We're using Art, Science, Music, and Spanish (and Math and Technology and every subject!) during Hispanic Heritage Month.
Younger grades are exploring the life cycle of fruits & veggies on farms to help learn and memorize the song "De Colores", a song that probably originated in Spain in the 16th century, but it's still sung today.
De colores, de colores se vistan
los campos in la primavera.
De colores, de colores son las pajaritos
que vienen de afuera.
De colores, de colores es
el arcoiris de vemos lucir
Y por eso los grandes amores,
De muchos colores,
Me gustan a mi.
***
Translation (music class context):
Of colors, of colors
Are the fields dressed in the spring.
(Fields on farms that are covered in blooming flowers will soon become fruit or veggies)
Of colors, of colors
Are the little birds that come from outside.
(Birds can be part of the spread of seeds)
Of colors, of colors
Is the rainbow that we see shining.
(Rainbows occur because of rain and sunlight)
And that is why
The great loves of many colors
is what I like
***
Older students also touch on how the song helped build unity and hope during the Farm Worker's Rights movement with Cesar Chavez, one of the five Civil Rights figures covered in 5th grade standards.
S2L1
Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about the life cycles of different living organisms.
SS5H6.b
Explain the key events and people of the Civil Rights movement: Brown v. Board of Education (1954), Montgomery Bus Boycott, the March on Washington, Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act, and civil rights activities of Thurgood Marshall, Lyndon B. Johnson, Cesar Chavez, Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther King, Jr.
We are so fortunate to have active and engaging members in our community who are willing to come and support us in every endeavor! Thank you to Celise (whose daughter, a SPARK alum, is actively involved in the award-winning Midtown High School's theater program midtownhightheatre) and Coop from @synchrotheatre, who brought a fun and engaging session on acting, but also gave great insight to all of the different STEAM - focused jobs that are in every theater, set- building, engineering, costume design, program design, ticket sales, lighting, directing, sound, playwriting, stage design, blocking, and of course, acting and more. @springdaleparkatl @sparkpto @theladycady @gadoe_stem_steam #sparksteamweek
Kindergarten students are learning about musical shapes!
Mathematics
Unit 2: 2-D Shapes in My World Students will observe shapes in their environment and describe the shapes based on the number of sides, vertices, and other attributes. They will identify basic two-dimensional shapes (squares, circles, triangles, rectangles, hexagons, and octagons) and form larger shapes by putting two or more basic shapes together. They will explain the location of shapes by saying where a shape is in relation to another shape. Students will identify a pattern created by shapes and extend the pattern. They will observe, describe, and compare the measurable attributes of objects and sort objects into categories by an attribute.
Unit 6: 3-D Shapes in My World In this unit, students will revisit shapes in their environment and identify three-dimensional shapes (cubes, cones, cylinders, and spheres) in their environment. Students will explore and compare two-dimensional shapes and three-dimensional shapes in various sizes and orientations. They will describe how shapes are similar and different. They will order common objects based on measurable attributes and sort objects by an attribute. Students will generate statistical questions about shapes in their world and collect, represent, analyze, and explain their findings.
Visual Art
VAK.RE.1.b
Discuss works of art using art vocabulary with an emphasis on the elements of art.
Musical shapes include cylinders (woodwinds), triangles (percussion), "paper clip" shape or spirals (brass), and "body shape" (strings, with head, neck, and body)
In preparation for the first grade trip to hear the ASO, students learned about the four families of musical instruments and investigated where their assigned instrument would sit during the concert:
S1P1. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information to investigate light and sound.
d. Construct an explanation supported by evidence that vibrating materials can make sound and that sound can make materials vibrate.
Because the prompt had many components, Ms. Siembieda helped out tremendously by making prompt stickers for students to circle answers rather than having to write a lot in a short amount of time.
Students discussed the instrument properties with their partner,
deciding if the instrument would sound:
high or low in PITCH (based on the size of the instrument)
loud or soft in VOLUME (based on the material the instrument is made of)
from spring 2024 Solfege Showdown and Skips to Do 
