Back At It

First, a little fun!

Students this week enjoyed one of this year's hottest dance songs at the end of each class. During this time, students are encouraged to free move and dance with the music, coming up with the most interesting and creative dance moves. Here are some clips!

Save the Date!

A Night of the Arts

All School Art Show, Silent Auction, Art Sale in conjunction with a short concert by the Pre-K, Kindergarten, Grade 1, and Grade 2 classes.

Wednesday, April 29

6:00 p.m.

All families are invited to attend.

Performers should meet outside the art room at 6:00 p.m. dressed in shorts, jeans, skirts or pants and a solid-colored shirt. Parents can then proceed to the silent auction.

In music, Pre-K to Grade 2 has been preparing for their short concert on April 29, still spending at least one day working on the piano. Pre-K classes transitioned to the keyboards this week, learning Mary Had a Little Lamb using colored notation that matches both the stickers on the keyboard and their bell sets. Many students were successful in learning the first two measures of the song.

Grades Kindergarten to 4 are working partly on the piano and partly with the iPad app called Piano Maestro. This app teaches note reading, rhythm, and correct fingering, all using real background music. The students progress through a "Journey" and their progress is reported back to me. If you would like to use this app at home, it is free with their school account. Please email me for login information.

Grades 5-8 are starting a Garage Band project as well as planning our June concert. The Garage Band project is from the perspective of an advertising agencies creating short radio spots in GarageBand as advertisements for books. The students choose a book they love and create a short commercial within several guidelines. We hope to progress to a television commercial after the audio commercials are created.

Dates to remember:

April 29 at 6:00 p.m.- A Night of the Arts
June 10 at 6:30 p.m.- The PRIS Factor: an end-of-year variety show

In library class, Pre-K students started learning about honesty by focusing on trust. Students read Butterfingers to understand what carelessness can do to trust. Kindergarten and up had a technology week, with the younger students using the iPads to find books and the older students using Destiny Quest to make book recommendations to each other.

Stay tuned for more from our PRIS Students and don't forget to check out the library and music YouTube page (and subscribe)!

PRIS Music & Library YouTube Page

Note: Comments are moderated and for privacy reasons, cannot include students' names. Please direct specific inquiries via email.

Who Needs a Break?

Who needs a break when we're still having fun and learning?

Here is the Pre-K 3-year-old class with an update on their recording of I Can Sing a Rainbow.

Annie, Jr. was a big hit and the kids did an AMAZING job. Here is a slideshow of the pictures taken at the performance:

To view and download the pictures individual, click here.

The Annie, Jr. file, transferrable via USB flash drive, will be available FREE OF CHARGE.

The videographer of Annie, Jr. has offered to provide official DVDs with print case and cover to any parent who wishes to purchase one for 40,000 IDR. Please fill out the form below if you would like an official DVD. Otherwise, an email will be sent home when the file is available for transferring. Please note: video was taken on the Friday night performance.

Each DVD is 40,000. Please bring correct change to the office by Friday, April 10.

DVD order form: http://goo.gl/forms/hH06hzB4oi

Students all had one music and one library class before this week's extra activities and though we took minimal pictures, we are still having fun preparing for the Grades PreK-2 concert, playing iPads and pianos, reading stories about respect, and thinking ahead to the end-of-year concert in June.

Our next post will be April 10, 2015. Have a great Spring Break!

Stay tuned for more from our PRIS Students and don't forget to check out the library and music YouTube page (and subscribe)!

PRIS Music & Library YouTube Page

Note: Comments are moderated and for privacy reasons, cannot include students' names. Please direct specific inquiries via email.

Other than Annie

As Grades 3-8 have been preparing for Annie, Jr., the other classes have been working toward their concert, which is on April 29 in conjunction with the art show. Here is Grades K-2 singing one of the songs from Fun with Animals, their portion of the concert.

Pre-K students have also been working on bell sets to prepare them for the pianos.

Pre-K students read a great book called "A Giraffe and a Half" in library.

And, by the time you read this, Annie will have had one successful night of performance. We still have seats open for tonight! Just drop me an email.

Here is our Annie cast getting "made-up" for dress rehearsal.

Stay tuned for more from our PRIS Students and don't forget to check out the library and music YouTube page (and subscribe)!

PRIS Music & Library YouTube Page

Note: Comments are moderated and for privacy reasons, cannot include students' names. Please direct specific inquiries via email.

The Hour (or HOURS) of Smiles :-)

Lots of smiles this week as we prepare for the musical, celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday, or get gritty with piano.

First, we take a promotional look at our production of Annie, Jr. Two of the busy actors found time in their schedules to visit Bert Healy on his top-rated late night show, The Hour of Smiles to talk about their excitement for the upcoming production.

Don’t forget to reserve space in the audience here (feel free to forward link):

Annie Tickets

We will accept walk-ups and changes as long as there is space.

We are hiring professionals to photograph and video the performance, making these files available afterwards. Therefore, we ask audience members refrain from taking pictures and videos during the performance.

Thursday, March 12 and Friday, March 13, 2015

Featuring actors from Grades 3-8

6:30 p.m. in the PRCC

The work is not yet finished, though! Here is the final week's rehearsal schedule:

Friday, March 6, 3-5pm (bring a snack):

ALL CAST (Music Room)

Saturday, March 7, 1-4pm (bring a snack):

ALL CAST (PRCC stage)

Sunday, March 8, 1-4pm (bring a snack):

ALL CAST (PRCC stage)

Monday, March 9, 3-5:30pm (bring a snack):

ALL CAST (PRCC stage)

Tuesday, March 10, 3-5:30pm (bring a snack):

ALL CAST (PRCC stage)

Wednesday, March 11, 2-5:30pm (bring a snack):

ALL CAST (PRCC stage)

Thursday, March 12, 5pm,

ALL CAST CALL in PRCC or "dressing" room

Friday, March 13, 5pm,

ALL CAST CALL in PRCC or "dressing" room

In music, students are busy working through basic piano skills on the electric keyboards. They also get time with a great iPad app, PianoMaestro. Each student has their own account with login information. If you are interested in practicing this app at home, please email me and I can send the individual login information. The app is free.

Pre-K students in library celebrated Dr. Seuss's birthday with a reading from two of his books, Mr. Brown can Moo and Dr. Seuss's ABCs. Older students continued to work on research skills with Destiny Quest.

In one of our Annie rehearsals this week, students were introduced to an "Italian Run".

Italian, To run an Italian: to rehearse speaking the lines rapidly, either individually or as a cast; thought to assist in committing lines and cues to memory, and assisting with timing.

Stay tuned for more from our PRIS Students and don't forget to check out the library and music YouTube page (and subscribe)!

PRIS Music & Library YouTube Page

Note: Comments are moderated and for privacy reasons, cannot include students' names. Please direct specific inquiries via email.