Co-op in Review: April 10, 2014

This week, we started co-op with a fabulous service project.  Each family brought in new pajamas and the kids made hugging hands to wrap around the PJ's.  The jammies will then be donated to kids in the foster care system in Arizona.  What an honor to serve the children of Arizona in this way!!  This was the third and final week of the Dialectic class' study of politics and economics and this was the day the kids debuted their commercials!  They all did a fantastic job and truly demonstrated an understanding of their topics.  Great job kids!  The Grammar classes both studied the NASA shuttle program and also talked about the tragedy of the Challenger explosion.  The Upper Grammar class made intricate shuttle models out of card stock while the Lower Grammar class made shuttle models out of paper towel tubes and egg cartons.  All of the shuttles looked great!  The Five in a Row class read the book, "The Bee Tree".  Bored Mary Ellen is taken on an adventure by her grandfather to look for a bee tree and learns that the best things in life are worth the hard work!  The kids then worked hard making beehives out of Honeycomb cereal!

Co-op in Review: April 4, 2014

This was the second week of the Dialectic class' study of economics and politics.  The UG class was invited over for a friendly game!  Each student was give a set amount of Hershey's kisses and the kids had to compete with each other to earn more.  Sometimes they won, sometimes they lost.  Some got rich and some got poor.  Then their winnings were "equalized" and those who had none were thrilled while those who had become rich were angry.  It was a great way to demonstrate concepts like competition and socialism.  The Grammar classes both studied the life of Jimmy Carter, our 39th President.  The Upper Grammar class made clay peanuts-because Carter was a peanut farmer (and a nuclear physicist!) and the Lower Grammar class made neat houses out of paper bags, because Jimmy Carter was very active in Habitat for Humanity, a charity that builds homes for those who could not afford them!  The Five in a Row class read the book, "Little Nino's Pizzaria".  And, then they became like Nino and made pizzas of their own out of card stock and shredded paper.  So cute!

Co-op in Review: March 27, 2014

This week, our Dialectic class started a three week long unit on Economics and Political Economic Systems.  The kids were introduced to the project they would be completing--they are each going to make an advertisement "selling" the rest of the class on a particular system of government--whether it be republic, monarchy or even anarchy!  Then the class was introduced to basic economics vocabulary by playing a fun and competitive vocabulary matching game!  The Upper Grammar class studied the space race--by sending their own homemade rockets into space.  Okay, it was just a few feet into the air, but it was fun and exciting!  The Lower Grammar class studied the countries and geography of South America.  Then they made Goucho belts, like the famous ones from Argentina!  And, the Five in a Row class read the book, "The Wild Horses at Sweetbriar."  Then the class made their own beautiful, wild horses!