Spotlight on Specials
Kindergarten -First Quarter 2016-2017
Exploratory Team
Library
I truly enjoy being the Library Media Specialist here at Riverview Elementary! We have an amazing school filled with eager-to-learn, wonderful students and dedicated, caring staff! It is so much fun getting to work with former students again and getting acquainted with all the fantastic kindergarten through fifth graders here at Riverview. I love getting kids excited about reading, introducing them to new books and authors they may not have read before, and researching with them! My goal is to develop lifelong readers!
This year is my 26th year of teaching. I taught second grade a total of 12 years, first grade for 2 years, and Tutorial Math Grades 3-6 for 1 year. I also was a substitute teacher for 5 years after taking time off to raise my own children. This will be my eleventh year as the Library Media Specialist at Riverview.
In our library classes we talked about our five rules: Take Care of Books and Use Shelf Markers, Use Quiet Voices, Raise Your Hand for Permission to Speak, Make Smart Choices and Do Your Best, and Line Up Quietly. We read Mr. Wiggle’s Book by Paula Craig and Carol Thompson. After reading we talked about ways to take good care of our books that would make Mr. Wiggles happy, and things that could happen to books that would make him sad. We identified the book’s cover and spine and the purpose of each. We are practicing using shelf markers to hold the book’s place when we take it off the shelf and holding the book’s spine when replacing it on the shelf. We watched a preview of some of the books coming to our Scholastic Book Fair which will be in the library on October 27th and 28th.
Art
I'm very excited to be teaching art at Riverview Elementary and I'm proud to say I work for the DeSoto School District. I have my BA in Studio Art and my MA in Curriculum and Instruction. I most recently taught middle school art for 11 years in Lawrence, KS. My family and I live in Lenexa, so I'm happy to be teaching very close to home now.
It is my philosophy that all Riverview students are artists. I teach art so my students can experience the art process of creating, using critical thinking, and developing problem-solving skills.
Kindergarten has created two finished projects that introduced the artist Piet Mondrian and pumpkin making. These projects have helped develop skills such as cutting, collage, making shapes, and painting.
Music
I’m so excited to be teaching Music at Riverview! This is my 23rd year in education, my 18th as a music teacher, and my 9th here as a Falcon! I received a Bachelor of Music Education from Louisiana State University, and Level 1 Certification for Orff-Schulwerk Music Education from Baker University.
Mrs. Eskina’s half-day classes come to music once a week for 30 minutes. Mrs. Grauer’s and Mrs. Starling’s full-day classes come twice a week for 30 minutes each time. The first quarter of Kindergarten Music class is spent getting to know each other, having fun with new instruments and moving to the beat! Students had experience playing rhythm sticks, tambourines, woodblocks, and triangles. We have been working on our close listening skills to find the differences in music, as well as discovering how much fun it can be to just move to the beat of a song. In addition to extra practice with these skills, our full-day classes also started yoga to practice coordinating the movement of our bodies! Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions!
P.E.
I am so thankful I get to be the P.E. teacher at Riverview Elementary! This is my 2nd year in education, and I am so glad I was able to begin my career at Riverview. I absolutely love it! I received a Bachelor of Science in Education degree from the University of Kansas -- Rock Chalk! I love teaching the students the importance of physical activity, as well as how to live a healthy lifestyle, all while having tons of fun in the process!
Kindergarten students began their year in P.E. learning the rules of the classroom, how to stay safe, and how to be a good teammate! Sportsmanship is always a key focus in P.E.. The students have learned what it means to have good sportsmanship, and have done a great job of showing their understanding! They were able to learn many warm-up activities, some of their favorites including “Laundry Tag” and “Lap Run”! They have learned a lot about personal space and general space, locomotor movements (movements that help us get from one place to another, such as hopping, skipping, galloping, leaping, jumping, walking, running, sliding), and participated in many cooperative activities. Towards the end of the quarter, the kindergarteners got to learn how to use scoopers; how to catch and throw a ball with the scooper. It was a great way to practice and better their hand-eye coordination. I can’t wait to see how the students grow and learn throughout the rest of the school year! It will be such a great journey!
Technology
In Kindergarten, students started this year learning the basic operations of the laptops and laptop accessories, how to login and how to navigate to my site. Students played several games that included letter recognition, phonemic awareness, spatial reasoning skills and pattern building. Just last week students were introduced to the iPads in our room and created shapes using the GeoBoard App.
Next quarter, we will continue educational games using the laptops and firming up logging into the system.
Counselor
Hello and welcome back to a new school year! My name is Toni Munsey and I am your Riverview School Counselor! I’m pleased to start another year at Riverview. This is my tenth year in the Desoto school district. My previous 18 years were spent in the Kansas City, Kansas school district. I received my Bachelor’s degree from Kansas State and my Masters in Counseling from Emporia State where I also completed K-12 building level Administrative certification. I’ve taught in the classroom for eight years before becoming a school counselor and am excited about my 20th year as a school counselor. The counselors’ role is to help students be successful in academic achievement as well as social and emotional health. I will be teaching guidance lessons in the library this year as part of the special’s teacher rotation on a regular basis. I will also be available for small group and individual counseling. The counseling curriculum consists of Character Education, Bullying Prevention, Drug and Alcohol Prevention just to name a few. My goal is to find more time in my schedule for students who just need to drop by and talk out a problem. I am an advocate for all students and a resource for staff and parents. Please feel free to contact me anytime if there is anything I can help with. My phone number is 441-0808 ext. 4124 and my e-mail is tthurmanmunsey@usd232.org. I would also like to remind you the importance of community service and encourage you to join the Falcon Volunteers and track your community service hours throughout the year. I will be sending home more information as well as a tracking form for hours. I’m so excited about this school year and look forward to working with you and our wonderful Riverview students.
First quarter has been a blast! We have reviewed the role of the school counselor. We have also done several getting to know you and team building activities. We have reviewed the zones of regulation and will start each class with a zones check in. I hope we are in green with a positive growth mindset.