The Muse - June 2014

ACS ATHENS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Volume 3, Issue 3 June 2014

THE MUSE Message from the Principal I truly can’t believe this school year is over! It seemed like just yesterday we were celebrating a new school year with our Back to School Night. We had a wonderful year filled with many special moments and 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.

This last trimester you had the opportunity to have your child showcase their learning during Student-Led Conferences and Exhibitions of Learning. As I circulated around the school, I was very proud of our students who displayed their growth by articulating their knowledge to their parents. An important part of learning is communicating and also being reflective.

Teachers have worked hard to give students the tools to take responsibility and become architects of their own learning.

Students, in turn, have embraced the wealth of information and parents rejoiced in the festivities. What

a team! We have had the privilege of watching each of them learn, mature and grow in many ways and are all very proud of their accomplishments.

In the Elementary School we implement best practices to ensure that each child is holistically successful; academically, socially and emotionally. We focused on topics of Leadership, Personal Integrity, Honor Code, Citizenship, and what it means to make Healthy Choices in life. I would like to encourage all parents and students to be active this summer.

It is wonderful when students have the ability to balance their life and both work and play. This life skill is modeled by adults.

By showing your child/children how to become actively engaged reading a book and actively staying fit and healthy, they will learn to become secure individuals.

Please encourage your children to continue reading, learning and wondering.

As you will note on your Calendar of Events, School year 2014-2015 will commence on September 4 for

grades 2-12. The first day of school for our First graders is based on the first letter of their surnames. Students whose last name begins with the letters A-M will begin school on September 4, while those whose surnames begin with the letters N-Z will start on September 5.

Our Early Childhood Program will begin on September 11.

School supply letters 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.

At this point I would like to express my gratitude to you all, for the continuing support and encouragement that you gave us throughout the year. As the Greek saying goes, the first school is in the home. Thank you for your support and help during shows, field trips and presentations in class. For these, and a million other things, we

Message from the Principal continued.. we are truly grateful. Your enthusiastic participation and support made your child’s experience even more meaningful.

Lastly, I would like to wish our fifth graders the best of luck in Middle School. We will all miss their energy, spirit, and leadership. Some of you will be leaving the ACS Athens community to move to new places. We wish you all success and happiness in your venture, you will be missed.

Enjoy the lingering, sunny, relaxing months that lay ahead with your family and friends.

We will meet again in September full of energy and enthusiasm for yet another rewarding academic year.

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

Junior Kindergarten News

Dear Parents, Spring is here and along with this wonderful time of year, the children explored our unit on “Plants”. With this theme, children were given the opportunity to discover various types of plants, their attributes (some give us food, some have flowers, etc.), their growth cycle, and what they need in order to grow. They also explored seeds and how they grow into plants.

An exciting change has also taken place in our rooms! Our dramatic play area was transformed into a Flower Shop, where the children engaged in wonderful role play.

We have introduced many new concepts, such as

store employee and customer, order forms, payment, etc. Please ask your child about their experiences with this center! It’s a great way to show them that what they’re doing at school is important to you!

Your child has been involved in various projects throughout the year such as their writing journals, self-portrait books, etc.

Please read and discuss any 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!

Thank You, Ms. Vicki and Ms. Korinna

It has been an honor to be the principal of ACS Athens Elementary School again this year. Have a wonderful, safe summer!

Most sincerely, Cathy Makropoulos, Elementary School Principal

Kindergarten News punctuation on their own when writing. The Kindergarteners love to read their stories back to us explaining each character in detail.

The third trimester in Kindergarten has been a quick and exciting one. The students have grown so much and have become almost... 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 books. 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!

We also learned that the letter 'H' is actually a hero who swoops down from the sky to help other letters make new sounds such as -ch, -wh, -th and -sh! The children read all about their vowel pals in their new decodable books and learned how to enter vocabulary and high frequency words in their own personal dictionaries.

We have finished all of our journals! The students have filled their journals with endless stories f ull of imagination and excitement.

They have begun to use finger spacers, capital letters and even

In order to build on their math skills the Kindergarteners have been trying out a bit of geometry.

