Singing Science!
By Christina Astrove, 2nd Grade Teacher
For the past 10 years David Haines, a British composer, has come to Cambridge to conduct the Cambridge Family Opera's performances during Science Week. When he comes to Cambridge, he also visits many classrooms in most of the CPS elementary schools where he works with students and teachers to write songs that connect to the Science Curriculum. In a magical hour, David finds out what a classroom of students is studying, elicits information from the students about that science topic, involves students in composing the music and lyrics and, with full student input, creates a fun, informative and catchy tune. As David takes the students' knowledge and helps them make a rythmic and rhyming song, he plays out possible lines of music that teach students about treble and bass notes, major and minor keys and how music is constructed to sound satisfying to the ear. This year David was at our school for 3 full days and taught hour long song writing in 14 SEI and Gen Ed classrooms ranging from Special Start to 4th grade! The original and creative songs were varied and covered such topics as guinea pigs, babies' early development, outer space, Springtime, ticks, translucent, transparent and opaque light, sound waves, migrating ducks, DNA and human rights and rules! Each song had a wonderful, original melody and could be heard being sung by students in each class for several days! While one of David's songwriting days is paid for by a Science grant, the other two days are funded by the Friends of Graham and Parks. Students and teachers look forward to this wonderful annual event and parents can look forward to hearing these songs performed at future family breakfasts!
Dance in the Schools
Room 110 students enjoyed 3 dance classes with Margaux Skalecki from Dance in the Schools, a dance education program integrating movement with academic curriculum. She lead the children in yoga stretching, and improvisational dance. The children enjoyed moving their bodies through space and creating their own circular movements.These classes connected to our science unit on the movement of Light and Sound. Each class ended with a dance circle!
About Dance in the Schools: Dance in the Schools is a program available annually to all students, grades junior-kindergarten through fifth grade, in the Cambridge Public Schools at no cost to them. Professional dance teaching artists are matched with classroom teachers based on schedule requirements, age/grade, standards/curriculum areas of choice and expertise. The program integrates movement and dance with the academic curriculum, utilizing standards-based programming embedded with 21st-century skills. Dance Teaching Artists and classroom teachers actively collaborate before and during the program, to maximize the learning experience for everyone.
G&P Poets
Congratulations to the winners of the Cambridge Public Library & Cambridge Tree Project 19th Annual Poetry Awards from the Graham and Parks School! This year we received nearly 1,600 entries—our most ever--making for a very tough competition! We congratulate everyone who entered for their wonderful poems.
The winners are:
Mahir Mugdho, First Place (tie), Fourth Grade for “Difference”
Margot Kelsey, First Place (tie) Fourth Grade for “Pinecone”
Ryan Liao and Nitzan Garen-Gratzyani, First Place (tie), Fifth Grade for “Shadow” (jointly written poem)
Emilia Ferreira, Second Place (tie), Fifth Grade for “The Election of 2016”
Otto Lindvall, Third Place (tie), Fifth Grade for “I Am Confused”
Big Brothers Big Sisters
Thank you to Big Brothers Big Sisters for a successful first year of partnership! Sixteen G&P students were matched with young adult volunteers, trained by Big Brothers Big Sisters. Participating in the program gave students the opportunity to build a trusting relationship with a college student, receive one on one attention and support, build their self esteem, practice social and communication skills, and so much more. We are so thankful to Big Brothers, Big Sisters for this program and look forward to supporting more Big and Little Brothers, and Big and Little Sisters next year! If you are interested in participating in this program next year, please speak with your child’s teacher or to one of the Family Liaisons, Mildrid or Lauren.