused on. In art this week, we have been focusing on preparing for our upcoming Mummification Day by painting amulets and coins that the Egyptians would have needed for this ceremony. Students also learned to write their names using Cuneiform! Ask them if they remember the difference between Cuneiform and Hieroglyphics.

Memory Work:

Hebrews 11:1-10

Upcoming:

2-11 Sarcophagus project due!

3rd Grade (Mrs. Garner)

This Week

The plot only thickens in our Detectives in Togas book! The boys have had a very strange and eventful (involving snakes) encounter with the mysterious soothsayer, Lukos. Even more unsettling is that one of the boys is now missing! Along with our book, we are enjoying the “code-cracking” (the translating ) of our Latin history reader, Libellus de Historia. We are doing an excellent job persevering through this difficult task and, at the same time, learning how to parse verbs in Latin. Both of these challenges have provided us opportunities with getting familiar with how to use text features, such as the glossary, to help us. As we studied math and art this week, we saw connections between drawing the proportions of the face with mathematical concepts such as finding the radius/diameter, dividing into equal parts, and symmetry. The students are taking great pride in their latest work on portraits of each other in class. They all impressed me with the grace and love that they showed each other, as they shared their progress. Receiving constructive feedback and allowing yourself to be vulnerable is not easy and we are learning this in all aspects of our daily life in the classroom.

Memory Work:

Psalm 19:1-8 (next week: verses 9-10)

Upcoming:

Tests
- 2/11- Math Assessment (Written and Facts) and Spelling List N-6

4th Grade (Mrs. Burtram)

This Week

We have enjoyed a wonderful learning week and book celebration. Latin has been much fun as we have reviewed prepositions, ordinal numbers, and cardinal numbers. We discovered we can sing our preposition chant with English translation in 55 seconds! We finished reading Robin Hood this week and the students wrote a wonderful five paragraph essay about their favorite character. We completed our comprehension packet and made a home made book cover for our book summaries. We ended the week watching the movie (cartoon version). The students learned about adding quotes to their writing and created many entertaining sentences in the classroom. History was met with much discussion this week as we talked about the 100 Years War, Black Death, and Joan of Arc. We are reading a wonderful devotional in the morning by Patricia St. John with scripture and reflection based on the Apostle’s Creed. I have enjoyed so much sharing the love of our Savior with the students during this time and watching how we can see Christ and His goodness and care in all of the subjects we study everyday.

Science

Notebook pages have been made this week as we have learned details about the different types of rocks, the rock cycle, and fossils. We even made mold and cast fossils in the classroom from sea shells.

Memory Work:

Matthew 5: 13,14

Upcoming:

Matthew 5: 15,16
Growing Crystals

5th Grade (Ms. Vogus)

This Week

We have had an excellent week in 5th grade. The students did a small research activity in science with a short presentation, which they enjoyed immensely. In history, we are learning about the Revolutionary War and the students are memorizing The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere. In grammar we are learning how to create complex sentences and learning about comma placement. Lastly, in writing the students are creating a 5 paragraph character analysis essay.

Memory Work:

Phillipians 2:1-8

Upcoming:

Phillipians 2:1-10

LOGIC & RHETORIC SCHOOL

Mr. Batten

Language Arts

We are nearing the end of Around the World in 80 Days. We are examining the plot as a whole to identify the rising actions, climax, and resolution. In addition, students are practicing identifying varying types of poetry.

History

Students learned about the Spanish American war. We talked about how this was a relatively minor war, but had large impacts on America today in the acquisition of new territories.

Science

We continued our study on the atmosphere through focusing on each individual layer and their properties. Through this study, we discussed the intricacies of Earth, and how they point to our creator.

6th Logic

Quiz week! Students spent the first half of the week reviewing for a cumulative quiz in which they identify fallacies, and took the quiz to close out the week.

7th Logic

Quiz week! Students spent the first half of the week reviewing for a cumulative quiz in which they identify fallacies, and took the quiz to close out the week.

8th Logic

We finished our Lincoln Douglas style debates, learned about Enthymemes, and began talking about what our next debate might look like.

Upcoming:

We will continue to try and memorize 1 John 3, review the parts of a cell, and begin our next essay on Industrialists in America.

Mrs. Byrd

Physics

We are considering periodic motion especially as it applies to springs and pendulums. This overlaps with our study of sine and cosine waves in precalculus.

Precalculus

This week we’ve been looking at the graphs of less prominent trig functions, inverse trig functions, and related applications. Next we will take up a brief study of counting principles and probability.

Geometry

Our class is looking at various properties of triangles including right triangle congruence, side and angle relationships, and points of concurrency.

Dr. Byrd

10th Bible Survey

We have begun studying the post-exilic books – Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther. God raised up King Cyrus the Great to allow the Jews to return to Jerusalem.
Bible Memory: Daniel 2:20-21
Book Analysis Project is due March 2.

Mrs. Frueh

7th Grade Science:

We have begun our long-anticipated astronomy unit. The students had fun trying to identify and counter common misconceptions about our solar system. We started with a look at Genesis 1, Psalm 19, and Job 38 to see what Scripture has to say about God’s purposes in creating all that we observe in the universe. We are all looking forward to learning more about the universe together.

8th Grade Science:

We have started our detailed study of the Periodic Table with a look this week at metals, including their physical and chemical properties. The students were introduced to the Octet and Duplet Rules and learned the importance of valence electrons in determining the reactivity of an element.

