january 2019 - fayette county public schools...class, all students will have opportuntiy for...

January 2019

with Ms. Masterson

The art room is starting the year with a pop! Pop art that is!

Fun foods along with video game adventure should have

us all excited to create some amazing art! Clay is in full

swing for 3rd and 5th grade, and lower primary will be

starting to work on Pop Art next.

with Ms. Lee

The Chinese New Year falls on February 5th 2019. In the month of January, we will start a unit on the Chinese New Year. Through storytelling, song performance, craft making and group projects students will learn how Chinese people celebrate the New Year as well as tell the similarity and differences between the Chinese and American holidays. Kindergarten students will learn 5 zodiac animals and a New Year chant. First grade will learn the 12 zodiac signs and stories. Second grade will name the month and day of the New Year, then explore Chinese children’s games. Third grade will compare the Chinese New Year with the American New Year by reading about how/why Chinese people celebrate the new year. Intermediate students will cover the above mentioned content, and understand Chinese New Year as a “Spring Festival” in the context of language and its culture.

with Ms. Ault

Students in lower and upper primary will read My Brave Year of Firsts by Jamie Lee Curtis and share one thing new they’d like to try in 2019. Intermediate students are

participating in “First Page Friday”, which really happens on whatever day they have library. This is where I share the first page or so of a novel to pique interest. It’s amazing how quickly these books gets checked out and I love exposing them to new literature!

with Ms. Bishop

In Music Classes to ring-in 2019, 5th grade students will be playing piano Keyboards, 4th grade students will be playing recorders, Upper Primary students (grades 2-3) will be singing, playing guitars and autoharps, Lower Primary students (grades K-1) will be singing, playing autoharps and xylophone. Each grade level will practice reading music notation while demonstrating proper instrumental playing techinques and vocal technique while singing. Throughout the month of January, music classes will focus on the elements of Dynamics and Tempo while integrating other elements (Melody, Harmony, Style). In addition to structured, guided musical practice with the full class, all students will have opportuntiy for creative exploration and demonstration of skills in small and large groups.

with Mr. McAtee

January will kick off another year of the Your Fitness Plan

program. Your Fitness Plan presents students the

opportunity to design their very own personal exercise

plan to use at home. The Your Fitness Plan information is

located on my blog site at http://blogs.fcps.net/smcatee.

This month K-2 students will explore gymnastic, dance, &

throwing activities. 2-3 students will work on gymnastic,

dance, & basketball activities. 4-5 students will

January 2019

concentrate on gymnastic activities. Each level engages

in developmentally appropriate activities to learn

fundamental movement skills, movement concepts,

knowledge concepts, physical fitness skills/concepts,

dance elements, & sports skills.

Hope this news finds you physically fit!!!!!

with Ms. Sproles

In STEM, all grades participated in some fun Winter

themed lessons. 3-5 graders participated in the Hour of

Code and explored Google’s Santa Tracker activities. K-2

participated in some engineering challenges. It was a fast

but fun month in the STEM lab!

with Ms. Ely

All classes had so much fun exploring computer science

during Hour of Code in December! We used kodable (K/1),

lightbot (2/3), code.org (4/5), and even did some

unplugged coding(K-3). That gave us a fun break from the

important work of learning how to be responsible,

respectful, and safe online. January will bring more digital

citizenship for all grade levels, and will be the final month

of digcit for most grade levels.

Last month, K students talked about technology etiquette,

online safety, and what to do if you see something that

makes you feel sad, scared, or uncomfortable on the

Internet. In Jan, we will talk about cyberbullying. First

graders talked about computer security (popup windows)

and online safety. Next we will be talking about

cyberbullying.

Second graders learned about plagiarism and

cyberbullying. Coming up in January, we will talk a little

more about the being kind online, and talk about the

importance of unplugging. Last month, third graders

learned about the parts of a friendly email and

email/Internet scams they are likely to encounter.

Last month, fourth grade students learned about social

networking and building a positive online reputation. In

January, we will learn about intellectual property. 5th

graders practiced making non-identifying usernames,

learned strategies to create secure passwords, and

learned how to avoid scams on the Internet. In January,

we will talk about cyberbullying and the importance of

unplugging.