Totoket V alley N ew s - Totoket Valley Elementary School

Totoket Valley News
Luke Scala, Grade 4
Homeschool – I don’t think so! MAY
2014
!
VOLUME 2
ISSUE 3
by Mikey Ricci, Grade 5 Learning in school is better for children than being homeschooled. Social interaction, playing on competitive sports teams, and working with a qualified educator are a few of the reasons why students would benefit from going to school. An often overlooked purpose of school is making friends and learning how to solve real life problems. According to “School is Cool,” “Being homeschooled can be very isolating because it is likely that they [children] don’t have many opportunities to interact with other children.” Children need the experience of learning how to get along with others whether they are on the playground or working on a group project. Also, if a child is stuck at home all day, they will have limited opportunities to make new friends and develop problem solving skills that they will certainly need for the rest of their lives. Another social benefit for learning in school is life at home can get quite lonely and boring. Imagine a bustling classroom with partner activities and games as recess. While being friends with your siblings is essential, building friendships that could last a lifetime is equally important. A child who is homeschooled will not receive such opportunities. Overall, learning how to resolve conflicts and making friends are great reasons to study at school. If you are homeschooled, then it is very possible that you will not be able to join a public school sports team. The “School is Cool” article states that ‘homeschoolers may or may not be welcome to participate with their public school peers.” Little children may be able to join little leagues but what are they going to do when they get older and such teams do not exist? They will not be able to go to their nearest public school to sign up because they do not belong to the school. Also, older homeschoolers may not receive a college athletic scholarship even though they may be a very talented athlete. If you are a serious athlete with professional aspirations, homeschooling will not benefit you. Working with a qualified educator would be an example why going to school is much better than being homeschooled. “School is Cool” states that most people are not professionals in education. This means that parents did not go to college to get a diploma on teaching like an expert. Mostly, parents do not have the same skills to teach kids that teachers have. Also, if your kids are in different grades, you can’t teach different skill levels. For the most part, being in school is better than being homeschooled. So do not homeschool you children. !TVN Reporters
Ava Candelora, Grade 3
Patrick Grant, Grade 3
Daniel Sabine, Grade 3
Alex Shadman, Grade 3
Luke Scala, Grade 4
Mikey Ricci, Grade 5
Mr. Amodio, Grade 3 Teacher
The Totoket Valley Newspaper was
written and designed as part of a special
project of our After School Enrichment
Newspaper Club. Article ideas, artwork, and
other features in this newspaper are all
original ideas of our student writers, editors,
and designers. The following newspaper is a
result of their hard work over the last 6
weeks. We hope you find this information
useful!
Inside this issue:
Upcoming Events
Feature Teacher: Mrs. Seiden
Gaming Center
Sports Center
Comics
2
3
5
6
8
Homework-­‐ We need it! Upcoming Events:
by Ava Candelora, Grade 3 Teacher Appreciation Day
May 6th
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National School Nurse Day
May 7th
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TVES Variety Show Assembly
May 8th
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TVES Variety Show
May 9th
!
Homework keeps the mind going outside of school. When I’m at home I need to get school in my mind or else I will forget. I need homework to help me remember everything I learned at school. When I’m in the pool during summer break my head almost explodes without school work and if we get homework it won’t be such a rush for me to forget everything. If it’s our first day of studying that subject we look back to school in our minds and homework keeps our school work going. This keeps the mind going on with school work. Plant Sale
May 9th
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Mother’s Day
May 11th
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Memorial Day - No School
May 26th
Homework helps with school work. In the text, “5 Reasons We Need Homework and 5 Reasons we don’t” it says homework helps students to push through hard work at school and it can help in school. When I’m stuck on something in school the teacher gives me the homework on that subject and my parents help me push through the hard work, so I understand the next day for school. When we were doing geometry I didn’t know if shapes were regular or irregular, but homework helped me understand. !
Field Day
June 6th
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Band Assembly
June 10th
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Band Concert
June 11th
!
Good evening, I’m writing to you about the following issue. Some people want to keep homework and some people don’t want it. I want to keep homework. My reasons are it keeps the mind going and helps outside of school and helps with school work. *compiled by Mikey Ricci and
Alex Shadman
I want to keep homework. It helps the mind stay active outside of school and pushes you through hard school work. Please keep homework, students need it. Have You Been Out of the USA? If so, where? If not, where would you like to go? By: Caroline Shadman Valissa Cavalier: No, Canada Cameron Brittell : No, Canada Michael Virginelli: No, Italy Morgan Kowaleski: Yes, Punta Cana Emma Cahill: Yes, Puerto Rico Luke Izzo: Yes, Germany 2
Feature Teachers
Mrs. Champagne by Mikey Ricci and Ava Candelora Ava and Mikey: What inspired you to teach? Mrs. Champagne: I love to help children and had a favorite 2nd grade teacher and keeps in touch. Also, she came to my wedding and helped my sister with homework. Ava and Mikey: Who’s your role model? Mrs. Champagne: My parents. They taught me to never give up and always think positively. Ava and Mikey: What do you like about your job? Mrs. Champagne: I love the TVES community and love to see the light bulb go off in kids’ minds [meaning they realize something]. Also the children keep me young. Ava and Mikey: What do you like doing in your free time? Mrs. Seiden
!
