Chameleon Chronicle June 2024

What a wonderful year! I wanted to take a moment to express my deepest gratitude for your unwavering support and partnership. Your dedication to your child's education, especially during the challenging times, has not gone unnoticed. Together, we've navigated through uncertaintes and celebrated victories, shaping unforgettable memories along the way.

Your commitment to fostering a nurturing home environment, coupled with our collective efforts in the classroom, has undoubtedly contributed to your child's growth and development. As we embark on their summer adventures, let's continue to nurture their curiousity, encourage their creativity, and instill in them the values of bravery, kindness, and perserverance.

Thank you for entrusting us with the privilege of educating your precious children. May this summer be filled with joy, laughter, and cherished moments with your family. Wishing you a safe and rejuvenating summer break!

The Howe Hall AIMS Art Chameleons created a collaborative mural for the American Legion Post 166 across from our school. Each student painted either a section of the mural or a military seal. Then, the students worked together to make it into a cohesive picture with the seals presented along the sides. Please be sure to check it out.

Fourth grade has been hard at work creating their businesses for Market Day. Students had to decide if they were going to work with a business partner or on their own. After, students had to decide if they were going to make a product or provide a service. Students created business signs and even obtained reviews from classmates to help market their product/service. Students are also advertised by recording a commercial or creating flyers. To culminate this project, students opened their stores on Market Day to sell their products. They also purchased from their classmates using their profits and money that they earned for various things over the last couple of weeks

This show was a mashup of scenes from some of the Bard's most famous plays, including "Romeo and Juliet," "A Midsummer Night's Dream," and "Hamlet," among others.

Third graders practiced sketching and shading techniques while learning about proportion and still life.

Fourth graders created wind chimes and many other items of their choice using molds or just their imaginations!

Fifth graders wove baskets, decorated foam eggs, and wove yarn trees to represent the four seasons.

3rd grade, Hip Hop students learned how to properly warm up and integrated cardio, acro and Hip hop skills within the choreography that they created and learned. They also worked in cooperative choreography groups to design some of their own Hip hop moves

4th grade, Tappers were introduced to the history of Tap dance and how various Tap pioneers have led the way to assist with keeping the style of Tap alive. Thye learned many basics (shuffle, spank, cramp roll, buffalo and more) during the weekly Tap classes.

5th grade enjoyed exploring with props students were able to use a variety of dance props (ribbons, streamers, hats and more) during their classes. They observed famous dance companies use a variety of props and created small group choreography that incorporated the props of their choice.

Be sure to check out the video link below.

Exploratories in the library have taken a variety of forms this semester. Our third graders explored novel engineering challenges that began with reading a book, identifying problem, and then using their creativity to solve the problem through a building challenge. One challenge they had came from Jack and the Beanstalk and the French Fries. Students had 5 minutes to see who could build the tallest freestanding “beanstalk” in the room using five straws and five pipe cleaners.

Another challenge that students took on was from the book After the Fall by Dan Santat. Students discovered that Humpty Dumpty was afraid of heights after his great fall and took on the challenge of designing a device to protect him if he were to fall off of the wall again. Students tested their designs using boiled eggs in the library to see if their ideas might work.

Our fourth graders explored various types of technology throughout this semester. From designing book posters to drawing something that represents their favorite book in Google Drawings, then transferring it to Tinkercad to 3D print their design, to coding robots, we had a lot of fun using technology to learn and grow!

5th grade students worked on special features for the Chameleon News! Students were challenged to come up with special segment ideas for our school news show, write the scripts, film the segments, and then edit segments to include in one of our daily shows. Students filmed segments like Trivia Tuesday, Guess the Song, and special advertisements for events like Read Across America week.

We played with tubano drums, racquet balls, bells, tube sticks, tambourines, maracas, tic-toks, solo cups, each week doing a fun activity involving percussion. We did fun lessons with rhythms and beat. Each week we focused on a different percussion activity. There was so much energy AND volume in the music room!

We started out playing very simple music, but soon the students were able to play more difficult music and also feel comfortable enough to play at a quicker tempo. They had the opportunity to try out the different steel drums too for each of the songs. The students worked hard and enjoyed themselves!

Students in fifth grade exploratory worked on singing and movement to a couple of songs from musicals. We sang and learned choreography for the songs, “A Million Dreams,” and “It’s a Hard-Knock Life.” We had fun and laughed a lot. The students worked hard.

Students had fun in PE and more exploratory. Because of the smaller numbers and the idea of exploring, the students participated in Spike ball, pickleball, volleyball, dodgeball, ultimate frisbee, flag football, photography for the yearbook, and many more fun activities. All grades experienced the same sport or activity, I would modify to their skill level. Most of the sports or activities we participated in were new to the students as they said they had never experienced before. What I liked about having this exploratory was the excitement I saw on their faces when they got to experiment with a new sport or activity.

Students would take pictures of other exploratories for the yearbook. They would also video other exploratories for the fine arts teachers. Students loved to take pictures, we also went into the K-2nd grade classrooms and took pictures for the yearbook. The picture on the below is a student taking pictures with the iPad for the yearbook.

The 3rd grade puppet exploratory class explored various types of puppets. They created stick puppets, used PuppetPals to create scenes with a partner, and performed short scenes using hand puppets.

In the 4th Grade video production exploratory, students learned about different shots and angles in film and created their own short films. They also explored stop motion animation, producing several stop motion films using paper and Legos.

The 5th grade costume design exploratory created sketches and then brought their ideas to life using newspaper and masking tape. The students showcased their designs in a fashion show.

Howe Hall AIMS is fortunate to have formed a partnership with the Kiwanis Club of Berkeley County this year to celebrate our students. The Kiwanis Club has a character-building program known as Terrific Kids that encourages students to become the best version of themselves. This program is a perfect companion to BCSD’s character education initiative. Each month our students focus on a character trait in our guidance lessons as well as in the classroom. Students and teachers reflect each month on the qualities each trait represents and look for instances that they have observed a classmate or student demonstrating those qualities. Those students are chosen to be the Terrific Kid for their homeroom and are invited to a celebration honoring them. We celebrated the trait of Fairness and Cooperation on Monday, May 20th with ice cream sundaes provided by our wonderful PTA. Congratulations to our Terrific Kids for May!

Chameleons BELIEVE and RESPECT the ARTS while VALUING EVERYONE