Liesel's First Post

     My name is Liesel, I am nine years old, and a student at Liberty Youth Academy!  I want to write about some of my favorite things that we have done since school started.

     First, I was excited about school because I got to sit next to Savannah and Nathan.  The next thing that I really liked was on p.e. day, we played a fun hula hoop game where we had to hold hands and ask questions about the people who we were holding hands with us while a hula hoop went over our heads. I also love choir and singing all of the songs because I like how we all sing together.
   Finally, I like the story we are reading about ancient Egypt because I really like how they dressed and I especially like their cat masks.
    I love my classmates because they are very nice and no one is mean, and I like being a student at Liberty Youth Academy.

The First Day of School Resumed Today

 Class resumed today, and the children were beaming with excitement, all wide-eyed and ready to learn. This year, the students at LYA will be given the opportunity to post on this blog, and add pictures that they will take themselves. The intention is to get them engaged and enthusiastic to share what they have learned, so look for upcoming posts written by the students.

In case you missed the Open House, you may not be aware of a few things:

1. New curriculum from American Heritage will be added this school year that emphasizes the 4-R approach to learning, which is, Read, Reason, Relate, and Record. Sister Dale has implemented this type of method in the past, but she feels it will compliment her technique and style of teaching this year as well.

2. We are privileged to have Tammy Jensen, mother of three, previous owner of an LDS Faith based school in Salt Lake City, and developer of "Who I Really Am" (previously known as Crocodile International Leadership) joining our team of highly inspirational teachers and leaders this year. 

3. There is a new after school program called Bricks 4 Kidz, and it is more than just playing with Legos! The children will engineer and construct small items using Legos and battery powered motors. Some pieces that were shown at the Open House included a windmill and a robotic spider that walks on the ground. The cost is $60 for six weeks, and the class is filling up fast, so please let Sister Dale know if your child is interested (for more information, click on the link.: bricks4kidz.com)

4. Please remember to send a pair of safety goggles to school this week with your child so that they can participate in the science experiments with Max Rose, the Science Specialist. You can purchase them at most hardware stores, and they will need them by next week.

5. There will be an FHE Family Social and Potluck for friends and family of LYA students at Boots Cox Park on Monday, September 22nd in the evening, so be sure to mark your calendar for that.

Please continue to offer your support and much needed help this year by volunteering to drive for recess and field trips, and by getting involved in fund raisers. Your assistance is greatly appreciated and imperative to the school's success!

Liberty Youth Academy Week #6

Virtue of the week: PATIENCE

Article of Faith: #6

Scripture: ...and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him. ~Mosiah 3:19

Quote #1:"Patience-the ability to put our desires on hold for a time-is a rare and precious virtue...nevertheless, without patience, we cannot please God, we cannot become perfect." ~Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Quote #2: "We should learn to be patient with ourselves. Recognizing our strengths and weaknesses, we should strive to use good judgment in all our choices and decisions, and do our best in every task we undertake. We should not be discouraged nor in despair at any time when we are doing the best we can." ~Joseph B. Wirthlin

Quote #3 "Great difficulties may be surmounted by patience and perseverance." ~Abigail Adams

All of the students worked on memorizing these quotes, some memorized all of the quotes, the scripture and the Article Of Faith ( Ask them to see if they remember). The children are also working on memorizing the Presidents of the United States, 10 Key "Hook Dates" from the Book Of Mormon (copies went home in their homework folders) and some poems. And the boys are working on a poem titles Our Heroes. They earn prizes from the prizebox on Thurs. for doing so. We will have "pass off day" every Thurs. where they can pass off the quotes/script/AofF for that week.

RELIGION:We talked about the importance of being patience with ourselves and our challenges, and to have patience with God and His timing.When we pray, sometimes we have to patient and wait for our prayers to be answered.

LEADERSHIP: We will begin next week discussing Steven Covey's 7 principles of leadership. I'm excited to begin this unit, which will continue through the year with your children. They will be writing their own personal Mission Statement next week!

MATH: Each child learned new math concepts for their level, took timed tests and worked on their lessons. We also learned about Thales, one of the 7 Ancient Wise men, and the math concepts he used when he calculated the height of the the tallest pyramid in Egypt. We used proprotions to figure out the size of things in our classroom as well. We continued our Life Of Fred math .

