“Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.” Edgar Degas Arpil 2022 NEWSLETTER What's New in April ASAP Living Literature This April we're excited to introduce our older ASAP students to our fabulous, cumulative project: Living Literature. In this we project, we take an illustrated book and bring its story to life on our stage. Pictured: Some students from the first session of K-2 Music, trying out some costumes during a lesson on Polynesian folk music and dancing. This year, we’re exploring the story of Firebird, a Russian cautionary folktale about selfishness and greed. Our older students will be tasked with writing the scripts, acting the parts out, and creating elaborate sets and costumes Our Tuesday music class of K-2 graders will be making and recording the music for the show. It’s sure to be a wild, amazing ride, and we can’t wait to share our hard work this June. Hope to see you at our performance on June 16th! WITH TEACHER ANITA Check out our second video of our teacher highlight series with our ASAP teacher ANITA! WATCH THE VIDEO ECE Art Walk In April, we're excited to work on some special projects for Bellingham's Children's Art Walkthrough Allied Arts of Whatcom County. All of our preschool and pre-k/kindergarten students will have at least 1 piece displayed. Location TBD. Open House Upcoming Early Childhood Open House! April 23rd from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm. If you know someone interested in enrolling for next year, please refer them to the
[email protected] so we can connect. RWSAS Happy Spring from the Science Corner… As the seasons change, so does our focus of inquiry in science. We completed an exciting investigation into electrical circuits and coding, woven together with fabric arts and social studies through creating light-up LED Freedom Quilt squares. We have now begun our Geology of the Cascades unit! Students have been unpacking what they already know about the Earth’s crust, its rocks and minerals, and the unique geologic makeup of our area. We are starting geology labs, first observing silt and sediment layers in a jar of puddle water, then creating our own sedimentary rock by “cementing” dirt in a paper cup. We’ll be making crystals, too and hopefully some old-fashioned baking soda and vinegar volcanoes. As we learn about each type of rock, Cascade volcanoes and Chuckanut sandstone, students are adding to a wonderfully long list of questions on a class chart. At the end of the unit, they will choose how to find and present those answers, communicating through art. An upcoming field trip for this unit is an exciting visit to the Western Washington University Gallery to view an exhibit on Nancy Holt’s “Stone Enclosure: Rock Rings”, an outdoor sculpture on campus created in 1977 with local rock, aligned to the stars, and with perfect geometry. Art and Science go hand-in-hand! Project based learning Project based learning in our class has involved overlapping ideas of movement, people, electricity, biographies and geometry the past few months. Using the platform of electricity and how it moves, we drew a parallel with the movement of people. From migration, immigration and forced relocation we learned about families, entire cultures and individuals who have experienced hardships relating to slavery, forced relocation, and migration. We started learning about the Underground Railroad and the geometry sewn into the quilts that led the way to freedom in the North. We studied the origins of Black History Month and Women’s History Month and coupled those topics with the art of writing biographies. Our weeks wouldn’t be the same without "Try it Tuesday". Trying new food each week has not only expanded our taste buds, but given us a new way to look at food. Learning about where food comes from and how to describe it and write like a true food critic has been invaluable to our writing skills. We’ve created still lifes of artichokes creating value studies, and in contrast we drew bright colored abstract pineapples. Of course on 3/14 we made pie from scratch and double and tripled the recipe to practice our fractions. When it comes to food, knowing your fractions is everything. Who wants an 1/8th of pie or 1/4th of pie? Moving into our next unit, we’ll be looking at a different type of movement, the tiny home movement and different house styles around the world. From construction to completion, with the added bonus of design and poetry, these skills have real world application. Also in continuing the spirit of project based learning, this unit will be complimented in our science unit studying geology and the construction of natural materials and where they come from and how they are made. OPEN HOUSE Registration are open for our open house. Check out this article form WHATCOMTALK about our wonderful staff and their contribution to our programs ! VIEW REGISTER FOR SUMMER CAMP Let's be buddies ASAP/ECE RWSAS
