April 2010

CAP 1/2  We have been busily preparing for our Worship and Praise Celebration/Showcase night at the end of April. We are memorizing Philippians 2:5-11 to recite for our families as well as practicing a couple of our favorite worship songs to sing. We also had a gifts and talents chapel to share with each other some of the talents that God has given us, and we look forward to sharing those again on our special evening. After studying the biographies about others, we are now writing our own stories, which we will put in special books to display for our parents. And just to make our evening extra fun, we are making stuffed imaginary people to sit working at our desks, so when parents come in, they see students hard at work. We love sharing all that we have learned with our families and friends.

CAP 3/4 We started out our month with a much needed break and came back in high gear! We have been writing about animals and animal homes. We are having fun writing from drawings. We finished Sarah Plain and Tall and we are now learning about Sadako, a little girl from Japan, who contracted leukemia from the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. We’ve tried our hand at Japanese calligraphy and paper origami. We began our final history unit over “Michigan” in which we are completing our own State Notebook with pictures, Michigan Facts, and maybe even a fun tale or two. To go along with our animal studies for science we are dissecting a cow eye, sheep kidney, and sheep heart. If that is not enough…worms are next on the agenda! We have been preparing for a special night of worship by memorizing Philippians 2:5-11 and preparing a presentation table where we will be exhibiting student work from this year and creation science projects. Please come and enjoy this special evening with us. 

CAP 5/6  Although there were only 3 school weeks in April, we packed in a lot of learning! We came back from spring break and hit the ground running with our last integrated History unit: Ancient Rome. Each week brings a different aspect of life in Ancient Rome. The students learn about life in Rome while reading chapter books, researching the Bible and other texts, participating in discussions and completing a variety of projects. All of this work leads to points earned to move from "Slave to Emperor". 

In Writing, we are working on fusing two sources into one for a comprehensive paper on Ancient Rome. Within the paper, we are emphasizing strong introductions and clinchers, endings that bring everything together.  This practice will lead into our Christian Biography and Wax Museum in May. In Science we continue our study of the Human Body while adding to that the study of medical practices in early Rome and how that differs from the medicine, knowledge and practice we have today. The students are using their Silent Reading time at home to complete Writing Prompts and present a Book Report Project. All the books are based in Rome and the students will present either a traditional written report, a frieze, or a 3D diorama depicting a pivotal scene from their book. Along with their project, each student will write, in IEW style, a short paper summarizing the book. Each student has a partner and will be creating a slideshow on a specific topic of interest. Students get to choose a passion area from Ancient Rome and teach others in the class.

April brought out the actor in all of us with a special guest appearance from Mr. Cusack, an public speaker and performer. He taught us about movement, space, voice and confidence. We had a great time and will use so much of what he taught us during our Wax Museum. Two of our classmates performed in the 5/6 grade play and were able to use what was taught to really bring their characters to life! We are preparing for our Praise and Worship Night for the CAP families. Our class has the honor of being the emcees for the night. Our kids will be praying to and singing about God, our Lord. We will be reciting verses, showing the truth of the Word and giving testimony of how God has worked in our lives. This is a special night and we are looking forward to giving back praise and honor to God who gave us all of these talents! This month has really given all of our students an opportunity to shine. 

Seder Celebration

In preparation for Easter CAP students and parents gathered together to celebrate the Passover. We learned about how God instituted the Passover celebration following his rescue of the Israelites from Egypt to remind them of His faithfulness as they sacrificed the lamb to avoid the angel of death and leading to their freedom. We also learned about how Jesus fulfilled the Passover by becoming the sacrificial lamb, dying for us so that we can be free from the payment for sin: death. Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper at the Passover just before his death, so that we can also remember what he has done for us. We participated in the Passover celebration by tasting the different elements of the Passover plate including the bitter herbs, the cheroseth, the hard-boiled eggs, the matzah, and the grape juice. We sang and prayed together, praising God for his faithfulness to us. This special celebration gave us the opportunity to learn and worship as part of God’s family, purposefully preparing us to celebrate Christ’s death and resurrection.

March 2010

For Pictures click here.

