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.

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 Mrs. Yarnell 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 collaborative projects 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 by Takashi Murakami. Murakami is a Japanese contemporary artist. He works in fine arts (such as painting and sculpture) as well as commercial media (such as fashion, merchandise, and animation) and is known for blurring the line between high and low arts. His influential work draws from the aesthetic characteristics of the Japanese artistic tradition and the nature of postwar Japanese culture. He has done projects with Billie Eilish, Nike, and Vans.

For this year’s collaborative project each student created a flower or character influenced by Murakami’s art. The art will be installed in the Grand Avenue Commons. Next time you are in the building take time to enjoy the variety of color schemes and creative touches that each artist selected.

What's Next?

Third Grade

Throughout the year different sections of third grade students will be working on a longer weaving project using small wooden looms. Two sections of third grade will start this project in October and by the end of the year every student will have had an opportunity to work with the looms. If your child is not starting the weaving project in October they will begin an drawing project inspired by the work of Keith Haring.

Fourth Grade

During October artists will learn about the Mexican holiday Day of the Dead and create sugar skulls on metal. While creating this project they will learn about symmetry, analogous colors and metalsmithing techniques.

Fifth Grade

Students in fifth grade will start creating clay face mugs in October! Students will learn about the unique history behind fae mugs made in the 1800's and then plan their own face mug. Clay is always a favorite medium, and a big THANK YOU to GSPIE for funding our clay purchase this year!

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

Mrs. Geier: krista.geier@saukprairieschools.org

Mrs. Yarnell: marie.yarnell@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! We were also lucky to be able to bring in Dancing Drum, a drumming education group from North Carolina, with the help of a Good Idea Grant from Sauk County. We had a School Drum Day on September 19th, where all classes came down for workshops and learned rhythms from around the world! Lots of working together and music making have been happening!

We are excited to welcome Opera for the Young to our school on November 8th! Members of 5th Grade chorus will be helping to perform the show The Magic Flute 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 Magic Flute to prepare for this upcoming performance, as well as lessons that help us to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month.

Here are some video clips from music class in September:

Sauk Prairie Middle School Students are putting on the musical Finding Nemo Jr. November 8th-10th. We are thrilled to be able to bring the 5th Grade Students for an afternoon performance on Friday, November 8th!