Mr. Hamilton

9th Logic

This week we learned about the rules of replacement.

9th Historic Theology

Our focus this week was on the East-West Schism and its impact on Christianity.

10th History

We continued working on our Thucydides projects this week! Students are doing a great job researching and dramatizing their sections.

10th Literature

In the Iliad, we saw how Homer contrasts Hector and Achilles; we also discussed the Greek concept of “kleos.”

11th Philosophy/Apologetics

Our discussion this week centered on distortions of the Christian worldview.

12th History

Our focus in history was on the rise of secularism.

12th Literature

More travels with Huck Finn and his companion Jim; this week saw him celebrating nature, eluding capture at the hands of thieves, and encountering classic southern characters.

Mrs. Hamilton

Logic School Music

After completing our short study on the life, works, and influence of Joseph Haydn, students enjoyed an intensive time of piano practice of their solo pieces. Although we have been greatly missing singing this year, it has been such a joy to see them learning to play the piano! Next week, I look forward to an intensive week of music theory.

Music History Elective (Baroque to Modern)

Our focus this week was on life and works of Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. We looked at his operas Eugene Onegin and The Queen of Spades–both based on works by Pushkin–as well as at his ballets Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty. From his instrumental repertoire, we learned about his Piano Concerto No. 1, Violin Concerto in D major, and his Symphonies Nos. 4, 5, and 6. Students also greatly enjoyed learning about the drama and politics of several international musical competitions–the Tchaikovsky competition in Russia, the Cliburn competition in the U.S., the Chopin competition in Poland, and the Rubinstein competition in Israel.

Ms. Hutchison

7th Grade Omnibus

History: We have begun our study of the Golden Age of Greece in earnest this week. We are learning about that great ancient civilization of the past from which our own nation derived many of its foundational guiding principles, specifically, democracy and representation. Ancient Greek philosophers, playwrights, thinkers, artists and mathematicians thrived during this time period, and we are enjoying learning all about them. We begin our study of the monumental Persian and Greek Wars next week.
Literature: Many 7th graders have now read their first real tragedy! This week, we have read the most famous of the stories from the great Theban Trilogy, Oedipus the King., by Sophocles. Although the story is indeed a tragic one, the language and sophistication of the design of the play are what has made it a universal classic.
Bible: This week, students in 7th grade have again looked closely at the Proverbs in our attempt to understand God’s wisdom. We have challenged ourselves to speak only affirming, life-giving words.

9th Grade Biology

Biology students have learned about the plasma membrane, in all of its complexity, and how molecules are transported across the membrane. We have begun learning about the amazing machinery of a living cell, and the way that cells produce energy for themselves through the process of aerobic cellular respiration.

Dr. James

10th Chemistry

This week we completed our study of properties of gases and gas laws.
Next week the students will take their second test of Q3, and we will begin our discussion of solids, liquids, and solutions.

Miss Oldham

9th Grade Literature

We finished Pride and Prejudice and began A Tale of Two Cities.

9th Grade History

We finished our discussion of the Industrial Revolution.

11th Grade Literature

We finished The Prince and have our essay over it on Monday.

11th Grade History

We discussed Charlemagne and his impact on history and students continued their research.

10th Rhetoric I

Students worked on their delivery of a Shakespearean monologue (due Monday). Ask them to recite them for you!

12th Rhetoric II

Students continued work on thesis and their first writing section was due Friday.

Mrs. Palmer

6th Art

This week we worked on our small scale Italian landscapes using colored pencils. We will soon begin our full scale Italian landscapes.

7th Art

This week we worked on our watercolor Italian landscapes. We’re working on technique and using the medium properly.

8th Art

This week we began our Lord of the Rings oil pastel final drawings.

9th Spanish

This week we reviewed for, and took, our Chapter 4 test.

10th Spanish

This week we worked on formal commands. We reviewed vocabulary and practiced with conjugating past verbs.

Mr. Palmer

6th Math

This week we worked with triangles and also learned how to add with signed numbers.

7th Pre-Algebra

This week we worked with rates, word problems, and unit price.

8th Algebra I

This week we learned how to use the elimination method for solving systems of equations.

10th Algebra II

This week we reviewed for a test and took a test.

11th / 12th NT Greek

This week we worked with the present middle/passive indicative voice. We also took a quiz and worked on translations.

Miss Windes

8th Grade Omnibus

History: We have continued learning this week about the way of life of the medieval aristocracy and have had interesting discussions about chivalry, then and now. We also finished watching the documentary on the building of a medieval castle in France in recent years!
Literature: We continue reading Return of the King, discussing their tough situation and how several of the characters dealt with and reacted to the despair they experienced. We also talked about the unique trait Tolkien gives kings in his created world, that of healing hands. The students also read articles on various topics of interest.
Composition: We finished our literary theme essays, reading and revising one another’s essays. We are working to tighten the logic and clarity of the arguments in our essays.

6th Grade LATIN

Sixth graders began their new chapter ten vocabulary set and translated a long unit reading about some of the last kings (tyrants!) of Rome before the Roman republic.

7th Grade LATIN

Seventh graders reviewed chapters 15 and 16 and then took their test on Thursday.

8th Grade LATIN

In eighth grade Latin, we’ve begun a new set of vocabulary and are also reviewing the third declension endings.