Elixir of Love

On November 11, grades 3-8 went to see The Elixir of Love, presented by Lyric Opera of Chicago's Opera in the Neighborhood program. The students were very excited, and what follows is a review written by Clarissa.

"The Elixir of Love" was an amazing opera. I thought when the actors all sang without microphones it was surprising. It surprised me because when Adina had to sing those high pitches, it was so incredible. When the pianist played, he was so amazing, playing the piano for the orchestra. The costumes were so beautiful! The costume I liked best was Adina's. Adina walked in it and danced in it. The setting was very nice because the people who drew the picture painted it nicely. I thought the best part was when Adina kissed Nemorino because Nemorino wanted to fall in love with Adina so I think that he was waiting for his true love. The play a lot of fun because they sang well, and tried to make all the kids laugh at some of the parts, like when the doctor said, "Hit that funky music."

Last week, the class finished the unit on How to Eat Fried Worms. Above, you can see pictures of the students acting out important scenes from the book, eating gummy worms and "dirt" that I made for the class, and some of the brave students trying real fried worms. This week, we're going to begin looking at how to read non-fiction and some of the important features of non-fiction text.

We are also almost done with our unit on nouns. The test will be next Tuesday, and I will be sending home a study guide towards the end of this week. I will be spending a lot of time in class on the difference between plural and possessive nouns. This would also be a good area to make sure your student reviews as they study for the class, as in the past this has been a hard concept for students to grasp.

In art, we have been looking at the artist Georges Seurat and his style of pointillism. The students created their own pointillistic drawing on the computer, and on Thursday, we will be painting in this style. I need one or two parents to come in Thursday to help with this project, so if you are available, please let me know.