Memory Work for Tuesday, January 3

Micah 5:2

Hosea 11:1

The due date has been changed due to the snow days last week.  

You are welcome to turn the assignment in before Christmas Break.

Memory Work for Tuesday, Dec. 6

Jeremiah 23:5

Jeremiah 31:15 

Remember, citing the New Testament reference where these prophecies are fulfilled is worth 2 extra credit points each.  (4 points per week!)

  

 

Memory Work for Tuesday, Nov. 29

Isaiah 7:14

Isaiah 9:6

For extra credit - write down the Bible references where these prophecies are fulfilled.

 

Memory Work for Tuesday, Nov. 22

This will be the last Memory Work for this trimester.

Titus 3:5Matthew 25:231 Corinthians 6:11

I pray each week that God will speak to you through His Word and you find joy, strength, healing and peace as you study.

Memory Work

Memory Work for 11/15

Acts 4:12; Psalm 122:1; and John 14:26

These are the verses to be memorized and discussed for next Tuesday.  These will also be the last verses for 1st Trimester grades.  If students missed a week or need to get caught up, there is still time.  All Memory Work will need to be turned in by Friday, Nov. 18.

Subject Update: Geography

This week, the 7th graders started working on a National Park Project.  In pairs, the students are researching two of our nation's National Parks, making a slideshow for each, and preparing to record a podcast for each park.  We will continue to work on this project through next week.

Subject Update: Geography

In our geography tour around the world this year, we have reached the United States.  Last week, we looked at the Great Lakes.  We discussed what makes them so great, how pollution and other factors have affected them, and what steps have been taken to clean up this freshwater ecosystem.

This week, we are looking at urban sprawl, the constant expansion of urban areas as they shrink surrounding rural areas.  We look at what has caused several cities to expand, its effects on the area, and what steps are being taken to slow the urbanization of communities.  This chapter is especially interesting as the city of Portland is one of the featured cities in our study.

Next, we will start a project exploring some of our nation's National Parks.

Memory Work

Memory Work

Due: Tuesday, October 18

We have been studying a variety of tools that help us to understand God's Word.  We have looked at the six chief parts, sacraments, the Book of Concord, the Catechism, etc.  We even have the great works done by theologians over the years to help us understand scripture.  All of these are great gifts from God for us to use.  Reading and discussing His Word in our homes is also important as we study.  This week you are to discuss the following verses:

Mark 12:29-30

Joshua 24:15

Memory Work Due for Tuesday, Oct. 11

Memory Work for next week include the following verses:

Mark 10:27

&

John 10:14-15

Remember to memorize the verses (signed by your parents) for 80%.

Memorize AND write a 3-4 sentence summary for each passage (both signed by your parents) 

to receive 100%

Subject Update: Geography

We have moved on from our introduction to geography and have started our tour around the world that will be the focus for the rest of the school year.  Our first stop on our tour is Canada.  Last Thursday, we had our resident expert on the topic, Mr. Schiemann, come in and discuss with the 7th graders the differences between Canada and the United States.  These differences ranged from government to money to flavors of potato chip!

Today, the 7th graders took a map quiz on the Canadian provinces.  We will be taking map quizzes on each region of the world as we study it.  Next, we will begin looking at several aspects of life in the United States, including urban sprawl and national parks.

Looking for a Challenge?

Cup Challenge

Our class this year is made up of new and established students, almost 50 -50.

This can be a challenge in that the students want to form two groups: those that are new & those who have been here.  To shake things up during the first week of school the students were given a challenge:  Stack 6 plastic cups into a pyramid using only a rubber band and 4 strings; no hands can touch the cups and everyone must participate.

(What a delight to see them thinking and working together)

The groups were quick to figure out that the rubber band is very important, but how to get it off the cups?

Some groups were quick to realize that the string can do incredible things, cup flipping anyone!

Others figured out how to create a tool to build the pyramid.

No matter how they accomplished the task, they learned how to communicate with each other.  After everyone was finished, each group shared how they accomplished the task.  They discovered that all the groups had similar ideas but completed the task in a slightly different way.

It was a fun way to get to know each other.

 Our classroom is not the only place where we have new students.  There are several new students in the whole Middle School so we have spent time getting to know each other.

The whole Middle School enjoyed a day in Portland on a scavenger hunt of sorts.  The teams were a combination of 6th, 7th & 8th graders and a mix of new and established students.  Everyone had a great time and made new friends.

It has been a privilege and an honor to be apart of a great group of students!!

Buddy Time!

During the first week of school we met some very special friends, our Multiage K-2 Buddies.  We spent some time getting to know them and for them to meet us.  They all are an amazing group of students.  Last week in chapel we were able to sit with them.  We enjoyed singing and hearing God's Word together.

This week we did an exciting activity.  The Multiage class is learning about the solar system and the planets.

 They were divided into groups and given the task of placing out the planets away from the sun using toilet paper.  It took a lot of team work to count and layout each line.

After a few torn sheets and recounting the squares they started to see how far the planets are from the sun.

