BB 12-03-2021

 BRADFORD BULLETIN

VOLUME XIV, ISSUE 17

DECEMBER 03, 2021

 

FROM THE OFFICE

For Lower School students:  Please consider signing up to send snacks for our 1/2 day Christmas celebration.  Mr. Johnston will read a special story to the whole school while they enjoy a snack together.

UPCOMING

NEXT WEEK:

  • Tues, 12/7 – Varsity boys basketball game away
  • Fri, 12/10 – Classic Film Club event (upper school)

 

IN THE NEAR FUTURE:

  • Wed, 12/15 – Special upper school music performance for group at FBC
  • Thurs, 12/16 – 8:30 – TK Nativity Play
  • Fri, 12/17 – 
    • Christmas celebration: ( see above)
    • End of 2nd quarter.  Report cards released on EDUCATE.
    • NOON DISMISSAL!  Christmas break commences.
  • 12/20 – 12/31:  CHRISTMAS BREAK, no school
  • Used Uniform Sale – in January (date TBD)
  • February 15th:  DEADLINE without penalty for letting the office know in writing if your child will not return for the 22/23 school year.

 

FROM THE TEACHER’S DESK

 

GRAMMAR SCHOOL

 

Transitional Kindergarten (Mrs. Davis and Mrs. Grubb)

Bible
  •   This week TK students learned about nativity.  The birth of Jesus Christ fulfilled the prophecies in the Bible of the coming Savior and rescuer.  This is a thrilling time for us.  We are thankful for the hope and assurance Christ has for us. 
Theme Adventure
  •  Students have begun practicing for the Christmas Play. 
Literacy
  • Students have begun exploring writing by being challenged to dictate information they are gathering on the lifecycle of a Christmas tree. They were challenged to properly sequence information. 
  • Students went fishing for vocabulary words!  Once they ‘caught’ a word they were challenged to use the word in a sentence. 
  • Students continue to explore and learn onset rime.  We are developing reading readiness skills. 
Math
  •  This week students began telling time to the hour.  We compared digital and analog clocks and used both to tell time. 
  • Students have also begun acting out stories using pennies.  They are learning to count money and pretend to pay for things.    
  • TK reviewed a shape matrix and played a missing shape game.  Students had to recall the color, size, and shape of the missing piece.  
Arts and Sciences
  • Students began making a special gift for their families.  It will take several weeks to complete.  TK enjoyed using acrylic paints this week to start the project.

 

Lower School P.E. (Mr. Davis)

K – 5th
  • Students worked on endurance running this week.  They played games that continued to develop hand-eye coordination. 

 

Lower School Music (Mrs. Bennington)

K-5th 
  • This week in Music, k-2nd grade students reviewed the four types of voices (whisper, speaking, singing , and shouting) and worked on recognizing the difference between high and low pitches. Students then reviewed all four verses of “O Come All Ye Faithful”and had a  small group test on the first verse of the hymn. Students also worked on the piece, “Deck the Halls” and then learned how to do the piece as a round. 
  • This week in Music, 3rd-5th grade students reviewed all four verses of “O Come All Ye Faithful”.  Students then worked on reading music and playing their recorders. Third grade students had a recorder test on one of the exercises in #11 on page 7. Fourth and fifth grade students had a recorder test on one of the exercises on page 9. 

 

 

Kindergarten (Mrs. Lopes and Mrs. Rivera)

This Week
  •  This week our students learned to count by 2’s, how to count odd and even numbers and how to add pennies and dimes. It was quite a full week in math! In phonics, we have continued to add new phonograms to our vocabulary. Next week we will be learning our first spelling words! In science, we learned about the sugar content in our food and how it can affect our bodies and behavior. We also started a kindness challenge for these last few weeks until Christmas; we are reading the  book “The Giving Manger” and talking about ways we can love and serve those around us. We have encouraged the students to think of ways they can be kind to others and when they have a kindness story to share, we add a piece of straw to the manger in our nativity scene. Our students have also been busily working on gifts to give to friends and family this Christmas; we will be sending those home on the last day of school.
Memory Work:
  • Isaiah 9:6,7

 

1st Grade (Mrs. Morgan & Mr. Law)

