MAY 2016 TIGER TIMES Nut Swamp has been the best elementary school anyone could have, but now I must leave it behind. Now that my fifth grade year is close to the end, I think about all the memories that have made Nut Swamp special and all the new adventures I will have at Thompson. Being a fifth grader has been amazing! Everyday is something new! I loved working on all the writing and science projects. The most amazing science project we created this year is the Solar System Project. Switching classes is difficult, but I adjusted to it. The fifth grade trips were so much fun! We even got to go to New York for two trips, Ellis Island and the Museum of Natural History. BY CHRISTIAN C., GRADE 5 MRS. FERRARI FIFTH GRADE FAREWELL FEATURED ARTIST: BY JAYDEN S., GRADE 1, MRS. BREWER Even though Nut Swamp has been a great home-away-from- home, I am so excited to go to middle school because we can be more independent and switch classes every period of the day! Also, we will have more variety of classes. The thought of leaving Nut Swamp is sad. I am going to miss all the fun events like: Normandy Park Day, Fun Day, Math Olympics, assemblies, Project Pride, and all the holiday parties. I am so thankful for all the teachers who have given me memories over the years at Nut Swamp and have taught me all the skills I need for middle school. Farewell, Nut Swamp!
Transcript
MAY 2016
TIGER TIMES
Nut Swamp has been the best elementary school anyone could have, but now I must leave it behind. Now that my fifth grade year is close to the end, I think about all the memories that have made Nut Swamp special and all the new adventures I will have at Thompson.
Being a fifth grader has been amazing! Everyday is something new! I loved working on all the writing and science projects. The most amazing science project we created this year is the Solar System Project. Switching classes is difficult, but I adjusted to it. The fifth grade trips were so much fun! We even got to go to New York for two trips, Ellis Island and the Museum of Natural History.
BY CHRISTIAN C., GRADE 5MRS. FERRARI
FIFTH GRADE FAREWELL
FEATURED ARTIST:BY JAYDEN S., GRADE 1, MRS. BREWER
Even though Nut Swamp has been a great home-away-from- home, I am so excited to go to middle school because we can be more independent and switch classes every period of the day! Also, we will have more variety of classes. The thought of leaving Nut Swamp is sad. I am going to miss all the fun events like: Normandy Park Day, Fun Day, Math Olympics, assemblies, Project Pride, and all the holiday parties.
I am so thankful for all the teachers who have given me memories over the years at Nut Swamp and have taught me all the skills I need for middle school. Farewell, Nut Swamp!
SCIENCE: Makers Club @ Bell Labs
On Sunday May 14th, I went to the Makers Club at the Old Bell Labs building in Holmdel with my family. There were different booths with different S.T.E.A.M projects to try (S.T.E.A.M. stands for science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics).
The building was very big. It was built in 1959 by a famous architect called Eero Saarinen. The building looked like the biggest mirror I ever saw. I learned that in this place scientists won 8 Nobel Prizes for their work. On the main floor were all the activities that kids could try. I tried the egg drop, tower building with popsicle sticks, building a dinosaur, drawing, and Jeopardy. There were drones and robot droids there too.
One activity I did was the egg parachute drop. The goal of the drop was to not break your egg. First I put the egg in
BY PATRICK D., GRADE 1, MRS. CARUSO
a bag. Then you could put different materials around the bag to protect the egg. Next you put the egg into the box and gave it to the man. He dropped the egg from the second floor to the first. My egg broke, but lots of eggs made it.
Playing Jeopardy was my favorite part because I liked getting some of the answers right. I competed against two other kids. Whoever hit the button first got to try to answer the question. If you answered right you would get a point, and if you were wrong you would lose a point. The questions were about animals, geography, science, and math. I learned that a mother elephant is called a cow. In the end we all got chocolate for playing.
I thought Bell Labs was cool and so was the Makers Club and I’m glad and learned some new things. If you are interested in the Makers Club check it out on the web at http://building-steam.org.
BY MAYA F., GRADE 3, MRS. ANTONUCCI
KID’S OPINION:The King of the Jungle
Tigers are the largest cats in the world, but they are not meant to be pets. Tigers are powerful carnivores who hunt with their sharp teeth. Today there are 5 subspecies of tiger: Bengal, South China, Indochinese, Sumatran, and the largest of all, Siberian Tiger. Every tiger in the world is unique. No two tigers have the same pattern of stripes. They are great swimmers and often cool off in the water. They are beautiful and dangerous, but can you imagine a world without tigers? It is possible. Unfortunately, they are an endangered species.
Tigers have walked the Earth for a long time. Fossil remains of tigers found in parts of China are believed to be 2 million years old. Less than 100 years ago, tigers could be found throughout Asia, but today only 3 to 4 thousand tigers remain on Earth.
Tigers hunt for their food, but they are also hunted by humans for their valuable fur. Another reason why tigers are disappearing is that their habitat is being destroyed. They need a lot of land to live. As people cut down forests
for cities and farms, tigers have less amount of land to make their homes. Also, whenever a hungry tiger gets too close to the villages, sadly, it can be killed.
Fortunately, people are working hard to protect tigers from extinction. Saving tigers from poachers and teaching people how to avoid conflicts with these wild cats are all good ways to help them survive. There are many very helpful organizations working to save endangered tigers. You can find the list of them at this website: http://www.tigersincrisis.com/the_tigers.htm.
