BB 04-26-24

BRADFORD BULLETIN

VOLUME XVI, ISSUE 35

APR 26, 2024

 

FROM THE OFFICE

IMPORTANT NOTES:  

  • FROM MRS. MITCHELL:  Bradford’s Teacher Appreciation Day is on Wednesday, May 1.  Each teacher’s assigned room mom has thoughtfully been shopping for the class and many secrets are afoot.  Ask your student if they have had a chance to write a note and if not, encourage them to do so.  Words of affirmation and encouragement mean so much to teachers.  We have dedicated, hardworking staff who love and serve your children.  We thank God for His calling on their lives as well as the opportunity to partner with parents in raising the next generation for His glory.

UPCOMING

NEXT WEEK:

  • Tues, 4/30 Varsity Girls Soccer SENIOR NIGHT Recognition; HOME game vs Cresset Christian at the MACC at 3:30pm
  • Wed, 5/1:  Teacher Appreciation Day
  • Thurs, 5/2:  
    • National Day of Prayer Service – 4th grade – Mebane Presbyterian Church
    • Bradford Games (upper school competition)
    • Varsity Girls – AWAY – Conference tournament soccer game
  • Fri, 5/3:  Teacher workday (no school)

IN THE NEAR FUTURE:

  • Mon, 5/6 – Tues, 5/7:  Standardized testing for 3rd – 5th grades
  • Wed, 5/8:  Standardized testing for 6th – 8th grades
  • Tues, 5/14: – 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) – Parents welcome.  (Details regarding times to be announced.)
    • Junior/Senior Gala 
  • Thurs, 5/30:  10:00 – 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
  • The theme in TK this week was bears! We read and did activities about bears of all kinds….teddy bears, brown bears, etc…..Students enjoyed bringing their bears to school to participate in centers and sing songs with them. One highlight for the kids was the “Going on a bear hunt” song. In math this week we practiced making ABC patterns with our voices and bodies. We also introduced playing cards and began learning to play the game war. Students learned lowercase letters w, y, and j as well as practiced the capital partners. We finished the Jesus Storybook Bible this week by reading the final story, A Dream of Heaven. We talked about the vision John was given about heaven and that one Jesus will make everything right again in this broken world. We are so thankful for our hope in Jesus and our hope in heaven. Next week we will go back to the Old Testament and read about Daniel. 

 

Lower School P.E. (Mrs. Bennington)

K – 4th
  • Students started their Kickball unit this week. Students did a great job  completing several drills. 

Lower School Music (Mrs. Bennington)

K-3rd
  • Students worked hard on the hymn, “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” this week. We also watched a performance of the piece with a full chorus and orchestra. 
4th 
  • Fourth grade did not have music class this week due to a field trip. However, fourth grade met a few times during the week to quickly rehearse the two songs that we are singing at the National Day of Prayer service. 

Lower School Art (Mrs. Palmer)

3rd
  • Students finished up their Van Gogh inspired colored pencil drawings.  They did a great job trying to color match.  We also reviewed many facts about Vincent Van Gogh. 
4th
  • Students finished up their Van Gogh inspired pen and ink drawings.  These students did well with hatching and cross hatching.  We also reviewed many facts about Vincent Van Gogh. 

Kindergarten (Mrs. Rivera and Miss Burdeshaw)

This Week: 
  • Our kindergarteners are working hard to finish up the fourth quarter well! In math, we learned new subtraction facts with a difference of one, how to graph tags on a bar graph, and how to measure and draw line segments to the nearest centimeter. In phonics, we started a new word list and the students were able to choose a book to read from home and/or the classroom library. In history, we discussed the 13 original colonies and spent time coloring a workbook about them. In art and science, we continued our section on the human body, and learned about the muscular system. 
Memory Work: 
  • John 1:1 and review

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

This Week: 
  • We had fun with science this week in first grade. We planted the first grade garden out in the field. This year’s students plant for next year’s students to harvest (just as last year’s students planted for this year’s students). They planted Mammoth Sunflowers, Jack O Lantern Pumpkins, and Big Max Pumpkins. Last year the students planted mint seeds and sunflower seeds. None of the mint seeds sprouted last year, but one decided to germinate this year. So, there is a little mint plant in the garden. We also received our Painted Lady Butterfly Caterpillars. They are already forming chrysalises. We started The Layers of The Earth unit. Ask your student to sing the song for you. The kids had fun acting out Frog and Toad in reading this week and they chose to sing to the seeds rather than yell at them. (Seriously – it was cute!) In math the students are learning subtracting 9 facts, writing observations from a graph, identifying activities that take one hour, one minute, one second, and showing money amounts using quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies. In history the students learned about the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Memory Work:  
  • Final week for Psalm 67:1-7
Upcoming:      
  • Friday May 3rd – No school for students. Teacher work day.

