PRE Specials Newsletter
March 27, 2019
Music Notes
I can’t believe we are gearing up for our last nine weeks of the school year – the time has flown by. It has been a joy to work with your students and create wonderful musical memories this year. Here are some things your students have been and will be learning in this last quarter.
Kindergarten: It has been fast and furious in Kindergarten playing unpitched percussion instruments, playing xylophones, and creating sound stories. Coming up this quarter we will be learning the Kinderpolka, studying the classical music of Camille Saint-Saens through “The Carnival of Animals”, and of course lots of singing/rhythm work. We are moving and grooving in this last quarter!
First Grade: Your musicians have been working so hard to get ready for their first ever upcoming program called, “BUGZ”. Mark your calendars for Thursday, April 11th – you won’t want to miss this adorable program. After their program we will be learning about the different instrument families and presenting/labeling our rhythms!
Second Grade: After putting on such a wonderful program, the students were so excited to watch their performance back. We also watched half of our 2nd grade musical, “The Wizard of Oz”! In this upcoming quarter we will be working on our barred instruments, playing singing games, learning a folk dance, and end the year with drumming on our tubanos!
Third Grade: I am so proud of our third grade musicians for putting on such an incredible program. They worked so hard and I love making music with them. In our last quarter we will start by letting them watch their program and then move right into learning the recorder! This is a very exciting time in third grade music!
Fourth Grade: Your students have been hard at work playing our barred instruments and they’re sounding great! In this last nine weeks, we will be focusing some time on recorder practice, continuing to practice our line and space note names, learning new rhythms, and end the year with drumming on our tubanos!
Fifth Grade: We have been absorbed in all things ukulele – and I am so proud of your student’s hard work! They have learned open strings, how to read/play TABS, and are now working on chords. I am so proud of their successes in learning a new instrument. Coming up soon we will be working with barred instruments to create orchestrations and then finish the year off with some drumming!
Library News
It has been a very busy third quarter in the library! We are excited about what is to come as we prepare for the end of the school year. Below are a few of the things we are working on throughout fourth quarter:
Kindergarten/First Grade: Kindergarten and First graders are doing such a great job of using shelf markers during check out! We have been so proud of them! They are discovering many new books that our library has. This quarter we will complete an author study of Mo Willems, who is most known for Elephant and Piggie and the Pigeon books. This study is always a huge hit! April is National Poetry Month. We will read and discuss some poetry books from our library. The year will end with visiting our BOGO book fair and discussing some summer reading options!
Second Grade: We began the quarter with a lesson on non-fiction text features. Students will complete a scavenger hunt with a non-fiction book to find certain text features. April is National Poetry month. Second graders will learn about Alliteration and practice creative writing using Alliteration. Lastly, we will be reviewing and practicing using reference materials such as the Dictionary and Atlas. The year will end with visiting our BOGO book fair and discussing some summer reading options!
Third Grade: Third graders have been reading the nominees for the William Allen White book award and the voting will take place at the end of March. The winner is chosen by students across the state each year so it is fun for them to give their input on which book they think should win. We will celebrate National Poetry month in April by learning about Haiku’s and even get to write our very own. We will be practicing our research skills by discussing plagiarism and learning about an online encyclopedia that can be an awesome resource for a research project. The year will end with visiting our BOGO book fair and discussing some summer reading options!
Fourth Grade: We have finished the William Allen White award nominee, Full of Beans. Ask your student what they thought about it! Students who were able to read at least two of the nominees will get to vote on a winner at the end of March. Fourth graders will be reviewing and practicing using reference materials such as the Atlas and Almanac. During National Poetry month in April, students will learn about figurative language, specifically Idioms. Lastly, we will do a mini-lesson on banned books, which the students find very interesting! The year will end with visiting our BOGO book fair and discussing some summer reading options!
