Updated Calendar, Schedule, and Booklist Now Available!

If you are thinking about joining us in the spring, you may now peruse the updated Calendar, Schedule, and Booklist! You can find these materials under the Details Tab above.

May God bless your Christmas Season!
Alecia Rolling

An Advent CD from a Traditional Convent in MO

Recently, I discovered The Benedictines of Mary, Queen of the Apostles in Missouri. They are a traditional religious order, wearing a habit, working to provide for their needs, and assisting the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite Mass. What a blessing they are to us all! They have a CD now full of traditional Advent hymns, many of which might be new to you. If you are looking for ways to enrich your Advent experience without playing or listening to Christmas music (which is for the Christmas season after all), then this is a great option!

Find out more about this order at benedictinesofmary.org! 

An Advent Concert to Share!

Important Information for St. Nick Party

Where: VA Hills
Who: Schola Rosa Families and Grandparents
When: 6:00-8:30 pm

When to arrive?

• Please arrive as early as 5pm if you wish to help with setting up the dining hall, craft stations, and stage. Children may play outside under mom or dad's gaze while set up is going on. Dads will most likely wish to set up tables and chairs for us!
• Please arrive by 5:30 pm if you have a 4th-6th grader who wishes to do a mosaic.
• Please arrive by 6:00 pm to put your food in the dining hall, guide your child to his teacher on stage, and get a seat in the auditorium.

What to bring?

• $8 per family for VA Hills.
• Your family's contribution to the dinner.
• Your child's instrument if he or she is performing.
• Old toys or clothing for the donation box (going to Pregnancy Center)

How to dress?

• Semi-formal. Given the performance aspect, a slightly more formal attire is desired. Please keep within the guidelines of the Schola Rosa dress code, and all will be well.

Do you have teenagers?

• Please consider volunteering your teenagers to help at the craft stations, so moms can be free to visit, and so teenagers stay out of trouble. ;)

Art, Year I, Week 9 Schola Rosa

This week in art we made mosaics! Most of the children made different pictures than they had planned, but they learned a great deal in the process. Their designs were mounted and put into their Schola Rosa binders:

The mosaics were able to be dried enough for safe travels home. Here are some of the mosaics!

K-1st Grade

4th-6th Grade

Preschool- Weeks 7, 8, and 9

In Preschool, Week 7 craft was a cloud collage of patron saints for All Saints Day:

In Week 8, we shaped mini loaves of bread for the Feast of St. Elizabeth of Hungary:

And Week 9 was Advent wreaths (I will have all the craft extras on Thursday evening for those who were absent):

Week 9, Kindergarten - First Grade

Religion - we read most of Chapter 4, "Waiting for the Savior" in class.  We had a wonderful discussion about this chapter including what Advent is all about, how the people of the Old Testament waited for the Savior from Adam and Eve through the Israelites and up to the Blessed Mother. We talked about the significance of the Advent Wreath and colored a drawing of one - you may see it in the very back cover of your child's binder. We also talked about the tradition (a personal favorite :) of putting a piece of straw (or yellow yarn) in the empty stable for each good deed or small sacrifice made throughout Advent to make a soft, warm place for Baby Jesus to lay on Christmas Day.

English - instead of a Picture Study this week, we did a composition exercise as a review of all Picture Studies (PS) we've done thus far. As the students called them out, I wrote the names of all the animals seen depicted in the PS artwork on a dry-erase board in front of the class.  Some students chose to copy these names onto a page from their writing journals. Mrs. C. and I then asked each child to choose an animal from the list (or two) and think about a sentence they'd like to write about that animal. Each child, in turn, then dictated to us their sentence which we wrote in their journals (a few opted out of this activity).  We decided to tear out this page(s) from their journal so that it could go home with them in their binders and be shared at home (the journals stay at Schola Rosa).

Poetry - we worked on learning the third stanza of "The Frog".  IMPORTANT: The K-1st grade class will perform "The Swing" at the St. Nicholas' Party.  Please review the poem with your child(ren) these next few days so they will be ready to perform all together Thursday night.

History - we began by reviewing our study of the Israelites up to this point. They are now in need of a king!  We read two stories from the Illustrated Catholic Children's Bible: "David & Saul" and "David & Goliath".  To follow up this week, you may choose to read another version of the story of David and Goliath. A family favorite of ours is found in William Bennett's The Children's Book of Heroes - great illustrations as well.  We read a little about the lyre - a small harp - from Old Testament Days: an Activity Guide and then we got to work making our simple lyre from a clothes hanger and rubber bands.

Geography - we had some fun this week with a game for review. Divided in two teams, the students took turns coming to the front of the room, picking a location from "the hat", and trying to find it on the map. We used CCM maps 1 & 3 to review the continents, the country of Egypt, the Red Sea, the Nile River, the Jordan River, Jericho, the Dead Sea, and the land of Canaan (though not all of these were chosen).  Congratulations to Team #2 - they were the winners, correctly finding the most locations on the maps!

