Happy New Year!
News from your NIS Specialist Team
ART
Dear NIS Families,
We are off to a wonderful 2022! The art room is bursting with creative energy and your artist(s) continue to impress me with their perseverance and willingness to learn. It is truly an amazing start to the New Year!
Pictures of your students' work and their activities in the art room can be viewed through our team Smore newsletters, and also through our school Instagram accounts: @nisspecials @nisartists. While viewing, you will feel the excitement these young artists have for learning, growing and taking risks, and it will give you a glimpse of what it looks like in our Special! Please ask your child what they’re currently working on and learning in the art room and/or share the site with them for visuals and to make connections at home. Let your artist know that through our online postings, you can see the space they’re creating in and all the magical things they’re doing! I am looking forward to exploring more of the art world with your amazing artists during the winter months!
Love and Health,
Ms. Held
Grade 5
Andy Warhol inspired printmaking
Grade 5 artists have been learning about the printmaking process and Pop Artist, Andy Worhol. Each student selected an endangered species to reproduce prints for their own Pop Art series. Ask your artist which species they chose and why. See if they can walk you through their printmaking experience and about the processes they used to create their prints! We have truly mastered printmaking and all the vocabulary that goes along with it! Can your artist tell you what these printing terms mean: ink, brayer, printing plate, scratch foam, and relief printing?
Grade 4
Grade 4 just finished working to build coil pots out of clay. Students used a variety of techniques such as coil making, slip and scoring, and building three dimensionally. Artists also enjoyed playing with making standing spirals and reverse coiling while building! Each of these pots came out so differently and unique to the artist! Artists are now working on glazing these pieces with a hand picked color scheme and will then fire them in the kiln to ready for display in our building! Ask your artist about the process of building a coil pot, what clay is made from, or how to “scratch attach” pieces to stay connected. Perhaps they will share the colors they plan on glazing their work with, or what a kiln is!
Clay Coil Pot Building
Nantucket Mixed Media Collage in Whaling Museum SOON!!!
Grade 4 did a wonderful job last month creating their Nantucket shaped multimedia collages, which will soon be featured in an exhibit in the Whaling Museum for all to see!
A message from the Historical Society: Mark your calendar! (February 11-April 1) Students from the Nantucket Elementary, Nantucket Intermediate, and Cyrus Pierce Middle Schools are preparing their own works of art inspired by Nantucket history to be displayed in the Whaling Museum’s McCausland Gallery.
Grade 3
Wayne Thiebaud inspired cakes
Grade 3 artists are completing their unit of 3D form. Students were introduced to Artist, Wayne Thiebaud who was an American painter known for his colorful works depicting common place objects and delicious treats- pies, cakes, icecream cones, pastries, hotdogs, as well as for his landscapes and figure paintings. Each third grade student learned how to draw a three dimensional cake form and then colored their work by using oil pastels and experimenting with tints and shades by blending colors. Ask your third grader what type of cake they made and the difference between a tint and a shade in art, possibly your artist could teach you how to create your own 3D cake and how to add value to make it appear “real” ?!? It’s wonderful practice and they DO take pride in what they learn! :)
Whaling Museum Tree
CONGRATULATIONS TO GRADE 3 ON THEIR WHALING MUSEUM TREE!
This year's theme: Food Puns! Ask your grade 3 artist which pun they chose and what they sculpted out of clay! Truly, this year’s tree was the BEST!!!
Huge shout out to grade 3 teacher Katie Mooney for organizing this tradition and being the creative director… You’re amazing!!
No Pea-King at presents
Making ends meat
Don't go bacon my heart
I'm so made ice cream!
You're all that and a bag of chips!
Jello from the other side!
NEW ON Instagram: Your NIS specialist team has created a specialist instagram page! Please follow us as we will be regularly sharing what your child is learning in our Special areas! Please follow @nisspecials to stay informed!! We would also love any feedback or messages from you! :) We’d love to hear from you!
Did you also know that we have an @nisartists Instagram page? If you’re not already a follower to this page, please start as I will be posting pictures of student work and activities in the art room regularly!
Parent Volunteer Opportunity!
Please consider donating some of your time to help prepare the Arts for Unified Arts Night coming this April!
Volunteers are needed for grades 3/4/5 :
Matting Artwork
Labeling Artwork
Hanging/Displaying Artwork
More information and a sign up will be coming soon! Thank you!
Winter Cleaning?
The Art Room is always looking for donations! Below is a list of items we are always in need of. Thank you for taking a look and helping our creative minds build!
- Aluminum foil
- Wax Paper
- Zip-lock bags
- Tissues
- Tupperware Containers
- Brown lunch bags
- TP and Paper Towel Rolls
- Newspaper
- Decorative Paper
- Egg Cartons
- Ribbon
- Q-Tips
- Cotton balls
- Plastic bottle caps (soda/water/milk, etc.)
- Wallpaper
- Cardstock
- Tissue Paper
- Stickers
- Wood scraps (safe for student use)
- Paint stirrers
- Baby wipes
- Fake Flowers/Leaves
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!
MUSIC
Happy New Year to everyone!
Hi, All,
Here in the Music room, we have been cruising along with learning how to read and write music notation. Currently – 3rd Grade has been learning basic notation, Boom Whackers, the different instruments in the orchestra, and who/what the conductor is. We started the year with playing recorders, but we decided to put them away and bring them back out when the weather is warmer because of many various reasons. So coming up in 3rd Grade will be Ukuleles, learning to strum, pluck, reading notation, and becoming the conductor for class. Currently – 4th & 5th Grade has been learning Ukuleles, Boom Whackers, reading notation, and body percussion. Coming up in 4th & 5th Grade is research in music, writing our poetry, reading notation at an intermediate level (mixed meters, complex time signatures), and playing guitar.
