Art

• Kindergarten artists are getting used to the art room routines. We are drawing fall pictures that include ground lines. We will begin painting soon. 
• First grade artists are drawing people and practicing cutting techniques to make collages showing people in action.
• Second grade artists are drawing animals in unexpected or obscure colors. 
• Third grade artists are learning about facial proportion and creating self-portraits with clues to their interests and culture.
• Fourth grade artists are making gesture drawings and will make wire sculptures based on their drawings. 
• Fifth grade artists are learning to create  contour drawings using their hands, flowers and shoes as subjects.
• Sixth grade artists are working on shading and highlights with oil pastels.

Music

All students K-6 attend general music class two or three times per week. Students in music have been learning procedures, routines, and helping to create our music room rules for the year. All students are reviewing or learning our school song: Terraset Tiger Pride. We are so excited to be singing again together! Ask your child to show you what we’ve been learning. 

• Kindergarten and First Graders are learning about their singing voice (head voice) and finding the beat of songs. Have students try to find the beat of a song at home! You can pat/clap/stomp along to any song. 
• Second Grade is starting a unit based on the story “Jack and the Beanstalk.” They will create movements, learn to sing a song, create their own rhythmic pattern based on text from the story, and finally, learn the song on the xylophone!

Third, Fourth and Fifth Grades are reviewing rhythms and how to perform them. Each group is learning a piece for body percussion (3rd: Alpha 4; 4th: Tiger Melon Stomp; 5th: The Song Without Words). Each grade level is also learning a round - a song where two groups can start at two different points to create harmony.

LTC

In LTC All students shared with me something that I do not know about each of them. That was lovely and our class is surrounded by those lovely messages. THANK YOU!  We have worked during these first classes: our rules, consequences, how are our routines, arrivals and dismissals, materials in LTC as well as how to work in different sets of groups or individually. We have been getting familiar with our helpers duties, how to support them and the importance of being respectful, practice the language and be ready for challenges too. We have talked about all different resources and organized our materials for this school year. We will be starting our 1st semester  project per grade level this week. Please ask your child about all this information.

Physical Education

• We’re off to a great start in PE.  K-2 students have been working(doing activities) on an understanding of rules and routines.  Also, they have been working on movement activities including locomotor skills.  We will finish out the quarter with Throwing and Catching games.
• In grades 3-6 we have been using our communication and problem solving skills for Cooperative learning activities.  We will have fitness testing this week and will move onto Throwing and Catching Games(Football, Team Handball).

Orchestra

Students are getting ready for their first orchestra class. Yay!

When will strings begin? The last week of September: Monday Sept 27^th – October 1
*Specific day will be communicated soon. 

Where do I get an instrument? RENT your child’s instrument from a local music store as they will grow and it will be a better quality string instrument for your child to learn on. 

My child rented through the Instruments for all (IFA) program. When will I get my child’s instrument? Parents will need to complete their instrument music contract and complete their payment. Once both are received, I will collect their string instruments from the FCPS warehouse.

How often is orchestra? Your child will have orchestra class once a week (during specials block)for 60 minutes 

How often should my child practice? EVERY DAY! First year students should practice 10-15 minutes a day, second and third year players 20 minutes a day.

How can I support my child in orchestra? Encourage your child to practice!

The Fist Bowl- Kindergarten, 1st & 2nd grades

The Fish Bowl is a place for students to develop their critical and creative thinking and problem solving skills.  Children will be collaborating, communicating, and creating solutions to real world situations that correlate and enrich the Fairfax program of studies.  To begin our adventure, Kinders and 1st graders demonstrated their sorting capabilities, tallied their favorite things,and learned how to create and interpret bar graphs.  2nd graders designed and constructed aluminum foil boats and predicted and tested how much weight their boats would hold before sinking.  As part of this experiment, students were introduced to 3 parts of the Scientific Method, the Independent Variable, the Dependent Variable, and the Constants.