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.