Dear Parents,
We had a fabulous retreat at St. Joseph’s Parish on Tuesday. The kids had a great time together and appreciated the message that Joan Williamson gave – that the choices we make in life are important and have consequences for both us and others. This lays the groundwork for our retreat in May, which will focus on preparing for high school (the choices the kids may be asked to make) and starting out with a firm relationship with Jesus.
In language arts we have been learning about verbs and verb tenses. We learned the principle parts of verbs (the base form [or infinitive], and present and past participles). We also learned that there are main and helping verbs. Next week we will learn how the perfect tenses are formed with the help of the verbs have, be, and do.
We started a new literature unit reading books about the Salem witch trials. The kids were allowed to preference the novel they wanted to read. There are a variety of reading levels, so if your child has a novel that seems a bit easy, it is because they chose it for their interest level. The kids are hoping to be able to do some writing of scary stories at the end of this unit, like they did in 7th grade. I am considering having them step into the shoes of either an accused or an accuser and tell a witch trial story from that point of view.
In U.S. history, we have been learning about the idea of democracy and how it began in ancient Athens. We learned about some of the political institutions and principles of ancient Athenian democracy and discussed which of these institutions or principles continue in our form of democracy today. We analyzed the purpose, strength, and shortcomings in the rules and structure of Athenian democracy. And finally, we explored some aspects of their democracy found in a few articles from the U.S. Constitution.
In religion we learned what the four marks of the Church are – that it is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. This week we began learning what it means to be holy and explored how the sacraments are founded on Jesus. We will finish this chapter and test on it next week. We also participated in a blessing of animals. It was surprising with the number and variety of animals on the playground that we still managed to have a “peaceable kingdom”. The kids decided that we would adopt Chili as our class mascot. She came to the garden, and we found out that she is a digger dog!
On Wednesday we had a make-up day at the WeGrow Garden. We put together two more raised beds (the kids have fun completing this engineering task), took apart one rotting wooden bed, and installed a new raised bed in its place. The kids continue to love going to the garden. Of course, it was a beautiful, sunny fall day, and that certainly helps!
Please don’t forget to have your child complete their outside reading and turn in a signed reading log on Monday. Also, please check FACTS with your child for low/missing grades.
Have a great weekend!
Chris