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09-20-11 - Online Academic Help for Your Student With a library of over 2,400 videos covering everything from K-12 grade math to physics, finance, and history and 150 practice exercises, Khan Academy can help your student learn. The videos clearly present a concept and the exercises help the student practice that concept. The Khan Academy's materials and resources are available free of charge to everyone and has received great reviews and recommendations. Check it out at khanacademy.org
05-24-11 - May Term Highlights
No "regular" classes for students in grades 7 to 12 — but there was a lot of learning going on last week during May Term. Check out some of the highlights of a few of the groups.
- Is There Life After High School - Put a mixed group of students together in a van for hours of travel and there is usually some conflict. However, Faith Kempf, the leader for this group, said these kids really bonded with each other and worked together through the challenges. They visited Oregon universities and other post high school educational institutions, studied the process for application, financial aid, and scholarships — and became better friends.
- Computer Games - Taught by volunteer Cody Singleton, this group of students was mesmerized by the things they were learning about designing a computer game including the background.
- Robotics — Taught by alumni Shannon Foss, this group worked with legos to create robots using design, engineering, and problem solving skills. They also coded the movements of their robots on a computer. Robots had to maneuver through an obstacle course and culminated in a battle of the robots.
- Service Group — Teacher Susan Wade took a group of students to the Jonah retreat grounds in Trout Lake where they chopped and hauled away tree limbs, cleaned up the grounds, and set-up for a retreat. They also collected 300 pounds of food for the local FISH Food Bank and spent a day sorting and organizing donations at the Food Bank.
- Time Travel — Robin Hood, pirates, seamanship and travel into the future became a "reality" in this May Term class taught by teacher Ray Kempf. From the sound of it these kids had a bunch of fun and learned a great deal about different time periods.
- Other classes — horsemanship, landscaping, food from around the world, baking and decorating classes, landscape painting throughout the Gorge, a study of heroes & villains through movies, swimming, golfing, and working-out. Several students also participated in internships with local businesses.
The week culminated with a light lunch in which students applied their etiquette lessons (also a part of May Term) and a concert by a local group of musicians.
05-09-11 - Students Respond to Needs of Japanese People
Several students who decided they wanted to "do something" for the people of Japan following the March earthquake and tsunami are knitting and crocheting hats and scarves for them. Many people were left without anything and this was one way the students thought they could help. The high school students including Rachel Foss, Rachel Frost, McKenzie Mellow, Daniel Kempf, and Jaime Ingalls will send 53 colorful hats and several scarves across the ocean to the people.
05-09-11 - Junior High Students - Who They Want To Be
Sometimes being a junior high student isn't easy. Roller coaster emotions, impetuous actions, and hasty words are often part of the package. In a recent writing assignment, 7th grade students answered the question, "What do you wish others would see in you?" Their responses should encourage you.
- A kind, loving (not mean) person who is funny and smart
- That I am serious and care about people
- A loyal and trustworthy person; loving, kind, belonging to God, not conceited
- I am not a mean person or self-centered; I am nice, smart and loving
- Bravery, love, humbleness, fearfulness, innocent, positive attitude, compassionate, and friendly
- Loving and not a "grump" and not "lonely"
- A believer
05-03-11 - First Grade Students Send Flat Stanley's on Adventures
As part of a letter writing unit and a map charting unit, each first grade student sent their Flat Stanley paper doll to a friend or relative out of town or even out of the country. We now know that their Flat Stanleys traveled far and wide. His adventures included Washington, Arizona, California, Texas, Florida, Massachusetts, and then across the ocean to the Holy Lands and Holland! He is quite the world traveler! It was fun to chart his travels on a map and to see where he went. The students have reported that they just wish they could have gone along on the adventure too!
05-03-11 - How Prayer Has Helped
The 6th grade class shared in a powerful elementary chapel time last week. Their theme was prayer and they related it to breathing — pray in God's love, pray out sin and sadness. The 6th graders proceeded to told of how prayer had impacted their lives in specific situations. For one gal it was her mom's cancer, for another it was the death of her dad. Others included praying for a child while babysitting, praying through the divorce of parents, and praying when anxious about performing. The students also read related scripture verses. Thank you 6th graders for sharing openly about your experiences. It was an encouragement to others.
03-10-11 - Austen Requa – Baroque Music Festival
Freshman Austin Requa was awarded first place in piano at the recent Baroque Festival held in The Dalles. Austin, who is 15 years, competed in the 15 – 19 year old bracket at the district level. He will compete at the regional level on Sunday, March 6 at Riverside Church in Hood River. Austin broke his finger in basketball in November which took him away from six weeks of practicing. He made up for it by putting in twenty hours of practice over Christmas break. Well done, Austin!
02-09-11 - Horizon Student Spellers Score at the Spelling Bee
Horizon Christian students did very well at the ACSI District Spelling Bee. Last Friday the top Horizon spellers in grades 1 – 8 went to Eastside Christian School in Portland where they faced off against as many as twenty top spellers from several other schools. Kameron Brown took 1st place among 7th graders and 2nd place in the 5th – 8th grade group making it possible for him to advance to the regional spelling bee. First grader Joshua Johnson was also a 1st place winner at his grade level. Other top winners include 6th grader Amy Requa who took 4th place and 8th grader Chloe Godwin who took 4th place. Congratulations, students!
Web Resources for Students
- BibMe.org - Create a bibliography for a paper by typing in just a little information and then let the website do
the rest.
- Bing.com - A search engine for just the right image or video for a project.
- Evernote.com - An organizational tool for storing and finding homework, papers, ideas, and research. Just scan or take a photo and send it to Evernote.com. To find, search using any word within the document.
- MyCollegeCalendar.org - Learn about the steps students need to take to get into college - the what, how, and when of college admission, financial aid, and scholarships. The site sets up a calendar to track steps based on your child’s year in school.
- Scholar.google.com - This search engine checks only scholarly works for papers, books and articles from academic publishers, professional societies, universities and other similar organizations.
- TheFreeDictionary.com - Check definitions, hear correct pronunciations, get dozens of translations - or enter a cyber spelling bee to sharpen your skills.
- WolframAlpha.com - This site will answer any math problem and will tackle non-math queries too. Ask - and it will answer with information
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