A colossal kindergarten block structure!

Now that we have real winter weather, please make sure your child has a warm winter coat, a hat and mittens for outdoor recess every day!  

A Special Visitor to the Fifth-Grade Original Opera Students
by Lorna Milbauer

Lucy Simon speaking with fifth graders during their opera class

Today was a very special day in opera class. Lucy Simon, who is the grandmother of Sophie, a new student in our fifth grade, visited us to share her experiences as a composer. Lucy Simon has written many songs, a popular one being, “Wynken, Blynken, and Nod”, which when she was younger, she often performed with her sister, Carly. Since then she has gone on to write the music for The Secret Garden, as well as the music for Dr. Zhivago, a new musical that will be coming out on Broadway next year. 

Alumni Alexandra Weinstein singing with
Lucy Simon

One of the many highlights of Ms. Simon’s visit was the opportunity for one of our former students, Alexandra Weinstein, to meet her. Alexandra was a performer in our opera when she was in the fifth grade and has gone on to become an aspiring singer and musical theatre performer, presently auditioning on and off Broadway. When
Alexandra learned that Lucy wrote the music to the Secret Garden, she happened to know one of its many songs and together they performed it for our fifth graders. Lucy played

Preschoolers and fifth-graders sitting together at assembly
photo by Michael Rodenbush

the piano while Alexandra sang and we were all incredibly impressed by this impromptu performance. One can imagine how excited Alexandra was to be singing one of her favorite songs with the actual composer accompanying her! Ms. Simon then proceeded to discuss with the group how she began composing music as a young child. She disclosed that she was dyslexic and that putting words to music helped her to memorize poems for school. Lucy described how she usually starts with the lyrics letting the words inspire her melodies. It was obvious that our own composers could recognize that this was a similar process that they were applying to their job. Our composers even shared the lyrics and a bit of their melody with Lucy who commented that she liked the way the melody repeated itself giving the impression of a rumor—our opera’s theme this year. Ms. Simon also emphasized how every job in opera is extremely important and explained why. 

Math team members working together on problems

Ms. Simon then sat in on the casting auditions for this year’s performers. She again had some very good advice and also explained that when someone is not cast for a particular part it does not indicate that they were not good, it simply means the directors were looking for something in particular that that person did not have. 
Ms. Simon was also extremely helpful in explaining the important role of a “Greek Chorus”, which may be a new addition to this year’s opera. We cannot thank Ms. Simon enough for the generosity of her time and helpful contributions. It is very special to have members of our school’s community share with us their talents and ideas. We also believe that Ms. Simon was very interested and impressed to learn about our school’s opera program and looks forward to attending the final performance in May.

Don't Miss this Presentation! 

(Tuesday, January 29th at 7:30 p.m.)

Click here for full-sized flyer 

Sally’s Big Adventure:

As Told by First Graders

Chef Ricardo, Ms Demaris, Sally and first-graders

Sally is our little hamster who likes to explore.  One day she got out of her cage and she thought “I should go different places!”  So, Sally climbed into a hole in the wall.   She traveled around the whole Lower School for several weeks.  On the first week she saw rows and rows of lockers!  She thought “Maybe there are some leftover snacks!”  Sally found a bracelet.  “Yuck.  That is not a good snack!”  Then she found a smelly t-shirt.  “Yuck!  That is not a good snack either!”  On the second week she saw Mr. Davies’ office.  So she went in and chewed up some papers for a snack.  “Yum, yum!  What a yummy snack!”  Sally said.  Sally was feeling full.  So she found another hole and kept going.  On the third week she ended up in the kindergarten rooms.  “Wow!”  she said.  “What should I do now?”  

First and fourth-grade buddies

So Sally colored a picture, played with the doll house, she built a little home out of blocks and took a nap.  On the fourth week Sally was tired and hungry.  So she went to the cafeteria.  Mrs. Demaris saw her and thought she was a big rat!  Chef Ricardo got surprised!  “Quick!  Call maintenance!”  They called maintenance and Chu came down.  He said “That’s not a rat!  That is Sally!”  Ms.  Lemire came down and took her back to class and gave her a nice warm bath.  Soon Sally was back in her cage.  She took a long nap.  She dreamed about another adventure. 

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Back-to-School Nights 2

Save the date:

Grades 2-5: Tuesday, February 5th at 7:00 pm

Preschool - First Grade: Thursday February 7th at 7:00 p.m.

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A Description of Our Language Arts Program

A recent article in The Reading Teacher * gives a good description of our language arts curriculum. Below are some key elements:

- Building a classroom culture that makes it possible for the teacher to work with small groups while the rest of the class is engaged in other productive literacy activities;

- Differentiating instruction by working with students in leveled reading groups, using books at children’s instructional level and providing the support they need to build

Fifth graders running our recent 
MLK Lower School assembly
photo by Michael Rodenbush

their reading power;

- Purchasing leveled books and having a common book room that gives teachers access to a wide variety of levels and topics, including tubs of books organized not by level but by author and subject;

- Stocking classroom libraries that allow students to choose from a wide inventory of texts for independent reading;

- Assessing students’ reading proficiency at the beginning of each year in individual conferences and using running records throughout the year to monitor reading levels;

- Attending to all three elements of proficient reading: decoding, comprehension, and fluency.

An assembly musician
photo by Michael Rodenbush

The following are the basic elements of the canonical guided reading lesson:

- Selection of a text that is just right to support new learning for the group;

- Introduction of the text to scaffold the reading but leaving some problem-solving for the group;

- Students read the text softly or silently with the teacher prompting or reinforcing strategic actions;

- Discussion of the text to boost students’ comprehension;

- Teaching points grounded in the text and directed toward expanding students’ comprehension strategies;

- Word work to help students become flexible and efficient at figuring out unknown words;

- Extending understanding of the text through writing and/or drawing (optional).

Kindergartners preforming during our MLK assembly
photo by Michael Rodenbush

Guided reading is only one component of a comprehensive, high-quality literacy effort. Powerful teaching within the lesson requires much more:

- Whole-class interactive read-alouds (not leveled books);

Second-graders learn about "helper" dogs
as part of their study of communities

- Small-group and whole-class literature discussion (not leveled books);

- Readers’ workshop with whole-group mini-lessons (not leveled books);

- Independent reading and individual conferences (self-selected, not leveled texts);

- The use of mentor texts for writing workshop.

- Students also need to be exposed to age-appropriate, grade-appropriate texts. Read more....

*“Guided Reading: The Romance and the Reality” by Irene Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell in The Reading Teacher, December 2012/January 2013 (Vol. 66, #4, p. 268-284)