VOLUME ONE, ISSUE TWO FEBRUARY 2016

Features

Behind the Curtain: The 4th and 5th Grade Musical By Edan Zinn (5) and Patrick Jing (5)

The Fourth and Fifth Grade Musical, Princess Whatsername, is about a confused princess who's lost her memory and forgotten even her name. She wanders around seeking her home. On her journey, she meets many characters from classic children’s stories, most of them helpful. Prince Reveille is also on a journey, hoping to find and to marry the princess, meeting some of the characters already seen by the princess, and some new ones as well. These characters include: Cinderella, Snow White, Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel, the seven dwarves, and Goldilocks. Be on the lookout for some great props, and see if you can guess who will be using them! The props include bread, an apple and a magic wand.

This whimsical play takes place in the land of the four kingdoms. One kingdom is where the Story of Rumpelstiltskin happens, another is where Cinderella lives, one is where Snow White is from, and the final kingdom is where Princess Whatsername lives. Also, in the middle of the four kingdoms is the Central Tower, where Rapunzel lives, imprisoned by a witch! The set will also include the house of the three bears and some interesting interactions between classic characters.

This musical connects all of the stories together, showing how the characters react when meeting each other and even adds some new information to these traditional tales. It also changes some facts and adds some new characters to tie the stories together. For example, the seven

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THE BRIMMER EYE

FUNNY PAGES A HAND-DRAWN COMIC

AND SIDE-SPLITTING JOKES

COOK’S CORNER INSIDE LOWER SCHOOL

LUNCH

FEATURES IN-DEPTH REPORTING

ON NEWS AROUND SCHOOL

SPORTS SECTION ROAD TO THE SUPER

BOWL

OPINION TWO PASSIONATE

PIECES FROM YOUR PEERS

SPOTLIGHT ON THE CLASSROOM WHAT WE’RE STUDYING

BE THE TEACHER LEARN ABOUT A NEW SUBJECT FROM YOUR

FELLOW STUDENTS

WHAT’S INSIDE:

VOLUME ONE, ISSUE TWO FEBRUARY 2016

dwarves' names have been changed to Giddy, Nosy, Rowdy, Whiny, Hippie, Guilty, and Flighty. Princess Whatsername is a great musical and mixes the stories very well. We hope this sneak peak behind the curtain has you excited to see the play!

Sports

Road to the Super Bowl By Reggie Hesselbein (2), Rohan Suresh (2) and Ryan Hurst (3)

Over the past few years the Super Bowl has been the most-watched sports game because it is very well known. About 114.4 million people watch it a year. The Super Bowl always happens the first Sunday of February. It is an exciting event for all sports fans and because football teams play so few games each season, the Super Bowl is even more widely anticipated and watched than any other championship.

The first Super Bowl took place on January 15, 1967. The teams were the Green Bay Packers and the Chiefs. The packers won 35 to 10. Super Bowl Eleven was also exciting; it was a blow out. The Raiders had 32 points and the Vikings had 14. Super Bowl Twenty-Four was an upset; the score of the game was 55 to 10. Super Bowl 48 was a big loss for the Broncos; the score was 43 to 8. Super Bowl 49 was a nail-biting game because the Patriots were about to lose but Malcolm Butler made an interception to win the game.

When we were looking ahead to the most recent Super Bowl it looked like the panthers were going to win. We knew the game would be exciting as the Panthers are a great offensive team and the Broncos are a great defensive team. We believed the Panthers would emerge victorious because the Panthers crushed the Cardinals in their play-off game, whereas the Broncos won by only two points. The Panthers not only cruised through their playoff, and have great offense, they also have great defense.

Not only did we think the Panthers were going to win, Charlie (2) also thought the panthers were going to win. Mr. Stattel disagreed; he thought the Broncos were going to win. He thought this

because he believed Peyton Manning is still great and wanted to give him a chance. We found out who was right on Sunday, the 7th, when the Broncos upset the Panthers for a Super Bowl victory. We hope you all enjoyed learning more about the Super Bowl and watching the game!

