Annual Report for Parents

Annual Report for Parents Classroom Highlights from the 2011-2012 Academic Year

513 Montgomery Avenue Merion Station, PA 19066-1298 A Blue Ribbon School of Excellence

610-664-9847 610-664-6364—Fax www.waldronmercy.org

June 29, 2012 Dear Parent, Welcome to our first Annual Report for Parents. Similar to our Report of Gifts for the fundraising efforts at WMA, this report highlights some of the academic achievements that have occurred this year. As you review the pages, we hope you will find many examples of the wonderful happenings that have occurred each day.

While there have been many changes over the past year, our core values of a Mercy education have remained constant. This year we have continued the mission to develop our students’ academic strengths, artistic talents, physical skills, and most important, their compassionate hearts. Hopefully, this report will show some of the ways we were able to achieve this.

Although this is primarily for parents, we hope that you will share it with your children, when appropriate, so that they can tell you even more about their participation in these activities.

Enjoy!

Sincerely,

Steve Stritch Principal

Nell Stetser Vice Principal, Academic Affairs

Early Childhood Class

In ECC this year...

WMA’s youngest students have adapted to being in a school setting. They have developed their language and vocabulary, as well as their rudimentary math skills. They’ve also learned to start to be big boys and girls, demonstrating self-confidence and following rules set by the teacher.

They celebrated the holidays—Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter—and even celebrated the end of the year with a luau for the children and their parents.

Montessori

In Montessori this year...

This was an exciting year for the Montessori students. The children learned so much through their work with the Montessori materials. They enjoyed working with the Pink Tower, the Polishing lessons, the Sandpaper Letters, the Metal Insets, the Number Rods, the Maps, and much more. They became confident and happy members of their class. They grew in learning how to share, how to care and show mercy to others, how to be independent and above all they learned how much God loves them and cares for them.

Pre-Kindergarten

In Pre-K this year...

What a great year the students had! The children went on field trips to Linvilla Orchards, the Philadelphia Art Museum, Irvine Auditorium at University of Pennsylvania to see “Henry and Mudge,” and the Kimmel Center for an early childhood education program called, “Bop and Swing.”

The boys and girls in pre-k performed community service with the Sisters of Mercy at the Convent throughout the school year. The Sisters were invited to a Thanksgiving Prayer Service, and then stayed to join the children for a mini-feast, prepared by the little hosts and hostesses.

The students continued their Convent visits on Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day and Easter. The children sang holiday songs and made crafts with the Sisters.

The boys and girls had special events during the year where their parents and grandparents had opportunities to come to school – Donuts with Dad in April, Mother’s Day Tea and Grandparents’ Day in May. They got together with their fourth grade Big Buddies throughout the school year to read stories, decorate pumpkins and make other crafts, too. The school year ended with a Big and Little Buddies’ End-of-the-Year Picnic at General Wayne Park in Lower Merion.

Kindergarten

In Kindergarten this year...

In September, students experienced a flood on the first day of school and moved to the Perry Memorial Library until December.

In October, kindergarten hosted the Respect Life prayer service in the Dixon Gym, and the Halloween Boo Breakfast. They made “Wells of Mercy� costumes with Big Buddies and went to McAuley Convent to trick-ortreat.

In November, they celebrated 11-11-11 Day with math fun and had a traditional faculty-student Thanksgiving prayer service and breakfast.

In December, kindergarteners enjoyed Christmas Craft Day, Snack with Santa and the Christmas Play. They moved back to refurbished homerooms and hosted a welcome back breakfast and prayer service with the blessing of classrooms with parents and faculty on December 12. Toward Christmas, they exchanged classmade Christmas gifts with their eighth grade Big Buddies.

In January, they took a class trip to the Please Touch Museum, which is always fun and educational.

In February, students hosted a Valentine Ice Cream Party for the housekeeping and maintenance staffs who helped get them back into their classrooms after the flood. They also had a 100-day celebration full of games with parents and their eighth Big Buddies.

In March, they celebrated Dr. Seuss Day and made Leprechaun traps, just in case any of the little fellows were around.

