BB 11-01-2024

BRADFORD BULLETIN

VOLUME XVII, ISSUE 17

NOV 1, 2024

 

FROM THE OFFICE

FOR ALL:
  • Used Uniform Sale:  Thurs, 11/7.  Here is the link to sign up for a time to shop.  **Please note that we may cancel this sale if there is insufficient interest.**
  • SOCKTOBER:  New sock donations will be received through the end of next week.  Thank you to all of those who have contributed socks for the Piedmont Rescue Mission.
LOWER SCHOOL- IMPORTANT NOTES:
  •   UPCOMING:  K – 2nd grade Bradford Night on Thurs, 11/14 at 6:30 pm.  Students should wear their dress uniform.  
UPPER  SCHOOL- IMPORTANT NOTES:
  • Parents’ Days:  We are excited to host parents (and grandparents!) next week at the upper school.  All parents are invited even if you do not have a child in the upper school yet.  Space is limited though so please reserve your spot here!  Thursday starts with Coffee and Conversation with Mr. Johnston at Traveling Addiction at 8:00 a.m.  
  • Basketball Practices:
    • Varsity Girls (Thursday, 11/7, 3-5pm at Old Rec Center)
    • Varsity Boys (Mon/Wed/Th/Fr, 11/4,6-8, 3-5pm at outdoor court and Old Rec Center)
    • Middle School Boys (Mon/Wed, 11/4,6; 3-5pm at outdoor court and Old Rec Center)
HOT LUNCH on Thursdays: 
  • The weekly menu locks at midnight on Sunday night – so be sure to place your orders and check out in time. Once your account is set up, it should be easy for the rest of the year! ORDER HERE  
FROM MRS. MITCHELL:  

Did you know that October 31st is celebrated as Reformation Day?  Classical teachers love to spend time with their students discussing the importance of Martin Luther’s historic nailing of the 95 Theses on the door of the Wittenberg church in Germany.  First graders displayed an impressive grammar level knowledge of these events.  We were thankful to spend the day that Americans call Halloween focusing on a mighty work of God through the life of a faithful follower who was willing to risk everything for the sake of true reading of God’s word.

 

UPCOMING

 

NEXT WEEK:
  • Wed, 11/6:  Lower School:  4th grade field trip
  • Thurs, 11/7:  
    • ALL:  Used Uniform Sale 
    • ALL:  8am, Coffee and Discussion with Mr. Johnston
    • Upper school:  Parents Day (Parents and grandparents mark your calendar!)
  • Fri, 11/8:  
    • Upper school:  Parents Day (Parents and grandparents mark your calendar!)
    • Upper school:  10th grade – Jr/Sr Preview  – Lunch discussion (Parents welcome!)
 IN THE NEAR FUTURE:
  • Mon, 11/11:  ALL:  Veterans Day – No school
  • Thurs, 11/14:  Lower school:  K – 2nd grade – Bradford Night, 6:30 pm
  • Tues, 11/26:  ALL:  Thanksgiving Feasts
  • Wed, 11/27 – Fri, 11/29:  ALL:  Thanksgiving Break – no school
  • Sun, 12/1:  Applications open for 25/26 for new students
  • Thurs, 12/5:  ALL:  Coffee and Discussion with Mr. Johnston
  • Fri, 12/6:  Upper School:  6th grade Field Trip to Appomattox Court House
  • Week of 12/16:  Upper School:  Q2 Finals
  • Wed, 12/18:  Lower school:  TK Parents Coffee and Donuts, TK Nativity Play
  • Thurs, 12/19:  Upper school:  Christmas Concert
  • Fri, 12/20:  Christmas celebrations, Noon dismissal

 

FROM THE TEACHER’S DESK

 

GRAMMAR SCHOOL

 

Transitional Kindergarten (Mrs. Grubb and Mrs. Weber)

