News from Specials
November 8, 2021
Greetings Sanford Pride Families,
Our first two months of school have come and gone, and we’ve been very busy in that period of time! Here is what your students have been up to in their specialist classes.
It has been very exciting to see how the library has transformed from a room full of many, many boxes at the beginning of the year to an inviting space ready for students and teachers to use and look for books. All 201 boxes of books have been unpacked! The library is open for business and will continue to undergo various changes as things are rearranged to make the space welcoming and efficient. It has been wonderful meeting all the students and helping them find good fit books to read and enjoy!
In Phys Ed we are finishing our frisbee unit and will be moving on to floor hockey. We will begin planning our sledding for after the December holiday break, if anyone would like to donate sleds that would be greatly appreciated.
In SPE health class this year, the students have all been exploring different aspects of community and school safety as well as drug-use prevention. The 1st and 2nd graders have been learning how to keep themselves safe and healthy at school, at home, and in the community, and learning about making healthy decisions when it comes to medicine! The 3rd and 4th graders have explored personal safety, decision making in emergency situations, and first aid. They are currently busy exploring the roles, and placements of the major organs in the human body by creating life size paper diagrams of their own bodies. This will lead us into exploring how illegal and legal substances damage those major organs and create unhealthy outcomes. For our drug-use prevention unit, all classes from kindergarten to 4th grade are participating in the Elk’s Association’s Drug Awareness Program contests, which include a coloring contest, a poster contest and lot’s of prizes! If you have any questions or would like to learn more about the contest or Health class, please contact Ms. Smye at asmye@sanford.org for more information.
Students have had a musical two months in school! All grades have been working on making music while singing, moving, and playing a variety of percussion instruments. Kindergarten and 1st grade students have been learning about “resting, ready, and playing” positions and how we take care of our classroom instruments. Exploration of instruments continues in second grade and beyond as we create longer musical pieces. In grades 3 and 4, students have been focusing on musical literacy and have recently started their journey in the “Glockenspiel Karate” unit. For this, we combine our knowledge of melody and rhythm to play music as a team. Whenever a class completes one song’s checklist, they will earn one of the nine colors of karate belts. We hope we can earn them all! 4th Grade Chorus is also off to a fabulous start. We have started singing “Happy”, “A Song of Peace”, and “Raining Tacos”. More music to come!
In art class here at Pride, students are just starting a new unit on Folk Art-a style of art represented by artists who have no formal training, people (just like our students) who decided they wanted to become an artist, so they did! Each grade level is working on a different project within their curriculum standards, centering around the use of the elements of art, as well as creating a cohesive composition. Big takeaways are the style of art, and how a career in the arts could look!
Conferences are happening on November 18th and November 22nd. Your students’ specialist teachers are available during that time to answer any questions or provide support for your students. If you would like to make an optional appointment, feel free to reach out to us here:
Music: Mrs. Meaghan Mannino mmannino@sanford.org
Art: Ms. Jillian Gaare jgaare@sanford.org
Library: Mrs. Valerie Sullivan vsullivan@sanford.org
Phys. Ed.: Mr. Alex Welch awelch@sanford.org
Health: Ms. Alexandra Smye asmye@sanford.org
We look forward to continuing the great work your students have started this year!
Best Wishes,
The SPE Specialist Teachers