BB 12-11-2020

BRADFORD BULLETIN

VOLUME XIII, ISSUE 15

December 11, 2020

FROM THE OFFICE

One week until Christmas break! We continue to be extremely grateful and humbled by the Lord’s provision and protection over Bradford Academy as we close out this first semester under such unusual circumstances. Every day of in-person instruction is a gift…and your support, your encouragement, your graciousness extended to each teacher and staff member is a blessing. Our students continue to receive top notch, excellent instruction, and for that we are grateful.

Christmas / Birthday Celebration treats: Any treat to be shared with the class should be a manufactured pre-packaged treat. Please bring it in 72 hours in advance. We regret that we cannot accept homemade or bakery treats this year.

Library Donations for our senior Landon Fairchild: There are a few spots left. You can view the Sign Up Genius here to see what is available.

Spelling Bee: Parents of 4th – 8th graders should have received an email from Miss Windes with details and lists for the spelling bee. The school bee will be on Friday, January 15th.

UPCOMING

NEXT WEEK:

Tuesday, 12/15 – Christmas Celebration treats for Friday should be brought in. ***see note above
Friday, 12/18 –
- NOON DISMISSAL
- Christmas celebration
- Report cards released on EDUCATE

IN THE NEAR FUTURE:

December 21 – January 1: Christmas Break
Friday, 1/15/21 – Spelling Bee for 4th – 8th graders

FROM THE TEACHER’S DESK

GRAMMAR SCHOOL

Transitional Kindergarten (Mrs. Davis and Mrs. Grubb)

Bible

This week TK studied the account of the shepherd’s journey to Jesus as a baby. Next week we will conclude our study of the Nativity with the account of the Wise Men and sum up what Jesus’ birth means to the world.

Theme Adventure

This week TK was in the kitchen creating custom rice cereal treats! Each student created two Christmas themed shaped treats, decorated them with melted candies, chocolate, and sprinkles.

Literacy

TK students continued studying onset-rime, rhyming, syllables, and drawing a whole person.
In handwriting we focused on the “magic C” and letter O. Next week we will focus on writing the letters Q and G.

Math

This week TK practiced writing the number 8.
They continued to practice telling time to the hour.
TK students also began labeling items for a pretend store with price tags. Students learned to make the symbol for ¢.

Arts and Sciences

TK students wrote and drew in their journals and created snowmen to hang in the classrooms.
Next week students will put on a play telling the story of the Nativity.

Lower School P.E. (Mr. Davis)

K – 5th:

Due to the cold weather, many classes had P.E. inside where they did push ups, sit ups, military squats and then ended the class with four corners. The classes that went outside practiced soccer drills and running drills.

Kindergarten (Mrs. Rivera & Mrs. McDorman)

This Week

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” This is the second verse our young scholars memorize in kindergarten. The Bible is the only source of knowledge of how to know and love the Lord Jesus. It is our desire for them to build a solid biblical foundation through the use of The Westminster Shorter Catechism. They are able to answer questions such as,”What is the chief end of man?”, “What is God?”, “What do the Scriptures principally teach?”, and “What are the decrees of God?” In math, we learned how to add two to an even and an odd number, how to measure length using nonstandard units, comparing and ordering objects by length, and how to write the numbers 0-10 using words. We watched a video to explain the great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn on December 21. This event has not occurred for over 800 years!

Memory Work:

1 Corinthians 14:40

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

This Week

The intrepid students in Mrs. Morgan’s and Mr. Law’s 1st grade classes have been busy with some advanced math studies this week, doing more work with fractions and with adding two-digit numbers. In grammar, the boys and girls are becoming masters of identifying nouns and verbs. They are beginning to understand what goes into a complete sentence and the use of punctuation. In history, the students have been following along with the amazing life of Squanto. In their scientific studies, the boys and girls have been working more with the states of matter. They completed a project using some glue and sequins to show how the molecules in solids, liquids, and gases hold together and fill different spaces. Now that we have finished reading Charlotte’s Web, we thought we would treat the students to a viewing of the animated film as a special treat.