LANGUAGE ARTS: We focused on complete sentences and will be learning about Nouns and Verbs next week. We played Spelling baseball, and took our Spelling tests.

LITERATURE :We continued reading the book called, Dear America: The Diary of Remember Patience Whipple. Patience and her family have made it to the New World. We are now learning about the dangers and difficulties of the New World.

HISTORY/GEOGRAPHY: We finished the Constitution, memorizing the Preamble, and learning what all of those words mean. We also charted the Pilgrims journey from England, to Holland and then finally to Cape Cod. We learned that they meant to go to Jamestown, but it was impossible so they settled in Cape Cod in a deserted Native American village. We also learned about how Squanto and Massasoit helped the Pilgrims, and where the word Pilgrims ( ask your kids who first used this word and why) came from and we learned about the Mayflower Compact. We will use the Pilgrim's example to create our own Love Of Learning Class Compact next week!

SCIENCE: We went to the Wildlife Museum as a follow up to our recent Science units. What a fun and informative field trip.  Thank you Sister Alexander!

CHOIR: We were very privileged to hear Lisa Hopkins Seegmiller, a Tony award winning, Grammy nominated actress and singer, perform "Somewhere," from West Side Story for us on Wednesday. It was an absolute thrilling moment for all of the children. We are so grateful for talented people who are willing to share their talents with us and inspire us to work on our talents!

ART:  We finished our starfish necklaces as a follow up to student, Kennedy Fowlke's starfish presentation!  What a great activity.  We have glitter EVERYWHERE.  You may have noticed your children are "glowing" this week, but we had a fun time making them and they turned out well.  What a great idea Kennedy! 

FUN-Damentals (Sister Hepworth's Class)

RELIGION:

We learned about the prophet Noah and his faithfulness in a wicked world.

MATH:  We learned to add tallies and use whole/part circles.

LITERATURE: We learned a poem about Autumn Leaves.  Please send an beautiful leaves you find to share with the class.  We also continued to read  Winnie The Pooh books, and readThe Ugly Duckling.

GEOGRAPHY:  We colored the seven continents.

We went on a field trip had fun at the park and celebrated Kylie's birthday.  After that, we visited the Temple Visitor Center and watched a movie-FUN DAY!

Liberty Youth Academy Week #5

Virtue of the week: OBEDIENCE

Article of Faith: #5

Scripture: Wherefore my bretheren, I would that ye should consider that the things which have been written upon the plates of brass are true; and they testify that a man must be obedient to the commandments of God.

1 Nephi 22:30

Quote #1:"When obedience ceases to be an irritant and becomes your quest, in that moment, God will endow you with power."  ~Ezra Taft Benson

Quote #2: I too believe that God will always make a way, when there is no way.  I believe that if we will walk in obedience to the commandments of God, if we will follow the counsel of the Priesthood, He will open a way even where there appears to be no way."  ~ Gordon B. Hinckley

 

All of the students worked on memorizing these quotes, some memorized all of the quotes, the scripture and the Article Of Faith ( Ask them to see if they remember). The children are also working on memorizing the Presidents of the United States, 10 Key "Hook Dates" from the Book Of Mormon (copies went home in their homework folders) and some poems. And the boys are working on a poem titled Our Heroes. They earn prizes from the prizebox on Thurs. for doing so. We will have "pass off day" every Thurs. where they can pass off the quotes/script/AofF for that week.

 

RELIGION:   We talked about the importance of making the decision, right now in their young lives, to be obedient to God, and their parents. We discussed, compared and contrasted people in the Book Of Mormon like the Brother Of Jared, and Lehi's family who were obedient, and the consequences of their obedience, compared to those who didn't obey.We also finished our Tree of Life Murals.  The kids did a great job on them!

 

MATH: Each child learned new math concepts for their level, took timed tests and worked on their lessons.  

 

LANGUAGE ARTS: Stories are done and were shared.  THEY WERE ALL WONDERFUL AND WORTH THE WAIT!!!!!  I am so proud of each of the children!  We also began some Latin root words, and learned about writing a paragraph.

