BB 03-31-2023

BRADFORD BULLETIN

VOLUME XV, ISSUE 28

March 31, 2023

 

FROM THE OFFICE

SUMMER CAMP ANNOUNCEMENT:  From Coach Nathaniel Johnston:  Mark your calendars! Bradford Academy will be hosting a 5-day summer soccer camp in Mebane during the week of June 26-30, from 8:30am-12:45pm. This camp is designed for both boys and girls in rising K5-8th grades. Campers will be divided into multiple age/ability groups to both introduce and challenge each participant at an appropriate level. This camp will cost $125/wk or $35/day. This camp is being advertised to Bradford families but is not limited to Bradford students, so mark your calendars, be looking for registration details and consider inviting a family friend who is playing or interested in learning how to play soccer. Stay tuned for registration details and Lord-willing other summer sports camps being offered to our lower and upper school students.

UPCOMING

NEXT WEEK:

  • Mon, 4/3:  5th graders trip to library
  • Tues, 4/4: 
    • Girls soccer – AWAY
  • Thurs, 4/6:  
    • Practice PSAT for 10th graders 
  • 4/7-4/10:  Easter break, no school

 

IN THE NEAR FUTURE:

  • Fri, 4/14:  Hot lunch
  • Tues, 4/18:  CLT10 testing for 9th and 10th graders
  • Thurs, 4/20:  8th and 11th grades to Shakespeare Play
  • Fri, 4/21:  Quo Vadis?  (Event for rising 5th and 6th graders and their parents.)
  • Wed, 4/26:  CLT testing for 11th and 12th graders
  • Fri, 4/28:  6th grade field trip to Appomattox
  • Week of May 1st:  Standardized testing for 1st – 7th graders
  • Tues, 5/9:  CLT8 testing for 8th graders, Sports Banquet (pm)
  • Thurs, 5/11:  Bradford games (upper school)
  • Fri, 5/12:   Teacher workday, no school
  • Thurs, 5/18:  
    • 9th grade field trip to NC Museum of Art
    • 12th grade field trip to ASU
  • Week of 5/15 and 5/22:  Senior Thesis presentations
  • Tues, 5/23:  Spring Concert and Art display(upper school)
  • Thurs, 5/25:  Last day of TK; Patriotic Program (3rd – 5th grades)
  • Mon, 5/29:  Memorial Day, no school
  • Wed, 5/31:  Verse Bee (lower school), Jr/Sr Gala (evening)
  • Fri, 6/2:  Last day of school, Graduation (pm)

 

FROM THE TEACHER’S DESK

 

GRAMMAR SCHOOL

 

Transitional Kindergarten (Mrs. Hicks and Mrs. Grubb)

TK kicked off the 4th quarter with our pizza week! Students were in the kitchen again this week making personal size pizzas of their liking. On Thursday, we opened our TK pizzeria similar to the pizzeria we read about in Little Nino’s Pizzeria. Students and parents were able to enjoy pizza at the shelter and we even had to go boxes to take home leftovers. Before each student left, we tasked them with paying for the pizza using dimes or pennies depending on what their ticket said. It was a great time! In math this week we graphed our favorite spring activities, practiced paying for items using dimes, covered designs in different ways using pattern blocks, and learned to compare the length of items. We practiced writing lowercase letters g, c, and e and reviewed writing their capital partners. We read about Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane this week and what happened leading up to his arrest and death. Next week we will read about his death and resurrection leading up to Easter.  

Lower School P.E. (Mrs. Bennington)

K – 5th
  • This week students completed several relay races and played a version of the game, “Capture the Flag”. 

Lower School Music (Mrs. Bennington)

K-2nd 
  • Kindergarten, First and Second grade students worked on all four verses of “Jesus Paid It All”. Students also listened to a recording of the book, “The Donkey That No One Could Ride”. We  discussed what they heard and talked about the purpose of background music and why certain music is chosen.  The students learned that “Amazing Grace” was the song being used as background music. We then sang “Amazing Grace” and  “My Country Tis of Thee”. 
3rd
  • Third grade  worked on page 9 in their recorder book and the piece, “Merrily We Roll Along”. Students did a great job counting and playing the exercises on these pages. Students also started working on the piece, “My Country Tis Of Thee”. Students will have a singing test this coming Thursday 4/6 on the first verse of “My Country Tis Of Thee” for memory. 
4th-5th
  • Students did a great job learning the first phrase of, “My Country Tis of Thee” on their recorders. Students will have a playing test on m1-6 of  “My Country Tis Of Thee” this coming Thursday 4/6 . 

