Crunch crunch crunch!

Happy Friday!  Please forgive our brief hiatus--we were busy getting back to school!  We're certainly enjoying the warmer temperatures, even if it's been a little misty.  Here are some ideas to keep you entertained over the three day weekend:

• Engage the senses: There are so many wonderful things that set fall apart: brisk mornings, football, apple cider, and of course, those crunchy leaves!  Take a walk around your neighborhood, and count how many of the trees have leaves that are changing.  Pick up a few and look at how their colors vary.  Do they smell different?  Find a good place to listen to them crunch beneath your feet.  Listen to how the sound changes when you move your feet in different ways. 

• Enlighten the mind: "Crunch" and "swish"  are both words that describe the sound you make when you walk through fallen leaves.  They are also both a kind of word called onomatopoeia, which is a fancy way of saying "a kind of word that sounds like a sound."  One of the best parts of onomatopoeia is that is can sound however you want!  What are some other sounds/words that you would use to describe walking through leaves?  How about raking or leaf blowing? 
• For bonus points: See if you can sound out the word you're using to describe leaves crunching and write it down.  How did you get to that spelling?  Does is look like something else you know?  Can you use onomatopoeia to create a poem?

• Nurture the Spirit: There are many stories with trees in the Bible--many might even be "hiding"!  You can watch the illustrations from one of our favorite versions of The Three Trees here (you can have a grown-up help you think of the words to the story if you'd like).  How do you think the trees felt when they were cut down?  How do you think they felt once they discovered God's plan for them?  

Enjoy the long weekend--we'll see you on Tuesday!

Elevation, not Elevator!

Blessed Feast! We had such a wonderful day celebrating the Elevation of the Cross at school today!  Here are a few things to keep you busy over the weekend:

• Engage the senses: Supposedly, St. Helen found the True Cross underneath a field of basil (or in Greek, βασιλεύς, also meaning "king").  Ask your grown-up if they have basil at home.  Smell the basil.  Taste it.  Basil is especially tasty with tomatoes and mozzarella cheese.  Try it--you may like it!  

• Enlighten the mind: The word "elevation" sounds like another word you know (elevator!).  What are some other words that sound similar?  Can you guess what those words mean?  

• Nurture the Spirit: Look at an icon of the Elevation of the Cross (you can find one with lots of additional information here.  Can you tell who the figures are in the icon?  How does it help you to tell the story?  

Have a wonderful weekend, if we don't see you at Sonia's Run!  

An apple a day...

What a beautiful Friday!  We were so blessed for our families to meet this morning during orientation--it's going to be another wonderful year!  Here's something to keep you busy over the weekend.

• Engage the senses: It's apple season! Try some different apples at home.  How does a red apple taste compared to a green or yellow one?  What about different varieties of one color?  Which one is your favorite? 

• Enlighten the mind: Apples are a perfect tool for teaching fractions!  When you cut an apple into two equal pieces, you've created two halves.  When you cut those two into two equal pieces, you've created four quarters.  How many equal pieces can you cut? Do you notice a pattern with the numbers?
• For bonus points: Can you write out the fractions?  Use the apple pieces to make math problems.  For example, what fraction do you make when you add two quarters together? 

• Nurture the Spirit: Read the story of Adam and Eve in your Bible.  What does the apple mean?  Can you think of any other similar stories (hint: a kind of precipitation + a color!)?  You might also like to read the story of St. Euphrosynos, the patron saint of cooks, here. His feast day is September 11. 

Have a wonderful weekend, and we'll see you for the start of school on Monday!  

Music, music everywhere!

One week from tomorrow will be orientation!  We're so excited to get started on the new school year!  Are you getting ready?  What are you most excited for?  Here are some fun things we've been noticing:

• Engage the senses: Have you ever stopped to listen to crickets chirping?  It sounds kind of like a violin, doesn't it?  Only boy crickets chirp--a special way they can attract the girls.  When and where can you hear them the best?  What happens when you get close to their hiding place?

• Enlighten the mind: Another fun thing about crickets?  Their chirps can tell you the temperature outside!  Using a stopwatch, count how many chirps you can hear in 14 seconds.  Add 40 to this number to get the degrees in Fahrenheit.
• For bonus points: Can you write a number sentence (equation) to help you remember how to tell the temperature from a cricket's chirp? 

• Nurture the Spirit: Yesterday, we celebrated the Feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist.  You can read this story in Matthew 14:1-13 or Mark 6:14-30.  How do you think St. John felt?  How did Herod feel?  What could have been a better way to solve Herod's problem? 

Enjoy the cricket songs tonight; maybe even read The Very Quiet Cricket by Eric Carle!  We'll see you very soon!  Enjoy the long weekend!

