The Swasey Daily - Swasey Central School

The Swasey Daily
December 2010
Cross-Country
2nd Grade’s Butterfly Study
By Sarah Siudut
HUFF, PUFF! HUFF, PUFF! That’s how
you breathe when you are running at
a cross-country meet or practice.
Mrs. Lane started the Swasey
Cross-Country Club 4 years ago so
that members could get exercise, set
goals, participate in a few
competitions and socialize with
other runners.
Sydney Stump, a 5th grade crosscountry runner from Mrs. Woods’
class, tells me that her favorite
activity that participants played in
cross-country was Capture the Flag.
I asked Matthew Burns, also a
runner from Mrs. Woods’ class, why
he decided to participate in crosscountry. He said, “I thought that if I
did cross-country it could help me for
playing soccer.”
By Abigail Garey and Alyssa DiPalermo
Sydney and Matthew both agreed
on the same answer when I asked
how they felt during the race. “I was
nervous in the beginning and when
they shot the starting gun, but by the
middle of the race usually I felt
pretty confident,” Sydney told me.
There were several meets during
the cross-country season. Of them
all, Sydney’s favorite was the last
meet because she got the best time
there. Matthew liked the course at
the first meet.
Mrs. Lane thought it was really
cool that many of
Swasey’s cross-country
runners went on to
participate in crosscountry at CMS. She
hopes that it was the
Swasey Cross-Country
Club that encouraged
them to do so.
The Swasey Cross Country Team. Thank you to Mrs. Lane for photos.
Geocaching
By Bradyn VanSant
Geocaching was really fun for all of
the 5th graders when we did a special
activity. It was a good way to study
latitude and longitude plus you get a
good exercise. Do you know how to
geocache?
In geocaching you need a hanheld
GPS. Once you get the coordinates
entered, start walking whereever the
arrow is pointing. The goal is to find
the cache (most
often a small box
or
a
smaller
cylinder). You must
look in the trees
and under fallen
logs. Usually it
contains a piece of paper or notepad
and a pen or pencil with some knickknacks
such
as
toys,
baseball/pokemon cards, or other
things.
If you find a trackable device in it,
the trackable device will have a
website on it. If you
visit the website, it
will show you where
the device has been.
Once you have done that, put the
trackable device in a different cache
and go on the website to tell them
where it is now. You have to type in
the north/south coordinates and the
east/west coordinates.
Last year the 4th graders
geocached at Stratham Hill Park. We
loved it and a lot of us have
continued geocaching in our spare
time or as a family activity!
Maybe you would like to go
geocaching sometime. If so, go to
www.geocaching.com and make an
account. Once you have an account
set
up,
you
can
download
coordinates of caches to find. You
can also hide caches yourself and
upload the coordinates.
Have fun geocaching!
Book Fair
By Alyssa Pietz and Kaitlin Ryan
All the books at the book fair
were fantastic but there were a
few that students liked the most!
1. Adventures of Ook and Gluk by
Dav Pilkey, Harold Hutchins and
George Beard
2. School of Fear by Gitty
Daneshvari
3. Framed by Gordon Korman
The favorite poster was the
poster with the horse and cats.
We interviewed the wonderful
librarians of Swasey, Mrs. Buckels and
Mrs. Monsell. We asked them, "What
is your favorite part of the Book
Fair?"
They both agreed on an answer
which was "Getting the children
excited about reading."
They also told me that "The
hardest thing was setting up the book
fair."
Then we questioned a student
from Mrs. Peterson's class named
Alex. He did not go to the book fair
but said that his friends told him it
was fun with some good books. What
was your favorite book?
During September, the 2nd grade
Nick Garey reported that there was
went on a field trip to The Butterfly
a pond and
Some students from Mrs.
Place in Westford, Massachusetts.
some streams
Proctor’s class.
“It looked like a giant indoor
inside
the
garden,” many kids reported. We
Butterfly
spoke a little with Shea Babine and
Place!
