Introducing...(From left to right)

Ms. Verock - Art

Mrs. Steele-Hunter - Library

Mr. Herk - P.E. - (Physical Education)

Mrs. Guilbault - Music

Mrs. Disch - STEAM - (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics)

Below is Mrs. Johnson - SEL - (Social Emotional Learning)

ACES art classes have been learning about the American Art movement called Pop Art and its founding member Andy Warhol. Third and fourth grade students are in the process of using their hand outline to create their own pop art piece. First, second and kindergarten have been designing their own pop art soup cans and putting them together to create one big pop art piece.

- Ms. Verock

Our library is buzzing with excitement as students have begun checking out books to keep in their classrooms! This year, we’re focusing on building strong reading habits and personal responsibility. Students in Grades 3–4 will also continue strengthening their digital literacy skills through Epic Reading. Our K–2 learners are enjoying seasonal read-alouds that highlight themes connected to our school CARES values—community, accessibility, responsibility, excellence, and safety. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out!
(ksteelehunter@arrsd.org) - Mrs. Steele-Hunter

November has students learning patriotic songs to be sung in honor of Veteran’s Day.  This year the students of ACES are all learning the Star-Spangled Banner; many of us do not know the words and are unaware that this song has multiple verses. We are also singing a song “Thank you Soldiers” which students love and is a very touching song and “You’re a Grand Old Flag” one of the favorites because of the march style and energy.

Through November and December 2nd and 3rd grade students will be working on creating and performing a rhythm composition that they have written. Students are planning how to make this interesting and will be choosing the percussion instruments that they will add to their performances. 

2nd grade students in December will begin learning about the various instruments and their families in the orchestra and folk music. 3rd grade students are beginning to learn about the musical staff and pitches in preparation of learning how to play the soprano recorder. 

4th grade students have been working on project based learning by creating a school song. Students have chosen a “known song” and have been re-writing the lyrics to be about Aces, Aces values and other things that make this school what it is. As December approaches 4th grade students will be learning about Tchaikovsky and the Nutcracker Suite, along with Duke Ellington and his version of the nutcracker.

Kindergarten and First grade students continue to sing songs, move to music and create/improvise these movements within the music classroom. Students will begin to use more percussion instruments to show steady beat, tempo and dynamics of music they hear and create. 

The chorus has begun meeting and students are trying to learn many songs in a short amount of time in order to sing at a December 18th. concert. 

Keep listening to and enjoying the music all around you.

It has been an exciting month in gym!  We played a new game called Mario Kart Battle Mode.  All classes had a great time and are looking forward to playing it again before the end of the year.  So far only 5 students have made the Almost Impossible Shot.  Students love the difficult challenge they earn when they show the CARES values in P.E.  

Reminder:  Please have students bring a pair of sneakers or wear them to school for gym class.  Many students are wearing heavy boots with the cold weather and trying to run around the gym with them on, which is difficult and makes participating hard.  

Have a great holiday season!

~Mr. Herk  

In STEAM students signed in to their Seesaw portfolios and used the various tools to take a selfie, draw a digital self portrait, type their names, and record their voices.  Please email me at gdisch@arrsd.org if you did not receive the QR code to sign in to your student’s Seesaw portfolio and you would like to get that connection.

Next, students in each grade were challenged to plan and design a simple machine.  Kindergarten students built ball and ramp experiments. Ask your student which rolls faster and farther, a high ramp or a low ramp?  Which ball rolls faster; big or small?  First graders designed their own original catapults. Second graders designed their own pulleys with an explanation of how their pulleys would be best used.   Third graders designed their own wheel experiment to prove that wheels make vehicles go fast and farther and can lift a heavier load.  Finally, fourth graders put simple machines together to design a chain reaction.  Throughout this unit, students worked on critical thinking and engineering skills, observing, predicting, learning about force and motion, thinking creatively, and working together.  All of the above designs and observations were recorded in Seesaw so be sure to keep those notifications on!

Currently we are starting a new unit where students are learning to code many new robots!  Coding is a fantastic way for students to build problem-solving skills, creativity, and confidence as they learn to think like computer scientists. Students are using block coding which is a fun, accessible, visual, way for all students to program and develop algorithmic thinking.

- Mrs. Disch

The month of Thanksgiving brings us to the character trade of GRATITUDE. During our Social Emotional Learning lessons, we will learn about what gratitude is, how it feels and the things and people that can bring us to gratitude. We will also spend time discussing the gratitude that Native Americans had and still have for the Earth. December will bring us into the character trait of Empathy. We will discuss what it means to be empathetic and read some mentor texts that will help express that feeling from us. We will also talk about how we can act on empathizing with others in order to make the world a better place. Some of our mentor texts that we will be using are included. If you have any questions about our SEL lessons, please feel free to reach out to me at tjohnson@arrsd.org

ACES art classes started off the year with a look into Op Art by Bridget Riley. Her art utilizes line, shapes, colors and space to trick the audiences eyes. Students were challenged to create some of their own op art.

Art classes were also introduced to the Japanese Princess of Polka Dots, Yayoi Kusama. The classes decorated pumpkins in the style of Yayoi.

Hello families! My name is Mrs. Steele-Hunter, and I am excited to be joining the school community as your new Library Media Specialist this year. We’ve already hit the ground running in the library.

In grades K-2 we’re diving into engaging stories while building key literacy skills to support early reading development. In grades 3-4 students have begun digital literacy lessons focused on how to be respectful, responsible digital citizens and how to use technology properly.

My goal this year is to get the library fully up and running, with students able to check out books by the end of the year. I can’t wait to share the joy of reading and digital literacy with all of our students!” Thank you! Please let me know if you have any questions. Kaylee.

Students are learning the school values and expectations in the classroom as we learn about composers, music notation, songs for fall and Veterans Day. The fourth grade will begin a project to create a song for the school and it’s C.A.R.E. value

We are off to an awesome start in P.E. this year! We have been talking a lot about good sportsmanship and what that means and looks like. At the end of each class students have been earning almost impossible shots for their great effort in class. Please remember to have students wear sneakers on their gym day. In most cases it’s the day after they have Library.

Hi, I’m Mrs. Disch! So far, students have been getting acquainted with classroom activities and STEAM building materials. Click here to view my Open House slides. I am also working on creating a digital portfolio on SEESAW for each ACES student. I will be sending out QR codes to students’ portfolios this month, so stay tuned!

Hello! I'm Mrs. Johnson, and many of you may have known me since second grade. I've taken on a new role, and this year I will be teaching Social Emotional Learning to all classes. Social Emotional Learning focuses on five competencies: self-awareness, social awareness, decision-making skills, relationship skills, and self-management skills. We are currently focusing on kindness and differences. We are already learning our core values ​​for ACES: community, acceptance, responsibility, excellence, and safety. I will be introducing students to reference texts about differences they may encounter in school—such as autism, Down syndrome, and individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing, to name a few examples—and how acceptance is integrated into our core values ​​as these differences are noticed and embraced in our school community. I am so excited to teach such an important and helpful subject and look forward to working with your students this year!