ACS Athens Elementary School - The Muse - June 2015

ACS ATHENS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Volume 4, Issue 3 June 2015

THE MUSE Message from the Principal and growth of our student body that we have noticed. It is often said that one year’s achievements is a milestone for our young learners.

We have come to the end of another school year! June is a time to reflect, reminisce, and celebrate the children’s accomplishments. It was a wonderful year filled with many special moments and it has been amazing to watch the students grow and learn. I would like to take a moment to express my sincere appreciation to the faculty, staff, students, and families of ACS Athens Elementary School for all their efforts this year.

Through participation in a vast array of classroom academic activities and noteworthy projects, it is obvious that our students have gained awareness and knowledge.

I am certain that you, the parents, have also observed the changes

As you will note on the Activities Agenda on our website, School Year 20152016 will commence on September 3 for grades 2 –12.

The first day of school for our first grade students is based on their surnames. Students whose last name begins with the letters A—M will begin school on September 3, while those whose surnames begin with the letters N—Z will start school on September 4. Our Early Childhood Program will begin on September 10.

gratitude to you all, for the ongoing support and assistance that you offered us during the year.

On behalf of our faculty and staff, thank you for the many hours you have spent in our school community. You have helped during shows, field trips and class activites. For these, and a million other things, we are truly grateful.

Our school is unique because of this significant partnership which strengthens our programs and helps our students develop positive attitudes towards school and learning. Your enthusiastic involvement and support made your child’s experience even more essential.

School supply lists have been posted on the school website www.acs.gr under School Supplies in the Elementary school section. Classroom teachers have distributed Math Packets for all grades.

A Summer Reading List has also been recommended and can be found on the website in the Elementary school section.

In conclusion, I would like to wish our fifth graders the best of luck in Middle School.

We will all miss their energy, spirit, and leadership. To those of you leaving the ACS Athens community to move to new places, we wish you all success and happiness in your venture, you will be missed.

I would like to take the opportunity to express my sincere

The summer is an amazing time for you to share unique

Message from the Principal cocontinued.. learning opportunities as a family. Enjoy the extended summer vacation with your family and friends. We will meet again in September full of energy and passion for yet another exciting academic year.

Congratulations to every child in the Elementary School on a great year of learning!

It has been an honor to be the principal of ACS Athens Elementary School again this year.

I wish everyone a restful, relaxing, and enjoyable summer break!!

Most sincerely, Cathy Makropoulos, Elementary School Principal

Junior Kindergarten News

June has arrived and that means that the end of the school year is near. Our classes have grown so much in so many ways this year!

The children investigated themes under our last unit on “Land and Sea Animals”.

They explored various animals and learned about their habitats. Using games, songs, and stories they found out about sea life, from coral to sharks, as well as farm and zoo animals.

Look forward to your child sharing their art projects with you! Be sure to ask them about the different animals and about their characteristics.

Our

field

trip

to

Attica

Zoological Park was a great success, as the children had a wonderful time seeing many of the animals that we have been discussing at school. They truly enjoyed the guided tour, where they had the opportunity to feed the giraffes and pet a snake, porcupine, and giant tortoise! A big thank you to all the parents who helped chaperone our field trip. You helped make it a safe and pleasant experience for all the children.

Your child has been involved in various projects throughout the

year such as their Writing Journals, Self-Portrait Books, and Fine Motor Skills Journals.

Please read and discuss the work your child brings home to share with you, and help to encourage continued exploration and “learning curiosity” during the summer months.

We are very proud of all of you and everything you have accomplished this year! Have a wonderful summer!

Sincerely, Ms. Angela and Ms. Korinna

Kindergarten News many related books and having ample group discussions, the children wrote about what they dream they will become one day and they explored why this is their dream.

Kindergartners have much to be proud of as we definitely are very proud of them!

The third trimester in Kindergarten has been a quick and exciting one. The students have grown so much and have become... first graders! After completing the alphabet the Kindergarteners met their vowel pals: Mox the Fox, Tin Man, Peg the Hen, Zac the Rat, and most recently Gus the Duck. This long list of new friends took us on an adventure through our Reading and Writing Workbooks.

They taught us how to identify vowel sounds in the middle position, blend new words, answer written questions, write stories and helped us with our rhyming!

The children read all about their vowel pals and their adventures in their new decodable books.

