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The end of the school year is one of the most exciting times of the year. Bits and pieces all come together.
We wished our eighth grade well as they graduated. They are an incredible class of young people, and we have every confidence in their success as they move into high school.
The middle school science fair was a great success. Students came up with hypotheses, tested them, and presented their findings to everyone at McClelland. They presented on a diverse range of topics that covered everything from the impact on video games on the brain to sugar consumption and its effect on their bodies.
In history, the students tackled international week, exploring any country in the world, and showing their classmates what it might be like to live there. One group presented on Australia, and even brought their own beach! In English, the students performed TEDTalks on topics of interest to them, moving away from canned and memorized presentations. Instead, they created dynamic PowerPoints with presentations that focused on the depth of their collected knowledge and their public speaking abilities.
The middle school teachers thank each and every student who came through our doors for the amazing year we've had. Looking forward to next year, we welcome our rising fifth graders and are excited to get to know the students who will join us next year.
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Springtime was filled with many, many performances in all grade levels! We kicked off our season with the 5th and 6th grade performing four vignettes surrounding the trials and tribulations of Drivers Education. Their performance of “You’re Driving Me Crazy!” was a hit and the entire class had their chance to shine on stage!
The 7th grade’s performance of “Chaos In Fairy Tale Forest” was just that. Lots of craziness on stage, with a variety of fairy tale characters facing each other in not so normal circumstances. The students did a great job handling the challenges of doubling for many roles.
The 8th grade finished their year off with a wonderful Agatha Christie spoof entitled, “And Then There Was One”. All students showed off their acting skills that they have developed through the years at McClelland.
McClelland’s theater performances ended on May 20th with a combined effort from the 2nd, 3rd and 4th grades. This was the first time these grades have had a chance to perform a rehearsed play in front of the school as well as an evening performance for friends and family. We must put out a huge “thank-you” to alum Jimmy Hollar for stepping in for characters at the very last minute!
The 5th, 6th and 7th grades sent off the new graduates with a beautiful song “When Will I See You Again” at the May 20th Graduation Ceremony.
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The All School Art Show was on
April 3rd and 4th. Thank you, students and parents, for attending the 2- day exhibit. No food was left from the Monday after-school art opening. Each child was represented with artwork they had created in art class. Some art seen at the show were: Japanese Kimono dolls, African masks, Pueblo storyteller dolls, hand-built clay castle towers, mugs, Modern art, antique car watercolors. Many art skills
were represented by the students. I am proud of the young artists at McClelland School. It was an outstanding show!
Students Kindergarten through 8th grade toured the Japanese Exhibit at the Sangre de Cristo Art Center. To prepare for the visit all students wanted the National Geographic film Living Treasures; this film documents master artists in many areas of art: ceramics,
sword making, fabric, Kabuki theater. We had a wonderful time looking at silk Kimonos, netsuke, and objects from everyday life in Japan.
Visiting artist, Anne Scott, presented a slide show about sustainable clothing on
April 19th. Her visit was in conjunction with Earth Day and the art student's visit to the Japanese Exhibit. Anne showed slides of how used clothing ends up in landfills; and, this is a major problem. She spoke about cloth that is sustainable and made from earth materials such as bamboo, silk, linen.
On
May 1st Maria Sanchez-Kennedy presented a slide show about the archival preservation of photo images of Pueblo. She showed slides from the book
Images of American: Pueblo that she co-wrote with her colleagues at the Special Collections Department at the Pueblo City-County Library. She had photos of 19th century Union Avenue shops and she talked about the photos from the 1922 Pueblo flood.
The last Lobby art shows exhibited art from Kindergarten, 7th and 8th grade, and 3rd and 4th-grade art students. Kindergarten artists presented their artwork at a lobby show in April. Spring bunnies, birds, and Degas ballet dancers were exhibited.
7th and 8th grade made pop art candy wrappers. The summer art exhibit has artwork from the 3rd and 4th-grade art class; watercolor, Picasso masks, and Harlem Renaissance Jazz art are displayed.
