Dear KLSD Community,

As our schools close this week, I wish all our students and their families, my colleagues and all in our community a restful and joyful break.

Whether you have celebrated holidays already, or will be celebrating them in the coming week, may you be surrounded by friends, loved ones, warmth, comfort and laughter.

Happy New Year to all, and here’s to a 2024 filled with curiosity, compassion, connection and peace.

Sincerely,

Andrew Selesnick

Superintendent of Schools 

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Top left, clockwise: Jocelyn Lividini and Heather Carroll’s IMES fourth graders host a Wax Museum as the fun finale to a non-fiction unit. KES kindergarteners make gingerbread house with art teacher Christine Eckler. MPES third graders share non-fiction stories at an all-grade Writers Celebration. JJMS band rehearses with conductor Jennifer Fraczek. JJHS students enjoy Winter Wonderland, hosted by the school's PTO. Architecture I students design and craft a bench from cardboard with teacher Annabelle Rolland.

Second graders hold colorful tubes like swords, but all eyes are on the classroom smartboard, where simple, color-coded music for “Jingle Bells” scrolls by. When the notation shows an A, the students holding the long purple tubes give them a satisfying smack on their sides. As the students holding short red tubes see a C coming up, they get ready to play their part.

Meadow Pond Elementary’s Boomwacker chorus is at the ready, having fun and reading notations for notes and timing.

Boomwackers are just one of the many engaging instruments and activities that Katonah-Lewisboro’s elementary music educators use to teach students to read, write and reproduce rhythmic and melodic patterns. In forty-minute classes, students enjoy a well-balanced musical meal! MORE

You’ll know you’ve arrived in the middle school’s Art Department when a digital display featuring the student-created animated illustration of the day catches your eye. It’s next to an array of observational drawings done in pencil. And, if you happen to be visiting in-between classes, you’ll join students in petting Rhodie, the school’s therapy dog, who greets all those passing by with her owner, art teacher Kendra Collins.

High tech, classic techniques, and a warm welcome. That’s the John Jay Middle School’s Art Department! Stop in and see what's happening this month.

The sound booth, set along one wall of the Music Technology classroom, is roughly the size of two double beds set end to end. Today, it’s glowing John Jay purple. Through its window you can see students talking and playing the guitar, but the soundproofed door and walls put users in their own little world.

Maddy Galgano sits at the console and pushes start. She and Sean Conroy, Tyler Goodrich and Elijah Willner—seniors who have participated in the Music Tech program for all four years—huddle close and listen to "Four Score," the song they composed and recorded for a class project. It's evocative, complex and beautiful. MORE/LISTEN

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