We have really progressed beautifully as writers! The students are now filling in their writing folders with stories full of imagination and excitement.

They continue to use finger spacers, capital letters and even punctuation on their

own when writing.

The Kindergarteners love to read their writing back to us explaining their stories in detail.

Kindergarteners continue to build on their addition skills.

Th e y have also been introduced to the concept of subtraction by using our various manipulatives. Each student is keeping a Math Journal in which we discuss, illustrate, solve, and record addition and subtraction word problems.

We visited the Naval Training Base as a kick-off activity for our Community Helpers unit. We were given a special tour by Naval Officer Manioudakis, our kindergarten parent. On our tour, we learned so much about the equipment found on board the ship and the different parts of the vessel.

Thank you Officer Manioudakis!

We explored different community helpers and what it means to live in a neighborhood. After reading

Ms. Anna & Ms. Eleftheria

1st Grade News Proud to be First Graders!

This has been a productive and rewarding year for all of us in First Grade. We, as teachers, have enjoyed our contribution to your child’s school experiences.

The children’s eagerness and willingness to learn is a reflection of the growth that First Graders have made not only academically but socially, as well.

We have applauded the diversity of personalities and interests in this group.

Our reward as teachers has been to see the tremendous growth that your children have made in the past year. Their willingness to read, to write, to add, subtract, to calculate, discover, to investigate, to participate, to paint, to sing, to create, to contemplate and to resolve have been but a few of the experiences shared by all of us in First Grade.

We feel that the children’s caring, responsibility and self esteem have blossomed and this could not have happened without your support and guidance as parents. We, as teachers, could not have reached our goal of building self esteem in each child and nurturing in them a true love of learning without your support in so many ways.

It almost goes without saying that this year has been another fabulous year with Captain Chip. In this third year with us at ACS Athens he has inspired the most readers to date into the Captain Chip Hall of Fame, he had a wonderful time traveling and presenting all the great things he does on a daily

basis with your children to teachers gathered at the ECIS conference in Zurich.

Captain has built some fabulous bonds and has continued to grow into the wonderful dog that he is thanks to all of your commitment and love for him.

I know that the children have missed him since his surgery to further remove his half leg, but Captain's recovery has been remarkable and he was happy to be a part of our last day of school! Thank you!

Remember to Think Pawsitive!

results of those decisions.

Give your child the gift of organization and strategies to develop it. Share times that are creative, spend a lot of time reading together, encourage inquiry and celebrate independence.

Next year will be another big step for your children. You can do much this summer to make next year a productive and successful learning experience too. Be positive about your child’s placement.

Encourage your child to accept responsibility for his learning. Help your child to make decisions and accept

Our best to all of you and enjoy the summer. To those returning to our school community, “See you in the Fall.” For those moving to other schools, “Best wishes to you and don’t forget to drop us a line.”

We are very proud of the progress your children have made. We will enjoy watching them reach for challenges in the future. We believe that is what school and life are about. We hope that your child’s First Grade experiences have added the necessary tools for coping with future challenges.

Most sincerely, Ms. Birbil and Ms. Lamprou

2nd Grade News Second graders have explored their bodies and learned to be healthy throughout our Health & Nutri tion Unit while discovering the Five Food Groups. They have learned to create a balanced meal and understand that eating foods of all kinds in moderation is necessary to keep a healthy body & mind. Our health unit has opened the doors for students to search through an array of non-fiction books during their reading time. Students have been encouraged to read all about food, where foods grow and much more.

which parents and other classrooms were invited to our Exhibition of Learning to witness our very own creations of poems, books, posters and more. Students found a new love of rhyming due to the amusing and comical short poems and stories rhyming sets up for them.

Students came up with incredibly unique poems of their own playing with rhymes and had created a poetry museum based on Dr. Seuss’ influence. Poetry has given students the opportunity to learn about writing in a fun way where rhythm and short verses provide readers with enough descriptive text but can still be a pleasurable experience through rhyming!

In math, second graders have

Due to their vast readings, students have been able to reflect on their findings and incorporate Persuasive & Opinion Writings when completing journals about why each food group is important.

The use of adjectives, word choice, conventions, complete sentences etc. have continued to be encouraged throughout these writing lessons.