This Week
  • Students enjoyed a lovely week this week in TK! It was wonderful to be outside enjoying the nice weather and admiring the changing leaves. Students had the opportunity to get outside this week for a walk in the forest to identify signs of fall. In math our focus was making AB patterns with our voice and body, sorting by various rules, and ordering numbers 1-10. As you can see our math curriculum is building and becoming more challenging as we prepare for kindergarten. We continue to work diligently with students to understand and review concepts many times and continue to practice writing numbers. Our letters of the week were E and F. Next week we will focus on H and T. Mrs. Bennington began teaching students Away in a Manger and Joy to the World in preparation for Christmas. A few of our centers included: identifying and making compound words with items, writing letters on chalkboards, making letters with Play Doh, hunting for letters in the classroom, and discussing problems solving skills while reading a story. Students also learned Humpty Dumpty and Little Miss Muffett. We read this week about the story of Joshua. We were reminded of God’s faithfulness to His people. Next week we begin learning about David and will also begin memorizing a new Bible verse. 

Lower School P.E. (Mrs. Bennington)

K – 4th
  •  Students did a great job playing various Tag games this week in P.E. Students are learning how to effectively play in teams. 

Lower School Music (Mrs. Bennington)

K-2nd 
  • Students did a great job this week working on selections for Bradford Night. 
4th-3rd
  •  Students did a great job putting various rhythms with a steady beat. Students also learned how to read two pitches on the staff and how to play those notes on their recorders. Students learned how to correctly articulate to make a sound on their recorder. Student also worked on verse 1 of “Joy to The World”. 

Kindergarten (Mrs. Rivera and Miss Burdeshaw)

This Week
  • Our kindergarten scholars have learned so many things so far in the second quarter! In math, the students learned their first ever addition facts, the doubles with sums to ten. They also learned how to identify how many sides and angles a rectangle has, and how to write number sentences for some, some more stories. In phonics, they reviewed the single-letter phonograms and the lowercase cursive letter strokes. We have also been preparing them to start their first reader next week! In history, we discussed the several different  judges who served as military leaders for the tribes of Israel. In art, we finished up our Kandinsky circles, and they were very, very colorful! You will all get the opportunity to see them on our upcoming Bradford night in just two weeks. Lastly, in science, we continued to learn about trees and their distinctive leaves. The students walked around outside and worked together to identify different leaf types and shapes. 
Memory Work:   
  •  Psalm 92:1 and review

 

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

This Week
  • What a wonderful week we’ve had in first grade! A highlight of our week was “Flags for First” when veterans came and taught the students about “Old Glory”. The veterans were very moved to hear the students recite the quote from the Declaration of Independence, the Preamble to The US Constitution, and Preamble to the North Carolina Constitution. They said we are the only school, elementary through highschool that is teaching this. In math, we are focusing on dividing shapes in half while continuing to practice our addition skills. The students are really grasping these concepts! In our reading time, we are enjoying “The Black Flag,” which has sparked great discussions. In History, the students were excited to start learning the true story of Pocahontas. This week in grammar, we are working on writing complete sentences and identifying nouns, reinforcing our understanding of language in a fun way. In science, we’ve begun learning about the different types of clouds, inspiring curiosity about the world around us. In art, the students colored beautiful pictures of Martin Luther, leading to thoughtful conversations about his impact and legacy. It’s been another week filled with learning, creativity, and engaging discussions.
Memory Work:  
  • Romans 12: 1-2
Coming Up:
  • Veterans Day / No School November 11th. 
  • State Projects Due November 12th!
  • Bradford Night November 14th

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

This Week
  •  Second graders have enjoyed some special activities this week, which we hope will encourage them to have a love of reading, especially God’s Word.  We  continued our study of Abraham and Sarah.  God had given Abraham an incredible promise:  He and Sarah would have innumerable descendants. But when Sarah was old and childless she took matters into her own hands, rather than staying faithful to God.  This is a good lesson for us that God is ever faithful despite our “off-track” choices.   God does not waiver in faithfulness, even when we do.  And through God’s promise comes the twelve tribes of Israel and eventually Jesus himself.  Such powerful lessons that our second grader students can start to understand.  Another focus this week was finishing The Boxcar Children book and reenacting some of their adventures on Boxcar Day.  It was fun to see the students dressed up like Henry, Jessie, Violet or Benny and enjoy activities from the book concluding by making their own dioramas.  Thank you to those who helped provide the items for lunch.   We hope the students will continue their adventures by reading other books in this series.  The students are working hard to prepare some special songs for Bradford Night and we look forward to sharing their songs and classwork with you then.  Please let us know if you have any questions about the Middle East project, which will be on display on Bradford Night.  
Memory Work:  
  • Hebrews 11 up to verse 14

