5TH GRADE VOICE OCTOBER 2012
WASHINGTON SCHOOLMRS. ROSSI’S CLASS NEWSPAPER
We, the students of Mrs. Rossi’s fifth grade class hereby resolve to bring Language Arts to new heights. We are dedicated to developing reading, writing, listening, speaking, and thinking skills. Our mission is to inform, persuade, and entertain readers.
We reserve the right to make mistakes because they are a part of our learning process. We welcome your feedback. Please feel free to write to us through .
Room Divides While Kindergarteners Multiply
By John Bang
You may have already noticed that the large kindergarten room across the library has now been split into two rooms. This is because Washington School was flooded with new kindergarten students. The number of kindergarteners have multiplied!
Ms. Baker has been hired to be the new kindergarten teacher for the new class. Washington School is thrilled that there are so many new students in school!
IN THIS ISSUE:
INTERVIEWS WITH NEW TEACHERS
NEW STUDENTS IN 5TH GRADE
A CONVERSATION WITH MR. JONES
The PTO Fall Festival
By: Chase Nicolette and Isabel Walrath
If you were not at the PTO Fall Festival, you missed a lot of fun. The sun was shining it was a perfect day to be outside.
Mr. Jones was in the dunk tank, and all the kids there wanted to dunk him. If one of the kids dunked him, they got a coupon for a free book at the scholastic book fair. Mr. Jones spent a lot of time in the water. Even a kindergartener dunked him.
There were a lot of rides at the festival too. Most of rides were different kinds of bouncy houses, but there was one ride that drove around the baseball diamond.
The DJ had great music, and a hula-hoop contest. He let the kids sing into the microphone. There was also a magic show. Where the magician let kids come up and help with an act.
Page 2 Fall Festival continued
There was no reason to be hungry because there was a lot of food. For desert there was cotton candy, snow cones, zeppoles, funnel cake, and Fried Oreos. For dinner there was chicken, fries, cheese steak, and sausage.
The PTO Fall Festival was a huge success. We can’t wait until we can go back next year. Thanks to the PTO for making it possible!
Mr. Jones, The Amazing Principal
By: Gianna Sanchez and Amanda Sullivan
One of the 5th grade students reported to us that during this year’s fall festival, he witnessed a kindergarten student throw a ball at a target which caused our principal, Mr. Jones to fall into a giant tank of cold water. Did we mention he was wearing a suit? Why did this happen? We read about this kind of scene in books but never imagined that we would actually see our principal be dunked! This was one of the questions we asked Mr. Jones during a recent interview.
It turns out that Mr. Jones agreed to be dunked at the fall festival because he wanted to promote reading every day. Children, who knocked him down, won a free book from the bookstore.
When we asked Mr. Jones why he likes being a principal, his reply was “it’s exciting, challenging, and fun more so than ever before.” He wanted to become a principal because he would be able to impact more students.
We learned that Mr. Jones was born and raised in Providence Rhode Island. Before he was a principal, he was a 5th and 6th grade teacher and he also taught media science.
When he is not in school, he likes to read, read, and read some more!
His favorite player from the Jets team is Thomas Jones #20. His favorite color is purple.
His advise to students is to “read everyday”!
It was a great opportunity to be able to interview Mr. Jones. We would describe him as friendly, kind, and funny!
Ms. Baker Becomes The New Kindergarten Teacher.
By: Chase Nicolette and Isabel Walrath
Ms. Baker was a substitute teacher here at our school, but now she is the new kindergarten teacher, so we decided to ask her a few questions.
We asked her what she likes about teaching kindergarten. She answered, “I think the kids are all very special,” she said, “they all have their own way of learning and growing, and that’s what makes our classroom a special place.”
We also asked her what challenges she faces when she teaches. She answered, “Trying my best everyday to fulfill the needs of all of my students.”
Ms Baker describes herself as: funny, caring, and honest.
Page 3 Ms. Baker continued
When Ms. Baker is not teaching, she likes to surf and go on tropical vacations. She grew up in Nutley, NJ. Finally, we asked her what pets she has. She said she has 2 yellow labs, named Molly and Madison.
We were very happy that Ms. Baker was able to take time out of her busy schedule to do the interview with us. We wish her good luck!
Substitute Miss Gegre Turns into Full Time Teacher
By Kailyn Leibowitz
And Julia Thompson
We have interviewed Miss Gegre, the new third grade teacher at Washington School. Miss Gegre is an exciting person. She has been substitute teaching our school since February 2009. Miss Gegre loves teaching third grade because it is her favorite grade to teach.
She grew up in Clifton NJ. Miss Gegre has a younger brother named Ozcan, who is currently 24 years old.
Miss Gegre’s favorite hobbies are baking, reading, and shopping. Miss Gegre describes herself as kind, caring, and funny.
We enjoyed interviewing Ms. Gegre. we wish her much luck and success with her first year of teaching third grade.