Seashells by the sea shore

What a beautiful week we had!!  It's time to squeeze those last few beach days in before school starts, and here are a few things to think about while you're there:

• Engage the senses : Have you ever held a seashell up to your ear and heard the ocean?  What you're actually hearing is the noise around you resonating inside the shell! Try listening to a shell with different music and sounds in the background. How does the noise change?  Can you reproduce the sound using something else besides a shell?  

• Enlighten the mind: A nautilus looks like a cross between a squid and a snail. As it grows, it builds new  compartments in its shell, sealing off the smaller section and moving into the larger. The sections grow according to the Fibonacci sequence, where the next size can be predicted based on the sum of the previous two numbers. How far can you expand this sequence? 1, 1, 2, 3... 

•  Bonus points: Can you draw it out?  For more fascinating math and animal facts, click here!

•  Nurture the Spirit: What special features did God give to ocean creatures?  How do these features help them in their environment?  Why do you think God didn't give the same features to land creatures?  Remember, God always knows what we need!  

Soak up the sun and the surf,  just don't forget the sunblock!   We're getting excited to see you soon! 

Rain, Rain!

With less than a month left before the start of school, we're getting very excited to turn our classrooms in colorful, creative learning environments!  Until then, here are a few ideas to get your children's brains revved up for school! With some terrific thunderstorms in Saturday's forecast, there's no better time to play with rain!

• Engage the senses:  Thunder may be scary, but not when you can make it yourself!  Try flapping a foil pan or striking a bent hand saw (with adult help!!!) to mimic the sound of thunder.  Try bouncing corn kernels, beans, rice, sand, beads -whatever your heart fancies!-off of a pie plate, a linoleum floor, a porcelain dish.  Which one sounds the most like rain?  Which one looks the most like rain?  Do you notice how the objects bounce off in a different direction than the way they fell? 
   
• Enlighten the mind: Did you know that you see lightning before you hear thunder because light moves at a faster speed than sound?  See if you can count the time between when you see a flash of lightning and when you hear a clap of thunder.  Then use the chart below from the National Weather Service to help you determine how far away the storm is from you!
• For bonus points: Did you know you're doing multiplication and division????  See if you can use skip-counting to write a math problem that helps you calculate how far away a storm really is.

If Thunder is Heard	The Lightning Is
5 seconds after lightning	1 mile away
10 seconds after lightning	2 miles away
15 seconds after lightning	3 miles away
20 seconds after lightning	4 miles away
25 seconds after lightning	5 miles away
30 seconds after lightning	6 miles away
35 seconds after lightning	7 miles away
40 seconds after lightning	8 miles away

 

• Nurture the spirit: Noah and his family lived through a pretty crazy storm!  Read the story of Noah in the Book of Genesis.  Why did God choose Noah and his family to escape the flood?  Do you think Noah and his family were afraid of the flood?  Why or why not?

Stay dry on your adventure!  We'll see you soon!

First grade!!!

What a better way to celebrate our sixteenth year than to begin our expansion into elementary school grades!  Theophany School in now enrolling Preschool, Kindergarten, and First grade classes for the 2012-2013 school year! 

Thank you to our parents who attended tonight's informational meeting!  We're so encouraged by your enthusiasm!  

Contact us now--spaces are limited!  For more information or to apply for admission, contact us at theophanyschool@gmail.com or visit www.theophanyschool.org. 

The Dog Days of Summer

It's hard to believe that the school year is just around the corner!  We're getting excited to start our sixteenth year of Theophany School!  Here are a few suggestions to keep you busy while the school year butterflies build:

• Engage the senses: Keep cool in the summer heat by making homemade popsicles: simply add fruit juice (or even better, fresh pureed fruit from a local farm!) to a popsicle form and freeze.  Have the kids help you mix their favorite flavors.  Another favorite: make fruit ice cubes, and drop them into sparkling water or club soda for a colorful, fizzy, fruity refresher!
• Enlighten the mind: Pour water into different size containers and place in the freezer (you can add food coloring if you wish!).  Predict how long it will take for each to melt.  Which will take the longest time?  The shortest?  Why?  Put the ice forms outside, and time how long each takes to melt.  If you're feeling really ambitious, make a chart with predictions (hypotheses!) and results.  Were you predictions right?  
• For bonus points: mark inside the container where the water reaches before and after freezing.  Predict if it will be higher when frozen, and where you think it will be when it melts again.  Were your predictions right?  What do you think was happening?

• Nurture the spirit: The Dormition (Falling Asleep) of the Mother of God is August 15th.  Celebrate the Theotokos by attending a paraklesis service at your local parish.  These services are almost completely sung, and easy to follow along.  Ask your child what their favorite name for the Theotokos is.  What makes her like other moms?  Different from other moms?  Why do you think we ask for her help? 

Keep cool, and we'll see you soon!