BB 11-22-24

BRADFORD BULLETIN

VOLUME XVII, ISSUE 20

NOV 22, 2024

FROM THE OFFICE

FOR ALL:

New student applications open on Sunday, 12/1!
ZipCast House Competition results:
- Tie for 1st place: Austerfield and Leiden
- 2nd place: Scrooby
- 3rd place: Plymouth
ZipCast: there will not be a Zipcast released on Monday, 12/25 due to the Thanksgiving holiday. It will resume on Monday, 12/2.

LOWER SCHOOL- IMPORTANT NOTES:

RUNNING CLUB UPDATES:
- There is NO running club on Tuesday, 11/26 due to the Thanksgiving holiday.
- Bradford’s first 5K race: Running club participants will be running a 5K at Bradford on Wed, 12/11 at 1:35! Parents are invited to come and watch (and maybe even run with their students?!)

UPPER SCHOOL- IMPORTANT NOTES:

Thursday, 12/19: Upper school Christmas concert at 7pm. All band students, middle school choir, and upper school chorus students will be participating and are expected to be in attendance. We look forward to hearing what they have been working so hard to accomplish!

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:

In case you missed it, the word of the week is thankful. We are indeed thankful for supportive families and dedicated staff, who are invested in the vision of classical and Christian education. We believe that God is growing up a generation of deep, careful thinkers and clear communicators. It’s our joy to look back and see the growth from the beginning of the year. It does not come without effort. Hear the words of William Bradford: “All great and honorable actions are accompanied with great difficulties and must be overcome with answerable courage.” Students have been reminded of the godly dedication and life events that made William Bradford a man worthy of study and imitation.

UPCOMING

NEXT WEEK:

Mon, 11/25: Varsity Basketball games – HOME (at the MACC) starting at 2:30.
Tues, 11/26: Thanksgiving Feasts
Wed, 11/27 – Fri, 11/29: Thanksgiving Break
Sun, 12/1: New Student Applications open for 25/26

IN THE NEAR FUTURE:

Thurs, 12/5: All parents: Coffee and Discussion with Mr. Johnston
Fri, 12/6: Upper School: 6th grade Field Trip to Appomattox Court House
Wed, 12/11: Running Club 5K race at Bradford Academy
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. Report cards released
Mon, 12/23 – Fri, 1/03: Christmas Break – no school!
Mon, 1/06: First day of 3rd Quarter
- Upper school will continue their IST (Intensive Short Term) studies this week
Mon, 1/20: No school in observance of MLK Day
Fri, 1/24: 4th – 8th grade School Spelling Bee
Week of 1/27 and 2/3: Senior Thesis Pre-panels

FROM THE TEACHER’S DESK

GRAMMAR SCHOOL

Transitional Kindergarten (Mrs. Grubb and Mrs. Weber)

This Week

TK students spent the week learning and preparing for our Thanksgiving celebration next week! Students were excited to learn about the Pilgrims and Indians at the first Thanksgiving and look forward to dressing up next week. Students also played a gratitude game this week and focused on things we are thankful for. A highlight of the week was learning to make butter in a jar using heavy cream and our muscles to shake the jar! We then flavored the butter. We made herb butter as well as honey butter. We plan to enjoy our butter next week at our Thanksgiving celebration. Our letter of the week this week was C. We spent time discussing the sounds it makes and practiced writing C as well as reviewing previous letters of the week. See if your student can identify L, E, F, H, T, I, U, and C. Our focus in math this week was playing the missing shape game after building a matrix, one to one correspondence counting with pennies, and introducing telling time to the hour. A few of our centers this week included: building and drawing Mat Man and turning him into a Pilgrim or Indian, pass the letter game, a turkey craft, and a letter hunt.

Lower School P.E. (Mrs. Bennington)

K – 4th

Students did a great job in P.E. this week listening to and following instructions from the sub.

Lower School Music (Mrs. Bennington)

K-2nd

Students did a great job working on the first three verses of “Joy To The World”.

3rd-4th

Students did a great job working on the first three verses of “Joy To The World”. Students also successfully mastered their first three recorder notes.

