General
News
November 5, 2004
I
hope you have a wonderful fall weekend!
Amanda
A. Burton
LS
Technology &
Communications
Specialist
News from the Health
Room: With the recent shortage of flu vaccine, there is growing concern
about flu outbreaks for the coming season. In an effort to prevent illness at
FCDS, we will take a proactive approach to teaching students how to prevent
the spread of disease.
Grades Pre-K through 6 will receive instructions on hand washing, germ control,
and habits to stay healthy. This information will be presented during the
months of November and December.
The Middle and Upper
School students will
have flu prevention tips and hand washing addressed at their assemblies.
Please encourage all students to continue frequent hand washing, and to
remain home when ill. Periodic updates will be included in the Friday Update
throughout the flu season. Please feel free to contact Janet O’Neil,
RN, with any concerns or questions at ext. 329.
Flik Update: Parents, you
are now able to register your child at Flik’s
website, www.cafeprepay.com.
Here you will be able to view student account balances and add money to their
accounts.
Is Your Child Ready for School?
What is the ideal cut-off date for school entrance?
How can parents know
when their child is ready?
Will waiting a year
to begin school damage a child’s self-esteem?
You are invited to hear Judith Kuhn, developmental placement specialist (and
our very own Assistant Lower School Director), answer these and other
questions. She has more than 25 years of experience as a developmental
examiner and kindergarten teacher. If interested, please make plans to attend
one of the following sessions:
Monday,
November 8, 2004
Monday, January 10, 2005
7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Brown
Lecture Hall, Johnson
Academic Center
Forsyth Country
Day School, 5501 Shallowford Road, Lewisville,
NC 27023
Thursday,
December 2, 2004
7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Dining
Room
Knollwood Baptist
Church, 330 Knollwood Street, Winston-Salem,
NC 27104
November 20, 2004 is our Fourth Annual Fury 5-K Cross-Country Challenge.
There will be a one-mile fun run at 8:30 a.m. and the 5-K will start at 9:00
a.m. There will be a 10K Mountain Bike Race at 10 a.m. for all ages and a
“Bike Rodeo” for Kindergarten through sixth graders at 10:15 a.m. Entry fees: $15 for the 5-K and $10 for the Fun
Run. A portion of the proceeds benefits Habitat for Humanity and the Youth
Build by FCDS students and other local high school students. The race also
benefits the FCDS Alumni Association, which is organizing the event. Look for
more information and entry forms in the all-school mailing next week.
<top>
Athletics
The boys’ PE Locker Room recently has been cleaned of all
loose PE gear and various pieces of clothing. If a locker was left open,
or was found without a lock, the gear was placed in the lost and found in the
PE Hallway of the CAC. If any students are missing PE gear or clothing, they
need to search this pile (it is very large). All Middle School students are
reminded that they must have a lock to place on their PE lockers. New lock
combinations need to be recorded by one of the PE teachers. If you have any
questions, please contact Coach Turner at extension 343.
<top>
Fine
Arts
Fine Arts Council
Does your child like to sing, draw, play a musical instrument, act, paint, or
perform stand-up comedy? If so, the arts are important to your child.
The Fine Arts Council is a Parents' Association Committee that works with
Rick Gomez, Fine Arts Director, and the Arts Department faculty to support
the fine arts curriculum.
Please support the Fine Arts Council by becoming a Patron of the Arts. Please
mail your check for $50 made payable to the FCDS Parents' Association to
Jackie Yates, 236
Stanaford Rd., Winston-Salem, NC 27104.
Money raised through Fine Arts Council dues goes toward the purchase of arts
materials.
If you would like to volunteer your time by supporting the Fine Arts Council,
please e-mail the Parents' Association at parentsassociation@fcds.org.
Metal Smithing Program at FCDS
Forsyth Country
Day School is pleased to announce that there is now a series
of metal smithing courses taught as part of the Community School of Visual
Arts. The classes take place after school once a week for three or four weeks
and will continue through out the school year.
The current course, Introduction to Metal Smithing: Cold
Connections, is taught by Upper
School art teacher
Margaret Holt. In this introductory class, students are learning ways to put
metal together using cold connections, such as rivets and staples. Students
began learning how to saw forms out of metal and how to shape metal using
hammers and other forms.
Below is a schedule of
the remaining classes. There are instructor and material fees for each class.
All courses are open for students in grades eight through 12 and take place
in the Upper School art room on the FCDS campus.
