141 Davis Street, Greenfield, MA 01301, 413.772.1300 (voice), 413.774.7940 (fax)

Gr. K-3

Principal: Joan Schell, EdD
Associate Principal: Donna Gleason

Year in Review 2010-11

Discovery Students Student Art with Tina Clark 2010-11 (Watch the movie)

---

Strawberries

Last year, thanks to two garden fairies, Judy and Wisty, donated and planted strawberries.  Today (June 7, 2011) the fourth grade class picked enough strawberries for every child to have one with their lunch.  We can't wait until this year's plants can be harvested.  Classes have planted carrots, butternut squash, potatoes, greens, cantaloupe, and pumpkins.  We hope to be serving greens at lunch before the end of the year also.  The children are enjoying their gardening experience.

Farewell
June 6 was the last P.T.O. meeting of this year and the last day for three of the officers: President Shaddai Bishop, Vice-President Michelle Strahan, and Secretary Shahanna Houle. Treasure Jamie Cote will stay on for next year. Together, these four individuals have worked with families and done many things for the students of this school. The P.T.O. provided the money for an African Storyteller, a drumming show at the Shay, a puppet show, buses for field trips, money to each teacher to offset special projects, funding for a green house and a large donation to increase books in our library to name a few. The Discovery School children have been enriched by the generosity of time and commitment of these officers. We will miss them but are looking forward to starting off with our new officers: President Fabienne Allen, Vice-President Shannon Collins, Secretary Buffy Donivan and Treasure Jamie Cote. The first P.T.O meeting will be Tuesday, September 13th at 6 p.m. in the library. Again, thanks to this years officers for all they have accomplished for the Discovery School children.

MCAS for Grades 3 and 4
from Mrs. Naughton’s newsletter…
“This is an exciting chance for students to show what they know. It is one test spread out over two days. It is a longer test, so lots of rest and relaxation are important. Scores are compared to peers in school, district and state. Math homework will provide practice but it is also a great time to visit First in Math regularly.”

Almost home
Children are visiting 6th continent, South America. Kindergarten and Grade 1 are in the rainforests. Kindergarten is focusing on animals and Grade 1 is focusing on habitats. Grade 2 is in the Galapagos Islands, Grade 3 is in Argentina and Grade 4 is in Chile. Children will get their return passports stamped on May 25. They will then enjoy their time in North America, the last of the continents.

Planting
We are hoping to plant and harvest food to eat in our cafeteria this year. Some classes are doing lettuce and spinach to harvest before school ends, and other classes are doing potatoes, pumpkin, squash and carrots for the fall.

Sports Day and School Fair
Once again the PTO is sponsoring a sports day headed by the Breiwick family. This will happen on June 14th. The PTO, under the leadership of Mrs. Passiglia, is also helping to put on our annual school fair. This will happen June 16 with a rain date of June 17th. Classes will be sending out more information.

End of the Year
As the end of the year is approaching, teachers are working to develop next year’s themes and makes sure it is a smooth transition for your child from one grade to another. Third grade children spent time at the Middle School. There was also an informational night for parents. Fourth Grade is in the process of talking to the Middle School about a possible visit.

Next year’s Open House will be from 5:00 to 6:00 pm. This will give parents and students a chance to visit their classroom before the first day of school. The first day of school for all but kindergarten is on Wed. Aug 31. Kindergarten parents will be notified of screening times and their first day.

A special thanks to each and every parent and all the children for a wonderful year.

---

April Excitement...
The Dragon King
Wednesday, April 9th, thanks to our PTO, The Tanglewood marionettes will be performing at Four Corners. The Tanglewood Marionettes is a nationally touring marionette theater based here Massachusetts. Their repertoire consists of classic tales performed by skilled puppeteers.

The Dragon King is an underwater fantasy based on Chinese folklore and fits perfectly as we are currently studying the continent of Asia. The Dragon King is ruler over all things water, and the people are beginning to wonder why he has not brought the life-giving rains in such a very long time. A terrible drought has turned the world brown and lifeless.

The fabulous Chinese Acrobats
On Tuesday, April 12th Stoneleigh-Burnham School has invited us to be part of the audience to see four teams of acrobats perform. Each group has an interpreter who will enrich each assembly with facts about Chinese culture, customs and school life. Thank you Stoneleigh-Burnham.