Kindergarten (Mrs. Rivera and Miss Burdeshaw)

This Week

Our kindergarten scholars have enjoyed adding a feather to a turkey as a reward for being kind to others. We want to instill in them a love for the people around us, and to encourage them to seek out opportunities to care for others well. Academically, we had a full week of learning and reviewing concepts. In math, we learned how to cover designs with pattern blocks, how to order numbers 1-20, how to add one to a number, how to write number sentences for some, some went away stories, and how to count backwards from 10. In phonics, we focused on two-finger tracking to help the students learn how to follow along when someone or themselves is reading. We also worked hard on writing our cursive-letter names and introduced the phonograms, oy, oi, ow, ou, and ch. In history, we discussed the Babylonian Captivity and worked on our King David motion puppet. In art and science, we finished up our section on trees and their leaves, and the students made special cards with leaf rubbings on them for their families. Next week, we look forward to celebrating Thanksgiving by having a feast day on Tuesday. Praise God for his grace to give us so much to be thankful for.

Memory Work:

Isaiah 9:6-7 and review

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

This Week

Our first graders have been hard at work this week, growing in knowledge and exploring new concepts! In Math, we practiced facts and patterns, building a solid foundation for future problem-solving skills. During Reading, we enjoyed The Brave Monk, a story about Martin Luther, and continued working on writing our addresses and using complete sentences with proper end marks. In History, we delved into the story of Jamestown and learned about the adventures of the New World settlers. Art was filled with inspiration as we discussed the life and music of Johann Sebastian Bach. In Science, we explored the properties of light and learned about the differences between transparent, translucent, and opaque materials—sparking curiosity and plenty of thoughtful questions! It’s been a wonderful week of learning, discovery, and creativity. Thank you for your continued support in your child’s educational journey!

Memory Work:

Psalm 1:1-4

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

This Week

As always, we had another busy week in second grade! Our history lesson and Bible verse are both about the birth and sacrifice of Isaac. What an inspiration for us to choose to have faith and obedience like Abraham. Writing ten things each day that we are thankful for has really helped us realize just how much we have to thank God for. We used Psalm 100 for copy work to add to our attitude of thanksgiving. We started the historical fiction book, Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan. The book gets off to a sad start with Anna and Caleb’s mother dying just after Caleb was born. As the book progresses it will be a great lesson for the kids to know that God brings good from what seems “bad”. After writing sentences, sentences and more sentences all year long we are now putting those sentences together to write a two-point expository paragraph. For the topic we are continuing the theme of thanksgiving – My Favorite Thanksgiving Foods. As teachers we truly are thankful for the opportunity to come alongside you in raising these precious children! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration.

Memory Work:

Hebrews 11:1-19

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

This Week

Students launched into writing using the Story Sequence Outline. We are discovering key story elements such as plot, character, setting, conflict, climax, and resolution. These tools will help your students when they submit their own stories to the Burlington Writers Club contest next month. In math, students used their understanding of multiplication to develop division concepts. The inverse relationship between multiplication and division are the foundations on which students will build their division facts. In history, we discovered that battles can be won or lost in the hearts and minds of men long before they are fought on the battlefield. If not for Sparta and Athens boldly standing up to King Darius and the Persian army, the world as we know it would be very different! The students agreed that the Battle of Thermopylae was epic with the mighty men of Sparta pushing back against the vast army of Xerxes. We ended the week by reenacting our own version of the Persian Wars!

Memory Work:

Review Quarter 1 Verses

Mrs. Fairchild

3rd Grade Art

We completed our study of Diego Velazquez with a grand finale of looking carefully at the Las Meninas painting. Diego Velazquez leaves the viewer wrestling with a question and wondering about the meaning of this painting.

