Page 1
Hatboro-Horsham School District
December 2012
Volume 1, Issue 3
The Simmons Star
Upcoming
Events
Winter break: De-
cember 24– January
1; School resumes
January 2, 2013!
Discovery time sign
up January 8,9 and
10th in Simmons’
cafeteria.
By: Tristan Farnell and Ben
Nesbitt
Photo By: Parker Farnell, Tyler
Warren and Christopher Varallo
On December 12th from
6:30-8:30 pm, Simmons spon-
sored a spirit night at Barnes
and Noble Bookstore. At the
kids zone they had a table
where you could make a book-
mark. There was also an awe-
some scavenger hunt. The
kids were given a list of a few
items to find around the store.
The winners of the scavenger
hunt were Christian P., Anya
R. and Taylor H. Also, there
was a raffle. The prize of the raffle
was a Nook. The winners of the
raffle were Alex and Christina
Bender. The classes who won an
ice cream party for having the most
attendance of the evening
were Miss Aloan, Mrs. Bar-
onett and Mrs. Hower.
There were also teachers
who volunteered to read to
kids. Two of the teacher
readers were Mrs. Ehling
who read The Mitten and
Mrs. Hower who read poems
from Something Big Has
Been Here. The best part of
the evening was that you
could buy awesome books
with great deals. That was
the great spirit night at Bar-
nes and Noble.
Barnes and Noble Spirit Night
Mrs. Hower sharing poetry with the
kids.
Story & Photos by: Caitlin Brown, Sarah
Lessig, Jordan Brown and Nicole Rausa
Everybody should have a waste-free
lunch! Waste-free lunches started at
Simmons in October, but never caught
on. Waste-free Wednesdays is how it
all started.
You should reuse, it’s important and
easy. Here are a few tips… Instead of
napkins you could use a cloth. Instead
of a plastic bottle you could pack a re-
usable one. Instead of plastic baggies
you could use a small container.
People should not buy premade
food items. Tell your parents to pack
what you will eat at lunch. Humans are
starting to get lazy. Kids will just throw
everything away because they don’t
know that trash becomes landfills and
that someday it might end up in their
backyard.
You should bring a lunch bag be-
cause if you take good care of it, it
might last a few years. If you use a pa-
per bag, you throw it away after just one
use. It would be better if your family
buys just one item instead of buying a
pack of paper bags every month.
If you see someone about to throw
away, for example, a half eaten
salad, go up to them and tell them
one of two things. Tell them to either
dump out what was in it and reuse the
container, or tell them if they have a
plastic container to just simply toss it
in the recycling cans which are lo-
cated around the cafeteria.
Everybody needs to recycle! It’s so
important to recycle, or else the world
will be filled with trash. Landfills don’t
get smaller they get larger. If we keep
throwing things away there won’t be
an outside or any parks left for play-
ing!
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Time
Recycling during lunch time!
Americans throw away enough office writing paper
to build a wall 12 feet high, stretching from LA to
NYC!
5 recycled plastic bottles makes enough fiberfill to
stuff a ski jacket!
Every Sunday the US wastes nearly 90% of the
recyclable newspaper. This wastes nearly 500,000
trees!
Page 2
By: Kailey Abraham and Maggie O’Neill
Wreck-It-Ralph was a Walt Disney
Studio Production by Rich Moore
(director). It got a four star rating and
was the #1 comedy in America for
three weeks in a row.
Ralph is tired of being the bad
guy and he is tired of being over-
shadowed by Fix-it-Felix Jr., star of
the game who always gets to save the
day. After decades, he is tired of play-
ing the role of the bad guy. He takes
matters into his own massive hands
and sets off on a game –jumping jour-
ney across the arcade. He’s trying to
prove he’s got what it takes to be a
good guy. You can see the rest of the
movie in theaters. That’s our sneak
peek on Wreck-it-Ralph.
Movie Review: Wreck-It Ralph
The Amazing Shekkie
Rocks, Rocks Everywhere are sedimentary, conglomerate, sand
stone and shale.
The most popular rock in third grade
is obsidian because it is shiny and black.
The least common rock in third grade is
sedimentary rock because all of them
look alike and there are a lot of layers.
At the end of the video conference,
six or seven third graders went up to the
camera and got to ask questions. One
pupil asked, “What is the shiniest rock?”
The answer is diamond. Another ques-
tion was “How thick can a rock be?” The
answer is six feet thick.
What type of rock do you like?