In April, they made bunny ears and went on an Easter Egg Hunt and made Easter bunnies with their Big Buddies. Students also attended the Passion Play and held an Earth Day Flea Market.

In May, kindergarteners went to Sesame Place for a class trip. They walked, along with their teachers, Mr. Stritch, Mrs. Stetser and Miss Winters, to the Narberth Post Office (and had an ice cream treat at Top This) as an end to the class penpal program.

On June 1, the students had a beautiful closing ceremony and prayer service, and thoroughly enjoyed their slide show, which showed highlights of the year.

Grade One

In Grade One this year...

This year was a busy year for first grade. In addition to strengthening reading, writing and arithmetic skills, the students fully integrated into the school community. Field trips included Colonial Pennsylvania Plantation, a live-theatre production and a trip to The Philadelphia Zoo. Students adjusted to life out of the Garden Level by learning the daily specials, checking books out of the Perry Memorial Library and eating lunch in the Cafeteria. They celebrated all the fall holidays and met up with their fourth grade Big Buddies. One of their favorite things was having their parents come in and play Math games with them during Math Explorations.

They continued the Mercy tradition of service to others by hosting their friends from Mercy Neighborhood Ministries at WMA’s outreach performance of “A Year With Frog and Toad” and made casseroles monthly for Women of Change.

They were very busy learning new and exciting things in Science and Art, and enjoyed being part of the Christmas and Spring Concerts.

All in all, it was a fun and productive year for first graders. Onward to second grade!

Grade Two

In Grade Two this year...

The biggest highlights this year were the students receiving the sacraments of Reconciliation and Communion. God bless them!

They had fun with their classroom bunny, Felix, who traveled around with different students. Students also received postcards from out-of-town family members, which helped with geography skills and their states projects. Students ended the year with an all-orange treats party!

Using Skype, they spoke with Ed White, the author of Foxy’s Tale. Students also learned how to blog this year and shared them with their classmates. They did lots of reading, writing, math, and social studies, and they enjoyed their roles as school recyclers, assigned to pick up paper recycling from offices and classrooms on a weekly basis.

Grade Three

In Grade Three this year...

Third grade activities this year included students making apple butter on Johnny Appleseed Day, and Thanksgiving, when students baked pumpkin bread. They had fun at Math Explorations with their parents, Christmas Around the World, and Colonial Day. Third graders did outreach with penpals from DePaul Catholic School who visited WMA for “A Year With Frog and Toad.” Those students were also invited for a Pizza Party and outdoor games.

Their field trips this year included Pennsbury Manor, the home of William Penn, the Swedish American Museum to explore early immigration, and soil research at Lower Merion Conservancy.

As part of their projects and research for the year they created Native American Shelters and projects on Colonial craftspeople and famous Pennsylvanians.

In Religion, students held a Class Retreat with the Advent theme, “Waiting for Christmas,” and they prepared for Reconciliation for Lent.

In Science, they studied Class Isopod Habitats, had fun with Robotics and communicated through Wiki Habitats with their DePaul Catholic penpals.

Students worked in the Computer Lab with Sister Barbara and used a variety of programs: Kidspiration, TimeLiner, Wordle, and PowerPoint.

Grade Four

In Grade Four this year...

In Science, grade four learned about States of Matter, Weather, Earthquakes and Volcanoes, Solar System, Living Things, Skeletal/Muscular Systems, Circulatory/Respiratory Systems, Nervous/Digestive Systems, Force and Motion, and Simple Machines. They were in the Science lab for all of the units (http://science-lab.wikispaces.com/), Web 2.0 projects were completed for Weather, Rocks and Fossils, Skeletal/Muscular Systems, Circulatory/Respiratory Systems, and Nervous/Digestive Systems, K’Nex and LEGO WeDO Robotics were used for Simple Machines, and Solar System PowerPoints were presented to second graders.