CAP  5/6 March was another busy month for the 5/6 CAP class. All the kids were preparing for the Speech Meet. We were treated to wonderful orations in poetry and prose. Four of our students went on to compete at the school level and received the mark of Excellent or better. Everyone should be very proud of their performance.

In Science we concentrated on the 5 Senses and how God designed them to all work together. We participated in taste and hearing activities, took a sight memory test and found verses in God's Word that spoke of our ears, eyes, tongue and hands. It was interesting to find all the references in the Bible and many kids commented on how they are referred to in a figurative and literal sense.

In Math, we have been reviewing basic math facts preparing for our spring math timed tests. We have also been spending a lot of time on geometry and fractions.

In Writing, we concentrated on Greek Myths and Legends. The kids had a great time learning of different legends and getting a chance to show their amazing creativity in "changing up" the legend a bit to make a new one. We had stories about cakes, trucks and aliens.

March was Reading Month and our 11 kids read over 60 books! We had over 7,000 minutes of family reading time and many earned tickets to a summer baseball game. During the month we got to wear readable hats and shirts, read in our sleeping bags with flashlights, and swap our favorite books with classmates. Many of the kids went for a fun afternoon of roller skating. 

We wrapped up our Ancient Greece unit with a wonderful slideshow presentation. Each student chose an area of Ancient Greece and created a multi-slide presentation. They enjoyed being the "teacher for the day" and explaining all about Greek fashion, Gods and Goddesses, Philosophy, Art and Music, Armor and much more. We are leaving Greece and traveling to Ancient Rome, where the kids have a chance to earn a spot as Emperor.

Many of our students traveled in March and were busy with outside pursuits. We had a student present to the class on her missions trip to Mexico. Other students shared their travel experiences in Gulf Shores, the Florida Keys and Teluride. Two of our students are busy practicing for the school play and many of our students have been hard at work on their musical pieces for the upcoming CAP Praise and Worship Night and our school spring concerts.

CAP 3/4  March came "In like a lion and out like a cheetah!" We celebrated several birthdays by writing class acrostics, sharing birthday treats and praying for each other. We wrapped up history by writing a letter home from the trenches of WWI, "immigrating" to the United States, and following the journey of Anne Frank and the Holocaust during WWII. We participated for the first time in "Speech Meet". Each student chose and memorized a Bible passage, Poem, or Fable and performed in front of a judge. Great job to all our students! We are singing our way through Grammar with grammar songs and review activities. We are excited to see our writing portfolios grow and improve in quality as well as quantity. We began daily journaling and found we have writer's hearts! Every day we choose a topic from our "Journal Jars" and we write for five to ten minutes. We have made expeditions in science to the jungles with primates and all over the world with rodents. We just began a "Michigan Adventure" unit featuring Michigan history. We read "Old Yeller" and laughed with each other and even cried. We read "Sarah Plain and Tall" studying the life of pioneers and are now reading "Sadako" the life of a Japanese girl who lived in Hiroshima when it was bombed. Third/Fourth grade CAP students are growing by leaps and bounds.  

CAP 1/2    Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss! We enjoyed celebrating Dr. Seuss’s birthday by reading stories, making hats, eating green eggs and ham for lunch, and studying his biography. Both of the reading groups made paper mache puppets to end their reading units, one group making characters from Dr. Seuss and the other making Gooney Bird Greene. In science, we had fun learning all about bats by making models of bats, playing games to better understand echolocation and mothers finding babies, and doing bat puzzles. We loved the story “Stella Luna” because we knew all about fruit bats. In social studies, everyone read a biography, did a poster about them, and taught the class what they had learned. We enjoyed learning about different famous people. We ended the unit by writing biography stories of our own.

January/February 2010

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CAP 1/2  In January we had a great time with spirit week, dressing up like twins, enjoying beach day, blowing bubbles, and building towers. The door decorating contest brought out our artistic talents. It was wonderful to be a part of the whole school community, participating with other classes in all the fun.

We also spent time learning about African American history, studying slavery, the Underground Railroad, the Civil War and the Equal Rights Movement. We have looked at different individuals who contributed to equality in our nation, including Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Abraham Lincoln, and Dr. Martin Luther King. After reading “The Drinking Gourd”, we made dioramas of stations on the Underground, making sure that we included a hiding place for escaping slaves. We realized that we are grateful to the people who have worked hard to make all people in our country free.