by Alex Shadman
QuesKon 1: Why did you choose to be a librarian? Answer: I always feel comfortable and happy in libraries. I like how libraries are full of free recourses. I love my job! QuesKon 2: Why did you choose to change the library carpet? Answer: The old carpet was really old and faded so I decided I needed a new one. QuesKon 3: What did you like to do when you were younger? Answer: I liked to read and visit libraries. I also liked to travel too. QuesKon 4: How many years have you been a librarian in TVES? Answer: 7 years. QuesKon 5: Who is your favorite teacher? Mrs. Champagne: I like to spend time with my friends and family. Also I like to exercise, read and travel. Answer: There are too many teachers I love. Ava and Mikey: What’s your favorite restaurant? QuesKon 6: Out of the three, which is your favorite genre? Ficaon, non-­‐ficaon, or poetry? Mrs. Champagne: Recently I go to Naison Mathis in New Haven. Ava and Mikey: Where did you get your teaching degree? Mrs. Champagne: I went to Quinnipiac University for 2 years. Ava and Mikey: What’s your favorite genre? Mrs. Champagne: My favorite children’s genre is historical fiction. Answer: Right now I like ficaon the best. QuesKon 7: What other fun things do you like to do other than reading? Answer: Travel, spend ame with my husband and my two dogs Ollie and Oreo. Ava and Mikey: What’s your favorite book? QuesKon 8: What is one of your favorite series that you like to read? Mrs. Champagne: My favorite children’s book is Number the Stars by Lois Lowry. Answer: I like to read the series The Mysterious Benedict. 3
TVES Fifth Grade Band Tech. Tips
by Mikey Ricci & Caroline
Shadman, Grade 5
By: Caroline Shadman www.coolmathgames.com
In fifth grade you can play an instrument in band. The band teacher is Mrs. Tedeschi who can play all the instruments. You can play the flute, the clarinet, the trumpet, and the trombone. You can try out for the drums in the beginning of the year, but if you don’t get in you can play something else. To play the flute you press keys and blow down into the mouthpiece. To play the clarinet you press keys and lick the reed and blow into the mouthpiece. To play the trumpet you press the valves and buzz into the mouthpiece. To play the trombone you move the slide and buzz into the mouthpiece. Your lessons take place during class so you may miss some class. Lessons take place once a week. Around March, you have full band lessons once a week in the morning from 8:25 to 9:05. There are 37 clarinets, 22 flutes, 18 trumpets, 20 trombones, 3 bass clarinets, 5 drums, and 1 baritone horn. There are two performances at TVES, and one at the high school. I hope in www.code.com
fifth grade you play an instrument, too! !
Check out these fun and
appropriate websites and apps
we recommend!
!
!
Websites
www.nick.com
www.pbs.kids.com
www.clubpenguin.com
www.funbrain.com
www.poptropica.com
!!
!
Apps
Angry Birds
Juice Cubes
Biokus
Candy Crush
Minecraft
Jetpack Joyride
COMING SOON: VARIETY SHOW
Come join us at the annual TVES Variety Show on the evening of
Friday, May 9th - 6:30 PM @ the North Branford Auditorium!
4
GAMING CENTER
Club Penguin
!
by Daniel Sabine
I am writing to you about Club Penguin 2014 themed
parties. The party in January was a prehistoric party.
February was the fair, and in March it was the Muppets
Most Wanted. There are characters that you can friend
request and there are clothes that are related to the
party. There is news on the game site to let you know about the upcoming events. Wouldn’t
you think it would be fun if we could play Club Penguin in our school? We could play at
recess, and in my opinion, yes, I would like it! Check out the game on the internet, but first
ask a parent to create an account. One last thing - you can adopt cute little puffles!
All About Minecraft
By Luke Scala
The day you get Minecraft on your computer, your Xbox 360, your PlayStation, or one of your
mobile devices, you would start out like the normal player Steve with an ordinary skin for
your character. If any of your friends or family members or you are wondering who made
Minecraft, believe it or not it is Notch. Notch made Minecraft because in real life Notch’s
brother Herobrine was in a mine and then the mine collapsed and Notch made Minecraft in
memory of his brother, but that might not be why he made it. If you just got Minecraft and you
are reading this then first in Minecraft you, get wood, craft the wood, then make a wood
sword, wood pickaxe, wood axe, wood shovel, and if you want to farm you can make a wood hoe.
