BB 03-28-24

BRADFORD BULLETIN

VOLUME XVI, ISSUE 31

Mar 28, 2024

FROM THE OFFICE

NC Opportunity Scholarship: Have you updated your school preference from “unknown” to “Bradford Academy?” Go to MyPortal to make the selection. It does not take more than 3 minutes to do.

House Stickers for sale: We have a limited supply of house stickers available for purchase, so if you missed the opportunity last semester, or you simply want more, please let me know! $4 each.

Uniform sale: Thurs, 4/18. Please watch for a link for more details and to reserve your shopping time (to come next week). Donations are being accepted. You may send them to the office at either campus.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

FROM MRS. MITCHELL: It is always a joy to hear singing in the hallway, on the way in from recess or going out to lunch. Hymns afford such a rich foundation of theology and truth. As your family spends time recalling the events of Holy Week in anticipation of Resurrection Sunday, I would encourage you to enjoy the hymns your children have memorized that direct us to worship Christ for His sacrifice on our behalf:

Jesus Paid It All – Nature with Lyrics I Stand Amazed – Chris Tomlin [with lyrics] (youtube.com)

UPCOMING

NEXT WEEK:

Tues, 4/2:
- Running Club (2nd -3rd)
- Varsity Girls Soccer game – AWAY
Wed, 4/3: 4th – 6th Soccer Club
Thurs, 4/4:
- 2nd grade – Durham Life and Science Museum
- Running Club (2nd-3rd)
Fri, 4/5:
- Quo Vadis? – 4th grade will make a visit to the upper school to see “where they are going” next year
- HOME Varsity Girls Soccer game (MACC grass fields) at 3:30pm

IN THE NEAR FUTURE:

Tues, 4/16:
- Senior Thesis defenses begin!
- CLT10 – 10th graders
Wed, 4/17: 1st grade – Cane Creek Reservoir
Thurs, 4/18:
- 9th grade field trip
- confirmed Uniform sale
Wed, 4/24: CLT – 12th graders
Thurs, 04/25: 4th field trip to Old Salem in Winston-Salem
Wed, 5/1: Teacher Appreciation Day
Thurs, 5/2:
- National Day of Prayer Service – 4th grade – Mebane Presbyterian Church
- Bradford Games (upper school competition)
Fri, 5/3: Teacher workday (no school)
Mon, 5/6 – Tues, 5/7: Standardized testing for 3rd – 5th grades
Wed, 5/8: Standardized testing for 6th – 8th grades
Tues, 5/14: tentative – 9th grade – Advanced Art Mock Trial
Fri, 5/17: Career Day – upper school
Tues, 5/21:
- 5:45 pm – Info Meeting for Band (rising 5th grade and new students) – at lower school campus
- 7:00 pm – Sports Award Ceremony (at lower school campus)
Thurs, 5/23:
- TK Last day of school and celebration
- Band Concert and Patriotic Program
Mon, 5/27: Memorial Day (no school)
Wed, 5/29:
- Verse Bee (lower school)
- Junior/Senior Gala
Thurs, 5/30: Baccalaureate
Fri, 5/31:
- Last Day of school – Noon dismissal
- 7pm – Graduation

FROM THE TEACHER’S DESK

GRAMMAR SCHOOL

Transitional Kindergarten (Mrs. Grubb and Mrs. Weber)

This Week

TK enjoyed a great week learning about Easter and why we celebrate. We read in the Bible this week about Jesus’s death and resurrection. Students also created a story wheel to help remember what Easter is all about. We also made resurrection rolls on Thursday which also help us tell the story of Jesus’s death and resurrection. I will link our recipe and what each ingredient represents in our TK update. In writing this week we worked on lowercase letters g, c, and e as well as their capital partners. It has been a challenge learning to write our letters smaller, but we do this to prepare for cursive writing in kindergarten. We began new math lessons this week after a review week last week. This week we practiced covering challenging designs with pattern blocks, practiced paying for items up to $1.00 using dimes, graphed our favorite spring activities and identified longest and shortest. We also practiced writing numbers 12, 13, 14, and 15.