 

Lower School Art (Mrs. Palmer)

3rd 
  • We began this quarter talking about our newest artists, Norman Rockwell.   We took a good look at some of Norman Rockwell’s art including The Runaway and Triple Self Portrait.  Students began to sketch out their own self portrait in preparation for next week when they begin their own self portraits.
4th
  • We began this quarter talking about our newest artists, Norman Rockwell.   We took a good look at some of Norman Rockwell’s art including The Runaway and Triple Self Portrait.  Students began to sketch out their own self portrait in preparation for next week when they begin their own self portraits.
5th
  • We began this quarter talking about our newest artists, Norman Rockwell.   We took a good look at some of Norman Rockwell’s art including The Runaway and Triple Self Portrait.  Students began to sketch out their own self portrait in preparation for next week when they begin their own self portraits.

Kindergarten (Miss Burdeshaw and Mrs. Rivera)

This Week: 

Our kindergarteners were definitely excitable after coming back from spring break! We learned some new concepts in math, which were adding 9 to a number, dividing shapes into sixths and the “greater than, less than, and equal to” symbols. In spelling and phonics, we reviewed an old word list and in history, we discussed the Italian sculptor, Michelangelo. Art class featured our artist of the quarter, Norman Rockwell, and in science, we discussed plants. 

Memory Work:

Matthew 6: 9-13 

 

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

This Week:

In math we are learning about finding ½ of a set with an even, or odd number of objects, estimating a sum, and measuring using feet and inches. In art we are practicing shading techniques. In science we are learning more about our bird of the month (The Eastern Bluebird). In grammar we continue to study how to write and say dates, the months of the year, season, holidays. We strive to understand various sentence structures, and practice our nouns and verbs. In history we are continuing to learn about the fascinating Mr. Ben Franklin. We are getting to know about Anne Bradstreet in our reading this week. Her faith in God’s good plan for each of us got her through the hard times.

Memory Work:  

2nd Corinthians 9:6-7

Upcoming:

Easter Break: April 7 – 10

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

This Week

Second grade fell right back into routine after Spring Break and has been hard at work. We completed chapter 14 in Grammar, mastering possessive pronouns and continuing to study the structure of sentences. Students are enjoying our newest book, The Curse of King Tut’s Mummy, which they are reading independently and answering comprehension questions on their own as well. Teachers are grading the questions after each chapter, so ask your child how he/she is doing on this independent reading work. We are very excited to begin our new science unit on the Five Senses; our theme is “Marvelous Me,” and the foundational verse for this unit is Psalm 139:14. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful: I know that full well.” Our artists of the quarter are Norman Rockwell, John Philip Sousa, and Robert Louis Stevenson, and we look forward to learning about them.  

Memory Work: 
  • Please focus on math fact mastery every night. Students need to know addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division fact families.
  • Hebrews 11: 23-27 (this week)
  • Hebrews 11: 23-29 (next week)

 

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

This Week 

This week we reflected on Christ’s life as we continued reading aloud the book of Luke leading up to His death, burial, and resurrection. We discussed the implications of Christ’s propitiation for the sins of His people, and our need for a savior. In Latin, we translated several types of sentence patterns, reinforcing the fact that Latin is a language of endings, and then added to our vocabulary bank by memorizing commonly used Latin prepositions. Our study of the laws of physics with its simple machines has just begun. This quarter students will be  exploring the many types of levers used in large machinery, study the life of Archimedes and his many discoveries, and test simple machines like the pulley and the lever. We are also focusing on writing summaries from factual texts this quarter, a skill they will use often throughout their academic career. We used our KWO skill to summarize a factual text about beavers in order  to write our own summary paragraphs. This will build into a larger writing piece using several texts to summarize their knowledge into one paper. Our final quarter is off to a great start, and we look forward to building upon all they have learned thus far! 

 

4th Grade (Mrs. Burtram and Mrs. Lawson) 

This Week
  •  What a wonderful first week back after Spring Break!  We learned new vocabulary and a chant in Latin, practiced new sentence patterns in English, and added a new preposition sentence starter in IEW.  We learned how to grow a fraction and reduce a fraction in Math, and ended the week in History learning about Martin Luther and the Reformation.  We enjoyed discussing his convictions and understanding how we are saved by God’s grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone plus nothing.  We also talked about Sola Scriptura “Scripture alone” and the authority of God’s Word.  We had wonderful conversations processing that we do not need to work for our salvation, but because we are saved we will naturally have a desire for works that honor the Lord and serve the Kingdom.

