Gibran Students Continue to Embrace Service as a Culture and Lifestyle

Kahlil Gibran School's National Elementary Honor Society, advised by 6th Grade ELA/SS Teacher Ms. Dillon, has spearheaded some incredible and meaningful initiatives centered around giving-back already this school year. With the holidays approaching, this issue looks at giving, and giving back, closely and challenges students and families to do the same. (continued on pg. 6)

7th Graders do the "Iron Giraffe

Challenge"! (pg. 8) ________________

Letter from the

Editor: Holiday Giving

(pg. 4) ________________

Gibran's 1st Science Fair!

(pg. 6)

KAHLIL GIBRAN CORNER

Lessons from our school’s namesake! (pg. 5)

1PRINCIPAL'S

MESSAGE Principal White shares an end-of-year message! (7)

2GRADE LEVEL

FEATURES Fifth Grade Poll

Results! (2/3)

3

YONKERS PUBLIC SCHOOLS DECEMBER 18, 2018

Tiger Talk Kahlil Gibran School’s Official School Newspaper

5th Grade Poll Results: Some of our fifth grade students surveyed classes to find out some of their winter favorites. These are the results:

Kindergarten

Our Kindergarteners were asked to vote on their favorite winter treat.

 Hot chocolate received 25 votes.

 Gingerbread cookies received 18 votes.

 Candy canes received 11 votes.

 Sugar cookies received no votes.

First Grade

Our first graders were asked to vote for their favorite holiday character.

The Grinch received 32 votes.

Frosty the Snowman received 9 votes.

Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer came in third place with 8 votes.

Scrooge received 3 votes.

Second Grade

Our second graders were asked to vote for their favorite holiday TV show.

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer came in first place with 37 votes.

Frosty The Snowman received 3 votes.

A Year Without a Santa Claus received 2 votes.

None of our second graders voted for A Peanuts Christmas.

Third Grade

Our third graders were asked to vote for their favorite Christmas carol.

 “The Twelve Days of Christmas” was number one with 24 votes

 “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town” received 8 votes.

 “Jingle Bells” came in third place with 7 votes.

 “Deck The Halls” received 6 votes.

Fourth Grade

Our fourth graders were asked to vote for their favorite holiday movie.

Home Alone was the number one with 35 votes.

How The Grinch Stole Christmas received 12 votes.

Elf received 6 votes.

Polar Express came in last place with 2 votes.

Fifth Grade

Our fifth graders were asked to vote for their favorite winter activity.

Ice skating is their number one favorite activity with 20 votes.

Sledding came in a close second with 20 votes.

Making a snowman came in third place with 6 votes.

Skiing received 4 votes coming in last place.

Special thanks to our surveyors: Mehreen Butt, Gianna Grayson, Elijiah Clark, Michael Musharbush, Demetra Arygris, Christina Rodriguez, and Heidy Carpio.

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What’s Happening Around Gibran? Our Kindergarteners Have been busy at work learning their letters.  They have also been working with 10 frames so that they can learn how to count to 20.  They are having fun working together and learning.

Our first graders are hard at work in Math.  They have worked on their addition facts and are working on their subtraction facts.  They look forward to seeing how these facts relate to each other.  They have been working hard on the letter sounds and are having fun with their r blends.  They are looking at main idea in the stories in their classroom.

Our second graders are looking at numbers in their Math classes.  They are learning different types of ways to write numbers.  Some of these ways are unit form, word form, and standard form.  They are also learning all about different types of vegetables.

Our third graders are taking their first look at fractions.  They are also learning all about measurement and how to measure different things.  They are summarizing stories in writing as well as looking for character traits of characters from the stories they have been reading

Ms. Iezza’s class is learning about different cultures and how these cultures form communities.  They are having fun learning about each other’s backgrounds as well as some cultures that are new to them.  They will culminate this activity by creating a Classroom Community Quilt.

Ms. DosSantos students wrote poems about the change in the atmosphere during the winter season.  They went over how specific details can enhance one’s writing.

Our fifth graders have been hard at work reviewing the mathematical operations for whole numbers and are in the midst of learning the operations for decimal numbers.  They are looking at ways to solve word problems in math as well.  The students have been reading novels as well as working together to talk about character traits and cause and effect.  Lastly, the students are very excited about looking at how our country came to be.

Our 7th and 8th graders both got out of the building and out into the real world to extend their learning beyond the classroom walls this Fall! The 7th graders recently embarked on a trip to the Tarrytown Music Hall to see the show “Encore”, which is a compilation of vignettes from various short stories that have been adapted for the stage. They include Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” & “The Raven”, Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, Guy De Maupassant’s “The Necklace”, WW Jacobs’ “The Monkey’s Paw” & Mark Twain’s “The Celebrated Frog of Calaveras County.”

The 8th graders, on the other hand, got to take a trip hundreds of years back in time as they visited Medieval Times in Lyndhurst, NJ. Students enjoyed learning about the “Chivalry in Action” program that the facility offers, and they enjoyed the meal they received even more – all the way down to historically accurately eating without utensils!