 

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

This Week: 
  •   It has been another very busy week in second grade.  King David has been our focus in history.  There is much the students can learn from this brief introduction to the second and most prominent king of Israel.  After just one more lesson of 20 words, the second graders will have learned the first 940 words in the Spell to Write and Read program, which they began in Kindergarten.  These words, and their derivatives, include more than 75% of all the words we read or write!  As we read through books or assignments the students notice that many of the words have been our spelling words.  The students have a very solid foundation in spelling!  To add to this, we are learning to add suffixes to words and to make contractions.  They also have a very solid foundation in grammar including parts of speech,  vocabulary, the ability to classify sentences and write paragraphs.  We constantly strive to help the students see the excitement of reading books – books can take them on so many journeys.  This week we started Encyclopedia Brown and had a detective come share about the life of a detective and the students got all their questions answered.  We also had a cooking lesson replicating life in the late 1800s when Laura from Little House in the Big Woods lived.  We appreciate store bought butter and our many other conveniences much more now.  
Memory Work: 
  • Finish Hebrews 11 with verses 39-40
Upcoming:
  • Egypt Week – May 13th -17th  

 

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

This Week
  • We have finished another successful week of learning in third grade! In history, we made it to 286 A.D., the split of the Roman Empire by Diocletian. He had the wisdom to understand that ruling an empire that large required the need for clear communication, and since they lacked that he split the empire into two parts, East and West. However, Diocletian also refused to give God the glory and instead decided to establish himself as a god, requiring everyone to worship him. Since Christians refused to worship anyone but the one true God, this caused some of the worst persecution against them. Shortly after Diocletian, Constantine came to rule and ended the persecution of Christians with the Edict of Milan. In math, students found the medium of a set of numbers and worked with geometric solids. We are almost finished with our Latin study and created several compound words using prepositions and verbs.  We’ve added several stylistic techniques to our writing as students learn how to summarize informative texts. Another full week in the fourth quarter! 
Upcoming Memory Work:
  • Study Quarter 2 verses
Upcoming:

5/6-5/7 Standardized Testing 

 

4th Grade (Mrs. Burtram and Miss Abrahamsen) 

This Week
  • We have had a wonderful week.  In math we talked a lot about the value of zero as a place holder and used zeros to make connections between money and decimals.  The students extended their geometry knowledge and added how to calculate volume.  We also looked at fractions on a number line to estimate the closest whole number.  We learned about the spheres that surround the Earth and water distribution of the hydrosphere compared to the geosphere.  The students completed a hands-on model as well as made a graph of their discoveries.  We finished our literature book this week and completed our literature packet.  We ended the week with a fabulous field trip to Old Salem.  It was a wonderful opportunity to explore  History in action and learn about the Moravian roots dating back to the Reformation with John Huss.
Upcoming:
  • Bible Bee
  • Teacher Work Day Friday, May 3, 2024

 

LOGIC SCHOOL

 

Mrs. Bennington

5th-6th Band
  • Students did a great job in band this week working on their Spring Concert Music. 
7th-8th Band
  • Students did a great job in band this week working on their Spring Concert Music. 

Mrs. Campbell

5th-6th Chorus
  • Chorus students continue to diligently work at making progress on their concert repertoire!
7th-8th Chorus
  • Chorus students continue to diligently work at making progress on their concert repertoire!

Miss Stevenson

5th-8th Girls’ PE
  • Girls played volleyball this week.

 

5th Grade (Mrs. Owens) 

This Week
  • This week our students got a small glimpse of what they will be learning in algebra and learned how to add and subtract both positive and negative integers.  We also expanded our work with ratio tables and began to use the total of our ratio to figure out missing information.  In history we learned more about George Washington as our first president and our students drew a picture of him in an odd way.  Ask your student how they were asked to draw his portrait.  We have continued to enjoy the story of Johnny Tremain and this week the students read the account of the Boston Tea Party from Johnny’s perspective.  Last week the students completed their poster for the Sons of the American Revolution and this week some were chosen to move on to the next round.  I will keep you updated as I hear the results.  Each student did a fantastic job and worked very hard.  
Memory Work:
  • Proverbs 27:17 & 17:17 (this week)
  • Proverbs 15:16-17 (next week)

Mrs. Palmer

5th Art
  • Students worked on a colored pencil Van Gogh inspired drawing.  This is a challenging assignment for them because it departs from realism and focusing on impressionism and color matching. 
Mrs. Kromhout
5th Latin
  • 5th graders are learning the fourth declension this week, and reviewing how to identify nouns from any declension!