This Week
  •  This week the first graders have been rocketing ahead in math, learning about adding two digit numbers together (with the aid of dimes and pennies to help). Our new reader tells the story of Martin Luther and how he would not apologize for saying the very things the Lord teaches in his word. In grammar, we continue to work with nouns and placing words in alphabetical order. Our studies in history have brought us to the fascinating story of Squanto, a friend to the Pilgrims. Finally, in science, we are discussing the Scientific Method and how people use it to answer questions about the world God created.
Memory Work:  
  • Psalm 1:1-3
Upcoming:
  • Half Day – December 17th

 

2nd Grade (Mrs. Jones & Mrs. Batten)

This Week
  • This week, students have gotten back into the swing of school after being out for Thanksgiving break. We have begun our study of the Middle Kingdom in Egypt and students have enjoyed learning about hieroglyphics and even beginning to solve some “puzzles” using this ancient writing method. We have been rolling along in math this week, and students have been introduced to a new multiplication fact (x7) as well as taking assessments for subtraction, addition, and a written assessment that focused on telling time to the 5 minute mark, writing story problems, and measuring and finding perimeter of shapes. In reading, we have begun My Father’s Dragon and students have really enjoyed this fun, whimsical story so far! In art this week, we began looking at our featured artist of the quarter, Vermeer, and students were able to begin a color by number of his famous painting Girl with a Pearl Earring. 
Memory Work: 
  • Proverbs 25:14-16
  • Review – Proverbs 25:6-13
Upcoming:
  • 12/9 – Fact Assessment (x7)
  • 12/10 – Fact Assessment (100 addition facts)
  • 12/10 – Written Assessment

 

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

This Week
  • We have enjoyed another full week in third grade. Students have started learning a song about the Greek gods that will help them memorize what each god represents. After spending most of the quarter reading about them, crafting projects to present to the school, and comparing them to the one true God, this is a great way to pull it all together and commit it to memory. In Latin, we listed adjectives with all of the possible endings, which was a lot! Ask your students how nouns and adjectives show that they agree with one another in Latin! We began multiplying using an algorithm which will come in handy as we continue to solve harder and bigger math problems. Using a variety of strategies to attack problems helps us to get faster in solving them. Students have begun another watercolor painting, and several have turned in their moon observations. We would love for them to continue observing the moon as we complete our study of the solar system these last two weeks of the second quarter.. 
Memory Work:
  • Review quarter 2 verses

 

 

4th Grade (Mrs. Burtram) 

This Week
  •  We have had a busy week learning about different types of sentences in English and how to turn fragments into simple sentences with compound subjects and verbs.  In math, we practiced estimating to quickly add, subtract, multiply, and divide.  We also learned a lot of Geometry vocabulary.  We are finishing up Latin prepositions and will begin numbers next week.  Our study in color theory and overlapping were completed this week in art.  We are continuing to learn new concepts in our Chemistry study.  We started reading King Aurthur and the students are enjoying reading the story of the sword and the stone.

Memory Work:

  • Quarter 1: All Verses
Upcoming:
  • Please bring an empty water bottle with a lid for a Science Project

 

5th Grade (Mrs. Erdt) 

This Week
  • These Latin experts are amazing! This week they have been fine tuning their verbs and verb endings with various activities. We began a new novel this week: The Witch of Blackbird Pond which will nicely bring us into our history card for next week: The Salem Witch Trials.  Students continue to apply figurative language they have learned and are starting to revise their creative writing pieces in anticipation for the Burlington Writers Club competition. 
Memory Work:
  • Review all Q1
Upcoming:
  • For our Christmas celebration on December 17th, you may choose to participate in a class gift exchange by purchasing a small gift for each child in the class. There are 16 kids in total. Small pencil sharpeners, colored pens and pencils, stickers, etc are some ideas. 

 

LOGIC & RHETORIC SCHOOL

Mr. Batten

6th Language Arts
  • Students began reading the Christmas Carol, making it through the first two staves as we see Scrooge self reflecting. 
6th History
  • We wrapped up our unit in the Civil War by learning about the great generals of the war. 
7th Grade Omnibus
  • Students reviewed for, and took a test on the Odyssey. Then, we began a short study of CS Lewis’s Screwtape Letters
7th Logic
  • Students reviewed all fallacies discussed thus far, and took a quiz on them. 
8th Logic
  • Students learned the difference in truth and validity in syllogisms. 

