16 Wednesday, April 25, 2012
The Current
Spotlight on Schools Aidan Montessori School
This week, Aidan Montessori School’s upper elementary is having our spring birthday luncheon. At our luncheon, we will be having pesto pasta, rigatoni in a meat sauce, Orangina, chocolate pie and much more! We asked some of the members who are setting up the luncheon if it is fun to be a part of it. Sixthgrader Ashton Lindeman said, “Yes, even though the loudness isn’t that great. I still like being able to participate.� We asked Eva Sophia Shimanski, a fifth-grader, who is not participating in setting up the luncheon, if she is looking forward to seeing all of the excitement and celebration and being able to try all the food. She said, “I am very excited for the luncheon because we don’t have to bring our own lunches, and we get to sit with our friends.� The last person we asked was Elliot Sealls, a fifth-grader. We asked him what part he is looking forward to, and he said, “I am really looking forward to the food and hanging out with my friends.� — Isabel Bouhl, fifth-grader, and Leyu Negussie, fourth-grader
Beauvoir School
In art, we made Oaxacan animals. Oaxacan animals are popular in Mexico. The Oaxacan is a type of art with animals carved out of wood. They are painted with careful strokes. We made ours out of clay. I made a turtle. He is purple with blue and green circles. Ms. Cotter, our art teacher, put them in the kiln, and we got to see how they look. I love how they look! You can find the display in the
School DISPATCHES
third-grade hallway. — Aanya Hudda, third-grader
Benjamin Banneker Academic High School
On April 18, Banneker’s street law class of seniors competed in the preliminary round of the 40th annual Street Law Mock Trial Tournament at the D.C. Superior Court. The tournament developed as a partnership between D.C. Public Schools and the Georgetown University Law School. It is a competition among 24 teams from 11 D.C. public and public charter high schools. Teams of students act as witnesses and lawyers to simulate a controversial trial created by the clinic staff at Georgetown. The case this year was “Decker v. the Metro City Police Department.� The student team at Banneker began preparing for the tournament in January by taking a clinic class in street law taught by Georgetown University professor Richard L. Roe. To help prepare for the mock trial, each team was coached by a Georgetown University law student. Participation in the trial is a requirement for the Banneker street law students. The first round of the competition began on Wednesday, and the final round was on April 21 at Georgetown University Law School. Banneker won in 2010 and placed second in 2011. — Natia Contee, 12th-grader
British School of Washington
Our topic is “I’m Alive.� First, we went on a hunt in the playground to identify living, dead and
non-living things. We know how to tell the difference between living things and non-living things. We recorded what we found out in a mind map and wrote down some very big questions we had about living things like, “If you planted the first tree, where did the seed come from?� We have been spotting living things on our weekly walk in the woods, in Dumbarton Oaks Park. Year 2 also looks after our new trees, which were planted by student council and Casey Trees, by watering them every week. We have been writing poems using metaphors and similes to describe living things in different seasons. We collected describing words to match a picture of a season. — Nina Wilson and Kiah Bardouille-Lewis, Year 2 Miami (first-graders)
Duke Ellington School of the Arts
Blast the DC-CAS! That was the mantra we learned from our pep rally. Last week, school was crazy from class to class. We sat for two whole class periods taking our DC-CAS tests. As our students walk around the school with confidence about passing this test and trying their best, I, too, am overwhelmed. The students at Duke Ellington must be tired. On top of this test taking, we still had arts block for three whole hours, but we must put in the time and effort it’s going to take to get us where we want to go in life. As our seniors get ready for their recitals and college tours and work on getting their community service hours, we underclassmen are still doing our part. The
DC-CAS test period went smoothly, and the pep rally chants of “Hey, Ellington! How you feeling? Fantastic, terrific and great, all day long� and “Who rock the house? Duke rocks the house, and we rock it all the way down� linger in the hallways. We were confident about blasting the DC-CAS! — Astra Armstrong, ninth-grader
Eaton Elementary
The second-graders are doing a special ballet program. Our teacher’s name is Ms. Saki, and she is from the Washington Ballet. She has helped us learn a lot about ballet and many other dances. Ms. Saki comes to our school on Tuesday and Thursday for dance class. We started ballet before spring break, and we will do our performance next week. When we go to our dance class, Ms. Saki calls the boys and girls to their places. We have four rows, boys, then girls, then boys, then girls. We have certain places, and we have to stay in those places so we don’t get mixed up. We sit in ballet position and wait for Ms. Saki’s instructions. We learned that ballet has lots of rules and everyone follows the rules. Ballet is fun because you can stretch your body and get more flexible. Ms. Saki plays different kinds of music, and our class is learning a dance with music from “The Lion King.� Ballet is very sophisticated because you don’t talk at all, you just use your body. Ballet is important because it can help you get strong and in shape for other sports and other activities. Next week, we’re going to have a performance where we will perform our “Lion King� dance. All of the parents are invited to watch the
show. We hope all our parents come because we want everyone to see how hard we worked! — Kendall Weaver and Lauren Walker, second-graders
Hearst Elementary
Our class has been learning about Earth Day and has come up with some ways that we can help our planet. Brandon said, “I will recycle my plastic bottles to make new ones.� Caroline said she will “pick up trash and use the trash can to throw the trash away.� Victor said, “I can reuse a box to make a game about sports and if I threw more stuff away it would make more dumps on the countryside and that is not good so I would use stuff again.� Esai said he thinks he should “plant some new flowers and take care of living things.� Dylan said that if he “planted seeds to make more trees, we would have fresh oxygen so we can breathe.� Nicola said that she “would clean up trash and it would help all the creatures on the Earth. ... They wouldn’t get sick.� Maisie said she “will not throw trash at the Earth because it makes things dirty.� Finally, Keanu and Liza want to “recycle plastic bottles because things will get in a big pile and get dirty.� They would also “pick up trash and maybe reuse it and we will also not use a lot of water when we brush our teeth.� Happy Earth Day, D.C.! — Kindergartners
Hyde-Addison Elementary
The Kindergarten Rock Stars learned all about community helpers and different types of jobs. During our study, we got to meet See Dispatches/Page 17
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