In Social Studies, the fourth grade learned about five U.S. Regions – Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, Southwest, and West. To complement it, the students had a year-long research project where they picked a state or territory and presented a PowerPoint with and Excel pie chart of attractions, a threefold brochure in Word with an Excel bar graph of populations and a timeline from Word, as well as a shoebox float, and blogged about their experiences.

They had a year-long theme of Immigration (http://wma-immigration.wikispaces.com/), where they learned about the Ellis Island Experience. (They were the first students to use the new Video Conferencing equipment to speak with a Park Ranger at the Ellis Island Immigration Museum.) They compared and contrasted Ellis Island and Angel Island, and experienced Immigration Day (http://www. schooltube.com/video/ce7d96b8b5234572b009/Immigration%20Day%202012), among other activities. Field trips all related to the Immigrant experience and were taken to the African American Museum followed by the grade’s annual Multicultural Luncheon, a tour of Chinatown and the National Liberty Museum, and an Immigration/Migration activity at the Philadelphia History Museum, followed by a visit to the Independence Visitor’s Center.

Videos of different events/projects can be seen here: http://www.schooltube.com/channel/ssheng/.

Grade Five

In Grade Five this year...

This year in Religion and Social Studies to enhance their curriculum, fifth graders went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art for a special class on the “Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus” exhibition. They also visited the Philadelphia Constitution Center and heard and saw a dramatic interpretation of the establishing of the Constitution of the United States.

Closer to home, they began service activities as part of preparation for the sacrament of Confirmation, and they visited Waldron Mercy Child Care once every third week for the spring months. Everyone, from the youngest to the oldest children, enjoyed their time together and it was wonderful to see the Mercy Spirit in action!

Fifth graders read a lot of novels this year, even skyping with Michelle Mulder, a Canadian author. In particular, fifth graders read Maniac Magee, by Jerry Spinelli, which is about a young orphan boy who explored racial issues, homelessness, and the need to belong. He pointed out to adults that people are the same on the inside regardless of skin color, religion, or hair color.

Students also videoconferenced with the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Florida.

Fifth and first grade buddies made casseroles together for Women of Change.

They played vocabulary games, learned grammar skills, wrote stories using their vocabulary words.

They used writing skills with Storyjumper, Glogster, Blabberize, and they blogged.

In everything they did, they related it to themselves, always keeping WMA’s mission in mind.

Science

In Science this year...

From the youngest students to the oldest, the Science curriculum was enhanced this year with the introduction to Robotics, where students from grades 2 through 8 created and programmed robots through specialized software by LEGO. In the Science Lab, students learned Lab safety, Electricity, Water Cycle, Physical Science, Weather, Plant Life Cycle, Sound and how it travels, the Human Body and how it works, and Animal Life, among other topics.

Learning was followed up by hands-on lab work, including fourth grade’s Rube Goldberg apparatus set-ups.

In keeping with WMA’s commitment to a green environment, students have begun work on a sustainable garden, which has been planted outside of the Kitchen. Students hope to harvest their bounty when they return in the fall!

Art

In Art this year...

This year’s theme in Art was American Art and Artists. Students began with the first American artists, the Native American Indians. The students made Katchina dolls, Parfleche-inspired books, Sand Paintings, and Mesa Verde drawings. Next they moved on to colonial times where the students produced quilts, Peaceful Kingdoms, prints inspired by John Bartram, Audubon’s birds, quilling and tin punched lanterns. The students also created projects in the style of African American artists Horace Pippin, Faith Ringgold, Jacob Lawrence and Romare Bearden. The modern American artists explored were Alexander Calder, Jackson Pollack, Louis Tiffany, Grandma Moses, Jasper Johns, Wayne Thiebaud, and Judy Chicago’s “The Dinner Party.” A final tribute to America was the first grade mural which was put up outside the Art Studio, titled “Pennsylvania Woodlands.”

Music

In Music this year...

Kindergarten and grade one – worked on matching pitch, clapping a steady beat and simple rhythms, vocal exploration and Kodaly pitch hand signals. Students sang, moving to classical music with appropriate speed, weight and movements.

Grades two and three – Students sang with rhythm, pitch and word accuracy. Students worked on Kodaly pitch hand signals. They identified and read music symbols, rhythms and notes.

