Kindergarten: Specials Spotlight
Fourth Quarter 2016-2017
Exploratory Team
Music
This year we have learned so much about music and how much fun it is to sing and play to create our music. Students have played lots of instruments – rhythm sticks, tambourines, wood blocks, maracas, triangles, egg shakers, scrapers, and drums! Hopefully students had fun while learning about how music works. Movement is always a big part of music – showing what we hear and reacting to the different sounds and changes in music. We also spent some time doing some yoga lessons to focus on movement and body control! I hope you have a wonderful summer and take some time to sing and dance along the way!
Art
The end of the 2016-2017 school year is here. With the end of the year comes many traditions and celebrations. It has been a tradition at Riverview Elementary to award one student from each grade the honor of being the artist of the year. This is kept secret from the students until the awards ceremony. A piece of art has been selected to represent each student. These works of art will be framed and they will hang in the Riverview office for the next school year. In addition, one work of art is chosen to be framed and hung at the DeSoto School District office until the student graduates. Congratulations to these students, as their artwork was outstanding! Thank you for all you do to encourage the artist within your child!
Portfolios have all gone home with students over the last few weeks. It is so exciting to look at how much our artists have grown in their talents over the course of the school year. I hope everyone has taken the time to share and discuss your child's art with them. They have made great progress this year with their art talents!
I want to thank all of the Riverview families I have been fortunate to meet and talk to. I have truly enjoyed working with your children this year at Riverview. Enjoy your summer!
PE
Fourth quarter was filled with many awesome activities! We were able to learn more about dribbling and shooting a basketball, striking objects, and prepared for Field Day! Dribbling a basketball is no easy task, but this group of students really impressed me with their skills and hard work! They also got some time to shoot the basketball, which they absolutely loved :) The striking unit is always a fun one. Students were able to strike objects such as balloons, fleece balls, dodge balls, beachballs, and volleyballs with their hands, pillow paddles, and noodles. We learned about the force we use when swinging to strike an object, and got to practice using different amounts of forces for the different types of hits we were aiming for. Field Day was such an amazing way to end the quarter! The students seemed to have a great time, especially since it was their very first Field Day, and I saw amazing sportsmanship all day long! I am so looking forward to next year with this group of students as first graders. They are so fun and energetic and I am so lucky to be their P.E. teacher! Have a great summer!!
Technology
Students were introduced to skills for online safety. At this age, students see their immediate surroundings and often don't realize the dangers that can be lurking on the public internet. We discussed the importance of not sharing our private information online, speaking to those we didn't know and in general seeking out an adult when we wanted to go online.
I hope you have a great summer! See you next year!
Library
In our library classes this quarter we reviewed our procedures for our fire, tornado, and intruder drills. We also reviewed the role of the author, illustrator, and publisher and the parts of a book. We talked about how when we “research”, we are looking in books to find the answers to our questions. We wondered if people in other countries play games with their children. We found that people in Thailand like to play Peek-a-Boo and Hide-and-Go-Seek just like we do! We found Thailand and Japan on the map and read a story about a Japanese girl’s first day at school in America. We discussed the role of the author, illustrator, and publisher. We looked at the call numbers on books and identified the order in which books are placed on the shelf. We had fun reading a circle story, If You Give a Pig a Pancake, and then created our own circle stories! We discussed “point of view” and read the story of the Little Red Hen from the hen’s point of view, and then from the pig’s point of view. We discussed similarities and differences in their points of view. We enjoyed stories read by members of the Screen Actors Guild online. Please keep reading and enjoying books from the public library over the summer!