 

Mrs. Byrd

Physics
  • Students finished a cumulative review and test for our first semester.  Teams are working on egg protection devices for our drop competition at the end of the quarter.  Besides protecting the egg, top designs must use a minimum of materials and also land near an appointed target.
Precalculus
  • We are nearing the end of our study of exponential and log functions.  After considering some additional applications, we will conclude with a test and a brief investment project.
Calculus
  • This week we’ve been considering the information that can be gained from a function by examining the first and second derivative.  We will connect the algebraic and graphical analyses through some curve sketching practice and by examining some applications in kinematics.

Dr. Byrd

10th Bible Survey
  • This week we were challenged to see the almighty power of God in his creation as we studied the book of Amos. We also saw that the promises made in chapter 9 were quoted by James at the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 as fulfilled in the gospel going out to the Gentiles. 

 

Mrs. Fairchild

9th Grade Advanced Art
  • The students continued work on their watercolor paintings and are finding that this particular project is stretching them and pushing them to practice some areas that they previously may have found challenging.  Additionally, the students have been preparing for a practice Mock Trial which was held on Thursday. This is a “gentle introduction” to projects like this and will be valuable to the students in giving an opportunity for them to understand the standards and expectations of the final Mock Trial in the fourth quarter. It should help them to see which areas they need to improve in forming an argument or researching more thoroughly.

Mrs. Frueh

6th Grade Science:
  • We wrapped up our bacteria unit with a quarter exam covering how Kingdom Monera compares with the other kingdoms of living things.
6th Grade Math:
  • Much practice with fractions, decimals, and percentages this week, ending with a cumulative unit test on Friday.
7th Grade Science:
  • The students completed their first formal lab reports this week. This was a great opportunity for students to learn how scientific writing differs from other formal writing processes. They also learned how to create line graphs in Sheets using their recorded data and how to import their line graph into their lab reports in Docs.
7th Grade Pre-Algebra:
  • The students are starting to synthesize concepts learned in previous lessons. This week we used our knowledge of fractions, proportions, and solving for the unknown to solve for missing pieces of proportions containing complex fractions.
8th Grade Science: 
  • Finishing touches are being added to the self-propelled vehicle projects. The students are applying all that they have learned about Newton’s three laws of motion to design vehicles that will travel at least 5 meters using only a mousetrap, rubber band or balloon as their energy source.
8th Grade Algebra I: 
  • The students are becoming adept at manipulating algebraic expressions by moving terms from the numerator to the denominator or vice versa by changing the sign of the exponent.
9th Grade Biology:
  • Our focus this week has been on organic chemistry, including the basic monomers and polymers that make up the four fundamental organic molecules: carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids.

 

 

Mr. Hamilton

9th Theology
  •  This week we are learning how the Eastern church in the sixth and seventh centuries took a different theological path than the Western church.
9th Literature
  •  We are continuing to love Pride and Prejudice. This week, Elizabeth attempts to warn her father about Lydia, we see that Mr. and Mrs. Bennett do not have a good relationship, and Elizabeth begins to take a renewed interest in Darcy after seeing his house.
9th History
  •  This week we are learning about absolutist politics in the 17th century in Europe, a reaction against the wars of religion.
10th Literature
  •  We have begun a creative writing unit, where we seek to come to a newfound appreciation of poetry, in particular how poetry and other art forms can be a vehicle for divine revelation.
10th History
  •  We are taking our unit test this week, which covers various ancient cultures, including Israel.
11th Philosophy/Apologetics
  •  This week we covered the philosophical systems of utilitarianism and pragmatism.