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

This Week

This week, in history, we studied William the Conqueror and the Battle of Hastings, a pivotal moment in English history. We discussed how William, Duke of Normandy, asserted his claim to the English throne after the death of King Edward the Confessor, and how his victory at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 led to the Norman Conquest. This event had profound long-term effects on English culture, language, and governance. To complement this study, we examined the Bayeux Tapestry, a remarkable medieval artifact that vividly depicts the events surrounding the battle and its aftermath. In math, we introduced division, focusing on foundational rules such as the crucial fact that division by zero is undefined. To explore this, students used calculators to test the result of dividing by zero, which generated much interest when the display returned an error. Identifying key components such as character, setting, plot, and conflict in several read-aloud books, provided students with concrete tools to apply when crafting their own creative writing pieces, hopefully helping them understand how structure contributes to the effectiveness of a story. In science, we began our unit on earth science, introducing the concept of the Goldilocks Effect—the idea that Earth possesses the ideal conditions for sustaining life. We discussed how Earth’s distance from the sun, its atmosphere, and the presence of water create a delicate balance that makes life possible. This concept served as a natural extension of our recent study of botany. Finally, we continued to build our spelling learning logs, adding reference pages designed to help students master spelling patterns and understand the rules that govern our English language. It was a full week as students made connections across disciplines and developed a deeper understanding of the world around them. We are grateful to an almighty God, maker of the heavens and earth and sovereign in all things!

Memory Work:

Ephesians 4:1-3

Mrs. Fairchild

4th Grade Art

We wrapped up our studies of Diego Velaquez and even touched a bit on Hans Holbein. Both of these artists enjoyed leaving the viewers with a question and adding a bit of mystery to their art.

LOGIC SCHOOL

Mrs. Bennington

5th Band

Fifth grade band students did a great job this week working on their concert music. Students have worked hard to reinforce their first six notes. Students are now consistently able to put together more than one part at the same time. Keep practicing at home!

6th-8th Band

Band students did a great job this week working on their concert music. Students are working hard to learn new notes and rhythmic passages. Students are being encouraged to be more assertive and aggressive when they play. Air flow and breathing make a huge difference. Students did a great job adding in dynamics as well. Please encourage your child to continue to practice at home!

9th – 10th Band

Band students did a great job this week working on their concert music. Students worked hard to apply the concepts of balance, blend, and expression to their concert music. We also worked on attacks and releases. Please encourage your child to continue to practice at home!

Mrs. Johnston

5th – 8th Chorus

This week we had joint rehearsals to work on balance and accuracy. This was our first official combined rehearsal and proved to be very helpful hearing the full group together. Students are in good shape for the concert, and we will be able to focus our time after Thanksgiving on the fine-tuning.

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

This Week

This week in 5th grade, we studied the First Great Awakening! We learned about great theologians like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield. We read Jonathan Edwards’ sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” together and are looking forward to hearing one of our upper classmen share it with us during declamation next week! In math, we are learning how to add and subtract fractions and this week, they were tested on our 6th math chapter. The year is flying by! In Literature, we finished our book, Voyage to Freedom and discussed the Lovelace’s adventures as they sailed on the Mayflower. After this, we began our next book, The Witch of Blackbird Pond. We are looking forward to a fun two days next week where we will be focusing on reading, review, and some fun thanksgiving activities! We are so thankful for our students!

Memory Work:

Isaiah 40:5-6

Upcoming:

Alamance Battleground Visitor 11/25

Mrs. Palmer

5th Art

This week students continued to work on their American Revolution posters for their upcoming poster competition. These are already coming along well and students have been enthusiastic about this project so far.

6th Grade (Miss Stevenson)

6th Reading and Literature

We finished reading Across Five Aprils this week! Our next book will be A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.

6th Grammar and Writing

This week we reviewed our past comma and capitalization rules. We will start our next Lost Tools of Writing essay when we return from Thanksgiving break.

6th Bible

We are continuing to work our way through the gospel of Luke.

6th History

We dug deeper into the famous generals from the War Between the States this week.

6th Science

This week we studied for and took a quiz on bacterial structure.

6th Logic

This week we learned about the slippery slope and part-to-whole fallacies.

6th Latin

In Latin this week we reviewed present, past, and future tense verb conjugations.

Mrs. Crotts

6th Math

Students are learning about inequalities in chapter 5.