Lower School P.E. (Mrs. Bennington)

K – 4th

Students did a great job this week with indoor P.E. activities. Kindergarten and first grade students learned several line dances. Second, third, and fourth grade students played a memory game called, “Empire”.

Lower School Music (Mrs. Bennington)

K-3rd

Students did a great job in music learning several new songs. Third grade students also continued to work on learning how to read basic rhythm lines.

4th

Fourth grade students did a great job learning how to play multiple rhythm lines. I was very impressed with how well students were able to keep a steady beat while playing each rhythm line. Students also worked on correctly reading notes on the staff and applying that knowledge to new songs.

Lower School Art (Mrs. Palmer)

3rd

This week students finished up a complementary color project. We also began a new project inspired by our artist of the quarter, Vincent Van Gogh.

4th

We did not have art this week due to no school on Friday.

Kindergarten (Mrs. Rivera and Miss Burdeshaw)

This Week:

Our kindergarten students had a short, but busy week in the classroom. In math, we had a review day on Monday, to go over any concepts the students may be struggling with. We also learned how to estimate and measure distances using feet, how to utilize a measuring tool, how to add nine to a number, how to identify one, five, ten, and twenty dollar bills, and how to write money amounts with a dollar sign. In phonics, we started a new reader, “Dan of the Den,” and we also started a new spelling word list. In history, we reviewed the Protestant Reformation and Martin Luther. For art, we combined it with science, and we worked on cutting and gluing our four mammal pictures to our mammal lap books. Throughout this week, we were encouraging our kids to remember the joy-filled reason for the celebration of Good Friday and Easter Sunday. These days are a reminder of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection from the dead, and through whom we have hope.

Memory Work:

Matthew 6:9-13 and review all

1st Grade (Mrs. Morgan & Mrs. Smith)

This Week:

We have spent much time this week talking about the final week of Jesus, his crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. We did various Easter crafts in the classroom and kitchen. All of the fun hands-on activities really have helped the students to remember what Easter is really about. In math, the students are learning how to subtract 6, multiplying by 10, and counting quarters! They are very proud of themselves and are feeling like real mathematicians. In history we have been reading about the life of Benjamin Franklin. He had a very interesting upbringing and start to his career. Ask your child what they remember. We have started our unit on the water cycle in science. Ask your child to sing the new water cycle song. The students are doing very well working on their sentence writing in grammar. They are enjoying using a lot of expression as they read Frog and Toad with different students getting to read and / or act out a different character. We pray that this Easter Sunday finds you filled with the faith, hope, and love found through the saving grace of our Lord Jesus!

Memory Work:

Please be reviewing all of the Bible verses we have learned so far as we head towards the Bible Bee !

Upcoming:

Please be certain to turn in the Field Trip Permission slip for Cane Creek Reservoir happening Wednesday April 17th. As always, we need drivers and chaperons!

2nd Grade (Mrs. Hedgecock & Mrs. Eng)

This Week:

We have had many good discussions as we read through our Easter booklet and added pictures of the events of Jesus’ last week on earth leading up to Resurrection Sunday. Excitement is evident as the students share parts of the story that are memorable to them. To go along with this, our history lesson was on Amenhotep IV and monotheism. The students are able to recognize that Christianity is the belief in one God. In math we have learned to make change from $1, which would be a fun activity to practice at home. They found multiplying by 100 and 1,000 to be an easy concept and enjoyed writing six-digit numbers. Keep working on the x4 facts. Also keep working on the concept of quarter past and quarter to an hour, many still struggle with this. In grammar we started a 3-point expository paragraph and learned about possessive nouns. We are making progress on writing sentences with plural nouns vs possessive nouns – the nouns sound the same but one has the ‘ and one doesn’t. We look forward to our field trip next week.

