How Do Students Feel About Spirit Wear?
Over the past two years, Silvia students have been wearing spirit wear to school. We were wondering what students’ opinions are about spirit wear. So we asked some students and school staff questions, and here is what we got.
A question we asked students was, “How can you still be individual even though we all wear the same clothes?”
Kylee: “I wear my headband that has princesses on it every day.”
Raistlyn: “You can be an individual by being nice to people.”
Samantha: “I don’t think you can be an individual.”
We asked another question, “Do you like spirit wear colors?”
Abigail: “No, I want the colors to be pink, purple, and red.”
Alyssa: “Yes, I like the colors but if I changed it, I would want it purple, rainbow, and red.”
We also asked, “Does spirit wear make it easier to pick out your clothes? If so, why and how?”
Zachary: “Yes, because you grab your clothes in the morning without worrying to match your clothes.”
We asked this question to Mrs. Ward, “Why do we have royal blue, kelly green, and white for spirit wear colors?”
Mrs. Ward: “Because the building has all of these colors, the walls, the doorways, and the floor tiles.”
The last question we asked students was, “Do you like spirit wear and why?”
Nicholas: “No, because you can’t express yourself with spirit wear.”
Jordan: “Yes, because kids can’t pick on you.”
Mrs. Lund: “Yes, I think everybody looks neat and in order.”
Now you know how students really feel about spirit wear, some of them don’t like it, but some of them do. How do you feel about spirit wear?
By: Kaitlyn Diaz and Alexia Paiva
Ideas on How to Stop Bullying
Bullying is a terrible thing. Why people do it, I don’t know. People experience it everyday, and it’s happening to many people. People have rights, and when their rights are violated that’s when bullying occurs.
There are many reasons why people get bullied. Bullies might feel bad about themselves or even jealous. But we all know how it feels. Bullying happens through all grades. Even 2008’s Miss America was bullied as a kid.
I was wondering what other kids in this school thought about bullying. These are some of the things I asked them. “Have you ever been bullied? Have you ever been a bully? Do you know what bullying is? How would you try to stop bullying?”
I asked Brittany in fifth grade if she had ever been bullied, and if so, about what? She said, “Yes, people have excluded me, and it’s not fun.”
Then I asked Lita and Shelby what they thought about bullying, they both agreed, “Bullying is hurting people in any way.”
Then I asked Dr. Costar, my grandfather, a few questions as well. My grandpa wrote the old bullying policy a few years ago, and we all followed it. “What did you say in your policy?”
He replied, “Well, first of all, I said we all have to work together to find the bully. Everyone has a part, the students have to look out for bullies and report them if caught. Teachers have to basically “hunt” for the bully, and the parents must find out if their child is either being bullied or being the bully, or just a bystander. If someone isn’t doing their part, then the bully might not be stopped.”
Here’s what Mrs. W, our guidance counselor said about it…
Q: “What strategies do you have for bullying?”
A: “Well, it depends on the type of bullying. But in most cases always tell a trusted adult!”
Q “How do you prevent bullying?”
A: “Bullying is prevented by educating the whole child. Education isn’t all about books and pencils, everyone needs to get along with each other to make it in the real world, no matter how smart you are, if you’re a bully you’re a loser!”
Even though I still don’t know why the bullies do it, you now have some schema on how to stop or prevent bullies!
By: Jillian McRoy J
Feature Teacher
Ms. Zinno is this issues’ Feature Teacher. Ms. Zinno was born in Providence, Rhode Island in July, 1974. She got her job here in October, 2009.
Her job in school is to co- teach Ms. Marchand’s 5th grade class. The job she had before was working as a Head Start teacher.
Ms. Zinno has a son named Brian and a cat named Rascal. Ms. Zinno says she likes cats because they’re feisty.
She attended a few different elementary schools, Riverside Middle School, East Providence High School, and Rhode Island College and Simmons College.
Ms. Zinno’s nationalities are Italian, French, and Irish. Ms. Zinno’s hobbies are watching movies and relaxing. Ms. Zinno is a nice, considerate teacher and if you meet her you will probably think the same thing.
By: Jayden Pimentel and
Hunter Oliveira
Silvia Star Student
In the Silvia School there are many Star Students. This issue’s star student is Christian Rodrigues.
Q. “Now how did you get to be star student, was it your behavior?”
A. “It was my behavior and how my grades were that led me to this success,” says Christian.
Q. “Are you glad to be a star student?”
A. “I am glad to be a star student because I am noticed more.”
Q. “What makes you want to be a star student?”
A. “What makes me want to be star student is the respect I get.”
Q. “What tip would you give to a student to be a star student?”
A. “Do our Silvia pledge and get good grades.”
By David Ferreira
Mystery Dog
I’m thinking of a dog. It is the smallest breed of dogs. It weighs between 3 and 7 pounds. There are two kinds of hair, long and short. They have an apple shaped head and they originally came from Mexico. They love the heat. When this dog is born it is described as tea cup size. This dog is not hard to love.
Go to page 8 for the answer!
By: Jayden Pimentel
W.G.O.G.
(What’s Going on Group)
We are the W.G.O.G. here to tell you what goes on around the school for enrichment. In Knitting 101 run by Ms. Sowersby, we interviewed students and asked them questions about what they thought.
Some questions we asked were:
Q: “Who does more work you or the teacher?”
A: Andrew, Daviana, and Kaytlin all answered that all of the work is done in equal amounts.
Q: “Would you recommend this enrichment to your friends?”
