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Creating Jesse Trees Brings The Christmas Story To Life!

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The first graders in Mrs. Jessica Hanzsche’s class are taking on a special project this Christmas season - creating Jesse Trees to track the lineage of Jesus. By going straight to scripture, these young students are learning about the truth of the Christmas story and gaining a deeper understanding of the Old Testament and New Testament. The students are keeping the Bible stories and characters they encounter in chronological order, starting from Creation and progressing all the way to Jesus being born in a stable. Each story and character is symbolized as an ornament and is placed on their Jesse Tree, allowing them to visually retell the story.

“Our prayer for our students is that this story will come alive to them each and every year,” says Mrs. Hanzsche. “That the Lord will reveal Himself to them in new ways and that it will never get old. Our thought and hope is if we teach them how this story came to be, it will mean a bit more to them and give them the ability to share confidently with others what Christmas is really about.” 

Mrs. Hanzsche says this project helps our first graders focus on the one and only "reason for the season" - Jesus. He is what it's all about, and He makes all the difference, not just during the Christmas season, but throughout the entire year. Mrs. Hanzsche says she has been touched by the students’ reactions to the project “as they make connections to the stories they’ve heard before, and respond to the power of the Word.”

Through their Jesse Trees and their growing knowledge of scripture, these young students are being equipped to confidently proclaim the message of Jesus' birth and share the joy and hope that it brings. 

Posted by Darla Rourk with
in Lower School

Exploring Latin American Culture In Lower School Spanish Classes

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Buenos dias! The lower school classes have been embracing new experiences during Spanish class - sampling foods from Latin America like yucca, plantains, horchata, nopal, and choclo. Spanish Teacher Tonya Whitehead said students recently sampled agua de jamaica, aka hibiscus tea. She says she did not get a unanimous "love it!". Tally marks from their vote showed three students saying they loved it, 2 who liked it, and 7 who said, no gracias. 

Over the past few weeks, Mrs. Whitehead and her classes have been talking about the importance of spreading God's love by learning to communicate with our hispanic neighbors. Many classes learned the merengue dance and sang traditional songs from Latin America. Their favorite music was Huapango de Jose Pablo de Moncayo. 

Overall, students embraced this learning experience and all that they discovered about Latin American culture. Henry Van Roekel says he "really enjoyed drinking tea!" Ellie Jeter says she "enjoyed the dancing moves and steps", while Campbell Alford added that it was great "learning about kindness and encouragement to help others who are from different backgrounds." Ethan Williams weighed in on the interesting snacks, saying "Yucca has a really different texture and shape."

Learning Spanish as a second language is a valuable opportunity for our lower school students as they are also exposed to new cultural practices, influencing how people think, act and what things they care about in their lives. Some studies suggest that learning a second language can even boost cognitive function such as memory, mental clarity and concentration.

Posted by Ji Pasko with

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