GRAND AVENUE SPECIALS
February 2018
SPECIALS DEPARTMENTS
Music-Katie Lavigne and Glenn Schuster
Physical Education-Jacob Breunig and Eric Scheunemann
Email: contact@saukprairieschools.org
Website: www.saukprairieschools.org
ART
WHAT WE'VE BEEN WORKING ON:
Fifth Grade: For the Square1Art project fifth grade artists had a choice between a radial name design and a concentric circle design based on the artwork of Sonia Delaunay.
The name design required students to create a design using radial symmetry and their name or a word. Students used light tables to create a symmetrical design and then used markers to color the design with a color scheme of their choice.
For the concentric circle design students drew abstract designs using a compass and a ruler. Taking inspiration from Delaunay their designs needed to include concentric circles. The final designs were colored with marker using a color scheme of their choice.
Music
We have studied the Disney musical "Newsies" in all of our music classes. The Third Graders have started working on their March concert. In January, the Fifth Graders have begun playing recorders with an advanced music, where we have been working on 2 part songs.
PHYSICAL EDUCATION
Heart Rate Monitor Reports:
We've had some questions about this. You should have received an emailed report of your child's heart rate during physical education class. The email would come from "no-reply@heartzones.com" titled "Heart Zones Workout. If you aren't receiving these emails please let us know but also check your junk mail :) If you haven't seen a report in a while it is because we had some technical difficulties but will be back using the heart rate monitors next week.
When looking at the heart rate report you can look at 3 things to get an idea of your child's health and work in class:
1. Check the amount of time they spent in each zone: Depending upon the activities
we were doing in class you will be able to tell how hard your son/daughter is
working in class. Just so you know our goal is that the majority of their time will
be spent in the orange zone.
2. Check the graph to see how quickly their heart rate recovers: Heart rate recovery
is a good indicator of heart health. If you see a quick deep drop on the graph it
shows good heart health. When we stop moving we want our heart to recover
quickly.
3. Check out the top of the report: Look especially for their MVPA% (which stands for Moderate/Vigorous Physical Activity). Our goal is that everyday their MVPA% should be 50% or higher. Also look at their average heart rate, maximum heart rate, and minimum heart rate for the day which is all listed at the top of the report. It also gives you a good idea of your child's health and effort.
- We have completed our Gymnastics Unit. We introduced 3rd graders to the equipment, skills, and expectations in this unit and challenged them to progress at their pace through the skills we introduced. In addition to this we assess 4th grade students on a floor routine we created and also on a vault. In 5th grade students are required to create their own floor routine. An example of the great job students did with that is included above.
- We also had 2 very successful ski trips this month. Thank you for the opportunity to provide your child with this opportunity and for all the chaperones that came and assisted. Your help was truly appreciated!
What we will be doing next:
- We will begin our team building unit where we focus on developing and improving our teamwork skills such as: cooperation, communication, mutual respect, compromise/flexibility, listening, conflict management, and actively participating.
- We also will be sending information home about Jump Rope for Heart and will begin to expand upon our knowledge of how to make heart healthy choices.