Coleman Middle School
Orchestra News
Solo and Ensemble Festival takes place Saturday March 6 at West High School. Thirty of our outstanding orchestra students will play solos and small groups before a judge. They’ve been working hard to perfect every little trill and grace note. The quartets and quintet have worked even out of class hours to match intonation and bowing styles. The judge will write comments and critique each performance based on how thoroughly he/she thinks they’ve prepared. This takes a lot of commitment from students, parents, and teachers! Speaking of teachers, our student teacher is Ms Shannon Woolard. She comes from Derby, KS where she began playing violin in the 5th grade at Tanglewood Elementary. Shannon has been playing violin ever since and, this May, will be graduating from Wichita State University with two degrees: Violin Performance and Music Education. She is really enjoying the musical caliber of the orchestra student s along with their will and desire to improve.
Spanish
Time has really flown by this year! Spring break is just around the corner and we are busy as ever! Spanish 1B is well on their way to getting the whole Realidades 1 book completed. This is going to be so very helpful if students are planning to continue their Spanish in high school (which I hope they do). They should be able to test into Spanish 2 and skip Spanish 1 altogether. Spanish 1A is also doing a fantastic job. The last chapter test was the first time that I have made the kids actually come up and speak with me one on one for a part of their grade. They were quite nervous, but overall the effort put forth by each student was wonderful. I told them that they will be many more times that I will be calling students up to talk with me one and one throughout the remainder of the year. So, parents, if you can, ask your students everyday or at least a few times a week what they are working on in Spanish and have them talk to you with whatever vocabulary they can utilize. 6th grade classes just switched at semester, so my new class is just getting into chapter 1A. They are getting comfortable with speaking and doing a lot of partner activities. They are having a good time and are learning a lot of the basics. Last week I sent home with students a handout with their individual username and passwords to upload the Interactive Textbook to their home computer IF they have Internet access. I do realize that not all students have a computer available at home, but I did go ahead and send out a sheet with every student so if an opportunity arose, they could get it downloaded. This is going to prove to be VERY helpful in allowing your student more time to learn the language outside of the classroom. There are also fun interactive games and audio listening activities that students can do too. So, please encourage your kids to spend about 30 minutes or so every night on the interactive website in order to help with them becoming more proficient in the classroom. Until next time…ADIOS!
Vocal Music News
March is a busy month for choir students! There are two 7th grade ensembles, one 8th grade ensemble, and 12 soloists participating in the Solo/Ensemble Festival at West High School this Saturday. They have been working hard during lunch and on their own time to prepare music! The choirs will come back from Spring Break and hit the ground running! The 7th and 8th choirs will sing at Festival and receive a rating from judges. They will also get to hear other middle school groups from the city. In the next few weeks, we will continue to review and prepare songs for this event in April. A new group of 6th graders will join us for the last nine weeks of the school year. All students will begin working on music for the May 18th concert: Disney Through The Decades. This concert will feature soloists, groups, and be quite different from other concerts this year!
Physical Education
The PE Department has applied for and received another year of the Fuel Up to Play 60 grant. We will get an extra $5,000 to educate students on how to make better choices on nutrition and fitness. We have started a scavenger hunt throughout the school where students can win Chief’s prizes such as pens, blankets, lamps, book bags, and trash cans. All students have to do is fill in the answers to their crossword puzzle and turn it into either Mr. Rhodes or Mrs. Arellano. Good luck! The boy’s gym is beginning to come together. They have started laying the wood floor and we are hopeful that it will be done by April. It has been a long process, but the end results will be worth the waiting! Mr. Alcantara, our student teacher, will be leaving us after spring break to go to Park Elementary to finish out his semester. We will miss his enthusiasm and love for PE. We wish him the best of luck as he continues to teach PE.
Technology
WOW!! Almost the end of the 3rd 9 weeks already! The 8th grade classes have spent the past 2 weeks working in teams and sub teams designing, building and assembling their own “Rube Goldberg” machines. A Rube Goldberg machine is a complex way to accomplish a simple objective. They have team plans, sub team plans and have been allocated time daily to document their achievements, challenges and progress in their engineering notebooks. The 7th grade classes are in the process of finishing the design and assembly on the computer with our Inventor 2010 software of a child’s pegboard toy. We take time daily for documentation of processes and instructions in our engineering notebooks. 6th grade classes have finished our trip around the world where we gathered facts and pictures about each of the 7 continents. We then merged a picture of ourselves into each of the 7 continent pictures and created a power point presentation about the continents.
Band
Spring is always a very busy time for band students. There are many students working really hard during band class time and their lunch time to prepare solos and ensembles. These are going very well and students will perform these solos and ensembles at West High School on Saturday, March 6th. The 6th grade students are working hard and are always learning new notes, new terms, and new symbols in band class. Practice time is very important at the beginning level so make sure your student is practicing hard 20 to 30 minutes five nights a week. The 7th and 8th Grade students are working hard on their festival music to perform at the Band Festival on Thursday, April 22nd and the Music in the Parks Festival at Worlds of Fun on Saturday, April 24th. They will also begin working on the May Concert music in a couple of weeks. That gives them four pieces they are working on so there should be no excuse for not practicing at home and turning in those practice records! So keep up the practicing!
FACS
Students of the Family and Consumer Science classes have learned and been using a lot of valuable skills. The sixth grade classes will have their sewing projects ready to take home at spring break. They have developed skills on the sewing machine and their rectangular pillows—with piping—are taking shape and looking pretty good. The seventh grade classes are completing the third quarter unit with full course meals that they have planned, prepared and served. A lot of preparation, excitement and work went into their respective meals. The theme -based meals were “Hawaii” and “China”. Each class did a fantastic job on each of the meals. The eighth grade classes are completing their third quarter with a unit on Community Service. They decorated some gift boxes and had a memorable trip to deliver them to residents of a local nursing home. Our guest speaker from the United Way gave the classes a broader scope of local volunteer opportunities and many of them plan to do perform service through this umbrella organization. Their final grade for the quarter is a Community Service Project Proposal, which includes a self-assessment, along with a thorough and individualized service project proposal.
Art
It’s hard to believe that Spring Break is right around the corner. The sixth grade is wrapping up their nine week rotation in art with a color project. Seventh grade is beginning to study the element of space in art through the use of perspective. They will use this knowledge to create a city drawing. Eighth grade has been studying Picasso and his use of multiple perspectives. They are creating sketches of a face from two perspectives. With these sketches, they will be creating a linoleum block print. My consortium has been experimenting with various mediums to create monotypes. It should be an exciting Spring in art.