STARS GRANT
Thanks to Mrs. Sheila Damkholer, out World Culture teacher, we received a STARS Residency grant. This week Robert Rossel and his Symmetry Tile Works team are working with second and third grade students in creating a tile mural. The team will lead the students through each aspect of the seven-step process in the following highly interactive, hands-on sessions:

1. Creating the design and cutting individual tiles (one per students)
2. Working at “eco-stations” to prepare for the next step, creating textures by pressing objects into clay tiles (these tiles will have motifs added by the artist back at the studio and will be sold to customers, giving the students the opportunity to act as “apprentices”)
3. Creating their individual tiles using an assortment of natural/molded objects relating to each of habitats
4. Creating a variety of glazes, learning safety habits and using math and science
5. Glazing their tiles with the colors of each habitat
6. Assembling and gluing the tiles together
7. Grouting, cleaning, and final installations of the completed mural in the school’s interior hallway.

Hats off to young men at our school!
Four Corners is very proud of two young men. Joey Strahan in Grade 3 and Owen Phelps in Grade 4 were part of a large group of people that raised $60,000 dollars by having their heads shaved as part of a fund raiser for the American Cancer Society. Congratulations on your wonderful community service act.

Message from the Associate Principal
The beginning of March has been very busy. Children were treated to one of the staff dressing up as the Dr. Seuss character, ‘the cat in the hat’ on Tuesday. The school gathered in the library where Ms. Allis read them one of his 44 published books to celebrate his birthday.

On Thursday, the 3rd and 4th graders went to Greenfield High School to here the Pioneer Valley Symphony perform.

On Friday, the 3rd and 4th graders went back to the Greenfield High School to view the science exhibits. They also saw the fresh water and marine systems. The children enjoyed both experiences.

This Friday was also the opening of our book fair which will run until next Friday, March 18th. The Book Fair is open every morning 8:00-8:45 AM and 2:45-3:45 PM. The Book Fair is also open the night of evening conferences from 2:45-6:30 PM

Good News! Thanks to Donna Rivers and Judy Draper, two wonderful volunteers, our library books are off the stage and back on the shelves. Only a few books were damaged by our ‘flood.’ We are currently awaiting a new shipment of children’s chapter books.

Enjoy the warming temperatures.

Democracy at Work
This year different children have had an opportunity to assume responsibility by representing their class at student council meeting with the principal. The first group met to develop rules for the cafeteria. The background for this starts in at the classroom level in the fall when each class develops rules for their class during the first six weeks of school. After the December break, it was time to make rules for the cafeteria. The class reps brought their class rules to our Friday meeting. Children looked at how similar the rules were between classes and came up with three rules for the cafeteria. The reps brought these rules back to the classrooms for approval. Once each class voted their approval the rules are posted in the cafeteria. Our rules are:

1. Be Safe

This means sitting, leaving space for the people around you, walking in the cafeteria.

2. Be Responsible

Children need to take care of the papers/containers/ wrappers where they are sitting. They also need to dispose of the lunch trays and milk containers appropriately.

3. Be Respectful

This was the biggest area. Being respectful means eating quietly during the first few minutes. It means listening when others are talking and using an inside voice. Children use good table manners. Children need to stay in a seat once they sit and let other people sit next to them. The last area and the hardest are to listen when an adult signals.

Once the cafeteria rules were established, the staff decided to give the cafeteria a face lift. Different representatives from each room brought in choices of names they would like for the cafeteria. These choices were combined and the reps brought the choices back to the class for a vote. The winning name was the Kids’ Café. Barbara King and students from each grade made our sign. On Monday we will have the grand opening and each of the three lunch groups will cut a ribbon and enter. Children will be invited at Friday’s All School Meeting to wear a favorite outfit for the grand opening. Teachers will be eating with the children and music will play softly in the background. The goal is to make lunch time as enjoyable as possible. Please ask your child how their lunch went on Monday. Our next leadership role involved another set of children. This time we are making school wide rules. This helps everyone who works in the building to be clear on the expectations for children. The same rules apply in the art room as the gym. The rules apply with a guest teacher when the classroom teacher is absent. Children thrive when expectations are the same.

We have one more week and the children will have one week off of school. I hope the children enjoy the outdoors and have a safe time. Parents, I hope you have a snow free week.

Taste of Europe
On Dec. 22, Four Corners held our Taste of Europe celebration. Parents and staff cooked a variety of different recipes from the five countries the Four Corners students had travelled to during December--Germany, Italy, Moldova, Greece and England. By 10:30 the cafeteria was humming. There were delicious samples of traditional foods from each of the countries. Each labeled dish was on a table decorated with the nation's flag. Children moved independently about the cafeteria choosing the dishes they wanted to taste. Foods were served by a combination of parent volunteers and school staff including teachers, ESP's and our amazing custodians, Mr. Denny Phillips and Mr. Chris Phillips. After making their initial choices, children carried their full plates to a picnic in the gym. Many children returned a second time and tried even more new dishes. It was a delicious and wonderful event for all!

