What's Happening at School Street School?
Chris Poulos
Chris Poulos is a wold champion athlete, youth motivational speaker, and aspiring author who shares powerful life lessons as he demonstrates amazing bicycle stunts. He specializes in core values, anti bullying and character education.
We were so lucky to have him visit School Street School Tuesday afternoon to speak with our students and show them his cool stunts.
Kindergarten
Apples, apples, everywhere! Did you know that over 2,500 varieties of apples are grown in America each year? We discovered that apples can be the size of a cherry or the size of a grapefruit. Ask your kindergartener what else they know about apples and don’t be surprised if a family apple picking trip is suggested!
Thanks to all who helped create their child’s collage for our Writer’s Workshop folders. They look great. The pictures will serve as a starting point for future writing. If writers get “stuck,” they can check out the cover of their folder for potential ideas!
Students as well as teachers enjoyed Tuesday’s Assembly regarding kindness, respect and friendship. Children cheered as BMX enthusiast Chris Poulos shared his philosophy while performing cool stunts!
Art
Tertiary colors are combinations of primary and secondary colors. There are six tertiary colors; red-orange, yellow-orange, yellow-green, blue-green, blue-violet, and red-violet. Second Grade used paint to make their new colors.
Piet Mondrain was a Dutch artist who used shapes, lines and primary colors in his “Composition with Yellow, Blue and Red” painting. Kindergarten recreated his famous painting by gluing down black strips of paper to make squares and rectangles. Once those shapes were made they added the primary colors to their picture.
First Grade
We have welcomed October this week with some mixed weather. Is it fall or is it summer? We are anxious for some cooler days ahead to help us stay cool while learning. We are working on subtraction in math and discovering how helpful it is to model math problems in order to solve them. In Fundations, we are practicing the tapping skills we learned in kindergarten to read and spell words. Readers are kicking bad reading habits and learning good habits to solve hard words. We are learning not to freeze or ask someone to tell us the hard words, but instead use strategies such as check the picture, look at all the parts of the word, get a running start and double check. Writers are beginning to edit our writing pieces by adding capital letters and end marks where needed. This is a skill that should now be used in all our written work, even homework. Please remember to turn in those reading logs EVERY Monday. Each reading log counts as a homework assignment and needs to be completed daily.
Second Grade
The second graders made great progress with their writing skills this week. They worked on learning how to unfreeze characters in their stories, by writing with more volume and detail. They also are beginning to make their characters think and feel by elaborating on each action their characters take. We are also continuing to work with writing and reading buddies to help us with sharing ideas.
This Week In Music
Highlights of our musical week included kindergartners being introduced to the Beat Buddies for the first time! We loved helping our new animal friends keep the beat with us!
First and second grade students have been exploring their voices by using twine designs on the floor. We took a walk and tried out other designs. Second graders are preparing to transfer their skills to the barred instruments. All students are exploring movement and adding words to describe their movements.
Celebrating the Week of Respect at School Street School
October 7-11
The Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act designates the week beginning the first Monday in October of each year as the “Week of Respect” in the state of New Jersey. In addition to a focus on respect during class meeting time, School Street School activities for the Week of Respect are outlined below:
Monday, October 7: Blue Out Bullying!
The first Monday of every October is Blue Shirt Day, also known as World Day of Bullying Prevention. Wear your favorite blue shirt.
Tuesday, October 8: Mismatch Day!
Wear mismatched clothing to celebrate and respect the differences amongst each other.
Wednesday, October 9: Dreaming of a Bully-Free World!
Wear your favorite pajamas.
Thursday, October 10: Team Up Against Bullying!
Wear your favorite team gear because we are all on the same team at SSS.
Friday, October 11: School Spirit Day!
Show respect for your SSS community by wearing red and black.