Allen Stevenson School - Unicorn Yearbook (New York, NY)

Page 42 text:

rf Artistic merits are also exposed in home rooms, where boys provide a great part of the decorations with drawings and designs made both in their own rooms and in art classes, although the best of the art class work is often taken by Ms. Kopple for the hallway frames fwhich have done a great deal to brighten up the school buildingj. Mrs. Bounds' room acquired a great fish tank this year, so every morning the boys had something to do before classes began - clean the tank and feed the min- nows. An added attraction to third grade is the chance to take up an instrument, under the direction of Maestro Gaugerino and his talented staff of musi- cians. Maestro usually keeps a boy in from field one afternoon and tests him out on a representative variety of instruments, finally selecting one type for which the boy has demonstrated ability. No enthu- siastic volunteer is ever denied the opportunity of playing in the Orch - so long as he keeps up his practice reports! Of course Orch membership is almost like taking an additional course. Under Generals Bounds and Fusco, the third gra- ders greatly expand their curriculum, especially in their writing fthey are also given cursive writing at this pointy They especially enjoy their book Pio- neers of America, and to get on the jimmy Carter bandwagon, the boys are growing peanut plants - doubtless from Plains, Ga. Although next year will see a reorganization of A- S whereby the fourth grade will become part of a 4- 5-6 Middle School, this year's fourth graders were 38 5 4 . ' na T5-A GRADE 3 BOUNDS - back row: T Potter, Hickox, Worowski, D Garrett, R. lacobsp middle row Rosenbloom, Grech, Z. Penn, P Kahn, A. Haag, Bernstein, front row C. Rachlin, S. Wydler, Clark, Dunk Marcq, Nahas V it

Page 41 text:

5 'va' Mrs. Leighton, former Assistant Director of Park Avenue Christian Church Day School, became head of Lower School in the fall of 1975, and to-date her biggest contribution has been to see that her teenie- weenies get substantially more time for art and shop, previously denied them because there was no morning time to work them into the program. Now they get their sports one morning one day a week, thus in the afternoons they can be turned over to Ms. Kopple and Mr. Meyendorff at 1:30. The curriculum in the first grade consisted of teaching the little uns the three R's of readin', 'ritin' and 'rithmatic, First grade, naturally, must concen- trate on these learning skills before pushing on to other things. Here, number concepts are most im- portant, and several ways and approaches are used. One of these is with the colored Cuisiniere Rods, which help build relative sense of number values. In second grade, daily life revolves around learn- ing sentence structure and grammar. Here the boys often write stories about themselves and other inter- esting life experiences. Once a week the boys get a library period, where they are taken by Mrs. Ritten- berg. They always have a ball, taking over Aunt Ritty's office, as well as enjoying her new selections for them. They also get the opportunity to learn library skills and the Dewey Decimal System fwe thinkl. Twice a week Lower Schoolers get read stories by Mrs. Leighton, who generally selects some thrillers to make the little fellers relax after a hard day's work. Although there are no fireplaces in the build- ing, Mrs. Leighton's readings do seem like fireside chats. GRADE 4 TERRILL - back row Hoppl, D. Schiff, jones Washington, l. Sinclair, Hecht middle row: B. Smith, M Wasserberger, Berry, Handy Bourne, E. Bader, front row Porter, Marcano, R. Bulkley Sttoll, Pollack, Kulok

Page 43 text:

the big fish in the Lower School pond. Ram- bunctious and enthusiastic, these charges of Messrs. Grassi 84 Terrill heightened their math skills by gam- bling - in incessant backgammon tournaments. By calculating the odds on each roll of the dice they increase their multiplication skills, too. In English, the fourth graders write book reports lare you ready, Mr. Landis?l and begin to learn formal grammar. For the second year in a row Upper School sci- ence teacher Mr. Webb has generously given of his time to introduce the smallfries of Lower School to science. This is clearly one of the most fascinating times of their week, Mr. Webb tries to give them an introduction to laboratory work, and they respond enthusiastically. Mr. Webb is planning to expand the science program into the lower grades, espe- cially in the next years as he will be in charge of the newly-created Middle School. This year the main focus of his time with Lower Schoolers was astrono- my and geology. Of course the music program, under Mrs. Schrade, is another favorite with the small fries. Here Mrs. Schrade takes charge twice a week in the music room, where she teaches group singing of popular tunes. She also instructs the kids in music appreci- ation, giving them basic concepts of symphonic and operatic music as well. Mrs. Schrade also leads the smallfry. 3 -J