Fifth Grade: This quarter was so much fun! Watching these fifth graders take so much pride in putting on the Seuss Café for our younger students was absolutely the best. We wish you all could have been here to see how sweet they were to these young kids! We have just about finished the William Allen White Award nominee book, Save Me a Seat. Ask your student what they thought about it! Students who were able to read at least two of the nominees will get to vote on a winner at the end of March. Students will be reviewing all the reference materials, learning about the different Poetic Elements and discussing banned books. The year will end with visiting our BOGO book fair and discussing some summer reading options!
We are continuing to work on responsibility with all the grades to get books turned in on time! You should have seen a blue half sheet of paper come home with your child’s check out dates for the quarter. All books/fines will be due the week of May 6 for the school year. Our goal is always to have 100% of the library books turned in! Thank you for helping your student with this!
The Scholastic BOGO Book Fair is coming to PRE! It is a great way to get some books for summer at a fantastic price! The fair will be at PRE April 23rd – April 26th.
At the end of the school year, be looking for a flyer to come home that has information about some summer reading programs around our area. Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns!
Kerri Ptacek- kptacek@usd232.org Lindsey Sudac- lsudac@usd232.org
Counselor's Corner
Kindergarten – Self-Control, problem solving and Review = We will be learning about the three steps for calming down to further support the children’s development of self-control. The lessons will help children identify problems and generate prosocial solutions by introducing a basic model of problem solving. We will also do some lessons about safety and resisting peer pressure from friends to do things that are unhealthy or unsafe. In May, we will review all of the things we learned together this year!
First grade – Safety, friendship and review = Students will describe safe and appropriate ways to take medicine, will differentiate between safe, healthy decisions and unsafe, unhealthy decisions, discuss how peers influence our decisions and our personal responsibility for making positive choices. We will also learn how to make new friends and manage conflict in friendships, using problem solving in relationships, the importance of nonverbal communication and then we will review everything we have learned this year!
Second grade – Peer Pressure, safety and review = Students will define peer pressure, discuss the importance of refusing peer pressure. We will also talk about OTC medications safety and telling the difference between medicine and candy. We will finish up the year reviewing everything we have learned!
Third grade – Decision-Making, Peer Pressure and review = Students will be reviewing the stop and think decision making model, discussing decisions and consequences. We will also define peer pressure, discuss the effects of peer pressure on decision making and demonstrate ways to handle peer pressure. We will finish up the year reviewing everything we have learned!
Fourth grade – Bonding and Relationships, Peer Pressure, Safety with OTC medications and review = Students will identify examples of pro-social behavior and compare healthy and unhealthy friendship qualities. We will also define peer pressure, how it effects decision making, and how to refuse peer pressure. Next, we will differentiate between safe and unsafe use of prescription and OTC medications. Finally, we will review what we have learned this year!
Fifth grade – Bonding and relationships, Safety with medications, peer pressure refusal and review = Students will compare healthy and unhealthy friendship qualities, empathy toward others, and bonding with a peer group. We will also differentiate positive and negative self-talk, using self-talk to handle disappointments, and differentiate safe and unsafe use of medications. Next, student will review peer pressure effects, identify and apply nine peer pressure refusal strategies, and identify how to be a positive peer influence. Finally, we will review everything we have learned this year!
Tech Time
Kindergarten:
Kindergarten students have been having so much fun working on the ipads. We have worked on several apps that support things done in the classroom. During the 4th quarter we will continue working on basic keyboarding skills. We will also learn how to use Microsoft Word. We will learn how many spaces go between words, how to use the Enter key, delete/backspace, and caps lock/shift. We will type our alphabet, our name, sight words and a sentence.
1st Grade:
Students absolutely loved ending 3rd quarter with the app ToonTastic 3D on the iPads. They learned a lot about animation and was able to share their cartoon with the class. 4th quarter we are going to be using different types of robots (Dash & dot, Ollie’s, Sphero’s and Ozobot’s). While working on the robots we are going to learn how to code them to go and do different things. We will end the quarter working in Microsoft Word. We will continue our basic keyboarding skills and learning about different functions with in word. We will do this through different end of the year activities.