Spotlight on the Classroom

Eye on Egypt By Ellie Katz (3)

Ancient Egypt is fascinating to study and important to learn about because it has a lot of history. Third graders have been

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studying Ancient Egypt. We have been working on writing our names using hieroglyphics and everyone also has a god or goddess we are learning about. At the end of our unit of study we will have an exhibition in the dining room where we share what we have learned. We will be assigned a topic to present. It is fun studying about many different topics before you get your assignment.

One topic we have studied is the pyramids. The pyramids in Egypt are famous. It took thirty years or more to build a pyramid. Ancient Egyptians used only wood and rope to bring the 2,000 pound stones from a half mile away to build the pyramids. The Great Pyramid is the biggest pyramid in Egypt. If you look at the Great Pyramid, it has a beautiful and different stone on top. The stone on top is really pretty. This pretty stone is only visible on the top of the pyramid because people would chip off the outer stones to keep for themselves, revealing this lovely stone beneath. Thieves stole from the tombs and from the pyramids themselves, but today they are protected and preserved. However, if you went today to Egypt you would only be able to go into one or two pyramids because many are no longer safe. Ancient Egypt is very interesting. I recommend this topic to study.

Cook’s Corner

Lower School Lunch By Ginger Biederman (2), Xavier Claiborne (4) and Kate Morris (2)

We will be writing today about school lunch. School lunch allows us to sit and talk with our friends. It is neat that they change the meal from day to day. The teachers ring the bell to warn the students that they should go up for seconds and again when they should start to clean up. At the end of lunch we feel energetic and full.

We find the food delicious, but we would love it if every student were allowed to use the salad, deli and soup stations. The benefits of using the salad bar would be encouraging students to make independent, healthy choices, eat more fruits and vegetables and be exposed to different kinds of food. For vegetarians, it would greatly improve their options at lunch. Also the food over there looks colorful and delicious! We wanted to share not only our thoughts on lunch, but also the opinions of the lower school community. After extensive interviewing, we found that most students would like to see the following foods at lunch: waffles, pancakes, and different types of bread. We also interviewed many Brimmer teachers and this is what they said:

Question: What is your favorite food at lunch?Mr. Fuller: “I like buffalo chicken and the pulled pork sandwiches."Ms. Murray: "I like the Caesar salad with chick-un."Ms. Sweezey: “Seafood salad!”Ms. Hellmuth: “Spaghetti!”

Question: Is there any other food you would like to add?Ms. McGillicuddy: “I would like there to be more vegetables and vegetarian options.”

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Question: Is there any thing you want to change?Ms. Sweezey: “I would like more soup.”

Question: What is your least favorite food?Ms. Hellmuth: “I don't like the hamburgers."

We found it very interesting to hear everyone’s opinions on the food here at Brimmer. We hope you enjoy lunch each day—may it be delicious and nutritious!

Opinion

Return of the Star Wars Saga By Kolja Westhues (5) and William Apen (3)

The Star Wars films are a wildly popular series by Lucas Films with music by John Williams. Star Wars is more than a saga; this series made Sci-Fi blockbuster films popular. It inspired the creators of Star Trek to bring Star Trek the television show to the big screen. Star Wars was mocked by other directors; only Steven Spielberg believed in the film but he was definitely proven right.

The newest Star Wars movie is called "The Force Awakens." As avid fans, we want to share our thoughts on the latest entry. "The Force Awakens" was better than the prequels in many ways. "The Force Awakens" used fewer special effects because LucasFilms wanted to make it feel old and new at the same time. This meant the movie was not overwhelmed by CGI. "The Force Awakens" brought back characters like Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia, C3-PO, R2-D2, and Chewbacca. In "The Force Awakens" Han Solo met his sad ending to his son Ben Solo (Kylo Ren), which helped propel the story, even though many fans teared up watching this scene.

Star Wars is a never-ending source of epic entertainment. Everyone should watch and discuss these excellent movies!