Nick Garey both from Mrs. Proctor’s
He
said,
class and got a little info from
“There were
them.
ducks in the
The kids seemed to have a lot of
pond,
and
fun when they got to get up close
even a parakeet in another part of the
and personal with some of Mother building.” He also said that his
Nature’s beauties. Before they went favorite butterflies were the Blue
on the trio, the second graders got to Morpho and the Owl Butterfly.
watch a few go
There were butterflies all
through their
over the place. There
A Blue Morpho
life
cycle
were all kinds of sizes,
f r o m
medium,
large,
and
caterpillar to
small.
There
were
chrysalis to
butterflies of every color
b u t t e r f l y.
in the rainbow. In a
That was one
different part of the
of
their
building, there were glass
favorite parts
cages with butterflies,
of the study
caterpillars and cocoons.
before.
Now that they are done with the
When they all got back they spent study, they know more than they did
the next little while studying certain before. The teachers did a very good
types of butterflies. Some of these job of teaching the second graders all
were the Blue Morpho, the Monarch
and Swallowtails. They saw all of
these while they were there. The
Blue Morpho was Shea’s favorite of all
at the Butterfly Place. Many others
thought it was a cool type, too.
Shea said that he and a few of his
friends got to look closely at one of
the butterflies sucking nectar from a
flower. “It had a long, black tongue
A Monarch butterfly
that stuck into the flower to get the
nectar out,” Shea said. Did you know
that that long, black tongue is called they need to know about butterflies.
a proboscis?
We hope the first graders are
One of the staff members showed excited because they will be doing it
them Owl Butterflies eating bananas next year. It sounds like the second
from behind a fence. A lot of kids graders had a lot of fun!
thought that it was really cool.
Fall Crafts
By Emily Bartlett
Here are some fun
holiday crafts that you
can do. Hope you enjoy!
Hand Turkey
Grades Pre-K - 2
1. Get a piece of paper
large enough to trace
your hand on.
2. Trace your hand onto
the paper with a pencil,
then cut it out.
3. Get glitter glue, markers, crayons
and any other items you can use for
decorating, and stick them on your
turkeys. Let dry.
4. Draw a face or paste yours on your
paper thumb. That’s your face for
your turkey.
5.Hang up your creation for your
family to see!
Thanksgiving Scene
Grades 3 - 5
1. Get two large pieces
of square cardboard,
depending on how big
you want your scene,
and cut it so the top half
looks like a trapizoid.
2. Fold the trapizoid piece into
thirds, then tape it to the other
piece of cardboard.
3. Color the cardboard, and WALLA!
You have a background.
4. Use scraps of cardboard to create
people and items that they would
use.
5. Display it for everyone to see.
Welcome, Preschoolers and Kindergarteners!
The Swasey Daily staff and the other students of SCS would like to
welcome the preschoolers and kindergarteners who have just arrived at
Swasey. We would also like to thank Mrs. Mace, the preschool teacher, and
Mrs. Desmarais and Mrs. Mayo for teaching the wonderful preschoolers and
kindergarteners. So, welcome new students! We hope you will enjoy
Swasey.
The Swasey Daily
Upcoming Events at Swasey
Thursday, December 23rd - Early Release
Friday, Decmeber 24th to Friday, December 31st - Holiday Break,
No School
Mondy, January 17th - Martin Luther King Jr. Day, No School
Calling All Student Writers and
Journalists!
We need you!
Starting in the third issue of The Swasey Daily, the staff are going
to need a few writers from each grade who are willing to write an
article for the newspaper. You may choose from a few of the
available topics, and you can share ideas with the staff, so start
thinking about what will be happening at Swasey Central School!
Let your teacher know if you would like to write in The Swasey
Daily so that when we ask for writers, your teacher will know you
would like to participate. We are hoping to see a lot of kids
interested.
