Specials Spotlight

Most famous contemporary artists are well known because at some point they took a risk and strayed from the artistic pack. In art this year, I'll be assessing students on their progress, skills, and work throughout the artistic process instead of just on their final product. Their final product will not be their only grade, and in some cases may not be graded at all. The final product is a mere snapshot of their artistic process, and there are so many crucial things that happen along the way. The artistic process is much like the writing process because we have plans, drafts, and revisions of our art work. Students will be graded not only on their color theory and technical skills, but also their artistic habits. The artistic habits include all of those life skills that we use in our daily lives and careers: understanding the art world, express ideas & feelings, envision/plan, engage & persist, develop artistic craft, observe, stretch & explore, and reflect.

As I teach students how to stretch themselves an explore new ideas/techniques/possibilities, I'll be encouraging the to take artistic risks. Here are a few examples of students who took risks in their art this week. These circle studies will be a part of a whole school mini mural. Stay tuned for images of that when I have it all put together. I don't expect kiddos to take a risk on every assignment. The student sample to the top right is a great example of following directions with strong craftsmanship, and that's great too.

Third graders met the fiery Miss Lotta Scales in The Library Dragon, a librarian who learns that kids are the best book protectors of all. Afterward, they were thrilled to explore and check out some amazing new titles purchased with a special donation from a former teacher of Mrs. Turbes—a huge thank you for your generosity!

Second graders became book detectives with Goldie Socks and the Three Libearians. They honed their skills to find books that are "just right" for them, using the famous 5-Finger Rule to pick out their weekly reads.

And our kindergarteners? They clucked, flapped, and danced their way through story time with Chicken Story Time and Interrupting Chicken!

Want to help our library grow? You can purchase a book from our Amazon wish list and help us add more wonderful stories to our collection: (https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/80ZLRMVG1PGP?ref_=wl_share)

Learning how to practice a skill is itself an important skill to learn and something everyone faces at some point. This might look like learning how to play an instrument, dribbling a ball, simplifying fractions, or many other sorts of things. I thought I would share some strategies that I use when working with students in the hope that this might be helpful at home.

1. Deal with Frustration

• It is easy to get frustrated when doing difficult things. Find ways to deal with this frustration, like taking deep breaths or taking a break.

2. Stop and Think

• If something is not working, try thinking through and identifying what the problem is instead of trying repeatedly without a plan.

3. Break Problems Up

• Sometimes challenges are so great that they can feel overwhelming. Turn a big problem into many, easily solved, small problems. For example, writing a paper seems incredibly daunting, but writing a sentence is easy.

4. Focus on One Skill

• With some challenges, there may be so much going on that it might be difficult to make progress if you try to do it all. Focus on one skill to improve on and don't worry about the other things. For example, when practicing the recorder, focus on just one skill (such as posture, warm air, rhythms, pitches, etc.) until you can do that skill successfully. Then do the same with other skills that you want to improve on.

We often use these strategies without thinking about them, but they may not come naturally to students. Sometimes I find that I need a reminder to use these myself! I hope some of these ideas are helpful.

Football is in full swing! Middle School students are participating in a modified version of Flag Football, with the opportunity to play five different positions and even an official. From snapping the ball as the center, to catching a long touchdown pass from the quarterback, students have done a great job of being engaged. There have been some outstanding showcases of sportsmanship as well. 2nd through 5th Grade are running individual routes while creating some great plays. There are five different, predetermined routes based on cones placed in the gym. Next week we will be incorporating defense, which always brings out competition. PreK through 1st Grade are working on catching a football from various distances, specifically focusing on catching with our hands instead of our chest or face. We will be trying to catch a foam football on the run next week.

Here are a few of the things we are working on technology class!

PreK

For their Pre-K lesson, students watched an educational video about transportation. The video taught them vocabulary for vehicles that travel on land, water, and air, such as bicycles, cars, buses, boats, submarines, airplanes, and rockets. After a discussion about the different types of transportation, the students used STEM kits to build their own vehicles.

Kindergarten

The kindergarteners continued to use Wikki Stix, this time forming geometric shapes to create different animals.

1st and 2nd Grade

The 1st and 2nd graders are still working on their Book Creator projects.

5th Grade

To further their Google Slides skills, the 5th graders started a fall-themed review project. They are learning to customize slide layouts, adjust text styles, and arrange images and other media. This project also provides a great opportunity to discuss how slideshows are used for presentations.