Cub Chronicles, April, 2011

Volume I Issue 4 2010-2011 Lower School

Building Community

Newspaper Staff

Cub Chronicles

Mikhaila Archer Adriana Arias Emma Butler Emma Cooney Caroline Featherston Patricia Gerli Maggie Hall Catherine Hamilton Isabella Hamilton Riley Hicks Camila Hirani Brooke Lange Clare Maleeny Sara Micciulli Margo Muccia Grace Mullen Emma O’Connor Anna O’Malley Lorraine Rinaldi Georgia Ryan Natalie Sanchez Katherine Santoro Isabella Santucci

Japan Earthquake and Tsunami

By Belli Santucci and Riley Hicks Recently on March 11, 2011, there were an earthquake and tsunami in Japan. First we will tell you about the earthquake. It occurred at 2:46 pm (Japan time). It was calculated to be a 9.0 earthquake. The earthquake was the most powerful quake to hit yet!

In Japan it lasted about six minutes, and caused a lot of damage. More than 11,000 people died, and many people are missing. There were a lot of foreshocks and a lot of aftershocks. The quake occurred when the Pacific Plate was subducting under the plate beneath northern Honshu. Now, we’re going to talk about the tsunami in Japan.

It was rated as a “major tsunami.” The tsunami occurred around 3:00 pm (Japan time). The waves were about 30 feet tall. About one hour after the quake, the tsunami flooded the entire Sendai Airport. When the quake occurred it moved the ocean floor which caused the tsunami. Japan needs our prayers so as you are reading this article send a blessing to everyone who died, families who had losses in the earthquake, people who are injured in the hospital as we speak, and everyone who needs our help in Japan. Hope you enjoyed our article!

Dr. Ann Marr

Inside this issue: Japan Earthquake and Tsunami

Pg. 1

What Did You Do Over Spring Break?

Pg. 1

Egyptian Cobra

Pg. 1

Into the Wild Auction

Pg. 2

Future Problem Solving

Pg. 2

Interview with Mrs. Bercovici

Pg. 3

Battery Box

Pg. 3

Spring Break

Pg. 3

Fain Mail

Pg. 3

Book Fair 2011

By Anna O’Malley & Katherine Santoro

We hope you enjoyed the Family Liturgy and the Book Fair. We hope you enjoyed the 4th grade canters who did a wonderful job singing. The Book Fair was so much fun and the books were great. We hope you liked the winning book mark and the books you got.

Thank you for coming.

Into

the

Wild

Auction

By: Grace Mullen, Camila Hirani and Emma O’Connor On May 7th 2011, Convent of the Sacred Heart is having its Annual auction. This year’s theme is Into the Wild . The 4th grade is auctioning off a book of the girls’ Lower School memories . 1st grade is auctioning off Christmas tree ornaments. Also, if your family is looking for a labradoodle, the Into the Wild auction has one—all the way from Ireland . It will be a very exciting event. There will be a dinner your parents will go to, and the auction will take place at the Hyatt Regency in Greenwich . The silent auction starts at 6:30-7:30 . There will be dancing and a band . Who would ever want to miss a night like that ?

Future Problem Solving

By Mikhaila Archer Future Problem Solving (FPS) is an after –school activity that starts in 4th grade and ends in 12th. For the Junior division, this activity is held on Thursdays from 3:30 pm to 5:30 pm. We did this activity with Dr. Marr and an upper school student named Sarah Hirshorn. This year our topics were: Healthy Living, Air Transport, and Genetic Testing. We had to come up with problems and solutions for each topic. We compared each problem and solution in the form of a grid.

This grid allowed us to assign scores to each solution, allowing us to reach a final answer based on the highest score.

On our last topic, Genetic Testing, we had to do a whole packet (solutions, problems, grid, criteria, and final) in just 2 hours! Those packets were handed in to statewide judges to determine the winning group, who would go on to represent the junior division at the final competition held at the University of Connecticut during Spring Break. If your group did not make it to

the final Competition, you could choose to continue with the individual competition . Research was very important, too. We were given a packet containing articles about each topic. We had to read the required articles and take notes on what we read. FPS helped us to make new friends. The junior division is made up of 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. FPS gave us a chance to get to know each other better. We all became such close friends; we never wanted to switch teams. FPS was very exciting and fun because of our loving teammates and the challenging topics we discussed. Towards the end of the activity we did a “survey” on who we thought was our favorite teammate . This year the winner, for the whole state of Connecticut, was Ludnie Rene. We are all very proud of her.

FPS promotes teamwork. Teamwork was a very important skill in this activity; if you try to do everything yourself, nothing will get done! Dr. Marr was a great teacher, and we all look forward to participating in FPS next year.

Interview with Mrs. Bercovici Written by: Margo Muccia & Maggie Hall For this article we interviewed Mrs. Bercovici about her job here at CSH. Here are some of the questions we asked her, and the answers we got in return.

1. How long have you been working at Convent of the Sacred Heart ?

Answer: I’ve been working here for 5 years.

2. What is your favorite part of your job?

Answer: My favorite part would have to be working with students and coaching teachers.

3. What is your least favorite part of your job?

Answer: Definitely recess duty on very cold days 4. What is your favorite kind of math?

Answer: My favorite kinds of math are logic puzzles, algebra, and geometry.

