This year has been very exciting in Art. Students have learned a lot this year from Art History to the culture of others’ art work. Here are a few highlights of the year:
· Pre-K learned a lot of new things from learning about design and how to create a collage. The most exciting thing they enjoyed was their marshmallow/pretzel sculpture and worms in dirt mixture they made and ate.
· Kindergarten this year learned a lot about themselves and how they saw themselves. They made wire sculptures and large drawings of themselves.
· First grade learned about architecture. They leaned that every structure has a foundation to help support the building. With this they studied old castles and drew what their fairytale castle would look like.
· Second grade learned about overlapping and designing. They used this knowledge to create a name design where their name was the focal point of the design.
· Third grade learned about what a mola is. They learned that a lot of Indian, aboriginal and Spanish cultures use these types of symbolic pictures to tell stories and as a decoration. They then created their own type of mola.
· Fourth grade learned about self-expression by using multimedia. Multimedia is drawing, paper collage, magazine pictures and or painting to depict themselves. They did a wonderful job.
· Fifth grade had an art history lesson on the artist Piet Mondrian. They saw examples of his work and how it changed over time when he learned the different genres of Art. They then created their own style of Mondrian’s work.
This year the reading lab has experienced many fun activities. The fifth grade students presented a play in the fellowship hall and all of the elementary school students were invited. Several hands-on experiments were experienced with the Daybook for the Second grade, such as acting out our reader stories. Third grade enjoyed their favorite activities in their workstation times. Fourth grade acquired many new vocabulary words. All in all, the year was a fun filled adventure for each grade.
Ms. Aviles
Students in Pre-K to 5th Grade have enjoyed reading books in the library and also enjoyed reading together as a group. Pre-K 3 has especially enjoyed being read to. They have enjoyed the stories of that curious little monkey, “Curious George.” They like listening to his adventures because he is just as curious as most of them. Pre-K 4 has also been read to throughout this year, they especially enjoy the Big Books. One of their favorites was “If the Dinosaurs Came Back.” They loved thinking of the great things that dinosaurs would do if they lived among us now. Kindergarten also enjoyed being read to, and they liked to look at books on their own since thy were almost at the stage of reading, and those that already knew how to read, enjoyed reading on their own. One of the books we read together was, “The Very Hungry Caterpillar.” This story was especially appealing to them since they had caterpillars in their classrooms, and it gave them an idea of the changes to look for in their class pets. First Grade had the privilege to take out one book from the library on a weekly basis. They enjoyed this freedom and responsibility. They loved to read on their own and we have also read a variety of books together such as the stories of Amelia Bedelia, which are very humorous because she takes everything so literally and always gets herself into trouble and funny situations. Second grade had the privilege to take out two books every week. They are all great readers. Some of their favorite books were the joke books, and the I Spy book collections. Few were also into history books. They enjoyed a lot of non fiction, which is great because they learn a lot of facts. We read “the Empty Pot” together which they enjoyed and taught them a lesson in honesty. The Third grade also borrowed two books on a weekly basis. They were more interested in fiction, such as the Judy Blume collection, sports fiction stories, and the Geronimo Stilton books. Third graders also enjoyed the Guinness World Record books, so we read a few of those together, because it was of their interest. Fourth Grade also took two books out every week, but they enjoyed reading so much that they always wanted to take out more than that. It was a blessing to see how they enjoyed to read especially since most started reading the Left Behind kids series, which is about the tribulation times as told int eh Bible. One student in particular impressed me, because she read more than thirty of the books in this series in just a month. We read parts of the first book in the series together, and it was great to hear their responses. Fifth grade read a variety of different books throughout this year. They liked fiction, and non fiction, they also enjoyed the Guinness Book of Records to the point that I had to split them up in groups and each group would have the book for 10-15 minutes each. As a class we read the book “Yellow Star,” which is a true story of a person who survived the holocaust as a child in the Lodz ghetto in Poland. It was great to see some of the responses to this toughing book. We also read, “Rules” which is about a fifth grade girl who has an autistic brother. This was a story that truly touched us all and gave us an insight into this topic. It also gave the opportunity to have great discussions. Overll, it was a great year, full of great reading.
Mrs. Ruiz