Week 78: So, How Important Are Our Reading Choices, Anyway? (Norms & Nobility - 11c)
June 24, 2025
In this edition:
🎉🥳 Off-Center Celebrations! 🥳🎉
🎤Podcast - The Grammar of Classical Education 🎤
📚☀️ Quick Classroom Reviews ☀️📚
💖💖 Amazing Blessings 💖💖
☕️ 🫖 Enjoying the Reali-tea ☕️ 🫖
🎉 🥳 Let’s Celebrate! 🥳 🎉
Off-Center Celebrations - 2025
July - Week 1 (June 29 - July 5)
I am very sorry, but July - Week 1 will be posted to the website later this week! 😕
June - Week 4 (June 23 - 30)
National Great Outdoors Month
Consider OUTDOOR BINGO when students need a little motivation and ideas for outdoor fun! [1 worksheet]
" What’s So Great About the Great Outdoors" is a great opportunity to practice persuasive writing as students select one of the five questions to consider, brainstorm, and then write about. [2 worksheets]
Sometimes it is fun to dream, not just to dream, but to dream BIG! The worksheet, "Planning the Perfect Outdoor Play Space," allows students to dream big about the playground area of their dreams. [1 worksheet]
The coloring sheet The Heavens Declare the Glory of God is a wonderful reminder of how we have been blessed by the great outdoors. [1 worksheet]
June - Week 3 (June 16 - 22)
Universal Father’s Week
Getting to Know You Better to “interview” their father or father figure. [1 worksheet]
Have your students think about the father or father figure and fill out Thank you, _____ worksheet. They can then use the planning sheet to write a thank-you note to him or a description of him. [2 worksheets]
Follow the instructions on A Special Gift to make a sweet little gift for a father or father figure. [3 worksheets]
Allow the students the opportunity to complete the coloring sheet or card to give to their father or father figure. [2 worksheets]
June - Week 2 (June 8 - 14)
National Flag Week
The worksheet, You’re a Grand Ol’ Flag introduces students to some of the basic history and facts about the American flag. [2 worksheets – student version and key]
Help your students understand the symbolism of the flag with A Picture of America. This worksheet helps students see how the elements of the flag were carefully selected and allows them the opportunity to create a family flag by considering the elements and colors they will include. [1 worksheet]
Flag Etiquette addresses some of the key “rules” for handling and using the flag. This would be a wonderful opportunity to discuss these ideas and look for them in use / or being broken in everyday life.
It’s not very often that students would have the opportunity to fold an official American flag, but why not give them the chance to learn? On How to Fold an American Flag, the students will learn how to fold a flag, and can practice
with a printed (colored or black and white) flag. (Photos included for clarity.) [5 worksheets]
June - Week 1 (June 1 - 8)
National Garden Week
While you and your students probably have a good idea of what a garden actually is, take a moment with the worksheet, What is a Garden? Then have your students take their new found knowledge and design their own garden.[1 worksheet]
If you have a garden area near your school, co-op, or even your home, spend a little time this week sprucing it up. Break into groups and do a bit of weeding or even a bit of planting.
Spend some time looking at Good Things Said About Gardens with a collection of quotes that can be used for discussions or writing activities.
[6 worksheets]
Celebrate all of the beauty of flowers and gardens while learning about chromatogaphy in a science and craft combination with Color Chromatography. This simple and engaging activity comes complete with samples and pictures to guide you through this delightful and educational activity. [4 worksheets]
Allow your students (and even yourself) to have a little break and enjoy the Earth Laughs in Flowers coloring page. [1 worksheet]
☺️ Please jump over to Classroom Collective, where you can use the “password” you received with your subscription (on EVERY level) to access many freebies like the Off-Center Celebrations (daily in 2024 and weekly in 2025).
🎤 Podcast - The Grammar of Classical Education 🎤
Buidling on David Hick’s Norms and Nobility chapter 11, we are continuing to look at the value of classical literature for our grammar school students. It is important to consider questions like, What is the actual purpose of reading? Is it to escape or to discover? We would say the purpose is to discover, and while reading for enjoyment is encouraged, reading the classics and working through the big ideas will give our students a clearer lens through which to look at the world. The joy of reading meets the skill of thought - what could be better!
📚REMEMBER our Podcast Summer Reading Challenge 📚
In light of the importance placed on “the classics,” this week we are beginning a delightful challenge! I’m so excited about this! 📚 Think of it as a good old-fashioned summer reading club! 📚 It is exclusively for our “club” members (subscribers) only and provides a way for us all to explore some classics. ☺️
Here are the requirements tbe be part of our Summer Reading Challenge:
Pick a classic book - on any level!
If there isn’t a book that comes to mind, check out the following resource:
GoodReads - Listopedia - Christian Classical School Book Lists
[While these books as listed as “Christian Classical School Book Lists they are taken from a variety of sources, not all of which are fully endorsed by The Grammar of Classical Education or Leading to Wonder.]
Start reading!
Post on our private Summer Reading Challenge chat.