I would like to thank the McClelland Parents for their support of the art program at McClelland School. A huge thank you to all the McClelland Art students for
a colorful year.
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What an amazing learning experience for our third and fourth graders this semester, as they were actively engaged in the world of extreme weather! They began their exploration of extreme weather with an extended classroom activity where Jessica Van Meter, of KOAA News Five, shared the scoop on weather with them. Following her presentation, they had the amazing opportunity to be part of a live shoot on the KOAA weather channel! Awesome!
They culminated their study of extreme weather with yet another extended classroom activity. The third and fourth graders journeyed down to the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve. Once there, the students took a trek back in time to discover how extreme weather formed the sand dunes and other landforms on the planet! They also walked the same trail that Zebulon Pike and others trekked when they discovered the sand dunes.
Five of our students were able to climb the second highest peak at the dunes, as a challenge given by the park ranger. They were awarded park patches and badges for their achievements. Their teacher who accompanied them to the top of the peak confirmed that it was not an easy climb!
Hats off to the third and fourth graders who were excellent ambassadors of The McClelland School this year! The presenters who worked with them on every extended classroom activity gave testimonials of how impressed they were with their knowledge of the content, their behavior, and their decorum. Third and fourth graders, you rock!
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In the second half of first grade we had some great experiences. We went to the fish hatchery and learned about our local habitat. They produce million of fish fingerlings every year and about 40% of them make it to the river. The kids loved feeding the fish and we could have spent all day there. We then worked on our auction project and everyone got to use a hammer. No bruised fingers, yeah! Finally we headed north to the Dinosaur Resource Center, one of three private research centers in the country. Located in our own backyard, the museum produces many of the fossil exhibits for the larger natural history museums. The kids loved seeing the large Megalodon mouth and all their large teeth. We have laughed together, cried together, grown together and are ready for bigger and better things. Second grade here we come!
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In the last month, the second graders read a classic book, Charlotte’s Web. They worked across the curriculum, and tied in the book in many things they did. The students wrote journal entries that related to the characters of the book, learned about spiders in science, made connections between the book and the world around them, and ended the unit with a field trip to the May Museum in Colorado Springs. The first and second graders attended the field trip together.
Our class also practiced and performed the play “Johnny Appleseed” for their parents, kindergartners, and first graders.
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We have been very busy in music this spring! All classes spent much time preparing for the spring concert. Thank you, parents, for supporting our kids by watching them perform and for getting them where they needed to be!
In April, most classes took musical trips around the world! Preschool and prekindergarten visited Mexico, where we heard the sounds of a rainforest, played "Las Estatuas de Marfil", and flew like birds with our wrist ribbons while playing a singing game. We also visited Denmark, where we talked about a statue of the Little Mermaid. We used mermaid-twirlers and scarves (ocean waves) to Saint-Saenz's "Aquariuam", learned and added instruments to the song, "Ritsch Ratsch", played a pirate game which included solo singing, and learned a treasure game.
Kindergarten traveled to India, where we went on a tiger hunt, added instruments and actors to the song "5 Little Monkeys", and did some activities with snakes make out of paper plates. We also went to the Netherlands, where we learned a windmill song, worked on breath control with pinwheels and balloons and we grew like flowers while exploring up and down on the xylophones.
First grade was especially busy with preparing for the concert as they had two pieces to learn! Since both pieces involved birds, we learned a call and response song called "Won't You Let the Birdie Out?". We created an introduction, added some birds with wrist ribbons, took turns playing the response on XY bars, and did solo singing with this piece. We also talked about staccato (bouncy) and legato (smooth) in music and what kinds of birds represent each style. They also had a chance to explore China! We have a small gong and turn drums in the classroom that we all got a chance to play. We learned a hand-clapping rhyme and did some ribbon dancing to Tchaikovsky's Chinese Dance.
2nd, 3rd and 4th worked hard on learning and adding motions to "Purple People Eater"! We also spent a lot of time rehearsing parts and learning songs for the kazoos for our performance of "Family Showdown".
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Summer Office Hours:
9:00am-1:00pm
Monday-Thursday
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