Conservatory Lab
Charter School
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| Family Notes
February 6, 2015
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Dear Families,
As visitors to our school walk through our classrooms they notice how engaged our students are in what they are doing. Our young students can be engaged in reading or writing notes individually or with partners, playing with their orchestra or be involved in peer mentoring. Also, they often meet in small groups and engage in discussion related to what they learned or discovered through their classroom activities. Our teachers act as facilitators to allow for discussion and encourage a freer thought process. These conversations, whether in academic classes or music classes lead students to synthesize their new learning, reflect on the learning experiences they had, and make connections to how this new information relates to the essential question of inquiry in their current expedition, unit of learning or piece of music.
All these steps indicate that our students are working on thinking critically. We all know the importance of developing critical thinking skills. By following this process of research, application, analysis and creation, the students learn to make judgments and decisions on how to proceed in their their academic lesson, their music score or in their social activity!
Have an active, happy week-end.
Warmly,
Diana Lam
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The Paper Orchestra
Last Saturday, in between snow storms, all 45 kindergarteners and their families met at the Primary school in Brighton to build instruments out of papier maché. The students had just learned the day before what instrument they were chosen to play in the orchestra: bass, cello, viola or violin, and they now had to build one.
Members of each family, sometimes including grandparents and big brothers or sisters, were given cardboard cut outs and styrofoam "bouts" and had to glue them together following strict instructions. When they were done gluing, they went down the hall to the papier maché room and covered their cardboard instrument in sticky strips of newspaper. All the instruments were left to dry over the weekend and are now ready for painting. Students and their families will be painting every afternoon from now until February Break until all the instruments look like their real counterparts.
The students will use the paper instruments for two months. They will learn positioning and instrument care by using the instruments in orchestra formation. By the end of April, the kindergarteners will be ready to perform several songs at their paper orchestra concert at the Boston Children's Museum. They will take their instrument home and get their real violin, viola, cello and bass when they return from April vacation.
This tradition of building and then practicing on a papier maché instrument came from Venezuela and has been part of El Sistema at our school for the last five years. It is a great way to bring families together and allow them to learn all together from the Resident Artists. We are so impressed with the participation of our K2 families year after year in this process. What a joyful way to begin an orchestra!
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K-2 Become Published Authors!
Two weeks ago, our K2 class celebrated the end of our first Writer's Workshop Unit, in which the students learned how to write realistic stories. The students started this unit in October. They've been working very hard the past few months to plan and create stories three or more pages long, draw detailed pictures, and write sentences to match their drawings. Cooperation was a big part of this unit, as students used writing buddies for peer editing.
When the students returned from vacation, they were each allowed to choose one story to revise. Revision looked different for each student based on their writing abilities, but they all worked in groups and independently with the teacher to prepare their writing for publishing. The students then read their story to the teacher so that it could be typed, and illustrated their typed stories.
After all of the stories were finished, parents were invited to do a gallery walk in our classroom to see the revised story as well as the published piece. The crew qualities were highlighted throughout this entire unit, and the students couldn't have been more proud of their work!
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8th Graders Aim for the Boston Arts Academy
As we begin 2015, many students all over the city are beginning to think about their choices for high school next year. For the first time, Conservatory Lab has 8th graders considering what high school will be the best fit for them. One possibility for several of our 8th graders is the Boston Arts Academy, the only public high school for the arts in Boston.
Last weekend, Boston Arts Academy staged the Tony award-winning musical In the Heights at the Strand Theater in Dorchester. The show's cast, crew and pit orchestra were made up entirely by BAA theater and music majors in the 10th, 11th, and 12th grades, and they did an amazing job! One of the lead roles was played by senior Jazmyne Burgess, a graduate of our school who has gone on to study Theater at BAA. Jazmyne showed she still has her musical chops as she sang lead in two songs that brought down the house.
Three of our students, Rayne Lipscomb, Chavez Singletary and Jose Fuentes auditioned last weekend as a trio. Brandon Volel, Marcel Lieber, Janahasia Coston, Zakiya Lomax and Annie Williams will also audition. We wish them good luck and can't wait to attend their performances in the future!
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2nd Graders Make Friends with Snakes
Our 2nd graders are in the midst of their expedition, "Don't Be Scared: The Truth About Snakes," and are deeply engaged in learning about our favorite fascinating reptiles. For their first case study, the students are investigating what makes a snake a snake and what distinguishes it from other reptiles. They're becoming experts on one type of snake--the corn snake--through direct observation of a pet corn snake in their classrooms.
This Thursday, Joy Marzolf, a local snake expert from the Audobon's Broadmoor Wildlife Sanctuary in Natick, visited the 2nd graders. She brought a lizard and 5 snakes with her, including a hognose snake, a bairds rat snake, and a Honduran milk snake. Students learned about the special features of each type of snake and how to hold snakes without scaring them.
Some of them were surprised to learn that snakes are much more scared of us than we are of them! They were particularly excited by weird facts about snakes, like when a hognose snake is scared, it rolls over, sticks out its tongue, and sends out a nasty smell. It was a brave day for the students, as some of them conquered fears, while others are still trying to get used to touching shedded snake skin.
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An Invitation to the Boston Philharmonic!
The Boston Philharmonic Orchestra would like to offer complimentary  tickets to all Conservatory Lab staff and families to experience an incredible evening of music. As a part of this offer, the BPO hopes you'll attend their exciting new Kids Notes Upbeat series. Geared toward kids ages 5-13, this pre-concert talk will feature fun musical activities, a guest Boston Philharmonic Orchestra musician, and an interactive discussion on the music at that night's concert. Additionally, their brilliant conductor, Benjamin Zander, will offer his pre-concert lecture for adults and teenagers at 6:45pm.
Saturday February 21st
Jordan Hall
290 Huntington Avenue, Boston 02115
Orange Line T stop at Mass. Ave/ Green Line T stop at Symphony
7:30 Kids Notes Upbeat, in Room 124
8:00 Concert
Please send an email to D.Williams@bostonphil.org to request tickets (up to 4 per family, concert is recommended for children ages 5+). For more information, visit www.BostonPhil.org
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Take Note:
- Applications are due Friday, February 27 and the lottery will be held on March 12. Reminder, if you have a child who is a sibling of a current student, you get preference in the lottery but you must apply on time!
- Please tell any friends and acquaintances interested in having their child attend Conservatory Lab about the website to see a list of upcoming Prospective Family Tours and to find applications in several languages.
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PAC Notes
The new date for the PAC meeting that had been previously scheduled for last Saturday, January 24th and then canceled due to snow, has been rescheduled for:
This Saturday, February 7th at 10 a.m.
at the Codman Library, 690 Washington Street, Dorchester, MA.
The top agenda item for this PAC meeting is the planning for the parent-sponsored annual Spring Fling! concert event. As stated before, this is the one concert that is organized by the parents, and the only one in which all the children play on one day.
This year, Spring Fling! will take place in a whole new venue: The Back Bay Events Center in the John Hancock building, on Berkeley Street in the Back Bay. It promises to be the BEST Spring Fling! ever, and we have had some pretty fabulous ones in the past. Kat Jara, Co-Director of the El Sistema program at our school, will be our featured speaker at this meeting.
Also, this is the 1st time that we hare having a PAC meeting on Saturday and out in the community, as many of you had requested. We are looking forward to seeing many of you.
Coffee and refreshments will be served.
Many thanks,
Myriah Johnson, Co-Chair Beth Greene, Chair
Parent Advisory Council Steering Committee
Spring Fling! 2015
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