February snow gave us a good opportunity to read books by Ezra Jack Keats, including “The Snowy Day”. It was fun to make a cartoon of the story. The advanced reading group began reading “Gooney Bird Greene” by Lois Lowry, and the students learned about telling good stories by reading and discussing the stories that Gooney told her second grade class.

We wrapped up our bird unit in science with some exciting activities. We learned about birds of prey, focusing especially on the owl. We read “Owl Moon” by Jane Yolen and dissected owl pellets, investigating the skeletons that we found with Mrs. Pitsch’s class. Each student brought in a bird project that they completed at home, drawing, coloring, and photographing birds that they observed. Then we studied birds’ nesting habits and finished up by building our own birdhouses and painting them. We were really glad to have a couple of dads come in to help us with the houses.

CAP 3/4  It may be cold outside but our little class has been “on fire” with lots of learning. We have just wrapped up an intense study of the Civil War. Students completed a fact filled lap book covering battles, a time line, uniforms, people, places, and events of the Civil War. Thanks to our “Martha Stewart” moms, we had a food sampling party of recipes that would have been made during this era. We sampled chicken legs, cookies, Lincoln cake, and potato balls. Students completed their own Civil War era photo album.

In science, we completed our Creation Unit. We completed a lap book studying the Genesis account of creation and how that impacts our modern science through different theories such as evolution. We competed in our own Jeopardy tournament to review the many topics and concepts we covered. We constructed and erupted our own volcanoes and became predator and prey through two games and an experiment. We joined forces with Mrs. Ellen’s 1st/2nd class to dissect owl pellets.

We looked into our own hearts and “character” in Bible class by taking an Obedience Test and testing our Honesty Quotient. We also explored children in other areas of the world facing persecution because of their belief in God through Voice of the Martyr’s “Kids of Courage”.

We’ve been writing and reading a lot as well. We read “Shades Of Grey” and are completing “Old Yeller”. The kids have been making meaningful connections to History and Science through our reading and writing. They are learning a lot with a lot of enthusiasm. Great Fun!!!

CAP 5/6  With a dull grey filling our Michigan skyline, we chose to travel back to sunny Ancient Greece for two months. Our lap book study emphasized the various topics of the ancient world: gods and goddesses, Greek home life, ancient philosophers, historical timelines, architecture and battles. The students were voracious researchers and, at times, were great teachers to their classmates. We also took this opportunity to learn computer skills by creating a slideshow on an aspect of Greek life that was of personal interest. Along with the exciting facts and stories, the kids learned valuable lessons about computer research, citing sources, and fun details of the software itself.

We are keeping up with current news by reading and writing about articles in Top Story, a magazine outlining current issues in God's World. The kids are learning to read with wisdom and discernment as we discuss and give opinions on the different topics.

In Science, we continued with the study of the Human Body, emphasizing the Muscular and Skeletal systems, the Brain and the Skin. From questions the students generated, we did extensive research on "our skin" that culminated in a rousing game, with the winners being awarded a prize from the treasure chest. We are currently studying The 5 Senses and finding so much in God's Word about our eyes, ears, tongue, and hands. He is truly a wonderful Designer and Creator.

Our IEW Writing has deepened this 2nd semester. We use our IEW writing elements in all content areas, including history, science and language arts. The students just finished creating their own Fable/Fairy Tale from a published story. We had trolls, turtles, and royalty set in castles in England all the way to ships in outer space! We are using many of the Greek myths and legends as a foundation for the writing we are currently doing in class.

Our big highlight was cheering on our students in the Spelling Bee.  We had 4 students compete in the school Spelling Bee on January 19. Two of our students, both 5th graders, went on to represent NPC Elementary in the Regional Bee on February 23. We are so proud of the work that all of our students exhibit and these 4 girls were shining examples of the time and effort put forth by our CAP families.

We ended the month of February with a short study and celebration of the Jewish holiday, Purim. We read from the Bible and discussed the importance of Esther and her role in bringing about the rescue of the Jewish nation in the time of the Persian Empire. We had a great time with Mrs. Ellen's 1/2 CAP class eating traditional cookies and creating "shakers" to ring in the celebration. We are looking forward to our Easter and the major Jewish feasts in the spring, which speak of God's rescue of His people through obedience to His Word and a belief and dedication to Jesus, our Savior.

