Mrs. Hallford’s Class Newsletter

January 20th-22

I hope everyone enjoyed their extra-long weekend! Thanks to everyone who came to our El Chico fund raiser – it was very successful from what I understand, and it’s always fun to see everyone at Flint events.

Don’t forgot about Grandparent’s Day this week! Grandparents will meet with Dr. Flint at 2:00 on Thursday, and then come to the upper school hall to see what we have prepared for them!

We very much enjoyed our study of Shakespeare last week, and I was pleased with the student’s progress memorizing sections of “The Quality of Mercy”. They are really doing a great job understanding the language and imagery of the selection.

This week in history, we will wrap up Shakespeare, and begin studying Sir Walter Raleigh. We are also going to be working on finishing our picture study from last semester. The students made wonderful progress, and we want to finish what we started!

God Bless,

~Nicole Hallford

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.”

Mrs. Hallford’s Class Newsletter

January 5-8

I hope everyone had a wonderful and relaxing Christmas Break! I’m very excited to get back into our classroom routine, and I’m looking forward to our lessons this week!

This week in History, we are learning about the Counter-Reformation movement and the Netherlands’ struggle for religious and political independence from Spain. In addition to learning about the inspiring heroes of this story, such as William of Orange, we are also laying important groundwork for understanding why the Pilgrims moved to the Netherlands before turning to the New World. To coincide with these History lessons, we will study the basic geography of the Netherlands by creating a photo collage over a map of the United Provinces as they were formed in 1648.

We will also take this opportunity to take a close look at the composition of tulip bulbs and blossoms for Nature Study, and learn about the Tulip Mania that occurred in Holland.

Our debate this week will be about the pros and cons of placing restrictions on texting in various settings, which should inspire a lot of interesting dialog.

I’m looking forward to a great first week back!

God bless,

~Nicole Hallford

Mrs. Hallford’s Class Newsletter

December 8^th – 11^th

Merry Christmas! We had an absolutely wonderful time at A Christmas Carol last Thursday! The students were all very well behaved, and they enjoyed the play, which was very well done. We have almost finished reading the book (only three pages left!) and after the play, we had a class discussion about the similarities and differences between the play and the movie. I was very impressed with all the details that the students recalled! We also played a few rounds of Yes And No, a game that was played at a Christmas party in the book.

This week we will focus on learning the Christian foundations of Christmastime, as well as enjoying each other’s company as the semester draws to a close. We have had a wonderful semester together!

Our agenda includes making sachets that can be given as Christmas gifts from the herbs we harvested earlier this fall, studying the lyrics of traditional Christmas carols, looking at the meaning of Christmas symbols, and a holiday-themed debate. Mrs. Roy is showing our class the movie The Nativity Story during Bible, and they are really enjoying it!

On Thursday our class will have a gift exchange as their Christmas party. Each child needs to bring a wrapped gift of a $5 or less value to participate. Dollar Store items would be perfect for this, or you can always find something at home to re-gift! We will also be watching the movie A Muppet Christmas Carol, as a lighthearted end to our study of this wonderful piece of literature.

I hope everyone has a joyful Christmas season, and I look forward to our Spring Semester together!

God bless,

~Nicole Hallford

Mrs. Hallford’s Class Newsletter

December 1^st -4^th

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving Break! We are very lucky to have such a long break – it is a great opportunity to become refreshed and excited about school! Now that Coach Hallford and I are completely moved and settled into our new house, and our computer is unpacked and set up, I promise that the class newsletters will be much more regular!

There are only two weeks left of this semester, and we have a lot of really fun things planned. Most importantly is our upcoming field trip to see A Christmas Carol performed at the Dallas Theater Center. We need to be ready to leave at 9:15 on Thursday morning, as the play begins at 10:30, and if you would like to attend with your child (and help us carpool!) please purchase a ticket ASAP. I need to know who is interested in attending with us, so I can get organized. Also, if you have not turned in the $12 for your child’s ticket yet, please do so promptly.

In preparation for this trip, we will be reading A Christmas Carol in our classroom. We will have to set Robinson Crusoe aside for the week, and I have high hopes that we can finish A Christmas Carol before this Thursday! I plan to incorporate this into our Art and History lessons for the week, with a lot of discussions about the language and culture of England in Dicken’s time, and some artistic narration. Rather than the formal narration that we usually do for literature, I plan to have the students work on a picture study of an illustration from the book, and then create their own illustrations of key scenes while listening to the story. I love projects like these, because we get to see how differently each student is visualizing the story, and what elements stood out for them. They are also a great opportunity to work on the Habit of Perfect Execution as it pertains to art.