 LITERATURE :     We continued reading the book called, Dear America: The Diary of Remember Patience Whipple.     The children are learning why the Pilgrims came to this land, and that it was a tremendous sacrifice for them and that there were not pleasant conditions on the Mayflower.  We measured out the size of the storage hold where they stayed and tried to imagine 100+ people, sea sick, no privacy, and all crammed together. We also shared the stories that they wrote with the class.

 

HISTORY/GEOGRAPHY: We talked about the Constitution, what it is, who is responsible for writing it, and the process that it took for it to come to be.  We saw that the Lord's hand was definitely involved!  We also learned the preamble in sign language. We reviewed the life of Christopher Columbus and took our tests on him. THE KIDS ALL GOT AN A OR A+ (P/H-Pass with Honors!)  That's never happened before!  Next week we will learn more about the Constitution and begin a unit on the Pilgrims

 

SCIENCE: We discussed MAMMALS!  Homework packets went home as reinforcement!  Next Thurs. we will be going on a field trip as a follow up to what we learned this week.  We will be visiting the Rosenbruch Wildlife Museum from 12:15-2:30.  This is for the Love Of Learning Class only. Cost is $2.00. Please send to school with your signed field trip permission slip next week BEFORE Thursday!

 

CHOIR: We worked on directing 3/4 time and the learned the Preamble in sign language/song, and continued working on the songs that we've been working on for Christmas and Thanksgiving.

FUN-Damentals (Sister Hepworth's Class)

Thank you to everyone who has come in to observe Riggs Reading & Writing.  You are always welcome (10:00).  

 

RELIGION:  We learned about Enoch, the missionary this week!  At first he was afraid to be a missionary, but he learned to do it.  With God's help, he became such a great missionary that his city became righteous enough to go to Heaven.  We know that we each have our own mission to do, and we want to work hard to accomplish it!

 

HISTORY:  We are thankful that our Founding Fathers accomplished their mission to write the Constitution so that we could have rules to follow that will keep America  free.  Our class constitution helps us at school.  In Leadership, we learned to be anxiously engaged in good causes, and we put our mission statements on our leadership tree.

 

SCIENCE:  We learned about the life cycle of an apple and tasted lots of different types of apples. It is interesting to learn that each apple is individual and special with its own unique purpose.

 

LITERATURE: We started reading Winnie the Pooh books!

 

GEOGRAPHY:  We made a compass rose, learned about North, South, East and West and made a real compass that worked! We are thankful for the direction that our inner compass gives us.  If we follow Jesus Christ we are sure to find our way!

LIBERTY YOUTH ACADEMY TO SPONSOR A NEW RADIO STATION

LIBERTY YOUTH ACADEMY IS PROUD TO BE A SPONSOR OF THE SUNDAY MORNING LDS MUSIC ON KCLS 101.5. BEGINNING NEXT SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 16TH FROM 6 A.M. -1P.M.  TELL YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT THIS NEW RADIO STATION PLAYING LDS MUSIC, AND LISTEN IN.  YOU MAY HEAR A FAMILIAR VOICE!

Liberty Youth Academy Week #4

Virtue of the week:  COURAGE

Article of Faith:  #4

Scripture: God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love and of a sound mind.  ~Timothy 1:7

Quote #1:  "Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at its testing point."  ~C.S. Lewis

Quote #2:  "Do the thing you fear to do and keep doing it...that is the quickest and surest way, yet discovered, to conquer fear." ~Dale Carnegie

Quote #3:  "Decisions are constantly before us.  To make them wisely, courage is needed:  The courage to say, 'Yes', the courage to say 'No', Decisions do determine destiny!"  ~ Thomas S. Monson

All of the students worked on memorizing these quotes, some memorized all of the quotes, the scripture and the Article Of Faith ( Ask them to see if they remember).  The children are also working on memorizing the Presidents of the United States, 10 Key "Hook Dates" from the Book Of Mormon (copies went home in their homework folders) and some poems.  They earn prizes from the prizebox on Thurs. for doing so.  We will have "pass off day" every Thurs. where they can pass off the quotes/script/AofF for that week.

 The children each received a "Call To Courage."  President Monson spoke about this a few years ago and said we each have something important that the Lord is counting on us to do! Now is the perfect time to decide that we want to follow the Savior and make choices so that we will be prepared when the Lord needs us.  I "called" them all to have the courage to live so that they can be instruments for the Lord.  We also learned about people in the scriptures like David when he faced Goliath, who had to have courage, and Columbus when he said off knowing it was what God wanted  him to do, but everyone else thought he was crazy. 