Meet Our Student Teacher : Ms. Rakib
By: Shannon Granelli and Kailyn Leibowitz
Miss Rakib is Mrs. Rossi’s current student teacher. However, she is more commonly referred to as Miss R.
She lives in Maplewood with her mother, father younger brother, Aaron, and her three cats: Cleo, Delilah,
and Bella..
Miss R. wants to teach Kindergarten. She would also like to teach first grade. Miss R. started Graduate School this summer and will finish in May of 2013.
Her favorite genres of books are non-fiction, mystery, science fiction, and romance. Her favorite food is pizza, and she really likes the color blue. Her favorite football team is the Jets. Spongebob Squarepants is a show that Miss R. enjoys watching!
This summer she vacationed
in Europe. Her favorite places that she visited were Florence, Italy, Amsterdam, Netherlands, and Venice, Italy. When she was in Rome, Italy, she saw the Colosseum!
Miss R. is a great student teacher. She’ll be an even better teacher!
Welcome Mr. Weiss
By Amanda S. and Jack C.
Mr.Weiss is a new teacher at Washington School but he is not new to teaching in Nutley! He is presently teaching 4th grade. We were happy to have a chance to interview him.
He grew up in Philadelphia. He went to Temple University for college, and Montclair State for a Masters Degree.
When we asked about Mr.Weiss’s thoughts on teaching he commented” It’s very challenging but also very rewarding. He thinks teaching is a great job.
Page 4 Mr. Weiss continued
His favorite book is A Confederacy of Dunces. His hobbies are running, cycling, gardening, and napping.
We wish Mr. Weiss good luck! We thank him for taking time to speak with us!
An Interview With Alexis Gomez
By: Nadine Ahmad and Julia Thompson
We have interviewed Alexis Gomez and discovered a lot of things about her. Alexis was born on May 6, 2002 .When Alexis came to Washington school, she felt good but a little nervous. This was because she did not know anyone and she did not know what to do. Alexis likes Washington school because she has made a lot of new friends.
Before Alexis came to Washington school she went to Saint Brandon. She has a younger brother named Myles who is currently in first grade at Washington school.
Alexis’ favorite sport is softball because she is really good at it and she has been playing it for 3 years. Alexis’ favorite book is The Boy On Sammy Street because she thought it was interesting. When she’s not in school you can find her playing outside. .
Alexis was a really interesting person to interview.
ALINA ACROSS THE WORLD!
By Christian Gonzalez and Shannon Granelli
Imagine yourself moving to a new country not knowing what school would be like, not knowing anyone but you and your family. This is what happened to our classmate Alina. Alina is a 10-year old girl. She moved here from Russia. She said when she first moved here she was very excited and interested. She especially liked the skyscrapers.
We decided to interview her because of her extraordinary experience of moving here from across the world!
In Russia, Alina learned some English like we learn Italian or Spanish in school. Alina thought I was hard learning English. She said, in her personal opinion, learning Math and Health was more amusing.
During the summer, she went to the beach. She claimed a 5-inch shell and saw a crab! She also enjoyed watching Iron Man and eating hamburgers. Her hobbies include drawing and playing the cello. Alina is so talented at playing the cello that she performed with the high school last year!
Alina is a very generous girl. She bought her brother an IPod touch with her own money!
Alina was a pleasure to interview. We wouldn’t want to know what Washington school would be like without her.
We Welcome Jose to 5th Grade
By Jayden Tolentino and Matej Kalocai
We interviewed new student, Jose Alomar. Jose moved to Nutley from Puerto Rico. (Puerto Rico is between The Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean).
We asked him about his favorite restaurant and his favorite desert. He told us his favorite restaurant is Outback and his favorite desert is chocolate cake.
Although Jose has no siblings, he has a dog-named Bousi. His favorite thing to do when he is not in school is play video games and sports. Jose enjoys playing football.
We hope Jose has a happy and successful school year!
Science is Spectacular!
By Amanda Sullivan
Mrs. Beckmeyer’s 5th grade science class is really fun. She teaches us a lot. We learned about the six kingdoms, plant and animal cells, and vascular plants. Vascular plants have tubes that carry food and water. We recently did an experiment with celery and food coloring!
Mrs. Beckmeyer makes science fun. We are lucky to have her as our science teacher.
Health is Helpful
By Christian Gonzalez
Can you imagine having to line up in birthday order with your whole class without talking or writing? Mrs. Boyce, our health teacher does fun activities with us like this one. So far, she taught us about communication, good character, and handling stress.
She paired us up back to back. Then, she drew a picture on the board. The children who faced the picture had to describe what the picture was so their partner could draw it. This taught us about the challenge of communication.
We look forward to our health classes.
Newspaper Staff:
Nadine
John
Jack
Christian
Shannon
Kailyn
Matej
Chase
John Anthony
Gianna
Amanda
Julia
Jayden
Isabel