Grades four and five – They played recorders with correct tone, pitches and rhythm, which involved reading rhythms, pitches and music symbols, and singing accurately.

Grades six and seven – Students studied composers, their music, place in history, and sang the composers’ melodies, etc. They also utilized Music Ace, a self-paced comprehensive series of music lessons and games that teach the basics of music theory, rhythm, pitch, note reading, listening, and the keyboard. This is a progressive program leading to basic compositions.

Grade eight – Students studied the elements, history and development of early jazz, and analyzed standard jazz songs. Members of the eighth grade formed a Hand Chime ensemble.

Overall this year, each grade level learned nine standard Broadway songs to sing as a school community at Community Gathering.

Treblemakers went to Old City Philadelphia and performed holiday songs outside the Betsy Ross House and The Snyderman Gallery.

Chorale went to Williamsburg, Va., and performed at the Heritage Music Festival Competition, where they earned two Silver ratings.

Treblemakers sang “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” at Campbell’s Stadium for the Camden Riversharks this spring.

Choirs performed beautiful concerts in the winter and the spring.

Stars and Stripes Theatre (grades 2 to 4) presented an outstanding performance of “A Year With Frog and Toad Kids” to sold-out houses. Students from grades 5 to 8 served as production assistants.

WMA Spring Musical Theatre presented an enchanting rendition of “Cinderella.”

Rock Bands brought the house down at the Spring Concert.

String Ensemble brought Christmas joy to the Sisters at McAuley Convent and performed during the Spring Concert.

Over 200 of our students performed in solo and group recitals.

Spanish

In Spanish this year...

In the beginning classes of Spanish, the alphabet and basic vocabulary were introduced, such as numbers, colors, days of the week, animals, food, and clothing, among others. Spanish songs were sung, and students made an illustrated Spanish dictionary for themselves.

In later grades, students continued counting in Spanish. They learned prayers, and studied South America, with its Spanish and non-Spanish speaking countries.

In eighth grade, students learned regular and irregular verbs. They also made presentations in Spanish, and had conversations and role play in small groups. This is all great preparation for their high school years.

Computers and Enrichment

In Computers and Enrichment this year...

Grade one students were introduced to the keyboard, and worked on activities using KidPics, BrainPOP Jr. and Microsoft Word, as well as computer safety.

Grade two students began with a review of keyboard, and worked on activities using KidPics, Kidspiration, Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher, and Timeliner, as well as computer safety.

Grade three students expanded what they had learned and moved into using Microsoft Office programs, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher, and Timeliner, as well as KidPics, Kidspiration, Inspiration, as well as computer safety. They also worked on research skills using the Internet.

In Enrichment Reading classes for students in kindergarten through grade three, they read challenging books, discussed authors, and story elements. They read both fiction and non-fiction books, both picture books and chapter books. Students learned about the topics of a book, the main ideas and the supporting details. Third graders read chapter books using the Literature Circles discussion model.

Middle School Science

In Middle School Science this year...

Sixth grade students studied Lab safety, The Scientific Method, Scientific Measurements, Water and The Water Cycle, Earth’s Atmosphere, Weather and Climate, Earth and Time, Inside Earth, Weathering and Erosion, Natural Resources and Conversation, The Solar System, Earth, the Moon, and the Sun, Galaxies, and the Universe.

The students conducted labs for each of the contents and wrote a lab report in their copybook. A typed, formal lab report was done for two of the labs. The video clips from the Discovery Education Web site were used frequently to help the students get a deeper understanding of the concepts. The students also worked on group projects and made presentations using a poster board, PowerPoint and Photo Story for assessments as well as written lab reports, quizzes and tests.

Seventh grade science studied the Human Body and dissected an earthworm, frog and sheep’s heart.

They completed a unit on plants and also grew pea plants to mimic Mendel’s heredity studies. An Excel project on heredity followed. In Robotics, they created an EZ robot and programmed it to go forward, backward, turn and circle. They finished with disease project PowerPoint presentations and then created songs about bones.

