OCTOBER 2010

DeTour Arts & Technology

Academy THIS I S YOUR SCHOOL

The above logo was designed by DeTour Academy student, Kjersten VanDaele in Grade 5. She entered in our logo contest at the open house.

Doors Opened on Sept 7

Mark Your Calendars

Oct 18—Regular Academy Board Meeting, 6:30 at DeTour Library Oct 29—Benefit Spaghetti Dinner & Band/Vocal Concert Nov 11—School Improvement Team Meeting 3:30 at school Nov 15—Regular Academy Board Meeting, 6:30 at DeTour Library

DATA

The Papin Family enjoying ice cream at the grand opening

Academy 6th grade singers Madison, Kaalin, Skylar & Moriah accompanied by Mrs. Bloom

Academy Board L to R: Janelle Dudeck, Olive Warner, John Orr, Becky Farrell, Jean Bloom, Ron Papin & Ron Green

Academy Staff: Brian Nettleton, Russ Livingston, Jennifer Livingston, Stacy Wilkie, Sara Galarowic, Karrie Cloudman, Bridget Heuer & Gordon Usher

Used Instruments Wanted If you have an old instrument collecting dust, we can give it a good home! We have already received a baby grand piano (thanks James Bailey family) and a flute (thanks Wytiaz family). Contact Mr. Usher at 297-2011.

The DeTour Arts & Technology Academy officially started school on September 7. The day started with enthusiasm and ended with a well-attended ice cream social. Madison, Moriah, Skylar, and Kaalin sang the national anthem prior to the rib-bon cutting ceremony by the Academy Board and then finished off with We Are the World. We are so excited about this new venture and the opportunity to not only give our students an excellent education, but en-richment in arts and technology as well. We are thrilled with the community re-sponse and want to continue this positive momentum.

Here are some of the great things that are already happening at our school. We are the proud owners of a baby grand piano thanks to the generous donation from the James & Sherry Bailey family. A new 6th Grade Fine Art Class been started and will be performing later this month (see back page). Each morning a different version of the Star Spangled Banner is played and the 4/5 Grade Academy students an-nounce the artist and then tell the whole school to “have a GREAT day”. The 6th grade does the daily announcements and reads a daily motivational quote. We are in the process of applying for grant monies to fund some great new art & technology programs. More news on that as we move forward in the process. Check out the arti-cles on the exciting things happening in the classrooms, the music room, the technology room and the art room.

The students of DATA are off to a great start in music. The fourth and fifth grad-ers have their instruments and are mak-ing lots of progress. Their parents should be hearing plenty of interesting sounds as the students learn how to play their first three notes.

The Kindergarten and first graders are learning about keeping a beat and are working in the computer lab learning about the piano keyboard and other instruments.

The second and third graders are work-ing on notes and rhythms as well as sing-ing.

The sixth grade fine arts class is working on choral songs to be performed at the fall concert on October 29th. Thanks to Mrs. Bloom and Mrs. Volkers for helping out with this group. Throughout the year the students will be performing vocal selections, a Christmas drama, and various other arts activities.

telling a story through comics! Look for our school newspaper in the upcoming month. We would like to publish our first newspaper by the end of October and plan to distribute copies to local busi-nesses. K-6 voted on a name for our newspaper and the 4/5 class narrowed it down to two names. The students walked to each class to come up with a final tally, and the winning name is...The Current D.A.T.A.

The 4/5 class at D.A.T.A. has been busy learning how to create a school-wide newspaper. The students have been transformed into reporters and editors and have become effective in various forms of technology in order to publish their own school newspaper. We have learned about various aspects of a news-paper, including learning how to write an article, newspaper reading habits, layout and design techniques as well as

We have also been taking advantage of this nice weather and walking down to the old football field to observe the os-prey nest. The students have created many drawings, stories and comics about our fine-feathered osprey friends. Look for some of these comics, writings and drawings in the first edition of our news-paper!

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Extra! Extra! Read All About It!—Ms. Heuer

DeTour Arts & Technology Academy

What’s New in the Music Room—Mr. Usher

noon is finished up with science and so-cial studies. Currently, we are studying about living and nonliving things. When we read about shelter and saw a picture in our science book of a nest, we went out to the football field to see the osprey nest built up on the light post. My favor-ite part of the day has to be the songs and PowerPoint presentations we pro-ject onto the board to go along with the songs. We have quite the collection of singers and dancers in our class! Here’s what the students had to say about their favorite things in our class. Abby—“Social studies and coloring the boxes” Scott—“Doing stations like the ABC lady-bugs” Haley—“The Katalina Matalina song” Nathan—“Making the coconut tree” Claire—“The literacy stations where we learn about letters and numbers” Ronnie—“Literacy stations like the lady-bug puzzles and the truck matching” Karlee—“I like building stuff with the soft blocks.” Drake—“I like the toys that are shapes.”

