Cheetah Pride Press

Families,

Thank you for your continued patience as we work to reschedule the many conferences and meetings that have been impacted by this difficult winter. As was shared on Wednesday afternoon, an additional early release date has been added to the calendar for conferences. On March 18th, between 1:40-3:40, we will make-up any conferences that were canceled on the 4th.

Spring is coming, and we are hopeful that the many weather interruptions are behind us. This weekend, we will “spring ahead” into Daylight Savings Time. The sun will set at 6:50 PM on Sunday evening, and the temperatures are forecasted to be in the 60’s next week!

Have a wonderful weekend,

Joey & Andrea

On Monday, as a kickoff to Read Across America Week, all students were treated to an assembly focused on the *magic* of words. Magician, Mike Kirschner, used well-known titles to amaze our students with some fantastic tricks!

In celebration of books, and all that they do to enrich our lives, our literacy team created a wonderful week of spirit!

After learning all about the letters in the alphabet, and about how Q always keeps U by its side, Smart Start students hosted a wedding for Q and U! The wedding was complete with ushers, an officiant, guests dressed in fancy clothes, gifts, and a celebration!

A PAWsitive office referral is submitted when a staff member recognizes a student who is going above and beyond to exemplify one of our three school rules - taking care of others, taking care of self, & taking care of things.

Meet Sienna.

Her teacher is Mr. Frost.

She is special because she has a best friend named Evie.

Ice skating is one of her favorite things.

She wanted to be on Cheetah Council to help.

She loves math and recess best at school.

March

3/9 Board of ED

3/16 PTO at Memorial

3/18 Early Release for Parent Teacher Conferences

3/23 Board of ED

3/27 Early Dismissal Professional Learning

3/28 Touch a Truck

4/1 Paraprofessional/Interventionist Appreciation Day

4/3 Good Friday School is Closed

4/6 Board of ED

4/10 Cheetah Pride Day

4/13-4/17 Spring Break School Closed

News from the Art Room!

This month completely flew by! We have been exploring new media and concepts during art class, and showing how much students CARE for art, artists, and art materials! Here is what Memorial School artists have been working on with each grade level!

PreK students have been learning how to make a very special shape during art, a HEART! We learned that there are two different ways that an artist could draw a heart, one with a “M” and a “V”, or another with two candy canes. When drawing hearts, we talked about who we could give our heart to, and how a heart shape often is a symbol of love and caring.

We then started a new art project where we took glue and experimented with pouring it across a piece of paper. We discovered that when we stand the paper up, the glue starts to run down, and looks just like ICICLES! We then looked at photographs of icicles, counted them, and made our own connections to the world around us. Many of the preschool students told me about the icicles that formed on their houses, and even on their parent’s car! To complete our creative icicles, we have added glitter to make them sparkle, and are finishing the backgrounds with watercolor paints, creating a cold wintery place for our icicles to hang!

Kindergarten students have completed their clay snowman sculptures, and spent this month GLAZING! The students learned that paint and glaze are very different, and discovered the special qualities of glaze. It is always amazing when a student knows what glass is made of! We learned that glaze has sand in it, and color pigments. After we paint the glaze onto our snowmen, we have to fire our clay with the glaze on it. The glaze then turns to a glassy colorful and permanent surface on our clay sculptures. Keep your eye out for these fragile and beautiful sculptures, coming home in the next week or two!

Kindergarteners are simultaneously working on a 4 piece work of art while awaiting the completion of our snowman sculptures. This work of art is inspired by POP artist Andy Warhol and his infamous “Campbells Soup Cans” print series! We have learned that some artists don’t just make one picture, painting, or drawing, and sometimes make many versions of one image, and then combine them into one work of art! Warhol created over 100 different cans of soup for his POP art! Traditionally, Two part paintings (called Diptychs), and Three part paintings (called triptychs) have been created for hundreds of years and were very popular during the medieval through the renaissance times. As artists, we learn to appreciate that art can be made in so many different ways!!! To create our 4 piece work of art, we are using the simple shape of a CLOVER! We even got to hear some history of Irish legends of the clover, and the luck they could bring to someone who finds one with 4 leaves! Learning how to care for a marker has been the biggest part of this project, and being able to use a thick chisel tip to create stripes of repeating colors are going to make our POP ART complete!

First Graders spent this past month beginning a new art project, all about PATTERNS! We have invented, practiced, and observed patterns. Who knew there are patterns EVERYWHERE! We filled an entire large paper with different types of patterns, and learned that math patterns are very orderly and organized, whereas artistic patterns can visually repeat without being in an orderly line (for example, polkadots). To complete our pattern papers, we are currently finishing outlining and coloring with black sharpie. We want to create beautiful black and white patterns! We learned about artist Charles McGee, who lived and grew up in Detroit, Michigan. He was a treasured contemporary Black American artist who created many giant sculptures around the city of Detroit, and even received a Legacy award from the Mayor. The students got to listen to him and watch him talk about his amazing life as an artist. Feel free to watch the video again with your child here: Charles McGee, the Artist

The next step to our pattern art works is to cut up our papers and pop them up into our very first SCULPTURE!!! This sculpture will be very abstract and filled with patterns, and will prepare us for our next sculpture, made of clay! Creating in three dimensions takes different thought processes and skills, so we are very excited to be exploring that next!