Eighth grade students studied Lab safety, The Scientific Method, Scientific Measurements, Motion, Forces, Laws of Motion, Energy, Matter and Temperature, Properties of Matter, The Behavior of Gases, Atoms, Elements and the Periodic Table, Compounds, Waves, Sound, Light, and Electric Circuits.

The students conducted labs for each of the contents, wrote a lab report in their copybooks, followed by typed, formal lab reports. Video clips from the Discovery Education Web site were used frequently to help the students get a deeper understanding of the concepts. Group projects, lab reports, quizzes and tests were used for assessments.

Middle School Math

In Middle School Math this year...

In seventh grade advanced math and eighth grade math, students completed the pre-Algebra course and participated in the Pennsylvania Mathematics League Competition. In advanced sixth grade math, they completed the seventh grade math course and participated in the Pennsylvania Mathematics League Competition, too.

Grade seven spent the end of the year reviewing and mastering geometry concepts from lines to dodecagons (12-sided polygons).

Grade eight worked on a “Life Project� that involved applying and interviewing for a job, searching for cars, houses, food and clothing. The project involved an Excel program that allowed students to budget their monthly expenses.

Middle School English

In Middle School English this year...

From vocabulary to reading novels like Bridge to Terabithia, Hatchet, Tuck Everlasting, To Kill A Mockingbird, and Julius Caesar, among others, to studying poetry, short stories and non-fiction, these middle school years really hone the skills of the student-writer and reader.

It is here that students have mastered vocabulary and spelling, as well as going through the writing process, with pre-writing, drafts and proofreading.

They not only worked on their writing, but also their presentation and listening skills.

Through their reading, they analyzed books by symbolism, irony, character development, and literary terms.

They also experienced different types of writing. Much of the emphasis, however, was on vocabulary and grammar.

Students also used Glogster, and filmed movie trailers for the books they read, many of which were shown at Community Gatherings during the spring.

Middle School History

In Middle School History this year...

In grade six, students covered Ancient Sumerians, Greek civilizations, Ancient Rome and on through the Renaissance. The students were introduced to a variety of learning styles, for example, taking notes, discussions and debate. Map skills were developed as each student was able to locate almost every country in the world. The sixth grade also participated in the Model United Nations program, sponsored by the World Affairs Council, by completing a country culture paper for the country that they represented, researching the UN millennium goal of ending water scarcity, writing a position paper and then a resolution, and finally debating the final resolution that was chosen by the eighth grade. The eighth grade moderated the UN session.

The sixth grade has tremendous potential to become professional diplomats!

Eighth graders began the year with Gerald Ford becoming the president and ended the year with the same fact, studying 1974 to present time and then returned to 1890 until they returned to 1974. When students studied the turn of the century, they learned about significant people by having students play the roles of famous people, while eating some food that was introduced during that time. The Constitution also played an important part of their learning.

Each student now has the ability to locate and name all of the countries of the world. Current events were discussed throughout the year.

The eighth graders are ready to improve the world! The class participated for the second year in the Model UN. They practiced public speaking, in the form of original oratory speeches, debates, discussions, and as diplomats.

Middle School Religion

In Middle School Religion this year...

In middle school, the lives of the apostles were explored and how they continued the church after Jesus.

Students participated in Gospel reenactments, where they act out Gospel stories.

In seventh grade, students studied Jesus’ life, persecution and resurrection, as well as the call to discipleship and the early church. Students learned how to live in Christ’s service on Earth. They also worked on their “Thinking of Theology” blogs.

In seventh and eighth grades, students watched and reviewed movies in the “Finding God in the Movies” series. Students then wrote reports on how and where they had found God in the storylines in the movies they saw.

In eighth grade, students also explored the history of the church, conflicts, and the councils. Students were asked to look at how they fit into their faiths and how they live the faithful life in today’s world.

Throughout the year, students performed outreach with their local partners Hayes Manor (grade 6), DePaul Catholic School (grade 7), Mercy Neighborhood Ministries (grade 8).

Looking forward to another great year at WMA!