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Art & Drama | Band & Orchestra | Family and Consumer Sciences (FACS) | Industrial Technology The art classes have begun their unit in ceramics making a bowl, vase, candy dish, pencil or jewelry holder, or a planter. We will be glazing these items during the first part of April. The next unit discusses color. We will discuss the scientific theory of color waves and pigment. We will learn how to mix the three basic colors to make other colors and the relationship between colors and their complementary colors. The primary, secondary, intermediate, and tertiary colors will be put on graphic organizers. The values of the colors from light to dark and their intensity from bright to dull will also be illustrated on charts. We will be studying color combinations such as monochromatic, analogous, and complementary. Upon completion of the color unit we will copy a famous painting. Beginning with a drawing on 9"X12" paper, students will graph and transfer the drawing to a larger graph on 18"X24" paper. Next they will create a color combination chart to help decide what color combination to apply to their painting. The last couple weeks of the semester will be used to learn architectural drawing using a vanishing point. We will begin by drawing a few simple boxes in 3-D and then draw a house or a city block, depending on the choice of the class. Parents, please ask your art student to bring their art work home from the first nine weeks. They did some wonderful self-portraits of which parents can be proud. Drama classes have finished studying the Medieval and Renaissance theatre history. The famous Passion Play of Oberammergau, Germany and the two passion plays in America helped in observing how medieval plays might have been. (http://www.german-travel-uk.com/oberammergau.html) (http://www.greatpassionplay.com). We studied Shakespeare and watched "Taming of the Shrew." His theatre has been rebuilt to show Shakespearean plays today. (http://www.shakespeares-globe.org). We learned about the techniques of the Japanese theatre, Kabuki. Kabuki theatre is a form of theatre from Japan with wild and ramatic make-up and costumes. Performing a short Kabuki play and watching a Japanese comedy called a Kyogen helped us realize what this kind of theatre is like and seeing a real kimono helped to visualize costumes. The final piece of history will be the study of theatre from the 1800's to present day. Comedy and tragedy as forms of drama is the next unit to be studied. We will see "Arsenic and Old Lace" to help us understand the modern structure of plays. Parents, please be ready to help with script memorization toward the end of April as we will be performing memorized group scenes in May. Don't forget that going to a play performance at GHS or EHS counts for extra credit if your student brings me a program from the play with a cast member's autograph. The end of the year is always a busy time of year for students. They are faced with extended homework assignments and a full agenda of school activities. Parental support and encouragement are crucial at this time of the year. Additionally, now is the time that our middle school students tackle the task of enrollment for their courses for next year. When students become overloaded to the point of experiencing stress and pressure, they feel the need to lighten their load. Unfortunately, students, parents and counselors often misinterpret the study of music as an "educational extra" and in an attempt to alleviate the student's time dilemma, set music aside. It is at best, a short-term solution. It is important to maintain music studies for two reasons:
Former Chairman and CEO of Apple Computer
Inc., John Sculley, commented, "As a chief executive
of a technology company that thrives on creativity,
I want to work with people whose imaginations
have been unleashed and who tackle problems as Every parent wants their child to enjoy a life filled with happiness and prosperity. For all these reasons and more, I want to make certain that my students are well prepared for the opportunities of tomorrow. I strongly encourage the continuation of music studies through high school. Should the notion of "quitting music" arise in a conversation, please contact me. You can count on my support in explaining the unique advantages of having a lifelong relationship with music. We will begin the semester studying our human relationships unit, and completing their own personal scrapbooks. Students will be asked to bring pictures of their childhood, family, and friends. If trimming the pictures is not an option for them, we have scanners available in school to scan and print the pictures. If there is a scanner available at home, please feel free to use it and print pictures on your own.
With warmer weather on the horizon, the PE classes will begin to venture outside for activities. Tennis, softball, speedball, and soccer will be just some of the upcoming Spring activities. With the unpredictable Kansas weather, students are encouraged to have a sweatshirt and sweatpants for the cooler days. We will finish up with our second round of fitness testing by the end of the school year and are looking forward to seeing the results and any improvement in each individual's fitness.
Hey USD 265! Do you have a great picture of an EMS student, sports event, or other school related activity? Would you like to see your picture in the 2012 EMS yearbook? The yearbook staff would like to invite students and parents to submit your photos for the yearbook. If you've got great photos of school and community events or even students and their friends having fun, we'd like to see them. Our photographers can't be everywhere. Help us get as many photos as possible to create a terrific book everyone will want to have through Josten's new program called RePlayit, which allows the general public to submit digital pictures online for possible inclusion in the yearbook. Here is how you can submit photos online: Log on to: https://replayit.com and follow the instructions for submitting photos. It's that easy! Submit your photos today! If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at cgabbert@goddardusd.com. 7th Grade The students in seventh grade reading are finishing their class novel, "The Outsiders," by S.E. Hinton. The students worked on reading comprehension, vocabulary, and their reading fluency while reading the novel. One of the novel's themes is tolerance so we spent a considerable amount of time discussing the importance of tolerance in our everyday lives. Once this novel is completed we will begin our literature circle unit. During this unit students will work cooperatively with two to three classmates to read a novel. Together students explore from whose point of view the story is being told, the characters, setting, plot, mood, and theme of the story. We also compare and contrast the characters to ourselves, our community, and our world around us. Throughout the novel students are exposed to a different understanding of the same reading material and have a chance at greater comprehension. Please encourage your student to continue reading over the summer. The public libraries have wonderful summer programs to keep students interested in reading! 8th Grade The reading classes finished up the third nine weeks with work over text types, literary elements, and word parts. During this time the students reviewed the four different text types by reading short stories, taking practice formatives, determining text structures, reading classified ads, and discovering character traits. Bingo was a favorite game for learning the vocabulary from these units. The kids also practiced with flash cards and enjoyed the "I have, who has?" game. We began our class novel, "The Lightning Thief" upon returning from break. The kids have set their new AR goals. These goals will be due at the end of the school year. Please encourage your student to talk to you about what he/she is reading, how they are doing on their AR tests, and how they plan to meet their goals. As the semester comes to an end, the students continue to learn a great deal of vocabulary in Spanish. They will use all of the vocabulary that they have learned this semester to complete a final project the last couple of weeks. They have also started to work on basic verb conjugation and will continue to work on it until the end of the semester. Students will enjoy activities both in and out of class and will use their Spanish in class and at home as much as possible. Also, the students will be having an annual Cinco de Mayo fiesta at the beginning of May. They will get to cook authentic Mexican, Spanish, and South American cuisine and bring it to class for each of their individual fiestas and possibly receive some extra credit points! If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at cgabbert@goddardusd.com. Below are the descriptions of the two technology classes taken by students at EMS. Look Closely…
Computer Applications Do you see it? Next year the district has changed the order these classes will be experienced. The seventh graders will participate in the Synergistics lab and experience hands-on activities tying technology to real life. The eighth graders will participate in a redesigned computer applications class that will have close ties to the high school Career and Technology Education pathways (CTE). These pathways are designed to guide students through classes based on their interests. The eighth grade applications class will provide Introduction Level experience into the following CTE pathways: AV Communications, Programming & Software Development, and Web & Digital Communications. Our FACS and Industrial Tech classes are also being realigned to provide entry into several high school CTE pathways. Congratulations to all who where selected for the Pioneer League Honor Choir this year. The clinic and concert will be held at Prairie Hills Middle School. Those students participating will receive more information to take home in the coming weeks.
Please note the upcoming choir events this semester:
If you have any questions feel free to contact me via email at mbarr@goddardusd.com or by calling EMS at 794-4150. |
