Jami Simpson

RMCNews with Jami Simpson – Grand Junction, Colorado … “My favorite part of the week was when John Henri lit his hand on fire,” remarked several students from Intermountain Adventist Academy (IAA) when asked about the spring week of prayer sessions held the first week of April.

The spiritual emphasis for the week at IAA and Little Lambs Daycare was “The God of Wonders,” featuring John Henri Rorabeck as a guest presenter. A naturalist and a science instructor who loves connecting people with the Creator God, he enjoys finding examples of God’s love in nature and believes that the way we treat creation shows what we think of our Creator. For the past 15 years, he has worked in camp and nature ministry in various states and parts of Canada and currently shares God’s character with elementary-aged students through after-school science programs in Maryland.

The special programs feature activities that the students connect with, including a nature hike field trip for each class. Second-grader Daniel enjoyed the museum and the hiking excursion. “I liked when John Henri hiked with us, showed us how dangerous fire is, went to the museum with us, told us about the love of God and how powerful it is. He told me on the way to the museum that there’s a lizard with three eyes.”

Haille, a sixth-grader, also enjoyed the field trips. “My favorite thing about the week of prayer was when we went on our field trip, and we found quartz and mica.”

Henri also connected the scientific method with how God never changes and introduced the school to various animals, including a skink.

“I learned about a skink, and it will stick by its partner no matter what,” said Jocelyn.

Elloise, a fourth-grader, wants a new pet. “I loved and learned about the animals. I am going to try to convince my mom to get a skink!”

Learning about larger animals was what other students will remember. “I learned about this animal that looks like it has two heads, but the tail looks like the head, and we learned about animals called tigers, and I like to do the quiz. Week of prayer was fun,” said Myia, a second-grader.

Henri held a program for kids and adults at the Grand Junction Adventist Church on Wednesday evening and a class on making slime Thursday evening. He also had the kids praising God through song. At the end of each presentation, he had a quiz time with prizes involved.

For Gavin, an eighth-grader, the praise songs were the best part. “I liked the guitar playing.”

Experiments and field trips were fun, but students also left the meetings having heard how much Jesus loves them and takes care of them and that they can share Jesus with people around them by how they act and what they say.

–RMCNews with Jami Simpson is the second through fourth grader teacher at Intermountain Adventist Academy; photos supplied

By Jami Simpson – Grand Junction, Colorado … Students in the 2^nd to 4^th grade at Intermountain Adventist Academy were busy last week with an assignment that not only dealt with memorization and video recording, but also to encourage individuals in the community who have not been able to leave their homes often.

Their teacher, Jami Simpson, gave them the task of holding an online poetry recital as part of their lesson plan. The project challenged the students not only to memorize a poem, but to also learn technology skills needed to share their work. According to Sayeh Yousefi (2016), who wrote about the benefits of memorizing poetry, “the biggest benefit of reading and memorizing poetry, aside from an appreciation for a wondrous art form, is the immensely beneficial role it plays in the development of one’s mind and intellectual ability.” ^*

Another reason for the hefty assignment was to bring a smile to the faces of those at home, not able to get out much. Students encouraged the community by reciting their poems online, bringing happiness and joy to those unable to interact much with people outside their home.

One fourth grader commented, “The reason we recorded these poems is because we wanted to share the love of Jesus with other people.” Mason, a 3^rd grader, stated, “We made these poems for making people laugh.”

The students chose from a selection of poems. Their choices included “giggle poetry”, Valentine poems, and classics by William Blake and Emily Dickinson.

Fourth grader Max said, “The poem I memorized was easy to learn. The poem was fun. I liked the poem because it was funny.” Aning, another fourth grader, had a different opinion, “To be honest, it was hard for me, since I’ve never done a poem.”

After memorizing, the next task was learning to record video using their Chromebooks. The students then had to save the video onto their Google drives. Finally, they learned to insert the video and accompanying images onto a Google slide. The students did some very basic editing by trimming the ends of their video clips. Tanner, grade 2, said, “Making a poem is hard because you have to memorize. It was fun to put the pictures [with it] though.” Sophia, grade 3, thought that “it was easy to record, but hard to get it on slides.”

Another of the fourth graders reflected, “Have you ever thought about a poem? Well, if not, think about these lines from ‘Be Glad Your Nose is on Your Face” by Jack Prelutsky:

Be glad your nose is on your face, / not pasted on some other place, / for if it were where it is not, / you might dislike your nose a lot.’

God created us. He put our noses on our faces because He knows best. He is love.”

To view videos of the poetry recital, you can visit IAA’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/IAAGJ

–Jami Simpson is the 2^nd – 4^th grade teacher at Intermountain Adventist Academy; photos from IAA’s Facebook page

*Yousefi, S. (2016, June 14). Benefits of Memorizing Poetry. Novak Djokovic Foundation. https://novakdjokovicfoundation.org/benefits-memorizing-poetry/

STINKS, TIGERS, AND PLAYING WITH FIRE AT IAA SPRING WEEK OF PRAYER

POETRY RECITAL AT IAA BRINGS HAPPINESS AND JOY TO OTHERS