Memory Work:

Psalm 1:1-5

Upcoming:

Next week will be light on new material and heavy on review as we attempt to keep all this important information active in their minds over the break!

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

This Week

Second grade has moved on in our study of Genesis to our next major Biblical character, Joseph. This week we traced the lineage to Jacob and his twelve sons. We read about the jealousy that raged among these brothers that led them to nearly kill one of their own. The students were surprised to learn that Joseph ends up living as a slave in ancient Egypt, the absolute bottom of Egypt’s social pyramid. We will spend a total of 3 full weeks studying the fascinating story of Joseph’s life. We also finished up reading Sarah, Plain and Tall this week. The students learned several new words including squall, plow and eerie. Ask your child if they remember what these words mean. We are working hard at building up our vocabularies while we develop improved reading fluency. Life on the prairie in the 1800s was certainly much harder than our lives today. Ask your child about one difference between their lives and life on the prairie. If your student enjoyed Sarah, Plain and Tall, then encourage them to read one of the four other books in this series.

Memory Work:

Proverbs 25: 6-18

Upcoming:

December 18th- Christmas Party and early release at noon

3rd Grade (Mrs. Garner)

This Week

Our class finished work in partners researching and creating posters for their planet presentations. We had a wonderful time admiring God’s handiwork throughout our solar system and we learned some very interesting facts about each planet! In Math, we were introduced to division, where we learned how to divide by two and five. Our class made easy work of this new concept because we had practiced division through finding missing dimensions of arrays. In Art, we are continuing our watercolor painting and techniques with a special project for Christmas. (Shhh! It’s a present for someone special.)

Memory Work:

Psalm 84: 10-12

Upcoming:

12/15- Math Tests (written and facts)
12/17- Latin Ch. 15 Test, Grammar Ch. 9 Test, “Nehemiah’s Returns to Jerusalem” History Test, and Constellation Test
12/18- Christmas Party and Early Release Day at NOON (End of Quarter)

4th Grade (Mrs. Burtram)

This Week

We had a wonderful week sharing a book together called Jotham’s Journey. It is a devotional about the life of Jotham, a shepherd boy who is lost and finds his way to Bethlehem to witness the birth of Jesus. The students love it. Each chapter ends with scripture sharing the Old Testament Prophecies of Jesus and many passages from the book of Luke. I have enjoyed their enthusiasm and rich class discussions. In History we learned about the Crusades and what motivated the people to fight in the Crusades. Math was engaging this week as we learned about probability and played dice games to prove our predictions based on probability tables. The students loved working together and seeing their math predictions in practice through their game. Our Latin Chapter this week was a review of all the prepositions we have learned over the last two chapters. We ended our week writing two practice five paragraph expository essays. I am amazed how polished the students are with their writing skills. We will soon begin persuasive essay writing. Robin Hood is off to a great start and the students love reading about Robin and his many adventures.

Science

We learned about chemical and physical reactions in Chemistry this week and watched physical change in action with an explosion involving Mentos and soda pop!

Memory Work:

Ephesians 4: 1-3

Upcoming:

Spelling Bee in January!
Early Release at noon on Friday (Last Day before break)

5th Grade (Ms. Vogus)

This Week

It has been another fantastic week at Bradford!! We completed a pastel project in Art, which the students enjoyed. In literature we are reading The Witch of Blackbird Pond. The book contains quite a few plot twists and the 5th grade is loving it. One of the students said, “I feel like I need some popcorn for this book”. In writing we are working on an essay about the 13 colonies. Lastly, in history we are studying the First Great Awakening and we read through a portion of Jonathan Edward’s sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” Remember next week is the last week before break!

Memory Work:

Proverbs 15:1-2

Upcoming:

Friday 12/18/20 is a half day.
Spelling Bee in January.

LOGIC & RHETORIC SCHOOL

Mr. Batten

Language Arts

We finished A Christmas Carol this week! We have discussed Scrooge’s life and transformation, comparing it to Christian transformation which should be seen in the sanctification.