Memory Work:

Colossians 3:1-2

Upcoming:

April 4th Field trip to Museum of Life and Science

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

This Week

This week we reflected on Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. We read aloud from the account in Luke and discussed the implications of Christ’s propitiation for the sins of His people. The Last Supper has been a theme revisited throughout art history. Students discussed the differences between Leonardo da Vinci’s and Jacopo Bassano’s rendition of Christ’s last supper. In math, we learned how to reduce fractions, add a series of positive and negative numbers, find the pattern in Roman numerals, and multiply a number by 10, 100, and 1,000. Our Latin translations continue to stretch us as we added the memorization of commonly used prepositions, and, in Grammar, we studied the parts of a friendly letter while reviewing our punctuation and capitalization rules. In science, we have begun our study of chemistry and look forward to some fun experiments as we memorize the table of elements. Students continue to discover that God’s creation declares His handiwork and it is magnificent!

Upcoming Memory Work:

John 14:6
Review all first quarter verses

4th Grade (Mrs. Burtram and Miss Abrahamsen)

This Week

We had a wonderful week filled with new learning and hands-on activities in our core subjects. In English we learned about predicate nouns and predicate adjectives connected by linking verbs. We spent time discovering new geometry vocabulary and how to quickly reduce fractions in math. History was alive and exciting this week as the students began to create their own lap book all about the Renaissance and Reformation. They completed a timeline and learned about John Wycliffe and John Huss. We will continue to add to our lap books throughout our unit. We are notebooking our way through Science. Students will be using content area reading skills to complete their Science journals which are rich with selected readings, vocabulary development, content area writing, and hands-on projects. We started our new book, The Shakespeare Stealer, by Gary Blackwood this week. The students are reading together and on their own to complete comprehension pages that are intended to practice higher order thinking skills. Integrity and True Friendship are the character traits we will focus on during this text selection. We learned demonstrative pronouns in Latin and will continue this unit through next week. We are using text selections about Shakespeare to continue our IEW lesson on writing a key word outline for two paragraphs.

Upcoming:

Quo Vadis (field trip to visit Upper Campus) Friday, April 5th
Old Salem (field trip) Thursday, April 25th

LOGIC SCHOOL

Mrs. Bennington

5th-6th Band

Students did a great job in band this week learning how to play rhythms with eighth notes and how to read a new key signature. Students will have another opportunity to demonstrate their ability to play rhythms with eighth notes next Thursday 4/4 on their test on 3.25.

7th-9th Band

Students did a great job in band this week working on slurs, breathing, phrasing, dynamics, dotted rhythms, and key signatures. Students also did a great job applying all of their musical knowledge to their first chair test on 4.33 this week.

Miss Stevenson

5th-8th Girls’ PE

Middle school girls played volleyball this week. We reviewed how to pass and set, and we started working on serving and hitting.

5th Grade (Mrs. Owens)

This Week

The students had a busy but wonderful short week. We wrapped up our study of the Revolutionary War with the surrender at Yorktown and the signing of the Treaty of Paris. We learned how to estimate square roots and measure turns in math before completing a math test on Wednesday. In grammar the student learned how to classify pattern five sentences that contain a predicate adjective. We continue to work on posters for the Sons of the American Revolution poster contest. Ask your student what event they chose to portray on their poster. This week in Johnny Tremain, Johnny continues to search for work after burning his hand. I am praying that the students are able to rest and relax over break and celebrate our risen Savior.

Memory Work:

1 Samuel 2:1-2 (this week)
1 Samuel 2:3-4 (next week)

Upcoming:

Mrs. Palmer

5th Art

Students learned about our artist of the quarter, Vincent Van Gogh, this week. We also continued to work on some special posters for an upcoming competition.

Mrs. Kromhout

5th Latin

Fifth graders reviewed infinitives, interrogative sentences, and complementary infinitives in Latin! We also learned about Roman aqueducts and took the chapter 17 test.

6th Grade (Miss Stevenson)

6th Reading and Literature

Sixth grade finished up reading The Hiding Place this week. We will be starting Around the World in 80 Days when we get back from Easter Break.

6th Grammar and Writing

Students completed the fourth essay in Lost Tools of Writing this week. They will complete the five remaining essays from that book in seventh grade.

6th Bible

We finished up the gospel of John this week and will start reading Acts next week.