 

6th Grade (Miss Stevenson)

6th Reading and Literature
  • We are continuing to work through Around the World in Eighty Days.
6th Grammar and Writing
  • I finished up going over the remainder of the comma rules this week! I also introduced the first few ways to correctly use apostrophes. Students are continuing to work on their Compare/Contrast Essay. This essay was originally due on Thursday, May 2, but I am pushing it back to Tuesday, May 7. 
6th Bible
  • We are pushing to complete Acts so that we can move on to Revelation in time to complete it before the end of the school year. It’s creeping up on us!
6th History
  • We had the opportunity to discuss World War Two this week. 
6th Science
  • We are continuing to look into the basics of genetics during our Science classes. 
6th Logic
  • Sixth grade is working through how to identify propaganda fallacies.

Mr. Hunter

6th Latin
  • This week the students took a test on pronouns and possessive adjectives and began studying reflexive pronouns. 

Mrs. Frueh

6th Math
  • The class was excited to learn about the Pythagorean Theorem this week. First, we learned about the history behind this theorem’s development. The students were fascinated to learn that many cultures understood the practical applications of the theorem centuries before Pythagoras was even born, including the Babylonians, Egyptians, Mayans, and Chinese. We learned about the first proof that Pythagoras offered, as well as the proofs offered by Einstein, Euclid, and hundreds of others. The students were then able to apply the theorem to prove whether or not triangles were Right Triangles.

Mrs. Palmer 

6th Art
  • This week we worked on a Van Gogh inspired multi-media project.  We also reviewed many facts about Vincent Van Gogh. 

Mrs. Crotts

7th Grammar and Writing
  • Students took 3 quizzes covering vocabulary from The Lost Tools of Writing.  They also worked on their rough drafts for the final draft due May 1.
7th Omnibus
  • Literature:  We read aloud riddles students wrote during the prior week.  We discussed poetry: children’s verses epic poetry.
  • History/Bible: The class took a quiz encompassing some of the missionary journeys of Paul.

Mrs. Frueh

7th Science
  • We applied our knowledge of moon phases to understand ocean tides. We discussed the difference between spring tides and neap tides and which phases of the moon they are associated with. After reading an article on the Ever Given (the cargo ship that was stuck in the Suez Canal in 2021), we discussed how the full moon at perigee allowed the tide to rise enough to free the boat.
7th Pre-Algebra
  • Our focus this week was on measurement and geometry. We reviewed the difference between measurement in the metric system and in the U.S. Customary System. We also reviewed the different types of polygons and what it looks like when different transformations are applied to polygons in a two-dimensional plane.

Mrs. Palmer 

7th Art
  • This week students worked on realistic graphite still life drawings. We are working on blending well, obtaining a range of value and aiming for a high level of detail.

Mr. Hunter

7th Latin
  • This week the students took a test on pronouns and possessive adjectives. They also began studying the forms and uses of the ablative. 

 

Mrs. Kromhout

8th Omnibus 
  • History: In history this week, we finished our unit by learning about the rise of universities and life in the guild system, then reviewed for and took our test on Friday! 
  • Literature: We finished the prologue to the Canterbury Tales, and then began our foray into our first Shakespeare of the year – Macbeth!! We are excited to get to know the characters and dig into the themes of this dark tragedy. 
  • Composition: Students continue working on their research essays! They should be spending about 30 minutes at home each day reading about and taking notes on their topic. 

Mr. Hunter

8th Latin
  • This week the students took a test on pronouns and possessive adjectives. They also began studying the forms and uses of the ablative. 

Mrs. Frueh

8th Science
  • We took a break from chemistry this week to attend the senior thesis presentations. 
8th Algebra I
  • This week we learned how to do factoring by grouping. A lot of students found this to be a fun way to simplify polynomial expressions that aren’t in the form of a quadratic equation. We also reviewed the slope-intercept form of a linear equation (y = mx + b) and learned how we can use this formula to find the equation of any line as long as we have the coordinates for two points on the line.

Mrs. Palmer 

8th Art
  • Students continued to work on and finish up their detailed still life drawings. This has been a tedious assignment and all has risen to the occasion.  Their hard work has paid off!

Mr. Crotts

8th Logic
  • We have completed our studies on enthymemes (arguments with an assumed premise or conclusion).
  • We have learned to find the missing part of the argument by working through the structure of an argument.