How to Be Green During the
Holidays
By Sarah Siudut
With all the wrapping paper and
packaging that you receive your gifts
in at Christmas and for those of you
who celebrate Hanukkah, I know that
it is very hard to stay green and
reduce waste. Here are some tips to
help you stay green during the
holiday season.
Oreo Cookie Stacking
By Hannah Grinnell
Mrs. Mayo’s A.M kindergarten class
did the International Oreo Cookie
Stacking with the help of Mrs. Woods’
fifth grade class. We all had a lot of
fun stacking the Oreos.
I did an interview to get some
information about the data. I also
asked them some questions about
Oreos. Here is the data I collected:
~ The maximum number of Oreos
stacked was twenty-one.
~ The minimum number of Oreos
stacked was eight.
~ The number of kids who achieved
their goal
was two out
of fourteen.
I asked
the
class
how they
liked to eat Oreos and here is how
they responded: Four kids eat them
whole, nine kids take them apart,
and one kid only eats the cream.
Nine out of the fourteen kids dunk
them in milk.
I love Oreos. Do you?
December 2010
Page 2
Organize a swap with your family.
If you have things in your room that
your younger sister might enjoy or
your older brother has something you
want, swap! This saves packaging
from buying new gifts.
Recycle the wrapping paper and
plastic/paper
that your gifts come in. This keeps it
out of landfills and saves trees, too!
When you do buy gifts, try to buy
things with minimal packaging. The
less packaging, the less you have to
worry about recycling it! Buy things
that come in paper or a recyclable
plastic so you can throw it in the
recycle bin rather than the trash
barrel!
Brainstorm your own ideas to stay
green during the holidays with your
family, and share them with your
friends so that they can stay green,
too. I am sure you all can help to
make a difference, big or small. Good
luck staying green over winter
vacation, and have fun, too!
Black and Orange Day
By Railynn Bean and Emma McDonough
On Friday, October 29, Swasey
Central School celebrated Halloween
with Black and Orange Day. To start
off the day the staff and teachers put
on a skit about a 700 year old woman
(Mrs. Bradley) and a 800 year old man
(Mrs. Babine) who lost their giant
pumpkin and set out to find it. Along
the way they find ghouls
and
many
other
Halloween creatures. At
the end they finally find
the pumpkin and to their
great surprise together
with the 900 year old
wizard (Mr. Schroeder)
they made pumpkin pie
with the lost giant
pumpkin.
Also many classes had a Halloween
celebration. All ot the fifth grade
classes did a craft and treat party.
The crafts were a lollipop spider,
which was done with pipe cleaners
and a lollipop. They also did pumpkin
painting, then added “hair” made of
basket paper. They topped off the
celebration with Halloween treats.
Mrs. Vandermale’s first grade class
did a fun word activity with
Halloween words like pumpkin and
ghost. Also they had a special snack.
At the end of the day they had
brownies brought in by Mrs.
Vandermale.
The fourth graders did a
small celebration. They
made scary black pom
pom spiders, with black
pipe
cleaners
and
different colored pom
poms.
Mrs. Marcello’s first
grade class did a ghost
craft. At the end of the
day Mrs. Marcello passed
out a pumpkin basket filled with
spider rings and stretchy ghosts for
her class to play with.
Mrs. Marshall’s third grade class
made salt dough ghosts. They also
had fruit snacks and popcorn balls.
Black and Orange Day was great
fun for everyone!
Thanks to the writers and comic creators for
the December 2010 issue of
The Swasey Daily:
~ Sarah Siudut
~ Railynn Bean
~ Emma McDonough
~ Alyssa DiPalermo
~ Bradyn VanSant
~ Alyssa Pietz
~ Hannah Grinnell
~ Tyler Silverwood
~ Katie Ryan
~ Emily Bartlett
Christmas Comic
By Tyler Silverwood
Always remember to give thanks for what you have!
The Swasey
Daily says
Christmas is
next week!
Really!? Does
your family have
anything special
going on?
YES! We go into
dog’s homes and
steal ther turkey!
That’s not very
Christmas like!