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Middle School

P.E.

Class time will consist of age-appropriate exercises and active games.  All ages will be together for PE.     

WRITING

6th & 7th

Experience the adventures of the ancient world! This theme-based writing curriculum exposes students to the ancient world through cultural literature and the study of famous places and events while they learn to write with the Structure and Style®️ writing method. Literature selections may include: A Place in the Sun, Detectives in Togas, Tales from the Odyssey, The Gilgamesh Trilogy, Who Was King Tut, Charioteer of Delphi, Secrets of Vesuvius, Mystery of the Roman Ransom, Golden Goblet, Who Was Alexander the Great, Who Was Julius Caesar, Mara Daughter of the Nile, and Cleopatra.

WRITING (1st semester)

8th

The Lost Tools of Writing is an introductory course in classical composition featuring instruction in the five canons of classical rhetoric. Students will develop communication skills as they learn to compose a finely-crafted persuasive essay.  Students will need a relatively solid understanding of grammar and sentence structure and at least a rudimentary amount of writing experience - and, most importantly, they must be ready to think for themselves. Students will be completing the second half of this course during the first semester. The first half of the course will not be offered this school year.

SPEECH (1st semester)

8th - 12th 

Youth can become powerful communicators when from adolescence they practice public speaking skills. Students will complete four speeches over the course of the first semester: a self-introduction speech, a narrative speech, a descriptive speech, and a persuasive speech.  Video instruction by Andrew Pudewa will be utilized in this class.  This class will be open to high school students and  8th grade students who are not completing The Lost Tools of Writing during the first semester.

ART OF ARGUMENT (2nd semester)

8th - 12th

Students who complete The Art of Argument will know how to reason with clarity, relevance, and purpose . . . and have fun along the way! They will study and master 28 logical fallacies, which will provide an essential lifetime framework for filtering good and bad reasoning as well as writing and speaking effectively. This mastery of informal logic is a foundational subject by which other subjects are evaluated, assessed, and learned.  The Art of Argument features clear explanations and illustrations, along with dialogues, worksheets, and dialectic discussion questions, making this text easy to follow and engaging. The fallacies become relevant with practical applications through an analysis of current social, commercial, and political issues, as well as over 60 comical and clever phony advertisements. Fun extras are included, such as a humorous skit for students to perform and the famous short story “Love Is a Fallacy” by Max Shulman. This class will meet during the second semester.

EARTH SCIENCE

Students will be drawn into close engagement with the subject matter while receiving a solid education designed to foster a sense of wonder and responsibility for God’s amazing world. Within the context of the fascinating study of landforms, minerals, and planetary phenomena, many other timely and important topics are covered including conservation of natural resources, climate change, pollution, and environmental justice, as well as the current scientific consensus concerning geologic history.  This class will be divided into lower middle and upper middle.  The groups will be taught separately. 

ENRICHMENT

All students will be together for Enrichment classes.  Students may choose from one of the following: 

first semester

THEATER PRODUCTION

CIRCUS ARTS

Students will spend the semester preparing to perform a short play for friends and parents.  The class will be student-led with appropriate adult guidance and supervision. Students will be responsible for choosing a play, blocking, costuming, prop and set constructing, and everything else required for the performance.  Past productions include The Three Museketeers, Treasure Island, and And Then There Was One.  The students will give an evening performance for parents and other invited guests at the end of the first semester.

Students will have fun developing hand-eye coordination, rhythm, fine and gross motor control, and accurate throwing and catching skills as they learn timeless circus arts such as juggling, diabolo, and plate-spinning.  These are non-competitive activities in which most students have a common starting point - that of a beginner.  Students will perform some of their circus skills for parents and other invited guests at the end of the first semester.

second semester

CRIME SOLVING

 Students assume the role of crime scene investigators as they use their observational skills and deductive reasoning to solve a realistic crime scenario. They attempt to identify a prime suspect from a pool of 6 alleged perpetrators using these traditional forensic techniques:

  • Fingerprinting

  • Hair analysis (requires low-power microscope, not included)

  • Tire track impression analysis

  • Blood typing (using synthetic blood)

  • Forensic entomology (with artificial fly larvae or maggots)

  • Police log review

CHESS

Students with no chess background will enjoy learning the basics of the game.  Those students already familiar with the game will learn strategies.  Students will have fun competing against each other each week. 

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