30 Wednesday, February 29, 2012
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National Presbyterian School
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On Feb. 16, National Presbyterian School celebrated the 100th day of school! We had a big event for the kindergarten through sixth-grade students, which was organized by Ms. Williams, the math specialist. When students walked into school, they were handed a “Happy 100th Day of School” sticker and went up to their classrooms. The day went just as a usual school day would go, but when it was 1:55 p.m., the older kids went to pick up their younger buddies. Students went around the school for one hour to different activities set up by teachers. There were lots of activities, including making 100th day necklaces with cereal, making 100 different fingerprints, doing a hunt for the numbers 1 through 100 in a classroom, and making sculptures with 100 pieces! All the students also got a special snack of a 100-calorie snack bag. Overall, the entire school event was a huge success that celebrated all of us being 100 days smarter. I can’t wait until next year’s 100th day of school! — Bentley Anderson, fifth-grader
St. Albans School
The Lenten season at St. Albans this year got off to a jubilant start. Pancake races and pancake eating on Pancake Day, otherwise known as Shrove Tuesday or Fat Tuesday, preceded a solemn and thoughtful Ash Wednesday. Pancake Day was full of unhealthy junk food and, as you might guess, lots of pancakes as people celebrated one last time before Lent began. A very important tradition in the Christian church is to give up something for Lent. This “something” can range from playing video games to watching TV to being crabby to texting to using Facebook. I even know someone who is trying to give up bacon. The reason some Christians choose to give up something during the Lenten season is that Jesus, after fasting in the wild for 40 days and 40 nights, was able to resist the devil’s temptations. The tradition of fasting for the 40 days of Lent helps Christians to be closer to God by doing what his son did — we sacri-
fice something important to us for 40 days and nights, refusing things that tempt us. The Lenten season requires a lot of contemplation, beginning with a very quiet Ash Wednesday service in which we remember that we are all equal and will all return to the dust we are all from; this is represented by the marking of participants’ foreheads with a cross of ashes. The lower school service was a bit long but filled with songs, praises and readings from a Form II student and the headmaster. — Stefan Adebajo, Form II (eighth-grader)
Shepherd Elementary
Earlier this month, Mr. Kenneth Giles, the music teacher, held the “Songs of Freedom and Justice” concert at Shepherd Elementary. It is a performance he has been doing for more than 12 years. It was a success and everybody had fun! The most important song for me was “We Shall Overcome.” We want to give a big thank you to Mr. Giles for making this concert happen. He works so hard to make everything a success. When you see Mr. Giles, please give him praise. This concert will be a good memory to have when you are in college. When you think back about elementary school, you’ll say, “Wow! I remember Mr. Giles and all the concerts that we participated in.” —Sophia-Rose Herisse, fourth-grader
Sheridan School
On Feb. 8, the eighth-graders performed original wax museumstyle monologues from a main character’s perspective in a fiction book of their choice. Students picked books such as “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie, “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins, and “Nemesis” by Isaac Asimov. During the month before the assembly, the eighth-graders selected novels that reflect upon their personal interests. While reading, they carefully chose, studied and analyzed a character from their book and then wrote monologues in the voice of that character. The monologues focused on a conflict in the story and the character’s emotions. They were inspired by the character’s thoughts, words and actions in the books. On the performance date, the other Sheridan students circulated around the school to view the eighth-graders’ monologues. “I liked it,” said eighth-grader Nico Alexander. “The project allowed us to really express our views about the character and take on a good role.” — Nico Alexander and Benjamin Schulman, eighth-graders
Stoddert Elementary
I’m Rami and I was interested in competing in the cluster spelling bee because my brother made it into the citywide bee. I like to compete in things. I studied a list of words for spelling and my mother tested me. There were 450 words for first
through eighth grades. I got out on the word “dynamic.” I’m George and I was inspired to join in the spelling bee because I made sixth place in the geography bee. I studied the school’s word list and looked at words I hadn’t seen before. I made it into the top three in the cluster. Words like “extemporaneously” are hard. I got out on the word “nirvana.” I’m Hudson and I entered the spelling bee last year and this year. Both of my sisters have won in past bees, and last year I made it to the citywide event, then lost. I got out on the word “bequeath” this year at the cluster bee, and I was about to leave but I was called back and they put me in a tiebreaker round. We thought some of the hardest words were “cantata,” “dynamic” and “graffiti.” My winning word was “pistachio.” We competed against 16 schools in the District at the cluster bee, and there were 55 contestants. After the first round, there were only 15 contestants remaining. We noticed there were more boys than girls. The next step is the 30th annual citywide bee in March. The national spelling bee will be May 27 through June 1. — George Turmail and Rami Chiaviello, fourth-graders, and Hudson Primus, fifth-grader
Washington International School
Our fourth-grade teachers had an excellent way of introducing our new unit of inquiry, “Who’s the Boss?” The teachers separated the fourth-grade classes into three groups. One of the groups was with the IT teacher. In her classroom, there were quite a lot of rules. For example, we had to call her “The Great Leader.” We had to respect the rule that she was always right and that no one should question her. We later learned that this experience was meant to represent totalitarianism. Totalitarianism is when the government of that particular country has total control. The next experience was odd because we just stood there watching our teacher knit and listen to the Grammy Awards. Whenever we asked a question, she would say, “Whatever.” We learned this class was meant to represent anarchy. Anarchy is when there is no government, no president or leader, no rules and no organization. The last government that we learned about was democracy. We learned about voting as a way to choose a leader. Groups each got a piece of paper called a ballot. Before we voted, each candidate made a speech. Democracy is the kind of government we have in our country. Totalitarianism made us think of strict schools with ridiculous rules that are unfair. It also made us think of what is happening in Syria. We learned that it is not always fun to be in a country with anarchy. Everyone learned new and extraordinary things about governments. — Dante Rohlck and Ye’Amlak Zegeye, fourth-graders