History & Geography

This week we continued learning about the Renaissance. Our objectives were:

• Recognize the role various popes played as patrons of the arts during the Renaissance
• Describe the building of St. Peter’s Basilica
• Take a Virtual Field trip through the Pantheon and St. Peter’s Basilica

Mathematics

This week we continued to Multiply and Divide Fractions. Our objectives were:

• practice dividing a fraction by a fraction by completing real world problems
• review multiplying and dividing fractions by completing holiday crafts
• demonstrate understanding of the chapter by completing the chapter test

Specialists

Art with Ms. Kelly

Nutcracker Drawings

Grades 1 to 5 created some wonderful Nutcracker drawings and paintings this month! The goals were:

• Learn about Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite: the music, ballet and story
• Learn how to use folded paper guidelines and basic shapes to draw a nutcracker
• Add details, decorations and color, using markers, watercolors, and colored pencils

Each class did a wonderful job following directions and creating their own unique Nutcracker artwork!

Small Clay Sculptures

The students used Crayola Air-dry Clay and wire to create beautiful little sculptures. They painted these with acrylic paint and wrapped them in gift boxes for a lucky recipient!

Winter Trees with Snow

The students used copies of “Sleigh Ride” sheet music to cut out tree shapes, then added torn-paper evergreens, redbirds, and white tempera paint for snow.

Renaissance Art

We had a little time to compare and contrast “Madonna and Child” artwork from the Middle Ages and

the Renaissance. We’ll start on a Renaissance-style self portrait in January!

Thank you to Ms. Stacia and Ms. Laura for helping out each week in the 4/5 class!

Everyone have a wonderful holiday!

 

Music with Ms. Nadia

Tis the season for jingle bells, the Nutcracker, and Frozen 2! We have had a blast jingling along to our favorite holiday songs this month, especially Jingle Bells. Games like “Echo carols” and “Finish the song” kept us on our toes—and gave plenty of opportunity for Frozen 2 songs to sneak into the class! This past class was particularly special with a pop-up Christmas tree advent calendar! Students took turns opening a small door and decorating our 3D paper tree with an ornament—did I mention it was Harry Potter themed? There was one catch—each student had to first answer a question about something we’ve learned in music class so far. The order of questioning was determined by a game of “Musical Bear”, played to selections of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker. We also played a hilarious game of “Rudolf the Red-Nose Madlibs”. Here is our version of the song:

John Cena the Blue-Nosed owl had a very tall leg.

And if you ever saw him, you would even say it fell!

All of the other ostriches used to laugh and call him Big Boy.

They never let Lucas join in any reindeer taekwondo.

Then one smelly Valentine’s Day eve, Riana came to say,

“John Cena with your fingers so flat, won’t you guide my dad tonight?”

Then how the hippogriffs loved him as shouted out with sadness!

John Cena the Blue-nosed Owl, you’ll go down in PE!

I’m enjoying this class’s creativity and enthusiasm! As the year is winding to a close, we are continuing learning the recorder. With this, students are improving their sight-reading skills! Songs we can play include Hot Cross Buns, Mary had a Little Lamb, and The Snow Song (which we sang as well). Students now know notes A, B, G, E, and D. With the new notes comes new challenges like skipping and finger placement. They can also play in various meters and are no longer caught off-guard by sneaky rests! Other highlights include dancing Zumba-style to Fire in my Soulby Walk off the Earth and All I want for Christmas is You by Mariah Carrey, playing a ukulele echo game, and singing about whales in the classic Down by the Bay.

 

Merry Christmas and a Musical New Year!