THE BC NEWS   

A Berkeley Carroll Lower School Newspaper                                            Vol. 2. No. 3  April 2015 

  Ice, Snow, Safety, Oh My! By Calla Brown 

 You are fidgeting in math, doing drum             beats in social studies. What to do?             YARD! That is exactly what yard is for. Yard is                 a place to get all of your silly energy                 out and come back to a calm             environment. It is a place to play and               run around. But with the yard closed             because of snow and ice, by the             afternoon, kids are now back to           looking longingly out the window. I           asked a couple of teachers some           questions about not being able to go to               yard, and here are the results. 

 Brown: What are your thoughts and thinking about the safety of kids at yard?  Ms. Abramson: I think that it's unfortunate because it's super fun to play in the                             snow and important to have exercise throughout the day. But it's too slippery to                           run when there's ice in the yard, so we need to find an alternative.  Brown: What alternative are you thinking of? Abramson: The AC or the Lyceum are better than indoor yard in the classroom.                           We just have to find room to fit it in with the lower school schedule.  A lot of teachers and support staff have feelings about the safety of kids at yard.                               Nurse Heidi said, "I think there are certain days when the yard is too icy and it's                                 unsafe.” When asked how we can we avoid injuries, Nurse Heidi replied, "When                         you go outside you should avoid the icy areas." 

What's inside:  Ice, Snow, Safety, Oh My  What's Happening in Second Grade Math?   How our Goods Get from One Place to Another   3rd Grade Studies China!  Delicious Pizza with Fractions on Top!  Recycled Bottle Caps Make art?  Mock Newbery Chooses The Winning Book!  Revelations through 4th Grade Dance  

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 How does Ms. Doko feel about going out to yard? "One, if the students do go                               out to yard, the students have to be dressed properly. Two, it's a good idea to                               close the yard because it's too slippery. Three, if it's too cold and snowy, I                             personally think that they should take the day off."   I asked 1K if they missed the yard. I think it is a yes.  Jazlyn said that she missed playing in the yard. Arman said that he missed playing soccer in the yard, but he could still play                             soccer in the AC or the Lyceum. Eleanor said that she was disappointed, "I miss the fresh air", she said. Corbin said that he missed the jungle gym. Zahrah said that she missed the blocks. Last but certainly not least, Michael said he missed the yard because, "it's                         bigger."  I believe that we can safely say that 1K misses the yard and all of its best                                 qualities. I also think that everybody misses the yard because it is fun, spacious,                           and it is a great place to get all of your energy out. Luckily, now that the snow is                                     not falling anymore, we can all go and enjoy the blocks, fresh air, and the space                               of the yard. 

  BC News Team:  Jade Angel Ella Britton  Calla Brown Anika Fiedelholtz  Avra Greenspan Nina Tamoshunas Georgia McNeill  Senior Editors:  Ms. Abramson Mr. Horowitz  

 

What's happening in Second Grade Math? By Ella Britton  Geometry! Games! 3­dimensional figures! In second grade             math they're doing all those exciting things. In 2E, they are                     collecting and sorting data. They are mostly collecting data                 about how many teeth their classmates lost. They are also                   doing some really fun math games!    One of the games is called Guess My Rule. They are using cool shapes to play it. First, you have to                                         choose a rule that some shapes have and that some shapes don't. Next, you have to choose a few                                     shapes that don't fit the rule and some that do, and show those shapes to the person who's                                   guessing. The other people have to guess what the rule is.  Meanwhile, 2M is also learning about geometry! They are learning what kind of shapes are                             three­dimensional and two­dimensional. They are using three­dimensional blocks to observe                   different kinds of shapes. They figured out that triangular prisms blocks have 5 faces, and that                               

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rectangular prisms have 6 faces. They are also learning about corners and sides of different                             shapes. “I think our new unit is fun because I like experimenting, playing, and building with blocks                                 and I’m sure my other classmates do too,” says Casper from 2M. It looks like 2M is having a fun                                       time in math!  