Please e-mail Margaret Holt (margaretholt@fcds.org)
to sign up for a class or if you have questions.
January
Ring Making Thursdays January 6 -27 from 3:45-5:45 p.m.
Learn basic soldering
techniques and how to form different kinds of rings.
February
Metal Boxes Tuesdays February 8 – February 22 from 3:45-5:45
p.m.
Learn several different
methods of making boxes using metal. Learn surface embellishments and patinas
to make your box more interesting.
Bezel Setting Thursdays February 10 – March 3 from 3:45-5:45
p.m.
Learn how to bezel-set
things from stones to found objects to make whatever your heart desires.
March/April
Enameling Thursdays March 31 – April 21 from 3:45-5:45 p.m.
Learn how to enamel
metal using kilns. Make something out of metal and then enamel it to make it
different colors.
FCDS Band and Orchestra Upcoming Events:
Tenth Grade Orchestra and Evening in Upper School
November 9: The tenth grade
orchestra will be performing for an Evening in Upper School
with the Concert Choir. We will be playing Bach’s Sanctus. The
performance is at 7:30 p.m. Please have your children here by 7:00 p.m. to
get warmed up. Dress is all black for girls, and dark pants and a white dress
shirt for boys.
Middle School Holiday Concert
All Middle School Band
and Orchestra students will be performing at the MS Instrumental Holiday
Concert Tuesday, November 30 in the Auditorium at 7:00 p.m. The entire FCDS
band will be performing at the MS Instrumental Holiday Concert. All Band
members should report to the band room by 6:30 p.m. to tune. All String members, please try to be here by 6:25 to tune. Be sure
that your child’s instrument is in proper working order and that he or
she has extra reeds and valve oil!
Upper School Holiday Program
The Upper School Holiday
Program is THURSDAY, DECEMBER 16 at 7:30 p.m. We will be having additional
rehearsals the week of the concert after final exams, since there are no
classes after December 8. I hope to rehearse on Tuesday, Wednesday, and
Thursday after the morning exams. The rehearsals will take only 45 minutes,
so the kids will have plenty of time to study afterwards.
<top>
Library/Technology
Many comings and goings happened in the Clay Library—sometimes
it seemed that every student in the Middle and Upper School
came by at some point during the week! Seventh graders enjoyed video book
talks before heading over to the Book Fair to pick out a book given to them
with love from their friendly library. Student in ninth grade biology filled
the space as they researched the life of a biologist and then created a
resume for that individual. Senior English classes came to look up words for
playing a classroom version of Taboo, while Mrs. Boyer’s eighth grade
science classes began researching the best scientific methods for dropping an
egg from a designated height so that it doesn’t break (any ideas?!).
Spanish IV students looked up information to weave together topics that
impacted both Spain and Latin America. English classes in the eighth grade were
introduced to historical resources for their Time Capsule project, while Mrs.
Starks gave dramatic readings of “The Midnight Ride of Paul
Revere” to enthrall seventh grades social studies classes. Mrs. Grubb
and Mrs. Starks will be presenting several sessions at the NCAIS conference
in Charlotte
on Friday—wish us luck!
This year’s “Gather Good Books” Book
Fair was a success, making a profit of more than $3000 for the Williams
Library. Bedford Falls Book Fairs offered a good discount to the library,
so we opted to take some of the profit in new books for both libraries
– an option that considerably increased the value of the original
profit! Proceeds from the Book Fair will be used for the Storytelling
Festival, new books, and other enrichment activities. Most importantly, the
students were able to experience a wealth of new and exciting books to expand
their love of reading. The Book Fair also put a book in the hands of each and
every seventh grader as a gift from the library. Furthermore, more than 150
books were placed in classrooms through the Classroom Wish List program. A
hearty “thank you” goes out to families who so generously donated
books and gift certificates to classrooms. The library staff contributed good
taste with their refreshments for the Teacher Preview Day and successfully
hosted our “Milk and Cookies and Bedtime Stories” Family Event.
