
Panda Press
November 3, 2023
Dear Thacher Families:
Next week is a bit disjointed with an early release day and two days of no school. As a reminder, there is no school on Tuesday as it is election day and a full PD day for our staff. Wednesday is an early release days as we have parent conferences on Wed. and Thurs. Lastly, there is no school Friday in honor of Veterans' Day.
Sincerely,
Frank W. Rich
Principal
ps. Below is a photo of our October Golden Ticket Winners. Congratulations to all our winners!
TES/ELC Veterans' Day Parade
We would once again like to show our appreciation for our TES/ELC community members who have served our country with a parade. On Thursday, November 9th at 9:15am, students will line the parade route to show their gratitude for our veterans as they parade around the school. The TES/ELC student who has the connection to the active military/veteran will get to walk the parade route with their service member.
If you or a family member is an active service member or veteran of our armed forces and is available to join us on Thursday, November 9th at 9:15am please fill out TES/ELC Veterans Day Parade Google Form by Friday, November 3rd: https://forms.gle/zhHKu8qEpZFHSgnP7.
This Week in Music
Welcome all to music at Thacher Elementary School. The students have been hard at work improving their audiation (thinking musically) through lots of tonal, rhythm, and movement activities. In addition, we are hard at work making sure we improve our performing skills by using our singing voices in increasingly effective ways, and learning some instrument technique along the way as well. Here are some things we have been learning in class…
Kindergarten and First Grade: The students are doing a fabulous job improving their teamwork and cooperation by learning how to quickly and quietly make lines, circles, and other kinds of transitions. We have been learning about some basic instruments like hand drums, rhythm sticks, wood blocks, and egg shakers. Students are continuing to move with flowing motion and have begun to work on moving to a steady heartbeat. Students are also learning lots of new songs to sing. See the picture below to meet our friend, Flo the Blue Dragon. She helps us with our rhythm skills, but is known to bite fingers if we’re not careful…
Second Grade: Second grade students have also been working to improve their movement, tonal, and rhythm skills. Some highlights have been our Pass the Witch’s Broomstick game where students sing while passing a broomstick (or FOUR) around a circle. Because this is an elimination game, we also made sure to be good team players and show good sportsmanship if we “get out.” Students have also done a stellar job learning about and learning to play our xylophone instruments through songs like I’ve Got a Dog. We have even begun learning how to play one part while another student plays something different!
Third and Fourth Grade: Like all grades, our upper level students are working hard to develop their audiation skills further. A recent update for these students is the start of our recorder unit. Third-graders are learning basic skills while playing the first couple of notes. Fourth-grade students have been nailing their review and we are almost ready to begin learning some new songs. We have also been diligently learning some folk dances like Sasha, Chicken on a Fencepost, and Los Machetes. Finally, our upper-grade students are soaring through some basic part-singing and xylophone skills! Fourth-grade families: as per my Rooms message, please mark off December 19th at 6:30 pm on your calendars. You will be BLOWN AWAY by the progress of our chorus students. This year’s holiday sing-along is going to be incredible!
Insights: Our Insights classrooms have been making tremendous progress the past few weeks. Many of our students have been learning to improve their communication skills through music by echoing tonal and rhythm patterns and have been learning some basic dances. We have even been doing some instrument exploring and are hoping to do a deeper dive in the next few weeks. See the video below for some fabulous alphabet singing!
Keep on rocking and enjoy the pictures and video below.
Musically yours,
Mr. Chippo, M.MEd
Music Specialist
Thacher Elementary School
Meet the Staff Mondays
Please click the image above to see Project Connect's newsletter
Upcoming Important Information & Dates
Fee For Service (Bus)
November 3: Harvest Night
November 7: No School (Professional Development Day)
November 8: Early Release Day (Parent-Teacher Conferences - afternoon and evening)
November 8: Half Day Hat Day
November 9: Parent-Teacher Conferences - evening only
November 9: Red, White and Blue Day
November 9: TES/ELC Veterans' Day Parade
November 10: No School (Veterans' Day)
November 13: World Kindness Day
November 14: Picture Retake Day
Thacher Elementary School
Email: frich@attleboroschools.com
Website: http://tes.attleboroschools.com/
Location: 160 James Street, Attleboro, MA, USA
Phone: (508) 226-4162
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thacherelementary