History

We finished our unit on the Civil War, and took a final exam which looked back on American history from 1823-1865.

Science

We reviewed for, and took an exam on Bacteria, Viruses, Pathogens, and Drug/Alcohol abuse.

6th Logic

We reviewed fallacies that we have studied thus far this year, and began doing one on one debates. We focused on being able to make a proper opening statement with claims that support our arguments, watched examples of it being done, and practiced in debate.

7th Logic

We reviewed fallacies that we have studied thus far this year, and began doing one on one debates. We focused on being able to make a proper opening statement with claims that support our arguments, watched examples of it being done, and practiced in debate.

8th Logic

We continued our unit on syllogisms by taking a practice exam on everything learned up until this point. Students can properly identify syllogisms, write them, and show whether or not they are valid in multiple ways. Like sixth and seventh grades, we also practiced debating by learning how to make a proper opening statement with claims that support our arguments, watched examples of it being done, and practiced in debate.

Upcoming:

We will bring our semester to a close next week by spending much of the time reviewing what we have learned to make sure everything is fresh in the minds of the students.

Mrs. Byrd

Physics

This week teams have continued work on their egg drop projects. The drop competition is planned for next Friday. Students also took a cumulative test on first semester material.

Precalculus

After completing our study of logs and exponents, we are turning now to a study of trig functions. Our first topic is to learn a new naming system for angles – radian measure.

Geometry

We completed a review of first semester material and students took a cumulative test on Friday. In addition, we are acclimating ourselves to the structure of geometry proofs.

Dr. Byrd

10th Bible Survey

This week we were amazed at the truths about the greatness of God in the book of Amos. In addition, we studied the place of Psalms in the life of Jesus.
Our memory work is Amos 4:13. The students have all chosen their book for the Book Analysis and Presentation Project.

Mr. Davis

6th – 10th Grade PE

This week the students worked on endurance running as well as core muscle group training. At the end of their workouts, the students played ultimate frisbee and dodgeball.

Mrs. Fairchild

9th Grade Advanced Art

We are so excited to have jumped into oil painting. The students are still in the process of learning the basics and understanding the many different solvents and mediums that can be used. So far, they have enjoyed learning that this paint does not dry out as quickly as watercolor and they feel they will be able to control this paint a bit more than their watercolor projects. Our first project will be copying an impressionist painting by Claude Monet.

Mrs. Frueh

7th Grade Science:

After spending the last two quarters studying geology, the students took their Rocks and Minerals test this week. We will wrap up the quarter with some class discussions on the Creationist view of the fossil record and where we see evidence of a catastrophic global Flood in the geologic record.

8th Grade Science:

The students took a test this week that covered all we’ve learned about energy transformations and phase changes in matter. We will wrap up the quarter with a preview of the chemistry unit we will begin in January.

Mr. Hamilton

9th Logic

We finished our quarter with a comprehensive exam covering units 1-12. Students have done an excellent job learning the basics of propositional logic so far. I am proud of their progress and of how they have worked to help each other.

9th Historic Theology

This week we discussed how narrow or broad church confessions should be, in light of the sufferings of Maximus the Confessor. We also discussed the place of icons after learning of the early church’s growing fascination with them.

10th History

We continued our journey through Greek history this week, discussing the rise and conquests of Alexander the Great.

10th Literature

We have taken pains to learn and apply Aristotle’s classic doctrines of mimesis, catharsis, hamartia, and much else. Our study of the Poetics has been rich and rewarding!

11th Philosophy/Apologetics

Our journey through modern philosophy has taken us to developments in Christian philosophy in the twentieth century, in particular how Reformed Epistemologists abandoned classical foundationalism for externalist models of knowledge.

12th History

After learning of the unifications of Italy and Germany, we next turned our attention to the growing unrest in Ireland.

12th Literature

Our reading of Jane Eyre has come to an end, but we continued to discuss its manifold themes, including the need to hold in balance reason and desire, Brontë’s Christian vision, Jane as an example of Romantic individualism, and much else.

