Third Grade: Specials Spotlight
First Quarter 2017-2018
Exploratory Team
Music
I’m so excited to be teaching Music at Riverview! This is my 24th year in education, my 19th as a music teacher, and my 10th here as a Falcon! I graduated from Louisiana State University with a degree in Music Education, and I have Level 1 Certification for Orff-Schulwerk Music Education from Baker University. This year at RE, we also have a Music Student Teacher! During the Fall semester, Mr. Holthus is in our building several hours a week and is working with our K-2 grade students. In 4th Quarter he will be at Riverview every day working with all of our young musicians!
Third grade students spent this first quarter preparing for their program, “Music and Art Make the World go Round.” I am very proud of the hard work and effort your children are putting into this project, which celebrates some of the diversity within our school family. Looking into the rest of the year, students will be working on rhythm and note reading, writing, singing, creative movement, and playing. We will also begin a recorder unit during the 3rd quarter! Throughout the year, we will continue to build students’ listening stamina and discover new ways to describe the music we hear. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions!
Art
Greetings! I am your child(ren)'s Art Educator at Riverview, this is my first year and I couldn't be happier. Your students are welcoming and have made me feel a part of the family. I student taught at Forest View Elementary (A Stephen Covey, Lighthouse school aka a 7 Habits school). I learned and loved the opportunity to grow, which lead to the position here at Riverview! I grew up, went to school, and still reside in Olathe. I received my Bachelors of Art Education in May of 2017 from the University of Kansas, Rock Chalk! In my personal time I enjoy exploring downtown Lawrence and Kansas City as well as, Netflix bingeing, coffee, art-making (duh), and taking my dog, Sausage, to the dog park!
Third Grade started learning about Habit 6: Synergize! This is my personal favorite habit because it is so often used in collaborative art projects. Our first project was a collaborative dot mural for International Dot Day. We read all about Vashti and how she was inspired by her teacher to persevere through her art making process. Next, we went to space! We created our own nebula and planets by using chalk on black paper. Most recently we have been working on art cultures in harmony of our music program. Mrs. Carter's class is learning all about the origins of Chinese New Year and creating Red Dragons to scare off the beast. Mrs. Moore's class has been studying the Vietnamese Moon Festival where they celebrate the end of a harvest to spend more time with their family. We are illustrating our own family or friend tradition on our lanterns in watercolor. Mrs. Sloan's class started our journey to the Middle East and found textiles from Jordan. We are learning all about textile trade and how we use textiles everyday. We are creating our own patterns from traditional and contemporary rugs!
PE
Hello! I am Kyndel Reeves, the Physical Education teacher, and this is my third year at Riverview! I absolutely LOVE getting to be the P.E. teacher to such amazing students. I grew up going to school in the DeSoto School District, so it is really an honor to be able to come back as a teacher. Growing up, my family was obsessed with KU, so of course that is where I went to college! Rock Chalk! In my free time, I love to be with my family and friends and do fun things together. I love doing things outdoors, going to the beach (when I am able to), going shopping, and going to my siblings’ different events. I am looking forward to another wonderful school year with our wonderful community!
During first quarter, the students reviewed all the rules of the gym and P.E., and why we have P.E.! Their knowledge and understanding of the importance of physical fitness and health is so exciting. We were able to learn about our different warm-ups that we do right when we get into class; warm-ups such as Skunk Tag, Silly Bananas, Gladiators, Spelling Dash, and many more! It is very exciting for the third graders, as well as for myself to have P.E at the beginning of the school day AND for a full hour together! They get to do so much during our time together. We then began learning about the importance of being a helpful teammate, and working hard even when things get tough. We were able to do activities such as Hula Hut Relays, Scavengers, Mat Ball, and Sinkerball. All of those activities gave students the opportunity to work with their classmates and do some problem solving, and they did an awesome job! We also began working on our throwing skills, and have been practicing our form and technique. We have been able to play games to help our throwing form and technique such as Endzone Trappers, Castle Pool, Popcorn Machine, and Catching Relay. Third grade is also the first year the students participate in the pacer, and how excited they all seemed about that! I remind them every time that I am not worried about how many “laps” they get, but I do care about how hard they work, and I never have to worry about them not working hard enough, so I am very lucky! The students are doing such an awesome job, and I am really looking forward to the rest of the year with them!
