Hawley Special Area Newsletter
December 2022
We wish for our Hawley families and friends a joyful and restful Winter Break and we look forward to seeing you in the New Year!
⚽Kindergarten and 1st Grade P.E. with Mr. Sortino ⚽
🏃♀️2nd-4th Grade P.E. with Mr. Michlovitz 🏃♂️
Grades 2-4 Physical Education is off to a great start! It’s hard to believe we’re in December already.
The REED Physical Education staff has gone above and beyond to make myself and the students feel right at home!
One of the challenges this year is the students don’t have every day access to a traditional gym space. Depending on the weather, the Hawley PE classes use one of three areas (softball outfield, black top area, cafeteria). Once in a while when it's available, we can use the REED school gym. Fortunately, we’ve had very mild, dry weather since the start of the school year which has allowed us to have most of our classes outside.
Even though we’re not at Hawley, the physical education curriculum remains the same.
The students in grades 2-4 have been working on the following skills/activities:
Soccer (passing, dribbling/ball handling, modified games)
Tag games (traditional and cooperative)
Physical fitness (push-ups, sit-ups, cardio, and flexibility)
Scarves (hand/eye coordination)
Locomotor skills (skipping, galloping, etc…)
Jump Roping basics
Enjoy the photos of the Hawley students in action!
🌍FLES Department 🌎
Autumn/otoño 2022
¡Hola! For those of you who don’t already know me, my name is Marianne Grenier and I work with Grades K, 1, 2, 3 & 4 students at both Hawley and Sandy Hook elementary schools. I am one of three elementary Spanish teachers in the district. This is my eighth year teaching Spanish in the district and I LOVE it!
- Marianne S. Grenier, grenierm@newtown.k12.ct.us
¡Hola! My name is Marisa Basso and I work with Grades K, 1, 2, 3 & 4 at Middle Gate School and Grades 2 & 4 at Hawley School. It’s such a joy to work in the elementary Spanish program in the district. This is my third year teaching Spanish in the district and it is definitely one of my passions. :) señorita
-Marisa Basso bassom@newtown.k12.ct.us
¡Buenos días! My name is Chris Pereira and this is my first year working with Grades K 1,2,3 & 4 students at both Hawley and Head O’Meadow Elementary schools. Last year, I taught at Newtown High School and before that, four years at Wooster School in Danbury CT. I am happy that I’ve made a smooth transition to the elementary schools and love being a part of the Newtown community.
- Cristiano Pereira, pereirac@newtown.k12.ct.us
If you were to visit any of our classrooms, you would see a variety of things! At the younger level, language is shared through songs, stories, dances, games and fun activities. At the upper level, students explore and practice their new language via activities designed to foster creativity and communication skills. These classes provide a first look at the Spanish language and culture.
What we're LEARNING
Kindergarten & First Grade Grades K & Grade 1
In Kindergarten we are learning; First Grade reinforces what we learned in Kindergarten
How to follow directions: levantámonos (let’s stand up), sentámonos (let’s sit down);
Ojos mirando (eyes are watching) y orejas escuchando (ears are listening)Saying hola (hello), adiós (goodbye), buenos días (good morning)
Introducing ourselves with Me llamo (my name is) & how to say “Nice to meet you” (Mucho gusto, both people say to be polite.)
Addressing adults as señor (Mr) or Señora (Mrs.) or Señorita (Miss/Ms.)
Numbers 1-10 (uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis, siete, ocho, nueve, diez) Grade 1 is learning up to 20.
Rainbow colors as in rojo (red), anaranjado (orange), amarillo (yellow), verde (green), azul (blue), morado/púrpura (purple).
Second Grade Vid: Months of the Year in Spanish!
In second grade in addition to what we learned in Grades K & 1. we are also learning:
To express our feelings by saying estoy bien (I'm well/good), mal (bad), cansado/a (tired), emocionado/a (excited), tengo hambre (I’m hungry), tengo calor (I’m hot), tengo frío (I’m cold)
To recite the days of the week: lunes (Monday), martes (Tuesday), miércoles (Wednesday), jueves (Thursday), viernes (friday), sábado (Saturday), and domingo (Sunday).
To recite to the months of the year: enero (January), febrero (February), marzo (March), abril (April), mayo (May), junio (June), julio (July), agosto (August), septiembre (September), octubre (October), noviembre (November), diciembre (December).
The Spanish alphabet and the vowel sounds to further develop emerging Spanish readers.