FUN-Damentals (Sister Hepworth's Class)

RELIGION:

We learned about Adam and Eve and their growing family after they left the Garden of Eden.  They taught their children the gospel and they all learned together in a new land.  They found that keeping the commandments brought much happiness.  We learned that our class is happiest, also, when we obey rules and use our best manners.  We want to grow to be like Jesus Christ.

LANGUAGE ARTS: 

We learned the phonograms s, qu, b, e.  Now we know all the short clock letters.  Please help your students practice them correctly at home.  Be sure to have them say the letter sound as they write it.  Watch to make sure they gain solid habits of forming each letter correctly.  There are also three other ways we practice our phonograms: 

1) Flash the phonogram cards we have learned.  You flash the card, the student says the sounds.

2)  Give phonogram test. Choose 10+cards.  You say the phonogram and your student writes it on the test paper.  The student reads the phonograms on the test paper back to you and checks the card to see if they are correct.  (It is helpful to come to school to see how we do this at 10:00 a.m.)

3)  Find phonograms in the poem and scriptures we are learning.

MATH: We measured our weight and height.  We are all unique and different, with our own special purpose too!

  

SCIENCE:

We learned about the life cycle of an apple and tasted lots of different types of apples.  It is interesting to learn that each apple is individual and special with its own unique purpose.

 LOVE OF LEARNING (Sister Dale's Class)

 

 HOMEWORK FOLDERS:  Your child's homework is on the left side of the folder, along with any parent information, and the reading charts.  FOLDERS NEED TO BE RETURNED WITH WORK HOMEWORK COMPLETED ON MONDAYS.  I WILL PUT IT IN THEIR BINDERS TO BE SENT HOME AT THE END OF THE YEAR!  PLEASE RECORD THEIR READING MINUTES FOR THURS-SUN ON THEIR READING CHART AS WELL AND SEND IN THEIR FOLDER MONDAY.  THEY ARE TRYING TO EARN FREE BOOKS TO BE AWARDED THE END OF OCTOBER DURING LITERACY WEEK!

RELIGION:  We read and analyzed Lehi's dream of the Tree of Life and found out what each of the things that he saw represent.  Next week we will be drawing a mural of the Tree of Life and placing ourselves in the mural where we are in our life now, or where we would like to be. 

MATH:  Each child learned new math concepts for their level, took timed tests and worked on their lessons.

LANGUAGE ARTS:  Stories are almost done!  It has taken a little longer than I had planned, but the children are REALLY into writing and illustrating them.  They will be presented next week.  We also discussed a writing trick that author's use, and that we found in President Monson's quote for this week.  It's called ALLITERATION!  Ask your children what Alliteration is.  We did some really fun exercises practicing using alliteration in our writing, and read some examples in poetry, and even did some poetry art with alliteration!

LITERATURE:  We finished Ida B!  What beautiful lessons we learned about family and facing hardships with a good attitude and saying sorry we've done wrong, and forgiving ourselves.  Ida has become a real person to all of us.  The book was thoroughly enjoyed by all!  We began our new book called, Dear America:  The Diary of Remember Patience Whipple. It is about a young.  It is about a young Pilgrim girl who was on the Mayflower.  It required a lot of courage for her family to make the decision to come on this voyage, and they are finding that it is MUCH more difficult that then imagined it would be.  We can't wait to see what lessons we will learn from Remember, her family and the other Pilgrims of the Mayflower!

HISTORY/GEOGRAPHY:  We learned about the young life of Christopher Columbus, that the Book of Mormon prophesies of his coming to America, the spiritual experiences that Columbus had to inspire him to find a new land where would be people who didn't know about Jesus Christ.  We also learned that Columbus was led by the Lord to these lands.  It's been a wonderful unit.  We also Incorporated the Geography of Columbus's voyage and the islands he discovered on his first voyage into this unit.  Several times this week I've heard several children say, "I love History."  Makes for one happy teacher!  They are such great children!

SCIENCE:  The students presented their Science reports and I was so proud of them all! Each received a P/H (Pass with Honors) for their efforts. To see pics of their presentations check FACEBOOK, or our blog:  libertyyouthacademy.blogspot.com.  They are getting so excited about Science and really working hard to learn more.  We began a unit on Reptiles.  They have homework packets in their Homework Folders that they can work on this weekend. 