NIS Band and Chorus have been off to a great start learning how to play their band instrument and be in an ensemble with chorus. Although we have hit a bump in the road, students have been successful with playing their instruments, playing a Concert B-flat scale, and getting ready to play as a large group (93 strong!!). In addition, the chorus has been doing an incredible job of learning to sing in an ensemble, making music together, and learning to read multiple parts in a score. Concerts are coming up in the spring!!
I am very excited to start music compositions with all grades – students will learn how to write and create their own music, from writing their own rhythms, scoring for different instruments, and then working with MusicComp. https://music-comp.org/ is an organization that focuses on helping students write their own compositions. They will get to work with a mentor composer (published in the music field), and some may even have the ability to have their music performed by professional musicians in an Opus series concert. Students would be able to rehearse with the musicians and lead the professionals through their composer intent of the music.
I am looking forward to a very musical winter and what the students create!
Keep Smiling,
Dr. Eddie Wilkin
Music and Math
HS Band Performance for NIS Band Members
Class Music Composition
LIBRARY
Happy New Year, NIS Families!
I have enjoyed getting to know your children during Term 1, and continue to be inspired by these young creative minds and their enthusiasm for reading, writing and learning.
Term 1 Highlights
Third grade had a social emotional learning (SEL) content focus through literature of various titles. Our read alouds were followed up with lessons on retelling, vocabulary, and visualization. Alphabetizing, also known as ABC order, is an important foundational skill for the library and will receive a strong focus all year. This skill is essential when searching for books on the shelf as well as when using reference materials and indexes or glossaries in nonfiction materials.
Fourth graders are adjusting to using library resources in an effective way to enhance their learning in vocabulary, as well as writing and comprehension. Activities are designed to promote caring and responsible behaviors toward library materials while supporting the development of skills needed to locate information in the library. Grade 4 has also been learning how to use the library cataloguing system to locate their favorite books to read and also to complete class activities.
Fifth Graders engaged in learning activities that will better help them to transition to middle school, such as research and dictionary/vocabulary skills which are applied to writing. Emphasis on the utilization of intermediate and specialized reference sources like dictionaries, encyclopedias, atlases, almanacs and thesaurus (print and electronic) will continue into the second term, and these skills will be integrated into their classroom content.
Best Regards
Librarian- Jackie Jennison (jennisonj@npsk.org)
Book Fair
On behalf of our entire school, I would like to thank all parents and children who took part in Book Fair 2021. It was a huge success! Students had fun getting acquainted with all the new books and resources and were particularly excited to be able to do this in person once again. We are already looking forward to the 2022 Book Fair!
Physical Education
Dear NIS Families,
Hello and Happy New Year! Like many, I have resolved to take good care of my health- to eat nutrient dense food, exercise as much as I can, to get enough rest, and to do fun things with family and friends! How about you and your family? We are working on lots of things in the gym/outdoor classroom these days. First, I'd love to ask that your child wear clothing appropriate to the weather as we will be going outside as often as we can! Coats, hats, gloves etc. Please wear or bring sneakers on PE days. I encourage students to bring water bottles from home so that they can take a sip when needed.
We continue to play games from the Physical Educator website which the kids really like and so do I. We have been working to refine overhand throwing skills, and also we are starting our Badminton Unit, which is another student favorite! Please see some pictures below for some great examples of student work! If you have any questions regarding our work, please do not hesitate to contact me at school at gardnerg@npsk.org. Thank you so much for all of your support! You have wonderful children, and I enjoy the time I get to spend with them in each class.
Kind Regards,
Galen Gardner/NIS PE
STEAM
Hello students and parents!
The new year is kicking off with some very exciting lessons in STEAM! All grades will be focusing on fractions and geometry for the next few weeks to reinforce what they already know and to have a chance to do some artistic projects with fractions!
The 3rd and 5th grade began their fraction work by experimenting with fraction tiles. They organized their tiles and traced them onto a mini poster as a group activity, labeled them with the appropriate fractions, and colored them in! For the next few weeks we will be completing worksheets and activities that focus on the visual aspects of fractions. Following our fraction practice, students will make a piece of art with fraction pieces of construction paper (think about circles/other shapes divided into fractions). We will cut them all out as a collective class, and the following week is an opportunity to use all of those fraction pieces to make a work of art!
Grade 4
The 4th grade is working diligently on their egg drop designs and they are so excited to have the fire department come by! The purpose of the egg drop challenge is to answer the focus question: How do we protect our brains in a collision? The egg drop design is a model for a bike helmet, with a hard shell outside and padding on the inside. And just like a bike helmet, they must be able to easily remove their egg from their design! Before the fire department comes in, 4th graders will be testing their prototypes with a hard boiled egg and we will drop them from the staircase inside the school! If their egg breaks then this offers them a chance to modify their design before the big 100 foot drop! 4th graders are definitely practicing their engineering and problem solving skills with this challenge!
Ask your kids what they're learning in STEAM!
Please ask your student about what they are doing in STEAM and how they like the course! As a first year teacher I am trying my very best to ensure your student’s work here in my classroom aligns with their science standards, and is also an opportunity for them to experiment, ask questions, work in groups, and explore! You can always contact me via email at christom@npsk.org.
Warmest regards from your STEAM teacher,
Ms. Christo