Mrs. Hallford’s Class Newsletter

January 12 – 15

Hello! We had a wonderful first week back this semester, and had a lot of fun becoming re-familiarized with our lessons and routines. I was very pleased with how hard every student worked, and the great attitudes that they brought to our classroom.

Don’t forget: This Thursday (January 15) is the Flint Academy El Chico Night fund raiser at the El Chico on Collins. This was a lot of fun last year – make sure you don’t miss it this time around!

This week we will continue our map collages of the Netherlands, and finish up some information about the rise of Dutch trade. Last week, while completing a nature study of tulips, we had a great discussion about the economic principles behind the Tulip Mania of 17^th century Holland, and thought of some

 modern day equivalents. This week we will also begin our study of William Shakespeare in history, and his place in Elizabethan England. Although we will not begin our Shakespeare literature assignment for the year yet, since we are still reading Robinson Crusoe, we will study the “Quality of Mercy” selection of The Merchant of Venice for recitation this week. If you would like to help your child work on this at home, here it is!

The Quality of Mercy

“The quality of mercy is not strain’d,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
‘Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway;

It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God’s
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
That, in the course of justice, none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much
To mitigate the justice of thy plea;
Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice
Must needs give sentence ‘gainst the merchant there.”