CHOIR:  It's sounding like Christmas at LYA!  We will be starting to work on some Thanksgiving songs too.

Liberty Youth Academy Week 3

Virtue of the week:  POSITIVE ATTITUDE!

Article of Faith:  #3

Scripture: As a man thinker in his heart so is he. ~Proverbs 23.7

Quote #1:  "If you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely."  ~Ronald Dal-Author of Charlie And The Chocolate Factory

Quote #2:  "Happiness something that you ARE, and it comes from the way you THINK."  ~Wayne Dyer-Motivational Speaker

Quote #3:  "Don't you give up, don't you quit.  You keep walking, you keep trying.  There is help and happiness ahead...It will be all right in the end.  Trust God and believe in good things to come."  ~Jeffrey R. Holland-Apostle 

 

All of the students worked on memorizing these quotes, some memorized all of the quotes, the scripture and the Article Of Faith ( Ask them to see if they remember).  They earned prizes from the prizebox on Thurs. for doing so.  We will have "pass off day" every Thurs. where they can pass off the quotes/script/AofF for that week.

During Devotional we learned that if you think you can do something, you can, and if you think that you can't, you probably can't!  Attitude affects everything, every choice we make.  We discussed people from the Book of Mormon and History who had good attitudes and the results in their lives from having this attitude.  We also watched a video from Elder Holland telling us to never give up, to always keep trying and believe that good things will come our way!

 

RELIGION:  We continued to read in the Book Of Mormon!  The kids are loving it!  We are working on memorizing "Hook Dates", which are important dates in Book Of Mormon history.  The children are taking copies of the Hook Dates home to work on memorizing.

 

MATH:  We began a new series called Life Of Fred this week.  It is math in story form. Math concepts are taught in the way children learn best-THROUGH STORIES!  Each of the students worked on their individual lessons and we played math facts games like Sum Swamp an Math Slam It on Thursday to help us with our Math facts.  Next week we will add some stories from Mathematicians Are People Too.!   

 

LANGUAGE ARTS:  The children are working on their final drafts of their stories, and the illustrations.  We will be sharing them with our friends next week!  New Spelling words were begun this week and the test on these words will be next Thurs. Sept 13th.

 

LITERATURE:  We are almost done with Ida B!  In the book Ida B learned that having a bad attitude can make difficult situations even more difficult for yourself and for everyone around you.  Perfect timing for our Virtue of the Week-Positive Attitude!  She decided to take Courage and face her family's problems with a better attitude. 

 

HISTORY/GEOGRAPHY:  We continued with learning about the States and Capitals.  We played Capitals Bingo and that seemed to help a lot.  We will continue to work on these.

 

SCIENCE:  The students are all supposed to be observing birds at their birdfeeders and drawing the birds that they see, then coming to school and looking them up in the Field Guides.  They are also doing a Science report on either a type of bird or fish to be presented next Thurs.

 

CHOIR:  We continued to work on our songs about our virtues, and worked on Christmas songs.  We didn't get to learning about how to properly lead music and time signatures this week, but will do so next week for sure! 

FUN-Damentals (Sister Hepworth's Class)

 

RELIGION:

We learned about the Fall of Man.  God has given us the gift of choice!  We are so glad we can make our own choices and know that we will be blessed for the good choices we make.  We learn from our choices, and when we make a mistake, we fix it.  We learned a lot from the story of Adam and Eve. 

 

LANGUAGE ARTS: 

We have learned the letter sounds and how to write a, c,d,f,g and o so far.  I have included some information and helpful hints about the Riggs program in your child's folder to help you with the homework and for you to keep for reference throughout the year.  

 

MATH: I have included some math cards to be saved and used at home for math activities.

 

MUSIC:

In Choir we are learning some Christmas songs and Never Tell A Lie. 

 

SCIENCE:

We learned about apples!  When an apple falls off the tree, it gives food to others, and its seeds can grow into new apple trees.  The apple fulfilled its mission and was a happy apple.  We want to accomplish our own individual missions on earth like Adam, Eve, and Johnny Appleseed did.   

 

 LITERATURE:

We read the Frog Princess.  We decided we want to be like her and keep our promises.