Then with your pickaxe you can go mining for ores like coal and you can get cobblestone from
stone by mining stone, and stone is not an ore for your info. And if you have a wood pickaxe you
cannot mine iron ore, gold (budder) ore, emerald ore if you’re playing on the computer version,
Redstone ore, and diamond ore. The most best ore on Minecraft is DIAMOND! On Minecraft
Xbox 360 or PC you can sprint and on the bottom it has a hunger bar and obviously a health
bar. But on Minecraft PE you only have your health bar on the top, and you can’t sprint, but in a
few updates you might be able to do what you can do on Xbox 360 or PC. Here is some fun facts that you
may want to know! On Minecraft Xbox 360 version you can try if you want, try and beat, THE ENDER
DRAGON! Also on PC you can defeat the ender dragon, or you can beat the whither, more powerful
than the ender dragon! On Minecraft PE the only exciting thing is that you can go to the nether but
it’s a little different than Xbox 360 nether and PC nether because Mojang is still working on the new
updates. And if you want to know who made Minecraft PE it is Jesperb14 . But there is really no
history about the guy. The newest update that has come out for Minecraft PE is 0.8.1, and a few things I
can tell you about the new update is:
•
You can now ignite and blow up TNT with flint and steel (Iron) in creative.
•
There is now different woods like, birch wood, spruce wood, and jungle wood but no jungle
trees.
•
They also added in that you can finally break Redstone ore in survival and actually get
Redstone dust.
And thanks for reading and now you can tell your friends about Minecraft and more people can
make Minecraft the most fun and creative game you can ever play!
5
SP
Derek Jeter`s Retirement By: Mikey Ricci !
I wanted to write this article because Derek Jeter is my favorite athlete and my sports role model. Also this is his final year as a Yankee. Derek Sanderson Jeter was born on June 26, 1974, in Pequannock NJ. Derek moved with his family to Kalamazoo, MI. Thanks to his grandmother, he grew up a Yankees fan. Derek is a 12-­‐time All-­‐Star with five Gold Gloves and four Silver Sluggers and is the all-­‐time postseason leader in hits, games played, extra-­‐base hits and runs scored. He is in his 18th season with the Yankees, matching the record held by Hall of Famers Yogi Berra and Mickey Mantle. The Yankees drafted Derek with the sixth overall pick in 1992. Derek also received a scholarship to play baseball at the University of Michigan, where he attended school in 1992 following his first summer of Minor League baseball. In 2011, Derek became the 23rd member of the 3,000-­‐
hits club, the fourth-­‐youngest player to ever achieve that record. Derek also recorded three five-­‐hit games in his career at Yankee Stadium. Also in 2011, Derek set the record for most games played at shortstop for one team and set Yankees' records for career games played and stolen bases. He holds Yankees career records for hits, games played, stolen bases, at-­‐bats and singles. RTS CENTER
DO YOU LIKE CURSED TEAMS OR REGULAR TEAMS? by Patrick Grant Do you like cursed teams or regular teams? Most people would say The New York Yankees. They would say this because they don’t have a curse and are good. Unfortunately the less liked teams like the Cubs and the Red Sox are famous for curses. People still don’t like them. I like the Red Sox with the Bambino curse. Do you like a cursed team or a regular team? History of the Billy goat Curse The beginning of the Cubs curse was in the World Series. The coach or owner of the Cubs brought a Billy Goat with him to the World Series. The owner of the finals must have seen the Billy Goat because the owner of the World Series kicked them out of the the game and said “Never come back to the World Series again until you get rid of that Billy Goat.” History Of the Bambino curse The curse of the Red Sox started when Babe Ruth got traded to the NY Yankees. The curse was the Red Sox would never win a World Series. But this will be disappointing to Yankee fans because the Red Sox curse ended in 2004. Also, Derek Jeter is one of the few members of the Yankees who has been a Yankee from the beginning of his career to his retirement. Sadly, Derek has decided that this will be his last year playing baseball. He will be greatly missed by his fans, fellow teammates and all of Major League Baseball. 6
Baseball Spring Training by Patrick Grant Baseball is making a big hit in America. Spring training is just the beginning, but regular season is the real deal. For all of you who don’t know about baseball spring training, here is what it is. Baseball spring training is when all of the baseball players and teams get ready for the regular season, play offs, and World Series. The teams practice for the regular season. !
Here are the ESPN standings for the Grapefruit and Cactus spring training leagues. Key
W=Wins
L=Loses
PCT=Percentage
RS=Run Support
RA=Runs Allowed
Good Luck to all the TVES students !
with their SPRING sports season!
REMINDER: FIELD DAY T-SHIRT
ORDER FORMS DUE BACK AT
SCHOOL BY FRIDAY, MAY 9TH!
7
TVES ROCKS - Comic
by Alex Shadman
TVES Students help Big
Nate Author, Lincoln Peirce
set a WORLD RECORD!
Check out the link below for
more information.!
!
http://bignatebooks.com/content/
world-record-tracker
What is your favorite car?!
by Luke Scala
!
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“Corvette because it’s good looking, fast, and is smooth”
- Jake Palumbo, Grade 4
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“Camaro because it is a nice car.”
- Francesco Spinello, Grade 4
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“Mazarati because it is cool.”
- Ryan LeMay, Grade 4
!
Ford F150 because it’s
Bugatti because it’s
A red Ferrari because
Ferrari - it drives fast
big.
very fast.
it reminds me of a
and smooth, and is
sports car and it’s red.
cool looking.