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!

CES Learns

Friday was an amazing day at Coleytown. We had our first CES Learns event!

What is CES Learns?

CES Learns is based upon our district professional development day called Westport Learns. At Westport Learns, teachers offer different workshops to their peers on a variety of topics in education. Each teacher gets to choose what workshops he/she wants to attend that day. I have attended workshops on many different topics, such as mindfulness in the classroom, engineering practices in NGSS units of study, and purposeful play in the primary grades. We successfully copied this model for our first ever CES Learns!

The Coleytown community offered 19 different workshops for our students. Students voted on their top three choices and were guaranteed one of these three. The following workshops were presented:

For grades K, 1 and 2: Origami, Irish Step Dancing, Fundamentals of Basketball, Math Adventures, Makerspace, Engineering Challenge, Winter Mural, Building Fun, Singing Silly Songs, and First Aid Basics.

For grades 3, 4, and 5: Drawing Cartoons, Cooperative Games, Scrapbooking, Making Collages, Learning about Composers, Yoga, Reader’s Theater, Juggling, and Math Adventures.

Students were so excited to transition to their classes and work with students and teachers from other grades. Smiles and laughter filled the building, and at the end, multiple students asked me when we would be having our next CES Learns. Please be sure to ask your child about this special day!

Check out some photos from the day:

Math Adventures

Reader's Theater

Creating a winter mural

Makerspace creations

Basketball

Origami

Building fun

Yoga

Cartooning

Creating scrapbooks

Making collages

Engineering-will the Big, Bad Wolf blow the house down?

First Aid

Juggling

Irish Step Dancing

Final mural

Coleytown Charters

In September, each classroom at Coleytown developed a charter. The charter is a document

that describes how we want to feel in school. Creating a charter empowers students to

co create a positive emotional environment with shared accountability.

We used a few key questions in developing these charters:

● How do we want to feel in school?

● What do we need to do to ensure we feel this way?

● How do we handle situations in which the charter is not being upheld?

Below are some sample class charters:

Thanksgiving is a wonderful time for classrooms to reflect on these charters. Students and staff can reflect on which feelings from the charter are aligned with the spirit of Thanksgiving. They can think about what they have done this school year to make others experience these feelings and how they want to continue "living" the charter each day. Practicing gratitude and reflecting on the charter are important practices for all members of the CES community.

In addition, families can participate in this wonderful work. Last week, all classroom teachers sent home optional activities about family charters. These were developed by the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. These activities are for families interested in learning more about family charters and continuing this work at home.

We will continue to share information about our charters throughout the school year.

Saugatuck Congregational Church Thanksgiving Feast

On Friday during Community Time, the Coleytown staff and students made cards for the annual Saugatuck Congregational Church Thanksgiving Feast.  This is the 17th year that the CES community has made cards and decorations for this event.  Buddy classes worked together to create creative cards.  It's a wonderful way for the CES community to make a difference in our larger community.  Below are some photos of the buddies creating their masterpieces!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING COLEYTOWN!

Literacy Buddies

Today we welcomed students from Staples High School to Coleytown Elementary School.  These high school students are enrolled in a Children's Literature class and will be acting as "literacy buddies" for the CES students this semester. These buddies will engage in a variety of literacy activities with each other. 

Why do we have these literacy buddies?  For the high school students, they will have an opportunity to share their understanding of early childhood literacy with an audience.  In addition, they will be able to provide feedback to the second graders about their reading and writing.  For our second grade students, they will be have an authentic audience for their own reading and writing.  

In October, the high school students wrote introduction letters to their second grade buddies.  The second graders were so excited to receive these letters and write back!  

Today, the high school students came to CES to read to Mrs. Boyle's class.  Students brought different picture books to read aloud to their buddies.  They asked questions throughout to prompt discussion with the second graders.  Second graders also read from their book boxes to their high school buddies.  All of the children were engaged and happy to be reading with each other.

High school students will be visiting the other second grade classes next week.

Check out some pictures from the day!

Under Your Nose

We were very excited to welcome Mrs. Shandley McMurray, CES parent and author, to CES today for a special visit!  Shandley read her book Under Your Nose: A Book About Nature's Gifts to the students in kindergarten, first and second grade.  This story is about two children who go to a cottage for a week without their digital devices.  They adventure into the woods and realize there are so many wonderful gifts and experiences "right under their noses!"  With the help of their grandfather, they come to realize the importance of protecting our environment.

Shandley read this story to the children and answered many questions about being an author and how we can take care of our environment.  The students shared wonderful ideas such as cleaning up garbage and recycling.  The students were excited to hear about how Shandley gets inspiration for her stories and how she uses real life experiences with her own children when writing her books.

After the reading and discussion, Mr. Alfano (CES Science Coach) met the students at the playground.  The task for the students was to look for "gifts from nature" just as the two children had done in the story.  The students were scientists outside, observing and sketching their discoveries.  Students were amazed to find baby acorns, feathers, sticks, insects, and many other "gifts" from nature.  

Thank you so much to Shandley McMurray for visiting CES today.  I encourage all CES families to go outside in this beautiful weather and look for the beauty in nature "right under our noses."

To learn more about Shandley and her books, please visit her website at:

http://www.shandleymcmurray.com/