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A Letter from the Student Editor: by Mia Fraitag

Giving and Receiving at the Holidays - What Can You Give?

So - what do you want this holiday season?

A new laptop? An Xbox? New skins on Fortnite? You know what I want? I want to spread joy and excitement to everyone. Now don’t get me wrong, we all want some sort of present for the holidays, but those presents don’t have much importance other than to entertain you. What if this year, rather than giving a store-bought gift, give the gift of your time and attention. To me, that’s what the holidays are about. Would you rather give the gift of entertainment, or the gift of love and compassion? I know what I would want!

Do you think that your parents want the same gifts that you want for the holidays? Probably not! I can tell you one thing for sure: If you give them a compliment, or even just sit and talk with them for a while, they would really appreciate it. You usually don’t realize how much your parents

actually do for you. So this holiday season, thank and appreciate them as much as possible. Maybe with permission from your parents, you can visit your family members that you usually don’t see on the holidays, and sit and talk with them too. Trust me, they would appreciate that much more than a store-bought present. You might even be able to visit children's hospitals or nursing homes. Those people need more caring than we could ever imagine. They also may not have a family to visit them. Another thing you may be able to do, is send letters to troops that are overseas. Tell them about what is going on around you, if

you have or had relatives that were soldiers, and most important of all, thank them for everything they do for us. There are so many things that you could do to make someone’s holiday season 1,000,000 times better. Verbal presents are always more effective than wrapped presents.

If you are interested in sending a letter to a troop overseas, visit this website for more information: https://www.operationgratitude.com/express-your-thanks/write-letters/

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Kahlil Gibran Corner: Each issue, we here at Tiger Talk would like to challenge students to think in the way that our school’s namesake, Kahlil Gibran, did. Gibran is known for his thoughtful teachings, such as the one seen in the quote below:

"Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart." - Kahlil Gibran

Sometimes, art and imagery are more effective at communicating how we feel than even words. 8th grade student Jayna Silliman created the beautiful digital painting above, as she reflected on Gibran's quote, and what it means to her. Try to use your own artistic skills to express yourself, like Jayna did here. We can learn from Gibran - look for beauty from within, not on the exterior.

Intramural Sports: by Samantha Salzarulo

Some of the greatest things about middle school are the clubs, sports and activities. Here at a Kahlil Gibran, we have sports, clubs and activities! In the fall we have soccer, in soccer, its 2 days a week, for both girls and boys. The boys finished 3-1 and lost in the semifinals. The girls lost 2-2. In the winter we have basketball, it’s a very popular sport in our school. There are 2 girls teams this year, and 1 boys' team. The students play from December to January, and both go to the tournaments. Here's a fact! Did you know there are 26 boys' teams and 20 girls' teams throughout the district? In the spring, the girls have volleyball. The girls also won the championships in June! Go girls! For the boys, they might have flag football, but it's not certain yet. Both teams practice 2 times a week. New to the school is the golf club! Golf is for the younger grades and is only on Thursdays. Mr. Figueroa and Ms. Iezza’s class are doing it for 6 weeks this winter.

Gibran's 1st Science Fair: by Emanuela Florio

This coming February, Kahlil Gibran School is hosting its first Science Fair! The science fair is a great way to get you thinking and even help you learn something new. All students are allowed to participate in this wonderful event.

All projects are due by January 28th . The science fair takes place February 5th for students and Feb. 6th for parents. Late projects are not accepted. Individual projects are encouraged but group projects are allowed. Group projects are limited to 3 students. Pre K-5 will follow the guidelines in the science fair packet. 6th-8th will use the STEM guidelines given in the packet.

If you’re interested in science or if you just want to do it for fun, this would be a good way to push your limits and see what you can do. Maybe you’ll end up winning? Who knows?! Keep an eye out for much more about the Science Fair in our next issue!

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National Elementary Honor Initiatives: Two of the key characteristics of National Honor Society membership are community service and action. With their Faculty Adviser, Ms. Dillon, at the helm, our NEHS members have been given amazing opportunities to engage with their community and make a difference. The students were separated into two separate groups, based upon interest. While meeting with their adviser weekly, students in both groups showed leadership, scholarship, responsibility, and service. See the next two sections for details provided by the students themselves:

Hunger & Homelessness: We joined with the PTA in hosting their book drive. We created bookmarks for students who purchased many books and designed posters to hang throughout the school advertising the drive. Volunteers used their recess time to bring the books from each classroom to the library so they could be organized by grade level. A portion of the proceeds were donated to The Sharing Community of Yonkers to help feed the hungry. In addition, we collected gifts for "Toys for Tots" and used our free time to wrap and label them so that we could also donate them to living in homeless shelters in our community through The Sharing Community of Yonkers.

*for more information on The Sharing Community of Yonkers, visit https://thesharingcommunity.org/

Human Rights Museum: We spent the trimester in preparation for International Human Rights Day, celebrated on Dec. 10, 2018, its 70th anniversary.

Much of our early time was spent researching the UN resolution passed in 1938, as well as important international leaders who have worked to advance human rights.