I’m looking forward to a great week as we all learn about the true meaning of Christmas and the fine arts!

God bless,

Nicole Hallford

Mrs. Hallford’s Class Newsletter

October 14-16

Malkia shows us the beautiful ceremonial Inca mask she made in History.

I hope everyone enjoyed their long weekend! Don’t forget to sign up to help out with our class booths for the upcoming Fall Festival. Our class is going to have a color hairspray booth and a bowling booth, and the sign-up sheet is outside our classroom door. We had a lot of fun at the first Fall Festival last year, and I’m really looking forward to it!

Last week we finished up Surviving The Applewhites as planned, and started an art project based on the novel. The students are drawing portraits of the main character, Jake Semple, from the beginning and end of the book to illustrate how he changed throughout the course of the story. We also talked about how many of them hadn’t originally thought he could change at all, and how people have the ability to change themselves and make good decisions no matter what others may think of them. We will finish that art project this week, and I plan to let the class spend Thursday afternoon watching The Sound of Music. I am also going to attempt to prepare some spicy Indian food for the students to sample while they watch the movie, since that was discussed in the novel quite a bit, and they are all curious to try it out!

We devoted quite a bit of time to our history lessons this past week, studying the native cultures that existed in Central and South America when the Spanish explorers and colonists began to arrive. I split the class into Aztec and Inca empires, and each student was given an aspect of their culture to study, create a product, and give a presentation to their classmates. I loved how much time and effort they devoted to this assignment! A lot of the students volunteered to work on their projects at home, although this was not assigned, and their presentations were informative and interesting. Two of our students were assigned the traditional foods of their cultures, so Laura-Jane popped some Inca popcorn (on the stove, not in the microwave!) since that was one of the foods the Inca stored in their storehouses. Mike made Aztec hot chocolate, with a great deal of effort. He had to grate unsweeted baking chocolate and mix it with hot water, vanilla, and chili powder to create the drink of Aztec royals. We got to sample these foods during the presentation times.

Having learned about these important pre-Columbian cultures, we are going to spend this coming week learning about the Spanish conquistadors, particularly Cortez, and the conquest of Central and South America.

We are also going to spend some time on fall gardening this week, planting carrots, broccoli, and radishes in our garden plot. I would also love to have the students plant some bulbs such as tulips or daffodils, etc., if anyone would like to donate the bulbs to our class!

I’ve mentioned before that our class is using the Lost Tools of Writing curriculum, along with the rest of the upper school. They are doing a wonderful job! We have worked through most of the first unit, learning strategies to brainstorm ideas, a format for creating outlines, and how to convert an outline into an essay. These are the three basic lessons that we will be working with all year, adding more depth and detail with each unit. The students are all working hard and do particularly well when it comes to brainstorming ideas (called ‘Invention’ in the writing curriculum).

Have a great week and God bless!

Nicole Hallford

Mrs. Hallford’s Class Newsletter

October 6-9

I hope everyone had a great experience at the Flint Academy Open House! I really enjoyed getting to speak with everyone who was there, as well as meeting some prospective Flint families.

Last week we finished up our study of Columbus with a written narration. This is an informal way of assessing what the students learned and retained for a given topic. I told them to write down everything they could remember about Columbus, and gave them plenty of time to do so. I was pleased with the amount of information that the class was able to recall! We are now moving into a shorter study of South America and the Spanish and Portuguese explorations there. We will focus on the cultures that already existed in South America, their interactions with European explorers, and native flora and fauna.

We have spent a week preparing for a debate on Sarah Palin, reading an article about her policies in World Magazine. We postponed the debate till Monday, so students could watch the vice presidential debate if they wanted more information. I’m excited to see what they do with this topic!

We are nearly finished with our novel, Surviving The Applewhites. I expect to finish it sometime this week, and then we will do several projects relating to the content of the novel before moving on. Since the characters in the book put on a production of The Sound of Music, and that is a major element of the story, we will be watching The Sound of Music in class. I love helping the students make connections between a novel and other media, because their awareness of the book is so heightened!

In Art we have completed some wonderful picture studies of the Santa Maria, and they are hanging in the hallway outside our class if anyone would like to take a look. I’ll send these home after they have been enjoyed on display for a while!

God bless!

~Nicole Hallford

Mrs. Hallford’s Class Newsletter

September 15-18

Students take a moment of silent prayer in remembrance of the victims of 9-11.

This past week went very well! The class is doing a great job of adjusting and following directions. We had a fire drill and a tornado drill on two separate days this past week, and I was very pleased with how well everyone did. We were able to get right back into our lessons the minute we came back from the drills, and that is always a good thing! We didn’t have sufficient time for our debate, however, so we’ll have to pick it up this week instead.