Mrs. Palmer

6th Art

This week students worked on a festive oil pastel drawing.

Dr. Wright

7th Composition

Students reflected in writing on their experience preparing and speaking for declamation. They’ve also submitted final drafts of their Greek cultural research papers. Next we will do some creative writing for the Burlington Writers Club contest, and continue to encourage concise sentence crafting.

7th Omnibus – Literature, History, Bible

We bid Odyssey goodbye with a final test on its defining themes 11/22. We have begun 1-2 Samuel reading, with weekly comprehension quizzes and chapter summaries. After students’ in-class presentations of the findings of their research papers, Sophocles is in view for December.

7th Logic

Workbook Chapter 1 review will be helpful for the upcoming 11/25 quiz.

Mrs. Frueh

7th Science

This week, we looked at where on Earth’s surface earthquakes are most likely to occur and what causes them. We also learned about the three different types of seismic waves produced by earthquakes and how they are used by geologists to infer the composition of Earth’s interior layers.

7th Pre-Algebra

The concepts practiced this week included calculations with percents, ratios, and proportions. We ended the week with a cumulative test.

Mrs. Palmer

7th Art

Students worked on a festive colored pencil drawing this week. We are focusing on hyperrealism and accuracy in color choices and details.

Miss Johnston

7th Latin

They took their chapter five test this week! It went well and we spent the rest of the week doing translations and learning some Roman history and geography.

Dr. Wright

8th Omnibus

History: History tests covering the iconoclastic controversy are complete. We briefly introduced the Christian liturgical year. After Thanksgiving, students will be presenting the findings of their biographical research paper – costumes and props included.
Literature: Students have completed Fellowship of the Ring, and will be assessed on the literary themes before Thanksgiving break. After Thanksgiving, Beowulf.
Composition: Students completed a written reflection on their experience preparing and speaking for declamation. Final drafts of research papers are due before Thanksgiving. Next we will do some creative writing for the Burlington Writers Club contest. We continue to encourage concise sentence crafting.

Miss Johnston

8th Latin

This week we worked on translations, talking about a Roman family. We also started discussing the National Latin Exam!

Mrs. Frueh

8th Science

We put Pascal’s Principle to work this week by making pressure calculations within hydraulic systems. The students were able to use their algebra skills to solve for force, pressure, and area within these systems, as well as to convert from force measured in Newtons to mass measured in kilograms.

8th Algebra I

The students were excited to learn how to use graphing calculators to produce scatter plots of experimental data, as well as to produce linear regression models for the given data sets. After many weeks of graphing linear equations by hand, it was fun to see how graphing calculators handle the job. By exploring the graphing technology available, the students were also able to anticipate the applications of calculus that will come to bear in their future mathematics classes.

Mrs. Palmer

8th Art

We continue to work on our magazine collage of famous art pieces. This is a tedious and challenging project but the result will be well worth the effort.

Mr. Crotts

8th Logic

Our studies are on consistency between statements (sentences that are true or false). Two different opinions are not real disagreement, nor are two different uses of the same term or word. Real disagreement occurs when two different statements cannot both be true at the same time.

RHETORIC SCHOOL

From the COLLEGE COUNSELING Office:

11th-12th:

College Match Individual Meetings: Juniors have begun meeting with Mrs. Crotts to discuss the college selection process, including the need to sign up for the SAT and ACT in the spring and summer.

Seniors:

Most of the seniors are done applying to colleges, and acceptance letters continue to roll in! Congratulations!
The FAFSA is now available! Click here for more information and to fill out the form
- It would be best to fill it out sooner than later – at least by the end of January, but preferably even sooner
Now is the time to focus on applying for scholarships! Parents, you can be of help to your students by helping them to research scholarships that fit their qualifications.
- College Essay Guy’s Scholarship Info – here is more detailed information and exercises for finding scholarships; he also has information about filling out the FAFSA and other financial matters
- Scholarship Tracker – students can make a copy and keep track of scholarships you have found and want to apply to on this document
- Click these links for a list of scholarships of all types that have deadlines throughout the months of November and December

Mrs. Palmer

9th Spanish

This week students continued to work with irregular verbs tener, venir and hacer. We practiced with some tricky vocabulary and also learned about possessive adjectives this week. We will continue to review both regular and irregular verbs – and vocabulary.

