I would like to welcome you to our first PYP newsletter! We continue to be so proud of our students and staff. It's wonderful that their hard work has brought international acclaim to our school. We are the first and only officially authorized school to present the Primary Years Programmed in the state of Arizona. We know of several schools in Arizona that are also pursuing authorization in this rapidly growing program. it will be great to work with them as we continue to refine and improve our instruction

I am sure you will be impressed with the teaching that our staff is planning and presenting. We believe that using an inquiry approach and combining skills from different disciplines in our lessons will help our students develop deeper understandings of what we are presenting.

As always, we welcome your involvement and participation. if you have a particular expertise (or just a special interest) in the areas described in our newsletter, we would love to hear from you. We believe we have a school that we can be proud of and we know that we can perform even better than before. Please stop by and visit anytime.

Kindergarden News Update: Marvelous Me

"Marvelous Me". What a great way to begin the year for kindergartners by learning about themselves! It is all about me at this point. This PYP unit will continue throughout the year by exploring similarities/differences and how we can contribute to our friends, family and community in a positive way. in the beginning, we will begin the inquiry process learning about ourselves, what we like, how we are the same and different from others, explore basic body systems, and various ways to stay healthy A few of our projects will include self-portraits, collage of healthy food choices and mobiles on other things we need to do so that we are a well-b lanced IB unit. From this unit it will flow very nicely into our five sense where we will explore not only our five sense but how animals use their sense as well. Any ideas and/or help is always welcome.

First Grade: Cycles of Life

First grade has been having a WILD time studying Cycles of Life. We spent a week learning about plant life cycles, including a trip to Mrs. Goepfrich's vegetable garden and some experimentation wit planting our own seeds. We looked at "creepy crawlies" and learned about the changes that insects and spiders go through during their lifetimes. We're still waiting for our mystery "worms" to turn into something special! In the following weeks we will focus our attention on reptiles, birds, amphibians, fish, and mammals. We will also be going on a guided field trip with the Rangers and a tour of the Science Center museum to study life here at Grand Canyon. Meanwhile we are all hoping that the chicken eggs in Mrs. Moreno's room hatch and Mrs. Righ's caterpillars will turn into butterflies! We will wrap out or unit in early October by allowing each student to present a project on the life cycle of his or her favorite plant or animal.

Second Grade: Wonderful Weather

Second graders have been learning about the water cycle and how it affects us, and how comparisons from two locations are so different when it comes to temperature. We looked at the temperatures of Grand Canyon and Phoenix and results of rain. We also looked at inquiry and found the Three billy Goats Gruff were happy to inquire into different areas, as long as it got them better grass. We noticed that there had to have been great rain on the land to produce that much sweet grass. Students came home with their little plays to do on the Three billy Goats Gruff. Parents can encourage students to inquire bout every-day things that happen. As we have started working on commitment, how can we commit ourselves to learning everyday? Encouragement to have a great attitude about learning every day is a great thing to do!

Third Grade: Global Soundsation!

We are working on a unit exploring sound and music as forms of expression. We will be doing two projects with this unit. One will be to make an instrument from miscellaneous items around the house. Below is a list of items that could be brought in to help make instruments. Paper towel tubes, toilet paper tubes, rubber bands, shoe boxes, plastic bottles kleenex boxes, string, beads, dowel rods, etc.

The second project will be to add sound and music effects to a story and present it to the class. They can write a story of their own or they can use a story that they already know. We are planning on doing presentations of the stories on September 27 at 12:15 in room 109. You are welcome to attend.

Fourth Grade: Window of our Culture

"The Windows of Our Culture" the first PYP unit for the fourth grade students, is underway! We are exploring fantasy stories with a focus on fairy tales from around the world. Our inquiry will lead us to different version of fairy tales, helping us to recognize the point of view of the narrator, determine elements of fairy tales, analyze the characters and plots, and discover the common themes of tales throughout the world. In addition, "the Windows of our Cultures" will provide our students will opportunities to demonstrate their knowledge and skills by performing one or more of these fairy tales and writing an original fairy tale script. we invite you to join us as we learn the lessons with and from our fairy tale characters. Performance dates and times will be forthcoming.

Fifth Grade: Our Living Machine

Our fifth grade is currently engaged in the inquiry unit "The Living Machine" about the human body. In this unit we are learning what makes up our skeletal, muscular and nervous systems, how they work together to help us function, how they change, and what we need to do to keep them healthy The GCNP Environmental Education Office will collaborate with us on this unit to help us understand how environmental conditions at the Grand Canyon affect the human body. with park educators we will hike into the canyon nd use scientific instruments to measure various body function. A sex education component is also part of this unit. Students will learn about the changes they can expect tin their bodies during puberty.

During "The Living Machine" unit, fifth-graders are focusing on the following IB traits and attitudes: being balanced in their own lives, being inquisitive about themselves and their world, becoming effective communicators and showing self-respect by learning to maintain healthy bodies.

Spotlight on Specials: Amy McBroom: Art

Amy McBroom is our fabulous art teacher and she has been working extensively to help support the PYP units that the elementary school is doing. For these first units, Kindergarten is focusing on self portraits for Marvelous Me. 1st grade is working on the life cycle of butterflies and trees with their leaves. 2nd grade is creating artistic atmospheres with rendering clouds of different types. 3rd grade is working on expressing art work through sound and the works of Wassily Kandinsky. 4th is working on theatrical miniature set designs for fairy tales. lastly 5th grade is working on body proportions with their action mola designs. Thanks for all the support, Amy!