Presentation: Congratulations to G.J. for a well-prepared presentation ("Animal Life- experienced first hand - from the Florida Keys"  is my attempt at a title to explain the exciting content!)

Science - the presentation immediately prior took some of our Science time (but it was so interesting! and all about Science, AND a great Q & A session followed), so we did not get as far with our lapbook project as I had planned. Instructions to follow.  We reviewed why scientists classify animals (some children remembered our grocery store demonstration from weeks back), and talked about how the two main groups or divisions are Vertebrates and Invertebrates, and gave examples of each.  We read from Behold and See 3 (p. 110-111) on this subject. The lapbook we began today we will continue in the spring, so please bring it back to co-op in February!

Here's how to complete the first phase of the lapbook:  (see CCM manual p. 102B if this doesn't make sense).  For those who were absent, I'll have these materials for you to work with when we meet again.

• cut & paste title “Vertebrates” on the front cover (we did this IN CLASS)
• cut five rectangles, approx. 4”x2”of different colored construction paper (make a quick cardboard template of this shape & size and the child can trace around the shape & cut themselves)
• fold each rectangle in half; direction does not matter
• cut out and glue image of each vertebrate class to front of each folded rectangle
• glue the “back” of the folded rectangle to the lapbook; arranged as the child wishes
  
  
  Next semester we will fill in the "mini books" of each vertebrate class with characteristics of each group of animals. At home, if you wish, your child can draw or cut and paste pictures of animals around their respective "class name", or alternatively create a simple pocket by stapling an additional piece of construction paper near the "mini book" into which photos or magazine cut-outs can be placed.
  
  
  Happy Lapbook Making.........and see you Thursday (or in the SPRING!)

2nd-3rd Grade, Week 9, Year I Schola Rosa

History -- this week we talked about the Judges of the Old Testament, discussing how the Hebrews would turn from God, how their enemies would conquer them, they would repent, and God would send a Judge to lead them.  We specifically focused on Samson.  We read his story, and then colored a picture.

Geography -- we located the new places on the map

Religion-- continuing with the Commandments, today we focused on the Third: keeping the Lord's Day holy.  The children drew lovely pictures of how to keep the day holy; I think all either drew the inside or outside of a church!

English -- We worked on Lesson 40, which was challenging since all attend school in a different location!  The children offered words to describe the playground at co-op and  our classroom.  Then they copied a couple of sentences that related to our discussion from the board.  We also practiced "The Swing" for the St. Nicholas party.  Later the teachers discovered this was not the right poem, but the children recited it beautifully together, so we may just stick with it. 

Science -- the kids loved the show and tell this week involving a live rabbit!  Following this we worked on a vertebrate lap book.  I believe all were able to glue on the 5 classes of vertebrates, but an additional worksheet was sent home because there was not enough time to do that.  The children can color, cut,  and sort the animals and paste them next them to the class in which they belong.  For example, attach the cat next to mammals.

K-Ist class: please bring to co-op tomorrow........

a plastic (or wire) hanger and 8-10 rubber bands for our History project (for each child).  Thank you!

Virtue- Week Nine (Humility)

Week 9- Humility

Humility: A quality by which a person considering his own defects has a humble opinion of himself and willingly submits himself to God and to others for God's sake.

             Synonym: meekness                                                Antonym: arrogance

“The most powerful weapon to conquer the devil is humility. For, as he does not know at all how to employ it, neither does he know how to defend himself from it.”

-Saint Vincent de Paul

How to Practice This Virtue:
Always be accepting and thankful of God’s will, even if it is not what you had anticipated.

Use your talents and gifts to serve God and help others, not to give glory to yourself.

What is in the Schola Rosa online suite?

Everything you need to run a co-op in your local town or to do the program at home! See this screen shot for example. It shows you the week we are on at co-op, provides handouts for Morning Assembly which include a summary of co-op activities and suggested lessons for the rest of the week. In a nutshell, that is a whole curriculum (minus math and phonics!). For each class, there are fun links, activities, and readings to help families continue their subjects throughout the week. 

 

How did this come to be?

Schola Rosa Homeschool Cooperative Program was originally created by Alecia Rolling and developed by her with the encouragement and advice of Jodi Schaefer and Christina Durgin for use in their local co-op.  It is now being expanded into a full, weekly, home curriculum that integrates a co-op element.  The program includes lesson plans, worksheets, project ideas, and video demonstrations for Preschool to 6th Grade in the following subjects:

• Preschool
• English/Poetry
• Latin/Greek
• History/Geography
• Religion/Catechism
• Science
• Music
• Art
• Memory Work (Using Classically Catholic Memory)

If you wish to study at home alongside Schola Rosa or if you wish to start your own homeschool cooperative using Schola Rosa, contact The Rolling Acres School at the.rolling.acres.school@gmail.com

If you are starting your own co-op, there are sample forms, handouts, and Video Tutorials available to make getting started easier -- really a co-op manual!