December 2009

CAP 1/2  The month of December brought us some snowy days and frantic preparation for our first showcase. We enjoyed working together to memorize Luke 2, adding motions, and then reciting it dressed as shepherds at the manger for our parents. We also had fun working on a silly Readers’ Theatre about choosing shoes, which helped us practice reading and made us laugh. Everyone did a great job with their Native American dwelling projects, which we had set up in our classroom for showcase to compliment our pocket folders full of information that we had learned. We continued to charge ahead in math, tackling 2 and 3 digit addition and subtraction and also beginning to learn the multiplication tables, singing songs to help us remember. We ended the month with a wonderful candlelight chapel and party celebrating Jesus’ birthday.

CAP 3/4  has entered “The Creation Zone”. We began a new science unit that is Creation based fun! We are learning about Creationism, Evolution, The Big Bang Theory, the ark, the pre-flood/post flood Earth, dinosaurs and lots more! We are learning that creation is evidence of God’s truth and true science supports the Bible. We have produced our own “Big Bang”; we’ve created meteors and experimented with dropping them to produce different craters; we made balloon rockets, and produced our own mountains with sand, a straw, and balloons.

In history we are continuing our Civil War Unit. We’ve traveled the Underground Railroad with Harriet Tubman, journeyed with “captured” 12 year old Hanalee from Confederate Georgia to Indiana, and made a mini-book library of Civil War leaders.

We are experiencing what kids can do for the kingdom of God. The kids raised $107 for World Vision and chose to purchase 10 ducks, 2 chickens, and 1 rabbit. This will change the life of a family somewhere in the world. We are visiting “Kids of Courage” at www.kidsofcourage.com  and learning about brave men, women, and children who live in dangerous situations but still claim the Gospel of Christ.

We wrapped December up with a Christmas Showcase reciting verses we’ve learned and signing to the song “I Want To Be Thankful”. We even taught our audience some of it! We left 2009 with a special celebration day that included a candlelight Christmas chapel and a class party. We love CAP!!   

CAP 5/6  December was a special time of celebrating our Savior's birth.  The kids spent a good part of their time in class preparing for the Winter Showcase.  This was an important and exciting time when they got to show off all the projects they had worked so hard on throughout the fall: Family Trees, Canopic jars, Human Body designs, Timelines and Maps, Cereal Box book reports, and Bible Verse posters and booklets.  Everyone took part in the presentation and we had the honor of teaching sign language to the 3/4 CAP class to assist them with their Showcase song, Thankful.  Our room was filled with projects and doting family members in awe at the wonderful things our motivated kids designed.  There was a surprise Slide Show just for the kids, put together by their teacher.  

All the kids studied hard for the Spelling Bee prelims.  Four of our students will be competing in the NPC Spelling Bee in January.  Our class hosted the NPC staff on PET Lunch Day and the kids made special Christmas place mats and decorated the classroom for the luncheon.  The Christian Biography was introduced and each child chose an influential Christian to study.  These biographies will be presented in January with a 2nd biography presentation (wax museum) in May.  We had a great time at our Christmas party with food, a short movie and a rousing game of Apples to Apples!  Each child also took home an ornament gift made by a classmate.  Our Christmas vacation was ushered in with a beautiful NPC Candlelight Chapel. The Christmas story was read and songs were sung.  It was the perfect way to prepare our hearts for Christmas!

November 2009

For Pictures click here.

CAP 1/2 While the first and second graders work hard memorizing math facts and learning and practicing in their Singapore math books, they do take a break once a month for a day of math games. They  play with dominoes, cards, dice, and food. The favorites include the counting game with cheerios and playing math addition bingo with marshmallows. If work is finished early, students can return to one of the games they have learned to continue practicing math facts and calculations.

In reading, one book club is working through the novel: “Sarah Plain and Tall” by Patricia McLaughlin and the other has learned about Tomie DePaola, reading several different books including “The Popcorn Book” and “My First Thanksgiving”. In each group students incorporate the reading strategies that are being learned such as making predictions and asking questions. Each student also did an at home book report on one book by Tomie DePaola that they chose individually.