Mrs. Frueh

9th Geometry

We have moved on from triangles to quadrilaterals. The focus this week was on parallelograms. We learned six different ways to prove that a given quadrilateral is indeed a parallelogram. We also learned how to prove three special types of parallelograms: rectangles, rhombuses, and squares.

Mr. Crotts

9th Logic

We have been translating arguments in English into symbolic logic (letters and symbols) and setting up truth tables (lots of trues and falses) to determine whether or not an argument is valid or invalid.

Dr. and Mrs. James

9th Biology

This week we began an introduction to ecology. We will be studying various symbiotic relationships between organisms, and we will look at how nutrients are recycled and redistributed in the world.
Next week we will not have class due to Declamation. Have a good Thanksgiving.

Mrs. Crotts

9th Literature

Students completed a rough draft for the assigned author research paper. They have to complete reading Frankenstein by Monday.

Dr. Byrd

9th Bible

This week we have finished the book of II Samuel and have finished half of the book of I Kings. We are eager to study the lives of Elijah and Elisha.
Verse Memory: Students are memorizing Psalm 19.

Dr. James

10th Chemistry

This week the students took their second test of Q2. We also started a section on oxidation numbers and reactivity.
Have a good Thanksgiving break.

Mrs. Palmer

10th Spanish

This week students reviewed preterite and imperfect tenses. We also practiced with adverbs. Students reviewed for and took a chapter test this week.

Mrs. Byrd

10th Algebra II

We concluded our unit on quadratic equations. Next week we will begin a project focused on quadratic functions and sports.

Mrs. Crotts

10th Literature

Students completed a rough draft for the assigned author research paper.

Miss Oldham

10th Rhetoric I

We got a speech assignment to be delivered on Monday, as well as discussing the final canon of rhetoric: delivery.

Dr. Smith

10th Historical Theology

Unfortunately I have been absent all week and will not return until after Thanksgiving due to surgery for a detached retina. Students are preparing for a debate on the following resolution: “There is a proper distinction to be made between the natural and supernatural in Christian theology.” Lord willing, after Thanksgiving break we will debate this most important topic.

Mrs. Palmer

11th Spanish III

This week students worked on the present perfect tense. We continue to focus on incorporating reading, writing, listening and speaking into each class that we have.

Mrs. Byrd

11th Precalculus

We are midway through our study of exp and log functions. We’ve learned how to use log and exponent properties to help us simplify and solve equations. Next we are going to apply these techniques to some real world models.

11th Physics

We completed our study of Newton’s Three Laws of Motion. Next week students will begin working on their egg drop devices for a competition to be held just before Christmas break.

Miss Oldham

11th Literature

We began our first Shakespeare play with Henry V and students turned in their rough drafts.

Dr. Smith

11th NT Greek

Unfortunately, because I have had to be out due to surgery for a detached retina, students have had to work on their own through their next couple of chapters. Thankfully, we were ahead of schedule in terms of where we need to be in order to complete our curriculum. Lord willing, after Thanksgiving, students will be ready for me to review with them the progress they have made while I have been away.

Mr. Webster

11th-12th Systematic Theology

This week we covered the doctrine of providence, and the students took a quiz on the attributes of God. We will continue with the doctrine of providence next week.

11th History

This week the students finished the unit on European civilization in the early Middle Ages and took their test on the unit.

Miss Oldham

12th Literature

We finally wrapped up Hamlet with an in-class essay. We will be touching on Henry David Thoreau and his transcendentalist memoir Walden.

12th Rhetoric II

Seniors turned in their second drafts this week. They should not have any work to do over Thanksgiving break. The students have worked hard this quarter and should be proud of the work that they have done.

Mrs. Byrd

12th Calculus

Students are moving on to some analytical applications of derivatives – locating global and local extrema, determining increasing and decreasing behavior of functions, and concavity over time.