Once they were done they talked about which planets were the warmest and the coldest.  Some groups even tried to make their planets revolve around the sun.  This took even more team work.  It was a wonderful and educational time.

Stay tuned to see what our next adventure will be!

Subject Update: Geography

Tomorrow, we are wrapping up our first chapter in geography with a test.  This chapter, we have been studying the importance of maps, how maps are made, and different types of maps and projections.  We have done several fun activities in class throughout this chapter.

We turned our classroom into a Siberian wilderness as the students made maps to hunt for gold.

We explored different maps to learn about things like compass rose, scale, and a map key.

We learned about different ways our round globe is projected on a flat map and how they distort.

We also learned about different features on our globe like latitude, longitude, Equator, Prime Meridian, Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Capricorn, Arctic Circle, Antarctic Circle, and the International Date Line.

We will start Chapter 2 next week which covers different features a map can show like elevation, climate, vegetation, and population density.

Beginning a New Year!

Welcome to a new Adventure

Welcome to a brand new year!  This past week we have had a great adventure getting to know new students and reacquainting with out friends.  I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself to you.

I grew up on our family farm just outside the Twin Cities area raising crops, pigs, and Black Angus (cows).  After graduating from high school I went to Concordia Teachers College in Seward, Neb. (now known as Concordia University, Nebraska).  I loved the small town feel and the fact that my great Uncle and great Aunt lived close to the college.  They were both teachers and my great Uncle was principal and professor at the college.  I graduated with a major in Elementary Education with a concentration in Special Education and a minor in School Music.  My first call was to a small Lutheran school in Seattle, WA - a big change for a farm girl.  I then took a call to Pilgrim Lutheran in Beaverton where I began an exciting adventure that lead to the opening of Forest Hills.  I was the original third / fourth grade teacher for a number of years before "retiring" to raise our children.  While I was a stay-at-home-mom I taught piano lessons, served on the school board here, and substituted before returning to teaching full time.

The summer before the opening of Forest Hills I married the most wonderful man, a gift from God.  Louis and I have three wonderful children - Ruth (a recent graduate of Forest Hills); Katherine - in fourth grade; and Timothy in the primary multi-age.  Our children are involved in many activities which keep us moving and enjoying life with them.

I am very excited to be back at Forest Hills and look forward to having a wonderful year with your amazing children.

What To Expect Next Week...

It's the last week of school - how did that happen so quickly?!?!

• Chromebook & Charger Return on Monday
• Oaks Park on Wednesday
• Early Dismissal on Thursday @ 11:30
• Graduation Reception @ 6:30

Emails regarding all of this went home last week. Reply to those if you have any questions.

Ask Your Child About...

• Field Day
• Spring Concert
• Graduation Posters
• Attributes of God
• Population Density

What You Can Expect Next Week...

• Memory: Psalm 51:8-12
• More Attributes of God - Finding Them in Bible Stories
• Adventure Story Editing & Sharing
• Quiz on Plant Vascular System & Reproduction

Ask Your Child About...

• James & the Giant Peach in Portland
• Attributes of God
• Adventure Stories
• Pollinators

Psalm 51:8-12 ~ Create in Me a Clean Heart, O God

This Psalm is another example of David pouring out his heart to God. He cries out knowing that he is a sinner deserving only God's wrath. He begs, "Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities." Then, he asks, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence...[but] uphold me with a willing spirit." David knows that no evil is allowed in the presence of God. He asks God for that utmost gift - a clean heart and a spirit to hold us in God's presence. What wisdom!

This week, as you discuss, consider these things:

• What does it mean to have a heart made clean by God?
• How does this clean heart change you?
• How does it affect your relationship with God?
• How does it affect your relationships with the people in your life?

May God bless your conversations this week.

What You Can Expect Next Week...

• James & the Giant Peach in Portland on Thursday
• No memory this week! Catch up if you missed a week along the way.
• More Attributes of God
• Adventures
• Vocab Unit 15 Quizzes Wednesday
• Constructing scale drawings - 7th math
• Flower pollinators

Ask Your Child About...

• Attributes of God
• Adventures
• Plant reproduction - Flowering/Nonflowering
• Geometric constructions in 7th math
• Population Control in China

Bible - Brain - Family - Heart ~ On a Break

We are taking a break from memory this week due to our field trip on Thursday to see James & the Giant Peach. Please use this opportunity to catch up on any you may have missed over the last several weeks. Gradelink is updated, so you can see if there is one missing.

In light of the changing church seasons from Easter to Pentecost, you could have a conversation about what it means that the Holy Spirit is with us, going with us everywhere we go, and enabling us to share the great news of Jesus to everyone we meet.

A New Bulletin Board

I love giving the students the opportunity to help make the classroom uniquely our own. About a month ago, I had the students pair up and create plans for our big bulletin board based on our school theme this year - LIFE: Living in Faith Everyday, Colossians 3:17. They had to create the plan and then present it to the class and me, and then I chose two.
The first went up in April. It incorporated a big cross as the T in Faith on which the theme verse was written. It was full of stars, butterflies, and a big sun. UPDATE: Thanks for the picture, Stacey!

