Clarendon School Newspaper November 2014

Clarendon School Courier
Principal - Mr. Steve Viggiani
November 2014
Volume 3 , Issue 1
Co-Advisors – Mrs. Dawn Doering
Mrs. Felicia Maloney
By Ava Perez
Sweet and Flour is a new nut free
bakery in our town. The girls (named
Gina and Dilian) came up with the name
Sweet and Flour because they always say
one is sweet and other is the flower. Both
girls have been cooking since they
were in kindergarten! They hope the
bakery is a success and hope everyone
will come by and enjoy their food.
By Mary Pacheco
How did you come up with the name
Sweet and Flour? Gina and Dilian spent
a lot of time thinking about a name. They
came up with the name because one is
sweet and the other is like a flower.
By Saloni Singh
Q: At what age did you start baking?
Gina: I started baking when I was in
kindergarten. I worked on small projects
at first and then moved on to bigger ones.
As my mother is an art teacher in high
school, creativeness runs in the family.
Q: What is your favorite design for a
cake?
Gina: I really enjoyed designing Dilian's
wedding cake. She got married recently,
and it was lots of fun.
By Shannon Lawlor
I have many friends with allergies
So when I visited Sweet and Flour
bakery I had two important questions.
"Do you make dairy free or gluten free
products?" Unfortunately not, sweet and
flour does not make these products since
they are not a gluten free facility. They
do however make plenty of nut free
products. All of their treats are delicious
allergy free or not.
I also asked, "When did you start
baking?" Gina and Dilian said probably
in kindergarten, about age 4 or 5.
Another question was, “How would you
feel if someone said Gina and Dil were
their inspiration?” Both girls said, “That
would be amazing”. Well, I love to bake
and they are my inspiration. Perhaps
when you taste their sweet treats, they
will be yours too!
The Newspaper Club whipped up their
first story by taking a walking trip to the
newest bakery in town, Sweet and Flour.
Read on to see what our reporters found
out.
Secaucus Just Became
a Bit Sweeter
Interview with Gina Petruzzelli and Dilian
Guzman owners of Sweet and Flour
By Averi Wurst
Averi: Has opening Sweet and Flour
been a dream of yours that came true?
Gina: Yes, we have worked for other
businesses, but decided we wanted
something of our own. We enjoy
creativity, decorating and detail.
Averi: Before you opening your
business, where did you go for training?
Gina and Dil: We both attended culinary
school, worked in restaurants and bakeries
as pastry chefs.
Averi: What inspired you to open and
run a bakery? (good skills, determination,
dream or the encouragement of family and
friends)
Gina and Dil: All of the above have
contributed to opening of Sweet and Flour
along with passion, skill and hard work.
Averi: Have you ever had anyone help
you bake or are you independent and like
to do it yourself? Do you enjoy baking
during family quality time?
Gina: As a child I would bake with my
family and it was during quality time. I
also enjoyed baking with my grandmother
when I was little.
Averi: Have you opened a bakery in
another town?
Gina and Dil: Yes, before opening Sweet
and Flour, we owned a commercial space
in Lodi. We worked out of a commercial
kitchen and would cater or deliver our
baked goods.
Averi: What time do you arrive at work
each morning? How do you have your
baked goods ready on time?
Gina and Dil: We arrive at 4:30 am to be
prepared to open at 7:30 am. Everything
we make is baked fresh each day.
Organizing the kitchen space is an
important part of a successful business.
Sweet and Flour’s talented baker
from Clarendon School
By Anya Singh
Gina Petruzzelli, a talented baker, went to
Clarendon School and now co-owns her own
bakery. When she was in kindergarten, her teacher
was Ms. Biegler and she taught the class to bake
with an EZ bake oven. Gina loved to bake and
practiced with an EZ bake oven at home for years.
She would help her mother make Italian dishes in
the kitchen.
Gina’s favorite thing to bake is sugar cookies
and she loves to decorate them too. She started
with simple designs and patterns and then went
into more detail for the holidays. She met her
partner, Dilian Sarmiento while they both worked
together at a restaurant. They became great
friends and dreamed of opening up a bakery. Now
their dream is a reality. They have a cute little
bakery with delicious cake pops, cup cakes and
custom cakes.
When the girls got their first customer they
were overwhelmed and freaked out in excitement
as soon as the customer left. Then, more
customers came. They also baked Dilian’s
wedding cake together. Gina and Dilian have a
goal to get as many customers as possible, and
make Clarendon School and Secaucus PROUD!
