Cheetah Pride Press!

Dear Families,

As we enter the last week of October, students have been engaged in a myriad of fall activities, and have continued demonstrating care for themselves and others. We showered our bus drivers with handmade banners, posters, individual cards, and personalized treats to let them know how much we appreciate all that they do. We will wrap up this month showing our school spirit with a "Fall Foliage Day."

Best,

Joey and Andrea

Memorial Models are chosen weekly by their teacher and have excelled all week in taking care of themselves, others, and things.

Autumn is here! Naturally, the season has shifted into a glorious world of vivid color and beauty. My family and I have enjoyed the past few weekends going to farms, picking apples, leaf peeping, and adventuring corn mazes and pumpkin patches. We hope you find something wonderful to do together during this special time of year.

In the art room, we will be spending this month exploring traditions, different cultures, and the ambiance of the fall time in all sorts of art-making ways!

Below are the ART classroom expectations for each grade level during the month of October:

In Prek and K: students learned how to create SPOOKY PUMPKINS with “MAGIC” (and paint)!

Printing/Copying black paint from one side of the paper to the other: we turned the letter “C” into the letter “O”!!! We noticed that the letter “O” is a lot like a circle or an oval. We added eyes, nose and mouth and created spooky pumpkin faces using the same magical copying process (printing). We made one eye on one side of our oval, and when we closed our paper and rubbed it, we got another eye when we opened it back up! We were so surprised and excited to make such silly faces with our black paint!

Color mixing with the PRIMARY colors, red and yellow to make ORANGE! We learned how to hold, and wash our brushes, and mix paint, like an artist! Ask your child: how do we wash our paint brush?? DIP DRIP WIPE THE TIP!!!!! We learned that if we wash our paint brushes so well, we can mix colors and make new, beautiful colors! We were so excited to see this happen right before our eyes! We also practiced painting INSIDE and AROUND our black lines to turn our spooky faces ORANGE. Then we explored mixing the 3rd primary color, BLUE along with RED and YELLOW to make more beautiful colors like brown, green, and purple for our pumpkins stems!

To finish this unit, we will be practicing SCISSOR SAFETY while cutting out our silly pumpkins and reading the story “Pumpkin Jack” by Will Hubbell (listen to this story here https://youtu.be/O7i3d46_8xM )

First grade students have been exploring SKELETONS!!! We have our very own art room skull, named “Mr. Happy”. (he is not a real skull, but he looks real, and he is very friendly!) We learned how all of the bones in the human body are connected. We have x-rays from a whole “real person” and worked together as a TEAM to put all of the x-rays together to build a life-sized skeleton! We learned about skull bones, spines, hip bones, leg bones, arm bones, shoulder bones, and MORE! We even wondered why we have so many bones, and why they connect in the places they do. When we finished learning about the human skeleton, we began creating our OWN bones with paper and glue, to build our very own “SKELETON IN ACTION”! To add a little more fun into art class while we worked on our “Skeleton Collages”, Mrs. Vining read the story “The Bones of Fred McFee” by Eve Bunting. What a fun, and spooky book (watch this read-aloud here https://youtu.be/qbH-5sHhsf4 )! Some of our skeletons are jumping, dancing, doing gymnastics, kicking a soccer ball, and more! Our own skeletons can help us do so many things!

Second Grade students have been working in art class, as well as in music class, to learn how to “visualize” and “imagine” what a SONG might “LOOK” like, and how we can draw the things that we think of, inspired by the sounds, rhythms, and beats of music with no words. During Music class, the students were introduced to the song, “In the Hall of the Mountain King” by Edvard Grieg (listen to the song here https://youtu.be/4nMUr8Rt2AI ), and drew their own images that come to mind when hearing that song. They then brought their drawings and ideas to art class, where they now are transforming their ideas into characters and MASK MAKING. We are currently creating our own original stories in small groups to perform with the masks we are making, to go along with the song! We will be constructing our masks with PAPER MACHE (in glue form, not in traditional flour form). In order to best design our masks, we spent time during art class exploring, observing and discussing the purpose and qualities of masks from cultures around the world (including where we live, in the USA). We explored masks from the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Japan, Greece, Africa, and more! We learned that in some countries, masks are worn for special celebrations like weddings, nature, or to signify growing up, others are worn only by the most important people to signify wealth, power, or strength, and some countries even just wear them for disguise/fun/performance! We can’t wait to share our final performances and mask masterpieces with you (more information on the performances coming soon)!