Everyone in class is enjoying the social studies unit for November and December: the Native Americans of the east coast, plains, southwest, and northwest coast. Students learn about each area and make comparisons. Then each area concludes with a craft project that displays something specific from that area. The projects include making a wampum peace belt, an “animal skin” carrying bag called a parfleche, a kachina doll, and a totem pole. The unit will conclude with a display of all of the work plus an Indian dwelling that families have created at home.

CAP 3/4  traveled to the "Wild West" in November. We wrapped up our Oregon Trail unit with a day celebration that included a sling shot shoot out, a marble game, an incredible fiddle and cello duet from Patricia and her son Daniel Wunder, panning for gold, making a pioneer craft, and playing an assembled review game "Westward Ho".  Families completed a Wild West Scavenger Hunt and the winning family will be announced soon! We completed reading and learning about a new heroine to us:  Harriet Tubman.  We are just beginning our new history unit over the Civil War. 

In Science we studied and dissected a sheep brain together.  We've made rocket balloons, meteor craters, moving mountains, and classified animals.  There will be a dinosaur construction challenge ahead as well. 

The 3/4 CAP students wrote their own parables and have been practicing the "art" of listening and following directions through directed daily activities. 

In the midst of all the learning we are excited to be preparing for the Christmas Showcase where we will recite a Bible passage and teach our NPCS families a new song with sign language.  It's been an enriching November. 

Cap 5/6  November was a fun time!  With the Thanksgiving holiday approaching, it was a perfect time to study a short Food, Nutrition and Exercise unit.  We tested our lung capacity and kept a log of the food we took in and the energy we burned.  We integrated our Writing and Science with a small group performance on the Body Systems. 

The students had a blast learning about Africa and performing "Anansi the Spider" tales for the other NPC classes. We are continuing to build our Ancient Greek vocabulary, in big book form, with the read aloud Theras and His Town.  We also began a modern novel, The Mysterious Benedict Society, which we are reading as a class.  It is filled with challenge, adventure and mystery. 

We are looking forward to Christmas and the celebration of Our Savior's birth.

October 2009

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CAP 1/2  What has 3 body parts, 6 legs, and an exoskeleton? Ask any first or second grade CAP student to receive the answer. We concluded our insect unit this week by making our own insects out of clay, pipe cleaners, toothpicks, and puff balls. We also shared the amazing insect collections that families put together at home. We had so much fun learning about many different insects in God’s beautiful creation and can’t wait to begin studying birds next.

What is white, big, round, thick, and has four holes? We read Arnold Lobel’s  Frog and Toad story “The Lost Button” to find out and then wrote description riddles of our own buttons for the class to guess. We have enjoyed learning about real frogs and toads as well as reading about how Frog and Toad in Lobel’s stories are best friends. The cookie story led to a class cookie cookbook and the letter story to writing letters ourselves. We have loved going on many adventures with Frog and Toad this month.

What is joy to a believer in Jesus? We have looked at the fruit of the Spirit of joy for the month of October, hearing about Paul and Silas singing praises in prison, and reading about Christians around the world who are persecuted and yet know real joy because of their faith in Jesus. We memorized Romans 15:13 to remind us that the God of hope gives us joy as we trust in him.

CAP 3/4  We’ve had an exciting and busy October in Mrs. Pitsch’s class. We went on a “Bear Hunt” right here in the city! We made scale sized bears that roam the hallways of NPC. We’ve added funny photos to them and you can view them as you come and go…but be “Bear Aware” what to do if they should attack. If you are unsure, you can ask one of our students and they can give you bear attack survival tips that may come in handy some day.

We are exploring the Oregon Trail and completing a Lap book project that we will be presenting to our families. We’ve decided that to be a Pioneer may have been fun for a short time but the lack of bathing, food, electronics, and the hard work make us thankful for our modern world!! We will be celebrating a “Wild West Wrap Up” day on November 12 with exciting activities like panning for gold, a shoot out, Pioneer/Native American food and cooking, and we even have a guest “Fiddler” playing with us. Students had their first electrical encounter as well. We are completing our first “wiring” project making an electronic quiz board.

