IAA Newsletter

As we progress through the month of November and prepare for the Thanksgiving holiday, there are a few important opportunities to engage in your student’s learning before the holiday break at the end of this month. Come join us for a morning of Literacy Fun at IAA's Literacy Breakfasts! See all of the incredible work your children are producing in Readers and Writers Workshops, and during Literacy Boost! Join us on Friday, November 8th from 8:15 - 8:50am (Pre-K, K, 1st, and 2nd grade classrooms) and Friday, November 15th from 8:15 - 8:50am. All IAA students' family members are welcome! Also, on November 22nd, first trimester report cards will be issued providing an opportunity a snapshot into students progress through this point of our school year. Finally, parent-teacher conference opportunities are available on Nov. 25th and 26th. Conference appointment times may allow families the flexibility of scheduling conference times in the mornings or afternoons the week leading up to our conference days to accommodate families’ schedules. We encourage all of our families to take advantage of this individualized conference time. Enjoy the month and the upcoming break!

Mr. Robinson

Dance Theatre of Harlem performance to Inspire Residency at IAA

This year’s whole school Flynn show is Dance Theatre of Harlem on November 20th at 10:30am. In January, we will have dance teaching artist Ashley Hensel-Browning working alongside the Flynn, classroom teachers, and Ms. Molly Prufer (P.E. teacher) to lead students as they choreograph dances using themes that they observe in the show. Students will explore themes of community and leadership (Civics, C3) with movement using the Dance Theater of Harlem performance as inspiration to collaboratively create their own performance (Dance, NCAS). Stayed tuned for more information about a culminating performance at a Friday Town Meeting.

ONE-Sings program begins the first week of November in kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade. ONE-Sings gets students singing songs that have been collected by instructor Brian Perkins from the Old North End and also helps to lay the foundation for the ONE-Strings program that begins in 3rd grade and runs 20 weeks in 4th and 5th grades.

@iaavt

Each kindergarten student has started building a deck of cards. They are practicing writing numbers, one-to-one correspondence, learning about texture, line, color, geometric shapes, and a variety of tools and art-making techniques.

Ms. Rose’s 1st grade class is exploring apples and pumpkins in art, science, and math. Students are learning about the life cycle, decomposition, and representing the fruits in a variety of ways. Ms. D’s 1st grade class is applying time, focus, and commitment to their artmaking with a growth mindset. Their current assignment integrates writing with creating a character sketch and cartooning.

2nd grade is preparing for their upcoming unit about bats integrating science, ELA, and drama.

3rd grade is working hard on planning and creating pottery for FIll the Bowl. Students visited Burlington City Arts Studios in October to make two bowls each. In November students will underglaze professionally-made bowls. For more information and how to get involved ask Mr. Scott, Mr. Witman, or Ms. Emily. Review our call for artists and consider donating artwork for the silent auction.

4th grade is collaborating with Mr. M to integrate science and music. Visit Mr. Myregaard’s section for all the details.

5th grade is exploring volume and 3D forms in math using art. Keep your eyes peeled for an installation piece inspired by the Burlington skyline.

Congratulations to former IAA drama coach and current IAA teaching artist, Joan Robinson, of Burlington, VT on receiving the Ellen McCulloch-Lovell Award in Arts Education!

Joan has worked as a teacher, storyteller, actor, cartoonist, librarian, playwright, and—for more than twenty years—adjunct faculty in St. Michael’s Graduate Education Program. As the first education director, then school programs director at the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts, she initiated the organization’s year-round performing arts classes, created “Words Come Alive!” and helped found the Integrated Arts Academy (IAA). She later served as drama coach at IAA. Additional career highlights include creating Ilsley’s Haunted Library, touring Vermont as Ms. Frizzle, and co-writing the play Bigger Than All of Us. Joan continues working happily as a Flynn teaching artist.

Read more about the Ellen McCulloch-Lovell Award in Arts Education.

In late October, Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR), a Haitian-American violinist and composer, visited IAA’s fifth-grade classrooms and even taught Mr. Robinson and Ms. Emily how to play the violin! Fifth grade will be seeing DBR’s student matinee at the Flynn in December, and will continue to work with this incredible artist, educator, and activist over his next several visits to Vermont. DBR is a community artist-in-residence for the 2019-2020 season, through a collaboration between the Flynn, UVM’s Lane Series and the Vermont Symphony Orchestra.

IAA PTO Meeting on Thursday, November 7, 6-7:30pm in the cafeteria. Our guest speaker is Autumn Bangoura, the district’s Equity Instructional Leader. She will share about her role in the district and lead a discussion around parental engagement with an equity lens. We will also be hearing from Ms. Jen in the library and the library resolution the school board passed.

All are welcome. Free childcare and pizza for $1/slice.

As cold and flu season is quickly approaching please make sure to be reinforcing good hand hygiene, the #1 defense against germs! And just a reminder, if your child gets sent home with a fever, please make sure they have been fever free for 24 hours before returning to school! Thank you for your efforts to keep our school healthy!

