Specials are Spot On
3rd Grade March News
Music
Third graders are becoming recorder experts! Their drive to learn songs and earn recorder belts continues to amaze me! Many students are working hard to learn songs beyond the level of what is learned in class in order to progress through the levels! I have informed the students that they are required to earn their green belt (level four) by the end of the school year, but they may move beyond that level if they wish. I hope that many students continue to work on the more difficult songs and work their way through the levels. For a glimpse of our recorder karate board, see the picture below. Each student has his or her name placed on the belt color they have most recently earned! Soon, we will begin to wind down our recorder unit in order to fit in the rest of the year’s music units. Students will still be able to take recorder tests to earn belts, but there won’t be a large focus on recorder in class. I will let students know when they can stop bringing their recorders to school.
Currently, students are preparing to learn a new solfege note, which is down low on the staircase. They will learn new songs like “Yangtze Boatmen’s Chanty” (a Chinese sea chanty) and “Big Fat Biscuit” in order to listen for the new lower sound. We will continue to focus on reading notes on the treble clef staff and begin to learn about the instruments of the orchestra in the coming months! During April, third graders will get a visit from the fifth grade band so that they might be inspired to choose an instrument of their own when they go to Center School! Please feel free to email me with any questions or comments!
Mrs. Maldonado
Library Media
With Mrs. Flannery, 3rd grade students have just finished their coding unit and really enjoyed learning how to use Bloxels. They are now starting their research unit. As a class we will work through the process of planning, conducting, and reviewing our research. Each class will get to vote on the topic they would like to learn about. We will spend time discussing the three main ways we gather information (books, databases, and internet) and the advantages and disadvantages of each. Students will then spend a few weeks gathering information from digital and print books and our school database, PebbleGo. We will finish up in May by creating videos to share with the other 3rd grade classes and our families what we learned.
With Mrs. Hill, 3rd graders have participated in the following read alouds:
Nutmeg Nominees-
Lulu’s Mysterious Mission by Judith Viorst
Harriet the Invinsible by Ursula Vernon
Ranger in Time by Kate Messner
Hotel Bruce by Ryan T. Higgins
Super Happy Party Bears by Marcie Colleen
Solomon the Rusty Nail by William Steig
Nanette’s Baguette by Mo Willems
If you have any questions in regards to your child’s library experience. Please don’t hesitate to contact us or locate more information on the library webpage.
Mrs. Flannery and Mrs. Hill
Physical Education
During the first two weeks of March, we finished our beach ball unit with the children. The remainder of the month stations were set-up, where they rotated from one activity to another. Stations included badminton, shuffle board and fitness lab. We often use stations with our P.E. units. We think it is a very effective way to teach skills and the children really like the variety of activities.
This is the second year of badminton for the third graders. They really like the challenge of the activity. There was a lot of good volleys by the children. They remembered most of the rules and strategies of the game. Shuffle board is another favorite activity with them. They have the choice to play with one partner or play a foursome. Badminton and shuffle board are excellent hand-eye coordination activities.
The children also continued to work on their fitness, flexibility and muscle strength. Their level of fitness continues to improves, due to their hard work and commitment to success.
Coach Boscarino and Coach Ruel
Art
3rd graders in Miss Fausette's art class have spent several art classes working with glaze on their ceramic toad houses. It was exciting to see how firing the clay had changed it so dramatically from brittle, bone dry clay to ceramic bisque ware. The second, glaze firing, will change the glazed surface. Students are looking forward to the final stage of their work.
This month, with Ms. Pinto, the students have been really stretching their artist wings through three different projects; still-life, landscape, and vehicle design. They continue to evaluate their own masterpieces as they work, so as to earn those much desired “stamps” for their art passports. We began placing our own stamps in our passports while assessing our own work, (and not have the teacher score the work). We have gotten really good at reading our class rubric to see if our work is of the highest quality for the media we were using and have been really honest with this scoring process.
On and even more exciting note, some of the third graders have begun taking risks with the art media in our choice art room, and inquiring about materials that aren’t as readily available. For example, Some students asked “what is printmaking?” and off we went with demonstrations and discovery with the use of the tools and media to find the answers to that question. Several students are now designated as the “experts” and can easily explain and demonstrate the printmaking process to others who would like to learn and experiment with it. Some other students also began to inquire about “origami” because of an origami app they discovered on our classroom iPads.
Each third grade class has a variety of interests at this point; from printmaking, to clay sculpture, to three-dimensional origami collage; but we are continuing to explore all of the media in the art room with the goal to master all 6 categories in our art passports. Our classroom runs like a college art studio, with a creative, responsible, and energetic environment! We can’t believe there are only 10 art classes left before the end of the school year!!!!
Miss Pinto and Miss Fausette
The Specials Team
Email: rflannery@easthamptonct.org
Website: www.easthamptonps.org
Location: Memorial School, Smith Street, East Hampton, CT, United States
Phone: 8603654020
Facebook: facebook.com/MemorialElementarySchool
Twitter: @EHPublicSchools