 

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

This Week
  • This week was full of applying what we know to help us figure out what we do not know. Students have been reviewing Latin endings and used that knowledge to add adjectives to feminine, masculine, and neuter nouns. We also introduced some adjectives in Latin. They learned a song to help them remember the helping verbs, and then wrote sentences to demonstrate their knowledge. We continued our study of Greek Mythology with a closer look at the Greek gods. Students have been excitedly planning their projects and we are excited for them to share them!   It is part of the classical process for students to put their knowledge to work by clearly communicating what they have learned. They wrote an outline for a fable called “The Crow and the Peacock” and then rewrote their own version of this fable with added dress-up to make their writing stronger.  In math, we learned how to use the Distributive Property of Multiplication to solve multiplication problems. We finished the week learning about Archimedes and simple machines. 
Memory Work:  
  • John 10:9-10

Mrs. Fairchild

3rd Grade Art
  • The students have moved on to their second project and working with more independence and working towards mastery creating texture and blending colors. 

 

4th Grade (Mrs. McDorman and Mrs. Rankin) 

This Week
  •  This week, we explored the East-West Schism of the Church, leading up to Martin Luther’s pivotal act of nailing the 95 Theses to the doors of the Wittenberg church. Students engaged in lively discussions about the conflict between Pope Leo IX and Michael Cerularius, which culminated in their mutual excommunication. This event marked the first major division between the Eastern and Western Christian traditions. We also examined the events that ignited the Protestant Reformation, which played a crucial role in spreading the gospel throughout Europe. In math, students practiced area models and began learning the FOIL method, which will be essential for future algebraic concepts. We also focused on mastering multiplication algorithms. In our language arts activities, we continued using the Story Sequence Chart to rewrite Greek myths, adding our unique flair to these timeless tales. Additionally, students practiced the basic rules of punctuation and capitalization to enhance their communication skills. To wrap up the week, we played a game celebrating Martin Luther’s 95 Theses and enjoyed a performance of “The Hobbit” by Bradford’s 5th graders. It was a week full of engaging learning experiences!
Memory Work:  
  • Matthew 5: 6-9
  • Catechism #88

Mrs. Fairchild

4th Grade Art
  • The students have moved on to their second project and working with more independence and working towards mastery creating texture and blending colors. 

 

LOGIC SCHOOL

 

Mrs. Bennington

5th Band
  •   Students did a great job this week on exercises that continued to focus on the first five notes that we have learned. Students also started their concert music. Students will have a test on the first 12 measures of “Beethoven’s Ninth” this Tuesday 11/4. 
6th-8th Band
  •  Students did a great job working on their Concert Music. Students have been working hard on being confident while playing independent parts. Students will have a test on the first 36 measures of “A Christmas Festival” this Tuesday 11/4. 
9th – 10th Band
  •  Students did a great job this week sight reading various Christmas Carols. Students have consistently shown progress in their ability to apply their musical knowledge to new pieces with multiple parts. 

Mrs. Johnston

5th – 8th Chorus
  • 5th Chorus – This week’s goal was to work on memorizing music. We also spent time improving accuracy of notes and “hearing” the pitch before singing it.
  • 6th-8th Chorus – This week we did a lot of repetition in order to solidify parts. There has been a lot of growth in personal confidence, and we will continue to build on that through memorization of music. November’s goal is to have all music memorized!

