Principal Message
Research shows that students who engage in the arts, including the performing arts like music, increase their skills learning other subject areas. According to a PBS article, The Benefits of Music Education, "making music involves more than the voice or fingers playing an instrument; a child learning about music has to tap into multiple skill sets, often simultaneously." Using a variety of skills learned through music strengthens brain development for children.
We are grateful that students can play their instruments, sing and perform this year for a student audience. We look forward to sharing live performances with families in the future. At this time, we are creating video recordings of music performances and sharing those out with families.
Thank you for your support and encouraging your child to participate in the various extra curricular performing arts opportunities we have at GHESAS including DaCapo, orchestra and band. For more information about any of these programs, please check out our school website at https://gh.district196.org/arts/.
Winter Conferences - Online Sign Up
Click the "Schedule Your Conference" button to schedule a 15 minute in-person conference with your child's teacher. If you need a zoom conference, please reach out to our school office at 651-683-8570.
As a reminder, students do not have school Feb. 10-11. Students will return to school on Feb. 14.
News from the STEAM Room - Ms. Hosek, Science Specialist
Happy New Year! We are back into our routines and busy in the STEAM Room. Here is a peek at what is going on at each grade level.
Kindergarten
Students visited the STEAM Room right before winter break to learn about tools they could be using and practice using them safely. There was a lot of excitement when using a drill or saw! At the end of January, kindergarteners will be participating in an investigation involving rolling to go along with their force and motion unit. They will have the chance to be creative and make something that rolls out of various materials in the STEAM Room.
First Grade
First graders will be visiting the STEAM Room to learn about tools they could be using and practice using them safely. They will love using these tools! Students also learned about the Ozobots and Dash robots. They practiced driving them in a straight line, around obstacles or driving them on a polygon. We have many good drivers at Glacier Hills.
Second Grade
Second graders will be participating in a building project that ties into their classroom curriculum at the end of the month. They will be following the Engineering Design Process of Ask, Imagine, Plan, Create, Improve and Communicate to create something that represents them or their culture.
Third Grade
Students participated in a light and shadow investigation using a character, flashlight, whiteboard and measuring tape. We chose a class variable, wrote a question, performed an investigation, collected data, made a graph to show that data, and wrote a conclusion. These lessons wrapped up their light and sound unit and will be built on in their next science unit, space and seasons.
Fourth Grade
Fourth graders participated in a real-world engineering project as geotechnical engineers. They studied an area in Nepal that needs to create safe passage across a river. Students planned out different materials to test based on several factors. They then scored their model and used that to re-plan and re-test a new set of factors. Students then had to decide their best model and present it to the village elders as if they were actually in the village in Nepal. It was quite a learning experience!
Fifth Grade
Students will be participating in Force and Motion Olympics using various pieces of technology. They will learn how to use the Ozobots, Spheros, and Dash robots and then create their own Olympic events that tie to the force and motion standards. These lessons are what make Glacier Hills an awesome place to learn and grow!
Kindergarten Multimedia Art
Kindergarten
Students created two collages inspired by Austrian painter, Gustav Klimt. The artwork we observed and discussed was Klimt’s “(Baby) Cradle”. Students learned the term collage and digital collage using a photograph of themselves in the image as the main subject. We applied what we learned about overlapping and pattern in these works of art. The past few weeks, students have been learning the basics of Stop Motion animation. We read, The Snowy Day, and then created a sequence of a child walking through the snow. We also made forms we knew out of animation clay, and made them move using the app. Now, students are naming and developing a character (a baby chick!) as the main feature of a story we will animate of a chick hatching from an egg – a connection to one of their science units.
Grade 5 Multimedia Art
Students completed their natural disaster animations at the end of trimester 1, after editing their films in iMovie. They will be featured via links at a future date, but currently can be viewed on your student’s iPad. Right now, students in 5th grade are learning about perspective and foreshortening. Students have observed and experimented with achieving foreshortening through photography. In our current project, students are to create a self-portrait from a photograph that demonstrates foreshortening. We are looking at the works of Chuck Close, and other artists who implement the grid method of maintaining the proportions of a photograph in a painting.
Site Council & Booster Club News and Updates
Our next Site Council/Booster Club meeting is February 7th at 4:15 p.m. via Zoom. If you would like to attend, please email glacierbooster@gmail.com for the meeting information. All are welcome!
Glacier Hills Elementary School of Arts & Science
Email: GH.Attendance@district196.org
Website: https://gh.district196.org/
Location: 3825 Glacier Drive, Eagan, MN 55123
Phone: 651-683-8570
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GlacierHillsArtsandScience
Twitter: @GlacierHills