Unified Arts Newsletter

This is the final newsletter from the art room for the 2025-2026 school year. I personally feel as if the year has flown by and am very impressed with the care and creativity the young artists of Mason Road and Dudley Elementary School have shown.

For your viewing pleasure I have included a few of the ice cream paintings from first grade. This lesson introduced students to a new material (gel paint sticks) and artists experimented with creating form using lights and darks while also giving their ice cream unique facial expressions (we tied this into a read along that explained how facial expressions can show how someone is feeling).

I have also included a few of the finished products from the fourth grade fiber arts unit. Students were introduced to both sewing and weaving and encouraged to explore their newly acquired skills to create a unique piece of art.

Lastly, students should be coming home with their art portfolio, a collection of all their work thus far. I hope you enjoy seeing their work and speaking to them about their process and thoughts.

Have a safe and fun-filled summer break!

Greetings DES Families,

May has been a great month! We've had some beautiful weather that has allowed our classes to be outside most days. The energy level in gym kicks up a notch when we are able to get outside, it has been a blast! May saw PE classes continue to develop their striking skills. We used our feet for pin soccer, a combination of soccer and capture the flag using bowling pins. Lately we have begun to explore ultimate kickball and some tee ball style games.

The end of the year is fast approaching! Field day is on the horizon, and students will continue to be outdoors as often as possible. Please be sure your student wears light, comfortable clothing and, as always, appropriate footwear. Hats and sunscreen are recommended as well. It has been a great year teaching PE at Dudley Elementary. I hope students have improved some skills and learned some fun games they can take with them into the summer. I look forward to each class finishing the year strong!

Kindergarten and grade 1 are working through our respective makerspace units. We have read makerspace stories, built robots, designed houses, played brain games, created music and more on the MakerSpace Room found on Mrs. Shorten’s website! We will wrap up the unit by exploring more hands on makerspace designs using keva planks, pixel art, legos and magna tiles in the coming weeks!

Students in grades 2-4 have continued to improve their keyboarding awareness skills using Typing Agent!

Grade 2 has wrapped up the makerspace unit and is rounding off the year with field trips through technology! Students are exploring both webcams and virtual field trips. Webcams offer live, unscripted views (i.e. zoo cameras), while virtual field trips provide structured, immersive experiences like 360-degree tours or guided videos.

Students in grades 3 and 4 are discussing the interpersonal and societal impact of computing systems. We have learned how access to technology helps empower individuals and groups and how creating equal access to these technologies can help level out the digital divide. To better understand these higher level concepts, we are taking a Virtual Journey Around the World! In the coming weeks students will go behind the scenes with the NBA and WNBA, step into zoos and museums, experience the Warner Brother Studios, Mars and the M & M Factory! Through the experiences thus far, students have shared that our Virtual Journey Around the World is something they would never have been able to experience or learn about without access to the technology!

HUGE congratulations to the second and third graders on their amazing musical performances! As I write this last newsletter of the 2025-26 school year, we're just a few days away from the kindergarten, first grade and fourth grade music shows which I know will be just as wonderful as their friends' performances!

Thanks to all of the teachers at both Mason Road and Dudley Elementary Schools for their support - we all work together for student success! A HUGE thank you to Mrs. Gravel for helping with costumes for the shows for grades K, 1 and 2! Thanks also to Mr. Smith and Mr. Howard at Mason Road and Mr. Erikson, Mr. Tuohig and Mr. Sergel at Dudley Elementary for always setting all of the sound equipment, risers, bleachers and chairs up for rehearsals and performances. Thanks to Mrs. Harris at Mason Road and Mrs. Grzyb at Dudley Elementary for their constant help when I needed it! Thanks to Mrs. Desto and Mr. Audette for supporting the importance of music education! And last but CERTAINLY not least, thank you to our amazing PTO for their financial support so I can add all of the little extras to make each show special!

The best and most rewarding part of my job is to see the pride and happiness on the faces of my students as they perform. A performance is the culmination of WEEKS of work on their part (mine, too!) and when they sing and perform with confidence, there's just nothing like it! Thanks to all of the family members for always being there for your kids. Their eyes light up when they see you in the audience!

Have a fantastic summer!!