We are wrapping up October by writing our very own parables for Bible. We’ve learned that Jesus was a master teacher and we’ve studied how the Master taught with stories that people could relate to. We have parables in the making about soccer players, football players, and sibling rivalry. What a great month of learning and growing!

CAP 5/6  Working with a small number of highly dedicated students is a blast! We are integrating so much of the curriculum every day.  In Reading, we are working together to create a Big Book for our Read Aloud study of ancient Athens, keeping and sharing a personal reading journal, creating fabulous Cereal Box displays of our reading books, and tallying our Family Read Aloud minutes - so far our families have read over 7000 minutes!  We're putting history and public speaking together and performing Anansi (the spider) plays from African folklore.  We've written (and tried to interpret) cuneiform, hieroglyphics, and pictograms and we're creating Time Lines to "bring it all together" as we study history, archeology, science and writing.

September 2009

The year started with a family picnic at the Grand Rapids Township Park.   Parents and children enjoyed getting to know each other. A character from a book was posted on each person's back and each person had to ask questions that could be answered with a yes or no to try to figure out what character was on their back.  We had a delicious pot luck meal. After dinner, the children played a water balloon toss game. 

For Back to School Picnic pictures click here

CAP 1/2  We are off to a great start in our first and second grade CAP class. We began our year reading books by Eric Carle, especially focusing on his books about insects to go with our science unit. We liked reading about the quiet cricket while having four pet crickets in our class to learn about their habitat. We also liked learning about the caterpillar turning into a butterfly while our very own monarch caterpillar went into a chrysalis and then came out as a beautiful butterfly. We made life-cycle wheels showing the metamorphosis that occurred.  We can’t wait until the end of the month to share the insect collections we’ve been making at home.

We are now enjoying the stories of Frog and Toad by Arnold Lobel and will have fun doing puppet shows with some of his stories. We practiced making maps of our classroom and homes to go with our community unit in social studies and soon will make maps of the land where Frog and Toad live too.  In addition to our maps in social studies, we are making an actual miniature community in our class that includes a home for each student and all of the businesses and services that every community needs. We learned about many different occupations that every community needs by interviewing someone at home and bringing a tool that they use to help tell the class about their job. We are very busy in our classroom, learning, reading, writing, investigating, and sharing.

CAP 3/4  Have you ever wanted to be an explorer? Travel to the Wild West? Go panning for gold? Well, your kids have! We have completed the month of September and have traveled the world right from our classroom. We mapped Lewis and Clark’s expedition and read our way up the Missouri River and back again to their hero’s return. We found our favorite Mountain Men. We made a packet of  “possibles”, cut our own Eerie Canal, mapped the westward expansion, played with timelines, and are traveling the Oregon Trail with “Jim” from Moccasin Trail. And that’s just what we’ve done in History!

In science we are up to our ears in “Bear” right now. We are drawing life size bears to hang and add information to what we’re learning. We enjoyed a “yummy” experiment where we learned about animal populations and camouflage. We found out who was our best “sniffer” in a fun and smelly experiment. The kids have been enthusiastic learners and we are looking forward to our travel on the Oregon Trail in October and exploring the world of cats! Be sure to stop by Room 8 and see all the student work!        

CAP 5/6  Students are spending the year learning about The Human Body (Science) and Ancient history (Social Studies) to show how God's design, from the tiniest cell to the most powerful nation on earth, was designed to glorify Him.

Because we are studying ancient history this year, our class will recognize the "Feasts of our Lord".  Rosh HaShanah, The Jewish new year, began on September 18/19.  Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) was Monday, September 28 and Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles) was on October 3. Check out Leviticus 23 for details on what God expected of His people on these days.   We celebrated Yom Kippur by preparing and eating traditional Jewish foods.  Students also had fun creating cuneiforms and reading them to the class.  

In science, we have tested Fats in Our Food, taken Breathing Tests, created human cells, and are in the process of putting together a life-sized body - complete with organs, muscles and a brain. 

In writing we are learning to "dress-up" our writing by using "-ly" words and who/which clauses to make our sentences more interesting.  Students have also memorized Ephesians 6:11-20 the passage about putting on the full armor of God.