Fall Greetings from the Kindergarten and First Grade! We have had a won-derful start to our school year. The stu-dents are quickly learning procedures and the routine of our classroom. We always start our day with a morning meeting where we greet each other, share a response to a question of the day, and co-write a letter about the upcoming day. The students enjoyed making name bottles with baby soda bottles. Feel free to come in and check them out. The day then progresses into our literacy centers and guided reading groups. The students work with the teacher or choose from a number of work stations that revolve around the alphabet, sight words, book boxes, and rhyming. One day we made a snack after we read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. We made coconut trees with apple slices, Alphabits, and Oreo Funstix. After centers we regroup for a phonics lesson and then have journal time. When the students return from lunch and recess we meet for calendar time and then have math groups. Our after-

Fall Greetings from Kindergarten & 1st Grade—Mrs. Wilkie

The 2nd and 3rd Grade classroom is really starting to get in the swing of school now. The students are getting their routines down and we are focus-ing in on their learning. We have just started the second chapter in math. The third grade is learning about place

value and second grade is working on addition facts. The students in the room are reading all the time and starting this month we will be doing an author study. The class will be looking at different children’s authors work each month. The students have been studying plants in science and have

The K-1 students are learning to use the computer. The students are learning the names of the parts of the computer, to properly log-on and log- off, open and close programs and files, and to navigate around the desktop and web browser. They are using various programs to supple-ment the math and language arts curriculum. In the last 4 weeks, the students have quickly become very efficient and independent.

The 2-3 students are completing a design challenge. The students have constructed paper boats and their challenge is to design a sail that will move the boat the fastest. The stu-dents are using the design process to brainstorm ideas for sail designs, sketch their ideas, construct the pro-totype sail, and test their design. Next week the students will test their designs in water and will have an opportunity to improve their design.

The 4-5 students are learning various com-puter programs. Right now the students are using Open Office Calc to input data and create graphs and charts to present their data.

The 6th grade students are learning to use Google Sketchup to help them learn the basics of drafting. The students will use Sketchup as part of the design process in future design challenges.

will take a nature walk and use it as inspiration for a creative writing activity.

In Mrs. Galarowic’s class, the 6th grade has been very busy this month adjusting to their new environment. In their math class, they spent the first ten days re-viewing material from last year and are now busy studying graphing and statis-tics. They have been making various graphs that can be seen on display in the

classroom. In Science, the students have just finished learning about plate tecton-ics and the layers of the earth, and are now preparing to study rock and miner-als. In Social Studies the class is in the early stages of learning the geography, history, and culture of Latin America. A variety of art and music will accompany many of the lessons as they study Latin American culture.

Mrs. Livingston's Language Arts students have spent September practicing test taking and reading strategies. They also have been renewing their understanding of the 6+1 Traits for writing. Students have enjoyed a read aloud of the novel Maniac Magee and it has led to many interesting discussions. Students have also been practicing their public speak-ing skills as they take turns doing the daily announcements over the school PA system. In the month to come, students

In Mr. Livingston’s K-1st grade art class, the kids are learning/reviewing the primary colors on the color wheel, and are using the primary colors to make the secondary colors on the color wheel. The 2nd/3rd grade art class is understanding how shapes are two-dimensional, and forms are three-dimensional. The 4th/5th grade are creating complimentary color flower projects, and the 6th graders are working on projects where their construction paper insects are created using analogous colors.

Volume 1, Issue 1

Arts Corner—Mr. Livingston

Technology Class—Mr. Nettleton

6th Grade—Mrs. Galarowic & Mrs. Livingston

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The DATA kids kicked off fundraiser bake sales this month to raise money for field trips. Their first sale raised $153! While very early in the planning stages, there is a project underway to send three or four of the DATA grades to the Midland Center for the Arts and & the Alden B. Dow Museum of Arts & Science this spring.

2/3 Classroom—Ms. Cloudman just moved on to animals this week and are very excited about it. Next week they are building models of a backbone because they are starting to learn about vertebrates and invertebrates. The class is full of impressive little scien-tists that are eager to learn these complex concepts they are study-ing in their science books.

Dinner & a Show

More top contenders in our logo contest below. Thanks to all of the kids who entered;

we were thrilled to have so many from which to choose. Good job everyone!

WE WANT YOUR

TALENT

If you have a talent you would be willing to share with our students, please

contact us! Anything from line dancing to robot-

ics...think creatively. We could also use volunteers to help with field trips,

special programs & fund-raisers. Call 906-297-2011

DeTour Arts & Technology Academy

PO Box 24 DeTour Village, MI 49725

On October 29 the Academy will be hosting its first musical performance. The new Academy 6th Grade Fine Art Class will be doing a choral program. Every Academy 6th Grader is also in the instrument program so they will then step in and join the DeTour Middle School Band. The DeTour High School band will round out the evening’s musical entertainment.

Prior to the show, there will be a fundraiser spaghetti dinner in the Raider Room. Cost will be $5 per plate and $15/family. The dinner will be from 5:00-6:30 and the concert will start at 6:30. The menu for the dinner will consist of spaghetti, green salad, garlic bread and dessert. All monies raised will go towards repairing our instruments that are in mighty sad shape. So come out on a Friday night and have some good food and good entertainment while supporting your school music program.

Non-Profit Organization

U.S. Postage Paid DeTour Village, MI

Permit No. 1