Second grade was treated by Mrs. Miller to a visit from the "Critter Lady", Ms. Verna McGinley. A former science teacher, Ms. McGinley rescues and rehabilitates injured and sick wild animals, in most cases returning them to their natural habitats. When that isn't possible, the animals become residents of Ms. McGinley's home and some even make appearances during her presentations. This year, the children were delighted to learn about and meet reptiles, amphibians and snakes. A corn snake, ball python, skunk, toad, salamander, and 2 Eastern Box turtles all came out to visit with the students who had the opportunity to pet or hold all of the animals. Ms. McGinley follows all American Zoological Society rules and guidelines for care so all animals are perfectly safe for travel to schools, nursing homes and parties Some rules about wild creatures that the children learned were, "If you have to chase an animal to rescue it, the animal can take care of itself," and "Don't run from a wild animal, always walk away slowly."
Adrianne Kubiak is now in Washington ready to compete in the National Spelling Bee. Mrs. Kubiak has sent an update of the activities: Adrianne is speller 211 -- one of 275 spellers. The Scripps Howard web site (www.spellingbee.com) has bios of all 275 spellers -- interestingly there are 137 girls and 138 boys. The competition begins on Tuesday with a written test. Wednesday, all spellers participate in two rounds -- Adrianne's rounds are scheduled from 10:00 to 11:45 a.m. and then again from 3:30 to 5:15 p.m. These rounds are broadcast on ESPN3 an internet station. At the end of Wednesday, no more than 50 students are selected to participate in the semi-finals based on the written test and the two preliminary rounds. If Adrianne should be lucky enough to move on .... the semi-finals are Thursday from 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. and are broadcast live on ESPN. Some limited number (???) number of students move from the semi-finals to the finals which are broadcast live on ESPN from 8:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
12 lucky students had the opportunity to participate in the final challenge of the Design Lives Here engineering program sponsored by WQED and the Engineer's Society of Western Pennsylvania. The competition was held in the Mister Rogers studio at WQED and challenged the students to build a table out of newspapers able to hold reams of paper, navigate a helium balloon through a maze by using wind currents and racing cars build from old CD's and rubber bands. Our students were randomly placed on teams with many other schools to test not only their creativity and engineering skills but also to measure their ability to confront a problem and solve it with a group of unfamiliar team mates.
Congratulations to Joey Kretz who was a member of the First Place and received a $25 gift certificate to Best Buy and a trophy. Members of the 2nd and 3rd place teams respectively, Jimmy Hurley and Ryley Tarasi also were awarded prizes. All the students participating got tee shirts, back packs filled with a water bottle, frisbee, pencils and a ticket to the Carnegie Science Center. Everyone was a winner who participated in this exceptional program.
St. Philip students had the opportunity to experience the best that Jazz has to offer when Jazz greats from the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild put on a performance for grades K-8. Sponsored by UPMC Children’s Health Services, the assembly taught the students about the origins of Jazz and the instruments and musical components that combine to create this original American art form. After being introduced to the musicians and their instruments, the children were surprised to hear a rendition of the Flintstone’s theme song
That is actually a Jazz composition and were engaged in creating rhythms and beats that come from countries such as Brazil and the Caribbean. The K-8 assembly also saw a demonstration of the Samba and were thrilled when SPS music teacher Dan Miller sat in with the group at Bass Guitar with their rendition of Take the “A” Train. The school’s percussion players were called up to play South American percussion instruments and everyone joined in the singing of a Jazz rendition of the ABC Song. Special thanks to Carol Ashby for bringing wonderful enrichment programs to SPS throughout the year and especially for this program which showcased her very talented family!
Mrs. Petersen's 7th grade religion class has been studying about the proclamation of the kingdom of God and decided to look for it in a most unusual place. They took daily newspapers and searched for examples of people who are spreading the kingdom daily through their good deeds and actions. The students were amazed at how many "apostles" there are working to proclaim the "good news" in the news.
We all know that Mrs. Petersen is into recycling and today's lesson really proves it. Yesterday's clam dissection project is now today's clam chowder. The 7th graders enjoyed both the science lab and the cooking lesson. Wonder if Mrs. Petersen will show up on Chopped?
Congratulations to our St. Philip Alumni who have been nominated for Best Actor and Best Actress in the Gene Kelly Awards for High School Musicals:
BEST ACTOR
• Zander Lyons, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, Seymour in "Little Shop of Horrors"
BEST ACTRESS
• Adrianne Knapp, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, Audrey in "Little Shop of Horrors"
Congratulations also to the Casts and Crews of both Bishop Canevin and Our Lady of the Sacred Heart for the following group nominations in their respective categories:
OLSH and Canevin- BEST MUSICAL, BEST SCENIC DESIGN, BEST COSTUME DESIGN
And to OLSH for BEST LIGHTING DESIGN and Canevin for BEST CREW/TECHNICAL EXECUTION.
Even though it's May, Mrs. Petersen's science classes are still going strong. This week they dissected clams and learned not only about the mollusk up close but also how to use scientific procedures.