 

5th Grade (Mrs. LaTour and Mrs. Kromhout) 

This Week
  • It has been a busy week in fifth grade getting ready for Hobbit Day and especially our Hobbit play on Friday!! Thank you so much to all of the parents who volunteered to help set up, prepared the room for our afternoon tea, donated supplies, cooked food, and helped your student with their lines and costumes! We sadly came to the end of our book and its bittersweet ending of Bilbo saying a final goodbye to the fallen Thorin and heading back to his cozy home in the Shire. In history, the students studied Roger Williams and his founding of Rhode Island. For Latin, we just started chapter 10, learning a set of adverbs as well as the future perfect tense, the last of our tenses. In writing, we continue to work on a story about the Boston Massacre, which we will finish next week; students are learning to write with strong and active verbs! 
Memory Work:  
  • Psalm 51:10-12

Mrs. Palmer

5th Art
  • This week we continued to work on our oil pastel landscapes.  It has been tricky to learn a new medium and to use it effectively but students are getting it and these are coming together nicely!

 

6th Grade (Miss Stevenson)

6th Reading and Literature
  • We are continuing to work our way through Across Five Aprils.
6th Grammar and Writing
  • Students submit the rough draft of their research paper this week. The final drafts and the presentations are due Wednesday, November 6. 
6th Bible
  • We started reading the gospel of Luke this week. 
6th History
  •  This week we focused on the presidency of Abraham Lincoln.
6th Science
  • In Science this week we studied for and took a  quiz on the content from the notes that we have taken in class so far this quarter.
6th Logic
  • This week in Logic I introduced the Making Assumptions section of Fallacy Detectives. 
6th Latin
  • Students studied for and took their Chapter 2 test in Latin this week.

Mrs. Crotts

6th Math
  • 6th Graders are focused on completing chapter 4 and preparing for the chapter test on Monday.  Differing from past chapters, they have worked on the chapter review in groups.

Mrs. Palmer 

6th Art
  • Students spent this week working on their colored pencil fall leaf drawings.  We have been focusing on blending and accuracy/realism. 

Dr. Wright

7th Composition 
  • Students chose topics for their Greek cultural artifact research papers, and we have been introducing the Chicago/Turabian style of citation as they work on first drafts.  Students also are composing their introductory paragraphs for their upcoming declamation speeches.  
7th Omnibus – Literature, History, Bible
  • Our reading of The Odyssey and our work on the Odyssey play continues.  Students are rehearsing in full costumes, and we will add set pieces beginning next week.  Work on declamation speeches is ongoing, in preparation for November 14 in-class speeches.  

The 7th grade class invites Bradford parents and grandparents to our presentation of Homer’s Odyssey.  All are welcome to attend our dress rehearsal Thursday, November 7 at 2pm, or our performance Friday, November 8, in the sanctuary of the upper campus.  

7th Logic
  • Logic class time has taken a temporary back seat due to the amount of work in Omnibus and composition, and students will submit their workbooks to be graded during this hiatus.

Mrs. Frueh

7th Science
  • The students submitted the rough drafts of their soil lab reports this week. We spent time in class peer-editing their work. By reading the work of their classmates they were able to discern errors in both grammar and composition that they may not have noticed in their own writing.
  • Upcoming: Unit Test on the Structure of the Earth on Tuesday, November 12th
7th Pre-Algebra
  • We continued to practice evaluating expressions using order of operations. This week we added exponential terms and roots, as well as fractions.

Mrs. Palmer 

7th Art
  • This week we worked on our charcoal architecture drawings.  We have been working on grayscale, details and accuracy with these drawings. 

Miss Johnston

7th Latin
  • We started chapter five on Monday. We are learning about transitive and intransitive verbs as well as the accusative case for nouns.

 

Dr. Wright

8th Omnibus 
  • History:  Students continue with Anglo-Saxon history and culture.  The next test is in view, and students have begun to prepare their study guide for that test.  Next week we plan to discuss the rise of Byzantine iconoclasm.  
  • Literature: Students are reading and discussing themes of Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring.  Work on declamation speeches is ongoing, in preparation for November 14 in-class speeches.
  • Composition:  Students have received grades and extensive feedback on the first draft of the biographical research paper.  The second draft of that paper is due next week.  Students also are composing their introductory paragraphs for their upcoming declamation speeches.  
Miss Johnston
8th Latin
  • This week we have continued learning about the third declension noun endings. The students have spent time memorizing the genders of the nouns, going over grammar rules, and continuing to learn vocab.

