Wildwood Elem Specialist Newsletter
Art, Library-Media, Music, Physical Education, and Spanish
Introductory Newsletter
Art
Greetings from the art room! My name is Kristi Eckert and it is my pleasure to teach art at Wildwood Elementary. Full day kindergarteners and all first and second grade students come to the art room once a week for 45 minutes. During this time we look at, discuss and create a variety of art work. My mission is to inspire children to be creative. I believe art should be interactive and fun. I try to expose my students to a variety of artists, art styles, concepts, techniques and cultures. We will be learning how to use line, shape, form, color, value, texture and space; these are the Elements of art and are the tools all artists use.
MUSIC
Hello from Kathy Schwister and Ginny Gadbois Green, Wildwood Music Specialists. Wildwood students have music twice weekly for thirty minutes per session. Mrs. Schwister teaches Second Grade and half of Kindergarten while Mrs. Green teaches First Grade and the other half of Kindergarten.
In music, students sing, dance, move, play instruments and singing games from around the world, and participate in SMART board based music activities. Basic music literacy skills will be learned, emphasizing rhythm and melodic notation as well as good singing practices. Each grade level will be involved in a program performance during the year. First graders perform on Tuesday, March 4th and second graders on Thursday, March 6th at the Chautauqua Theatre. All students participate in the school-wide Singalong in December and year-end music lyceums. First Grade will travel to Orchestra Hall on November 20. Second Grade will host MN Orchestra String Quartet in the spring, and both grade levels will participate in Talent Days during the year. (Please see our website address below for details.)
Our goal is for each child to have fun, as well as find success and challenge in music. Each child is encouraged to build a life-long love for and curiosity about music and the performing arts. We look forward to making music with your child this year!
MUSIC WEBSITE: www.wildwood.mahtomedi.k12.mn.us
Under Academics, select Music
Physical Education Happenings
Hi! I am Betsy Sommer, physical education teacher at Wildwood. All full day kindergarteners, first and second graders have physical education twice weekly for 30 minutes. Half day kindergarteners will come once a week for 30 minutes.
Students will be most comfortable and most able to participate in physical activities if they wear athletic clothes and tennis shoes on gym days. Clothes may get dirty when we are outside and inadequate dress may increase the risk of accidents. Please no sandals, boots or dress shoes on gym days!
If at any time your child is unable to participate in physical activities because of sickness or injury, please send me a note. If there is a long term illness or an existing medical problem, please send a doctor’s note to excuse your child from participating in physical education.
My goal is to provide our students with a quality, developmentally appropriate, fun, physical education experience filled with a variety of activities.
I look forward to another great year!
Library Media - Follow me on Twitter @mediawildwood
The K-5 Media program is a tiered curriculum where students learn the skills to access resources in our world of information. Among some of the curricular topics that WW and OHA Media programs cover are: author studies, genre studies, award winning books, online catalog, ebooks, reading for pleasure, computer parts, Internet safety, file management, MS Office and Google Applications, tablet computing, basic computer programming, plagiarism/copyright, and online collaboration.
Our online catalog, Follett Destiny is accessible at school and home, and our ebooks use Mackin Via. Ebooks can be checked out in addition to the students' print resources. More information will be coming home soon regarding these programs.
We are so very excited to work with your children! Contact us with any questions.
HELP! Donations of gently used pre-school through 2nd grade type books are needed for our early childhood program. If you have some books, please drop them off in the Media Center. Thank you!!
Spanish
¡Hola! Me llamo Señora Ryan. Full day kindergarten, 1st grade and 2nd grade students have Spanish twice a week for 30 minutes. Half day will come once a week for 30 minutes. My main focus in Spanish class is for students to have a positive attitude toward learning a new language. I do this by creating many different games for our classroom and having fun while being exposed to the new language. In Spanish we learn basic phrases, questions and vocabulary. We also study parts of Mexican culture. We will learn vocabulary for classroom objects, fruits and vegetables, clothing, family members, numbers, letters, animals, colors, feelings and body parts. We will also learn about Mexican holidays and celebrations, Mexican foods, families, schools and history. I love to teach and learn about Mexico and look forward to providing fun lessons for Wildwood students to learn.
This year we will continue using the series called Descubre. This curriculum is fabulous for learning Spanish as well as culture from a variety of Spanish speaking countries. We will also be using Symtalk as a supplement to this program. It is an great way to get students to speak Spanish in sentences from Day 1! I am very excited to use these awesome materials with kids at Wildwood.
Contact information:
Art: Kristi Eckert kristi.eckert@mahtomedi.k12.mn.us 407-2136
Library-Media: Jean Oswald jean.oswald@mahtomedi.k12.mn.us 407-2167
Music: Kathy Schwister: kathryn.schwister@mahtomedi.k12.mn.us 407-2153 and
Ginny Gadbois Green: virginia.green@mahtomedi.k12.mn.us 407-2149
Physical Education: Betsy Sommer betsy.sommer@mahtomedi.k12.mn.us 407-2143
Spanish: Erica Ryan erica.ryan@mahtomedi.k12.mn.us 407-2135
Website: www.wildwood.mahtomedi.k12.mn.us
Location: 8698 75th Street North, Stillwater, MN, North America
Twitter: @mediawildwood