We began our study of Columbus, and the students got started on their mixed-media art projects based on the constellations that early navigators used. We will continue the project this week, and I am excited to see how they turn out! We also began learning a poem about Columbus, which we will continue working with this week. Recitation is an important aspect of the Charlotte Mason philosophy which we incorporate at Flint. Memorizing something not only strengthens a child’s memory, but also is valuable instruction in language, vocabulary, and subject matter. I am including a copy of the poem so you can enjoy it with your child. This poem comes from the book The Harp And Laurel Leaf by Laura Berquist, which is a wonderful collection of classical poetry for all ages.

In Geography we copied maps of the four voyages of Columbus. This coming week, we will look at the development of cartography during his time, and copy a pre-Columbus map, so we can see how his voyages and determination changed the way people saw the world forever.

I am nearly finished with the reading assessments I need to do, and we are getting more and more settled into our ‘Literacy’ time. We had our first spelling test last week, and everyone did a wonderful job!

On Thursday last week, we devoted a lot of time to our 9-11 memorial project. We discussed the purpose of a memorial, and looked at various pictures of memorials. We then made a list as a class of words that are important to remember about that day, such as courage, hope, sacrifice, etc. Each student was given a small box to cover in paper, and then they were each assigned one of the words, which they wrote all over their box. After completing this, we voted on the best architectural design for the memorial (they chose to stack the boxes into two even towers, connected by the remaining box so it would be mobile) and then placed them together. We then had a moment of silent prayer for the victims of 9-11.

I was really proud of the sensitivity and depth of feeling that the class displayed, and I thought they did a wonderful job grasping the idea of this project.

God bless,

Nicole Hallford

Mrs. Hallford’s Class Newsletter

September 8-11

A sample of student work: a map of Portugal and the surrounding area in the time of Prince Henry The Navigator.

We had a wonderful first week of school, and I was very pleased with how well everyone got along! The returning students are doing a great job of helping acclimate our new students to classroom routine and culture, and everyone made an effort to have a pleasant week.

The class did really well adjusting to the subject rotation, and worked hard in all of our lessons. I was especially pleased with how our debate on turning great literature into movies went! We had some very good arguments and well-thought-out ideas on both sides. The debate was drawn from an article in a back-issue of World Magazine, about the new Prince Caspian movie. Since we read the book, saw a theatrical adaptation, and saw the movie as a class last year, I knew the students would have plenty of thoughts on the subject! The pro side did a great job of arguing that it is important to make literature accessible to people who struggle with reading, and wouldn’t otherwise be exposed to the ideas and inspiration of a great piece of literature. This is my personal feeling, as well! However, Mrs. O’Donnell and I were completely won over by the passionate and eloquent rebuttal from the con side, led by Josh. He argued that when you are really “inside” of a piece of great literature, your imagination takes over completely and you can feel with all of your senses that you are floating down the river with Huckleberry Finn, for example. Once you have seen a film adaptation of the book, though, the scenes, appearances, and voices are already set in your mind, and your imagination is no longer free to interpret what the author really meant.

This week’s debate will be on another article from a back-issue of World Magazine. It will be about whether or not we can or should give our forgiveness to repentant war criminals.

This week we will begin several weeks of study on the life and accomplishments of Christopher Columbus. There is an abundance of really great lessons to do on this subject, so I can’t wait to get started! We will set it aside on Thursday, however, so we can discuss September 11 and create a small memorial.

The class is really enjoying our novel, Surviving The Applewhites. One of the main characters starts out as a not-so-nice boy who hasn’t ever had good role-models, and opinions are mixed as to whether he will change his ways under the influence of the Applewhite family, or remain a troublemaker throughout the rest of the book.

Our Art lesson on Venetian masks went really well last week, as you can see!

This week’s Art lesson will be a mixed media representation of the constellations which Columbus and other early explorers used to help navigate unknown territory.

I will be sending home the Venetian masks today, and, if your child is returning from last year, some other work. Mostly this will be artwork, the Leonardo da Vinci research paper, and some completed books. I have attached short notes to these items, explaining what they are, but if you have any questions feel free to ask me! The map of Portugal, and some written narration from our History lesson will stay at school, because each child is creating their own Book of Centuries. These folders will contain maps, written information, and collages on the various people and events we are studying, and when finished will serve as a hand-made history book!

Please don’t forget to sign your child’s daily folder, so I know that you have received it each afternoon. Also, we have a lot of basketball players in our class – don’t forget that practice starts this week. I can’t wait to see our Falcons in action!

God bless,

Nicole Hallford