Mrs. Frueh

8th Science
  • We wrapped up our study of the Kinetic Theory of Matter with a unit test. Next week, we will move on to specifically studying the behavior of molecules in fluids (liquids and gases).
8th Algebra I
  • We continued working with linear functions this week. The students were able to recognize the power of writing linear equations in slope-intercept form (y = mx + b), as it allows you to quickly graph any function, but also to make comparisons between different functions and to easily find where linear functions intersect.

Mrs. Palmer 

8th Art
  • This week students continued to work on their color nuance magazine famous artwork collages.  This is tedious and requires patience but these students have given it great effort so far.  These will be displayed at upper campus in the coming weeks and I encourage you to check them out!

Mr. Crotts

8th Logic
  • We are learning about statements – sentences that are either true or false. Statements can be self-supported, requiring no additional information to determine validity or supported, requiring more information in order to discover its validity.

RHETORIC SCHOOL

 

From the COLLEGE COUNSELING Office:

Electives for 11th/12th: 

  • It is time to nail down plans for spring electives:
    • If you are taking Bradford classes for your electives, this is done
    • If you are planning to take a class or classes at ACC, you need to sign up for a time slot with our ACC advisor, Mrs. Sutton; you may schedule a phone call or Zoom appointment with her here: https://calendar.app.google/4rFwCczAEB1vZtCf9

This needs to be completed by the end of November!

Juniors: 

Seniors: 

  • Many of the seniors are done or nearly done with their college applications!! Congratulations! Now is the time to:
    • Finish up and finalize any applications
    • Work on scholarship applications, both for institutional scholarships as well as for national or local scholarships

 

Mrs. Palmer 

9th Spanish 
  • This week students practiced with -AR ending verbs, vocabulary and the verb “gustar.”  We also took a chapter test and began new vocabulary.  

Mrs. Frueh

9th Geometry
  • This week we practiced writing several proofs for the congruency of triangles. The students were able to explain why SSS (Side-Side-Side) and SAS (Side-Angle-Side) proofs are logically coherent, but AAA (Angle-Angle-Angle) proofs are not.

Mr. Crotts

9th Logic
  • We are mastering the art of truth tables and logic operators (symbols representing English).

Dr. and Mrs. James

9th Biology
  • This week the students took their first test on botany, and now they are learning about flowering plants, which is the majority of plants.  They are starting to bring their leaves in for the Leaf ID project!

Coach Johnston

9th History
  • Students completed the overview of the French & Indian War and will now prepare for a test on European political developments and “World War Zero” next week before starting our next unit on the American Revolutionary War.

Mrs. Crotts

9th Literature
  • 9th Graders wrote a brief summary of the declamation speech that they are memorizing.  They also read each speech to the class and listened to encouragement.  They also  plotted discussion questions to share and with which to challenge their parent on Parents’ Day about Frankenstein.

Dr. Byrd 

9th Bible 
  • This week we have been in the book of I Samuel. We have seen how Samuel was a man of prayer who was dedicated to speaking the Word of God to the people, although it was not popular. We have learned how Saul rebelled against God. The Lord rejected him and chose David, a man after God’s heart. 
  • Test on Friday
  • Students are beginning their Book Analysis Projects. 

Dr. James

10th Chemistry
  • This week the students took their first test of Q2.   We also began our discussion of chemical bonding.
  • Next week the students will learn how to draw Lewis structures of simple molecules, and they will work with 3-D models to learn about bond angles and molecular geometry.

Coach Johnston

10th History
  • 10th Graders finished their short overview of Ancient Persian history. We’ve made key connections to Israel and Greece while also looking at the origin/ascension story of Cyrus the Great and briefly learning about and considering the reliability (but also its connection to the story of Esther and Ahasuerus) of Darius’ ascension story. We will have a test next week before beginning to read and study Ancient Greece!

