GRAND AVENUE SPECIALS

Art - Krista Geier and Molly Froelich

Music - Amy Hiel and Rebekah Knitt

Physical Education - Jacob Breunig and Seth Kostroski

Email: contact@saukprairieschools.org
Website: www.saukprairieschools.org
Phone: (608) 643-1900

This newsletter is to help you stay connected to what is happening in the Grand Avenue Specials. The Specials are composed of Music, Art and Physical Education, each student has each specials class twice a week. We hope that you find the information useful and please feel free to contact your student's Specials teacher with questions or concerns.

We have accomplished a lot in Physical Education so far. We have discussed what Above the Line behavior looks like in our classroom, implemented our increased safety protocols, described our expectations, discussed what we will cover in class this year and set the tone for our classroom. We expect students to be ready to LEARN and MOVE. To help you get a feel for the Physical Education classroom tone at Grand Avenue our core beliefs are listed below:

1. No Significant Learning Can Happen Without a Significant Relationship - So we work hard to get to know our students and be transparent enough for our students to get to know us so we can connect and then challenge our students.

2. We Are Either Getting Better or Worse At Every Area of Our Life - We focus on improvement and helping students be able to reflect on and assess their progress.

3. There Is Nothing You Can Do To Make Me Like You More or Less Than I Already Do - We take great pride in the students we have the privilege to teach and we want them to know that we already like them as much as we ever could. Hopefully this gives them the freedom to take risks in their learning as we provide an environment that is high challenge and high support.

What's Been Happening?

• Besides these normally beginning of the year topics we have focused on improving our dodging, chasing, throwing and catching skills this month.
• We introduced students to options to stay active at recess, including our Run/Walk Course. We have some students that have completed 20 miles in the month of September and many already join our Marathon Club (26.2 miles)
• We went over the Prediction Run information.

We have been impressed with the attitude, effort, and respect our students are demonstrating as we have worked on these skills and introduced students to these opportunities.

What's Next?

• We will finish our first unit by combining all of the skills we have been working on, plus a few more, into stations.
• We will start working on our underhand serve, forearm pass and set.
• Prediction Run will be happening towards the end of October. Information about the Prediction Run was sent home.

As always, if you have any questions don't hesitate to reach out to us.

Mr. Breunig, jacob.breunig@saukprairieschools.org

Mr. Kostroski, seth.kostroski@saukprairieschools.org

It is hard to believe that we have been in school for one month! Your child has two 45-minute art classes every two weeks with Miss. Froelich or Mrs. Geier. During class this past month we have been getting to know each other and the procedures of the art room. We have also been creating a collaborative project to get to know one another and refresh some art skills.

WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING?

All School Project

We are very excited about this year's all school project based on the artwork of Dale Chihuly. Dale Chihuly is an American artist known for transforming glass blowing into a fine art and is considered the greatest living master of the medium. Chihuly’s artwork is displayed all around the world including at the Milwaukee Art Museum and The Kohl Center at UW-Madison.

After learning about Chihuly, students created their own Chihuly inspired form using a coffee filter, markers, and liquid starch. Each grade used a different color scheme for their project. Next time you are at Grand Avenue visit the commons/lunch room to see the Chihuly inspired collaborative piece.

As always, if you have any questions don't hesitate to reach out to us.

Miss. Froelich: molly.froelich@saukprairieschools.org

Mrs. Geier: krista.geier@saukprairieschools.org

Did you know the Sauk Prairie K-12 Art Department has a Facebook page? Like us to get announcements for upcoming events and pictures of what we are doing in class!

We have been working on building relationships and establishing our music room community during the month of September!

• 3rd Grade has been working on reading rhythm patterns with 16th notes and performing ostinatos (repeated music patterns) independently.
• 4th Grade's big project in September was working as an ensemble to layer ostinato patterns to accompany the book I Promise by Lebron James.
• 5th Grade has been learning different rhythm stick routines to practice keeping a steady beat, identifying the form of music, and work together as a team. They have also been working reading notes on the treble music staff.

Our 5th Grade Enrichment groups are off to a strong start! We've got some awesome students making music in band, choir, Orff ensemble, and ukulele club! We are impressed with the dedication we have seen from this group of 5th Graders. The music room is always filled with the sound of students practicing!

We are excited to welcome Opera for the Young to our school on November 3rd! Members of 5th Grade chorus will be helping to perform the show The Elixir of Love for the Grand Avenue student body! The opera will be performed at 9:30 a.m. Parents/guardians of 5th Grade chorus members are welcome to come and see the performance.

Much of our music lessons in October will revolve around learning about Opera and The Elixir of Love to prepare for this upcoming performance, as well as lessons that help us to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month.

Sauk Prairie Middle School Students are putting on the musical Willy Wonka Jr. October 24th-26th. We are thrilled to be able to bring the 5th Grade Students for an afternoon performance on Friday, November 24th!