News from Kings Elementary School

Warwick - Do you know what pioneers did for entertainment, what they ate or how they mined for gold? Fifth graders from Kings Elementary found out this and more at Pioneer Day on Feb. 9. All fifth graders gathered in groups and rotated around the five different stations. Each station had a different activity; for example, games from pioneer times, story telling, dancing, gold mining and delicious food from the Gold Rush era. Students from Kings enjoyed the festivities and learned about these aspects of that time in American history. 135,000 minutes of reading Kings students participates in the PARP reading program. PARP stands for Parents as Reading Partners. Kids are asked to read 15 minutes Monday through Friday with their reading partner. Team Kings is trying to reach a goal of 135,000 minutes at the end of the three-week time frame. Each week the minutes are recorded and tracked on the bulletin board in the hallway. The program includes TV Turn Off Week, a Reading Rocks assembly and a school colors day. Writing sounds, not letters On Thursday, March 1, PIE ¾ had a professional calligrapher come in to teach some techniques about the art of calligraphy. Mrs. Nancy Nachigial and Mrs. Jamie Canevari are studying Japan. With the help of Mr. Eric Gerstein, the teachers were able to coordinate this wonderful learning experience. Students learned how to write their names and write the words moon, river, mountain, wind and rain. The kids were given the opportunity to practice calligraphy on rice paper with the assistance of Masako Inkyo. Sensei, as she was called, has been practicing calligraphy since she was three-years old. Her mother first taught her and then enrolled her in formal calligraphy instruction. In calligraphy, you write sounds, not letters. There are more than 4,000 symbols in the Japanese art of calligraphy. Name that hallway Kings students were given the opportunity to suggest names for the hallways. Each class thought up different names for the halls and selected their top two choices. The names were based on this year’s theme “Dive into Learning.” The names will be posted on street signs in the individual halls. The winning names are: Barracuda Boulevard, Deep Sea Drive, Reading River Road, Tadpole Turpike, Mermaid Lane, Starfish Hall, Jellyfish Junction, and Plankton Plaza. OM competition There were 95 teams competing in this year’s Orange County Oddessy of the Mind Competition, including two from Kings Elementary School. The competition was held on Saturday, Feb. 24, at Orange-Ulster BOCES. Mrs. Campora and Mrs. Cordisco coached the second grade team. The participants were: Vince Britton, Amber Cartright, Emmett Dowd, Alanna Floreck, Derrick Keterly, Andrew Lasso and Collin Parsons. They performed a short skit about a family of aliens on a Jupiter vacation that discovers a time capsule. They meet a group of astronauts who are able to explain what the bizarre items are. The fifth grade Kings Kadets team competed in Tag ‘Em. This problem required the team to get objects from one side of the room to the other and then sort them. The team was: Evan Card, Joseph Ginley, Micah Havilicah, Emily Mears, Kyle Roeloffs, Logan Vero, and Audrey Weatherstone. Linda Card was the team’s coach. Kyle Roeloffs is a cub reporter for The Warwick Advertiser, covering students and events at Kings Elementary School.