Those were the questions we asked Mrs. B. We hope you liked reading a teacher’s point of view about her job, because we did!!!

What Did You Do Over Spring Break?

By Patricia Gerli and Georgia Ryan

Battery Box

By Catherine Hamilton and Clare Maleeny

Do you throw your batteries away? The Middle School girls are doing a science project and they asked the Lower School girls to help bring in dead batteries. The Middle School organized a contest and it is the B classes vs. the A classes and whatever team wins, gets CIVVIES!!!!!!!

UPDATE: the LS girls collected 2020 batteries, and we ALL get a civvies day!!

United States vs. Argentina

By Adriana Arias and Emma Butler On March 26, 2011, a soccer game was played between the US Men’s National Team and Argentina, in East Rutherford, New Jersey in the new Meadowlands Stadium. The game ended in a tie of one to one. But in the first half, the US team was behind. In the second half, the US played better, scored their first and only goal, and finished the game with a tie.

This game was one of the most crowded soccer games. 80,000 people were cheering in the new Meadowlands Stadium!

Fan Mail

Spring vacation is already over. Can you believe it?

We asked three students what they did over spring break - Natalie Sanchez, Riley Hicks, and Olivia Caponiti.

Natalie Sanchez stayed local. She visited her grandmother and her cousins. She also went and saw a broadway show in NYC. Riley went to Florida. While she was there, she swam with dolphins at Discovery Cove.

Olivia Caponiti spent part of her spring break in Washington D.C. She had a lot of fun.

We hope you had a great time over spring break.

Summer is coming soon and, before you know it, it will

Your paper only gets better! Congratulations to you and the teachers. I am impressed by many of the articles but the prize goes to Izzy Wise. I can hardly believe that she is a fourth grader. There is wisdom in “The Good Samaritan” that is rarely acquired before maturity but she is a wise young lady. Her last paragraph is masterly in being able to recognize serious outside concerns and remind all that daily behavior is an equal challenge and too easily overlooked.

Thanks for the copy.

be 2012!

Sr. Ann Conroy, rscj

The Good Samaritan

By Izzy Wise The theme of our Mass is creating a better world in 2011.

The parable of the Good Samaritan gives us clues how to do that. Jesus teaches us to love God and our neighbor as much as we love ourselves. He explains that in order to love our neighbor we need to be kind and show mercy especially to those that are suffering.

In 2011 we should all try to be Good Samaritans FIRST to each other here at school. I once heard the saying, “Charity starts at home.” I think this means that in order to make a unified and strong community, one which is better able to help the outside world, we must first be loving neighbors to each other within our own community.

Have you ever been on the playground and watched as someone is left out of a game? Have you ever been in a situation where someone comes up to a group you’re playing with on the playground and asks if she can play, and one of the girls in the group says, “No! we have too many people, already,” or “No, we want to play alone?” Have you ever watched as that girl walks away sadly with her head down and no-one does anything to include her or comfort her?

This is the time when you and I can be a Good Samaritan to this girl. Have you ever been at gym class when the gym teacher tells you to pick partners? Have you ever seen someone who continually is left out? One who never seems to quickly get picked to be a partner? Couldn’t we be a Good Samaritan by saying to this girl, “Hay, do you want to be partners with me?” Would you ever choose that girl first instead of last? Once we establish that we are Good Samaritans to each other we can more effectively work together to be Good Samaritans to the world outside our Lower School Sacred Heart community. This will help us achieve one of our five goals, goal 3, which is “social awareness which impels to action.”

For our fourth grade non-fiction reading unit I am currently reading Three Cups of Tea. This is a story about a man named Greg Mortenson who travels to Pakistan to climb the mountain K2. While there, he almost dies and wanders into a village called Korphe. The people of Korphe have very little food and material items but nevertheless they generously nurse Greg back to health. They share what little they have with him. They are Good Samaritans to Greg.

After Greg gets better he learns about the village of Korphe.

He learns that the nearest doctor is a week’s walk away. He learns that one out of every 3 children in Korphe dies of malnutrition. He also learns that the children in Korphe have no school building and scratch their multiplication tables in the dirt with sticks. Greg decides to help the people of Korphe by going back to America and raising funds to build a school in Korphe. One way Greg raises money is by going to an elementary school that starts the “Pennies for Pakistan” project. The children collect $623.45 worth of

pennies to help in building a school there.

The story of Three Cups of Tea is inspiring because it is an example of how to be a Good Samaritan in the larger world. Here at Sacred Heart in the lower school we raise money for Uganda through our Jump Rope for Uganda fundraiser. We also collect Christmas presents for needy children through Operation Christmas Child. The upper school is currently collecting toilet tree items for their annual mid-night run. One of our first graders, Rachel Pyne, is also currently collecting pens for soldiers who are based in Afghanistan because children always ask them for pens. Also, remember last year when we responded to the crisis in Haitii with donations?

In 2011 we should continue to support our existing programs to help those less fortunate, and it should be our goal to make these existing programs even stronger.

This year new needs will be uncovered and it should be our mission to recognize these needs and to develop strategies to be Good Samaritans and to make positive differences in the Wider world. I know that you will join me in supporting these projects. But will you join me in another project? The project of being a Good Samaritan right here in our Lower School; in the classroom, in the hallway, in the lunchroom, in the gym and especially on the playground? Let’s all remember that “charity starts at home.”