Liberty Youth Academy Week 2

HERE'S A LITTLE OF WHAT WE DID IN OUR CLASSES: FUN-Damentals (Sister Hepworth's Class) RELIGION: We started our studies in the Old Testament this week and learned about the Creation of the World. The world is so beautiful! It is amazing to learn of the uniqueness of so many wonderful creations that God made with his own hands, including US! He must love us very much to provide us with such bounty and variety, and we are excited to learn more about His creation in Science this year.
 LANGUAGE ARTS: We learned all our letter strokes, reviewed the letter names of all the ABC's, and started learning the letter sounds and correct letter formation for a,c,d,and f. Please come in and buy a set of Riggs cards ($25.00) to help reinforce their learning at home. It would also be helpful for you to come to school at 10:00 a.m. on a day convenient for you and see how we test and practice our phonograms. MATH: The math worksheets in the folder reinforce the concepts learned this week.
 MUSIC: We sang, He's Got the Whole World In His Hands, and The Hokie Pokie in our class, and in Choir we are learning some Christmas songs and He Loves Me, Where We Stand, and Jesus Is Coming. SCIENCE: We are learning our lefts and rights and want to keep our hands clean. ( We are doing a Science experiment on germs.)
 ART: We made our own unique hand and foot prints and commit to use our feet to follow Jesus and use our hands for doing good.
 LITERATURE: We are still reading good Literature (Words That Light Our Way). We can learn a lot from the stories we read! Mrs. H 668-9392 hhep@aol.com

LOVE OF LEARNING (Sister Dale's Class) We are getting to know each other better and have learned that our class is a safe place where we can open up and BE OURSELVES!!! The students have also been working really hard on obeying the rules and have done an outstanding job! We've had most days where all students remained on a GREEN CARD! This means that they get an additional 20 Liberty Loot, and for every day that there are no red cards we get a point towards a "Movie Day". The class needed 15 points to earn a movie day and they already have 11. They will likely earn a movie sometime this week. I am soooo proud of their hard work, and this has been earned in record time! The movie chosen will be either a G or PG movie, that I've previously seen, and will have to do with either our History, Religion or Virtues that we've discussed. WAY TO GO LOVE OF LEARNING CLASS!!!
 ITEMS WE WORKED ON MEMORIZING THIS WEEK: Virtue of the week: Perseverance Article of Faith: #2 Scripture: 1 Nephi 13:37 Quote #1: "Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up." ~Thomas Edison Quote #2: "Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson Quote #3: "Don't limit yourself and don't let others convince you that you are limited in what you can do. Believe yourself and then live so as to reach your possibilities. you can achieve what you believe you can." ~Thomas S. Monson All of the students worked on memorizing these quotes, some memorized all of the quotes, the scripture and the Article Of Faith ( Ask them to see if they remember). They earned prizes from the prizebox on Thurs. for doing so. We will have "pass off day" every Thurs. where they can pass off the quotes/script/AofF for that week. We talked about the importance of NEVER GIVING UP on our goals, or on ourselves! We read and discussed Nephi and his attempts to get the Brass plates from King Laban. He had perseverance and faith! His brother's chose to complain and murmur instead of having perseverance like Nephi.
 In History we are also discussing Columbus. He had to have A LOT of perseverance too. He spent 7 years of his life trying to convince the King and Queen of Spain that his ideas were worth their financing. Then when they were on the voyage, more perseverance was needed in order to make it. His crew and the captains of the other ships wanted to turn back. On the last day possible, land was sighted and thanks to Columbus's faith and perseverance, the new lands were discovered.
 RELIGION: We continued to read in the Book Of Mormon and spent time comparing and contrasting Nephi and Lehi's response to their hardships with Laman and Lemuel's. We all decided we want to be like Nephi!
 MATH: I am still doing some assessments, but all have started on their individual lesson plans and are working on their worksheets as a follow up to their lessons and math facts memorization. We will begin a new series called Life Of Fred this week. It is math in story form. Math concepts are taught in the way children learn best-THROUGH STORIES! Also, we will be adding some stories from Mathematicians Are People Too. Both of these curriculums, Life of Fred and Mathematicians Are People Too, teaches teaches the children about math concepts and the people who developed these concepts through the medium that children learn best-STORIES!
 LANGUAGE ARTS: We are doing a creative writing unit. One of very talented students, Megan Ford, brought in a story that she had written about her blanket named Kiki, that she's had since she was a baby. It was a delightful story that told about how she loved her blanket, how she loved it so much it is in shreds, how that happened, how her blanket has comforted her and that she still likes to sleep with it, as well as a night light. It is a beautiful story that inspired all of the other students in the class to open up and talk about their favorite blanket, or stuffed animals, and their need to sleep with a night light too. The experience really helped to build class friendships and trust, but it also inspired the children to want to write! I had planned to do some activities where we reviewed writing a paragraph, but decided to change lesson plans and we did some brainstorming activities instead. We reviewed some basics of creative writing and the students began working on their stories. We will continue to work on our stories and do some revising this week. The students also took their first Spelling Tests! New words go out this week and the test on these words will be next Thurs.
 LITERATURE: I read some short stories to the children illustrating Perseverance, and the children are LOVING the novel Ida B!!!
 HISTORY: As mentioned above, we began a unit on Christopher Columbus. We learned about his life as a boy, and how he felt impressed by the spirit to sail. We will be learning about the prophesy related to Columbus discovering the Promised Land in the Book of Mormon this coming week and learn more about the actual first trip to discover the new lands!
 GEOGRAPHY: We began learning about the Geography of the U.S. We are starting with learning about all of the States. I discovered when we were talking about Hurricane Isaac that the many of the students didn't know that New Orleans was in Louisiana, or where Louisiana was located. I decided to review states and then we will then move to memorizing the capitals. We also are learning about the mountain ranges and major rivers in the U.S.
 SCIENCE: The students really enjoyed learning about Fish and Birds. Sister Alexander brought in some fish to observe and sent home bird feeders to lure birds into your yards for observation. A Science homework packet went home as well and can be worked on until we have Science again
CHOIR: We continued to work on our songs about our virtues, learned a new one about Perseverance and worked on Christmas songs. We will begin learning about time signatures and how to properly lead music in choir this week