Included in this past trimester’s reading unit was the study of poetry. Second grade’s biggest author study was Dr. Seuss;

been vigorously working on perfecting 3-4 digit mental math skills and will soon be exposed to a world of shapes and sizes through their Geometry lessons.

Their experiences revolve around creating equal shape -parts and even connecting different shapes to make new ones. In addition to this, students will have the opportunity to see how groups of numbers, or shapes, can be added together to make new groups! This will allow students to dabble with the concept of multiplication, allowing them to understand the basic idea of pairing objects or numbers into groups.

Ms. Moros, Ms. Safaris, and Ms. Spiliot

3rd Grade News The third trimester has been a very active and stimulating time for the Third Grade! In math, both classes have participated in units covering geometry, fractions, area and perimeter.

In addition, we continued to practice solving and creating multi-step word problems. One of our exciting fractions lessons involved sorting M & Ms by color and figuring out what fraction each color represented.

Students then needed to graph their results.

This trimester, many of our students have reached or closed in on reaching their Strive for 25 goal of reading 25 books and creating 25 book reports over the course of the year. We have continued to read both fiction and non-fiction pieces and we had a unit on poetry. Every child chose their favorite poem to read to their parents at Student Led Conferences.

In writing, students studied the elements of f a i r y tales and all created their own exciting fairy tale from scratch.

In addition, we have learned the steps involved with writing an effective persuasive essay while continuing to practice our writing mechanics and the writing process.

In Science, the 3rd Grade has learned about the amazing

human body. Zooming in on bones, joints, and muscles, our students have a better understanding of how our body operates. Students partook in many exciting experiments, including dissecting owl pellets to analyze bones found and performing tasks with their thumbs immobilized to understand how vital the thumb is to performing everyday tasks.

As a culminating activity for the science units this year, the students visited the E u ge n i de s Fo u nd a t i o n Interactive Science Center on Sygrou Avenue. There, they were able to explore over 60 different experiments on three separate floors. The third grade was amazed to discover the various ways that we can apply sound in communication in our daily lives.

They were also curious to uncover the way that human genetics work!

In Social Studies, we learned about peaceful ways to improve our community such as protests, boycotts, and demonstrations.

Students learned about influential pe o p l e in American history that made change through these means.

In addition, we studied the basics of economics.

Students participated in an activity that showed the basics of supply and demand, selling goods when the supply was high and low. Our final unit was on China, which covered concepts such as the terracotta army, the Great Wall, Chinese inventions, and Mao Zedong.

We finished off the year with a China Day full of food, artifacts, and games.

It has been a fantastic year with our students and we wish them the best of luck in 4th Grade and in all their future endeavors.

Wishing you a wonderful summer!

Ms. Stavi, Mr. Maloff, Ms. Nicole, and Ms. Emily

4th Grade News The last part of the trimester found the 4th graders learning by doing! In the Science Unit of Electricity and Magnetism, students learned about making complete circuits.

Students were fascinated with this unit as they made motors run and lit up light bulbs.

In the Modern Olympics Unit, students have been researching, making PowerPoints, reading, and writing. One of the highlights of the unit is our field trip to the Kalimarmaro Stadium.

We played games and competed in Olympic sporting events.

Student Led conferences were a great success! Students were able to demonstrate their 4th grade knowledge and tried to knock their parents’ socks off!!!

During this last month, the 4th graders reinforced their writing skills in a poetry unit and their reading skills as they created a “Bloom’s Ball” based on the critical thinking of Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Ms. Vagras, Ms. Mukri, and Ms. Killam loved teaching all of your children and getting to know you this year. We wish you a relaxing, adventurous, and me mo rabl e su mme r vacation. We recommend your children read a least 3 books at their current reading level or above during the summer.

Students should continue to practice in all academic areas over the summer for best results in 5th grade. Also, we suggest some websites to reinforce all of the skills that were taught this year.

Language Arts:

Math:

James Patterson’s Read Kiddo Read

World of Math Online

http://readkiddoread.com This site is the brainchild of author, James Patterson.

His goal is to help parents and educators connect children with books that will turn them into lifelong readers. The site is colorful, easy to navigate, the titles are hand-picked by qualified professional, and there are links to websites for these people as well.