 

5th Grade (Mrs. Owens) 

This Week

We have had a joyful first week back after Spring Break.  Our students have jumped back into history learning about a few of America’s founding fathers including James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin.  We started reading Treasure Island this week and are excited to continue to dig into this adventure.  Our students have tackled a few more complex math lessons this week including finding the perimeter of complex shapes and solving ratio problems.  Lastly, the students finished their posters for the Sons of Liberty poster contest.  Each student will now begin to write a research paper on the historical figure they chose for their poster.  We are taking a field trip to the Mebane Public Library next Monday to begin to learn how to search for books on our topic, take notes, and write citations.  

Memory Work:
  • Philippians 2:14-16 (this week)
  • 1 Samuel 2:1-2 (next week)
Upcoming:

Field trip to the Mebane Library – Monday, April 3rd

 

LOGIC SCHOOL

 

Mrs. Bennington

6th-8th Band
  • Students spent a lot of time this week learning new notes, learning how to count and play dotted rhythms, how to count and play eighth note rhythms, how to apply key signatures to music, and how to correctly play dynamic contracts in regards to crescendos and decrescendos. Students did a great job demonstrating their ability to correctly play eighth note rhythms, follow a key signature, follow breath marks and demonstrate dynamic contracts on their 3.26 playing test this week. 

Mrs. Sarah Johnston

6th-8th Choir

We hit the ground running this week! Our focus from here on out is the fine tuning of our pieces. We spent time working on exaggerating the dynamic contrast, as well as rounding our vowels in our pronunciations of words. Practice should be focused especially on these two items, as they will be the overall theme in the next several rehearsals.

Mr. Davis

6th -8th Boys’ PE
  • This week the students played a running game called pumpkin patch. It’s a wonderful game that promotes speed, endurance, and the ability to make split second decisions.

Miss Stevenson

6th-8th Girls’ PE
  • We continued to work on volleyball skills this week.
6th Reading and Literature
  • This week 6th grade started reading Around the World in 80 Days. After a few heavy books in a row, we are looking forward to finishing the year on a lighter literary note. 
6th Grammar and Writing
  • Students should be putting quite a bit of time into their fictional story. At least four pages are due on Thursday, April 27, so if they have not started, they need to be putting more work into it if they want to finish on time.
6th Bible
  • We are continuing to work our way through the book of Romans.
6th History
  • This week we talked about events happening during the Roaring Twenties, specifically Charles Linbergh and his solo flight across the Atlantic.
6th Science
  • This week we started learning about the wonderful world of genetics! I am very excited to dig into this topic with 6th grade. 
6th Logic
  • Due to Dr. McIntosh’s visit, we did not get to Logic this week.

Mrs. Frueh

6th Grade Math
  • The students were excited to learn some higher level algebra skills this week, including adding and multiplying algebraic terms. We also practiced finding the measure of the interior and exterior angles of various geometric figures.

Mrs. Palmer 

6th Art
  • Students learned about our new artist of the quarter, Norman Rockwell.  We took a good look at several of Rockwell’s artworks including the Four Freedoms, Triple Self Portrait and The Runaway. Students will have a quiz on our artist of the quarter next Wednesday.

Miss Windes

6th Latin
  • Sixth graders have jumped back into the year with a longer translation and learning about the second conjugation of verbs!

 

Mrs. Crotts

7th Grammar and Writing
  • The students completed a grammar fill-in-the-blank review/story prompt–many laughs!!  We also  polished our understanding of paragraph form and the technical terminology used in the Lost Tools of Writing textbook.
7th Grade Omnibus
  • We enjoyed reading aloud portions of C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters in the great outdoors.  Students will work with a partner to develop a skit in similar Screwtape fashion–target audience will be a 5th or 6th grader and they are tasked with sharing a moral in opposite.  We also began reading the Book of Revelation.  They were given an overview of what is planned for the 4th quarter race to the finish: quiz on Greek & Roman gods & descriptions, Revelation quiz, writings and discussions and also a focus on map comparisons–ancient to current day.
7th Logic

The class read 2 skits involving logic vocab review from the appendix of the textbook.  Also, students wrote samples of fallacies and read aloud for their classmates to guess which fallacy was being described.

