SPECIALS NEWS
January 2015
Grand River Academy
Specials!
Welcome back! We hope everyone had a fun and relaxing break full of
quality family time. The boys basketball season will be wrapping up in
January and Girls Basketball will be starting. More information about girls
basketball can be found on page 2. We would also like to congratulate all
students that participated in the music concerts at the end of December.
Everyone did a wonderful job, we are so proud!
Electives
6th Grade Electives for the second trimester are underway! Graphic
Design, Illustration, Band, Choir, Mind and Body, Team Sports and
Coding will be offered this trimester.
Mrs. Collins—Band (M, W, F) and Choir (T, Th)
Mrs. Kashenider—Graphic Design (M,W,F) and Illustration (T, TH)
Mr. Teague —Team Sports (M, W, F) and Mind and Body (T, TH)
Mrs. Adamowicz—Graphic Design (M,W,F) and Coding (T, Th)
In This Issue

News from the Music
Room!

Athletics with Mr.
Teague

Inside the Art Studio

Tech Time with Mrs.
Adamowicz
Important
Dates:
Girls Basketball
Tryouts:
January 13th @
4:00pm
Mr. Joe Teague
Newsletter
It has been a great start to the second trimester in Physical
Education class. Kindergarten through third grade is performing well in the Jump Rope Unit. Fourth and Fifth grades are
doing amazing in their Floor Hockey Unit. In Sixth grade we
have started Yoga in our Mind and Body class. The students
have started their own yoga workouts with a group and will be
presenting them soon. Advanced Physical Education Class
will be continuing Floor Hockey. It has been an amazing start
to the second trimester. I hope you all have a great break and
please stay active and healthy!!
Athletics
Our JV Boys Basketball Team is off to a great start and are
finishing the season strong. Our record is 8-1. We are in first
place in the East Michigan White Division Conference. If you
want to attend any home basketball games please stop by
the office for a schedule. Our girls basketball tryouts will be
January 13th @ 4:00pm – 5:00pm. GO LIONS!!
Donors Choose
Because of the success of my first Donor’s
Choose project, I have
launched another one!
This project will focus
on getting books for the
music classroom! The
project is called Storytime: Using Books to
Teach Music. To help,
please go
to: www.donorschoose.
org/Charlotte.Collins
Hello Grand River Families!
Hello GRA families!
Thank you for a WONDERFUL concert season! The students did a great
job, and I am proud of all their accomplishments.
The next round of concerts is in June. In the meantime, students will
continue to learn all about music.
The music room has recently acquired 10 chrome books! They will be
used to help teach music lessons during school. Some classes have already learned of several online games for music, with a favorite being
incredibox.com. Have them show you at home how they can create
their own song!
4th grade
Fourth grade students will hit the ground running after the break with
their recorders. Encourage them to practice and play their instruments
at home.
Band
I’m proud of how much the students have learned so far! Please continue to encourage your students to practice at home so they can keep
on growing in their talent.
Have a Happy New Year!
Charlotte Collins
Mrs. Julia Adamowicz
Over break it would be a good idea for 2-6 students to practice typing
club. Come this spring the kids will be taking the M-Step and they will need
strong typing skills. So practice on typing club will be beneficial to them. The
first graders have been working on Google Documents. I am teaching them to
type out their spelling words and then we will go on to sharing documents.
The kindergarten kids know how to log onto the computers without help which is
a huge accomplishment for them. Over break the kindergarten kids can log
onto Launchpad and play a few of the ABCYA games and
use a mouse if they can so they do not forget how to hold a
mouse.
When we come back from Winter Break we will begin NWEA testing on
January 7th and it will go until January 22nd.
If any parents could donate Kleenex to my classroom we are running low and it
would be nice to have some refills.
I hope everyone had a great relaxing break!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Adamowicz
In the Art Studio...
In lieu of a full school art show, student artwork will be on
display in the halls of Grand River throughout the school
year. Come in and check out the fabulous artwork!
Students will be participating in an art fundraiser for the
first time at Grand River Academy. We will be partnering
with Square1 Art which is a company that turns your
child’s artwork into items for purchase! More information
will follow as soon as we receive the supplies from
Square1 Art.
This month in Art...
K– Students will be using color and shapes to create Shape Robots!
1– Students will be wrapping up their Trash Collage and we will begin a unit on
weaving.
2—Students have begun a unit on texture and will be making 2 projects, one with
tactile texture and one with implied texture.
3—Students will be making beautiful watercolor flowers using watercolor techniques. This project was made possible my the funding of our Donor’s Choose
Wonderful World of Watercolor Project!
4—Students will begin a winter illustration inspired by the artwork of Michigan artist, Chris Van Allsburg (author and illustrator of The Polar Express).
5– Students will start to explore one point perspective drawing.
6– Graphic Design: Students have just finished a unit on Storyboard and will begin
a project on shoe design. Students have 3 letter designs due every Friday during
the course of this elective. You should be seeing your student work on these letter
designs at home on a weekly basis.
6– Illustration Elective: Students will start a unit on optical illusion art and zentangles. This unit will focus on line and movement within artwork. In addition to their
classwork students have 4 sketches due in their sketchbooks weekly (every
Thursday since the class meets T/Th). You should be seeing your student sketch
at home on a weekly basis.
Contact Us
Feel free to contact us
with any questions or
concerns….
Mrs. Laura Kashenider
102.lkashenider@nhasch
ools.com
Mr. Joe Teague
102.jteague@nhaschools
.com
Mrs. Julia Adamowicz
102.jadamowicz@nhasch
ools.com
Mrs, Charlotte Collins
102.ccollins@nhaschools
.com
Grand River Academy