Let us know what you are reading.
Check in once in a while.
What are you enjoying?
What are you finding challenging?
What are you learning?
Know that you are expanding your horizons AND stoking your literary fire, which will better help you feed the little flames that sit before you for a good part of the year!
AND remember that each month (June-July-August), there will be a random drawing for a little digital gift-y! I mean, really, what is a Summer Reading Challenge without prizes?! 😎
🔬 🧪☀️ Summertime Science ☀️🧪🔬
For the summer, we will take a break from the review games and switch to some fun Summertime Science activities. These activities can be one-and-done science experiments that include an explanation of scientific principles, BUT they also offer wonderful opportunities to encourage wonder through thought-provoking Extension Questions that invite further investigation. ☺️
💥 Rock Cycle Starburts 💥
Items Needed:
A sandwich bag with a zip closure
3 or 4 Starbursts per child
A heavy book or something that can be used to flatten your rock
A small microwave-safe bowl
Preparation:
Gather supplies
Heat water - not to a boil, but to a tolerably warm temperature to touch
Process and Scientific Explanations:
Cut the Starburst into small pieces. If possible try to get at least 5 or 6 pieces per Starburst. (I suggest using food scissors if you want your child to be able to nibble at the rock during the process!) 😎
You have just created SEDIMENT that will now be formed into a SEDIMENTARY ROCK. To make a sedimentary rock, gather all of the Starburst sediments, place them into the zippy bag, and roll it around until you have formed a ball. (Don’t over-combine the sediment. You want to be able to see the different sediments stuck together.)
Sedimentary rocks are formed when sediments (pieces of other rocks or living items) are compressed and compacted to form a solid layer.
The various colors of Starburst are sticking together, but you can still see their differences. The same thing often happens with sedimentary rocks - the differences in sediments can often be detected (usually a microscope is needed, but not with Starburts!).
You will then form a METAMORPHIC ROCK by placing your sedimentary rock back into the zippy bag and working it with your hands until it becomes warm and pliable. While it is still in the zippy bag, lay it on a flat surface and press it firmly under the book to flatten it. Take it out of the zippy bag, fold it in half, and again flatten it under a book.
Metamorphic rocks are formed by heat, pressure, or chemical changes, and often appear quite different than the original rock they began as.
The various colors may have blended together, and while they are still visible, they are not nearly as distinct.
Forming an IGNEOUS ROCK will definitely require some assistance from an adult. (Melted Starburts and hot bowls can burn skin if this portion is not handled carefully!) Place the metamorphic rock into a small, microwave-safe bowl and heat until it is completely melted. Stir the melted rock, and pour it out onto a microwave-safe plate to cool.
Igneous rocks are often referred to as “fire-born” because they form when melted rock cools and becomes solid again. It often will look completely different from what it was in its previous form.
The melting and cooling of the rock mimicked the process of the rock moving from a metamorphic rock to an igneous rock.
Extension Questions to Investigate:
Is it possible to go from a sedimentary rock to an igneous rock?
Answer: Yes
Is it possible to go from a metamorphic rock to a sedimentary rock?
Answer: Yes
Is it possible to move igneous rocks back into metamorphic or sedimentary?
Idea to consider with this question: Remember, we are working with a candy, NOT a rock. Candy does react differently to heat and cooling.
Answer: Yes. 😎
Try putting a small piece of hard candy (such as a little piece of Lifesaver or another hard candy) into the process. What happens? Can you think of what that might represent?
Answer: It could be a different type of sediment OR it could represent a fossil (if over time it would break down and leave the mark that it had been there.)
🙏💖 Amazing Blessings 💖🙏
As we continue to dig deep into the Lord’s Prayer (maybe better called the Disciples Prayer or our Pattern Prayer) we are faced with the commitment in the words that we are saying. In today’s two petitions we are actually asking that our allegience be given totally to His kingdom and our obedience be given totally to His will.
WoW! Those are definitely not words to be spoken lightly, but yet another reminder of just how precious this Pattern Prayer given directly by Christ can be when it becomes more than words just spoken from our lips and becomes instead the very cry of our heart.
☕️ 🫖 Enjoying the Real-i-TEA 🫖☕️
As you may know, my goal with Leading to Wonder is to strengthen and encourage teachers, whether in the classroom, at home, in person, or on Zoom. I want to meet you where you are and help you move toward becoming the best teacher you can be. To do this, I trust you will feel free to reach out via our Substack chats or by sending an email to Newsletter@LeadingtoWonder.com.
Let us seek to “bear one another’s burdens” and “encourage one another. . just as you are doing.” (Galatians 6:2 / I Thessalonians 5:11)1
Thank you so much for joining me at Leading to Wonder! I am honored that you have spent the time reading and possibly listening to my passion project. I do want to be as helpful as possible, so if you have any comments, suggestions, or questions, please use the button below, and I will try to address them in a timely fashion! Thank you again, and remember - “always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder!”2
English Standard Version Bible. (2001). ESV Online. https://www.esv.org
E.B. White