Art - Krista Geier and Marie Yarnell

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.

Fifth Grade: During April, fifth grade artists created a collaborative piece of art that will be permanently installed in the Grand Avenue courtyard! Artists will be picking bright colors and fun patterns to leave their mark on Grand Avenue. Look for reveal pictures later in May!

Fourth Grade: Artists in fourth grade have been creating emoji pillows. First the artists designed an emoji face that had at least two facial features. Next, artists cut the facial features out of felt and started the hand sewing process. Each artist was encouraged to use the three basic stitches; running stitch, back stitch, and whip stitch. Through this process artists also learned how to thread a needles and tie knots.

Third Grade:

WEAVING

Artists in Mrs. Cichanowicz's, Mrs. Nachreiner's and Ms. Udulutch's classes started their loom weaving. Due to the number of looms that are available we cannot have all the students weaving at the sametime, so we weave with a few classes at a time. This is a longer unit; however, the children really enjoy having the opportunity to create their own weaving. Several different weaving styles are demonstrated and the children are asked to include at least three different styles in their weaving. They are given the opportunity to choose their own colors and weaving styles, this allows them to create patterns with color that show unity.

Artists in Ms. Bollig's, Mrs. Lenerz's, and Mrs. Smith's classes are finishing their clay creatures and creating art based on Keith Haring's break dancers. The young artists will be drawing their own dancing figures on complementary colors and painting black details onto the figures and backgrounds. The three paintings will be assembled to create a fun series of dancing figures.

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!

Upcoming Music Performances:

4th Grade Link Up Music Trip at the Overture Center on May 15th

5th Grade Chorus Tour- performing at Bridges Elementary and Maplewood Senior Living the morning of May 21st

5th Grade Chorus Performance at Middle School Spring Choir Concert- Thursday May 22nd, 7:00 p.m. at the Sauk Prairie High School

3rd Grade Musicians did an awesome job on their concert this week! I am so proud of the hard work they put in during their preparations! We will finish out the school year continuing to work on our recorder skills, and reading rhythms with sixteenth notes.

4th Grade will be attending the Link Up Concert at the Overture Center in Madison on May 15th. They have been working hard on their singing, recorder playing, and note reading skills!

5th Grade has been learning some new rhythms with sixteenth note and eighth note combinations. We call them Taka-Di, and Ta-Dimi. We have been working on our bucket drumming unit, and finished up our ukulele unit during the month of April.

What we worked on in April:

• Basketball: We finished up our basketball unit.
• Games and activities: We had time for various games and activities in between our fitness testing.
• Fitness Assessments: Students practiced and completed our second round of our four fitness assessments. We use this information to help each individual student develop and maintain a health enhancing level of their personal physical fitness. The four fitness components are described below.

Fitness Components:

The four fitness components we assess are cardiovascular endurance, flexibility, muscular endurance, and muscular strength. The website below describes the assessments we use to assess each of these components. It is important to understand the benefits of each of the fitness components.

Cardiovascular Endurance - improved stamina and energy levels, improves general condition of your heart and lungs, helps supply fuel for your body during sustained physical activity, helps improve sleep, reduces risk of quite a few serious diseases.

Flexibility - reduces risk of injury, reduces muscle soreness/especially lower back pain, increases blood flow and nutrients to tissues, improves posture, maintains/increases range of motion and mobility, reduces joint degeneration.

Muscular Endurance - increases the amount of excess calories burned, lowers blood pressure, decreases resting heart rate, decreases stress levels, improves stamina throughout daily activities, helps create more efficient cardiovascular and respiratory systems.

Muscular Strength - increased metabolism, assists with injury prevention, helps prevent chronic diseases, strengthens ligaments and tendons, reduces the risk of osteoporosis, better posture.

What we will be working on in May/June:

• Tennis - We will work on striking and learn some tennis skills.
• Softball - We will be working on striking a ball (off a tee and/or pitched), fielding/catching a ball with a glove, throwing with control and accuracy, and base running.
• Soccer - We will work on dribbling the soccer ball with our feet, passing, shooting, and game play.
• Frisbee - We will work on improving our frisbee throw and catch. We will utilize the games of ultimate frisbee and disc golf to help us accomplish these goals.

(5th Grade Parents ONLY)

Mary Ballweg Memorial Track Meet:

The event will take place Wednesday, May 28th after school at the HS Track

• Information will be sent home this week.
• Mary Ballweg was kind, inspiring, and friendly to all who met her. She loved trying new things, especially sports and show choir. Mary died in a car accident between her Junior and Senior year of High School. Her family has paid for ribbons and sponsored the track meet in her honor since 1987.