Dear Genet Families!
Happy Friday! This week was wonderful at Genet with some of our grade levels accessing our MakerSpaces and working on STEM Projects! It truly is amazing to see our students work together, collaboratively, to problem solve. If any families have any old and unused items such as Legos, and are looking for a good home to donate to, please reach out to your child(ren)’s teacher. We will get back to families if any unwanted items would be beneficial to bolstering our supplies for STEM activities. Thank you in advance for your consideration!
Winter months can bring with it snow and fun, but it also brings with it sickness and potentially the flu. We have had a few students come down with the flu and various other sickness and we are encouraging them to remember to cough into their arms and wash their hands with soapy warm water. This is done to fend off any potential sharing of any sickness. As a reminder, if your child(ren) has a fever, please keep them home and notify the school of their absence. Please help us reinforce these good practices with your child(ren) at home to promote good health!
One of the most important factors in determining student success is a student’s attendance at school. When students are frequently absent, they miss out on important activities, learning opportunities and student-teacher interactions that take place in the classroom. This can also have an impact on student learning when students are habitually tardy (coming in late or leaving early) to school. We look forward to a continued year of success working together and watching your child(ren) grow!
As a reminder, Genet is working to support the Albany Ronald McDonald House. We will be partnering with the Ronald McDonald House during the month of January as part of our school-wide read-a-thon! The program supports the Ronald McDonald House of Albany, which provides housing and supportive services to families of children who are sick and receiving treatment from our local area hospitals. Currently, I am reading “Ready Player One” by Ernest Cline and to date I have read 13 books! I encourage our students and families to keep reading!
Updates from the Music Room, by Mrs. Scolaro
In music class this week, students in grades K-5 played boomwhackers to reinforce musical concepts taught in class (steady beat, ostinato, scale). A boomwhacker is a lightweight, hollow, color-coded, plastic tube, that is tuned to a musical pitch by length. Kindergarten and first graders learned a new song while playing the boomwhackers and students in grades 2-5 learned how to play an ostinato (repeated musical pattern) using the instrument. Next week we look forward to continuing with our boomwhackers unit with students in grades 2-5 composing their own songs in groups! I can’t wait to hear what wonderful compositions these students will create!
Updates from the Art Room, by Mrs. Letourneau
Third graders are completing their awesome Picasso Blues Guitar project. This involved a variety of skills….drawing, painting, cutting, tracing, measuring, and gluing. Students did a great job and had fun creating all different values of blue, using white paint. We are just about ready to start our clay unit. In third grade, students learn how to create a slab of clay by rolling it out, and using a variety of tools and supplies to form a clay owl. We also use rubber texture mats to press into the clay. Learning about and reinforcing clay terms and procedures takes place at every grade level. Each year we build upon the skills from previous years. Sometimes we use glaze as our final coat, but for the owls we use bright oil pastels over the ceramic and then dip them into a bath of black tempera paint. Students are totally amazed at the striking results.
A list of upcoming events at Genet:
- January 17-19th, 2020 – Winterfest at Goff Middle School (Saturday)
- January 20, 2020 – Martin Luther King Jr. Day – No School
- January 30, 2020 – District Wide Choral Presentation @ CHS – Grade 4 and 5 – Permission slips were sent home this week. Please sign and return to your child(ren)’s classroom teacher as soon as possible.
I hope to see many of you at Winterfest this Saturday at Goff Middle School! The Goff Gym will be filled with bounce houses for children to enjoy!
Thank you for your continued support of Genet and have a great weekend!
Sincerely,
Wayne Grignon
Principal