It is hard to believe we have reached the end of the school year! April and May always fly by in a blur of paint, clay, and warm weather, but our K-4 artists have been working hard right up to the finish line. Here is a look at the incredible final projects we’ve been wrapping up in the art room. |
Fourth Grade: Architecture and Contrast Our fourth graders are leaving the art room with some seriously impressive, high-level skills. They tackled architectural design and symmetry with exquisitely detailed building drawings, where they were challenged to perfectly mirror and complete the missing half of a complex structure. They also explored the striking visual balance of light and dark by cutting positive and negative space Notans, and rounded out the year by pulling their own editions of foam sheet prints. |
Third Grade: Magic and Mandalas Fantasy and focus were the defining themes for third grade. They brought a touch of magic to the art room by using Model Magic to sculpt incredibly detailed, textured dragon eyes. Balancing out that 3D work, they practiced patience and precision on paper with beautiful, repetitive mandala drawings. We also successfully wrapped up our pottery unit, sending home some beautiful ceramic keepsakes. |
Second Grade: Community and Symmetry Second grade really stepped up as school leaders this season. They used their artistic talents for a great cause, designing eye-catching posters for our annual Cereal Drive. Back in the art room, they mastered radial symmetry by constructing beautiful, geometric tube mandalas. To top it all off, they made our mouths water with layered, mixed-media food collages - ramen bowls, juicy watermelons, and stacked burgers were definitely the fan favorites! |
First Grade: Hidden Printmakers First graders took on some big artistic concepts this spring! They learned the fascinating, tactile process of printmaking by creating collagraphs, building up textured designs on paper to impress their own unique prints. They were also busy challenging our eyes with clever and intricate hidden picture drawings, combining their illustration skills with a healthy dose of imagination. |
Kindergarten: Culture and Clay Our Kindergarten artists have been incredibly busy! We celebrated Japanese Children's Day by creating vibrant Koinobori fish, learning how these colorful windsocks represent strength and success. They also explored layering and expression by designing imaginative collage masks. Finally, it was so exciting to see the culmination of their 3D skills as they brought home their finished, fired clay pinch pots! |
March and April were such fun months in the library! Our second annual Mock EJK award ceremony was held on March 23rd and our winner was Elsa's Chessboard by Jenny Andrus. Two children from each K-4 grade level helped lead the ceremony and they did a wonderful job. You can see a video of our ceremony below. |
The Silver Unicorn Bookstore's Kids Graphic Novel Festical is taking place on Saturday, May 2nd. There will be speakers (including John Patrick Green, the author of Investigators and Agents of S.U.I.T. series!), workshops, and games. This is an AWESOME, FREE event. Check out the details below or on their website. |
It's hard to believe that very soon we will begin the process of getting all of the books back into the library.
As of May, 1st there have been 10,030 checkouts this year (wow!) and there are 264 overdue books.
Mrs. Doherty and I have been reaching out to caregivers whose children have books that are more than 3 weeks overdue. Thank you for your help getting those books back into the library. If a book is lost, caregivers will be asked to replace it.
To make getting the books back a little more fun, there will be two contests... a bonus FUN TIM in the library for the first CLASS to have all of their books back, and each student who returns their books will be entered into a raffle to have the honor of naming our library reading house pups! |
The schedule for classes and book checkouts is: - Monday: 1L, 4R, 5B
- Tuesday: KC, 1S, 2M, 3H, 4O
- Wednesday: 2W, 3S
- Thursday: KJ, 1N, 2Mc, 3K, 4J, 5L
- Friday: KM, 5S
The book checkout guidelines are: - Kindergarten - One Book
- First Grade - Two Books
- Second Grade - Two Books
- Third Grade - Three Books
- Fourth Grade and Up - Four Books
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MARCH/APRIL/MAY!
We have celebrated so many things in the music class these last few months... birthdays, Jazz appreciation month (April), upcoming concerts...and more! Here are some of the happenings in music right now: 3rd grade: We are progressing playing recorders! Students are now practicing their blue belt level of Recorder Karate which includes eighth notes, quarter note rests, dotted half notes, and a new note; low "D"!
The skills needed to earn a this belt are:
- Reading the music notation for notes B, A, G, E, and D.
- Understanding more complex rhythms
- Finger placement on the instrument; using the RIGHT hand in addition to the left hand.
- Air control on the instrument when playing lower notes.
1st Grade: We have been working on our song form unit. We have been mapping out song form using shapes, letters, and numbers. Students are able to identify repeating sections of the song and are able to demonstrate the ability to understand AAB, ABA, and rondo form.
4th grade: It's CONCERT time in 4th grade! Our concert is called "Blues, Jazz, & Rock n' Roll". We will be playing mallet instruments and singing with the 2nd grade supporting us. MAY 21st @8:15am... mark your calendars!
