By Ms. Janet Haas, Strings TeacherDear Elementary String Families,
You should be hearing much more from your young string players this week! We have put the bow on the string. All the students are very excited and have worked patiently on all the preliminary steps that we used to prepare them for using the bow. As you listen to your child practice, you should be hearing very slow, even bow strokes. This is constructive practicing. Short, choppy sounds indicate that a player is just fooling around or not using enough bow to make a sustained sound. In the next few weeks we will be teaching the students to combine the left hand fingering with the bow. You will then be able to really hear “Mary Had a Little Lamb”! Coming lessons prepared will help your child maintain his/her enthusiasm. Bringing the instrument and the books on lesson day is one key to your child’s success in string lessons. Please help your child to remember both the Orchestra Expressions and the Supplement Book on lesson day. A child who forgets either the instrument or the books should still attend the lesson but they will miss out on playing in class. Habitually forgetting the instrument or the books will seriously impede your child’s progress. A good habit is to set the instrument next to backpack the night before the lesson and place the two books in the backpack (unless they fit in the case). The second key to a great year in string lessons is regular practicing. Few students will practice without a gentle reminder from a parent. Help your child’s practice habits by establishing a regular practice time. Using a timer to define the length of the practice time can help your child focus on practicing rather than watching the clock. If you can, listen to the practicing once a week. Students should begin with something they know how to play well, work on the new techniques and conclude with another piece that they know and enjoy. If your child is practicing 10-15 minutes a day, s/he will progress well in lessons. If you have any questions about the lessons or if your child is frustrated by some technical challenge, please contact me. Sincerely, Janet Haas
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A while ago,I read a awesome story called Dragon Breath Knight-naped.In the story they are having a normal day when a pigeon comes and lands on Danny's head.They find a note scrolled up and when they look on it says that Danny's cousin"Spence trapped in a castle and needs help to get help to get out the castle.They had already known that they had a quest! Danny and Wendell have to make up an excuse to sleep over Christiana"s house when they find out that he cousins run the castle that Spencer is trapped in.When they get there they ask there mother if he can sleep the night over Christiana"s house.When she finaly.looks at them the room goes silent she narrowed her eyes and tilted her head to the side slowly."I know i am going to regret saying this but why are you wearing a pigeon?" Oh yah,it is wear a pigeon on your head day."Then why isn't Wendell wearing one?"Because his mom said no and that it is totally unnecessary." For more information about the book, check out Ursula Vernon's website. Just this past Tuesday we began a new writing unit. Officially the name of the unit is Boxes and Bullets: Personal and Persuasive Essays, but I like to refer to keep it simple with the students by calling it Essay Writing Unit. Below is a graphic organizer that is hanging inside my classroom. If you child is having any difficulty with the structure of writing an essay, please use this as a guide. Today students answered some questions about the character the came to school as. Even if the students did not take part in dressing up as a character, they still wrote about a character they could dress up as if they could have.
Although some students handed in the assignment, most of the assignments were not done correctly or they were incomplete. There were also some students who have not handed the assignment in. That is not a problem, as the assignment is due to be handed in tomorrow morning as their homework. Please have your child look at the sample so they correctly to the assignment. If your child needs an extra copy of the assignment, please click the link for a word doc. Or you can download the file as a pdf. Guest Post from Ms. GoldfarbGreetings,
I wanted to let you know about an online art gallery the we are participating in this year, it's called Artsonia. Once parents give permission, and I upload, with the help of a few parent volunteers, art work, it's there for the viewing. We've had over 2000 visitors to our site already. If you'd like to check it out, many of your student's projects are there go to www.artsonia.com. You'll need to follow the prompts for Bowman, in Lexington, MA. It's easy to navigate. I hope you enjoy. Ms. Goldfarb http://www.artsonia.com/schools/school.asp?id=6845 The parents on the Lexington Community are so generous! These are just a few books that have been added to the classroom library. The Cattier's, Lou's, Zhang's, and Dechkounian's were families from this year's class that donated books. The Bertsekas's and O'Briens, from my first year, have continued with their tradition of continuing to give back to the classroom.
Thank you so much for you donations. The students appreciate it. I appreciate it. With these books, we'll be doing some serious thinking. After all, reading is thinking! The LEF Trivia Bee went off without a hitch last night. It was extremely successful because of the wonderful support from the Lexington community. The Lexington Education Foundation has awarded over 4 million dollars of grants to all 9 schools. Some of the grants include: SMART tables in kindergarten, educators studying study the effects of mountain erosion, the changing behaviors of animals, and the survival of plants in France, and the acquisition of robotic kits for the development of an after school robotics curriculum and program designed for every elementary school in the LPS. . Taking part in the night was exceptionally rewarding for me. Not because I was able to capitalize on my useless knowledge by answering trivia questions, but because I saw the commitment the community has to supporting a good cause. The high school auditorium was packed with student and parents. They all came out to cheer on their teachers and in turn support the LEF. The night was full of laughs, incredible costumes, food, and a bunch of tough questions. I was able to have my 5 minutes of fame on the local access channel. Hopefully LexMedia will put the video on the internet soon so I can bask in the glory for a few more minutes. Although my team, the Straight A’s, lost in the Final Swarm to the Rhodes Scholars, we had a great night. Watching the other Bowman teams on stage made the night unforgettable. The Bees Knees saw some success recalling their wealth of knowledge between the three great minds of Mr. Waters, Mr. Golder and Ms. Loof. When I wasn’t rooting for my own team I was silently hoping Mrs. Kearns, Mrs. Sawka, and Mr. Curhan would win. They should have been considered for a trip to the finals because of their incredible team name: Bowman Fire Breathing Rubber Duckies. In order to have more nights like the Trivia Bee, please continue to support the LEF. You can do that by taking a look at the LEF Donation page. Next year I am hoping to have another wonderful night.
Book Review by Deniz B.Recently I read the book Dork Diaries Tales Of A Not So Dorky Drama Queen by Rachel Renée Russell . In this book, Nikki loses her diary, but not just LOSES it, her archenemy, Mackenzie has her diary and writes about her life and brags about everything! Meanwhile, Nikki, Chloe, and Zoe search for Nikki's diary everywhere. I don't want to give any spoilers but let's just say something AMAZING happened to Nikki NEAR the end of the book. Seriously, I thought this book was the best book ever! I really enjoyed having a big inside scoop of Mackenzie's life, i learned so much stuff about her i didn't know! Also, in most books , they never give inside scoop about other important characters. This book has gone WAAY past that, and i like that it had a big inside scoop. I was surprised this book had that. Overall, i give this book a HUGE 10/10. For more information about the book, check out Rachel Renée Russell's website. |
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