Co-op in Review: February 13, 2014

This week, our co-op time together started off with a fabulous Valentine's Party.  What better thing to celebrate than love?  After all, we can only love because Jesus first loved us!  The kids took turns writing one word descriptions of each other on hearts and hanging them on the "love tree."  It was adorable and the kids loved reading the loving things others said about them!  Then it was time to exchange Valentines and eat some yummy treats, like popcorn, chocolate and cupcakes!  In our classes, the Dialectic class completed their Civil Rights study.  This was the day of the presentations and the kids did great.  Each of them presented on their assigned Civil Rights leader and the other students asked some very well reasoned questions of them afterwards!  The Upper Grammar class previewed the space race and they made some awesome space suits!!  The Lower Grammar class made adorable busses out of egg cartons--to bring to life the freedom rides and the problems of bus segregation.  The Five in a Row class read the book, "The Very Last First Time."  It's the story of a young girl who lives in the arctic.  She goes into an ice cave by herself for the first time and discovers a world of sea treasures!  The kids then learned more about life in the arctic by making igloos out of marshmallows and they also made watercolor polar bear landscapes.  

Co-op in Review: February 6, 2014

This week, we are in the midst of learning about the struggles this country faced in granting all of its citizens equal rights.  In the southern states, black citizens did not have equal opportunities.  They did not have the same schools as whites, could not eat at the same restaurants or use the same bathrooms or drinking fountains.  This was a sad reality, and it was going to be changing.  But, the changes wouldn't come without a fight.  This week, we learned about several parts of this fight.  We learned about the freedom rides, in which young people rode busses in order to bring the nation's attention to the problem of segregation on the interstate bus system.  And, we learned about the Little Rock 9, which were nine high school students who braved the system and enrolled in a large, white public high school in Little Rock.  They met resistance, yet made their marks on history, helping the cause of desegregation.  Also, the kids learned about the hero of the Civil Rights movement, Dr. Martin Luther King, who taught his followers to protest with non-violence.  The Dialectic kids were in their second week of their Civil Rights unit.  They continued to work on their research projects, delving deeper into these divisive, yet crucial, issues.  The Upper Grammar kids got their hands messy as they made handprint posters with quotes from Martin Luther King.  They also made MLK paper doll garlands!  The Lower Grammar class made frisbees out of card stock.  Frisbees were popular toys for kids and adults during this time in history.  The Five in a Row class continued their travels around the world.  This week they read the story, "Another Celebrated Dancing Bear".  It's the story of a bear who learns how to dance and joins the circus.  The story takes place in Russia and the kids learned about the unique and beautiful architecture of Russia, making onion top building pictures out of brightly colored paper.  They turned out beautifully!

Co-op in Review: January 30, 2014

This week, our history studies take us to the tumultuous decade of the 1960's.  Gone are the blissful 50's, and now it's time to shake things up.  In the first presidential election where the debates were televised, charismatic John F. Kennedy narrowly defeated Vice President Richard Nixon to win the presidency.  Kennedy was busy in his mere two and a half years in office.  He dealt with crises in Cuba, relations with Russia, a war beginning in Vietnam, not to mention serious trouble in the American South where a fight for Civil Rights was beginning to really heat up.  The Dialectic class began a three week study of the Civil Rights movement this week.  They each were assigned a Civil Rights figure to research and make a presentation on.  They also are working on timelines and doing some pretty extensive research as well.  The Upper Grammar class made rubber band helicopters, as they are learning about the very beginnings of a conflict in a faraway land, Vietnam.  The Lower Grammar class learned about why all people are created equal, and that skin color doesn't matter.  They made cute hand garlands, using hands with a variety of different skin colors, to show that we are all united.  The Five in a Row class read the book, "Madeline".  It's the story of an adorable little girl who lives in France.  They then took a journey to France by making paper models of the lovely city of Paris.

Field Trip to the Challenger Space Center!

On Thursday, January 23, the Tapestry of the Desert Co-op had a fun field trip to the Challenger Space Center, in Peoria AZ.  We gathered together in the morning and had an educational and fun couple of hours exploring the center and learning more about the amazing world God created.  Our first stop was a lesson on energy and prisms.  The kids loved learning how electricity flows through matter--especially our own bodies.  We then went into a super cool room with gigantic foam building blocks.  There the kids were able to create their own space stations.  They were creative and did a great job cooperating with one another to build something pretty remarkable.  Finally the kids were taken to the meteorite room where they were able to learn more about space rocks and they were even able to hold a real meteorite.  It was a fun day and we learned a lot!