Grammar Gorillas - http:// www.funbrain.com/ grammar/ Spelling - Online Spelling Program www.spellingcity.com Online Spelling Program offers over 38,000 spelling words and eight spelling games, k-12 spelling lists are offered. One can select lists by age, sounds, Dolch lists, topics, and more. You can customize your own word lists and create games and puzzles.

http://math.com World of Math Online by Leap of Faith Financial Services, Inc.: dedicated to providing a variety of ways for students, parents, teachers to learn math.

Included are assessments, on-demand modular courses, 24/7 live online tutoring, lesson plans, links to worksheets, drill & practice opportunities, expert answers to math questions, and more.

Education Place http://eduplace.com/kids/ mhm Education Place by Houghton Mifflin: a good site to practice ITBS test-taking skills for math. Other nice offerings are strategies and immediate feedback. Plus, it’s fun!

FunBrain http://www.funbrain.com/ numbers.html

Woodlands Junior School for Literacy

Woodlands Junior School for Math

http://resources.woodlandsjunior.kent.sch.uk/literacy/ index.htm

http://resources.woodlandsjunior.kent.sch.uk/maths/ fractions/

Topmarks for Grammar

Topmarks for Math

http:// www.topmarks.co.uk/ english-games/7-11-years/ punctuation

http:// www.topmarks.co.uk/ maths-games/7-11-years/ fractions-and-decimals

4th Grade News continued..

Animals/Wildlife National Geographic for Kids Online *Defenders of Wildlife – Kid’s Planet www.kidsplanet.org

plans along with activities and more games. There is a place on each page to adopt an animal. There is a separate info section on the World Wide Wolf efforts with information

and curriculum for teachers to create a unit. This is an excellent site.

Enjoy!

Ms. Vagras, Ms. Mukri and Ms. Killam

Defenders of Wildlife, Washington DC: This is an award winning site and one of the “great sites for kids”!

Fe atu re s: de scri pti o n o f endangered species and also lists species by continent, thorough fact sheet on each animal, some animals have photographs and a video clip, great games, stories, excellent teacher’s resource with lesson

5th Grade News For the past 10 years, 5th graders have cleaned the beach at Aghios Nicholas in Anavissos each spring!

We had a beautiful day at the seaside, and, after cleaning the same beach for so long, we can really see that we are having a substantial impact.

The purpose of this activity is to teach our students civic responsibility and a care for the environment.

Fifth grade also visited the Ancient Agora and Museum in Monastiraki, where we were p r i v i l e ge d t o have two distinguished archaeologists who work at the American School of Archaeology, Mr. and Mrs. Daly (Maggie’s parents) as our guides.

They helped us start to think like archaeologists an d draw conclusions from the evidence we could see. The information they shared with us was so

interesting. It was exciting to see the information and artifacts we had read about in our text book actually before our very eyes!

Students finished their h i sto ry stu die s wi th discussions and research about Ancient Greece.

Students learned about the ancient civilizations of Crete, Mycenae, Athens and Sparta. One highlight was writing persuasive essays to convince their readers that either Sparta or Athens was the better place to live!

To supplement this theme, 5th graders read D’Aulaires Greek Mythology.

This collection of myths vividly portrays the 12 Olympian Gods. Students learned to analyze the stories and collect traits of each god to create their own collection of trading cards. Finally,

students researched and collected data on a theme related to Ancient Greece and prepared skits to present their information in an entirely student-created living museum of the Ancient Agora!

This exciting event took place in the courtyard outside the theater atrium on the afternoon of June11th, which was filled with stalls and students clad in white ancient style robes.

Parents met traders, philosophers, warriors, festival goers, and more.

As sixth grade approached during the final trimester, we had several activities planned to help prepare our students. The first step was a meeting with the counselors to pick courses.

Then a panel of 6th graders visited each class, shared their insights on life in Middle School, and answered our questions. Finally, our students

5th Grade News continued Became Middle Schoolers for the morning, were given a tour around their new environment, met their future teachers, learned to open a locker and were treated to lunch in the cafeteria. Our students were very excited about this new, important step of growth in their lives. Our culminating event was when we celebrated our 5 th grade students’ “graduation” ceremony on June 16th. Parents attended the awards ceremony to honor our students and we all enjoyed a delightful buffet prepared by the organizing committee of parents. We would like to thank all of you who helped make this such a special event for our wonderful students.