Coach Johnston

9th History
  • PE students tried the hands at a new PE unit, hockey, this week. We had a lot of fun, although there were a lot of sore legs and backs from learning how to properly hold the sticks and use them throughout a 75+ minute game. Both the boys and girls showed great improvement over the week and enjoyed playing this game!

Mrs. Palmer 

10th Spanish
  • Students learned how to form an adverb in Spanish this week.  We also spent time working on our group skits all in the target language.  Next week students will present their skits and have an opportunity to both listen and speak in Spanish. 

Mrs. Byrd

10th Algebra II
  • We concluded our unit on solving linear systems of equations and inequalities this week.  We will begin studying quadratic functions next week.

Mrs. Crotts

10th Literature
  • 10th Graders worked hard writing an in-class essay based on the Iliad.  Then they planned out a summary presentation complete with a slide show and costumes of Homer’s Iliad to share with their parents on Parents’ Day.

Miss Oldham

10th Rhetoric I
  •   We rewrote fairytales and practiced our declamation speeches. 

Dr. Smith

10th Historical Theology
  • Students are learning about the relationship between the doctrines of the Trinity, and of Christ and how these two inevitably led to debates on the doctrine of salvation in the first four centuries of the church. They are reading about the differences between Augustianism and Pelagianism, and the various ways these two systems of doctrine were blended through the 5th and 6th centuries A.D.  

Mrs. Palmer

11th Spanish III
  • Students took a vocabulary quiz this week.  We reviewed the imperfect tense.  We also began a writing assignment that focuses on a cultural event.  Additionally, students practiced their Spanish speaking skills by speaking about a famous work of art. 

Mrs. Byrd

11th Precalculus
  • We are working on our analysis of rational functions.  We are learning to locate various asymptotes, produce graphs, and analyze a few real life applications of rational functions.
11th Physics
  • We concluded our study of two dimensional motion this week.  Next we will begin a study of dynamics by considering Newton’s Three Laws of Motion.

Miss Oldham

11th Literature
  • We read canto 1 of Spenser’s The Faerie Queene and began Le Morte d’Arthur. The students have projects for this book due November 15th. 

Dr. Smith

11th NT Greek
  • Students are working on the various uses of the Greek term autou as a personal pronoun, reflexive pronoun and adjective, continuing to increase their vocabulary and working on their knowledge of the syntax of NT Greek sentences. 

Mr. Webster

11th-12th Systematic Theology
  • This week we continued in the doctrine of God by studying the communicable attributes of God. We also studied the topic of Satan and demons.
11th History
  •  This week we continued our study of the Carolingian Empire under Charlemagne and, afterwards, Louis the Pious. 

 

Mrs. Fairchild

12th Art Portfolio
  • This sculpture project has been a memorable one. The students are attempting to sculpt a classmate’s head and shoulders.. There have been a few times when the class has erupted in laughter at the failed attempt to capture a classmates nose or when a smile looked more like a grimace..  They are, however, gaining a better understanding of the bone structure of a face and learning how to make subtle alterations to better capture a classmate’s facial expression.

Miss Oldham

12th Literature
  • We continued our descent into madness with Shakespeare’s Hamlet. 
12th Rhetoric II
  •  Seniors have received feedback on their first edits, so they are now working on their second drafts. The seniors have been working hard, so please be in prayer for them as they continue to run this race. 

Coach Johnston

12th History
  • 12th Graders have spent the week quickly overviewing the political, economic and colonial developments of the 17th-18th century in Europe. We specifically focused on the French & Indian War (Seven Years War) and began to learn about the general causes of the American Revolution. Those general causes were conflict over: land expansion, taxation without representation, and the Quartering Act.

Mrs. Byrd

12th Calculus
  • We are moving on from our study of basic differentiation to consider some applications of differentiation including topics like velocity, acceleration, related rates, and local linearization.