April Private School Newsletter, Jumping into Spring!

SPRING IS HERE!

ENJOY OUR

APRIL

Verse of the month

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

Miss Nicollette and Mrs. Nancy

During the month of March

we were able to cheer as so many pieces came together for our students! It was wonderful to see how our youngest students zone in to try to read everything, even instructions, without help by chunking the familiar pieces of words together! Our new word wall has multiplied the enthusiasm of our younger students and we find them practicing word families on their own using this new wonderful resource! Older students excelled in their persuasive letter writing unit as well as in their weekly vocabulary presentations.

Our older students have learned about the creation of our constitution, the compromises that were made during the process, and why the Bill of Rights was added, and have also learned much about our first president and the humble precedent he set for those to follow him.

In Math, long division skills were mastered and utilized by older students. They began creating line graphs with two variables to analyze information and also worked with measurement.

Younger students were busy creating their very first pie graphs as they identified animals from a variety of ecosystems and used tally marks, bar and pie graphs to show the results of what they found. They have also been using subtraction strategies to solve problems, while our first-grade student is stacking two-digit numbers in order to add and “shopping” for items with mixed groups of coins. All students look forward to additional work with data and problem-solving in March as they will be using those skills both in Math and Science!

In April, older students will continue their verb unit in grammar, while practicing reading comprehension skills. Younger students will be progressing from studying 2 letter word families to 3-letter word families!

One of our awesome STEM challenges in March was creating erupting volcanoes by causing chemical reactions! Did you know that when an acid (vinegar) mixes with a base (baking soda), carbon dioxide gas is created. When we mixed them in our sand volcanoes, the carbon dioxide bubbles rose up to escape from the top of the bottle, causing a cool looking “lava flow” down the side of our volcanoes!

We also blew up a balloon with this same chemical reaction. The gas expanded up and out of the bottle and inflated the balloon!

MUSIC

Mr. Edgar

Our students have been working hard and making great progress. We recently had a theory exam where they showed off their skills in note recognition, identifying the difference between treble and bass clef, and understanding tempo markings such as presto and adagio. We've also been diving into chord qualities and intervals to build a strong foundation in music theory. In addition to these important skills, our students have been tackling a challenging piece - "Lean On Me". Although it's a difficult song, our students are committed to learning it and have been working together as a team, helping and encouraging each other along the way. We're also excited to announce that next month, we'll be starting on a short new piece that will be part of our upcoming piano party. Our students have shown great perseverance and are always willing to learn. We're so proud of their progress and can't wait to see what they accomplish next!

MUSIC

Mr. Jacob

March has been busy in the piano lab. We have begun working on all of our repertoire for our end of the year concert. These contrasting pieces are challenging our students in great ways with different styles and time feels. We just finished our first Music Theory exam and our students all passed with flying colors. Next month we will be putting the finishing touches on our songs and learning more about music!

MUSIC / VOICE

Miss Evana

This March in voice class we started to talk about vocal anatomy! We are starting with an introduction to the larynx (aka the “voice box”) that we will start to expand upon until every student can correctly label the larynx and it’s components on a diagram. We also learned new vocabulary words like phonation, the vibration of the vocal chords to produce sound. As singers, our whole body is our instrument; constantly changing and evolving over time. Our bodies and voices respond to external and internal emotional changes. When we know a little bit about our vocal anatomy, we can develop strategies and solutions to address challenges we face in our singing.

In my kindergarten piano class, we’ve been working entirely with letters and have progressed so much. We are completely done with finger numbers and are one step closer to reading music notes. With our assignments and games revolving around learning these letters, every child has successfully shown they are ready to start playing in rhythm. This past month, we learned our first rhythmic note, the quarter note! Each student completed an assignment illustrating quarter notes and made their own with model magic. This next month, we will learn the half note and whole note and begin to read rhythmic music!

DANCE

Miss Jackie

The dancers have been showing tremendous improvement in their ballet training, and are really beginning to demonstrate their understanding of proper body technique. We have been hard at work focusing on the shape placement and articulation of the foot and ankle while we are dancing. I am seeing dancers take more care with their movements and really doing their best to execute steps correctly, rather than going through the motions. This month we have the same goals, although we have shifted our focus to other steps such as the Dégagé and the Rond de jambe.

Our focus this month: Articulation- Foot and Ankle shape in Dégagé and Rond de jambe.

• Dégagé means to DISENGAGE or to SEPARATE

• The Demi-point is where the toe meets the ball of the foot. The Dégagé must go through the Demi-point before it lifts off of the floor with a stretched pointed toe.

• Be sure to initiate a Dégagé with the heel pressed forward. No sickleing.

• Rond de Jambe means a CIRCULAR MOVEMENT OF THE LEG. It can be executed par terre (on the ground) or en l’air (in the air). Our junior dancers have begun to experiment with this at the barre.

• The foot and ankle in Rond de jambe must remain turned out (heal leading forward) as the leg is carried from devant (front) to derrière (back).

This month the students and I are also excited to share that we have started working on our ballet dance for the “ALL JAZZED UP FOR SPRING” recital. Our ballet number is entitled, “Lights, Camera, Action!”. It is always a lot of hard work that goes into preparing a piece to perform in front of family and friends, and the children (like the little professionals they are) have been taking it on with grace and focus. We cannot wait for you to see it!!

BALLET

Mr. Nicholas

In the month of March the students and I have made great progress working on their classical ballet technique. We have progressed very heavily into center work this month as a result of their fantastic barre preparatory work in earlier months. We are starting to see the fruits of seeds we have sown in the beginning of the year. Now the students are applying the basic concepts they have now mastered in harder classwork giving them a critically important foundation to work with. We are using this foundation to begin working on Leaps and Turns for our students! Their abilities are growing exponentially and this month was another massive win for each and every one of them! They have grown greatly in their flexibility, and their technical proficiency in their leaps and turns. We are now almost ready to begin the students on Waltz and Adagio work! I am expecting the students to begin working on these more complex movements by the middle of April! I am so proud of all their hard work, and we are certainly seeing it paying off!

MUSICAL THEATER / TAP DANCE

Miss Lyndsey

For the month of March in Musical Theater, we started our lesson on puppetry. We have started rough drafts for our puppets, as well as our puppet show stories. We spoke about what our characters look like in regards to hair, face and clothes.

The Discussions Have Been:

What is a protagonist?

What is the objective?

What is the obstacle?

I used the studio puppets to let the students get a feel for puppetry. They were so excited!

Tap Dance: we have started Bombershays in Tap. This is an intermediate dance step. It will take time for all of them to sound like one person on stage, but when that moment happens, it will be electric! I know the students will work hard on this.

We have almost finished our recital dance. The jazz hats are a huge hit! Everyone always wants to be the one to pass them out.

For the month of April, we will continue our puppetry lesson for theater. Our April dance goal is to clean up our Spring Recital Routine.

BIBLE STUDY

Mrs. Nancy

During the month of March, we completed our study of the Parables of Jesus. We were able to examine each parable from a student reading the Bible verses, zoom in on the meaning by listening to the words of Jesus, make each one more relatable (and fun) with a modern-day skit, and create a craft or project to recall each one.

We spoke of how the Word of God is like a map that tells us the way to go, how God provides the timing and the steps we are each to take, and how the Parables give us good insight in HOW to travel. We found that each focus of kindness, forgiveness, trust, or faith could guide us in growing to be more Christ-like and others-focused.

We look forward to reading about the miracles Jesus performed while He was walking on Earth in April. We are so excited to celebrate Easter this coming month as we spend some time reflecting on the beautiful and perfect work of Jesus our Savior!