 

2nd Grade Learns About How Our Goods Get From One Place to Another by Anika Fiedelholtz

 Did you know your       goods don't just     come in a snap? The         second grade has     been studying how  your goods get from one place to

another. Of course they had to know how the goods came to us. The transportation help are planes, cargo ships,             trains and trucks. In 2nd grade, each person               made a model to represent their work and used                 it to make the cycle of how the goods get to                     them and the stores that sell the goods. The                 goods that we usually get don't take only one                 transportation unit so they used snap cubes to               use as cargo. To build the models they used cardboard, tape and pipe cleaners. They also made a bridge to put their  models on. Now, here are some 

poems I wrote and second graders’ opinions on this project. 

I interviewed some kids from 2E to talk about their  perspective on the project.   They all loved the whole part of building their models of different kinds of transportation. They had a “really fun time and enjoyed it”.  Pictures above are Peter, Dillon and an anonymous student from 2E with their models of cargo ships and trains.   

Transportation Poetry by Ani Fiedelholtz  

The plane is the high  the truck is the low  

and they have places to go  they carry things to us on the go. 

 Plane to train car to truck  transportation is good luck. 

 The plane takes off  

the truck starts the engine  the train goes chga chga  

the cargo ship blows its horn.  

Far and close to close and far  to go so far. 

   

  

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Third Grade Studies China  By: Jade Angel  Do you know any facts about           China? The third graders do! I           interviewed some third grade       students and they told me a lot             about studying China.   Apparently kids love studying       China!Elizabeth from 3B said,         "It's very interesting!"Max from         3K said, "It's really fun and           interesting because they have       a really different culture than         we do!" Maddie from 3F said,           "It's really fun, you learn things           you've never learned before!"   

China has so many interesting         topics to study. Maddie from 3F           is studyingtraditional Chinese       medicine, Maddie even gave       us a fact. She said "You can             use rhino horn to heal fevers           and other things like that!"         What a cool fact!   Elizabeth from 3B is studying         the Forbidden City! "There       are more than 8,700 rooms",         she reported. Wow, that's a lot           of rooms!   Max from 3K chose tigers as           his topic. He told us, "There are             only 500 left in the wild!" That             fact is sad but true.   

Did you know that these topics           are all great examples of how           you can help out. There are           only 500 tigers left in the wild.             Why don't YOU help the         Tigers?  The third graders liked studying         China a lot. Maybe you should           learn a bit about China! If the             third graders did it, so can you.  

 

Delicious Pizza With Fractions on Top!

 By Nina Tamoshunas 

 Do you have a younger sibling in 712 and wonder what they're doing? Well, if they're in Ms. Paller's class they're learning about PIZZA! The knowledge isn't just going into their brain but into their stomachs too. They're making their own pizza shop. "They love learning about pizza," says Ms. Paller. "We know everything that goes on top," a kindergartner says, but “sometimes it's hard to remember everything that goes on top

because there are so many different combinations. It's super fun because I love pizza." They've also drawn their own pizzas of what they want them to look like when it’s time to cook! A great way to learn about fractions. You always started learning about fractions by visioning a pie but what if you actually made a pie? They named it The Pizzaria Shop. They're working on their logos. They have quite a few ideas. They will be voting on which one to use. It will be going on all day for quite a few days. The smell will be irresistible.

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Recycled Bottle Caps Make Art?

By Avra Greenspan  Ms.Cuba, Ms.Keim, and Ms.Benapayo's classes         have been making a mural of something exciting.               Drum roll please... bottle caps!!! They have so               many caps. “We have 1,000 or 2,000… I think                 2,000.” Lots of people donated caps, but not all. "I                   just never got the time to donate them. I always                   forgot!", said Clio, a fourth grader. Now, they need                  to organize them.   The first grade is making something out of the bottle caps... but what is it???   "We are making a lion," said Leo from 1C. But why a lion? Because we need more school spirit!                                     Have you noticed there are no posters, banners, or photos of the lion in our school?  The first grade will put the mural of the lion in the lobby behind Ms.Doko’s desk.  

