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Specialty Teachers
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Library with Ms. Talcott: Books Before and After Spring Break
The children welcomed spring with unusual books about bunny characters! The Red and Green Rooms listened to a book called Bunny Finds a Home by Jane Belk Moncure. The book is illustrated with black and white photos, and has been in the school library from the earliest days of IPS. The Pre-K and…
Library with Ms. Talcott: Books Before and After Spring Break
The children welcomed spring with unusual books about bunny characters!
The Red and Green Rooms listened to a book called Bunny Finds a Home by Jane Belk Moncure. The book is illustrated with black and white photos, and has been in the school library from the earliest days of IPS.
T
he Pre-K and Jr.K classes listened to Big Mean Mike by Michelle Knudsen. The book is about a “mean” dog names Mike who, unexpectedly, becomes friends with tiny fuzzy bunnies.
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Mr. Doug’s Music News March 2017: Woodwinds
March has been an exciting month! We’ve been learning about woodwinds. Woodwind instruments are instruments that you blow air into, and the instrument makes a sound for you. Flutes, double-reed instruments (oboes, English horn, bassoon), and single-reed instruments (clarinets, saxophones) are all part of the woodwind family. Woodwinds, however, do…
Mr. Doug’s Music News March 2017: Woodwinds
March has been an exciting month! We’ve been learning about woodwinds.
Woodwind instruments are instruments that you blow air into, and the instrument makes a sound for you.
Flutes, double-reed instruments (oboes, English horn, bassoon), and single-reed instruments (clarinets, saxophones) are all part of the woodwind family.
Woodwinds, however, do NOT have to be made of wood.
The children were introduced to various flutes from around the world. These flutes included: pan flute from Peru; slide whistle from Thailand (this sounded very bird-like and the children flapped their wings and flew around the room in response!); suling from Indonesia; a recorder; a Penny Whistle from England and the ryūteki (龍笛?, literally “dragon flute”) from Japan.
Mr Doug also demonstrated a double-reed instrument made from a drinking straw, as an introduction to the oboe. This buzzing sound made the children laugh!
In addition to this, the children were given the opportunity to see and hear the clarinet. Each child was then given a chance to touch the buttons and change the notes on the clarinet as Mr. Doug blew air into it!
Finally, the children were able to participate in the reading of Charlie Parker Played Bebop by Chris Raschka! We had fun improvising and we even read the book backwards!
Some recommended videos to enjoy with your children are:
Single reeds: Douglas DaSilva “Valsa Paraibana” Kristen Mather , clarinet Markus Kaitila , piano CV17NOV2016
Jazz – James Carter Sax Improv (2009) – World Saxhopone Quartet Live (DVD)
Double-reeds:
Master Musicians of Jajouka led by Bachir Attar: CCB 2007.03.31 ghaita
Learn about the English Horn with Pedro Diaz
Matthew Rosenberg: Fifteen-Minutes-of-Fame CV21JUN2014
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May 2017: iPad Fun!
Green Rooms: Fiete Match is a matching (pairs) game with a twist: children challenge Fiete the Sailor in a selection of pairs games and puzzles. Fiete will respond to your child like a human opponent! This app is perfect for children, especially for work with logic puzzles and brain training! Shape…
May 2017: iPad Fun!
Green Rooms:
Fiete Match is a matching (pairs) game with a twist: children challenge Fiete the Sailor in a selection of pairs games and puzzles. Fiete will respond to your child like a human opponent! This app is perfect for children, especially for work with logic puzzles and brain training!
Shape Gurus is a fun, colorful app that encourages children to learn all about their shapes and colors. Not only are children classifying shapes, they are also working on math skills such as matching and sorting, too! There are 27 interactive puzzles that will challenge and excite your children!
