The Delaney Staff and students returned from February vacation refreshed, ready to learn and excited for a full week of school. We hope that you all had a wonderful break!
The 6th Annual Family Literacy Night will be held on Monday, March 3rd from 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM in the Roderick School. Teachers from the Delaney and Roderick Schools have put together a wonderful evening for all students. Creative and exciting new programs have been added this year as well as some of the most popular activities from previous years. Our PTO will again be organizing a book swap in the cafeteria. We hope to see you all there!
In the event of snow, Literacy Night will be held on Tuesday, March 4th.
Congratulations to the following Delaney students for receiving Positive Referrals! Keep up the great work boys and girls!
From Mrs. Lovely, our art teacher
The Artists’ Studio
Grade 2 has finished drawing
mountainous landscapes with a river and trees. Next, they will add color. Each color will have a range of values. It is exciting watching the projects develop.
Grade 3 is glazing their clay
figures this week. Glaze is a unique
medium in which to work. The students
have quite a few things to learn before they begin glazing. Next week, we get to discover what the
sculptures will finally look like as they are removed from the kiln for the
final time!
Mrs. Mariotti's Music Update
Here is what we learned during February…
Kindergarten: Between vacation and a few snow days, this month flew by!! The
main focus this month was keeping a steady beat and following musical changes
such as tempo (speed) and dynamics (volume). We played many movement games
where the children would need to match their movement or singing to the changes
in the music. This is a great exercise in following directions, turn taking and
utilizing/controlling motor skills. As always, the children rise to the occasion!
We reviewed the term “beat” and how it is steady and even like a clock or a
heartbeat. We practiced keeping a steady beat while playing instruments,
clapping and marching. We learned a new song called, “Heartbeat”. The children
had a fun time keeping the beat with this song. Kindergartners learned many
Valentine Day songs and games this month, such as “Special Valentine”, “Skinna
Marinky Dink”, and “Do you Know My Valentine”. We also played a Valentine
version of the classic song “Bingo” by changing the lyrics to “Heart”. We used
paper heart cutouts to help us with the spelling.
First Grade: This month flew by between vacation and snow days! Many classes
had a chance to sing a fun song called “No School Tomorrow” about making a wish
for a snow day….for some classes their wish came true! The focus of this
month’s music lessons was identifying and maintaining a steady beat. We learned
a song called “Heartbeat” and took turns playing a steady beat on the tubano
and djembe drums. The children loved those drums!!! We also identified other
everyday sounds that have a steady beat such as; rain drops, drums, clock,
trains, fan, motors, etc. We also reviewed the term melody. A melody is the
part of a song that you would hum or sing to. We learned lots of new melodies
this month such as; “Do you Know My Valentine” singing game, “Special
Valentine” hand clapping game and “Doe a Deer”. We also made a valentine
variation to the song “Bingo” where we changed the song to “Heart”. Many first
grade classes noticed how we could re-arrange the letters of the word “heart”
to make other words. It was a pretty cool teachable moment for them and their
reading. We are ending the month with a story called, “Mortimor”. It is about a
little boy who likes to sing very loud and keeps waking up his family.
Mortimor’s family has to keep walking up and down the stairs to quiet him down.
This story will lead us to learn about the musical scale and will practice
singing solfege (do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do) while reading the story. We
also reinforce this topic with a fun musical game called, “Scale Ladders”. The
children have really enjoyed playing this musical board game with partners.
Second Grade: This month we focused on pitch (the “highness” or “lowness” of
a sound). Second graders have learned the song, “Rocky Mountain High” as part
of the district determined measures. Every week we build on previously learned
singing skills as we perfect this traditional folk song. Ms. Mariotti continues
to record the student’s voices using her ipad. Students will be completing
self-assessments very soon to track their progress! We have used the song,
“Rocky Mountain High” to teach various musical elements such as identifying the
beat (steady, even pulse) versus the rhythm (patterns of long and short
sounds). We will soon replace the lyrics of the song with the correct solfege
pitches(do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do). This will be a new concept for the
children, so it may take a few tries. Practice makes progress =) We also
learned a Valentine’s Day song called, “Special Valentine”. It’s a fun song
that teaches many musical concepts (melody, pitch, rhythm and harmony). First
we had to learn the melody and its correct pitches. Then we layered in a
rhythmic dance and hand clapping game. Finally, we added harmony by adding an
accompaniment using Orff instruments (the big wooden xylophones). The children
loved playing them!! The accompaniment was the “Heart and Soul” theme. Some
students recognized the tune. It has been a great and very busy month!!
Third Grade: The main focus in third grade is learning how to read musical
notation. We have spent a lot of time learning how to play three notes (G, A,
and B) on the recorder and identifying these notes on the staff. During the
beginning of February, we reviewed the sayings for lines (Every, Good, Boy,
Deserves, Fudge) and spaces (F, A, C, E). We use these sayings to identify the
notes on the staff. After February vacation, we began our testing to earn our
“belts” for the recorder. Each song has a different colored “belt” associated
with it. The first belt is white and the song is called “Hot Cross Buns”. The
second song is called “Gently Sleep” and students can earn their yellow belt
once they have mastered it. Every student has shown great progress in reading
musical notation!! I am so proud of them! There are numerous cognitive and
motor planning involved with playing the recorder and their hard work has
shown!! As a reminder, students must bring their recorder and their music
folder in order to test for their belt. Another helpful hint is to leave your
recorder and folder in your backpack so you do not forget it on music day.
PTO NEWS
Read Across Wrentham
We are in the last
week of the 5 week program and everyone is doing great! Please turn in
log sheets by March 7th.
Dancing with the
Wrentham Stars, aka "DWTWS"
All fundraising for
this event for the PTO is intended to replace the Spring Fundraiser, a
product/catalog type of fundraiser. Your support is greatly appreciated!
St.Patty's
"Dancing for Pitman" Dance-a-Thon
Thursday, March 6th from
6-8 p.m. in the Roderick School
Cafeteria.
A pledge sheet is
attached to the school website and the PTO classroom email.
We welcome walk in registrations
and pledges, so even if you have a half hour to spare, please stop by and join
the fun! There will be small kid-friendly raffles the night of the
event as well.
We still need a few
small $10-$15 kid-friendly items for raffles. If possible, we prefer items that
are dance related or St. Patrick's Day themed .
Volunteers needed too,
e-mail us at wrenthampto@gmail.com if you can help or
donate a raffle item.
As a reminder, the WEST comedy night will take place on Friday, March 7th from 7-11 at Raffael's restaurant in Walpole. Please contact WEST for further information.
Thank you for reading!
Have a wonderful weekend.
Sincerely,
Melissa D. Peterson, Principal
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