The kindergarten students in the district have been working hard to learn about musical rhythms. We have visited a fictitious lady's house at "4 Music Lane." We are learning about quarter notes, quarter rests and eighth notes in pairs. The students have learned to apply musical notation to match the time signature of a song.

This week we are viewing a clip from the movie "The Sound Of Music" and seeing how a song about your favorite things can make you smile. We are applying this knowledge and creating a one-measure song about the student's favorite item.​ I will be compiling these "songs" into a class book and will be sharing it with you soon.

Mary Scaggs

K-2 Music Educator FTIS

The K-2 students have been learning about the procedures for our “new and improved” art studio classroom and how to THINK LIKE AN ARTIST using 4 steps: Plan it, Make it, Reflect on it and Share it.

The first graders are learning how to use a sketchbook as an artist tool to plan and practice. They are also filling out a Daily Art Log to reflect on what they did in art class. We have been working on our drawing skills and had the opportunity in one of the classes to go outside to draw the shapes that make our school. Here is a picture of students using their sketchbooks to practice, plan and reflect.

Nikki Everett

K-2 Art Educator FTIS

2nd grade is working on a project called “Journey North Symbolic Monarch Migration” where our students make paper monarchs and we send them to an ambassador school in Mexico where they are kept “safe and warm throughout the winter,” just like the real monarch migration!

In the spring, we will get butterflies back, but they will not be our own as monarchs never return to the exact location. Through this project, I hope to show one way in which we are connected to another country – through the monarch migration, as well as learn about monarchs, migration, and Mexico in Spanish.

Julie Dashley

K-2 Spanish Educator FTIS

The third grade students in Spanish Class are learning the names and sounds of the letters in El Alfebeto. They are singing songs, creating a class book, and playing games saying the letter names and sounds in isolation and applying the sounds in words.

The fourth graders are also working to answer the question: Que hay en la classe? They are learning the names of various items in the classroom, and are practicing using full sentences to answer the questions about items in the classroom. They have been listening to a music video, playing games, and illustrating/labeling a classroom using Spanish words.

The fifth graders are working to answer the question “Como Eres?” They are learning to tell about themselves using their name, gender and hair color. They have played games and created characters using these skills.

The fourth and fifth graders in the Spanish classroom share routine questions every time they enter the classroom, in order to practice applying their Spanish vocabulary knowledge in conversation. They answer questions about the date, the time, the weather, and how they are feeling each day.

Amy Leigh

3-5 Spanish Educator FTIS

(Long-term sub for Silvia McClamrock)

Fifth graders have been challenged to consider (or reconsider) their personal definition of art. Forming an opinion and backing it up with evidence, they approach the concept of art with a new perspective, understanding that we each define the topic with a different lens.

After studying several artists who have made our world think about art in new ways (Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Robert Smithson, and Nam June Paik), the students designed an artwork infused with a personal connection from their everyday lives. Many students are utilizing resource materials to assist in the research and development of their plan, recognizing that inspiration can come from an unlimited number of sources.

Jennifer Flynn

3-5 Art Educator FTIS