SJE Specials - Monthly Highlights

MUSIC - Amy Tullos

Music Notes

Kinder music is very busy here at Johnson moving and grooving. We have learned about our different voices (speaking, singing, whisper, head voice and chest voice). Kindergarten is currently playing barred instruments with their friend “Mr. Conductor” who tells them when to play and when to stop playing. They have learned that we really have to watch Conductor because he can be sneaky.

We have taken a trip to the farm with Old McDonald with Mary and her little lamb. The chickens have participated in a “Chicken Dance” and “All my Little Ducks” have been swimming in the pond. Our shoes have also taken us to the zoo to find monkeys and elephants with wrinkles everywhere.

So many adventures in Kindergarten music to list!

Honor Choir

Honor Choir will be performing for the Veterans Day Program on November 11 in the cafe. Our Winter Choir Concert will be Tuesday, December 8 at 6pm in the cafe. Choir shirt orders are due by October 11th.

Recorders

4th grade will be playing recorders soon. Orders were due on September 25th. If you missed the opportunity to order or would like to purchase and additional recorder for home to practice we use the Yamaha SRS-24B model for the classroom.

Performances

November 11- Veterans Day Program- 5th Grade choir singing

November 17 @ 6:00pm - 2nd Grade Performance- Thankful Turkeys

December 8 - Choir concert @6pm in Johnson Cafe

STEAM - Elizabeth Benno

🗑️ 1st Grade STEAM: Trash Can Challenge!

Our first graders are becoming problem-solving engineers! During this STEAM challenge, students will work with a partner to solve a problem we sometimes have in our classroom—trash doesn’t always make it into the trash can!

Students will use the Engineering Design Process to imagine, plan, design, and build a solution that could help. Their inventions might help pick up trash, improve the trash can, or even turn throwing away trash into a fun game or challenge!

As they work, students will practice creativity, collaboration, communication, and problem-solving. Once their designs are complete, partners will share their inventions with the class, explain how they work, and receive feedback from their classmates.

We can’t wait to see the creative solutions our young engineers invent! 🛠️💡

ART - Kathee Born

Exploring Color in Art!

The 2nd grade students have been exploring the concepts of color and learning how artists use color to create interesting artwork. We reviewed the three primary colors—red, yellow, and blue—and discovered how they can be mixed to create the three secondary colors—orange, green, and purple.

Students created an umbrella color wheel and used only the primary colors to paint their person in a raincoat and umbrella. As they worked, they mixed colors to create the secondary colors and practiced placing them in the correct order on their color wheel. This project helped students see how artists can create many colors from just three primary colors. They had fun experimenting with color mixing and watching new colors appear!

PE - Coach Groff and Coach Sandy

October is almost here and that means one thing here at Johnson! SQUATOBER! Students will work on this very difficult movement throughout the month, learning what we call the 5 Point Squat.

Shoulder width.
Hips back.
Block out the sun (Chest Up).
Squat knees out.
Stand.

They will get the chance to earn pumpkins in class for high quality squat form. Our gym wall is blank now. But, by the end of October, it will look like lanterns of pumpkins stretching across the entire wall. So, if you want to join us, be sure to squat at home with your kids and maybe you could earn a pumpkin too.

Also, something new is coming this year…our very first PE Shirt. We are excited to share with you our All-Star Gainz PE Shirt. Coaches will wear them every Thursday and it will be a great shirt for our upcoming All-Star Games Event happening in November. Flex those muscles and get ready to get GAINZ with us.

SUZUKI VIOLIN - Lindsay Crofts

The Suzuki Violin program is about to start a long-term practice challenge called “The Consistency Cup”! Students will work hard to commit to a consistent practice + listening routine, and show their progress by making a paper chain as a campus. Dr. Shinichi Suzuki would say, “never hurry, never rest” and we are trying to embody that idea with this year’s challenge. Great things happen when we work on something even for a little bit, every day, over a long period of time!

Students report how many practice days they completed each week to Mrs. Crofts in their lessons. If they practice 6 or 7 days in a week, they will add a green strip of paper to the paper chain. If they practice 4 or 5 days in a week, they will add a yellow strip of paper to the chain. If the SJE Suzuki students have the most green links on our chain compared to the other Suzuki Violin campuses, we will win the “Consistency Cup”!

The 5th grade violinists are already off to a great start earning those green strips for our chain. Let’s keep it up so we can win and be proud of everything we accomplish this school year!