Scholar Class Is Back!

Liberty Youth Academy is pleased to announce the return of the SCHOLAR CLASS, focusing on education for young adults ages 14-18 (and their parents)!!!!  We are so lucky to have Rob Madsen returning as our Scholar Mentor. He comes to us with an English Degree and a love for Philosophy and the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how it all fits together!

Scholar class overview:

The scholar class for the 2012-2013 school year will be focused primarily on philosophical theory throughout the ages with a specific focus on the perception of the individual over cultural boundaries ranging from Egyptian and far-eastern philosophies to more modern western thought.

Some theorists we will study include Plato, paying particular attention to his theory of the Ideal, Plato's cave and mimesis, and various other theorists like Descartes, specifically focusing on the cartesian subject, and Lacanian theory like the mirror stage and the theory of the Other.  It will also incorporate inspired teachings ranging from Joseph Smith and Parley P. Pratt to the Dead Sea Scrolls and others.

The basic focus of the course will center on ancient and modern approaches to understanding the eternal makeup of human beings and their eternal potential.

Required materials will be provided and writing assignments will be due each week.

The cost of the course will be $100.00 per month, due the first week of the month and will include 12 weekly hour and a half long sessions.

Classes will begin Friday, September 14th and will be from 3:30-5:00 at Liberty Youth Academy.  This is open to Homeschoolers, Public Schoolers and Parents are invited to attend with their students.

SEPTEMBER 14TH WILL BE THE FIRST CLASS, AND PARENTS ARE REQUIRED TO ATTEND THE FIRST HOUR, BUT ARE INVITED TO STAY AS LONG AS THEY WOULD LIKE.

First Week of School

HERE'S A LITTLE OF WHAT WE DID IN OUR CLASSES:

 

FUN-Damentals (Sister Hepworth's Class)

We had a wonderful first week!  We learned about the Plan of Salvation. We are children of God with enormous potential and promise!  We are thankful for the help of our families and the words of the prophets that guide our way.  We learned about John Wycliffe, the Morning Star of the Reformation.  He translated some of the Bible from Latin to English.  We want to be shining stars and feel love the for the scriptures like he did.