You should really try their delicious goodies – it
will make your day!
Page 2 of 4
News from the classrooms
CONGRATULATIONS to 1 st Grade
Teacher, Mrs. Valente
Apple and Pumpkin Picking
By Ava Perez and Smriti Chopra
In October Clarendon School kindergarteners
visited the Battleview Orchards in Freehold, NJ
for a day of pumpkin and apple picking.
They learned how apples grow. Then each class
tested apple foods, like apple sauce, apple pie, and
apple juice. Each student got to pick a pumpkin
which students brought back to school to paint.
When they were finished they got to bring them
home. The students said they had lots of fun apple
and pumpkin picking.
Mrs. Valente gave birth on Halloween to a
baby boy. His name is Bruce Sergio Valente.
Mom, big sister, Emma, and family dog, LT
are all doing fine. Baby Bruce’s dad is middle
school principal, Mr. Valente.
Third Grade
by Shannon Lawlor
The Fourth Grade Teachers
Get Original for Halloween
By Saloni Singh
The fourth grade teachers Ms.Malcolm,
Ms.Primavera, Ms.Forcaz, Ms.Roesing, and
Ms.Castelli all dressed up as spelling bees for the
school Halloween Parade. They wore cute yellow
and black bee costumes with sparkly wings. But
the most interesting part was the words printed all
over their costumes indicating that these bees
were special! They were "spelling bees". Don't
you agree that those costumes were very original?
I wouldn't have thought about doing that, for sure.
Next Halloween, why don't you do what they did
and come up with your own original
and interesting Halloween costume!
Shiloh
By Rima Kaja
Kindergarten has a Surprise Guest!
By Smriti Chopra and Ava Perez
Secaucus Mayor Gonnelli visited the Kindergarten
classrooms to talk about the environment and
recycling. The mayor’s presentation demonstrated
how to recycle, how recycling helps, and other ways
to help the environment. He showed the students
how to recycle paper and old books. The mayor also
brought gifts for each and every kindergarten
student. The gift bag included recycled color pencils,
coloring books, pens, and a book.
CLARENDON’S FIRST GRADE
By Anya Singh
Clarendon’s first grade is a year where the
students do a lot of interesting things. They
learn things like: subtraction and addition
problems, writing proper sentences in the
journal, reading easy books with easy words,
arts and crafts, and playing Cat and Mouse in
music with Ms. Redvanly.
When I was in first grade I had Mrs.
Viggiani. In her class we had a clip chart
where you were clipped up or down because
of your behavior.
First grader, Devika Mishra’s opinion is
that first grade is great even though it is way
harder than kindergarten. First grader, Kaj
Soderberg-Felix is learning about animals
and their habitats in science class. He also
loves learning flag tag in gym class with Ms.
Snarski. Wow! First grade sounds like a lot of
fun.
The Third Grade is having so much fun! I
visited with the Third Grade teachers.
Ms. Spiekermann's class is diving into Social
Studies and Grammar. They have started
studying Native Americans and have finished
common and proper nouns.
Mrs. Schlemn's class is running into the
multiplication towers on the 3rd floor of the 2
times table.
Don't get me started on Ms.Bonito's class!
They are joining Flat Stanley on the Reading
Railroad.
Ms. T. Mongiello is also heating the house with
fun work.
As you can see, Third Grade has a lot going
on. They are also busy being role models to the
Kindergarten, First and Second Grades. Don't
we all wish we were in Third Grade again!
A Pumpkin Exploration
By Saloni Singh
The fourth grade classes of Ms.Primavera and
Ms.Malcolm had lots of fun conducting a
"pumpkin exploration". Each table was given a
pumpkin to study. The students had to
make estimations on the number of lines on their
pumpkin, how many pounds it weighed, the
circumference, and how many seeds it contained.
Then, they had to find the actual answers to
those questions. As you can guess, the
most exciting part of this exploration was when
the students got to get their hands messy by
dipping into their pumpkins and counting out the
seeds!
Try it. I'm sure you will enjoy it as much as
they did!
In the 5 th grade students finished
reading a book about a dog (Shiloh) and a
boy (Marty). I know your thinking that
there are a bunch of books and movies
about dogs and a kid, how is this one
different? Well, this book takes place
during the Great Depression and a whole
lot of problems go on. Marty learns how
this world really works and that not all
people are nice. It’s a bit sad, but there is a
happy ending. The book will win you
over.