6th History

We are spending the next two weeks learning about World War One.

6th Science

Cell Projects were due on Wednesday! It was fun and interesting to see the different creative ways the students chose to portray either an animal or plant cell.

6th Logic

We took a break from Logic this week since our science project took extra time.

Mr. Hunter

6th Latin

This week we discussed Joseph Addison’s Cato and the history of the Roman emperors in the first-century AD. We also discussed the genitive of the relative pronoun.

Mrs. Frueh

6th Math

The students tackled the difficult tasks this week of adding and multiplying algebraic expressions. One of our favorite classroom math rules is: “To compare or combine they must be the same kind.” They were able to see how this rule applies to addition of algebraic expressions, but not to multiplication.

Mrs. Palmer

6th Art

This week students took a quiz on Vincent Van Gogh, our artist of the quarter. We also began a new project focusing on still life drawing.

Mrs. Crotts

7th Grammar and Writing

Students began writing outlines and rough drafts for the essay: Contrast the characters Shift & Puzzle from The Last Battle.

7th Omnibus

Literature: We concluded listening to The Last Battle audio. We spent time brainstorming for the essay outlines, with an emphasis on the audience and literary devices to embellish points.
History/Bible: The class received maps of Paul’s missionary journeys and traced these in the windows to practice learning the route. Also, we discussed Saul’s conversion to Saul.

Mrs. Frueh

7th Science

We continued our study of planet Earth by looking at the importance of Earth’s magnetosphere. The students learned that Earth has the strongest magnetic field by far of all the terrestrial planets in our solar system. They learned that this magnetic field is what protects us from solar radiation, but also produces the beautiful phenomenon of the aurora borealis or the Northern Lights. We looked at coverage of recent solar storms and looked at pictures taken in Canada and Lapland of the auroras.

7th Pre-Algebra

We have continued building our algebra skills this week by working through some advanced ratio problems, as well as multiplying exponential expressions with variable bases. The students were introduced to their first exponent rule: The Product Rule of Exponents. They will add this rule to their toolbox for simplifying algebraic expressions.

Mrs. Palmer

7th Art

Students took a quiz on our artist of the quarter, Vincent Van Gogh. We also worked hard to finish our Van Gogh inspired oil pastel drawings.

Mr. Hunter

7th Latin

This week we discussed Joseph Addison’s Cato and the history of the Roman empire in the first century AD. We also began discussing the passive voice of present, imperfect, and future verbs.

Mr. Johnston

7th Logic

I missed seeing the students last week as I was a chaperone to the senior’s trip to the Grand Canyon. I was thankful that Dr. Smith had some time to spend with our seventh grade thinkers! This week we dove into our new chapter considering Fallacies of Induction. Because some of this was review, we moved through Hasty Generalizations, Sweeping Generalizations, and the False Analogy.

Mrs. Kromhout

8th Omnibus

History: We had an exciting week in history this week, preparing for and enacting Knight Day on Wednesday!! We learned all about knights, tournaments, jousts, Parents, thank you so much for all you did to help make this special day happen – helping your students with costumes, weapons, and armor, making food for our feast, and helping with setting up and cleaning up!
Literature: We are coming to the end of Return of the King! Sam and Frodo have completed their laborious task of throwing the ring into Mount Doom, though not in the way they expected to complete it. We discussed whether Frodo can still be considered a hero despite the fact that he did not technically complete the task he set out to do.

Composition: Students are working on revising their literary theme essays and beginning to research for their history research essays! They will need to check out books from a library soon to do more research.

Mr. Hunter

8th Latin

This week we discussed Joseph Addison’s Cato and the history of the Roman empire in the first century AD. We also discussed the genitive of third-person personal pronoun and began discussing the passive voice of present, imperfect, and future verbs.

Mrs. Frueh

8th Science

We have started breaking down the periodic table into its various family groups. This week’s focus was on the alkali and alkaline earth metals. The students will have their first periodic table quiz next Tuesday. They should be prepared to name all of the Group 1 & 2 metals given their atomic symbols.