We need to do all we can to save this true King of the Jungle!
Mrs. Wilson is an awesome teacher! For those of you who haven’t had the privilege of having her, unfortunately you will not get to do so because this is her last year at Nut Swamp. If you have or had her you are very lucky, she is so smart and a very nice teacher.
Q: How many years have you been teaching? All at Nut Swamp?A: I started teaching at Nut Swamp in 1972. 44 years. 33 years in first grade, 8 years in third grade, and 3 years in fourth grade. My first classroom was in the library.
Q: What is your favorite subject?A: Math is my favorite subject, and math is also my favorite subject to teach.
Q: Why do you like teaching?A: I like teaching because I like seeing children succeed, and it gives me joy and satisfaction seeing them grow over the 9-10 months..
Q: Who inspired you to teach?A: My high school Spanish teacher. They had something called “teacher of the day” and in Spanish I got to be the teacher of the day.
Q: What do you do in your free time?A: I like to crochet, garden, play golf, go to the gym, and watch and play with my granddaughters.
Q: What is one of your favorite memories as a child?A: Every Sunday in the summer we would make a trip to Sea Bright beach. It took an hour to get there. We would bring fried chicken, potato salad, and other special treats.
TEACHER FEATURE:Mrs. WilsonBY SOPHIA L., GRADE 4MRS. WILSON
FEATURED ARTIST:BY CHARLOTTE V.GRADE 2MRS. BREWER
Q: What was a funny event that happened while you were teaching?A: We were painting in first grade, and I had black paint and went to shake it and the top was not on. The little girl next to me got paint in her hair, on her face, and all over her clothing.
Q: What do you plan to do when you retire?A: Take a photography course, travel (we’re going on a river cruise in September), take golf lessons. I want to volunteer in a food kitchen, and babysit my granddaughters.
I am going to miss coming to school and seeing all the boys and girls, their happy faces and the stories they share because I have been coming to school every September since I was 5 years old.
BOOK NOOK
BY MIRANDA B.GRADE 4,MRS. WILSON
Circus Mirandus was amazing, awesome, mysterious, fun, funny, and magical! Circus Mirandus is a book about a magical circus and a boy named Micah. Micah’s grandfather used to go to Circus Mirandus when he was a little boy. “The Man Who Bends Light” (or the Lightbender) gave Micah’s grandfather a miracle. Micah thought it was to save his grandfather’s life, but it actually was for Micah to save his own life. Micah’s parents died when he was very young. Micah lived with his grandpa, Ephraim Tuttle, until Micah’s grandpa got sick. Micah hates Grandpa Ephraim’s sister, Gertrudis Tuttle. She is Micah’s great aunt. Micah’s grandfather did get
married to the Amazing Bird Woman, Victoria Starling. The Amazing Bird Woman worked at Circus Mirandus and then quit because she was tired of making kids happy. Micah goes to Circus Mirandus a lot in the book. He even goes with his friend, Jenny. Mr. Head (Mirandus Head) is in charge of the Circus Mirandus. At the end of the book, Aunt Gertrudis and Micah move to Arizona. Then they get stuck in traffic, and there is a huge crack in the road which makes a hole. Micah then hears music and thinks Circus Mirandus is on the other side. So he jumps off the cliff, and the Lightbender saves his life. Micah moves into Circus Mirandus, and the Lightbender trains Micah to do magic.
Circus Mirandus is a new book and was published in 2015. It is a 292 page hardcover book with some pictures. It was written by Cassie Beasley and can be found at Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and the library.
Last year, there was one match up everyone was excited to see in the Giants-Panthers game. Odell Beckham Jr. (OBJ), the Giant’s second year wide receiver who had taken the league by storm and has been shattering records left and right since his first NFL snap, was taking on Josh Norman, the Panther’s cornerback who was having a breakout season after years of being an unknown since he was drafted in the 5th round back in 2012. For those in attendance, they thought it would be a wide receiver vs. cornerback match up comparable to Darrell Revis vs. Calvin Johnson or Deion Sandervs. Jerry Rice. What they got, however, looked a lot more like Mike Tyson vs. Evander Holyfield.
There was shoving. There was punching. There was pushing. There was kicking. Even the refs were too shocked to do anything about it, so it got even worse every single snap. By the time was off, the damage was already done. Even though neither one got hurt, they both damaged each others spotless reputations. Even after the game, the two got into seemingly endless fights on Twitter. The only upside to everything was that they probably wouldn’t be seeing much of each other on the field again. Boy, were we wrong.
In one of the weirder moves of the offseason, the Panthers backed out of their deal with Josh Norman. Every
team in the NFL (including the Giants) went into a frenzy trying to find the cap room to sign him. In the end, the ‘lucky’ team was the Washington Redskins, who share the Giant’s division, the NFC East. That means Odell Beckham and Josh Norman will be playing each other twice a year, every year. Hopefully, they’ve already vented out their anger towards each other and it’s just a normal game. However, that remains to be seen.The good news is, my older brother is going to college in Washington DC and he promised to take me to the Giants-Redskins game next year! Go Giants!
The paperback version does not come out until August 16, 2016. I hope you liked my little summary of Circus Mirandus. If you want, you can go and read it for yourself!