Second Graders have been learning technical skills with creating value and shading on implied 3D forms. We know 3D forms so well, and are now learning how to create the illusion of a 3D form on paper. How do artists make a drawing look three-dimensional when it really is flat?? We have learned how to draw a cube, cone, cylinder, and sphere. We then learned how shading different values of gray with pencil drastically affects the drawing and makes it look 3D! One artist we studied during art class was artist M.C. Escher, who mastered shading techniques and created works of art that play with the mind, making us wonder if it is a photograph of real 3D things, or if it really is a drawing! To extend our learning of shading, we are finishing up drawing 3D implied forms with chalk pastel, and learning to shade with chalk pastel. We will be completing these projects in the next week or two, by cutting out our 3D implied forms, and arranging them on a background to make a work of art that looks like something 3D, but actually is FLAT! What a trick, what an illusion!!!!

Second graders also learned for the first time how to have a formal art critique. Talking about, looking at, and thinking about a famous work of art has incredible benefits, including an opportunity to get inside the artist's mind, learn about who an artist was, and discover what made their art so famous! To align with what students are learning in Wit and Wisdom, I have selected a work of art that they used during their regular class time, so they could learn more context behind the work of art they looked at. “Hunters in the Snow” by Dutch renaissance painter, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, was painted in 1565! There is so much to know and learn about the artist, and his amazing story, but most importantly the work of art tells so much! To look very closely at this work of art, art historians and archaeologists have used modern technology and macrophotography to scan Bruegel's painting so closely!!! This is the closest you could ever get to it, and there is SO much to see! Here is the link if you want to zoom in and explore! Pieter Bruegel Macrophotography

Third Graders are taking their time to explore printmaking, sewing, painting, digital art making, photography, painting, mixed media, and more. Their choice art projects continue to impress me, and improve as the students score their own works of art with the use of a self assessment rubric. Students take risks and think outside the box as they complete their last few projects just in time for the 3rd grade art show in June!!!! Currently we are hosting the art show for parents to view during the step up ceremony, so that families can come participate in both events simultaneously! I will be sending a flyer out soon to invite families to attend! It is hard to believe that we have 3 months left to prepare, but we are doing amazing things. We also spent one art class this month learning how to have an art critique for the second time. This time, students learned how to talk about and think about art while working with a peer. While pairing up together, students enjoyed sharing their observations, interpretations , and opinions about the work of art “The Boating Party” by impressionist Mary Cassatt. We continue to be amazed while learning the art history about famous artists. We were especially amazed to learn that there were not many famous woman artists during the long history of art making before the 1900’s. We will be completing one more critique this year towards the end of the year, to independently critique a work of art, and I know they will do an amazing job!

Prek: Kaden Olsen/ Kinsley Shakir

K: Madelyn Abbott/ Ashtyn Aloia

1st: Gabriella Pero/ Quincy Butler

2nd: Cole Thurston/ Sloane Adaskaveg

3rd: Witten Aloia/ Elena Rodriguez

These students will receive an art certificate and be recognized for their cheetah pride and all their hard work as artists during their next art class!

We often hear the word fluency as it relates to our mathematicians progress in the classroom. Common Core State Standards has fluency expectations for each grade level.

But what does it mean to be fluent? How does one become fluent in their facts? K-5 math educator Graham Fletcher explains the difference between memorization and from memory. Fast does not equal fluent. True fluency means that students have developed efficient, accurate, and flexible ways of learning.

Efficiency - Efficiency implies that the student does not get bogged down in many steps or lose track of the logic in the strategy. An efficient strategy is one that the student can carry out easily, keeping track of sub-problems and making use of intermediate results to solve the problem.

Accuracy - Accuracy depends on several aspects of the problem-solving process, among them, careful recording, the knowledge of basic number combinations and other important number relationships, and concern for double-checking results.

Flexibility - Flexibility requires the knowledge of more than one approach to solving a particular kind of problem. Students need to be flexible and choose an appropriate strategy for solving the problem at hand. They can use one method to solve a problem and another method to double-check the results.

Fletcher states that memorization is void of strategy while learning facts ‘from memory’ relies on strategy as the more we continue to use and practice a strategy, the more that strategy becomes automatic. This informational video from Graham Fletcher is about the difference between memorization and memory.

**Adapted from The Math Learning Center**

Medication Reminders

Medication will be given by the school nurse or school personnel, only in compliance with the State of Connecticut Regulations. DO NOT SEND MEDICATION TO SCHOOL WITH CHILDREN.

Parents/guardians are responsible for bringing medications to and from school.

Medication is to be brought into school in the original, labeled container. Loose medication will not be accepted.

Absolutely no medications (prescription or non-prescription) will be given for any reason without the doctor’s authorization stating the name of the drug, dosage, method, and time the medication is to be given. This is a state law which must be strictly enforced.

Please note: COUGH DROPS count as medications and are not allowed in school unless the appropriate documentation is completed.

When considering the number of absences your student has accrued, keep in mind that a student must be present for 195 minutes in order for the day to count! When bringing your student in late, or signing them out early if they have not been in school for a 195 minutes the day will be recorded as an absence.

Memorial School Attendance email:

memorial_attendance@easthamptonct.org * there is an _ between memorial and attendance!

Please Review This Important Information Below.

Students, parents, and community members have access to an anonymous tip line on the front page of the school district website to report self-concerns, mental health concerns of a friend, or concerns of violence. Simply click here or view on the website: https://www.easthamptonps.org/.

Email: jbauer@easthamptonct.org
Website: https://www.easthamptonps.org/o/memorial-school
Location: 20 Smith Street, East Hampton, CT, USA
Phone: 860-365-4020
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ehmemorialschool