It is a well-documented fact that a child's success in school is enhanced by the teacher/family partnership. Together they see the "whole child". Ideally, in turn, the child sees both family and teacher as pillars of support.

Positive family-teacher relationships are essential for learning and a valuable source for promoting students' emotional health and helping each students with difficult problems that may have lifelong consequences. Ways to build these relationships are meetings between parent and teacher, frequent communications and, whenever possible, parent involvement in the student's classroom.

By involving all of these components we create a rich environment for our children and serve as models for the students to create positive relationships with other people.

Throughout these culminating weeks of our school year, which have been full of year-end concerts, performances and celebrations, I have seen many instances of this rich environment created by parents and teachers working as a team. Parent participation in our students' events speak loudly to the students about the importance of what they do in school. I am pleased by the good feelings I sense of shared efforts and mutually valued achievements.

Have a wonderful, sunny weekend.

Warmly,

Ms. Lam

Diana Lam

Upper School Amazes in Spring Concert II

At the end of the school year, emotions run hot. The melancholy of leaving friends, the excitement for the summer ahead, and the catharsis brought about by fully realizing the extent of your accomplishments over the past year- all of these things were tangible on Wednesday at the Upper School Spring Concert at the Ben Franklin Institute. The 3rd -7th graders brought their 'A' game with beautiful, emotionally rich, and expertly executed performances of the music they've been fine-tuning over the past semester.

As the concert progressed, it became abundantly clear just how much these students have progressed this year. The Abbaddo Orchestra performed Finlandia, a very challenging piece that only last year was played by the Dudamel Orchestra!

Another especially striking illustration of student progress was the performance by the Ives Winds Ensemble. Having only started learning their instruments in September, these students played with the passion and technical prowess that you would expect from a far more experienced ensemble. The highlight of their performance was the song Happy by Pharrell Williams, which had the whole audience smiling and clapping along.

Lastly, the concert finished with the Dudamel Orchestra, who brilliantly captured the dark emotional intensity of the music from The Dark Knight Rises by Hanz Zimmer as well as the bold heroism of Warriors Legacy by Soon Hee Newbold.

More photos can be found on Shutterfly (remember the password is "music") and several videos will be posted on our Youtube channel.

Bravo to all!

Urban Voices

An hour before our older students took the stage at the Ben Franklin Institute, our K1 and K2 students performed a special concert at the Lower School. Their choral performance was the culminating experience of their year-long collaboration with educators from the Metropolitan Opera called Urban Voices. Miss Raichel uses choral repertoire from the operatic canon as well as different cultures, genres, and time periods, to build music literacy, text comprehension, and listening skills. Students also explore rhythm, pitch, harmony, and notation through performance. The program is designed to foster connections with existing classroom curriculum.

Over 100 students performed a "Welcome" song, Penakora, selections from Hansel and Gretel and a "Goodbye" song in Hebrew. The audience of friends and family was delighted by their performance and we hope to add videos to our Youtube channel soon.

Third Grade Cycles Celebration

Last night, 3rd graders presented their year of learning to families and friends. They launched their celebration with songs about cycles, the theme of 3rd grade. After studying the Wampanoag and pilgrims, the rock cycle and water cycle, 3rd graders were elated to share their portfolios and products with their guests. One highlight of the celebration was when students were able to trade their mineral trading cards with each other!

Final Middle School Community Meeting

Middle schoolers gathered as a group for a final time with their teachers for their end of the year community meeting. They began with teacher compliments to specific students for work well done - some mentioning events of the last week and some describing growth they've seen over the course of the whole year. Next came the prize draw as students pulled tickets that had been earned over the week from a box to randomly select winners for prizes including movie passes donated by Ms. Ting and a skimmer board donated by Ms. Jara.

Next up, Ms. Perella announced the names of all the students who will be leaving at the end of this year and gave each one a framed class photo with space for their friends to sign best wishes. The meeting ended with a slideshow of photographs from all the years that this 6th grade class has been with us including kindergarten Field Day pics right up to this year's portraits. We wish all our middle schoolers a happy summer!

Flute Recital

The fourth annual Flute Recital will be held on Sunday, June 22 at 3:30pm in the 3rd floor music room. There will be poetry reading, classical music, spirituals, and popular tunes to kick off the summer with a reception to follow. All are welcome.

Discount Tickets for Cirque de Soleil

Help Us Move to Dorchester

We are looking forward to moving into our new school in Lower Mills and we would love some help in packing all our materials and unpacking into the new space. If you are available to help any of the following days, please email Elise Mostello, emostello@conservatorylab.org.

Saturday, June 21

Wednesday, June 25

Thursday, June 26

Wednesday, July 2

2014/2015 School Calendar

For a closer look, check out the updated calendar on our website.