New Page 0

Got news?

lynneshapiro627@yahoo.com

Do you have Sunday’s New York Time Magazine’s “The 7th Annual Year in Ideas”? Please donate it to Lynne Shapiro & Mike Mooney for their Middle School Science Fiction Seminar. “We need about 10 more copies! They’ll make a great “textbook” for the course! Think before you recycle!”

Windows at OLG : Construction will begin Tuesday at OLG on windows on the 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd floors and staircases. All safety regulations will be followed. For example, the stairwell will be closed as windows are being replaced in that stairwell, and we will use a different stairwell. As I’m informed, I promise to keep you informed. Carol

Kuumba Day at OLG was a fabulous event. Our 3^rd graders were outstanding; their dancing was infectious. Seventh Principle Dance Company did a wonderful job teaching them a brand new dance, new to Elysian! The babies – Victor and Ibrahim (Candance and Ya Yah’s twins) and Marie Agnell (Yo Bo’s little girl) graced the room and added to the warmth and community spirit. Thank you third grade teachers, Amanda and Ashley, for your hard work and constant encouragement of your students. A huge thank you to Pamela Strell and Pat Kelly, co-chairs of this year’s KUUMBA Day. You and your team of volunteers did a magnificent job for this joyous and celebratory event.

Thanks to those who sewed the students’ shirts – Robin Erichsen, Diana Bittern, and Janet Rothermil! Thank you, Susan Chait, for designing a beautiful new Kuumba shirt. There are so many Elysianites to thank, without whom Kuumba Day would not happen. We can’t wait ‘til next year.

The Friends of Elysian Annual Appeal Campaign is Underway

As our director, Carol Stock, explained in the recent Hoboken Reporter article, charter schools receive less funding than the traditional public schools and are therefore responsible for making up shortfalls in their budgets. Monies raised from annual appeal campaign help us close that gap and ensure the future of our charter school.

Similar to last year, the appeal this year will benefit our Building and Facilities Fund. Be on the lookout for our detailed appeal letter to arrive in your mailbox early this week. You can make your annual tax-deductible donation by check or credit card or you can donate on line at www.friendsofelysian.org. Once again, we are hoping that all families contribute to this appeal. It only takes $1 to be a part of this important fundraising drive.

We also need your help to extend our annual appeal mailing list. If you know of a grandparent, relative, business associate or friend who would be willing to donate to our school, please send us their contact information so we can get a letter out to them. You can send addresses to Grace Leong at gtleong@optonline.net. Or, you can send your contacts directly to our web site to read a copy of our annual appeal letter and donate on line.

Following up on previous letters to you, today, I want to tell you about what the 6, 7th and 8th Graders are doing.

Sixth Grade: In sixth grade, the students have the choice of taking a recorder (renaissance flute) class or to continue with their study on the Orff instruments. This year we have 2 recorder classes and 1 Orff class.

The school purchases recorders and books for the Recorder players and, this year, has purchased a number of small glockenspiels for the Orff players to take home on lone for the year. All students are asked and expected to practice at least 10 minutes a day, 5 days a week, on their instruments.

The Recorder students are learning to read full staff notation, like professional musicians and well-trained amateurs do. The students now can easily identify 5 notes on this staff, can write their own music on the staff using these notes and can sight-read and perform short folk songs reading from staff notation. These students are also learning how to create their own rhythm pattern variations on songs that they are playing in class—this is one important way of learning how to improvise and compose that is used by professional musicians.

The Orff players are also learning to read, write and compose using staff notation. Right now this group has just moved from the 2 line staff to the full 5 line staff. The Orff players are studying scales, pitch patterns (the “words” of music), intervals (harmony) and chords. They are learning how to improvise with these “ materials” and are also playing short rounds such as “Coffee” and are learning Jingle Bells, which they will play in 2 parts.

7th & 8th Grade: In 7th and 8th grades the students are offered music seminar classes in sessions that meet 2ce a week for 10 weeks. This year’s first music seminar was the Broadway Musical. In this class, students learned what it takes to put together a musical, and more importantly why add music and dance are added to a play. The students watched and discussed “West Side Story”, excerpts from “Show Boat”, “Porgy and Bess”, “Fiddler on the Roof”, “Cats “and “The Lion King” as well as excerpts from the PBS series “The American Musical” (a highly informative series about the history of American Musical Theater). The students are worked on final projects choosing subjects that they wanted to learn more about. Topics covered included: costumes, make-up, theater sound-systems, and set mechanics. Several students chose to interview people who saw West Side Story on Broadway to find out what it was that interested these people in musicals in general and West Side Story in particular. One of our students chose to draw and write about racial and class issues that were so powerfully expressed in West Side Story. The students brought in their completed projects on the last day of class and shared them with each other.

The second music seminar session, taught by Aram Rubenstein-Gillis and I is called Lyrics and Music. In this seminar our students will have the opportunity to learn how to write songs in one or two forms (the Blues, and if we have time, Chorus with Verse) and create their own melodies for their lyrics—unlike past years where the students just composed the lyrics. Currently they are writing Lyrics and music in the Blues form. The students are starting to improvise on pentatonic scales on the Orff instruments and to experience how groups of musicians improvise together. The students are so interested in this work that we may choose to spend the whole seminar on the Blues Form.

The 7th and 8th graders also have the opportunity to join the ECS Rock Band, taught by Aram and I. We meet once a week to work on age appropriate rock music that will be performed at community meetings later in the Year. The band has been working on “Uninvited” by Alanis Morissette.

In my next letter, I will tell you about what your children are doing in our small group music classes for grades 3-5. As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at school by note or by phone (201) 795-4692.

What to do on SNOWY days or SERIOUSLY INCLEMENT weather

Elysian will follow the pattern of the Hoboken public schools. If Hoboken public schools are closed, we are closed. Listen to the radio and television stations; if they announce Hoboken schools are closed, know Elysian is closed.

On the mornings of school closings, after 6:30 AM, Carol will send an email home to all parents. After 6:30 AM, you may call (917) 344-0798. Carol will answer the phone.

To anyone who must leave home before 6:30 AM, please call the above phone number.

· Arts to Grow, 2:30 – 4:30 make-up Session. Parents of participating children please take note!

Did anyone find a lost cell phone at KUUMBA Day? Please call the office.

January 12^th Chili Cook-Off: We still need chili- makers! Contact Gene at 201 653-4919 or genstein@optonline.net

Shop INNISBROOK WRAPS online ! Elysian’s number is 120231.

Flag Football! Elysian won its first game on Sunday, December 9. Jonathan Ramos, Derek De La Cruz and John Kluepfel each scored two touchdowns!