Final Braves reminders

Dear Parents,

If your child is attending the Braves game field trip, please make sure they come to school dressed in their t-shirt, jeans (no rips, no shorts), and closed toe shoes Monday. They need to bring a snack for after school and at least $20 for dinner. Check out will be from 8:30-8:45pm in section 147. Please make sure you are signing out your child only with me if you are signing them out. They cannot be signed out by a chaperone...I need to know for sure who is riding back with us! Thank you to those of you who responded to the email about transportation; it definitely helps to have that heads up! :) Again, the students cannot leave their chaperone group/trip until 8:30pm, for safety reasons.

If you are taking your child home, remember that they must take their instrument back to your vehicle after the performance to take it home. Bookbags can be picked up between 4:30-5:15pm at the Durham theater OR they can leave their bookbag in their locker if they do not need to take it home. We have your child's ticket, so you should have only received the family tickets, and your child's ticket will be kept with their chaperone until it is time to enter the stadium.

Chaperones: we will meet at Durham at 3:30pm on Monday in the theater.

We hope to see many of you at the 6:30pm performance at the Battery and are looking forward to a fabulous Monday night! :)

Thank you,

Jennifer Aikey

Braves Game Details

Dear Parents,

If your child is attending the Braves game trip this coming Monday, September 17, I wanted to fill you in on several important details:

First, the students will receive the tickets for their family and friends tomorrow. I have reiterated the importance of them being responsible with these tickets, but PLEASE make sure you get the tickets from them tomorrow as soon as they get home from school, and that you received the correct amount of tickets. Your child's ticket will NOT be included, as their ticket will stay with their chaperone group and will be given to your child after they perform. 

Check Out Procedures: if you are planning to check out your child at the designated check out time (8:30), you will need to be sure of a couple of things; one, you may pick up your child's bookbag from Durham any time from 4:30-5:15. We do not have room on the buses for the bookbags, nor do they allow them in the stadium. If you do not pick up your child's bookbag from during that tiem, you will have to wait to come back to Durham at approximately 10pm when we arrive back to the school from the stadium. Second, you would need to take your child's instrument as soon as they are done performing to your vehicle, as they cannot bring them into the stadium as well and the buses will be locked after the performance. Our performance is from 6:30- 6:45-ish, so there should not be a problem getting the instrument back to your car before the game starts at 7:35. :)

Students who are NOT being checked out and staying for the duration of the trip will put their instrument back on the bus after the performance, and will ride the bus back to Durham where they can drop off their instrument and grab their bookbag upon leaving the school. ALL STUDENTS MUST HAVE A RIDE BY 10PM!

Students should receive their t-shirt for the performance by the end of the week. They will wear the performance t-shirt and jeans to school on Monday for the performance.

Again, our performance at the Battery has been moved to 6:30pm! The Battery is open to anyone (you don't have to have a ticket to enter the Battery). so please come and support your child's performance! 

I hope this answers any questions you may have! Please let me know if you have any further questions or concerns.

Jennifer Aikey

September Updates

Hello Orchestra Parents! We wanted to give you an update on what all the grade levels have been working on...

8th Grade: 8th grade just completed an assessment on 3rd position/shifting. All students received a passing grade, with most doing really well!! Mrs. Aikey is so proud of their progress, as many students have shown a great deal of improvement! We are finishing up preparation for the Braves game next week and are starting to rehearse Night Shift and the Mission Impossible theme!

7th Grade: 7th graders will be completing an assessment on #47 (Rondeau) in their Essential Elements book. This quiz covers their knowledge of dotted quarter rhythms. The rubric that will be used to determine their grade has posture and position, bow usage, tone, intonation, bowings (bow direction), and dynamics as grading categories. They have chosen to do their assessment in small groups of 4-5 students playing together. We are excited to use this team-building strategy with them and to hopefully reach more students individually during this process! They are doing a great job and have been working hard on the Braves game music and the theme from Batman!

6th Grade: The 6th grade is off to a great start! They have successfully learned their D string notes and are working on learning their A string notes! Once they finish an assessment early next week on the D Major Scale, they will begin using their bows! Parents, you should NOT see them using bows right now. Please continue to encourage your child to wait until we give them instruction on their bow grip so that they can start with the best technique possible; we want to set them up for success! They should, however, receive music for their first concert and be using their bow by Fall Break.


If you have any questions, feel free to contact us! Make sure you've filled out the form below this blog post if you have not already.

Thank you,

Jennifer Aikey and Selena Sanchez