8th Algebra I

We have started solving practical systems of equations, including distance problems, coin problems, and ticket price problems. These are all very realistic and practical applications of algebra skills that the students will be able to use in many areas of real life.

Mrs. Palmer

8th Art

Students took a quiz on our artist of the quarter, Vincent Van Gogh. We also began a tricky drawing assignment in which students are drawing from sight a still life and will recreate what they see using the medium of colored pencils.

Mr. Crotts

8th Logic

We are learning immediate inferences, statements that can be inferred from other statements. An example: Some incredible things are possible. Some incredible things are not possible.
In the Scriptures, especially in the Ten Commandments, the following rule is noted in the Westminster Larger Catechism: “That as, where a duty is commanded, the contrary sin is forbidden; and, where a sin is forbidden, the contrary duty is commanded: so, where a promise is annexed, the contrary threatening is included; and, where a threatening is annexed, the contrary promise is included.”

RHETORIC SCHOOL

From the COLLEGE COUNSELING Office:

Juniors:

Most of the juniors took the SAT on March 9th, and should receive their scores today! This is a great opportunity to check in with your students about their scores and their goals. Compare their scores to the average scores of colleges they are interested in.
Usually, with study, practice tests, and taking the test again, students can bring their scores up by 100-200 points between junior and senior year
Depending on their goals, I would recommend that students take the SAT one more time this spring or early summer, and then a final time in the fall
This spring/summer, the SAT will be offered just two more times: May 4th and June 1st. The next testing dates after that will be in August and then October.
Let me know if you have any questions about recommendations for your student!

Parents:

This year’s Career Afternoon, an opportunity for students to get a sneak preview into a variety of jobs and careers, will be held on Friday, May 17th, from 12:30-2:15 at the upper campus
- I am looking for a variety of presenters to give all our 8th-12th graders a brief 1-2 minute introduction to their job and then be available at tables to talk to students who stop by for the rest of the time
- Are you interested in speaking or do you know of someone (connected to Bradford or not!) who would enjoy speaking to high school students about their careers on a Friday afternoon?
- If so, please email me (akromhout@bradfordacademy.org) and include your/their name, contact info, specific job and general career field, and any questions you may have! Thank you!

Mrs. Palmer

9th Spanish

This week we learned about demonstrative adjectives and how to use them. We studied all of our vocabulary from chapter 6 and did some review.

Coach Johnston

9th History

Students completed a World War 1 dodgeball “reenactment” that required everyone to actively participate in claiming, holding and attempting to take enemy forts. The rules of the game gave a decisive advantage to defenders which caused the end result to be a tie, so after thirty minutes of dodgeball, heroic efforts to take or reclaim forts, near death experiences and miraculous dodges…no one won, which gave our students just an inkling of an idea of how the soldiers felt during WW1. We finished our discussion on American Imperialism. Next week we will briefly consider some major moments of the Gilded Age before taking a quiz on Friday (4/5). I hope everyone enjoys the extra time this weekend to remember and celebrate Easter!

Mr. Crotts

9th Logic

We have completed Unit 3. Our studies on Truth Trees have taught us how to break down or decompose arguments into pathways. From these truth trees, we can determine consistency, self-contradictions, tautology, equivalence, and validity.
So far this school year, we have learned to use truth tables, formal proofs, and truth trees to analyze arguments.
Our next unit will show us how to use all of the symbolic logic learned thus far to analyze real-life arguments on the fly.

Mrs. Crotts

9th Biology

We read and discussed the article “Science” vs. Science (Science in Christianity article). Students presented invertebrate projects and then took notes on the Invertebrate Lecture Day 2 and Vertebrate Lecture 1. The projects showed creativity and were very informative. Next they read Module 13 and answered “on your own” questions. We also listened to animal themed classical music–”The Flight of the Bumblebee.”

Mrs. Crotts

9th Literature

9th Graders concluded reading Animal Farm. Then they worked on and then presented character sketches about characters in Animal Farm.

Mrs. Frueh

9th Geometry

We are solving for area of regular polygons. This skill is challenging the students to use all of their trigonometry skills to solve for various dimensions of the polygons before solving for the area.

