The Tuscan Art Show will have it's opening reception June 11th at 6pm.  Please SAVE THE DATE.   Please help us get ready for this highly anticipated evening.  We still need your generosity of spirit and time to mount and hang the children's art work.    Please contact Gabrielle Graziano (gabriellept@aol.com) if you have even a small amount of time to donate.

Congratulations to Tuscan's art teacher Ms. Green on accomplishments noted by the Board of Education.   Bravo Ms. Green!

"Jaymie Green, art teacher at Tuscan, presented at a conference at Teachers College, Columbia University, entitled: Remixing Art Education in April. Her presentation was on implementing Green Screen in the Contemporary Art Studio Classroom and implications of digital technology in the art room today. In addition she presented at Fordham University's Graduate School of Education Research Celebration where she presented on her preliminary findings as part of a group research team of analyzing data from a western New Jersey school implementing iPad digital technology in the art studio classroom. Her poster was entitled: A Look at Teacher Efficacy, Student Engagement, and Learning with the Use of iPads in the Art Studio Classroom.

Ms. Green was also accepted to the 2014 Teacher Institute on Impressionism and Post-Impressionism at The National Gallery of Art in DC. She was offered the Annetta J.and Robert M. Coffelt Sr. and Robert M. Coffelt Jr. Fellowship of $2,000 to support her attendance at the 2014 Teacher Institute. Ms. Green also received the elementary art educator scholarship to take a workshop at Peters Valley this summer."

Through a partnership with the SOM Adult School and the school district, Suzuki Violin lessons for students in grades 1 thorugh 5 will start in November.

Tuscan Spring Concert
Chorus, Band and Orchestra
Tuesday June 4th @ 7:00pm
doors open for seating at 6:45pm
all are welcome!

With over 700 pieces of art to prep and mount before the Art Show, extra hands are needed to make the night a success.   Students look forward to seeing their works displayed in the halls as well as sharing the work of their classmates and friends.
If you have an hour or two to spare this event can be a success - we need your help!
If needed, evening hours can be arranged on a Wednesday or Thursday evening.

Please see detail on this Signup Genius
http://www.signupgenius.com/go/5080C45ACAC2C7-tuscan

~ Leeanne Murphy and Jennifer Vroman, Art Show Coordintors

This year’s Music In Our Schools Month was a great success. Thank You to all the parents who came and shared their musical talents with the classes. The students really enjoyed all of the live performances and look forward to more in the future.

We finished the month with a very special performance from Zach Hatcher, an up and coming Harpist who performed for the 4th and 5th grade students. The students were astonished to hear that he practices 6-8 hours A DAY !

We also received some great news about our district music program:   South Orange/Maplewood School District Recognized Nationally for Schools’ Music Education Efforts  As One of the Best Communities for Music Education, more about this distrinction can be found on the district site here.

~ Music and Chorus teacher Mrs. Van Tine

The three performance of Tuscan's Ticket to Broadway are complete!  Thank you Producer Lynn Salort and the cast of many, many people who gave their time, talent and patience to make the show a success for more than 270 children.
Need information on photos and DVDs?  Find it here
Any cast members who left things behind in the MMS Cafeteria can look in Tuscan's Lost and Found this week.

Friday at 7:00pm the curtain will rise on Maplewood Middle School stage for Tuscan's Ticket To Broadway, the annual school show. Additional showtimes at 4:00pm Saturday and 2:00pm Sunday.
Thank you to Principal Jeff Truppo and all at MMS for hosting us! 
No tickets needed, find all the details here

For the 5th year the PTA is sponsoring Tuscan Summer Art with art teacher Ms. Petronzi.  
Classes are approximately 12 students and meet every day of the week. Ms. Petronzi and an assistant teacher along with 4 counselors and several interns insure a fun-filled, creative summer experience in art for each child. Tuscan Summer Art is exclusively for students of Tuscan School, grades KG through 5th. (Even if they just graduated 5th).    Find the flyer here

Mrs. Hatcher's strings students were touring classrooms today as "Tuscan Troubadours" - 5th grade orchestra students - with Mrs. Hatcher and her student teacher visited classrooms during their orchestra class time today to play for classes.  Violin, viola and cello students were seen around the school today.

Maplewood Middle School will present "Annie Get Your Gun"  this weekend on Friday and Saturday @7:30pm, Sunday @2pm, tickets on sale now and at the door.   Our Tuscan Show "Tuscan's Ticket to Broadway"   will perform on the same stage!
Find the MMS flyer here for this all student production 

In honor of upcoming Black History Month, Tuscan Elementary School welcomed master storyteller Charlotte Blake Alston, who presented “Stories and Songs in the Oral Tradition” to all Tuscan students in three separate assemblies today. Drawing upon African and African-American oral traditions, Ms. Alston engaged the audience through song, movement, call-and-response chanting and clapping, and musical self-accompaniment on the djembe and kora. Her performances were enriched by

Our annual Tuscan Show is going Broadway.  Find a list of skit and crew positions open for students in grades 1-5 here on the Show Page.
Online sign up begins Monday 12/17 and ends Wednesday 12/19.

Tuscan celebrated gratitude and giving thanks in the annual Thanksgiving Assembly.  Mrs. Van Tine, Music and Chorus teacher, directed the 4th & 5th Grade Chorus at two assemblies.  Students also enjoyed presentations from several classes sharing the Thanksgiving theme.
You may hear students at home singing or humming Oh, A Turkey Knocked, A Simple Song of Thanks, Hip Hop Turkey, Turkey Tango,  I'm Grateful and others.