We have been observing the different properties possessed by 2-d and 3-d shapes and how to identify them with the correct names. Through the use of interactive math games, manipulatives, puzzles and the math journals the Kindergarteners continue to review these concepts and build on an understanding of less and more through a comparison of different shapes. We continue to recognize patterns and make graphs; We also continue to practice our counting to 100 by ones and tens and looking at place value up to 20 using ones and tens.

We explored the different Community Helpers and what it means to live in a neighborhood.

Through puppet shows were able to experience these jobs first hand... pretending to be firemen, doctors, chefs, astronauts and much much more! The children wrote about what they dream they will become one day and they explored why this is their dream.

We visited the OAKA Fire station as a kick-off activity for our community helpers unit and we were surprised to find our host to be a ‌ firewoman! This was a wonderful experience for the children because they learned that you can be anything if you just put your mind to it.

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

Your devoted teachers, Ms. Anna and Ms. Stavi

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, to 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 the most magical yet since we have had the tremendous joy of having Captain Chip here with us. He has grown under the care and guidance of your children as much as they have with him. We all appreciate this success and look forward to more next year. Thank you!

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 the 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.

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.

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.”

Most sincerely, Ms. Birbil, Ms. Lamprou and Ms. Safaris

2nd Grade News 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!

Second graders have continued exploring their bodies and learning to be healthy throughout our Health Unit while discovering the Five Food Groups. They are learning to create a balanced meal and understand that eating a balanced diet is necessary in keeping a healthy body and mind.

This 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. Due to their vast readings, students have been able to reflect on their findings and incorporate Persuasive Writing when journaling 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 trimester’s reading unit was the study of poetry. Two authors students have studied thoroughly are Dr. Seuss and Shel Siverstein: whom they have come to love due to the amusing and comical short poems/stories that both authors share. They have even come up with unique poems of their own playing with rhymes and had created a poetry museum based on Dr. Seuss’ influence.

Poetry has given students the

In math, second graders have been vigorously working on perfecting 3-4 digit mental math skills and were exposed to a world of shapes and sizes through their Geometry lessons.

Their experiences revolved around creating equal shapeparts and even connecting different shapes to make new ones.

In addition to this, students had the opportunity to see how groups of numbers, or shapes, can be added together to make new groups!

This allowed students to dabble with the concept of multiplication,

allowing them to understand the basic idea of pairing objects or numbers into groups.

We would like to wish you a “successful book reading and math munching summer”.

Give yourselves challenges so you can raise the bar and become the best you can be.

Your email over the summer will surprise us and delight us with your news!

Have a productive, safe and fun summer!

Ms. Merrill, Ms. Moros and Ms. Spiliot

3rd Grade News

We can’t believe the end of the year is here already! Time flies when you are working as hard as Third Grade has!

Beginning with reading, in this last term we focused on nonfiction books and text features. The students were able to identify the important text features in books and to explain why these features helped the reader understand the text better. We also reviewed general, good reading practices to stay sharp over the summer. Students have been given time to practice these skills during independent reading time in the classroom.

In math we learned to measure all sorts of things. Students learned how to use a ruler and practiced measuring items using metric and customary units. The third graders learned about the basic units and tools used to measure length, distance, capacity and mass, and were able to pick the appropriate unit to use when measuring different items. Students also learned to calculate perimeter and area and we are practicing by using graph paper to measure common and uncommon shapes. We also wrapped up our unit on fractions, using visual representations to find equivalent fractions as well as knowing how to add and subtract them.

In writing, students continued to focus on personal essays.

They used their observations of the world around them to create well thought out opinion pieces that were both personal and meaningful.

After, the third graders were (finally, according to the kids) able to let their imaginations soar as we created detailed fiction stories based on a well thought out graphic organizer to form a story plot.

Students also worked incredibly hard to create complex characters, detailed settings, and strong story lines in order to hook their reader. It was fun to see all that creativity! Then, we worked on our Poetry unit to write couplets, cinquains, free verse, diamonte, Haiku, color poems, etc.

In Social Studies, t h e students continued to look at communities all around the world with a focus on China.

Students learned about China’s location and different physical geographical features that make up this country. We read and watched videos about the Chinese New Year, important cities, history and what typical life is like for children there.