 We didn't have a lot of pictures of the lion so Ms. Mastrocola couldn't find a good one to use. Ms.                                         Mastrocola had to look for one. Finally she found it but it was a little blurry and pixelated so she                                       hired someone to clean the picture up. The lion didn’t look that fierce but there was one way fix                                     that. Crop it! How is this going to work? Ms.Mastrocola and Ms.Fontaine painted a lion onto a white wooden                               panel. But not the way you'd expect. They took a drawing of a lion and projected it onto the wooden                                       panel then they painted over the black lines that made up a lion. “It took around two hours to                                     make,” Ms. Mastrocola said. The first graders are going to put different color bottle caps on the black parts of the lion but they                                       are debating which color bottle caps go where.   The first grade made recycled art but so did second grade. "I made it out of tape, paper, cardboard                                     bottle caps, pipe cleaners", said Solomon from 2E. To learn more about second grade, check out                               Ani Fiedelholtz’s article. 

 The mural’s almost done so keep your eyes peeled. What colors do you think the lion should be?   

   

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Revelations Through 4th grade Dance at Berkeley Carroll!  By Ella Britton   Did you know that the 4th grade dance               performance actually told a story about people             trying to have FREEDOM? The dance was             based on the incredible movements of Alvin             Ailey and his dance piece called Revelations!             Revelation means to make something important           known.   Ailey probably called his dance Revelations           because he wanted people to know how hard it                 was when people didn't get the FREEDOMthey               deserved. The movements we saw were based             on when African Americans didn't have as much               FREEDOM because of slavery and unfair laws.             One of the dances had to do with Harriet                 Tubman and the Underground Railroad.  

 Alvin Ailey believed that anybody who wanted to dance had a right to.  

 Some people might have pretended to be             injured or struggling.  

"I loved the part when all the classes got on                   stage at once and danced together," says             Michael from 4A. That part probably represented             FREEDOM or a BIG group of people feeling               confident to work towards FREEDOM. We           learned that a lot of people had a hard time                   when this dance took place.   Alvin Ailey had a dream just like Martin Luther                 King Jr.. Ailey's dream was to start his own                 dance company that would tell stories of African               Americans through movements and dance. He           also had a dream that anybody could dance. Ms. Paige says, "I loved watching the ideas               coming to life through movements, like the idea               of people helping each other and keeping hope               alive." In 4Ah, we saw lots of friendly               competition with two groups. In 4A and 4L, we                 saw lots of carrying and helping each other up.                 We saw some people carrying each other on               their backs in 4A. They were following each               other to what seemed like the road to               FREEDOM.   The audience seemed excited, joyful, and           maybe some people felt a little sad. The               audience sensed the struggle of the people in               the dance. Therefore, the 4th grade dance             represented things that were actually happening           in history and even today.  

 

Mock Newbery Chooses The Winning Book By Georgia McNeill  The announcer cries "and the winner of Mock Newbery is…” Just then a drum roll erupts through the crowd. "A Snicker of Magic" the announcer yells. So what's the deal with Mock Newbery?   Mock Newbery is an elective where fourth graders read a lot of books that were chosen for 

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the real Newbery Award and vote on their favorites. The Newbery Award goes to great  children's literature. Our Newbery at BC is about reading and choosing books for fun and then we compare our winners to the real Newbery.    

To participate in Mock Newbery you have to read, a lot.  First, they choose books that are nominated for the real Newberry Book Awards. But before you vote, you have to read all of the books. Then you choose your top favorites and then your favorite of those favorites. To vote, Ms. Sauro made a Google Form where you choose from the Top Five. But this year we had to do two more votes in a run­off because there were two top favorites that were almost equal in popularity. Ms. Sauro said,  "We have never had to vote two times for the winning book!" This was a really exciting time to participate because it was a special Mock Newbery moment.  After the vote, there was an awesome pizza party.   The top two books were Greenglass House by Kate Milford and A Snicker of Magic By Natalie Lloyd.  And the winner was…A Snicker of Magic. It won because it was magical, realistic, and fun.  At times it was a bit boring but that's what makes it great.  You have to suffer for it.   The experience was super fun.  Mock Newbery judge Amalia Mesa said "It was really fun and there was a wide range of books to choose from".   Younger readers you can look forward to Mock Newbery in 4th grade and see how wonderful your experience will be!   Thanks for reading the BC NEWS! Stay tuned for our final issue of the 2014­15 

school year due out in June! 

The BC NEWS

team hard at work! 

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