First Grade: Specials Spotlight
Fourth Quarter 2016-2017
Exploratory Team
Music
The 4th quarter in 1st grade music class was lots of fun. We ended our year with a fun project that combined PE and Music! We call it Rhythm and Movement – students learned the basics of playing a new “instrument” made of a yoga ball and storage tub! After working to put together a routine, these students shared this new adventure with the rest of the school! Ms. Reeves and I were proud of the end result! Each year in music class we learn about musicals and watch a different movie version of a musical. This year it was Mary Poppins! Students made lots of great connections and had great ideas for how the musical would look different if we saw a live stage version. 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 basketball, striking objects, and prepared for Field Day! We were also able to collaborate with Music class with Ms. Kellogg, and did our very first Rhythm and Movement unit. We were able to learn a whole routine incorporating our musical and physical abilities, and it was such a blast!! The students were able to perform in front of the whole school, and made such an awesome impression! All the students were very impressed and wanted to get in on the action. It was a great time collaborating! We got to learn more about basketball at such a prime time; right in the middle of March Madness! It was the perfect time to play the sport and be able to talk about the different games that were taking place (and hear about the upsets and how ruined our brackets were :)). I was (always am) so proud of all the students for their continued improvements in their talents and skills. They amaze me every day! 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, noodles, and rackets. 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, and I saw amazing sportsmanship all day long! I am so looking forward to next year with this group of students as second graders. They are so fun and energetic! Have a great summer!!
Technology
First Graders finished up adding their text, photos and designs to their books this quarter. We also got a chance to use the new Ozobots PTA purchased for us . The kids loved designing coded mazes on paper and using them with our ipads.
Students reviewed skills for online safety. We had great discussions. Many said they could easily access the internet with their own phones, ipods or tablets. We discussed the importance of not sharing our private information online and seeking out an adult when we wanted to go online.
I hope you have a great summer! On those rainy days practice typing skills! See you next year!
Library
In our library classes this quarter we reviewed our procedures for our fire, tornado, and intruder drills. We reviewed fiction and nonfiction characteristics, then worked with a partner to determine whether a book was fiction or nonfiction. We continued locating Everyone books on the shelves using call numbers. We talked about the characteristics of folktales. We located Africa, Jamaica, and Europe on the map and enjoyed hearing folktales from those places in the world. We enjoyed stories read by members of the Screen Actors Guild online. We learned about encyclopedias and had fun sharing pictures and facts with each other. Please keep reading and enjoying books from the public library over the summer!