Mrs. Hamilton

Logic School Music

After completing their music history assessment, which included vocabulary, composer facts, analysis, as well as a listening identification portion, students completed their final rehearsals for next week’s virtual performances.

Music History Elective (Baroque to Modern)

After learning about the new form of the Romantic aria, students focused on several examples, such as “Casta Diva” from Bellini’s Norma, “Una Furtiva Lagrima” from Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, and “The Mad Scene” from Lucia di Lammermoor. Students also finished a comprehensive review of the early Romantic period and completed their second exam.

Ms. Hutchison

7th Grade Omnibus

History: We are finishing up our study of 1 and 2 Samuel and have prepared for our unit test on these books, which will be on Monday, December 14.

Literature: Our class continues to enjoy our study of Homer’s Odyssey. We are about half-way through the book, and will finish it up after Christmas. We have focused this week on the themes of hospitality and homecoming in this epic poem. In Composition, 7th graders are learning to organize their ideas into three main proofs with supporting sub-proofs. The work of learning to write excellent persuasive essays is a tedious one, and your students are tackling the job with enthusiasm.
Bible: Our final recitation of Psalm 119:1-11 wil. be next week.

9th Grade Biology

Biology students have enjoyed using the Molecule Building Kits, donated to us by the Duke TIP program, this week. This hands-on manipulative has made our understanding of the structure of organic molecules more concrete. Thank you, Duke TIP!! We also finished up our week-long lab activity, observing osmosis.

Dr. James

10th Chemistry

This week the students learned how to write and balance chemical equations. They also took their third test of Q2.
Next week we will discuss the test and prepare for their final exam, which will cover material they have learned in Q2.

Miss Oldham

9th Grade Literature

Students wrapped up 1984 and took their final exam.

9th Grade History

Students have a paper and presentation due next week, so they had time to work on those this week.

11th Grade Literature

Students took their final exam this week after preparing for it all week.

11th Grade History

Students have a paper and presentation due next week, so they had time to work on those this week.

10th Rhetoric I

Students prepared for their final speeches next week and took a cumulative vocabulary exam.

12th Rhetoric II

Students continued to work on their theses. They have a recitation of Luke 2 due on Monday that will be presented in front of the Lower School on Friday.

Mrs. Palmer

6th Art

This week we made good progress on our watercolor leaf finals. We will likely finish these up and get them displayed at the beginning of the year.

7th Art

This week we worked on our charcoal historical buildings. These are coming along nicely.

8th Art

This week we finished up charcoal projects. We have now worked on detailed charcoal landscapes and still lives. I am quite impressed at the progress students have made in their charcoal work.

9th Spanish

This week we reviewed and took our Chapter 3 test.

10th Spanish

This week students worked on their class skits. We also reviewed for our upcoming (Tuesday, December 15th) chapter test.

Mr. Palmer

6th Math

This week we worked with rates and exponents. Next week we will be having a test.

7th Pre-Algebra

This week we worked with scientific notation and how to find the decimal part of a number.

8th Algebra I

This week we worked with linear equations and on how to graph them.

10th Algebra II

This week we worked with completing the square, reviewed for a test, and then took a test.

11th / 12th NT Greek

This week we worked with relative pronouns and prepared for our Greek final.

Miss Windes

8th Grade Omnibus

History: We finished up our unit with studying the Vikings and prepared for and took our final exam covering from Julius Caesar through the Vikings.
Literature: We continue reading Fellowship of the Ring, discussing the strange and wonderful character of Tom Bombadil, learning new vocabulary, meeting Strider, and discussing the nature of evil in the book.
Composition: The students spent the week working on their short stories.

6th Grade LATIN

Sixth graders reviewed and took their last test of this year covering all the vocabulary so far as well as the chapter seven and eight grammar.

7th Grade LATIN

Seventh graders learned a new set of vocabulary, learned about third declension adjectives, and practiced translations.

8th Grade LATIN

In eighth grade Latin we reviewed our vocabulary, practiced translations, and prepared for our chapter two test on Monday.