This week, the second one went up, and this one will hang until the end of the year. I particularly like how the class chose a verse that they felt represented them: 1 Corinthians 16:14 "Let all that you do be done in love." Then, each student had to choose their favorite Bible verse to write on their personal cross. They will be able to take this cross home with them the last week of school.

Level B Vocab & Spelling Quizzes Postponed

Good Afternoon! I just wanted to make sure everyone had updated information - if you are in Level B in vocab, the quizzes that were to happen tomorrow have been postponed to next week.

What to Expect This Week...

• Spring Event on Friday - Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat!!
• Lots of play practice
• Vocab Unit 15 Quizzes Wednesday
• More Story Writing
• Matthew 6:19-21, 24 Due Thursday
• Pollination of Flowers
• Hissing Cockroaches
• Population in China

Ask Your Child About Last Week...

• National Day of Prayer
• Run for the Hills
• What is prayer? Why, when, where, for whom, and for what should we pray?
• Adventure Story Writing
• What is your new novel?
• How is your book report coming along?

• End of Year Events
• Flower Dissection
• Which grain seed had the most growth?
• Did grain seeds germinate in water with a high salt content?
• Mount Everest

Lay Up Your Treasures in Heaven - Matthew 6:19-21, 24

Our memory passage for this week involves one of Jesus's teachings from the Sermon on the Mount. It's from the same three chapters of Matthew where we get the Beatitudes, the metaphor for Christians being the salt of the earth and light of the world, a reminder to not be anxious about anything, and many other important teachings of Jesus.
In these particular verses, Jesus reminds us of the end game. He's speaking directly to the disciples, the men he just recently asked to leave EVERYTHING to follow him. They did it without hesitation. I always wonder if, at this point, likely just months after that calling (maybe even less), the disciples were starting to second guess their choice. They chose to leave their families, their homes, their livelihood. Jesus reminds them - "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth...but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven...For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." I know if it was me, this would be a well-timed reminder for why I made the choice to get up, leave everything, and follow him.
As you discuss this week, consider:

• What treasures on earth do you value?
• Does God really ask you to not value these things?
• What is the purpose in what Jesus is saying here?
• What is the end game?

 I pray God touches your hearts through your conversations this week.

Search Me & Know My Heart - Psalm 139:1-6

The Psalms offer such hope and comfort in our relationship with God. Often, David cried out to God as a sinner in need of repentance and acceptance, and just as often, he expresses the deeply felt peace God granted him in those moments of despair. Later in this Psalm, David says, "For you created my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made!" Wow. This is one of my favorites - the realization that before I ever existed, God knew me - he knew the plans for my being, and he created me carefully, respectfully, wonderfully.
The beginning of this Psalm, that which the kids are studying this week, paints a similar picture - that no matter what I am doing, thinking, saying - both good and bad - God KNOWS me. He is "acquainted with all my ways". This can be both disconcerting and encouraging. It reminds me both of how much I need God's forgiveness and how much he loves me and is willing to give me that gift.
As you discuss this week, consider:

• What does "discern" mean? What does it mean that God will "discern my thoughts from afar"?
• What does "acquainted" mean? What does it mean that God is "acquainted with all my ways"?
• What does it mean when David says "you hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me"?
• How does this passage touch your heart and life today?

What To Expect Next Week...

• 
  Psalm 139:1-6 Due Thursday
• Vocab Unit 14 Due Wednesday
• More Story Writing
• Lyric Poetry
• Flower Dissection
• Seed growth observations
• Run for the Hills - Friday

Ask Your Child About...

• What is a disciple?
• Talent Show
• Adventure Story
• New Literature Novel
• Comic Dialogue
• Lima Beans
• Grain Seeds

Explanation of the Parable of the Sower - Matthew 13:18-23

The sower? God! The seeds? The Word of God! The soil? The people of the world!

As you discuss, think about these things...

• Which soil are you?
• Do you recognize some of these situations in the lives of people you know?
• What can we do as God's people - the good soil?

What to Expect This Week...

• Talent Show - Wednesday Afternoon
• Matthew 13:18-23 Due Thursday
• Continued Adventure Story Brainstorming
• Begin writing Adventure Stories
• Vocab Unit 13 Quizzes
• Lima Bean and Flower dissections

Ask Your Child About...

• Run for the Hills Kick-off Assembly
• Adventure Stories
• Comic Dialogue
• Monsoons
• Transpiration, Photosynthesis, Aerobic Cellular Respiration

What To Expect Next Week...

• Book Orders Due Monday
• Creative Writing
• Beginning the Adventure Unit
• Matthew 13:1-9 Due Thursday
• Test in Math on Chapter 6
• Geometric Construction - bring a compass and protractor

Ask Your Child About...

• ITBS
• Creative Writing Warm Up
• Reader’s Theater with Buddies
• What do the xylem and stomata do for a plant?
• Water stress