We then compared Chinese culture to our own and learned that calligraphy was once considered the highest art form.

At the end of the unit we had “China Day” where we celebrated with traditional

food, stories and even created our own poetry and watercolor project.

It was a great experience!

In addition to China, we learned about civic responsibility in our community and discussed different ways that we as individuals can help our communities. To demonstrate this, we visited the Archelon Turtle Rescue Center in Glyfada.

We learned about what harms sea turtles and what we as individuals can do to prevent problems as well as how we can support important organizations like this one in our community.

The contribution from the third grade for the entrance fees and the souvenirs they bought on this field trip was enough to feed the turtles for one week!

There were 24 turtles at the rescue center when we visited so they are much appreciative, we are sure.

We have really enjoyed your students this year and wish you all the best over the summer and next year in 4th grade! Our final act as third grade teachers is to remind you to enjoy yourselves and to read, Read, READ every day over the summer! Finally, keeping a journal with your children is a great way to document some precious times spent together and to prompt amazing stories.

We thank you for all of your support this year.

Mr. Maloff, Ms. Mukri, and Ms. Theodoropoulos

4th Grade News The last part of the trimester found the 4th graders learning by doing!!

will display the various story elements of our books.

In the Science Unit of Electricity and Magnetism, students have been learning about making complete circuits.

Students are fascinated with this unit as they make motors run and light up light bulbs in both series and parallel circuits.

Ms. Koutsioukis, Ms. Vagras and Ms. Killam loved teaching all of your children and getting to know you this year. We wish you a relaxing, adventurous, and memorable summer vacation.

We recommend you read a least 3 books at your current reading level (or above) during the summer. Especially to our friends who are still learning English, you must continue to practice over the summer for best results in 5th grade. Also, we suggest some websites to reinforce all the skills that were taught this year.

In the Modern Olympics Unit, students were researching, making Power Points, reading, and writing.

In this unit we used our experiences from our field trip to the Kalimarmaro Stadium. Here, we played games and competed in Olympic sporting events. Also, in swimming, Ms. Salouros and the 4th grade will team up to have some exciting Olympic swimming events at the pool!

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 have been active readers.

Our latest reading project is a “Bloom Ball” (based on Bloom’s Taxonomy) in which we are practicing critical thinking skills and answering our self-created questions using “Flip Charts” as a guide.

The culminating project

Language Arts: James Patterson’s Read Kiddo Read 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

by age, sounds, Dolch lists, and topics, and more. You can customize your own word lists and create games and puzzles.

Woodlands Junior School http://resources.woodlandsjunior.kent.sch.uk/literacy/ index.htm Topmarks http://www.topmarks.co.uk/ english-games/7-11-years/ punctuation Math: World of Math http://math.com

Online

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

Included are assessments, ondemand 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 test-taking skills for math. This site also offers strategies and immediate feedback. Plus, it’s fun!

FunBrain http://www.funbrain.com/ numbers.html or.kent.sch.uk/maths/ fractions/

4th Grade News continued..

Animals/Wildlife National Geographic for Kids Online *Defenders of Wildlife – Kid’s Planet www.kidsplanet.org Defenders of Wildlife, Washington, DC: This is an award winning site and one of the “great sites for kids”! Features: description of 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 les-

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

Features: description of 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 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.

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/

Play games, watch videos, learn about animals, and places, and get fun facts on this website!

Enjoy!

Ms. Killam, Ms. Koutsioukis, and Ms. Vagras

5th Grade News Just recently our 5th graders completed their civic responsibility goals by cleaning the beach at Aghios Nicholas in Anavissos! We had a beautiful day at the seaside, and, after cleaning the same beach annually for the past 10 years, we can really see that we are having a substantial impact.

Fifth grade also visited the Herakleidon Musem in Thisseon, where we viewed artwork by Escher and Vaselery and participated in a wonderful hands -on workshop investigating the connections between art and mathematics. Students not only investigated the artwork to discover geometric shapes and patterns but also applied the concepts of rotation and reflection as they created their own designs on geoboards and then challenged each other to recreate them across the line of symmetry.

