Week of January 27-31

Talking and Walking Art

Today, January 31st, The Cooper School hosted the annual Art Walk.  Each student in Grades K-5 had several pieces of art displayed in gallery style around the school.  Each student also wrote an Artist Statement about why they like art and what inspires them. Parents and family members were able to visit and enjoy all of the works exhibited on the walls.  One of the artists the students looked to for inspiration this year was Kandinsky. You see this study of colors and their relationships in the students’ drawings of circles. The objective of this study was to inspire moods as the students thought of seasons. The children are grateful to Miss Libby for teaching them about this interesting artist and sharing her passion for art. We are all appreciative of the parent volunteers who were so helpful in backing and mounting the students’ art over the past few weeks!

Reading Our Way Through Australia

First Grade is engrossed in their unit on the fascinating continent of Australia. In Reading Workshop, our scholars have been reading non-fiction books about Australia and learning to identify text features such as Table of Contents, Headings, Bold Words, Captions, Photographs, Glossary, and Index. Readers have been reading to find answers as well as comparing and contrasting books they have read. They have learned amazing facts about the animals in the biomes of Australia.  Did you know that there are three times as many sheep in Australia as people, a platypus is highly poisonous, koalas sleep about twenty hours a day, and there are over fifty species of kangaroos and wallabies? These are some of the extraordinary pieces of information our students have learned thus far! Our next concentration is on fiction books by the Australian author of children’s books, Mem Fox. Her characters are often the animals of Australia and her books are beautifully illustrated.

An Architect’s Visit

We had the pleasure this week of a visit from the architects who have designed the Middle School phase of the TCS expansion.  The children were so involved, curious, and expressive! As we gathered in the library, we saw the architectural drawings of the beautiful and functional expansion of the school into the newly acquired building next door and into the space between it and the existing school! The children were asked to share their ideas and questions and generated many positive (and possible) additions to the plans for the immediate and dreamed of future! Onward and upward!

Important Dates:

Monday, February 3: 100th Day of School

Saturday, February 8: Family Fun Night

Thursday, February 13: Valentine’s Day Bake Sale

Friday, February 14: Valentine’s Day

Monday, February 17: February Break