A: Again, all of them answered the same thing, “yes”. Someone said, “I would, because I enjoy it and you get to relax and and have fun with your friends. You get to talk about anything.”
Q: “Why did you choose this enrichment?”
A: Andrew said, “Because my grandmother taught me how to knit.”
Kaytlin said, “Because I chose it last year and I really liked it.”
Daviana answered, “I thought it looked like fun so I picked it.”
In Crafty Creatures, run by Mrs. Cote, students read books and after that they do projects on what they read. Here are some comments that kids said about their enrichment.
Zachary said, “My entire family loves art so it is fun for me to go home and tell my family what I made or did.”
Aryanna said, “I enjoy it because crafts are fun and creative.”
Hannah thought the same. Crafty creatures seems like fun. You should try it.
We are the W.G.O.G. and this is what kids are doing!
Reported By: Joseph Camara and Matthew Saunders
What are the Two
Mystery Words?
To find out what all students at Silvia school are, fill in the missing letter in each word.
Cla sroom
Amer ca
Scho astic
anish
Un ted
Re d
State
Massachuse ts
Tod y
Wo l d
Answer on page: 9
By: Amaya Travassos and
MaKayla Hardy
How “Good” Are You?
Have you ever wondered how good or well behaved you are in school? If you listened, didn’t talk, all of that? Well, I read Teach Like Your Hair Is On Fire by Rafe Esquith, a teacher himself, and he talks about these six levels of moral development.
The higher the level, the better it is. You want to be a level 6, and maintain that spot for the rest of your life because these are the people that do things because it is the right thing to do. These levels will tell you how kids act and why they do act that certain way.
Six Levels of Moral Development:
Level 1: I don’t want to get in trouble.
Level 2: I want a reward.
Level 3: I want to please somebody.
Level 4: I follow the rules.
Level 5: I am considerate of others.
Level 6: I have a personal code of behavior and I follow it.
Level 6 is the highest point you can reach. As I said before, a person who acts this way does it because it is right. One example of a student acting this way was in the book. The teacher, Mr. Esquith, had not been in school one day because of a meeting. When he came back, a mother and her first grader were looking for a student that had helped the little boy the day before.
The book explained how the first grader was robbed by some kids. Other kids were watching and none of them helped the boy, except one. The child helped the boy wash off his face and walked him home to make sure he was safe. The teacher asked the class if any one of them was involved and no one knew anything about it.
The mom left and everyone in the class started talking about who might have been the bully, except one girl. She continued working on math, but Mr. Esquith knew she didn’t like math at all. This is when he realized that this was the student who helped the first grader.
After reading all this, I wanted to know how kids at Silvia acted. I asked some kids questions about behavior. My questions were: “Do you act different when there is a substitute in the room?” “Do you behave right overall, why or why not?” Finally, “Do you act this way for a certain reason?”
I took the information and decided what level they ranked at. After I interviewed some children attending Silvia School, half of the children were a level 1 and 3 more were a level 3.
I hope that Silvia School students will strive to be a level 6 by the end of the school year, and maintain that for the rest of their lives.
Reported by: Harley Grover
Citizenship Award
The Citizenship Award is so important because you get noticed for what you’re doing. You also get to meet Mayor Flanagan. We have interviewed the first three winners; Makayla Hubbard, Jordyn Conklin and Casey Brown. We asked them questions like how they felt when they got picked.
They all said that they were very happy to be chosen. We asked each of them what it takes to get the award. Basically, they agreed that you always have to be at your best. Did they feel like awesome kids? They sure did!
What they liked best about this award was when they met Mayor Flanagan. Casey added, “It was when I got the white folder with the signature.”
Also, we asked Mrs. Ward a few questions, like what the citizenship award is all about. She said that it’s to promote a positive student population. A student receives the award for going beyond to help others.
As part of the award, she said they get to announce the Pledge of Allegiance and the Silvia Creed on the intercom. They also get to use her special chair!
What special kids they are to be in this school!
By: Caitlin Raposo and
Hunter Cooper
Genre of the Month Presentations
This year we have seen many great presentations at the Student of the Month assemblies for the Genre of the Month. At the start of the year, each grade level is given a month when they will perform.
In November, the third grade presented fables. They performed a play of “The Little Red Hen”. They had some students act as instruments and another part of the third grade were hens.
In December, the preschool performed a play of “Goldilocks and the Three Bears”. The genre of the month was fairy tales.
In January, Mrs. Carvalho’s class presented multi-cultural holidays. One holiday they presented was Chinese New Year. This group of kids did a traditional Chinese New Year dinner.
This month’s presentation was about poetry. The kindergarten presented this. One thing they did was a poem about lambs and lions. The other poem they presented was about leprechauns and St. Patrick’s Day.
By: Owen Norton and
Matthew Saunders
Celtics Review
A lot of people in the state of Massachusetts are big fans of the Boston Celtics. We went around the school and asked kids questions about their opinion of the Celtics.
The questions were:
What do you think about the Celtics?
Who is you favorite player?
What is your favorite position?
Would you trade a player?
How would you feel about being on the Celtics?
Zachary in fourth grade said that his favorite position was point guard. He said that his favorite player was Rajon Rondo. Zachary said he wouldn’t trade a player because we have the best players. He would love to be on the team because it’s his favorite team.
Abigail in fifth grade said that her favorite position is point guard. Paul Pierce is Abigail’s favorite player. She said she wouldn’t trade anyone because they already won seventeen championships and we’re going to get 18. Abigail really likes basketball and likes the team. It would be an honor for her to be on the team.