 

 

Mrs. Hamilton

6th Music
  • Students continued learning about the works and influence of J.S. Bach, this week focusing on the Well-Tempered Clavier, the Prelude from his Cello Suite No. 1 in G major, and the St. Matthew Passion. In performance, we are continuing to work on our ensemble pieces, which will be performed in February. We are also inching along in theory, working on writing counts for simple rhythmic patterns and speed-naming the notes in both treble and bass clefs. Intermediate students also worked on adding the alto clef to their repertoire. 
7th Music 
  • In music history, we focused on the life, works and influence of Robert and Clara Schumann, and began preparing for a unit test. 
  • In performance, students continued to progress in their ensemble pieces, which will be performed in February. 
8th Music 
  • Our girls choir continues to polish the challenging three-voice pieces, which will be performed at the main campus on December 13, and at the DTC on December 15. 
  • Boys’ piano ensemble continued working on the Schubert, but also decided to add an arrangement of an exciting piece from Grieg’s Peer Gynt.
  • In music history, we focused on the life, works and influence of Robert and Clara Schumann. 
Music History Elective (Baroque to Modern)
  • Students completed a challenging, but useful Jeopardy-style review of the Romantic era thus far, and wrote compellingly regarding women in the music profession in the 19th century. We continued our study of the mid-Romantic era with the works by Robert Schumann, Nicolo Paganini, Frederic Chopin, and Franz Liszt–composers we will continue studying next week. 

Dr. James

10th Chemistry
  • This week we talked about oxidation numbers of compounds and nomenclature.
  • Next week we will talk about balancing equations, and the students will take their third test of Q2.

 

 

Mr. Lopes

12th Systematic Theology
  •  We considered how God made humankind in His image and how He created them male and female.

 

 

Miss Oldham

12th Grade Literature
  • We continued to read Hamlet and discuss the themes of the play. Final exam is scheduled for 12/10. 
12th Grade History
  • Students presented their research projects. They did so well! 
11th Grade Literature
  • We began our reading of Romeo and Juliet and the students are loving this play. Final exam is scheduled for 12/10. 
11th Grade History
  • Students have research presentations due in two weeks, so students are working on those. 
10th Rhetoric I
  • Students presented their first written speeches this week. They did so well! I am going to have to up the bar for next time. 
12th Rhetoric II
  • Students have their largest section of their theses due this week. Only two more pieces and the writing portion will be complete! 

 

Mrs. Palmer 

6th Art
  • This week we worked towards finishing our colored pencil landscapes. Blending and color theory have been our focus during this project. 
7th Art
  • This week we started our architecture charcoal finals. We are working on precision in detail, gray scale and charcoal technique. 
8th Art
  • This week we continued to work on our magazine clipping portraits. These are tedious but students are doing great with them! 
9th Spanish 
  • This week we prepared and reviewed for our Chapter 3 test. The test will be next Tuesday. 
10th Spanish
  • This week we reviewed past vocabulary, received new vocabulary and no class would be complete without plenty of verb conjugation. Students also received information for their Spanish skit finals. 

Mr. Palmer

9th Geometry
  • This week we prepared for a test, took a test, and then started a new chapter.
9th Logic
  • This week we learned about the “Rules of Inference.”
10th Algebra II
  • This week we learned how to “complete the square” for quadratic equations.
11th / 12th NT Greek
  • This week we learned the relative pronoun in Greek.
11th/12th Finance
  • This week we learned about retirement and investments.

 

 

Miss Windes
8th Grade Omnibus
  • History: In history, we have moved into the 400-500s, learning about the Frankish kingdom, Clovis, Charles Martel, and the leaders before Charlemagne. We also discussed the church fathers including St. Augustine and Jerome and the growth of papal power. 
  • Literature: We continue through Fellowship of the Ring, meeting the odd but powerful Tom Bombadil as the hobbits travel through the old forest to the Prancing Pony at Bree. The students have been reading well and carefully and contributing to fantastic discussions! 
  • Composition: We worked on poems this week, imitating the poems of Gerard Manly Hopkins. 
6th Grade Latin
  • Sixth graders learned a new set of vocabulary words, practiced more sentence translations, and began a longer reading translation. 
7th Grade Latin
  • Seventh graders reviewed the three new Dative constructions we learned recently, translated sentences, and played a review competition game in preparation for their test next Tuesday. 
8th Grade Latin
  • Students did a short reading translation about the Punic wars, and then we began our new chapter learning about the Roman numeral system, cardinal and ordinal numbers, and a new set of vocabulary. 
6th Grade Logic
  • We learned about and practiced the slippery slope fallacies.