Upcoming Events

Friday, November 6 @ 2 PM
Sol Rosenkranz, a speaker from the Museum of Jewish Heritage will be speaking to our students about his experiences during World War II. Mr. Rosenkranz was transported to six different concentration camps, including Buchenwald (where Elie Wiesel was also held) and Terezin. His will bring unique insight to our students as they continue to study the events of World War II in Europe. Parents may want to attend this as well and are warmly invited to come.

Tuesday, November 16
Both Seventh and Eighth grade students will be presenting their visual arts exhibitions. A specific schedule will be coming very soon. Parents are strongly encouraged to attend exhibitions.

Museum of Jewish Heritage Field Trip

Though it was rainy and wet the middle school students ventured out to NYC to visit the Museum of Jewish Heritage.  I was with the 7th graders as they followed our guide Chuck for about an hour and a half through the museum.  We learned about the heritage of the Jewish people, the tragedy of the Holocaust as well as some modern day atrocities in Africa.  Please ask your students about their experience, they were all very attentive and learned a lot.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Thursday, October 22 @ 2 PM: 
Maximillian Lerner, a guest speaker from the Museum of Jewish Heritage, will be speaking to our students about his experiences in World War II. As a World War II veteran, a former member of the Office of Strategic Services and the British counter intelligence, he brings a unique insight to our studies of World War II. (Parents who can come may want to sit in! You are very welcome to do so.)

Thursday & Friday, October 22 - 23
Parent Conferences take place as scheduled. There are no scheduled classes on Friday, October 23, but 8th graders do attend conferences with their parents.

Wednesday, October 28
Students in grades 6-8 will be visiting the Museum of Jewish Heritage. At this time, our students are examining the impact of World War II and the Nazi genocide on Jewish lives and communities in Europe. At the museum, our students will especially explore issues of continuity of cultural identity, responsibility to community, and decision-making. This program, Meeting Hate with Humanity, also includes an investigation of the ways in which individuals and nations responded, as well as key events of the period.For the trip, students will be traveling by ferry and by walking (a few blocks). It is an easy commute, but students will need a jacket and a paper bag lunch.

Friday, November 6 @ 2 PM
Sol Rosenkranz, a speaker from the Museum of Jewish Heritage will be speaking to our students about his experiences during World War II. Mr. Rosenkranz was transported to six different concenrations camps, including Buchenwald (where Elie Wiesel was also held) and Terezin. His will bring unique insight to our students as they continue to study the events of World War II in Europe. Parents may want to attend this as well and are warmly invited to come. 

Photos from Spruce Lake

7th Grade Hopes and Dreams

For Myself

I hope to be independent.
I hope to progress through both high school and college successfully.
I dream of traveling
I hope to become a soccer player.
I hope to go to a good college.
I hope to become a veterinarian.
I hope to become one of the greatest doctors in the country.
I dream of becoming an aeronautical engineer.
I hope to become an athlete.
I hope to open up an animal shelter.

For the World

I dream that everyone would love each other and all of us will be one family.
I hope the amount of pollution in the world would abate.
I hope for world peace.
I hope war will cease to exist.
I dream of hunger ending.
I hope the number of Christians increase.
I dream of poverty ending.

Review of Virtual War by JN

Virtual War is an action-packed novel based in a Sci-Fi world of 2080. By this time, a virus had eliminated the majority of the human population. To avoid further contamination, the remaining people form sterilized domed cities to live in. But when uncontaminated land is found on the Earth, a computer generated war is put into place to settle a dispute between the three major cities about who's property the land is. So, within the restraints of their domed cities, the advanced genetic technology produce many mutants, or failed "humans", and two successes. These major early successes, Corgan and Sharla, become a team's Leader and Cryptanalyst. One of the mutants was not a total failure- he is a prodigy named Brig. He becomes the team's Strategist. After the team undergoes intense practice, they are ready to participate in the war. With the team assembled, will they succeed in the Virtual War?
I would recommend this book to others because of three main reasons. These major reasons are what you look for in a book to evaluate it. One, well developed characters, two, a strong storyline, and three creative writing and vocabulary.

Feathers Review by JN

Feathers

This third book card is written about the required book, Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson. Feathers is about a girl named Frannie who goes to Price Public School in the 70's. The whole school is African- American but segregation in the previous years is over. The school stays that way until a white boy, nicknamed "Jesus", walks in and joins Frannie's class. When Frannie and her deaf brother, Sean, meet the Jesus Boy they aren't sure how to handle the situation. Gradually, Frannie decides to try to know the Jesus Boy better and realizes that he is no different than herself. Through this process, she discovers the meaning of a poem that her school was talking about.
Hope is the thing with feathers...
I don't think I would recommend this book to others. I felt that at the end of the book too many loose ends weren't tied together. I think the book would be stronger if it weren't written from the perspective of Frannie. I think if it weren't written from her perspective, it might have given Frannie's character more depth and personality.