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CATECHISM This is clearly one of the most important courses taught here at St. John's. This instruction is the very reason you have chosen to send your child to our school! Both Pastors will provide regular focused instruction in this subject. On Tuesday mornings, I will lead a group Bible study via Hymnology. As I go through each school day, the truths of God's Word will inform all my teaching. It is amazing to me how much time we spend talking about God and the things of God in all the other curriculum areas. This is, truly, my favorite part of what I do. MATH All students will use Sadlier-Oxford textbooks. 7th graders will use the Fundamentals of Algebra text, while 8th graders will use Foundations of Algebra. SCIENCE Our Science curriculum is new this year also. Our text is published by McGraw Hill and consists of four units. We will study earth, plant and animal classifications, matter and atoms, and energy. The text includes many opportunities for lab activities. I'm optimistic this will give the students ample time for hands-on learning. WORLD HISTORY/WORLD GEOGRAPHY In last year's rotation, we used a World History text published by Savvas Learning Company. This year, we will use the same company's partner text, World Geography. The text is extremely thorough and deals with history in terms of the formation of countries and current government systems in other countries. Because History is taught in alternate years, we likely will not try to master all the details of each lesson in the geography text. My goal for the year is that the students achieve a good overview of earth's continents and countries. I want them to be able to at least place countries where they belong on the globe and retain some information regarding climate, land formations, and culture. ENGLISH Our new English textbook, Sadlier School English for Writing, provides a nice grammar review within the sentence structure. It is largely focused on writing, however. We will be learning how to use the parts of a sentence to write effective, descriptive, and grammatically correct sentences. Then we will use good sentences in paragraphs and essays. This will get them nicely set up for high school. In this world of shortened phrases and slang in text, the ability to communicate a complete, coherent, thought is important! LITERATURE We read literature and personal selections in the classroom, and I ask the students to read another 30 minutes daily outside the classroom. This can be achieved in one stretch or accomplished by reading for 5 or 10 minutes when the opportunity arises. Please ask your student frequently about what he/she is reading. For our actual class time reading, we will read a variety of materials. We'll read informational text, biography and autobiography, true accounts of events in history, and news articles, and a historical fiction about the Chernobyl disaster. MUSIC We will study our new Lutheran hymnal and learn more about worship and the music connected with it. We will also work on our performance pieces for church singing and the Christmas Eve service. I hope to do some listening activities to introduce your children to a variety of musical styles as well. My goal is to teach everyone the notes on the staff, as well as common note values, in order to play chimes in church. ART This year, each student will have their own sketch book and set of graded pencils. We will focus on techniques of sketching, shading, depth, and detail using the different hardness and blackness values. Finished art will be displayed in the hallway near the school entrance. Take a look when you're in the building! PHYSICAL EDUCATION We are blessed to again have Mrs. Randall come in once a week to teach P.E. to our students. She does a great job! She will teach class on Fridays. During our Wednesday class, we will play cooperative games indoors and outdoors, do some fitness activities and study some lessons on personal wellness. SPELLING Each grade will work through a 36 lesson spelling textbook. While we will spend some time looking at the material together, this is almost entirely independent work. By doing the work faithfully and carefully, your child will master dozens of words this year. Please encourage hard work and careful study for each week's spelling test. |