2nd Grade:
Students will start the quarter by finishing their PowerPoint presentation about themselves. They have learned so much about how to create a PowerPoint presentation. When everyone is finished we will present them to the class and discuss how to present information in front of others. After that we will continue working on our keyboarding skills through Dance Mat Typing. When students learn about Pioneer life in class we will also be doing a fun pioneer activity using Chatter Pix. We will end the quarter using Ozobot robots.
3rd Grade:
3rd graded finished 3rd quarter strong. Students were able to do some research and type their international festival reports. Some classes were able to do a college of pictures that represent their countries. Some classes did not get to do that activity with all of the snow days. During 4th quarter students will continue to work on their keyboarding skills, write poetry, and do some coding with different robots.
4th Grade:
4th grade students definitely loved designing a Keychain through Tinker CAD for me to 3D print. A few classes will be finishing up with this activity in the next week or two. Make sure to ask your kiddo if they have got theirs yet. During the 4th quarter students will be working on a big project using Adobe Spark and Pic College about the Oregon Trail. We will end the quarter with a poetry unit. The students will study different types of poetry and write a poem using Emoetry.
5th Grade:
During the 3rd quarter, 5th graders really enjoyed working in Stop Motion Animation. We spent some time viewing their movies. They were AWESOME! During the 4th quarter we will be doing a mini research project about a person from the Revolutionary war. We will do an Insta-story project about their person. After that we will be writing poetry and a letter to a teacher at PRE. Lastly, we will make a mini yearbook about memories from Elementary school using google slides.
What's Happening in PE?
Overview: The second semester has flown by and we have been covering a lot here in the PRE Physical Education classes. The main thing we have been focusing on as an entire school has been cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength, and muscular endurance. We have completed a few main units with scooters and basketball being two of them!
Kindergarten: The kindergarten classes have been doing a wonderful job in the gym! The second semester began with a focus on soccer skills, emphasizing balance and coordination. I was very pleased with all of the progress during that unit. We then moved onto multiple different scooter activities with the main focus being on muscular strength and cardiovascular endurance. We are currently in the middle of our basketball unit. The main focus in kindergarten is on learning the proper way to dribble, pass, and shoot. I wanted to make sure all of the students were comfortable completing all of the main skills before we moved on to anything else. Students have started getting into shooting this week! While all of this has been going on we continue to practice those basic locomotor skills; walking, galloping, jumping, hopping, sliding, leaping and skipping!
1st Grade - 5th Grade: We have also been working on scooter skills as well as basketball in these grade levels. 1st grade is structured very similarly to how the kindergarten classes are being ran. The main reason for this is I wanted to get a good understanding of what the students know and need to work on the most. I have been very impressed with how well students have been doing with the basic dribbling, shooting, and passing drills/activities we have been doing in class. 2nd-5th grade started out with basic partner dribbling activities. Since then we have progressed to shooting and team based activities. This week we began working in some different basketball stations so students can get a variety of different basketball activities each class with the focus being on providing quality instruction to help students improve and have fun! I am looking forward continuing this unit and then getting started on PACER test preparation as well as Field Day Preparation – which is coming quickly on May 23rd!
Art News
It’s hard to believe we are entering the final quarter of the school year! Projects during this time of the year scaffold upon learned skills, concepts and techniques from each quarter prior.
Kindergarten students explored the big idea of imagination and abstraction when learning about Joan Miro, a Spanish artist known for his surrealist paintings and sculptures. Students observed the symbols in his work and found recognizable imagery, but nothing realistic! We created our own imaginary, abstracted drawings using personal symbols as well as our imagination to create a dream-scape!
Students are currently exploring the big idea of identity as they complete a self-portrait. After learning about how artists represent people in art, we learned how to accurately draw a picture of ourselves. A self portrait can show the viewer the subject’s emotions, type of dress and personal appearance. We looked at the artworks of contemporary portrait painter, Kahinde Wiley to inspire background patterns that include objects and symbols of personal significance.
