GRAND AVENUE SPECIALS

Art - Molly Froelich and Krista Geier

Music - Amy Hiel and Rebekah Knitt

Physical Education - Jacob Breunig and Seth Kostroski

Email: contact@saukprairieschools.org
Website: www.saukprairieschools.org

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. We hope that you find the information useful and please feel free to contact your student's Specials teacher with questions or concerns.

WHAT WE'VE BEEN WORKING ON:

Fifth Grade: 5th grade artists have been creating an embroidery project on plastic canvas. Each artist designed their own pattern and then selected stitch styles that would work the best for their design. Look for these projects to come home before winter break, and check our social media pages for pictures of artists hard at work!

Fourth Grade: 4th grade artists have been creating clay gnomes. Each artist designed their gnome and then created their plan out of clay. Artists learned how to create a 3D shape out stacked pinch pots and continued to develop techniques that are used when creating sculptures with clay.

Third Grade: As we transition into December artists are creating clay snowmen! During the clay project artists will learn how to create a slab of clay, mold or sculpt clay and paint small details. A special thank you to GSPIE for the funds to cover the clay cost.

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!

Monday, January 12th @ 6:00 p.m.- 3rd Grade Family Folk Dance Night at Grand Avenue

Friday, January 16th- 6:30 p.m.- 5th Grade Chorus to sing National Anthem at Madison Capitals Game

Thursday, March 5th @ 6:00 p.m.-5th Grade Concert at Grand Avenue

Tuesday May 12th @ 6:00- 3rd Grade Concert at Grand Avenue

Thursday, May 21st- 4th Grade Field Trip to Overture Center for the Link Up Concert

Thursday, May 21st @ 7:00 p.m- 5th Grade Chorus to perform at Middle School Choral Concert

Thursday, May 28th- 5th Grade Chorus Field Trip to sing at Bridges Elementary

3rd Grade musicians have been learning to read and perform sixteenth note rhythms, began our ukulele unit, and have been doing lots of folk dancing. We can't wait to share some of our dances with you at Family Folk Dance Night in January!

5th Grade musicians prepared for the Veterans Day Assembly, learning the Star Spangled Banner, songs for each branch of the military, and a song called "Thank You Soldiers". We talked a lot about performance etiquette and the importance of being respectful during performances like these.

December will be spent working on our new sixteenth/eighth note combo rhythm (ta-dimi) and our ukulele unit!

4th Grade musicians at Grand spent the month of November working on our recorder skills, and learning about the traditional music of some of the Native American Tribes. We will spend the month of December continuing to build our recorder skills, as well as our ukulele skills.

What We've Been Working On

• Cardiovascular Endurance - Pacer Test
• Flexibility - Sit and Reach Test
• Muscular Strength - Push-up Test
• Muscular Endurance - Curl-up Test

What's Coming Up:

• We are finishing any fitness assessments we didn't get done and will start our jump rope unit. Benefits of jumping rope include; improved cardiovascular endurance, increased bone density, and enhanced agility.
• The week before winter break we will have the annual Winter Wonderland Stations set up in the gym! This way everyone will get to enjoy these stations twice.
• We will begin our Exhaustive Gymnastics unit when we return from break.