Mrs Hallford’s Class Newsletter

September 22-25

Students hard at work sketching at Veteran’s Park

I hope everyone had a great weekend! The most exciting part of our week was walking to Veteran’s Park last Thursday for a Geography/History/Nature Study lesson. In the spirit of Columbus and the other explorers we are studying, we stepped out of the classroom to chart some unknown territory. We stopped periodically to sketch maps detailing the new things we had discovered, discussing how early navigators and explorers were constantly encountering unfamiliar sights. I was really pleased with the way my students got ‘into’ the adventure, and let their imaginations run free. Each student named everything they added to their maps, and took notes on the strange new flora and fauna they encountered. They also discovered a thriving native civilization, which was complete with it’s own religion, dwelling places, and cave drawings.

What I love about an outing like this is that it shows me how well the class has learned and retained the things we study in more traditional lessons. When complaining and lagging behind is met with a rousing chorus of “Sail on! Sail on! And on!” from peers, or when innocent-looking ducks in a pond are classified as ‘Fearsome water devils from the Sea of Darkness’, I know that the students are owning information from their literature and history lessons in a way that I could never gage from a multiple-choice test. This week we will spend some time refining their sketches and maps of lands claimed in the name of Flint Acadamia, as a nice cap to our lesson on cartography. We will also add watercolor to the nature study we did at Veteran’s Park. This will be the last week we spend on Christopher Columbus.

We have finished our mixed media constellation artwork, which I will display at Open House (Saturday, October 4) before sending home. This week we will work on a picture study of Columbus for Art. We have already done a simplified picture study, reproducing a pen and ink drawing of a sea monster on an early map. This was after our Geography lesson on cartography last week, where we discussed the reasons mapmakers could have included monsters in their work. Most of our picture studies will be more in-depth and time consuming, however. Picture study has its roots in Charlotte Mason philosophy, and is based on the idea that we learn by imitation. Students use the Habit of Perfect Execution to recreate a classical work of art. By doing this, they have learned to recognize the art and artist, learned artistic techniques used by the masters, learned an appreciation for the hard work and talent of great artists, and learned discipline and attention to detail.

We are already halfway through our novel, Surviving The Applewhites. The students are really enjoying it, and the book is offering us a lot of great subjects for discussion. The main character has made a decision to turn over a new leaf, but is struggling to change his behavior due to bad habits he has formed throughout his life. This gave us a wonderful opportunity to discuss the way that habits have of slipping into our actions without even needing a conscious decision. Since a habit could be good or bad, everyone saw how important it is to work on our class habits!

God bless!

~Nicole Hallford