1st grade students learned about one of the first legendary female illustrators for Disney, Mary Blair. We learned about her life, studied her vibrant and playful illustrations and talked about the character traits that made her successful. Mary Blair illustrated parts in movies including Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, and Fantasia. She also designed sets and scenery for Disneyland, including “It’s a Small World.” Students used found objects such as cups and cardboard to stamp lines and shapes to construct their own abstract architecture inspired by her work before adding color with vibrant and whimsical color.
Now, first grade students are working on artwork that connects to their music program in April. The art will be displayed for the performance all about BUGS! Each class learned about a different type of bug, studied bilateral symmetry and created a giant bug using a transfer technique. Students used fluorescent materials and worked under black lights to complete their work. It was so much fun transforming the art room into an art in the dark experience!
2nd grade students learned about how to create complex repeating patterns using lines and shapes. After many sketches, our favorite patterns were transferred and carved into a printmaking plate. Students learned the process of relief printmaking and created a series of prints using contrasting ink colors. This project connected to the study of inventions, (specifically the printing press) in the classroom and music class. We created a unified piece of work by adding a positive word that describes us or our life on top of our assembled prints. We were inspired by the LOVE sculptures of Robert Indiana, who created 3D metal sculptures of words stacked in a box-like form. Now, students are learning about the ancient functional art of weaving. We looked at 6 cultures around the world in which weaving is an important part of the culture. We learned the process of sheering sheep, cleaning the wool, spinning yarn and finally dressing a loom and creating the weaving.
3rd grade students learned how to draw the human figure in proportion before turning their figure into a self-portrait. Students studied the traditional clothing of the country they selected for international festival and acted as a fashion designer to draw clothing on their figure. Then, they used colored pencils to add color and other symbols of their country to their work. Portraits were adhered to donated upholstery samples and were hung as flags in the hallway during their festival.
Students also learned about the contemporary artist, Kelly Knaga and her organic shape collages inspired by nature. Students painted watercolor paper using 3 new techniques and selected several paint swatches to create an appealing color scheme. Then, they were challenged to cut a variety of shapes in different shapes and sizes before creating an eye-catching composition.
4th grade students have completed a papier mache sculpture project after learning about the artists Claes Oldenburg and contemporary artist, Peter Anton. Both artists create everyday objects on a larger than life scale. Oldenburg is the artist of the Shuttlecocks at the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art! Students created an armature using various geometric forms to resemble an art supply. Then, they papier mache’d and painted their sculpture using color mixing knowledge. Our goal was to make our sculptures look as realistic as possible, to fool and intrigue the viewer into closer looking.
Now, we are diving into interpreting and practicing non-objective art. This type of artwork consists of no recognizable imagery. Instead, the focus is on colors, textures, lines and shapes. Many people may look at a non-objective artwork in a museum and question its skill or thought behind it. Non-objective artwork creates space for a variety of inner thoughts, questions and interpretations. Students learned about an artist in Kansas City with the brain condition called Synesthesia. The crossing of the senses allows this artist to see color when she hears music. We viewed some of her paintings before listening to a variety of music samples to guide our mark-making and color choices in our own non-objective work. The results are stunning!
5th grade students created a soft sculpture using several sewing techniques after viewing the soft sculptures of several contemporary artists. We looked at the popular toy, Ugly Dolls to inspire our work as well. This project was great practice with patience and perseverance as well as honing fine motor skills. Most recently, in collaboration with community service day on March 22nd, students selected a shelter animal to write about in their classroom and paint a portrait of in the art room. Students learned how to accurately draw their animal with shapes. Then, with close observation of a photograph, students painted their furry friends practicing color mixing and created a variety of neutral values; tints, tones and shades. We created implied textures for the fur and painted a vibrant background hue. In the classroom, students used their persuasive writing skills to write a letter to persuade someone to adopt their animal. On community service day, students worked to create a variety of items like dog treats and toys for animals shelters. This project shed light on the importance of adopting animals in shelters who need loving homes!