F i f t h graders are getting closer to becoming s i x t h graders each day. On June 6th they visited the Middle School and met their future teachers, counselor, and principal. Our students are very excited about this new, important step of growth in their lives. We celebrated our 5th grade students’ “graduation” ceremony on June 13th. What a special day!

Students finished their history studies with discussions and research about Ancient Greece.

Students learned about the ancient civilizations of Crete, Mycenae, Athens and Sparta.

Our 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 flip book. Finally, students researched and collected data on a theme related to Ancient Greece and presented their information in an entirely student-created living museum of the Ancient Agora! !

Ms. Coklas, Ms. Kynigou and Ms. Maratou

Optimal Learning News Dear ACS Athens Community, The third trimester has found us very busy in the Optimal Learning Program. Upon the successful completion of the 9th Annual ACS Athens Learning Differences Conference, you all received the Progress Reports for the 3rd Trimester. Thank you for responding so promptly to the comments sent. It was a delight to see all our students proudly share their progress with you during the Student-Led Conferences.

As the year winds down (or up depending on how you look at it) we are pleased with our students’ progress and hope to see even more growth after the summer.

it’s time to play!

Ms. Kaldelli and Ms. Sinouris

In September, please plan on scheduling meetings to discuss the 2014-2015 Individual Learning Plans (ILPs).

We have had an impressive year with all our students. They’ve shown hard work, persistence, personal growth and now…..

News from the Art Room Greetings from the Art room!

We have been busy collaborating on a model of the Elementary school building these past couple of months; it is a visual support of our yearbook theme, “ A rch i t ec ts o f o ur o w n Learning”. All grade levels participated.

The finished product can be viewed in the Art room and a photograph has been included in the yearbook itself.

Kindergarteners created spring-themed texture paintings which they later collaged into flowers.

Presently, we are finishing dragons created from hand prints cut from paper, painted, and attached to a moving paper dragon head!

First grade used a variety of media from tissue paper to paint

to create their warm and cool color jellyfish and then dove into an Ancient Greece pottery study.

Second graders made beautiful warm/cool color dragon collages with paper and yarn.

They practiced folding and rolling paper before gluing it to the paper. They also created colorful healthy food collages in support of their production “Hansel and Gretel Eat Right”.

Third graders have spent many art classes meticulously color blending paper layers to create jungles and they finished an installation on the back of the school using strips of plastic bags they weaved through the railing.

Fourth graders exercised much patience cutting delicate pieces of paper and tissue paper for their “stained glass” landscape

artworks.

They also made silhouette shadow figures filled with pattern on the school sidewalk. Fifth graders used a little geometry knowledge and a lot of imagination to create both 1-point and 2-point perspective drawings.

This project was in conjunction with their field trip to the Herakleidon Museum which houses original works by M.C. Escher and Victor Vasarely.

And if that wasn’t enough , they also made visuals for their Ancient Greek Agora exhibition of learning which took place the first week of June.

The year has flown by and it has been a great joy watching all ACS Elementary students grow as artists!

Ms. Stauffer

News from the Music Room

A teacher’s satisfaction is the success and progress of his/her 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.

Kindergarten students gave a lovely performance during the spring show. Their enthusiasm carried them through and they received a well deserved round of applause from the audience.

First, second, third, fourth, and fifth grade students also largely developed their skills. They worked in creating and performing music both on their 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 harmonised manner. After forming their own groups and deciding on the music they wanted to perform for the spring show, they started practicing with their band-mates. 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 prior to showcasing their work on stage and in front of their audience. The result was outstanding and music in elementary school is now flooded with instruments of various timbres. Bands proudly walk around preparing for their next project and sentiments of pride and collegiality amongst students are strong. Very well done to all!!

Ms. Apostolou

News from the Technology Lab This semester, kindergarteners practiced coun tin g, simple addition, 2D and 3D shapes, and beginning reading with www.starfall.com.

In connection with their unit on plants, first graders used Tux Paint to draw pictures of plants and went on to labeling parts of the plant. In addition they have been using www.morestarfall.com to practice reading and math concepts.

Second graders researched African animals with Britannica Junior.

They also chose some poems to

r e a d f r o m www.poetry4kids.com/poems.

They used a website from USDA about nutrition and learned how to make healthy food choices.