6th graders are Budget Conscious
By Mary Pacheco
In Math, the sixth graders recently completed a
project on budgets. First, each student was given a
pretend $1,000 which had to be split evenly
among the members of their family. Next, the
students had to figure out how much they could
buy within their budget. They looked for items in
store flyers to buy for each family member. Once
they decided on the items to purchase they cut
them out and pasted the pictures to a poster. Each
student then shared their purchases.
Clarendon’s Character Education Corner
Looking for a Book to
Read?
By Smriti Chopra
Stop by the Clarendon
School Library and try
out
Comic
Squad
Recess a great source of
excitement.Eight stories
that will blow your
mind. I suggest you read
it.
By Shannon Lawlor
On Saturday, October 18th, Secaucus
started the day with a walk-a-thon for St.
Jude Children's Hospital. The walk was from
the Recreation Dept. to Buchmuller Park.
It was led by Mr Valente and the Middle
School. Clarendon School was right behind
with Mr. Viggiani, Mrs. Ortiz and many
others. Ms. Heintjes and Ms. Malcolmn
walked with their dogs, It was a beautiful
day and we didn't even realize how far we
were walking.
There were many activities at Buchmuller
Park. The Girl Scouts had arts and crafts.
Mayor Mike set up a bounce house and a
petting zoo. There were also tables with
information on healthy living. Mrs. Heintjes
and her helpers had a giant fence long canvas
to paint fruit and vegetables. They taught us
ways to get healthy and have fun. It was a
great day.
RESPECT and OMEGAMAN
Page 3 of 4
PASTA FOR PENNIES
By Smriti Chopra
By Shannon Lawlor and Anya Singh
Pasta for Pennies presented by Olive
Garden, gives students a chance to
participate in a service program.
Students have a unique experience to
make a difference through teamwork
by helping people with Leukemia.
Clarendon School had a very special visitor in
Clarendon School participated in this
October. OMEGAMAN! Omegaman is a respect
contest for three weeks in October.
superhero. He teaches children to respect
Students were asked to bring in their
themselves and others
spare change. The contest went down
In Clarendon School, respect comes before
to the wire with two very close classes.
anything else. Our teachers have been teaching us
CONGRATULATIONS to Ms. Primavera’s
that we should respect everybody and hopefully
fourth grade who pulled ahead during
we all are using what we learned. The whole point
of respect is allowing people to have their own
the third week with a total of $150.15.
choices and not make a judgment on it. We have
As the winning class, they will receive
to fill buckets with good choices, not to dip into
a luncheon hosted by Olive Garden.
buckets after making bad choices.
The menu consists of salad,
Omegaman can rip a book of bad choices with
breadsticks, and spaghetti. They are
his bare hands and also get rid ofSecaucus
all those badWalk-a-thon and Food
picking a date in early 2015 to enjoy
choices. He can break a bat over his leg to get rid
lunch. In a future edition of this paper
of the strong feeling inside your head to say
we’ll let you know how their lunch
something mean. He can bend metal to fix the
road of rudeness into the road of kindness.
tasted.
A fourth grader showed how to hold on to your
The second place class was Mrs.
dreams. Omegaman's finale was amazing when he
Lamintina’s Kindergarten class with
carried our own principal, Mr. Viggiani on his
$100.11. They enjoyed a small prize
back. The assembly was both educational and
from TD Bank. Third place went to Ms.
entertaining. The Clarendon bees believe that
Roesing’s class with $53.70.
respect can lead you to a bright future.
Thank you everyone who brought in
ey money for this worthy good cause.
Playground Planning
By Smriti Chopra
On October 27, 2014 representatives from the
playground planning committee came to
Clarendon School to discuss what we would like
in our new playground. Mayor Gonnelli, explained
details about the new, awesome playground
which would be for everyone to enjoy. The
playground planners use a software called
3DSto design their playground. Some of our
playground was designed by primary and
intermediate students. There are rules that we
need to follow in order to plan a playground.
You need space, plus safety is a big concern.
There are lots of exciting things that we can
possibly get like- rock-climbing wall, a twister
climber, railing climbers, and vine climbers.
We might also get three swings too.
Our colors of the playground might be red,
white and blue or red and yellow. Our
playground is going to be the best.