Ms. Coklas, Ms. Kynigou and Ms. Maratou

Optimal Learning News Some updates from the OL room: The MAP testing process ran very smoothly and I was pleased by our students’ determination and focus.

The 10th Annual Conference on Learning Differences was a success and we’ve received many positive comments.

The 3rd (and last) Trimester Progress Report comments were emailed to parents in mid -May. As we wrap-up the year and start planning our summer vacations, I would like to congratulate all students enrolled in the Elementary Optimal Learning program.

even when tasks were considerably difficult. It is such a privilege to know and work alongside your children. I am proud of all of them and I wish them a fun-filled summer replete with e x c i t e me n t and adventure.

Sarah Kaldelli

I believe each and every student has made substantial progress, and has persevered

News from the Art Room Greetings from the Art room!

What an exciting year!

We wrapped up many interesting projects in a variety of medi a. So me highligh ts include: Kindergarteners explored with a lot of collage projects including some warm color fish displayed in the cafeteria and pop-out paper collage artworks exploring space and line.

Our first graders created flower part collages inspired by their plant science unit. Then we worked on clay vases in tandem with their unit on Ancient Greece.

Second graders made very dynamic, giant, mixed-media fruit and vegetables which hung from the stage ceiling for their Hansel and Gretel Eat Right performance. Our final project related to the sea and summer with wax resist sailboats and cool color seas.

Third graders completed beautiful Fauvism portraits and created a school weaving installation using recycled materials on the back railing.

Our fourth grade students collaged intricate fabric shapes inspired by images of Turkish rugs. We, then, used pattern and shape to create a series of

We then used pattern and shape to create a series of fans (along with 3rd and 5th grades) to create a schoolwide overlapping paper installation.

Fifth graders completed their canopic jars with animal heads successfully! We then used art time to plan and create props for the Ancient Agora.

We had a wonderful year in the Art room. Enjoy your summer vacation!

Don’t forget, third - fifth graders, you have some blank pages in your sketchbooks -- a perfect travel activity!

Ms. Karla Stauffer

News from the Music Room A teacher’s satisfaction is the success and progress of their students. Music entertains, educates, and heals. Music links and encompasses various disciplines and skills.

This third trimester has been for all grades a very busy one but also extremely satisfying and successful.

Kindergarten students continued with the development of their rhythmic and melodic skills. They expanded on the use of musical elements and on the understanding and use of music notes. Lessons were filled with fun kinesthetic activities.

All students participated in playing instruments, learning songs, and discovering new musical sounds.

own and in groups. They learned in practice that music is the result of various sounds that are put together in a very sensitive and harmonized manner.

All students were split into bands. Some chose to play instruments that they have never before experienced playing and some, instruments that they have been studying for some time. The songs they chose to perform were of their choice and that made it all

more fun and exciting for all involved.

This process taught them a lot of skills that musicians need to possess in order to be successful.

All students worked hard and with enthusiasm.

Grades 3-5 showcased their work during our open house music band and sessions.

The result was outstanding and music in elementary school is now flooded with instruments of various timbres.

Very well done to all!!

First, second, third, fourth, and fifth grade students also largely developed their skills. They worked in creating and performing music both on their

News from the Technology Lab Kindergarten students used Sammy’s Science House to learn about the weather including temperature, wind and clouds. They used the website www.mo re sta r fal l . co m fo r reading and math practice.

Kindergarteners also used various shapes to create an image with Tux Paint!

First grade students learned how to use Microsoft Word to type up their writings from their daily journals. They practiced saving, opening, editing and inserting a picture into their

document! In addition they used www.morestarfall.com for addition skills and reading practice.

Second grade students used Britannica online to conduct research on an African animal. They also used My Pyramid website from the USDA to learn about the different food groups and what it takes to be healthy. In addition they have been practicing their keyboarding skills with Type to Learn!

Third

grade

students

using Scratch programming to create an animation.

Students also used S to ry bo o k We ave r to illustrate and write an original fairy tale.

In addition, they have been practicing their keyboarding skills with Type to Learn.

Fourth grade students used Scratch to create animations either using dialogue or movement.

In addition, students chose a South American animal to research

News from the Technology continued.. and then created a PowerPoint presentation about their animal. They used Publisher to create a card and have also been working on their keyboarding skills with www.typingweb.com.