In connection with their unit on China, third grade students chose a different ancient China topic such as; Terra-Cotta Warriors, Chinese Inventions, Great Wall of China, Chinese Zodiac, Chinese Dragon or Chinese New Year.

They looked up the answers to

questions and later went on to make a PowerPoint on their topic. They also put together non-fiction book report presentations.

Fourth graders used a web quest to find out about the ancient and modern Olympics.

They then created a PowerPoint on an Olympic game.

In addition, they researched different countries of South America with the culminating activity to assemble a brochure using Microsoft Publisher.

News from the Technology continued..

Fifth graders have been researching information about daily life in ancient Greece. They have also been using Google Sketchup for 3D modeling.

They have been using online tutorials to help them with design questions. Some students, after completing a simple house, have gone on to drawing a castle!

Fifth graders are also competing for the fastest keyboarding skills with www.typingweb.com. There is also the fifth grade Blog where students posted their writings and comments are always welcomed. You can v i e w t h i s a t : acsathensgr5.wordpress.com Ms. Sarantes

News from P.E.

Splish, splash, I was taking a bath.

All alone in the ACS Athens swimming pool!

Yes, you have guessed it! It has been our swimming unit time here, at the ACS Athens Elementary School! Students in grades 1-5 were getting wet and physically fit as they were challenged to learn the different types of strokes. Students also overcame their fear of the water as they demonstrated the freestyle kick, th e breastroke, th e backstroke, and many more swimming skills. The students have had fun learning the different types of dives while practicing safety around the pool, as well as in it.

On May 2nd, the JK/K students

completed their “Fun in the Sun” Field Day, while grades 1-5 had their own “Fun in the Sun” Field Day on May9th.

All students had a wonderful time as they moved from station to station and completed the different games and activities. The importance of the field days is to teach students about teamwork, sportsmanship, responsibility, unity and kindness. This is the reason that each house receives points not just in placement, but in sportsmanship as well. We thank all the parents who came and supported the program.

During the previous months, all students, grades KG-5 were exposed, to other units including wall climbing and track and field. Students were enthusiastic as they challenged themselves to go above and beyond their limits as they set their own personal goals to reach the top of the

climbing wall or to beat their own best running time. Either way, they were successful and filled with pride!

Kindergarteners experienced different and cooperative parachute activities. Students had a blast watching the colorful and big circle “come to life” as they shook it, hid under it, twirled it, and played different games with it.

Grades 1-5 students learned many different recreational activities and playground games, like “Apples,” which they can use during their

News from P.E. Continued.. summertime vacation to maintain wellness.

Finally, we would like to express that this has truly been a productive and fun year in P.E. The students have successfully achieved the tasks that are necessary to complete at their specific age level, and we are very proud of all of them.

News from the Arabic Classes Learning Arabic is fun!

We want to thank all of you as well, the parents, guardians, and all of the staff and faculty at the elementary school, for your continued support, cooperation, and love. We wish you all a fun and healthy summer!

Mrs. Salouros and Mr. Kourtis

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!

Ms Accari

News from the Greek Classes who did a fantastic job preparing for the student-led conferences that took place in May. During the conferences, students showed their work in Greek and had a great time working on different stations in each class!

“Kalo kalokairi!”

We are approaching 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

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 that everyone enjoyed.

Have fun, swim, eat summer fruits and ice cream … and read

many Greek books! Have a great summer! Καλό καλοκαίρι!

Ms. Rovoli, Ms. Papageorgiou, and Ms. Stratoglou

News from the Library of Anansi the spider folktales.

These stories about a conniving spider are fun while helping us learn about the plants and animals that come from Africa.

We also read about the best foods for us to eat.

Third semester started out with a celebration of Dr. Seuss’s birthday.

Dr. Seuss wide variety of books allowed for a simple rhyming story in Mr. Brown Can Moo, can you? for Junior Kindergarteners and Kindergarteners, shared reading in Green Eggs and Ham and The Cat and The Hat comes back for first and second graders and the chance to look for meaning in I had Trouble getting to Solla Solew with the third through fifth graders. We continued to read non-fiction and fiction books related to the different topics covered in each grade.

In JK, we saw lots of pictures and learned about different insects and spiders and read Miss Spider’s Tea Party.