	Taste of Europe Celebration December 22, 2010

• Happy New Year!
• The halls are humming with the sounds of busy students.  I had the pleasure of watching some of these busy students this week.   In Ms. Naughton (Grade 4)  the children were learning about polygons and vertices.  The very next day I was in Miss Sullivan’s first grade room and she was teaching about shapes and which ones had…you guessed it… vertices.  I am amazed by the vocabulary and learning that your children are doing.
• Yesterday was the first day students went sliding.  Last year the PTO purchased sleds and the children have been waiting for the snow.  However, they cannot enjoy this activity without snow pants and boots.  Our rule is no snow pants and boots, no snow.  They must confine themselves to the plowed blacktop.  Please be aware that both the physical education teacher, Ms. Russell, and our Let’s Move teacher, Mr. Callery, will be taking the children out snowshoeing/sledding.  Please send your child dressed for these activities.
• This week was national custodial week and the school celebrated, Mr. Chris and Mr. Denny by singing them a song composed by Mrs. Barisano.  Mr. Chris and Mr. Denny are responsible for keeping the building in the beautiful shape it is in.  They also help with sledding, making mazes in the snow and serving food at our Celebration of Europe.  They are two special members of our community.
• The children departed for their next continent today – Australia.  Ms. Naughton’s class did a wonderful smart board presentation all about Australia, “the worlds smallest and flattest continent.”  Each member of her 4th grade class took a turn reading the interesting facts.  The children ohhd and ahhd over the picture of the baby platypus.
• I am going to highlight what Mrs. Domkoeler will be doing in World Culture.  She will be introducing “the classes… to Australia through the book, "Ready to Dream," about a girl who travels with her mother across the ocean to Alice Springs in the center of Australia. She packs her art supplies and during her month-long stay takes trips to different parts of the country. Each time she creates some kind of art, and each time some accident happens to it (paper rips, rocks fall out of her backpack...), and with each 'accident' the old woman that she becomes friends with (an Aboriginal artist) finds a parallel to Aboriginal ideas (crocodiles bite, kangaroos hop...)...finally Ali is 'ready to dream.'

We're starting with a marker/chalk illustration of the ocean (adaptable to all grades) inspired by the cover illustration by Bronwyn Bancroft, an Aboriginal artist.

--NEXT WEEK…all classes will experiment with contemporary Aboriginal designs with homemade play dough.

--OTHER BOOKS, MISC. PROJECTS, etc.
I have an "Australian abc of Animals," also illustrated by Bancroft; and "Koala Lou" by Mem Fox; a couple general paperbacks that introduce Australia; and an updated reprint of M. Slasek's 1970 "This is Australia" that I'll read in parts to at least grades 2 & 3. It's got a vintage feel and needs a bit of explanation, but it's a great overview and I think they'll like it. "My Farm" by Alison Lester goes through a year of seasons with a family.

I'm hoping some classes can make a matching game with American vs. Australian expressions (i.e. candy/lollies, countryside/bush, jumper/sweater....if your class doesn't make the game, they can play it. Some classes may make paper spiral snakes and "dot art" animals too if time allows.

GREAT BARRIER REEF PROJECT
For the Great Barrier Reef, I'll work with all the classes to make handmade felt seascapes with coral 'sculpted' out of dyed fleece (appropriate to use wool since there are so many sheep in Australia). If you've never seen or made handmade felt, this might be hard to imagine, but its fun (squishy and tactile like working with clay) and adaptable for all ages...and we'll probably embellish with creative stitchery and beads at least with the older classes. We'll look at online images and the book "Ocean Life From A to Z"

4th graders will make miniature seascapes using a felting technique developed by artists living in Australia who wanted to create a lighter-weight felt for their warmer climate, called NUNO felt.  As you can see the children will be having a wonderful time.

• I will end with an answer to the question-what do teacher’s do on early release days?  Answer-they receive professional development.  This past Friday teachers at Four Corners met together.  They discussed an article about writing, shared what their current practices were in writing and then started working on rubrics (standard expectations) for each grade.  This will be work that we continue at staff meetings.  The New Year is off to a great start.

Page last updated: November 21, 2011

Home

For Web site queries and questions and to report Web site issues, please contact:
carhol1@gpsk12.org

Privacy and Terms of Use