Dr. James

10th Chemistry

This week the students learned about entropy and Gibbs free energy.
Next week we will review thermodynamics, and the students will take their first test of Q4.

Mrs. Palmer

10th Spanish

We learned about the various uses of the words “por” and “para,” which can be tricky in Spanish. Students gained some new vocabulary and we spent time working with those words. We also reviewed past grammar concepts.

Mrs. Byrd

10th Algebra II

This week we learned our final factoring pattern for the year – sum & difference of two cubes. We also completed a factoring review and played a factoring competitive game.

Mrs. Crotts

10th Literature

10th Graders completed their class newspaper; they interviewed juniors and seniors to learn more about the Senior Thesis. They are also reading Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and have an essay topic assigned: “What Is a Biblical Response to Captain Nemo’s Grief?”

Miss Oldham

10th Rhetoric I

Students gave speeches this week.

Coach Johnston

10th History

Students read Josephus’ account of the life of Herod the Great, with both his military and architectural successes and his familial failures highlighted. No one reading this account would be surprised that a man like this would order the execution of Bethlehem’s baby boys just because of a rumored king of the Jews. His rule both brought Judea fully under the authority of Rome, while also leaving it disorganized and broken enough to be ready to cast that authority off (if given the opportunity)…which is what we’ll begin reading about next week. We are simultaneously studying the Rise and Fall of the Roman Republic.

10th PE

Students began a new unit on tennis this week and students are becoming increasingly familiar with the rules and gameplay while working on better rallying skills.

Dr. Byrd

9th and 10th Bible Survey

This week we finish the Old Testament covering I & II Chronicles and Malachi
Students have turned in their Book Analysis Projects. The students will have a presentation on their work later in April.
Bible Memory: Nehemiah 8:8

Mrs. Byrd

11th Precalculus

We worked on solving trig equations this week.

11th Physics

Our class did a lab in which we passed light through glass and found the index of refraction. We also began learning how to trace rays through convex and concave lenses.

Miss Oldham

11th Literature

It was Medieval Day on Wednesday! We had a blast and the kids did an excellent job. Huzzahs all around!

Mr. Hunter

11th NT Greek

This week we continued practicing with the aorist and future passives, and we began discussing the perfect tense.

Mrs. Palmer

11th-12th Elective: Color Theory/Design

We heard from a speaker who has spent many years developing and designing a brand. She talked about the design process and gave the students insight on designing their own business/brand. We also worked with the design process step of “ideation” this week.

Dr. Smith

11th-12th Apologetics & Philosophy

We have concluded our chapter on postmodernism and are now reading and discussing the chapter on Islam. Students are learning how Islam is radically transcendentalist. This means that for Islam, their conception of God (Allah) is that he is utterly disconnected from the physical, spatial and temporal realm. And, as one student asked, “If that is so, then how could Allah have actually communicated with the prophet Muhammad?” Precisely. And just another example of how every belief system outside of biblical Christianity ultimately breaks down.

Coach Johnston

12th History

On Monday, the seniors joined the freshmen in playing a WW1 dodgeball “reenactment” game that I designed (see description in 9th grade section above). On Wednesday, we talked through the general and immediate causes of the war while briefly highlighting the strategic realities that caused Germany to initiate the fighting and how the first few months of open war went prior to the start of trench warfare. Next week we will very quickly conclude our overview of WW1 and take a quiz on Friday, 4/5. Our next topic of study will then be the Roaring 20s, the stock market crash and the Great Depression.

Miss Oldham

12th Literature

Students began To Kill a Mockingbird this week.

12th Rhetoric II

Students are preparing for final defenses in a month. Please keep our seniors in your prayers during this nerve-wracking time.

Mrs. Byrd

12th Calculus

We learned to calculate volume using various types of cross sections this week. Students should also begin reviewing for the AP exam with some materials that they have available.

Mrs. James

12th Anatomy

This week we introduced the Integumentary system and looked at slides of skin cells and hair follicles under the microscope.