Pre-K and Jr.K Rooms:
Stop Motion Animation has arrived in the classrooms! The children were recently introduced to Stop Motion animation, a new way of storytelling! As an introduction, the children were given a variety of animals to choose from. Once the iPad was set up to take pictures, the children would move their animal “one step,” and then take a picture. This process repeated until each person in the group was able to take a picture. Once all the pictures were taken, we slowed down the speed and combined all the pictures into one presentation. Then, it was time to see the movie! Each movie was different, and all of the children loved seeing their animals take on a life of their own!
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Creative Movement – May 2017
Tiny seeds burst and grow, caterpillars transform into colorful butterflies, spiders are spinning webs. All of these spring-themed moments were explored in movement classes this month. The children have already experienced the concept of a movement sentence, where one, two, or more action words are used as defined by the children. Our…
Creative Movement – May 2017
Tiny seeds burst and grow, caterpillars transform into colorful butterflies, spiders are spinning webs. All of these spring-themed moments were explored in movement classes this month. The children have already experienced the concept of a movement sentence, where one, two, or more action words are used as defined by the children. Our caterpillar transformation became a dance in which the children practiced the actions at each stage of development:
- The concepts of squirming, rolling, spinning and folding, flying, swooping and landing were explored and developed using our dance stations.
- Our butterflies then experienced an adventurous (and sometimes scary) story of capture, (happily) followed by an escape from the largest spider web ever spun! Spiders aren’t always pleasant, but we sure did enjoy our crazy spiderweb-spinning dance!
As our school year comes to an end, we will return to some of our favorite lessons and stories in movement class. My Favorite Things is an opportunity for the children to recall their favorite lessons and for me, a moment to celebrate their growth.
I am always thankful for the time I share with your children at IPS. Their responses, creativity, spontaneity, and unique participation during movement class continues to inspire me!
I wish you all a wonderful summer.
With gratitude,
Miss Peggy
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Clay Art: Birds Project for “Learning Through the Arts” – May 2017
This year’s collaborative “Learning Through the Arts” celebration theme centered around Chris Haughton’s book, Shh! We Have a Plan. This amazing story chosen by Miss Talcott was read to the children early in the spring. In the clay-art class, the children immediately looked at the birds in the story with…
Clay Art: Birds Project for “Learning Through the Arts” – May 2017
This year’s collaborative “Learning Through the Arts” celebration theme centered around Chris Haughton’s book, Shh! We Have a Plan. This amazing story chosen by Miss Talcott was read to the children early in the spring.
In the clay-art class, the children immediately looked at the birds in the story with interest. They are smart, fast, colorful, and different from one another; together, they were strong and defeated the hunters. We created birds out of clay as our contribution to the performance:
- We first looked at pictures of familiar birds, similar to the ones we see in our parks and gardens.
- Each child choose one to create and cut its shape out in the soft gray clay.
- The birds were fired once in the kiln and then returned to the classes to add color.
- The children were asked to choose three colors maximum. First they used oil pastels to color a paper bird. The students then decided what they wanted their bird to look like and created a unique design. The children then reproduced their pattern on their clay bird using glaze this time. The glaze had funny names like: Frog Green, Midnight Blue, and Maize (for yellow).
- The birds were fired a second time in the kiln and became colorful, bright, and glossy!
Like any artist, each child looked at a real bird and made it his/her own. No two were alike, and each was spectacular! Before the birds were sent home with the children, they were used during our collaborative “Learning Through the Arts” event with the Pre-K and Junior K classes and all of the specialty teachers.
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Science with Ms. Mary: Seeds
This month, we welcomed spring with a variety of seeds and seed-related activities and experiments: We planted wheat seeds in soil. We set up seed sprouters to observe the germination of wheat, popcorn and kidney beans. Finally, we started growing mung beans, which will become edible sprouts in about one…
Science with Ms. Mary: Seeds
This month, 
we welcomed spring with a variety of seeds and seed-related activities and experiments:
- We planted wheat seeds in soil.
- We set up seed sprouters to observe the germination of wheat, popcorn and kidney beans.
- Finally, we started growing mung beans, which will become edible sprouts in about one week…if we remember to keep them moist!