Mrs. Frueh

7th Grade Science
  • After studying the other terrestrial planets last quarter (Mercury, Venus, and Mars), we started the 4th quarter by taking a closer look at the unique and providential ways that Earth has been fashioned lovingly for the flourishing of humanity. We started studying the Goldilocks Conditions present on Earth. Ask your student to name some of the Goldilocks Conditions that make Earth the “just right” planet for life.
7th Grade Pre-Algebra
  • As we head into the 4th quarter, the students are working to build a solid foundation of algebra skills that will serve them well in Algebra 1 next year. This week, we practiced combining like terms in algebraic expressions and grouping like terms before moving them across the equal sign to solve for the unknown.

Mrs. Palmer 

7th Art
  • Students learned about our new artist of the quarter, Norman Rockwell.  We took a good look at several of Rockwell’s artworks including the Four Freedoms, Triple Self Portrait and The Runaway. Students will have a quiz on our artist of the quarter next Tuesday.

Miss Windes

7th Latin
  • Seventh grade Latin students reviewed the vocative case (used for direct address), the imperative mood (commands), and the third conjugation -io verbs. They will have their chapter 16 vocabulary quiz next Tuesday and the test on Thursday! 

Miss Windes

8th Grade Omnibus
  • History: In history this week, we learned about the formation of kingdoms and the work of the kings to centralize power during the high middle ages. 
  • Literature: The students did a great job reading and discussing The Knight’s Tale, one of Chaucer’s many tales in the Canterbury Tales. 
  • Composition: In preparation for writing the second draft of the research essays, we spent more time this week discussing how to avoid plagiarism, writing good transition words, phrases, and sentences, and a few other stylistic concerns. 
8th Grade Latin
  • Eighth graders completed a challenging translation taken directly from one of Virgil’s Eclogues!

Mrs. Frueh

8th Grade Science
  • We started the new quarter by jumping into a detailed study of the periodic table. We will be studying the periodic table by element group. Students should be studying their periodic table regularly. Weekly quizzes on the table groups will start soon.
8th Grade Algebra I
  • This week the students were finally able to see how all of their hard work in science class is paying off in math class. After studying the Pythagorean Theorem and slope in physics class last quarter, applying those same concepts in math class this week was a breeze! It was a great start to the new quarter.

Mrs. Palmer 

8th Art
  • Students learned about our new artist of the quarter, Norman Rockwell.  We took a good look at several of Rockwell’s artworks including the Four Freedoms, Triple Self Portrait and The Runaway. Students will have a quiz on our artist of the quarter next Tuesday.

Mr. Davis

8th Logic

This week the students learned about immediate inferences from Lesson 27. 

 

RHETORIC SCHOOL

From COLLEGE COUNSELING Office:

Sophomores:

  • PSAT:
    • Sophomores will take a practice PSAT next Thursday afternoon (11:50-3pm) at Bradford
    • They will take an online version of the test through Khan Academy, which will be automatically scored and then will give them feedback on which content areas they need the most practice
    • They should review as needed over the summer/early fall for taking the PSAT in October!
    • You can read more about general PSAT info, practicing for the PSAT test, and PSAT scholarship opportunities
  • Continue thinking about electives and let me know if any questions arise! 

Juniors:

Mrs. Palmer 

9th Spanish 
  • This week we focused on our new vocabulary as well as learning two new verbs, saber and conocer.  We worked through the conjugations of these verbs and determined when/how to use each one.  Students also were given their final project (well in advance) which is a cultural project about a Spanish-speaking country.  Ask your student which country they chose for their project!

Dr. James

9th Geometry
  • This week we began our series of volume calculations of objects of varying shapes.
  • Next week is a short week due to the Easter holiday.  We will continue (and likely conclude) our lessons on calculating volumes.

Mrs. Hicks

9th Biology
  • Students are excited to finally start diving into studying different animals in the 4th quarter. This week they completed an in class project on one invertebrate animal they chose!

Dr. Smith

9th Theology
  • We reviewed what they had gone over just prior to spring break, which meant reviewing the five sola’s of the Reformation, the ordo salutis, TULIP, and the differences between the Reformed doctrine of common grace and the Arminian doctrine of prevenient grace. If any of these are new to you, ask your son or daughter to explain them! We also covered today the role of hymns in the solidifying of Protestant theology in the life of the church during the Reformation period.