2nd grade: It's ALSO CONCERT time in 2nd grade! Our concert is called "Blues, Jazz, & Rock n' Roll". We will be playing mallet instruments and singing with the 4th grade students. MAY 21st @8:15am... mark your calendars!
Kindergarten: In music K students are learniing to sing in different languages. We have learned songs in ASL, Spanish, and musical solfege. We are working on matching pitch in K & pre-k. Songs about colors, counting, and food have been popular with our class! Pre-K: In preschool we are doing great! It's fun to turn the lights out and quietly listen to music while moving our bodies to the sounds! We also use scarves to dance to upbeat music. We have just started identifying instruments and learning their names! We have just begun using triangles and have been practicing playing gently. We recently learned about the rainforest through a singing book! |
Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics |
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Kindergarteners have been busy engineers this Spring! They have learned the steps of the Engineering Design Process and have begun to put those steps into action. - Ask: Understand the problem
- Imagine/Plan: Create a plan to solve the problem
- Create: Follow the plan
- Improve: Make it better
Here are a few challenges that they've worked on:
Floor is Lava Bear Rescue Challenge Three Little Pigs House Building Challenge Animal Camouflage Challenge |
This Spring, first graders explored states of matter by studying crayons. For this unit they melted and cooled crayons, as well as planned and created their very own crayon containers. Next, students explored Lego robotics by creating Milo the Science Rover. They followed steps to build and code Milo and explored sensors that can help Milo collect and share information. |
Second graders have been busy this spring and completed 3 STEM units. - Constructing with KEVA planks
- Storm Drain Rescue Challenge
- Paper Plate Marble Maze Challenge
They did a wonderful job following the Engineering Design Process to complete each challenge. |
Third-graders spent the spring studying wind energy by designing and creating sails and windmills. They used the Engineering Design Process to design, construct, and improve blades that would catch the most wind. They are ending the year by building and coding Lego vehicles and collecting data on their movement. |
Fourth-graders spent the end of winter studying bobsled racing and they designed and constructed model bobsleds. They experimented with runners of different materials to determine which led to the fastest runs. This spring, students are studying energy and the culminating project of the unit is to create a chain reaction machine. |
Digital Literacy & Computer Science
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Digital Literacy & Computer Science |
Kindergarten has been doing some screen free coding. Using Colby the Mouse, students have progressed from reading simple commands to designing and writing code to solve their own mazes.
We have been practicing sequencing and debugging—building blocks for future coding lessons. I am so proud of the persistence and creativity they showed as they worked with increasingly complex challenges! |
In Second Grade, students combined their mapping skills with the fundamentals of programming. They designed personalized maps and then wrote code to guide Finch Robots to specific locations on their maps. It's exciting to see them apply problem-solving and computational thinking! |
Third Grade students are just starting their rotation. This term, we are practicing some creative coding using OctoStudio, an innovative app developed by the MIT Lifelong Kindergarten Group. Students will use a block based coding environment to write code to build their very own interactive games. I can't wait to see what they create! |
First graders just finished up their 6-week tech rotation. They learned basic programming concepts by programming Finch robots to complete various mazes. Fourth graders just finished up their 6-week tech rotation. This rotation, we learned about computer networks: what they are and why they are useful. Students then used Keynote to create their Dream Home Network that includes all the smart devices, real or imagined, that they would want in their dream home. |
This Spring we got our hearts pumping with some exciting cardio drumming! Cardio drumming, or "Drumfit," is a fantastic form of cardiovascular exercise that combines drumming on an exercise ball to upbeat music with various cardio workouts. Throughout the unit, we explored how the heart works, the importance of elevating our heart rates for at least 60 minutes a day, and ways to keep our hearts healthy through exercise and nutritious foods. We even took the time to locate our pulse sites and compared our resting heart rate to our heart rate after completing a Drumfit song—what a fun way to learn about the cardiovascular system and our bodies! We then moved onto our basketball unit. Students learned essential basketball skills like dribbling, passing, and shooting. We had a blast rotating through basketball stations to practice these skills! |
This spring, our third and fourth graders have been staying active and engaged! They kicked things off by learning the fundamentals of basketball and building their skills through fun drills and activities. Next, students jumped into a cardio drumming unit, where they moved to the rhythm of upbeat songs while getting a great workout. We also connected this unit to a health lesson on the cardiovascular system, helping students understand how to keep their hearts strong and healthy. After that, students were introduced to a new favorite—GaGa ball! This exciting and fast-paced game quickly became a highlight for many. Now, we’re gearing up for our Field Day unit, starting with practicing parachute games and teamwork activities.
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