Congratulations to the winners of the “Guess the Pumpkins” game:
Jake Stewart (Kindergarten), Timmy Cooper (Grade 3), Joshua Skelly (grade 5), and Kwame Seymour (grade 7). Thank you
to all the families and friends of FCDS who supported the Book Fair, and we
especially thank our two chairpersons, Roonie Craig
and Lynne Kelley, and our 49(!) parent and student volunteers:
Karen Apple, Jan Assimos, Lynn Auringer, Sharon Barnett,
Katie Brown (student), Jane Buck, Ashley
Carros, Wendy Clark, Ann Cordell, Anne Cox, Laura Cox, Linda Coy-Elmore,
Roonie Craig, Katherine Currie, Wills Dean (student), Lee Evans, Carol Fasel,
Taylor Foster (student), Malinda Gallup, Martha Hartley, Beth Hopkins,
Stephanie Hubble (student), Kathy Hudgins, Derek Hudgins (student), Elizabeth
Kontos, Mary Kretzschmar, Ernie Leyba, Stacey Leyba, Karen Lineberger, Sarah
Mixon, Sayla Nedell, Margery Newsome, Carolyn Orr, Mallory Pearce (student),
Penny Rothrock, Ginger Scott, Brenda Scronce, Beth Shaver, Susan Spera, Tina
Stearns, Hunter Stuckey (student), Denise Sturkie, Sally Sutton, Ginger Thomas,
Kandace Thomason, Francie Thompson, Carol Vrooman, Emily Wannenburg
<top>
Upper School
Upcoming Deadlines for College Board Testing are:
SAT
Registration (Nov,
Dec, and Jan SATs are the “Old SAT”)
Registration
Deadlines
Scores
Available
Scores Mailed
Test
Date
Regular
Late*
Online/By Phone
Nov
6** too
late
too late
11/19
12/1
Dec
4
10/29
11/10
12/17
12/30
Jan
22
12/20
12/29
2/4
2/12
*SAT
late registration fee of additional $20
**If
interested in taking the November SAT and you haven’t yet registered,
see College Counselor for advice.
ACT
Registration
Test
Date
Registration
Deadlines
Regular
Late*
Dec
11
11/5
11/18
*ACT
late registration fee of additional $17
Juniors: The “New SAT” will
be given the first time on March 12. Registrations for the New SAT will be
available online beginning some time in December.
<top>
Middle School
<top>
Lower School
Pre-kindergarten: Pre-K was glad to come back to school after the long weekend!
This was a review week for Mr. N, Ms. A, and Mr. B. We played games to review
the letters and letter sounds, and we enjoyed new books and art
projects. We’ve continued to practice writing names. The new
season is bringing us turkeys and fall fun. Thank you for last
week’s wonderful Halloween parties and for coming to parent-teacher
conferences!
First Grade: Thanks to all of our
parents for coming for conferences. We certainly did enjoy sharing your
child’s progress with you. They have all come so far since
August! It’s a short week so we will spend some time being more
patriotic than usual and then take a look at fall and the cooler weather it
brings. Next week we will be back to “business as usual.”
Second Grade: The second grade teachers enjoyed meeting with
parents at conferences on Monday and Tuesday. The students came back
Wednesday ready for November activities. We began our social studies
unit on Native Americans. We will study the Northeast and Southeast Woodland tribes as we prepare to celebrate
Thanksgiving. Next week, look for another Magic Tree House book for
take-home reading.
Fourth Grade: Mrs. Miller’s social studies class has been studying the Cherokee
Native Americans. As part of this, the children read some Cherokee legends
and produced puppet plays on the legends. They created their own puppets and
performed the puppet plays for the Pre-K and Kindergarten classes
last week. You can check out the pictures of the performance on Mrs.
Miller’s website. http://www.fcds.org/faculty/RebeccaMiller/web/photos/legends/thumbnails.asp.
Fourth graders were a busy group last month! In social studies,
children enjoyed presenting puppet plays, working on weavings and dream
catchers, and taking an all-day trip to Raleigh. Students were well-behaved on their field
trip and received compliments from their teachers and from their guides at
the places they visited. Castle projects from reading again will be displayed
in the library after the Book Fair ends. The grade level Halloween party in
the cafeteria was wonderful! We are grateful to parents for providing such an
interesting, delicious, and fun-filled experience. We all had a great time!
Art: The students in Pre-K had a very exciting time in art creating
“gourd creatures”. Lots of paint, feathers, pipe cleaners,
and googly eyes were used to make these unique
creations.
Music:
Pre-K-Second Grade: This week students started off November by learning the songs for the
Grandparents’ Day program. I’ll keep you updated on their
progress. They have many songs to learn with many words! Please
mark your calendars for Grandparent’s Day: Friday, December 17. This
will be a spectacular event!