Technology
I am Traci Seyb and I teach your children skills in technology. This is my 23rd year of teaching and my 16th year at Riverview. I've taught 4th grade and 5th grade in the regular classroom and was a Literacy Learning Coach in the Lawrence Public Schools. I received my Bachelor of Science in Education degree from Kansas State University--EMAW! I feel privileged to be a part of the Riverview community and count myself as a lucky individual that gets to work with the fabulous children who attend our school.
Third graders started the year reviewing our Acceptable Use Policy.
Next, we worked on exploring our online typing program, Type to Learn. Students are always welcome to practice typing at home. If your student is homework free one or two nights a week, ask them to head to www.typetolearn.com and work on typing for 15 min or so. A little practice goes a long way in building this skill!
This year, our district upgraded to Windows 10. Along with that upgrade came new features. We took time to explore a few of the new things Windows 10 offered and changed our settings to meet our individual preferences.
In third grade we set up our email accounts we received through the district. Students learned how to add contacts in and send an email to a friend. Next we will discuss email etiquette and work on our first research project.
Library
I truly enjoy being the Library Media Specialist here at Riverview Elementary! We have an amazing school filled with eager-to-learn, wonderful students and dedicated, caring staff! It is so much fun getting to work with former students again and getting acquainted with all the fantastic kindergarten through fifth graders here at Riverview. I love getting kids excited about reading, introducing them to new books and authors they may not have read before, and researching with them! My goal is to develop lifelong readers!
This year is my 27th year of teaching. I taught second grade a total of 12 years, first grade for 2 years, and Tutorial Math Grades 3-6 for 1 year. I also was a substitute teacher for 5 years after taking time off to raise my own children. This is my twelfth year as the Library Media Specialist at Riverview.
In our library classes we talked about our five rules: Respect Books and Library Property, Use Quiet Voices, Respect Yourself and Others, Use Library Time Wisely, and Wait Quietly in Line. We identified ways to care for our books and discussed using a shelf marker or a neighbor book to mark a book’s place on the shelf. We also discussed our safety procedures at RE, where we would go, and what our jobs are. Students were introduced to our new school-wide Award Winners reading program. Information about the program and a reading log can be found on my website at: http://riverviewlibrary.weebly.com/ We discussed ways to find a “just right” book to check out of the library. We talked about different strategies to help us in choosing a “good fit” book such as “I PICK” and using the color dot system found on the spines of many of our books in the library. We watched a preview of some of the books coming to our Scholastic Book Fair which will be in the library on October 26th and 27th. We started a “Library Dragon” project based on the book, The Library Dragon by Carmen Agra Deedy.
Counselor
Hello and welcome back to a new school year! My name is Toni Munsey and I am your Riverview School Counselor! I’m pleased to start another year at Riverview. This is my eleventh year in the Desoto school district. My previous 18 years were spent in the Kansas City, Kansas school district. I received my Bachelor’s degree from Kansas State and my Masters in Counseling from Emporia State where I also completed K-12 building level Administrative certification. I’ve taught in the classroom for eight years before becoming a school counselor and am excited about my 21st. year as a school counselor. The counselors’ role is to help students be successful in academic achievement as well as social and emotional health. I will be teaching guidance lessons in the library this year as part of the special’s teacher rotation on a regular basis. I will also be available for small group and individual counseling. The counseling curriculum consists of Character Education, Bullying Prevention, Drug and Alcohol Prevention just to name a few. My goal is to find more time in my schedule for students who just need to drop by and talk out a problem. I am an advocate for all students and a resource for staff and parents. Please feel free to contact me anytime if there is anything I can help with. My phone number is 441-0808 ext. 4124 and my e-mail is tthurmanmunsey@usd232.org. I would also like to remind you the importance of community service and encourage you to join the Falcon Volunteers and track your community service hours throughout the year. I’m so excited about this school year and look forward to working with you and our wonderful Riverview students.
First quarter has been a blast! We have reviewed the role of the school counselor. We have also done several getting to know you and team building activities. We have learned Habit 1 “Be Proactive” from the book The 7 habits of Happy Kids we are learning to be in charge of ourselves and think with a positive growth mindset.