Schole' in Practice - SGCA Week 6

The excitement of our upcoming Learning Celebration was building, as the kids practiced their poetry recitation this morning!  Exploration with Pythagoras, music, sound waves, Morning Time about humility, a fun beatnik video, fine arts project, violin and cello for our Schole' lunch, as well as math games and Latin!  Join us for this week's journey through Schole' in Practice at SGCA…

We started out our morning time with a quick game.  I  handed two teams what I told them was "pie" but they had to figure out what kind.  Each paper plate was cut into pieces with a letter on each section.  They had to work together to figure out what it spelled and put the plate back together.  It spelled H.U.M.B.L.E.  They ended up with "humble pie".  I asked them what being humble was and what they thought it meant.  I love to see the answers kids give on these type of questions. We then defined humility and read some verses from the Bible that reference humility.  Today's missionary focus was on Mother Teresa, and a story about her extraordinary humility.  We practiced our memory verses and then ended with our march around the building.

This week's Great Books focus was on the upcoming poetry recitation.  The kids watched a video that gave them an idea (in a fun way) of what our theme of a Beatnik Poetry Cafe,' is all about.  Then they were given instructions by their Academic Mentor on what to expect at the Poetry Cafe' Learning Celebration.

The kids poems were broken out by literary device and they were grouped into sections accordingly.  Then they began to practice their recitations with Ms. Miller giving the kids help along the way.

The kids ran through their poetry pieces twice in two separate groups and then they were encouraged to go home and practice a couple times a day in front of an audience to get more comfortable with their pieces they wrote, and be ready to recite of our audience at the Learning Celebration.

In Fine Arts today they worked on drawing birds through the step by step instructions of their Academic Mentor and then they began adding composition elements to them.  The kids also finished up some of their other works for the Art Show, which will be displayed at the upcoming Learning Celebration.

Our Schole' lunch period today was blessed by the performance of Ms. Jackie Boegel and her student David, who performed Cello and Violin for the children.  This was a recital for her student David and it was great to have her explain things to the students along the way about learning to play an instrument and performing for a recital.  Jackie teaches at B Sharp Music Studio, located in her home, and teaches a variety of instruments.

Today in Latin, the kids were working through Chapter 10 in Song School Latin 2, and the vocabulary focus was on ways to travel.  The kids watched the DVD lesson for this week with their favorite ending called "My Pet Monkey 2; The Sequel" - which they all love to say along with the video when it comes on!  A favorite game of charades was played to review their Latin words as well.

Pythagorus was the Ancient Scientist focus of today.  The kids learned about his contribution to modern science in the form of his work with sound waves and his love of math, like Thales from our previous week's study.  The kids did a couple of experiments to help them understand the ideas presented, some of which were; length and sound, crest and trough, and frequency.  We have really enjoyed this Berean Builder's science curriculum, which helps the student to see science through a historical and philosophical lens.  

Math today was another round of the I Have, Who Has game with money cards.  The kids are getting faster at recognizing their monetary value on the cards and the game moved faster this time around.

It was a Wonderful Wednesday and we are looking forward to sharing with you, our next post about our first community wide Learning Celebration - A Poetry Cafe' -Beatnik Style!