In connection with the Colonial America unit, fifth grade students created a talking avatar using www.voki.com.

They researched and wrote about what daily life was like in

Colonial America and had to create a character whose voice and looks reflected that

I want to wish everyone a wonderful summer and thank you to all parents and teachers for your support!

period in time. They then used the text to speech option to make their avatar speak! Fifth grade students also learned how to use Google SketchUp for 3D modeling.

Students used an online tutorial to help design their first house!

News from P.E. Many climbing games and lead up activities made the wall climbing experience fun and educational for all our students.

It is the end of our school year and the final stretch for our students was both fun and successful.

Everybody loves the water, so our swimming unit that started early in the spring season was full of smiles and lots of practice.

We practiced our basic strokes (freestyle and backstroke) as well as the breaststroke.

As is tradition, our swimming unit ended with a pool party as a reward for the hard work

all students demonstrated.

Our Kindergarteners at the same time practiced their running skills and got familiar with new movement patterns and combinations.

Wall climbing was next in our exploration list: bouldering for our students from K till 3rd grade, and top rope activities for our 4th and 5th graders.

After three weeks of climbing, we got outdoors and held tennis rackets. Mini tennis was the perfect way to finish our school year, fundamental skills of racket control and ball handling as well as the first steps towards ground strokes, serves and volleys.

Fun games improved our coordination skills and made the hot days at the tennis courts enjoyable.

The last two weeks of our school year, 4th and 5th grade had their final fitness tests in order to get an idea of how efficient we were throughout the year, reflect on our learning, and come back next year more eager to work “citius, altius, fortius�.

Mr. Kourtis

News from the ESL cclasses.

News from the Arabic Classes

It was a wonderful year! Congratulations to you all for your efforts and hard work !

Learning Arabic is fun!

This year’s Student-Led Conferences were amazing!

You did a wonderful job with your portfolios!

A fun and productive year of learning Arabic has gone by.

I would like to congratulate all students of the Arabic classes on carrying out Student Led conferences successfully. They all took pride in the hard work they did this year! I wish all of you a great vacation!

Please remember to read lots of Arabic books over the summer! You are great to work with!

Enjoy your summer and don’t forget that reading is fun! Take a book on your flight, on the bus, the car, the beach and read, read, read!!!!!

Have a great summer!

Ms. Gaki

Ms. Accari

News from the Greek Classes “Kalo

kalokairi!”

We have reached the end of a wonderful school year for all the Greek classes of the Elementary School.

It has been a really fulfilling and productive year for the Greek Language Department!

Congratulations to all students who did a fantastic job preparing for the Student Led conferences that took place in May. During the conferences, students enthusiastically showed their work in Greek and had a great time working on different stations in each class!

It was a great pleasure working with such enthusiastic students!

We are really proud of their academic accomplishments in Greek. We will joyfully remember the special moments of OXI Day and the Greek Independence Day celebration to name a few.

Have fun, swim, eat summer fruits and ice cream….and read many Greek books!

Have a great summer! Καλό καλοκαίρι!

Ms. Rovoli, Ms. Stratoglou, Ms Minoudi

News from the Library children who may be kicking around a deflated piece of rubber just to play soccer.

This semester we read a lot of different books related to the topics the students were studying in their classes and in fourth and fifth grade we did research for student projects.

In JK we read fiction and non-fiction stories about animals. One of our favorites was It’s Mine where we were guessing which animal was on the next page based on something special about different animals (e.g. an animal with a long neck).

In Kindergarten we talked about what I want to be when I grow up, read about being a nurse and a teacher and got ready for the field trip to the fire station by reading the book Firefighters.

In first grade we read stories about plants and learned a song about Photosynthesis.

Then, we read a number of Greek Myths during the Ancient Greek unit.

We were all particularly interested in how the story of Persephone helped ancient Greeks to understand why we have seasons.

In second grade we read many stories about Africa. One of our favorites was the story, Goal.

We learned how important a regulation soccer ball can be to

In third grade we read a number of fairy tales to help us think about writing our own fairy tale and then we read books that looked at China from many different perspectives. We read books about China today, Chinese calligraphy, Chinese folktales, the Chinese abacus and our favorite, Track of the Panda in which we learned about some of things that are being done to save pandas.

