School notes: Yorktown students thank soldiers By Sandy Stewart
YORKTOWN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
third-graders in Mrs. Smith's and Mrs. Rosen's classes wrote a poem titled "Dear Soldier" to thank the soldiers of our country. They also wrote letters to Mrs. Rosen's son, Matt, who is coming home this week from serving in Iraq.
Students created a large, paper-chain American flag in front of the school. They sang patriotic songs and read letters and poems they had written.
Fourth- and fifth-graders participated in a social studies project to get a better idea of how many people died Sept. 11, 2001. Students recorded 3,000 words and displayed them on the wall to see the enormity of the number of lives lost that day, and to pay their respects to those who died. In this way, they also paid tribute to the heroes who risked their lives to help those in need.
Second-graders in Mrs. Domen's, Mrs. Johnson's and Mrs. Brittain's classes created "Interest Boxes" to tell special things about themselves.
Jade Kienas, a second-grader, is the new Little Miss Greenbelt. She went on the morning news broadcast wearing her crown and sash and to share her trophy.
Elee, Kayla, Joseph and Jessica Johns performed in Leonardo DiCaprio's and Russell Crowe's new movie, "Body of Lies." The Johns children thought it was an exciting experience.
Crafters are sought for the school Crafts and Gifts Festival to be held Saturday, Oct. 27. For information, call Michaele Angulo at 240-472-4233 or e-mail angulo5@verizon.net.
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ST. PIUS X REGIONAL SCHOOL
has two kindergarten classes at Sacred Heart Parish and over the summer a kindergarten class was added at Ascension Parish. Deborah Kucevich is director of the Ascension campus and Mary Hager is the aide. Faculty member Kathleen Bryant moved from fifth grade to the kindergarten classroom at Sacred Heart.
Welcome to new faculty members: Virginia Vastag, fifth grade; Ashley Stack, sixth grade; Christopher Carbott, seventh grade; Jill Manning, second grade aide; and Kathleen Sullivan, physical education.
The Home and School Association will meet Oct. 5 coinciding with an open house for parents to meet the teachers.
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KENILWORTH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
began the year with a visit from Karen Swezy, an interrelated art teacher who visits once a quarter. She provided some artistic experiences that extended classroom learning. Miss Warren's prekindergarten class worked on letter recognition. For their art activity they used clay to mold the first letter of their name and then decorated it. Kindergartners in Miss Harris', Mrs. Donovan's and Mrs. LaTorre's classes studied the five senses and then used different materials and textures to create collages. First-graders in Mrs. Donofrio's, Mrs. Peacock's and Mrs. Cippolla's classes studied the parts of a flower. They created large flowers in the style of artist Georgia O'Keefe.
Second-graders in Mrs. Marano's, Mrs. Cheek's and Mrs. Tirdil's classes read and studied the elements of fantasy. They created paper bag puppets and then wrote their own fantasy story.
In third grade, the reading theme has been "Off to Adventure." Mrs. Dolan's, Mrs. Dinch's and Ms. DeReza's classes created landscapes using color to create a feeling. They then wrote poems about them.
The school held a Grandparents Breakfast recently and 67 families and over 220 people attended.
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HOLY TRINITY EPISCOPAL DAY SCHOOL
parents with students in the preschool/kindergarten division visited the school and learned about the activities in store for their students. Discovery students learned and rhymed numbers, signing them, and creating a number chart. "Chica Chica Boom Boom" was a favorite with the Explorers as they used the song to review the alphabet. They acted out the story with letters on their own coconut tree. They even touched, smelled and tasted a real coconut.
In kindergarten, students talked about the concept "word," word segmentation, rhyme recognition, consonants and syllable segmentation. They will "read" picture books, looking for picture clues to help comprehension and making predictions about the stories. Kindergartners enjoyed the Alphabet Train activity as they counted the letters in the words.
In reading/language arts, first- and second-graders are reading their decodable books. They are introduced to anthologies with emphasis on classifying, sentence structure, short vowels, comprehension and sight vocabulary. Third-graders reviewed basic math operations of addition, subtraction and place value. They also compared, ordered and rounded numbers.
Fifth-graders learned about the various woodwind instruments and the different ways to change the sounds as one pushes keys and covers holes on the instrument. All the fifth-graders participate in the cadet band, which is one of five band ensembles at the school. In addition, fifth-graders are creating a Family Tree Project in flex. They will explore their heritage and learn of family stories.
Sixth-graders are learning math vocabulary and creating a mystery number project. They have to create five clues to describe their mystery number and see if their friends can solve the case.
Seventh-graders explored the Earth's mantle as they studied convection cells and how convection currents move in the mantle. They learned about temperature and density changes and how these affect the Earth's crust.
Eighth-graders designed a portfolio that will store their creations through the year. The portfolio design should include the art elements of color, line, value, texture and forms.
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School representatives should send information for School Notes to Sandy Stewart via e-mail at sstewart@bladenews.com or via fax at 301-464-7027.