Mrs. Crotts

9th Grade Literature

Students were assigned to read the rest of Animal Farm.  Also–due Wednesday, April 5–each has to write a character sketch on one of the animals in Orwell’s book and present as a slide show.  They have a list of 5 requirements.

Coach Johnston

9th History
  • We began our unit on WW1 this week. Students have considered the causes for WW1 and America’s reasons for staying out at the beginning but then joining three years later. Students are beginning to work on Major Battle Reports.

 

Mrs. Byrd

10th Algebra II
  • We’ve taken up various topics this week including factoring sums and differences of cubes, solving quadratic inequalities, and simplifying expressions with fractional exponents.

Mrs. Crotts

10th Grade Literature
  • Students spent time discussing and researching George MacDonald’s use of “shadow” in Phantastes.  They had to complete a word study on Biblical uses of “shadow” and compare or contrast with MacDonald’s usage.  They will also face a discussion on main topics such as German romanticism’s possible influence in the book and how this differs from the Gospel. 

Dr. James

10th Chemistry
  • This week we began an introduction to thermodynamics.  The students learned the difference between temperature and heat, and they were also introduced to enthalpy and entropy. 
  • Next week (if we complete this segment by Monday)  the students will have a test on Wednesday. If not, the test will be moved to after Easter break.

Coach Johnston

10th History
  • Ancient History students have continued their reading and discussion of Livy’s War with Hannibal this week, particularly focusing on Hannibal’s greatest victory (Cannae) and Rome’s telling response to disaster to snatch the potential for long-term victory out of the jaws of defeat.
10th PE
  • PE students began the fourth quarter by returning to their warm-up and exercise routines. This week our gameplay focus has been on a volleyball unit.

Miss Oldham

10th Rhetoric I
  • Students received their final speech assignment: The Teeny Tiny Thesis. This is an exercise in writing their senior theses, so I am excited to attempt to predict their future success! 

Mrs. Palmer 

10th Spanish
  • This week we worked with new vocabulary as well as introduced the subjunctive tense.  Students also learned yo form irregular subjunctive conjugations.  Students were given their final project (well in advance) and chose a Spanish-speaking country to focus on.  Ask your student which country they chose!

Mrs. Byrd

11th Physics
  •  We’ve concluded our study of optics in which we learned to determine the behavior of light in various types of mirrors and lenses.  We also began our next major topic – electricity – with a look at static charges.
11th Precalculus
  • This week we took a brief look at how to solve non-right triangles using the Law of Sines and Law of Cosines.  Now we are considering how to solve systems of equations using matrices.

Dr. James

11th Geography
  • This week we began a study of Europe. We had guest speakers tell us about Portugal and Slovakia, and the students picked their countries for their research presentations.
  • Next week we will learn about Spain from another guest, and the students will take their country tests and present one of their selected countries. 

Miss Oldham

11th Grade Literature
  • We started reading Spenser’s epic poem The Faerie Queene (a personal favorite of mine). We are reading this out loud in class since Spenser did not adhere to any spelling rules. 

Dr. Smith

11th NT Greek
  • Monday we reviewed material that took us back to the first nine weeks all the way up to the present. Today (Wednesday) we began looking at the second aorist and future middle and passive verbs. We are almost done with learning all the verb forms. Translation work will get increasingly difficult but they have a very solid foundation and continue to do an excellent job working together. 

Mr. Webster

11th Grade History
  • This week we started a new unit on the Renaissance and how it was both similar and different from previous centuries. Next week we will take a look at the Italian city-states during this period and continue working on the class play for this quarter. 

Mrs. Byrd

12th Calculus
  • We began the week by finding area of regions by integrating with respect to x and y and concluded the week by finding volume of regions using various types of known cross sections.

Mrs. Hicks

12th Anatomy
  • This week we covered the endocrine system! The hearts for dissection finally arrived and we will be looking at these on Tuesday next week!

Coach Johnston

12th History
  • We started a brief unit on WW1 this week. There will be an assessment next week on this material prior to moving on to the Interwar (1920s-30s) events in Europe and America.

Miss Oldham

12th Grade Literature
  • We started this quarter off by discussing the 1930s, specifically the South during this time, in preparation for our first novel To Kill a Mockingbird. 
12th Grade Shakespeare Elective
  • We started As You Like It this week.
12th Rhetoric II
  • Students turned in their final drafts of their senior theses! The next step is final defenses in May. I have shared the calendar invites with parents, but please let me know if you did not receive this!