In fourth grade we found a topic that we were interested in, we then researched the topic to find an article online in one of the school’s databases, read the article, highlighted 4 or 5 important facts, wrote the facts in our own words and did a short presentation about the topic to the class. We also read about the traditions of the Olympics, about an Olympic hero who had polio as a child and then all had a chance to read a Poem for two voices with a partner.

In fifth grade we read several books on Colonial America.

Our favorite was the poem, The Midnight ride of Paul Revere.

We learned what was actually true in this poem and what was a bit of exaggeration.

We had a mini Poetry Break in class where students memorized poems of their choice from a book or a poem they had written and then performed these poems for the whole

class. Finally, the students used the many books we have about Ancient Greece to find information for their re-enactment of the Ancient Greek Agora.

We had one more offering of Scholastic Books. I would like to say a special thanks to all of you who have ordered books this school year. As a result the school was able to order around 800 Euros worth of new books which we will all enjoy. We also held our annual Poetry Break. I want to say thank you to all the students who participated.

We have a dedicated group that participate each year and had a large number of new students from Junior Kindergarten through fifth grade this year.

Our students gave us the opportunity to listen to many interesting poems that they wrote or chose both in English and in Greek.

I hope everyone has a great summer and I look forward to seeing your students next year. But don’t forget to KEEP READING to and with your children all summer.

Ms. Anderson

Message from the Assistant Principal unstructured ways.

The Wondrous Way of Un st ruct ure d Pl ay thi s Summer

It is often been said that play is the work of the child. Most parents take it to heart, organizing regular play dates, art groups, exciting summer camps, and other meet-ups with like-aged children so the kids can romp, tumble, climb, explore, create, interact, and grow alongside each other.

But it isn’t just the act of play that is healthy for children; it is free and unstructured play that is also key to their development.

While we advocate for structure and routine as well as some time to reinforce the skills your children have developed all year, summer is also the perfect time to allow our children to spread their wings and grow in different kinds of ways with time each day that is completely up to them. This kind of play is not only healthy, it is, as the A me ri c an A c adem y of Pediatrics states, “essential for helping children reach important social, emotional, and cognitive developmental milestones as well as helping them manage stress and become resilient.”

In a world where our days are often filled with cell phones and soccer practice, providing a child the opportunity to just be in the world, with nowhere to go, nothing to do may seem like passive parenting, but in actuality it may be the greatest and most important gift we can give.

Weave Unstructured Time into Your Plans So how can you fit free and unstructured play into a busy day? Don’t fret. The ways are many and wondrous: Bring Awareness to the Cause

First and foremost, the way to fit more unstructured time into our regular routine is for parents and caregivers to first consciously evaluate and question the claims made by advertisers and the idea that we should somehow be producing super-children. Then step back and bring conscious awareness to each moment when you allow your child to choose how they will spend an afternoon, what materials (if any) they will play with, and where that will all take place.

This summer, allow your children to play with a toy the “wrong” way, swirl their fingers around in a pile of flour on the counter, or just sit and daydream the hour away in a special comfy spot. Simply practice saying yes to their idea of a perfect moment, hour, or day.

Offer Models It is no great secret that children learn by following the examples around them. If a parent or caregiver values unstructured time, so will the child. Allow for times when you can just hang out and delight in having absolutely nothing on your agenda. As well, turn to the printed word for models of kids thinking creatively, getting messy, following their heart, and otherwise exploring in

Take little bits of time when you are out and about to be without your plan. Find quiet places to sit. Challenge your family to find a special rock, log, tree, brook side, or bench where they can take a quiet moment and listen to the unique sounds of the area, revive themselves, reflect on the new experiences, or simply experience passersby.

Practice the Art of Strewing Strewing is the very fine art of placing items in seemingly random locations. It provides the opportunity for creativity by allowing a child to stumble upon materials or books in a natural way, thereby encouraging their exploration, without the child feeling watched, expected to perform, or otherwise pressured. On their own timetable, at their own pace, in a completely unstructured kind of way.

Unstructured play is unstructured learning. As the research shows us of the world’s greatest entrepreneurs, it leads to people who can think, create, solve problems, are happy, well-adjusted, and have better language and cognitive skills. Unstructured Play is serious business.

Wishing you a fabulous summer filled with some free exploration!

By Ginger Carlson, Elementary Assistant Principal