Boxtops for Education:

The "Boxtops for Education" program has moved into the digital age with it's own app and IAA is still participating in the program. If you have the traditional coupons, please send them in to school for Mrs. Mongeon. With the app, it is so much easier to collect money for our school. Download the app, register for IAA, (our school ID is 591246) scan your receipt and you're DONE! For more details go to https://www.boxtops4education.com/en/How%20To%20Earn or email lmongeon@bsdvt.org.

Since the program began, IAA has earned $ 8,829. Our goal for this year is $1000 and we have already earned $284. This is an easy way to earn funds for IAA while doing your regular grocery shopping.

Price Chopper Tools for Schools:

• Help our school earn free classroom equipment from Price Chopper!
• Simply sign up your AdvantEdge Card and each time you shop, our school will earn points towards free classroom equipment! We'll get a bonus for every 20 new card sign-ups.
• To enroll your card, please visit www.pricechopper.com/tools-schools. Our school code is 15177. Points will count until December 28.
• Also, if you have the opportunity, please share this with your family, friends and neighbors. The more supporters we have, the more opportunities our school has to earn points!
• Thank you!

We have had an exciting month of October! In all grades we focused on storytelling. Students participated in interactive storytelling with the stories “The Little Old Lady
Who Was Not Afraid of Anything” and “Anansi and the Moss Covered Rock”. We zoomed in on character traits this month across the grade levels. In kindergarten and first grade we shaped our bodies to look like characters from the story and in grades 2-5 we did character interview. Character Interview is a great opportunity for children to pretend to be a character from the story and for the audience to ask questions about how they felt at times during the story or what would they have done differently. Hats off to all for their hard work!

Happy November IAA Friends and Families!

Exciting projects are aplenty in the art room this month. Firstly, Kindergarteners are wrapping up their Alexander Calder inspired mobiles to be displayed around the school. Keep an eye out! First graders are moving onto a printmaking unit that explores the repetition of designs and the collaboration of work put together into an art quilt. Second graders have begun a zentangle project, which focuses on a variety of patterns that include repetitions of line and shape. Third graders are rounding out their Surrealism unit by creating surrealism animals inspired by Salvador Dali. Fourth graders are applying radial symmetry by creating mandalas by hand. Fifth graders are beginning to learn about value and shading and will ultimately end with a still life project. The bulletin board has been updated with new art and can be located adjacent to the main entrance of the school.

As always, keep an eye out for updates on my Instagram page: @cprinciart!

Warm wishes,

Ms. Princi

In the month of October we have sung some songs about Fall, using apples and falling leaves as a theme. The 5th grade continued to play their hand-written compositions and then began to learn how to login to MusicFirst, an online, cloud-based music classroom, where they can access Noteflight to compose their music. 4th graders practiced reading music and then began to copy notes on paper and compose their own rhythmic ideas. 3rd graders supported their Music & Fraction integrated arts unit in the music room by learning to read simple rhythms. K, 1st and 2nd graders participated in some wonderful singing and music games, using our fall themes to set the tone!

Mr Myregaard

bmyregaa@bssdvt.org

www.iaamusic.weebly.com

@IAAMusicVT

Hello Families,

Hopefully by now, you have received your child's personal catalog for Square 1 Art! All you need to order is your student's access code, and you can order online. All orders must be placed by November 15th and no late orders can be accepted as part of the fundraiser. Please turn in order forms (and payment) to your students classroom teacher, and they will hand them in to me. You may pay with a card online, cash, or check. Part of all the proceeds will be added to the library budget, and go towards purchasing more materials for the library (this years profits will be used to purchase more Playaways, batteries and earbuds for students and this years Dorothy's List Voting Lunch).

Students in 4th and 5th grade are going to be kicking off a study in digital literacy, and how to be smart media consumers and make sure their information is truthful.

If you have any questions, want to chat or volunteer your time, please let me know!

Check us out on Instagram @iaa_library

IAA Library Wish list on Amazon

Ms. Jen

jpeake@bsdvt.org

Hello! I teach weekly Social Emotional Learning (SEL) classes to K-2 students. I also meet with grades 3-5 but on a more limited basis. I begin every SEL class with a moment of mindfulness (students may opt out and just sit quietly).

Mindfulness is very simply, but not very easily, the act of noticing. To help students focus, I use an electric candle for a centerpiece. Then each week, we choose one tool to practice mindfulness (ie. bells, singing bowl, variety of breath work).

The goal is for students to explore mindfulness as a means of self-regulation. With these tools they can take moments to practice mindfulness while waiting in line, eating lunch, riding the bus or before going to sleep. For more information on mindfulness, click on the following link by Dan Harris: Why Mindfulness is a Superpower. There are also several books on mindfulness in the IAA library that you can checkout to read with your student at home.

Two 4th/5th grade English Learner reading groups recently read the book A Sweet Success: The Story of Mikaila Ulmer by Cheryl Block.

Mikaila Ulmer is a young girl who started her own lemonade business at the age of four. Her lemonade is made with local honey, and she sends honeybees to families in need around the world.

Both reading groups read the text, discussed it, then wrote about ways Mikaila helps honeybees, what surprised them most about Mikaila, or how she inspired them.

The book is from the Fountas & Pinnell Classroom kits, bought by the BSD Curriculum Department.

Here are a few pictures from our celebration, in which we supported Mikaila's business- Me and the Bees Lemonade!