Well, it was a nice break for the scholars to have a three day weekend....and now we push, and push hard to get to our break in February!
We enjoyed the pizza party today and a great big THANK YOU goes out to Mrs. Connelly for running to pick up the pizza for us in a pinch! We appreciated the opportunity to sit together and eat and discuss the value of education. Our goal at GFA is to have every student college minded, and looking forward to accomplishing great things for our society.
We will be finishing up our French Revolution history unit and The Scarlet Pimpernel soon. This will be the culmination of this study as we move into the industrial revolution and studying governments and their characteristics. Debate will come in handy and we will be using many of our argumentation skills in History class as we discuss the values, and the pros and cons of different forms of government.
We are almost finished with our 6th unit in math on percentage and will be moving in Algebra by the end of next week. I am quite certain that the scholars will totally enjoy the unit, and see it as a breath of fresh air after working so hard with rate, percentages, and ratios. It is a welcomed addition to the curriculum at this point. Please understand, once again, that if your scholar is carrying 80's in Singapore math, that they will easily translate to high 90's in any other math program. Scholars that struggled to get C's in Singapore last year are all earning the highest grades in math in 7th grade. Many are in Harcourt, Houghton-Mifflin and Saxon. We are proud of our rigor and what it is producing for these scholars. This is a time to really stretch and grow them so that when the grades count in Jr. High and High School, they can easily produce them.
We are moving right along in our astronomy unit....working on seasons and phases of the moon. We are going to be creating a comet in the "lab" early next week. We may need some assistance with the scholars, and I will let you all know when that will be happening.
January 23rd I will be out of the classroom. I will be attending a series of meetings in Weber County for a group of math coaches that I am currently working with to prepare to teach our instructors at GFA the appropriate courses for a math endorsement. I will be expecting to only miss one, at the most two days of class time. I will be sure the students are prepared and know what to expect in my absence.
THE COFFEEHOUSE will be upon us before we know it! We will be traveling to Mrs. Cavanaugh's Chocolate Factory on the 15th of February (we get all the great deals that day) and the scholars will see a movie clip on the founding of the factory, learn about chocolate, and get a tour of the factory from above. We will then have the opportunity to shop at the candy store. The cost of the tour itself is $1 per person, including adults and siblings. We plan this trip purposely right before the coffeehouse so that the scholars can purchase chocolate to decorate their tables for the event. Each student will have a table to host their family for the event, and it will be their job to design invitations, a centerpiece, and chocolate treats for their guests. Please provide your scholar with some spending money if possible so they can bless you for the coffeehouse.
The coffeehouse itself will be at Wasatch Christian School in their auditorium on the night of February 17th. We will be asking each family to provide some sort of snack to share with everyone else. Last year we kept it to snack type finger foods. We also served coffee, cocoa, and tea. Melody Bloker will be sending out a sign up email for families to help us set up, decorate, and put out the food. We would like to begin our evening by 6:30 as we have 22 students to present not only their classical piece, but some duos, and sonnets. I guarantee it will be an enjoyable event for all! :)
Duo presentations at the coffeehouse will be judged. Ballots will be used so students can accumulate points to attend the national competition. We will hopefully be presenting four or five duos for your enjoyment. If you are not familiar with the duo event, you will be pleasantly surprised. More info on the coffeehouse to come!
Forward and onward with excitement in our hearts....this is 2012, and our scholars ROCK!
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