Newsletter February 2008 Cluster News
Liquids are flowing, balance scales are balancing, forces are pushing and pulling, thermometers are falling below zero, crickets are chirping, bulbs are blooming and catapults are flipping in the Science Laboratory.
In the following months 1st grade will be exploring weather and seasons, temperature, and the sun, moon and stars. 2nd grade will be exploring earth materials, soil composition and properties of rocks and minerals. 3rd grade will be observing, describing and identifying various forms of energy such as sound, heat, electrical and chemical energy. 4th grade will be reviewing electricity and magnetism and exploring properties of water such as evaporation as it applies to the water cycle. 5th grade will begin a unit on earth science looking at the processes that help shape the land such as erosion, volcanoes, and earthquakes. They will identify minerals and classify rocks as sedimentary, igneous or metamorphic.
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On Tuesday, February 26th the Computer Lab will be open before the P.T.A. from 6:00 to 7:00 PM to enable parents to explore and investigate The Renzulli Learning System that their children have been using in the computer lab. Please don’t miss this opportunity as we encourage the feedback and commentary from parents.
ART NEWS
Congratulations to Finn Kleckner of Miss Polverino’s class for winning the Thirteenth Annual Interagency Early Childhood Professional Development Institute contest! Finn’s work has been selected to appear on all folders and program booklets for the agency. Finn, we are so proud of you!
Along with our white glittery snowflakes, we’ve expanded our winter theme in the cafeteria with our amazing colorful mittens! We designed our mittens on one side using holiday and winter themes. On the back, we wrote a short piece about winter. The mittens add so much cheerfulness to our winter display.
What an exciting month we have had at PS 39! Our kindergarten learned all about overlapping shapes that create new shapes. They created beautiful abstract layout designs and used three colors to differentiate between the various shapes. Our first graders have become true Chinese artists! They designed beautiful Chinese lanterns by using Chinese brushes and black ink. They wrote “Happy new year” by painting with the brush in a straight vertical alignment. The second graders learned all about radial art and created wonderful kaleidoscope circle art using balance and symmetry with cray pas! The third graders worked vigorously to create masterpieces of scratch art! What wonderful and creative patterns and textures we came up with to fill in our shapes with. We loved the surprise of having different colors come out in different areas in our pieces of work. The fourth grade created balanced circle art by tracing circle templates. They devised amazing balanced layouts using a color scheme to differentiate between the circle shapes. They will also be creating an unbalanced layout using the circle templates. No balance and no symmetry! Our fifth graders incorporated the shading techniques they learned such as gradient, stippling, hatching, cross-hatching and contour line in their self-portraits. What fabulous pieces they turned out to be! We cannot wait to apply these techniques to our still life set up! Come see our magnificent pieces of work on display in room 103 and around the school!
Looking ahead…we will be studying watercolor portraiture, Chinese art, sculpture, stained glass, shading and line art. We cannot wait to begin working on these new projects and techniques! We are continuing to expand our knowledge of the arts by exploring different media and techniques. Please feel free to contact me or make an appointment to see me whenever the need arises. My prep schedule is as follows: Monday through Friday, first period- 8:20-9:20 a.m.
Many thanks to all the children in the chorus and recorder club as well as the parent band which made the Holiday Show a great success. Again, thanks to all who participated and attended the performance.
We have been busy singing and playing songs celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday. Some of the songs that have been popular with the students are
“Blowin in the Wind” by Bob Dylan and “ You’ll Sing a Song” by Ella Jenkins.
Lyrics to “ You’ll Sing a Song”
You’ll sing a song and I’ll sing a song and we’ll sing a song together.
You’ll sing a song and I’ll sing a song in warm or win-try weather.
You’ll play a tune and I’ll play a tune…
You’ll hum a line and I’ll hum a line…
You’ll whistle a while and I’ll whistle a while…
Special kudos to recent P.S. 39 graduate Rajon Herbert whose musical composition, written last year in the New York Philharmonic’s Very Young Composers Program at 39 was selected to be performed at Lincoln Center in the Young Peoples Concert. Rajon was one of four students selected in all of New York City. Congratulations to Rajon and his family. We are all very proud.
Going into the month of February, the physical education program at P.S. 39 is in high gear. We have finished our New York City Fitnessgram, and the results have been sent to the Department of Education. I am happy to report that our fourth and fifth grade students completed the fitness gram at 100% attendance.
The Fitnessgram is a personal evaluation of each student that includes five components. These are: Pacer Run, Sit and Reach, Trunklift, Push Ups, and Curl Ups. Each parent and student will receive a letter that will explain the results. These results will not be shared with anyone else. Height and weight is also taken for each student from K through 5.
For January and February, our program is in the midst of our crosstraining phase. From K through 5 we have been doing a variety of different exercises during each class. We have also been playing volleyball games in the fourth and fifth grade.
All in all, we are looking forward to an exciting spring at 39 and we are pleased with the enthusiasm of our wonderful students.
posted by PS39 PTA at 9:51 PM
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