Middle school students learned the principles of shelter building from the Outdoor Discover Center staff during this year’s Winterim.

By Zach Ward

8th Grade Teacher, Director of Instruction
Calvary Schools of Holland

From single and double crochet, to chords and strum patterns, to opening strategies and endgames of chess, to double page spreads, to framing a picture with a camera, the subjects of our middle and high school Winterim were, no less than our regular subjects of study, for joy, delight, and fullness of living.

For the first two weeks of the second semester, both middle and high school students were given the opportunity to select from a variety of elective courses to learn new skills and grow in self-awareness through exposure to new experiences.

Calligraphy, rock climbing, photography, crochet, large animal care, ACT/SAT prep, wood working, and ukulele were among the course options.

We’ve put together a special video to give you a taste of what your students experienced. Take a look…

Calvary Schools Winterim 2021 from Calvary Schools on Vimeo.

Some of the skills students cultivated during this time:

• Learn the rules and some basic strategies of a number of logic and strategy oriented two-player and multiplayer board games
• Learn some basic strum patterns for 3/4 and 4/4 time
• Learn a number of songs employing some basic chord progressions and strum patterns
• Play “Amazing Grace,” “By the Mark,” and “The Big Rock Candy Mountain” for morning assembly
• Tune a ukulele in standard soprano reentrant tuning
• Learn the components and strategies of chess
• Practice responsibility and respect when taking care of games and their pieces
• Practice good sportsmanship and gaming by winning and losing graciously
• Learn home position in keyboarding and type out basic drills, words, and sentences
• Learn basic crochet stitches and skills (chaining, single and double crochet, decreasing and increasing)
• Choose yarn and hooks to crochet a variety of objects (hats, scarves, dishcloths, stuffed animals, etc.)
• Learn proper animal care for both large and small animals
• Practice maneuvering rock climbing hand positions and develop strategy for scaling different wall types
• Design and fill in single and double page spreads for Calvary’s yearbook

Zach Ward is the 8th grade teacher and Director of Instruction at Calvary Schools of Holland. He has spent 20 years in teaching and education both domestically and abroad, working in various roles in bilingual classrooms, classical education, public school, administration, and Charlotte Mason education. He holds a master’s degree in education and is an Ambleside Master Teacher.