CCES Special Areas Newsletter
Art, Music and PE Updates
Physical Education
Hello CCES Families,
We hope you enjoyed your spring break. The warm weather brings us lots of sunshine to go outdoors and get some physical activity. This month in physical education we are finishing up our fitness testing for 4th and 5th graders. They will receive a comprehensive fitness report at the end of the school year. K-3 grades will be learning about softball/baseball skills and also lacrosse activities. We are also gearing up for our Colt’s Cup fun run on Saturday April 22nd at 8am. We will have a 2 mile race for 3-5 grades and a 1 mile for K-2. It is a great fun family event.
Please make plans to attend and help out with our annual Olympic Field Day on Thursday May 18th. The opening ceremony starts around 8am and the K-2 events start at 9:15 with 3-5 events beginning at 11:30. If you would like to volunteer to work a station please arrive 45 minutes before your student’s grade time.
Kind regards,
Mr. Abel, Mrs. Lubatkin, Mr. Sylvester and Mr. Thomas
Music
MIOSM Success
It has been a busy month of music making at CCES! We had a very successful Music In Our Schools Month with performances by our Chorus, Orff Ensemble and our 2nd grade students. All of the concerts were wonderful and we should be very proud of our students’ hard work. Students also added their words and drawings to the “Music Inspires” bulletin board. It was truly inspiring to see how music makes them think and feel.
K-5 Music Highlights:
Students in Kindergarten completed their Bremen Town Musicians unit. Each animal had its own special day with a song, movement activity and music literacy component. These activities will be used for our Kindergarten concert in May.
First graders have learned movement games Punchinello and Mazoo. Both games involve copying the movements of a leader. Even the most shy students became successful movement leaders. They also heard the story “Honk!” and performed balletic movements to the music of Camille Saint Saens.
Second graders have been very focused on their concert music. Since then, they have had a chance to learn two movement activities based on the number seven. They will use these activities as a model to create dances in small groups.
Third graders composed original melodies based on nursery rhymes. They learned about form and how melodies are the same or different based on the form of a song. They are very excited to begin playing recorders and will be learning mouth piece sound effects, bird calls and a few short songs to prepare for more recorder learning in fourth grade.
Fourth grade learned about jazz music and the twelve bar blues. They even had the chance to create their own blues lyrics to express their frustrations in a musical way!
Fifth grade has finished their study of ukulele. They have learned how to read TAB notation to play melodies and also how to read chord charts to accompany singing. With these skills in place, interested students can continue learning ukulele on their own using song charts and videos from the internet.
Upcoming Concerts:
CCES Chorus is very excited to be singing the National Anthem at the Georgia Swarm Lacrosse game on April 29th! This is quite an honor since the Swarm only hosts a handful of home games at the Infinite Energy Center in Duluth and CCES is the only elementary school chorus selected to sing for one of their home games this season. Discounted tickets are available to CCES families. If you would like to purchase tickets to attend the game, contact Jillian Sandilands at the Georgia Swarm: jsandilands@georgiaswarm.com.
On Tuesday, May 9th at 6:30, CCES Kindergarten students will be performing their concert “The Bremen Town Musicians.” The concert is based on the Grimm’s Fairy Tale and features some very special guests who will help tell the story. Full concert details will be sent home closer to concert time.
Our Spring Chorus and Orff Ensemble Concert will be on Thursday, May 11th at 6:30. Chorus students will be performing a variety of songs based on the theme song “This Land Is Your Land.” The Orff Ensemble will be performing an original mini-musical that weaves the instrumental pieces we have learned together. We hope to see you there to enjoy the culmination of all their hard work!
As always, thank you for your enthusiastic support of the CCES music program.
Mr. D and Mrs. Ingraham
Art
Our fine motor skills and patience are put to the test in Kindergarten and First Grade as we stitch onto a piece of burlap with yarn. We will learn to thread a needle and tie a knot ourselves. First Graders also make connections with their study of the Underground Railroad as we stitch a symbol from the Freedom Quilts. These symbols were like a secret code that helped people escape from slavery.
Second Graders are weaving a basket using yarn and a paper plate. Did you know that baskets have been found in the United States that may be up to 8000 years old? We are talking about how basket weaving became an art form and spread throughout the world.
Third Grade artists are completing a western landscape using methods such as size and placement on the picture plane to show depth. We talk about the ways art was used to encourage people to travel out West in the late 1800s. No digital photography then!
Fourth and Fifth Graders are also working on artworks that show depth, exploring a variety of drawing techniques including one-point perspective, two-point perspective and birds eye view. These drawings will be used to create watercolor paintings. Fourth Graders will be adding art within their artwork in the form of two mini artworks that illustrate the two sides of their chosen conflict. Lots of sports rivalries are being discussed! Fifth Graders are working in the style of surrealists such as Rene Magritte and Giorgio de Chirico, adding objects that create an enigma or a riddle to their artworks.
Watch for your student artists’ sketchbooks to be coming home in a few weeks. We have been compiling our practice drawings, assessments and written reflections here. We will be discussing all that we have learned and created this year. So much to be proud of!
Thank you for your continued support,
Mrs. Nail and Mrs. Steffensen