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Students in Mrs. Hoenes’ Young Fives classes at PVN learned all about children in Japan and their springtime celebration called Children’s Day.  Mrs. Martin, PVN’s visual arts teacher, showed the students how to make koi windsocks, like the ones Japanese children make and display during this famous, Japanese celebration. Using liquid watercolors and color-diffusing paper fish, PVN students made their own koi windsocks and embellished them with sequins and glitter glue. They then declared their own “Children’s Day” and watched attentively as their fish swayed in the breeze. What a great way to usher in the spring! Read More

Elementary music teachers Bill Burns (Cline) and Melanie Johnson (PVN) presented a workshop geared toward helping other educators integrate jazz into their curriculum. The workshop was titled “BeBoppers 101: Creating an Elementary Jazz Curriculum” and was presented at the Ohio Music Education Association annual convention at the Columbus Convention Center in February. Mrs. Johnson is a veteran teacher and past nominee for outstanding educator at Primary Village North. Mr. Burns has presented at the Jazz Education Network national convention in New Orleans and the Ohio Music Education convention in 2011 and 2009. The clinic is sponsored by the Jazz Education Connection of Ohio. Their website is http://www.jecohio.org Read More

Students in the Raspberry Neighborhood at Primary Village North recently performed “We Can Make a Difference,” an original musical created by Music to Your Years, LLC, and performed both at their school on Marshall Road, and also at the Performing Arts Center inside Centerville High School. The six original songs in the musical were written by Kathy Clark and Dan Hill, both retired teachers. The two are joined by Dan’s wife Beth, also a retired teacher, and Don Corbet, a corporate senior executive and technical expert in Linux, Unix, Windows and Enterprise platforms. The group worked with students and staff at PVN in an “artists in residence” partnership working with teachers to help them illustrate conceptual themes through original music. Hill commented “our goal is to help students discover the objectives of classroom lessons through original, custom-written songs, scripts and staging.” The original songs included “Yippee for Me, Hooray for You!,” “Depend on Me,” and “Ill Always Be Me.” Information about Music to Your Years, LLC can be found on their website www.musictoyouryears.org. Read More

The Purple Neighborhood students were thinking about our troops overseas when we returned from Winter Break, as we have some family members and friends there.  We decided that we wanted to do something special for them for Valentine’s Day.  So, we made of list of things that we could send to the troops and asked our parents for donations.  While we collected donations, we also wanted to do something else to make them smile.  So we worked with Ms. Johnson, our music teacher, and performed a few songs to create a video for the troops.  We recorded the students singing “I Think You’re Wonderful,” “Thank You,” and “Skid-A-Ma-Rink” to name a few!  Take a look at the photo to see our amazing 6 boxes of donated items and the DVDs went in them too!  Thank you to all that helped this project to be such a success!  Read More

When preschool students in Mrs. Mount's class realized they did not have a non- fiction book about hedgehogs, they decided to publish one using the Frames program. Technology has a significant impact on instruction at PVN, Preschool through first grade! Read More

PVN families and staff gathered on the evening of December 6 to enjoy songs and a story.  Centerville High School students, under the direction of Theater Arts teacher, Joe Beumer, performed The Gingerbread Baby. A packed house enjoyed the antics of Mattie, as he ran after the Gingerbread Baby. Read More

On December 3, PVN’s PTO hosted their annual Winter Carnival, chaired by Co-President Amy Hoff.  The children enjoyed crafts, face painting, cookie decorating, the cake walk and jumping and playing on huge inflatables in the gym. Read More

Watts Middle School students are entertaining the students and staff at Primary Village North during a holiday program at the school on Marshall Road. Watts’s students in the Girls’ Chorus and Jazz Ensemble kept the kindergarten and first graders engaged with a variety of holiday music. Pictured is the Jazz Ensemble with the chorus to their right, and of course the K-1 students seated on the floor in their gymnasium. Read More

The Blue Neighborhood comes together as a community every Wednesday for sing-a-long.  The students love seeing their friends and siblings from other classes and singing fun songs together.  The teachers love all the learning that goes on while the students are singing.  Music is a very important part of the preschool and Young Fives’ day because it provides many opportunities for learning.  Participating in sing-a-long songs provides the students with opportunities to practice many phonemic awareness skills, including rhyming and letter sounds.  Gathering together as a large group to sing and dance helps the students learn about their bodies in space and how to move within their own spaces.  Being together as a large group also helps us practice our listening and attention skills.  Using large hand motions that cross the midline of the body stimulates many parts of the brain and helps prepare us for learning.  Many songs mimic the rhythm of reading and singing predictable and repetitive songs paired with the written word helps students connect what they are hearing and saying/singing to what they are reading.  We also use songs to help teach specific concepts.  As the advertising industry knows, putting something to music helps the brain remember.  If you’re ever at PVN on Wednesday, feel free to stop by the Blue Neighborhood sing-a-long and join us in song and dance (and learning)!  Read More