What Do You Think About Homework? By Thacher Purdy (2), Zayna Rosen (2) and Ema Claire Luczkow (2)

Homework is a hot topic here at Brimmer and May, as it is at many different schools. We found there were many opinions about homework among the students and teachers here in the Lower School. Students in grades two through five at

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Brimmer and May have homework. You get more homework as you move up into different grades. Also, when you move into Grade Three and above, you start getting different homework for subjects like Art and Social Studies. Starting in Grade Five, you get weekend homework. This is the homework routine that students have at Brimmer and May. Some students find homework to be stressful; weekend homework, too large/confusing an assignment and work that was not interesting or useful were common complaints. However, some students and teachers had positive things to say about their assignments and we included their thoughts below!

Our team interviewed a 3rd grade teacher, a 4th grade student, and a 2nd grade student to get their opinions on homework. Ms. Hellmuth thinks homework is very important for the kids because they are preparing for the upcoming years. Mimie in Grade 2 thinks homework is fun because it gives her a preview of what she’s doing in class. Jonas in Grade 4 thinks homework is good because it gets him ready for what is in class. As you can see, these people really helped our team for our article and we really appreciate that.

Overall, we sure saw a lot of different opinions about homework. I hope that all of you learned that homework is here to help you learn. We believe that homework makes you smarter, can help you learn more at home and helps you practice important skills. Homework is a way for you to take responsibility at home for schoolwork. We hope you learn something from your homework; there’s nothing wrong with learning!

Be the Teacher

The Amazing Amazon By Adrien DiPietrantonio (2)

I would love to teach you more about the Amazon Rainforest because it is full of marvelous plants and animals. My mom and I are Brazilian and I have visited Brazil before and found it very beautiful. I will also be studying this topic this year in Second Grade and wanted to share more about the rainforest with you! In the Amazon Rainforest there are a lot of animals and trees. The Amazon has this huge river called the Amazon River where there are many piranhas. The Amazon is the biggest tropical rainforest in the world covering over a half a million square kilometers (1.4 billion acres). Ten percent of the world's known animals live in the Amazon. But back to piranhas! Piranhas have very sharp teeth that could really hurt a person. If a piranha loses one of its teeth another one will grow back. Piranhas have a single row of sharp teeth. Snakes are also common in the Amazon. Many are venomous but one in the Amazon is not venomous; the python squeezes its victims until they can't breathe and eats them up. Jaguars also eat everything in their way. Jaguars live on the forest floors and some climb trees. One of the most interesting animals in Brazil is the pink river dolphin. The pink river dolphin might look nice, but watch out! It has very sharp teeth; now that has to be scary!

The Amazon is a very beautiful place. I hope you liked this article and be sure to visit the Amazon Rainforest!

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VOLUME ONE, ISSUE TWO FEBRUARY 2016

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About the Paper

and

Meet the Staff:

The Brimmer Eye is Brimmer and May’s lower school newspaper, written, edited and produced by students in grades 2-5. We hope you enjoy reading about our passions, both inside the classroom and out!

STAFF:

Edan Zinn

Ginger Biederman

Adrien DiPietrantonio

Zayna Rosen

William Apen

Miley Chen

Ema Claire Luczkow

Thacher Purdy

Sam Beal

Kate Morris

Patrick Jing

Kolja Westhues

Reggie Hesselbein

Rohan Suresh

Xavier Claiborne

Ryan Hurst

Ellie Katz

Aliya Joshi

Ms. SG

Ms. Pappas

Xavier

Sam

Kate

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Kolja

Ginger

VOLUME ONE, ISSUE TWO FEBRUARY 2016

The Fun and Funny Pages

Gator Life Comic By Miley Chen (3) and Aliya Joshi (2)

Laugh Your Guts Out! By Sam Beal (2)

Jokes are important because you need to laugh. They are very helpful when you are sad. I love these jokes and I hope you do too!

Joke #1: After many years, a crook broke out of jail. He said, “I’m free! I’m free!” A child walked over and said, “So what? I’m four.”

Joke #2: What do cows make after earthquakes? Milkshakes.

Joke #3: What did the ocean say to the sand? Nothing. It just waved.

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