Maywood Public Schools Logo

Classroom Happenings II

PE- Mr. Ellis

‘Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, Knees and Toes’

The goal of Physical Education is to develop the WHOLE child in EVERY child.  Therefore the physical educator serves as a role model, demonstrating knowledge of health, physical education and wellness.  Physical education classes provide a variety of activities which help motivate students and increase participation. 

The physical education program here at MPS allows students to participate in developmentally appropriate activities.  It also develops and reinforces cooperative behavior.  The ultimate, achievable goal of the physical education program is to encourage and mentor students to establish individual lifelong fitness goals.

ART - Mrs. Johnson

19th century French Impressionist, Edgar Degas said, “Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.”  That thought is the theme that is carried throughout art classes.  Do the best you can to express yourself and make others understand what you are stating in your art work.

Art students are learning about the Principles of Art and The Elements of Design and how they are incorporated into their art works. Students will explore a wide variety of mediums throughout the year.  The exciting part of class is, I have many students who are breaking out of their comfort zone, by trying new ideas and concepts.

Elementary art classes are learning about the old masters of art, how formed their paintings, sculptures, and drawings.  They learn their techniques through their own art work.

Study Skills class is focusing on how to write a paper using the Write Tools method.

Life Skills students are learning what they have to do once they graduate and leave home.  This semester they are currently learning about nutrition, sewing (buttons and patching jeans) and how to be the person they want to become after high school.

Who Gives A Hoot?  The first and second graders do.  Take a peek at their owls hanging in the hallway by the art room at school.  They learned how to cut, glue, splatter paint, and assemble an owl out of scrap paper.

Spanish/English - Mr. Heaton

From La Bamba to Beowulf  

No, Spanish students aren’t dancing la Bamba . . . not yet anyway, but they are listening to, speaking, reading and writing Spanish. The main emphasis is on listening because someone learning a language must hear the basic “power structures” of a language repeated hundreds and hundreds of times in order to internalize it. There are only about a dozen so called ‘power verbs’ within any language, which, when mastered, allow a person to have his or her needs met. For example ‘to want,’ ‘to need,’ ‘to have,’ ‘to come,’ ‘to go,’ ‘to eat,’ ‘to drink,’ etc.

This method of instruction breaks the language down into its component parts enabling students to reconstruct the language themselves – to form their own sentences and to say what they want when they want. By learning the language in small steps, students can build upon the foundation to produce ever more complicated sentences.

In Senior English, students are reading British and world literature. Students started the year investigating the Anglo-Saxons and their iconic epic, Beowulf, which reflects a feudal world of heroes and monsters, blood and victory, life and death.

“And sometimes a proud old soldier who had heard songs of the ancient heroes and could sing them all through, story after story, would weave a net of words . . . " – from Beowulf

This was a challenging read for the seniors because it is written as a poem, translated from Old English. Beowulf is a Scandinavian tale, its setting the dark, foreboding, unknown lands of the North Sea. The proper nouns for its characters, places, and things are spelled much differently than the Greek epics coming out of the Mediterranean. Instead of Odysseus, Achilles and Agamemnon, there are Hrunting, Hrothgar, and Healfdane. Once students could keep the main players separate, the plot of this epic was easier to follow. Beowulf rings bright with a beauty, power, and artistry that have kept it alive for a more than thousand years.

Special Education – Mrs. Johnson

Have you ever had a strange dream?  Mrs. Phyllis Johnson's reading group just finished reading, "The Land of Peevish Pets."  Jean, the girl in the story, was having a very strange dream.  This story took several days to read and it kept getting more and more bizarre. The students learned the sixteen rules that the main character, Jean, had to remember. The class continues to work on decoding, vocabulary, and comprehension.  Students are very excited to start a new Reading Mastery text book this week.  This week's spelling list has many words with the letters "ight" in them.