Third Grade students listened while Mrs. Vining read ‘Otis and the Scarecrow” by Loren Long to the class (read the story here https://youtu.be/fxK1K1D8AJo ). We observed the artists’ illustrations as we read this wonderful fall-inspired story. We looked for examples of SPACE in the book, where things looked far away, and close up. We discussed why and how that can happen in a picture! How can something look far away on a flat paper, when SPACE is actually 3D in real life?! We are exploring in our next artwork the techniques to create the illusion of SPACE on a flat surface, to create our very own fall-inspired LANDSCAPES! We started using MIXED MEDIA to create our very own “scarecrow” and then we will add them to our landscapes. We are adding many materials in LAYERS to create textural, multi media scarecrows with fabric, felt, straw, sticks, buttons, beads, paint, scrap paper, pompons and more. We are so excited to create our own unique scarecrows right in the middle of the harvest season!

Artist of the month!

I would like to take a moment to congratulate the following students, who were selected for September Artist of the Month! I am so proud of their caring, hard working, and positive behavior during art class! Each month I will be recognizing one student from each grade level for this special award! Keep up the great work, you amazing little artists!

Prek: Owen Cooper

K: Adrian Kokus

1: Eleanor Nilsen

2: John Reis

3: Wyatt Tomkus

Important NEWS about our Art Room Fundraiser:

You child just finished creating a masterpiece for “Art to Remember”, an art fundraiser that will provide funding for the art program at Memorial Elementary School. You will be able to purchase items with your child's work on all sorts of items. Order forms will be coming in the next few weeks, so please keep an eye out for them! Orders will arrive before the winter break and would make a perfect holiday keepsake. Please reach out to me directly if you have any questions about this fundraiser cvining@easthamptonct.org or via parentsquare! You can preview products here: https://arttoremember.com/products

Sincerely,

Mrs. Vining:)

Art Educator, MS Art Education PK-12

cvining@easthamptonct.org

Hi families, I just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Katie Williams and I am the new nurse here at Memorial Elementary School! I have worked as a nurse at a hospital, doctors office and came from another local elementary school before joining Memorial. I live in town with my husband, son who is in second grade, daughter who is in kindergarten, and our spoiled one year old pit/lab mix rescue, Pepper. I love chocolate (especially Nutella), horses, vaccuuming, reading, being outside and spending time with family and friends. It is my goal here to keep our children healthy, safe, in school, and ready to learn. I truly believe that communication is key, so please do not hesitate to contact me if you ever have any questions or concerns. The transition to this school has been amazing. I would like to thank you all for welcoming me and allowing me to take care of your children.

2020-2021 Yearbooks are still available for purchase. Yearbooks cost $20.00 and can be paid with cash or a check made out to East Hampton PTO.

10/25- Board of Education Meeting at 6:30pm

10/26 PE Fitness Summer Challenge Celebration

10/29- Spirit Day-Wear Fall Colors or Patterns (Please see Flyer Below)

11/1- PTO Jog-A-Thon Pajama Day Reward

11/3- Picture Re-Takes

• This week, the Connecticut General Assembly gave the Governor authority to extend Executive Orders through February 15, 2022. Executive Order No. 9, Section 1, and Executive Order No. 13A, provides the authority to require masks in schools, childcare facilities, and certain higher-risk settings, as well as providing municipal authority to require universal masking in certain settings.
• If a student is quarantined, asynchronous assignments will be provided and communicated by your student's teacher.
• Volunteers and guest speakers are welcomed in the building. All volunteers and guest speakers who enter classrooms, hallways, or other areas where children are located will be required to be vaccinated or submit testing results upon entering the school.

The school community of East Hampton is committed to the mission of honoring and celebrating the diversity of our students, our community, and our nation. We strive to guide our students to conscious, deliberate, individual and collective actions that cultivate the respect of all races, religions, and social backgrounds. Our school community endeavors to produce graduates who are equipped with a greater understanding of the concepts of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

The East Hampton Board of Education, in compliance with federal and state law, affirms its policy of equal educational opportunity for all students and equal employment opportunity for all persons. It is the policy of the District to promote nondiscrimination and an environment free of harassment regardless of an individual’s race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, national origin, ancestry, disability (including but not limited to, intellectual disability, past or present history of mental disorder, physical disability, or learning disability), genetic information, marital status, or age or because of the race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, national origin, ancestry, disability, genetic information, marital status, or age of any persons with whom the individual associates. The District shall provide to all students without discrimination, course offerings, counseling, assistance, employment, athletics, and extracurricular activities. The District shall provide equal access to the Boy Scouts and other designated youth groups. The District shall make reasonable accommodations for identified physical and mental impairments that constitute disabilities, consistent with federal and state statutes and regulations.

Email: jbauer@easthamptonct.org
Website: https://www.easthamptonps.org/o/memorial-school
Location: 20 Smith Street, East Hampton, CT, USA
Phone: 860-365-4020
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ehmemorialschool