SGO Food Drive
By: Rima Khaja
Do you know what a Food Drive or a
Food Pantry is? Well if you think you don’t,
you do. A Food Bank or Food Pantry is the
same thing as a Food Drive. Our Food
Drive is very special because it helps people
at rough times. Also, congratulations to the
following winners. Out of the whole school
and intermediate pod our winner is
Mrs.Amato’s class. In the primary pod the
winner is Ms.Hensle’s class. In the small
classes, the winner is Ms.Colomarino’s
class. The winners will receive a recycled
crayon, a pencil, and a certificate. This is an
organization that helps people who are
struggling with food. This year we raised so
much food that we had to get two pickups.
The Food Drive also helps people with their
food during holidays too, most commonly
Thanksgiving or Christmas. The Social
Service Department is in charge of this
generous program. So congrats to the
winners and the students should be so happy
that they were able to help people.
Page 4 0f 4
Q & A With Mr. Viggiani
By Zander Orlando
•
What was your job before you became
a principal?
Before becoming a principal, I was a
special education teacher. I have worked
in all four of Secaucus’s Schools.
•
Who is your favorite sport/team?
My favorite sport is football and I am a
NY Giant’s Fan.
•
What made you come to Clarendon
School or Secaucus?
I grew up in Secaucus. I believe that the
town is very supportive of its teachers and
students.
•
Who is your favorite actor or
comedian?
My favorite actor is Robert De Niro.
What is the meaning of the
word December?
The word "December" is a Latin
word that originally meant "tenth
month, now the twelfth month in
the modern calendar, it was the
tenth month in the days of the
Roman Empire. At this time, the
calendar was only ten months long
-- starting with March and ending
with December.
•
If you weren't a principal what would
you want to be?
If I weren’t a principal, I would have liked
to become a lawyer.
•
Do you have an iPhone? If so what
kind?
No iphone for Mr. Viggiani. He has a
Samsung Galaxy 5.
•
What is your favorite thing about our
school?
The students are my favorite thing about
school.
•
What is your favorite food?
My favorite food is pasta.
•
Who is your favorite author?
My favorite book is the Great Gatsby, so
that would make my favorite author,
F Scott Fitzgerald.
•
What is your favorite kind of candy?
My favorite candy is Kit-Kats,
•
What is your favorite holiday?
My favorite holiday is Christmas.
•
If you have a favorite subject what
would it be?
I really likes history.
•
How was the ALS Ice Bucket
Challenge?
“It was COLD!”
•
Who is your favorite painter?
Sweet and Flour
By Rima Kaja
Have you ever been to or tried Sweet and
Flour? Well if you haven’t or you want go,
check out the bakery on 300 Front Street.
They are one of the only bakeries in
Secaucus and it’s a short walk with a
really nice look to it on the inside. Once
you step into Sweet and Flour you’ll be
blown away by the away. They offer
sweets such as custom cakes, cakes pops,
cupcakes, cookies and so much more.
Sweet and Flour has an warm and inviting
atmosphere. This bakery puts smiles on
faces all around Secaucus. The girls work
really hard on their sweets and that is
important because they want you to love
it! They are succeeding because of that
hard work. If you’re ever in the mood for
something sweet, definitely consider
making a pit stop at Sweet and Flour and
have your cravings fulfilled!
Cartooning Around
The Origin of Cartooning
By: Averi Wurst
Many people enjoy cartoons like SpongeBob, Tom & Jerry
and Looney Tunes, but did you ever wonder how cartooning
began? Well, if you did a lot and I’m mean a lot of research
like I did, then you will find out. The cartoon art form began
with 'caricatura'. A caricature - from the Italian caricare, to
load or exaggerate - is a drawing that gives weight to the most
striking features of its subject for comic effect. The great
Italian masters such as Leonardo da Vinci, Annibale Carracci,
and Gian Lorenzo Benini, all drew caricatures. These were
technical exercises in virtuosity with the aim of defining the
essence of a person in a few strokes of the pen. Political
cartoons have also played an important role throughout history.
For over two hundred years, whenever a debate has broken out
in the United States, political cartoons have been there to take
part in the argument and sometimes to push it to its limits.
Cartoons have become a form of entertainment for all
to enjoy. Walt Disney’s creativity has brought cartooning and
animation to a new level. The third Mickey Mouse cartoon,
Steamboat Willie, became Disney's first cartoon with
synchronized sound. This was a major success during its
November 1928 debut at the West 57th Theatre in New York
City. In most videos or movies the characters talk, but since
‘’Steamboat Willie’’ came out long ago, none of the characters
talk. They communicated by whistling, through action, and if
the music speeds up or slows down, it shows either danger,
sadness, anger or happiness.
I hope you enjoyed cartooning around!