RHETORIC SCHOOL

 

From the COLLEGE COUNSELING Office:

Juniors: 
  • As a reminder, these are things that are helpful for juniors to be working on during the spring semester:
    • Take SAT/ACT and prepare to take again in the late summer
    • Continue researching and developing your list of colleges
    • Visit or make plans to visit any colleges that you have not yet visited
    • Plan for a meaningful use of your time over the summer – find a job, do an internship, decide on a few careers you would like to shadow, develop your interests and skills

A couple resources that I would recommend for junior families: 

  • This podcast – 5 Things Juniors Should Do Now – has excellent tips and information on test prep, financial aid, and generally how juniors and their families can be preparing for senior year and college applications (also on Spotify and I’m sure other places; from Getting In: A College Coach Conversation)
  • This blog post has several helpful tips and goes a bit more in depth about summer preparations. I highly recommend starting on college essays, resume/activity list, asking for letters of recommendation, and getting organized with dates and deadlines over the summer! 

Mrs. Palmer 

9th Spanish 
  • This week we focused on a new grammar concept: “verbs like gustar.”  We compared and contrasted these verbs with reflexive verbs.  We continued to work on reflexive verb conjugations and review our vocabulary both new and old. 

Coach Johnston

9th History
  •  Students have begun a brief summary of World War 2 this week that we will conclude next week.

Mrs. Frueh

9th Geometry
  • We practiced calculating the surface area of pyramids and cones this week, as well as calculating the volume of right prisms and cylinders. The students were introduced to Cavalier’s Principle, which states that right prisms and oblique prisms of the same height will have the same volume as long as their cross-sectional areas are the same. This helped them recognize that calculating volume is always a little more straightforward than calculating the surface area of the same solid.

Mr. Crotts

9th Logic
  • We are learning binary math, digital logic, and listening to senior speeches.

Mrs. Crotts

9th Biology
  • Biology students studied amniotic eggs and began learning about birds.

Dr. Byrd 

9-10th Bible 
  • This week we have progressed to the book of Galatians. We have also had a test on the Gospels and Acts. 

Mrs. Crotts

9th Literature
  • The class learned about the author, Harper Lee.  Our discussion ventured into how her work reflected her personally and also the culture of the 1930’s and the 1960’s.  Students spent time reading To Kill a Mockingbird.  They will write an essay about the symbolism of the mockingbird.

Dr. James

10th Chemistry
  • This week we reviewed chemical kinetics and equilibria, and the students took their second test of Q4.
  • Next week we will begin our study of acids and bases.

Mrs. Palmer 

10th Spanish
  • We have begun to review for our final in the coming weeks.  This included: present, preterite and imperfect tenses.  We reviewed all endings for these tenses.  We also reviewed past vocabulary and added new vocabulary. 

Mrs. Byrd

10th Algebra II
  • We were introduced to the “normal distribution” and learned  to compute various measures of central tendency. 

Mrs. Crotts

10th Literature
  • 10th graders had the privilege of hearing seniors’ thesis presentations.  They also had a final essay draft due this week.

Miss Oldham

10th Rhetoric I
  •  Students worked on their research for their Teeny Tiny Theses. 

Coach Johnston

10th History
  • Students continued to read and discuss the siege of Jerusalem while studying the fall of the Roman republic in preparation for a test on May 7th.
10th PE
  • Students finished their kickball unit with two more days of competition while learning more arts to baseball/softball/kickball gameplay and they attended Scott Baarens’ senior thesis presentation.

Mrs. Byrd

11th Precalculus
  • This week we learned various ways to find the inverse of a matrix as well as various methods to find the determinant of a square matrix.  Next we will learn how to use the determinant in various applications.
11th Physics
  • In our study of current electricity, we worked on gaining a conceptual understanding of current, voltage, and resistance.  We did various calculations with Ohm’s Law, assembled some simple circuits, and learned what happens when resistors are wired in series versus parallel.

Miss Oldham

11th Literature
  • We continued our discussion of The Pilgrim’s Progress. This has been such a fruitful time with them and I love hearing how God is working in their lives. 

Mr. Hunter

11th NT Greek
  • This week the students continued learning about the aorist active, middle, and passive participles. 

Mrs. Palmer

11th-12th Elective: Color Theory/Design
  • We began our final design project which is to design a room.  There are several components to this project and we will spend the next three to four weeks working on this one. 

Coach Johnston

12th History
  • Students completed a very brief summary of World War 2, but we went quickly in order to spend more time in the post-war Cold War era.

Miss Oldham

12th Literature
  •  We finished To Kill a Mockingbird and took a test. 
12th Rhetoric II
  • The seniors finished their defenses this week. I am so incredibly thankful for all the work that they have poured out this year. The Lord is doing great works with this class and I cannot wait to see where He takes them. 

Mrs. Byrd

12th Calculus
  • We’re working our way through a cumulative review of the course.  The AP exam is less than 3 weeks away!

Mrs. James

12th Anatomy
  • This week we have studied the very complicated  immune response of the lymphatic system more in depth.