Third & Fourth Grade
In addition to what we learned in Grades K-2, we are also building on and learning the following:
Las 4 estaciones (el otoño, el invierno, la primavera, el verano) and weather expressions (hace calor, hace frío, está nevando, está nublado y está lloviendo)
Respond to calendar questions like ¿Qué día es hoy? (What day is today?), ¿Qué día será mañana? (What day will tomorrow be?), ¿Qué día fue ayer? (What day was yesterday?) and to answer them as hoy es (today is), mañana será (tomorrow will be), and ayer fue (yesterday was)
Identify the 21 Spanish-speaking countries in América Latina: Norteamérica (North America), Centroamérica (Central America), Sudamérica (South America), Europe (Spain) and Africa (Equatorial Guinea) We “fly” to 1 country each week throughout the school year. It’s been an amazing journey. Thank you for sharing your children with us.
¡Gracias!
2nd Grade Artwork
3rd Grade Artwork
4th Grade Artwork
🎨Art with Ms. Giddings & Ms. Griffin🎨
The Hawley art room has been busy with creativity this fall and winter. Students in K-4 have been learning new skills and working with various art materials. It has been a pleasure to work with your students for my second year in the district and see their artistic skills develop and advance. The art room is a space where students are encouraged to think outside the box and push the boundaries of what they can make. Creativity is magical, and I enjoy watching your students find their voice through artmaking.
Kindergarten: Students have been focusing on line, shape, and color. They created line rugs using crayon and watercolor resist, pumpkins inspired by Yayoi Kusama, cityscape parades with dog balloons inspired by Jeff Koons, and matching hats and mittens on a monochromatic winter-painted landscape.
1st Grade: Students are focusing on individual creativity and using new artmaking materials. They created geodes using torn paper and repetitive lines, birds' eye view pumpkins inspired by Yayoi Kusama, clown cones inspired by Wayne Thiebaud, and worm-eye view snowmen. They practice using art materials and taking care of them as they work.
2nd Grade: Students are working on refining their art skills and practicing the principles and elements of design. They created mirrors using radial symmetry, flower landscapes inspired by Yayoi Kusama, and a dozen donuts inspired by Wayne Thiebaud.
3rd Grade: Students are focusing on how design principles and design elements influence their artwork. They created an Amate inspired by tree bark paper by drawing an animal of their choice using oil pastels. Students used patterns and shapes to develop the initial drawing. Yayoi Kusama inspired students to create a pumpkinscape using small, medium, and large polka dots. The artwork is a combination of sharpie and watercolor.
4th Grade: The focus for students is to refine their skills and begin to take pride in the artwork that they create. Students are encouraged to persevere and take their time. Students created a 3D Installation inspired by Yayoi Kusama. They chose the theme of their installation and designed the components, and embellished the walls and the floor of the 9” cube space. The students are just beginning a new project inspired by Wayne Thiebaud, where they draw and decorate a layer cake. They are practicing blending oil pastels to create value in the cakes while using colored pencils to define lines and shapes. Students will learn about artist statements and how to write them in the new year. They will need this skill as they continue their art education.
Kindergarten Artwork
1st Grade Artwork
📚Library with Ms. Carlson & Ms. Wilson📚
The Hawley Library has been a busy place both at Reed and Sandy Hook! We are enjoying being in both spaces with our Hawley students as well as enjoying our time collaborating, sharing ideas, and working with our Reed and Sandy Hook colleagues.
Students are enjoying their time in library class. Each week they have engaged in:
a new read aloud related to book care, national holidays, learning about and celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month, Italian American Heritage Month, Native American Heritage Month, learning about and celebrating cultural holidays
lessons that explore how the library is organized into different sections such as the Everyone, Dewey, Spanish, and Fiction Chapter Books
lessons that challenge students to understand and use call numbers to find where books "live" on the shelves
book care activities
parts of a book dance parties
understanding the verso information of a book
live learning with Destiny Discover
collaborating with peers to solve library problems
library scavenger hunts
creating, designing, building, engineering, and sharing their imagined stories in their Makerspace stations
typing skills practice
and beginner coding
🎵 Music with Ms. Marak 🎵
We have moved into our new spots and are doing well!
In January, the 4th grade Chorus will perform for parents and honored guests on Monday, January 9th (snow date Jan. 17t) at 7 pm. We will perform at Reed School in the cafetorium with the chorus.
On the day before winter break, the students will all perform in the Kindness Assembly. Each grade performs a song and the entire student body will perform Nothing More by Alternate Routes.
With the new year comes new activities! We are starting a unit of Bucket Band with grades 2-4. We will be learning about holding the sticks correctly, how the buckets sound differently when hit in different places, and most importantly, rest position with the sticks!
The 4th grade students are starting the recorder unit! They are very excited about learning the recorder--some have even learned Hot Cross Buns on their own! We are all looking forward to learning more songs to play at the Spring Concert!