We created posters and presentations to share with classes in our school, trying to make sure we make all aware of the importance of human rights within our communities, both local and international.

Our culminating activity was an “in-school” field trip to visit our “Human Rights Museum.” Donations were collected to support UNICEF.          

*Special thanks to Ms. Dillon for all of her hard work and dedication toward these worthy causes.

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A Message from the Principal: One of the many goals Principal White has for this school year is to bring brand-new initiatives to Gibran. Aside from the expansion of the 7th and 8th grade Intramural Sports program, a golf program is kicking off for some of our upper-elementary students! The program is hosted by First Tee Metropolitan NY and it makes for an exciting opportunity for our students.

Another initiative that I wanted to offer to Gibran students was the Junior Achievement program, which I thought would be a wonderful opportunity for students to collaborate with older students from High Schools in Yonkers for mentoring and skill training, all of which are a part of theJunior Achievement curriculum. As an added bonus, our 7th and 8th grade students will have the opportunity to visit Microsoft’s local headquarters in January with the Junior Achievement program for an opportunity to extend their learning beyond the classroom and get a true understanding of both the opportunities and the challenges that lie in the years ahead.

This year we’ll be offering students in our school a new opportunity to showcase their talents by hosting our first Science Fair atGibran! Students will create science projects and then display them and use them as tools to teach their peers about their hard work and motivate them to be imaginative. Special thanks to our newly formed Science Committee, consisting of

Ms. Troiano, Ms. Iezza, Ms. Romano & Ms. Farrell, who will organize and execute the Science Fair, as well as serve as judges for the competition element.

All of the above wouldn’t be possible without the dedication of our hard-working staff, which features some new faces this year. Our new staff members haven’t missed a beat as they’ve begun getting to know our students and contributing to the entire school community. If you haven’t already, welcome Ms. Orenzow (Health), Ms. Charlier (Art), Mr. Walton(Resource), and Nurse Susan!

To conclude, I am so proud of our school! I continue to beam with pride for our students, staff, parents, and entire school community. I’m looking forward to a school year filled with education, fun, and collaboration for us all.

Happy holidays & a safe New Year to all!

Ms. White

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PTA Corner: To Our Gibran Family,

As we work our way into the 2018-2019 school year, we want to thank the students and their parents for supporting the PTA. We are strong because of you. This year we were able to build on our success. We owe that to our great members. With your support we are able to continue to make great things happen at Gibran.

As we prepare for the holiday season, we'd like to thank all of you who donated, purchased, or otherwise supported our book drive. It was a rousing success thanks to all of your contributions.

Happy holidays and a happy New Year to all!

7th Graders Extend their Learning to Action: During the first marking period, 7th grade students read Linda Sue Park’s novel A Long Walk to Water, which chronicles the journey of a “Lost Boy” of Sudan and a young girl from Sudan, asa part of a Human Rights themed unit of study. Students use expository texts to learn about the international water crisis, and viewed TedTalks on the topic of water scarcity. However, students were determined to do something to help bring water to villages without it – making school, healthcare, and a promising future possible for thousands of kids like themselves. Students participated in WaterFor Sudan’s “Iron Giraffe Challenge”, and collectively raised $1000, which will be used to build a well to bring water to a village in Africa. We’re very proud of their intentions, hard work, and engagement in civic duty.

Film Review - Bohemian Rhapsody: by Mia Fraitag

‘Tis the season of new movie releases, and I’m about to tell you about the one that I believe is the best one so far. “Bohemian Rhapsody”! It is an incredible true story of a band that you may or may not know called “Queen.”  The lead singer, and main character, Freddie Mercury, has an enormous passion for music, but has a tough time dealing with family, ”friends,” and fans. Farrokh "Freddie Mercury" Bulsara was born in Stonetown, Tanzania on September 5, 1946. As a child he was a very good boxer, but as he grew up he followed a band that eventually lost its lead singer. Guess who took his place! Freddie and the newly developed band “Queen” began writing and releasing some of your favorite songs. You may recognize, “You’re My Best Friend,” “Killer Queen,” “We Are The Champions,” and of course, “Bohemian Rhapsody.” As time went on, Freddie was offered the opportunity to go solo. They paid him four million dollars for two albums. While he was working on the second album, he realized that he needed to get the band back together. Around the same time, he learned that he had developed a fatal disease called AIDS. For his last performance, “Queen” performed at the well known concert called “Live Aid.” “Live Aid,” helped to raise over 1,000,000 pounds (currency in London) for families in South Africa. On November 24, 1991, Freddie died of Bronchopneumonia due to AIDS. He is still a legend to this day.

I would definitely recommend that you see this movie soon! I would easily give it five stars. The actor who played Freddie, Rami Malek, did an amazing job of portraying his posture and attitude. This might just become my new favorite movie. I agree with Owen Gleiberman from Variety; “‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ creates a great paint-by-numbers ride through the Queen saga.” It is absolutely a “Must see!” I speak for Freddie when I say “AYYY OOO!”

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