Science:
Pre-K: Due to the short week, I missed seeing my Pre-K
friends. See you next Monday!
Kindergarten: This week in Kindergarten science we formally
began our Magnet Unit. We discussed a little bit of history behind how
magnetism was first discovered, observed a piece of loadstone (magnetite),
looked at several examples of various kinds of magnets, and learned two new
words, “attract” and “repel.” Students
also had the chance to test different objects to see if they “stuck
to” or were attracted to a magnet. Ask your kindergartener what
kind of objects he/she found to be magnetic.
Second Grade: We focused on the Sun this week in second grade
science since it is the “boss” of our solar system. Students
loved pretending to be an object from our solar system by wearing a name tag
and then they “orbited” (revolved) around the Sun. Students
also saw that each planet rotates or spins on its axis as it revolves. Wow,
that’s a lot of turning!! We discussed that every revolution of a
planet is equal to a year, while every rotation of a planet is equal to a
day. Some planets take longer to revolve around the Sun because they are
so far away. Ask your second grader how long a year is on Pluto! We
sure learned a lot of great new solar system vocabulary words this week
too! We learned a helpful trick this week to keep our two words (revolve
and rotate) straight. Remember that the word “DAY” sounds
like the middle part of the word ROTATE! Pretty neat.
Third Grade: Students loved watching the video “All
about Sound” as a review of what we have learned about
sound. Don’t forget that the Light and Sound Quiz is next Friday! (November
12). All students should have their study guides. If you need an
extra copy, please see me.
Fourth Grade: Fourth grade students also loved watching a video this week in science
as a review of what we have learned about electricity. Don’t
forget that the Magnetism and Electricity Test is Tuesday, November 16! All
students should have their study guides. If you need an extra copy,
please see me.
Foreign Language
Pre-K: We reviewed the verb “tener”, and learned
to describe our families: tengo mi madre, mi padre, mi hermano, mi hermana,
mi abuela y mi abuelo. Tengo un hermano pequeño y una hermana grande (I have
a small brother and a big sister). We learned a poem entitled “Quiero a
mi familia”.
Kindergarten: We missed you on
Tuesday. Nos vemos el próximo martes!!
First Grade: While jumping rope, we
used the rhyme: “Zapatito blanco, zapatito azul, dime cuantos tienes
tu? in order
to practice counting from 11 to 20 and beyond; as far as our jumping and
counting skills took us! We began working on I.D. cards, using the verbs ser,
tener, and llamar:
Me llamo: Juan (my name is
Juan); Tengo 6 anos (I am six years old); soy estudiante (I am a student).
Second Grade: We practiced our listening and comprehension
skills. We played a CD and made drawings related to the statements that we
heard, then we proceeded to write what we understood
from the recording. It was a great exercise using different senses to enhance
our learning abilities. Thus, we reviewed the verbs etre (to be, avoir (to have), and aimer (to love/like).
Third Grade: We played a Scrabble
game in Spanish and a modified version of hot potato. Throwing a ball to a partner, we said one
word; the catcher would in turn repeat the word and add another one; the last
person had the challenge to repeat as many of the words that were said in a
very long sentence. It was a great memory/vocabulary drill. We also enjoyed learning the rhyme
“manzanita del Perú cuantos anos tienes tú?
Fourth Grade: We
began a new project. We are learning to: “recherché, describer, et presenter un pays, une ville” (research,
describe, and present a francophone country, region, or city). We watched a
video about “Le Carnaval de Québec” and practiced our listening
and comprehension skills by completing a questionnaire about what we had seen
and listened to. Working in teams of
two or three students, we have chosen Québec, Paris, Haití, Cote
d’Ivoire, Martinique, etc. in order to learn from and share with one
another, while we increase our ability to speak French in a meaningful way.
Our first step is to write an introductory paragraph. Please check Mme.
Ortiz-Thompson’s site for homework.
Technology
Pre-K: This week the theme of computer class was Native Americans. The
children viewed a short animated story called “Giving Thanks”,
based on the book by Chief
Jake Swamp. We
used the United Streaming website to watch and listen to this
story. After the story we talked about Native American art symbols.
Using Microsoft Word, the children created a bookmark by clicking and
dragging the symbols around the screen to the bookmark area.
Kindergarten: This
week we have started a unit on Native American Art Symbols. In this
week’s class, the children will draw some symbols using the MS Paint
program. In the next few weeks we will use the Microsoft Word program and
create bookmarks.
<top>
|