 

LITERATURE:  We listened to some lullabies and stories that have been passed down through the years from parents to children. We are thankful for our parents who teach us and love us.  If we follow the plan, we will be blessed, (unlike the Gingerbread Man who would not listen to good advice and got eaten by a sly fox). 

 

MATH:  Worksheets in the folder reinforce the concepts learned this week.

 

LANGUAGE ARTS:  Have fun with the Riggs Letter-Stroke game.  Let me know what you accomplish at home so the students can get treasure points.

 

DISMISSAL:  To make dismissal easier each day, we would like the younger children in my class to be picked up at the end of each school day by 2:25 p.m.  Please walk to the door to pick them up.  THANK YOU!

 

Mrs. H 668-9392  hhep@aol.com

 

 

LOVE OF LEARNING (Sister Dale's Class)

We spent much of this week getting to know each other better and also getting to know ourselves better!  I'm really excited about this group of children. They are all very eager to learn and I am eager to introduce them to some very exciting events from American History and to share some profound truths found in the Book of Mormon as well as hopefully inspire them in all areas of education!

 

DEVOTIONAL:

Virtue:  Kindness

Article of Faith:  #1

Scripture:  Ephesians 4:32

Quote #1:  "Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless."  ~Mother Teresa

Quote #2:  "I will speak ill of no man and speak all the good I know of everybody."  ~Benjamin Franklin

Quote #3:  "There are hearts to gladden, there are kind words to say.  There are gifts to be given, there are deeds to be done.  There are souls to be saved."  ~Thomas S. Monson

 

All of the students worked on memorizing these quotes, some memorized all of the quotes, the scripture and the Article Of Faith( Ask them to see if they remember).  They earned prizes from the prizebox on Thurs. for doing so.  We will have "pass off day" every Thurs. where they can pass off the quotes/script/AofF for that week.

 

We discussed the impact that kind words and actions have on each other and the wonderful example that President Monson is of beign kind to all he meets.  They were encouraged to love and serve one another this week and will continue to be encouraged to do so all year!  We also had an object lesson where they were given tubes of toothpaste, asked to squeeze out some, and then return it to the tube with a toothpick (almost impossible).  We likened this to the difficulty in taking back unkind words or actions after they've been said or done. This greatly impacted them! (Pics on Facebook)

 

RELIGION:  We discussed the Premortal Life, and Plan of Salvation.  This was taught in conjunction with the truth that they are all brothers and sisters and this helped them to understand the importance of being kind to each other.  We also started reading the Book Of Mormon and discussed the importance of listening to Prophets, and our parents and discussed whether we want to be like Nephi, or his brother's Lamen and Lemuel.  They all decided they wanted to be like NEPHI!  When discussing the Plan of Salvation we made posters with our baby pictures that say, "I will NEVER forget I am a son/daughter of God."  We also wrote this in the front of our Book Of Mormons to remind us why we are here, who we really are, and what we were sent here to do. 

 

MATH:  I spent the week assessing the students to find where they are and where they all need to start in their individual math lessons.

 

LANGUAGE ARTS:  The children wrote poems about themselves and did a great job!  They were assessed to see which reading and spelling groups they belong in. Spelling/Vocab lists were given and tests on the words given this week will be next Thurs.  Reading books were assigned and Penmanship was also practiced as we did some copy work with our quotes.

 

LITERATURE:  I read some short stories to the children illustrating Kindness, and we began our first novel titled "Ida B."  It is about a very spunky young girl who's mother gets cancer and her world is turned upside down.  It has wonderful examples of  the virtues we will be discussing this month, Kindness, Perseverance, Good Attitude, and more! The kids are LOVING it!  Ask them about the Ida B's that they made!

 

HISTORY:  We will begin next week with a quick overview of the prophecies of this great land of promise from the Book Of Mormon and then also review Christopher Columbus.

 

SCIENCE:  We are beginning with  Animals and the students learned about the first person who thought that all animals need to be "classified", and how scientists now classify animals, (kingdom, order, species, genus etc.)  The students learned how to take notes in their Discovery Journals, and they learned about Amphibians! They were able to observe first hand the differences between Frogs and Toads and document in their Discovery Journals what they saw.

 

CHOIR:  We learned two new songs related to our virtue of Kindness and believe it or not we've begun working on Christmas songs for the Christmas program!

 

ART:  Posters we made for Devotional and Ida B