Kindergarten Heart Hop

All you need is love...and a Kindergarten Heart Hop!  Enjoy some photos from our special Kindergarten event on Valentine's Day. 

Valentines for Veterans

“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” -AESOP

On Friday, the entire CES community created valentines as part of CT’s Valentines for Veterans initiative. Buddy classes met to design and create original cards that will be shared with veterans at Home for the Brave in Bridgeport and other service organizations. Special thanks to all of the parents who donated supplies for this event. The students truly enjoyed the stickers, glitter, pipe cleaners, and other supplies that helped make the cards so creative. Also, thank you to Mrs. Paprotna for delivering the valentines to the state office.

Take a look at the pictures below to see the joy in the children as they made the cards and wrote heartfelt messages to the veterans.

Four huge boxes of cards to deliver!

Guest Bloggers: Getting to Know Mr. Andrews

I am excited to introduce some guest bloggers for The Coleytown Chronicles! Alexa and Georgia are two fourth grade students at CES. They are writing a series of blog posts about fourth grade orchestra. The first post is based on their interview with our orchestra conductor, Mr. Jim Andrews. Please enjoy their writing below.

All About Mr. Andrews by Alexa & Georgia

Do you know which Coleytown staff member loves golf, murder mystery books, fishing, and most of all Beethoven? It’s our own Mr. Andrews, the fourth and fifth grade orchestra teacher. He has been a member of the Coleytown community for 34 years! We took some time to interview Mr. A to find out more about him. So let’s get started!

Mr. Andrews was born in Germany but spent most of his childhood in Massachusetts. There are five children in his family and he is the second oldest. Growing up, he liked to play baseball, golf, and most of all, the bass! He studied music at Yale before becoming a teacher and playing professionally.

As a musician, Mr. A has played all over the country with a lot of famous musicians. In fact, he said there were “too many to count!” In his performances he plays the bass. He plays the bass because it has a beautiful low sound and because not many people play the bass. We asked him if he would rather play or conduct an orchestra and he said that he would rather play in a orchestra but he likes to do both playing and conducting.

One of the many questions we asked was, “What is the hardest thing about teaching? ” His answers were about having patience when dealing with children and adults. It is hard work learning an instrument and practice is so important. Having parents and students support this makes a big difference. Recently the fourth grade just had their first orchestra concert. We practiced a lot for this show. Mr. A practices for hours to ace his performances!

One of the reasons that everyone loves Mr. A is because he is considerate and generous. Whenever he has a free moment, he helps his students by writing out songs, practicing with them, and being a good listener.

William Arthur Ward once said, “A mediocre music teacher tells. A good music teacher explains. A superior music teacher demonstrates. A great music teacher inspires.” Mr. Andrews tells, explains, demonstrates and inspires each day.

Fantastic Friday at CES!

February began with two special celebrations at CES.  Today is World Read Aloud Day.  Each classroom was gifted a new picture book to read together to celebrate our love of literacy.

Mrs. Metke's class read The Remember Balloons by Jesse Oliveros.

Mrs. LaRaia's class read The Rabbit Listened by Cori Doerrfeld.

Mrs. Nicolo's class read Lulu is a Rhinoceros by Jason Flom.

Mrs. Brown's class read The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson.

All of these picture books were chosen for their special messages and themes.  Please ask your child what was read in class today!

We also celebrated our annual "Souperbowl" spirit day.  On the Friday before Superbowl, CES celebrates by wearing sports gear to school.  In addition, we collect cans of soup for a local food pantry.  Thank you to all who donated for this special cause.

Coleytown celebrated today and will continue to celebrate tonight at Movie Night.  I hope to see many families at SES this evening!