Team Discovery Drum Circle

Team Discovery Drum Circle

Students from Team Discovery are playing drums. Every Wednesday morning we gather together to play congas, djembes, gathering drums, bongos, tubanos and dumbeks. We also will be playing other percussion instruments as we gather throughout the fall. We are using the drum circle as a community building activity. 75 students ( grades 4-6) participate in the activity.

Warm & Cool Monsters

Ah! Look out! Monsters! Check out this sampling of monsters drawn by 2nd Graders from Mr. Galle's and Mrs. Brown's art class! The students learned about warm and cool color schemes, and then created monsters that illustrated their choice. Does one of these pictures remind you of being someplace warm? Is there one that makes you feel chilly? That's the power of warm and cool monsters...and colors!

Line and Shape in 1st Grade

These first few weeks, the 1st Graders have experimented with the building blocks of Art: Line and Shape. Once they are proficient with these techniques, they can start to learn and use the other elements and principlest. Mr. Galle's class created Line Design Turtles and Robot Collages to practice their skills.

Technology Design -- Land Sailing

Middle school students are designing and testing model land yachts, sailing craft that move on land rather than water. Our hope is to make a version large enough to haul a student.

Mr. Smith
Middle School E-Learning
Http://Site3E.Com

City School Band/String Program

The beginning of this school year has been challenging in trying to build a music lesson schedule during the school day. One of the features of the new team approach has been to have exploratories within grade levels at different times during the school day. This would require music students to possibly miss core academic classes, rather than classes in art, music, practical arts, technology, and occasionally core classes for strong music students, as we have done in the past. I have been reluctant to propose that this happen, as we have restructured to improve student performance in math and language.

What I would like to do, as a way to start lessons, is this. I am willing to give lessons for 6th grade band and string students, after school, 4 days a week. These lessons would be in the music room (the new and improved band room) and would be for a half hour on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. I could have lessons at 3:15, 3:45, and 4:15. Students who stay after school, are welcome to be in the music room before their lessons, where I would take the responsibility for their supervision. Our full Jr. Band rehearsals are still in the school day, on Tuesday and Thursdays during recess. As a “thank you” to your young musicians for giving up 2 recess periods a week, I am hosting all band students and a friend, to eat lunch in the music room and show a movie, while they “dine”. This is the City School version of Dinner and a Movie.

As I build this lesson schedule, I will try to get individual students in lessons during the school day, as much as possible, but given the importance of the core subjects, the after school lesson may be the only possible option available. I will be calling parents over the weekend and the beginning of next week, to get your imput on if this will work, and to work out the details.

The only thing that I would ask, is that your kids occasionally endure my greyhound, Maggie, and golden retriever, Belle, who are both VERY GOOD PUPPIES, as I am reluctant to leave them at home alone 2 more hours a day!

I am hopeful that we can get more lessons back into the school day as the kinks in our new schedules are worked out, and I believe that this adjustment will enable us to get going. Thank you.

Frank Mehaffey