Back to Normalcy! :)

Finally, testing week is over!  And, Lord willing, so are delays and cancellations!  We still have much to cover in the classroom, and lots of learning is to be had by all!  Despite this fact, we did take twenty minutes of time to take the students outside today.  Here is a picture of some sweet seventh grade girls enjoying their time in the sun. :)

  

And here is the briefest glimpse of what's happening indoors....

7th English: We are finishing our poetry unit this week with a test on Thursday!  The students have learned how to write many forms of poetry and have studied a large variety of poems written by authors from all walks of life.  The students also have gained a deeper understanding of literary terms in reference to poetry.  We begin a new novel, Breaking Through by Francisco Jimenez, next week, and we will be continuing with grammar and vocabulary lessons as well.

8th English: We are bringing our short story unit to a close this week.  The unit will culminate with short stories written by each student.  We have been learning how to develop characters, setting, plot, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.  The students have also read a variety of short stories from different cultures and different times and of different genres.  We will start reading Lord of the Flies by William Golding next week.  This is an excellent classic novel which bring an amazing depth of discussion to the classroom.  There will be several writing assignments as well that coincide with our next unit.

7th Bible: We only have ONE unit left in the curriculum.  Our current unit is on the intertestamental period in Biblical history.  The students are usually intrigued about what happened between the old and new testaments.  This unit also provides a wonderful time of spiritual growth in discovering how God is most certainly, always there, even when we don't see or hear Him.  We learn to praise Him even more for the blessing of His Word!

8th Bible: We are on the very last unit in our text books.  These 8th graders flew through the curriculum, but, more importantly, my prayer is that they grew closer to the Lord and have gained a deeper love and passion for His Word and His people.  This current and last unit is about the modern church and includes lessons on cults.  The students will be giving presentations on their own churches during this unit as well.  We discuss more ways to minister and evangelize through a variety of activities.  This is always an interesting time for our 8th grade class and my favorite unit of the whole year.