In Kindergarten, we talked about what I want to be when I grow up, read about being a nurse and a teacher, and learned what it was like to be a policeman from Officer Buckle and Gloria.

In first grade, we learned about photosynthesis and sang a photosynthesis song.

Then we read three Greek myths, Persephone seemed to be the favorite.

In second grade, we read a number

In third grade library class, we looked at China from many perspectives. We have read books about China today, Chinese calligraphy, Chinese folktales, where the abacus was invented and the pandas that live in China.

In fourth grade, we read folktales from South America and a book about what it is like to live in the very high altitude of the Andes.

We also read about electricity and how it gets to our houses and learned about some of the traditions of the Olympics.

In fifth grade, we talked about what a primary resource is and saw some examples of these types of resources in a book about En tertain men t in Colonial America. Then as part of the unit about Ancient Greece, we read about Troy and what we actually know to be true about this story and what we think might be true.

In celebration of Wellness month, we read stories about what is important in order to be a good friend or how to help the new student in the classroom. And finally in celebration of poetry month in April we read and recited different poems.

what is important in order to be a good friend or how to help the new student in the classroom. In celebration of poetry month in April we read and recited different poems.

Finally, we had one more offering of the 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 700euros 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 give us the opportunity to listen to many interesting poems.

I hope everyone has a great summer and I look forward to seeing your students next year.

Please don’t forget to KEEP READING to and with your children.

Ms. Anderson

Message from the Assistant Principal Summertime Strewing In Preparation for Stumbling Upon a Fun and Creative Summer

by Ginger Carlson, Elementary Assistant Principal It has truly been a pleasure to take part in and be witness to all the learning and growing that has occurred in the ACS Athens Elementary School this school year. We are surely a blessed bunch to be part of such a community!

As we all begin to enter into the magic that is summertime, I would like to suggest a timehonored, but little articulated meth od of en couraging learning curiosity.

It is a method called Strewing… the very fine art of placing items in seemingly random locations.

Strewing offers the opportunity for creativity and learning by allowing a child to stumble upon materials in a natural way, thereby encouraging their exploration, without the child feeling watched, expected to perform, or otherwise pressured.

Summertime is a wonderfully natural time of year for parents to practice the art of strewing. As the weather “cooperates” with us in the summertime, your creativity canvas instantly widens and provides a multitude of learning moments. Here are a few tips to consider as you begin your Adventures in Strewing…

traffic areas for your children to discover without you ever saying a word. This means tables near chairs they often sit in, in cracks of the couch, or even near the toilet. Outdoors in the summer that could also mean on your patio table, on porch steps they might linger on, under a shady tree, or near the front door where they might be waiting for others to get ready to go.

I n t e r e s t i n g I t e m s Outdoors in the summer, there is great opportunity to place new and interesting items for kids to stumble upon. Try placing seed packets, buckets, sh ovels, magnifying glasses, muffin tins, binoculars, chopsticks, bird books, plastic crates, harvested corn, collapsible telescopes, nets, baskets of sticks, recycled containers, small brushes, chalk, pieces of wire, boxes, a globe, and forgotten toys that can handle outdoor use. If you have a patio table or some other workable space, try laying out art supplies, paper and staplers (always a favorite around here), a nice set of watercolor or sketching pencils, and even a few coffee table books that might spark some imagination.

Place a set of binoculars next to your collection of strewn items and see what happens.

Rotation, Rotation, Rotation There is nothing like movement to cause little eyes to take notice, become interested again, or perhaps discover it for the first time. As the summer progresses, don’t forget to rotate your strewn items around the yard or throughout the house. And with each rotation, add a few new items and take a few things away. You’ll soon find that a little bit of outdoor strewing can go a long way.

I hope that you will experiment with strewing this summer, so th at your ch ildren can experiment, explore, and grow in a way that instantly widens their natural curiosities. With this, their unique ways of learning begin to show themselves in extraordinary ways.

Enjoy those summertime discoveries! We look forward to seeing you all in the fall for another year of exploration, learning, and growth!

Sincerely,

H i g h T r a f f i c The important thing to remember about strewing is that it is vital to place items in high

Ginger Carlson, Elementary Assistant Principal