The third grade is learning about
rocks. They engaged in a video con-
ference with a man named Mr. McKay
from Carnegie Mellon. Mr. McKay
showed the third grade kids about the
different types of rocks. He also
showed cards with the different
names of the rocks and their descrip-
tions.
Do you know what a rock is? A
rock is a naturally occurring solid con-
sisting of minerals. Here are some
types of rocks: sandstone, sedimen-
tary, quarts, pumice, lime stone, ba-
salt, granite, plus many more. The
most popular rocks in Pennsylvania
By: Jill Halpern, Noah Gremo, and
Bridget Morina
Photo By: Meghan Harnett and Carly
Valen
Reading to The Amazing Shekkie
their quotes. First, Paige said, “It is nice
to read to Shekkie all the time.” Next,
Alexandra said, “He helps you be a bet-
ter reader.” Then, Sonia said, “He is
funny when we cheer the word wall
words.” After that, Justin said, “He was
a CCI dog so he knows how to do a lot
of tricks.” Then Ava said, “When Shek-
kie comes here, he makes me very
happy.” Last but not least, Danielle said,
“I like when he shares at morning meet-
ing.”
Shekkie is one of the best dogs in
the whole entire world! If you see him,
you should be glad that he is here in
this school. If you are in kindergarten or
first grade, maybe you will have Mrs.
DiPasquale as a teacher with Shekkie in
your classroom.
and his birthday is March 26th. The pur-
pose of Shekkie being at Simmons is
that he is a reading therapy dog.
We decided to get some quotes
from kids about why they like Shekkie
coming in. In Mrs. DiPasquale’s class
the following students wanted to share
By: Madison Tocci, Stephanie Mao and
Ava Basile
Photo By: Ben Kollmar and Madison
Hayek
We decided to write about Shek-
kie, a dog, who Mrs. DiPasquale
brings in to school every Friday.
Shekkie was supposed to be an as-
sistance dog to help people with
physical disabilities. Mrs. DiPasquale
raised him for this purpose. Shekkie
was released by the program and is
back living with Mrs. DiPasquale.
Now, he is a Therapy Dog. He stays
at Simmons all day and the kids read
to him.
Shekkie is a yellow Labrador Re-
triever. Right now he is four years old
Third graders observing rocks.
Page 3
By: Sophia Rosciolli and Veronica
Zhang
Do you celebrate Hanukkah? Ha-
nukkah is a holiday that Jewish peo-
ple celebrate.
Hanukah took place over 2,300
years ago in the land of Judea,
which is now Israel. It started be-
cause the Jewish Temple was
seized by the Syrian- Greek soldiers
and dedicated to the worship of the
god, Zeus. This upset the Jewish
people, but many were afraid to fight
back for fear of revenge.
Then, in 167 B.C. the Syrian-
Greek emperor, Antiochus made the
observance of Judaism an offense
punishable by death. He also or-
dered all Jews to worship Greek
gods.
The term (Chanukah) stands for
“dedication” in Hebrew and recalls
the Maccabees rededication of the
Holy Temple in Jerusalem, after they
won the battle with the Greeks for
control over their holy site. Hanukah
started by, somebody lighting a can-
dle and it lasted for eight days. The
candles used for lighting the Hanu-
kah Menorah are supposed to burn
for at least half an hour after the
stars come out.
By: Maddy Murphy and Maggie Clark
Christmas is a holiday celebrated
on the 25th of December. Christmas
is celebrated because Christians
believe that on that day Jesus was
born.
People also have different tradi-
tions to celebrate Christmas. Read-
ing The Night Before Christmas on
Christmas Eve is one tradition fami-
lies have. Other people have family
members over for a divine dinner
before Christmas. A lot of families
listen to Christmas music and put
cookies and milk out next to their
fireplace for Santa. Kids like to go on
the internet and track Santa to see
where he is. On Christmas morning
kids open the presents Santa
brought and see that the cookies and
milk are gone.
Christmas is also called Noel,
Nativity, Yule, and Xmas. Christians
have a Christmas tree because the
branches look like your praying, and
the presents under the tree symbol-
ize the presents given to Jesus when
he was born. That is why Christmas
is celebrated!
Kwanzaa Hanukkah Christmas
By: Sara Beth Cusatis and Eliana Oden
Kwanzaa was created in 1966 by
Maulana Karenga. He created Kwan-
zaa to give African Americans a holi-
day. The name Kwanzaa is from Swa-
hili meaning first fruits of the harvest.
Simmons’ very own Mrs. Lampkin
celebrates Kwanzaa and this is what
she said about the holiday, “We have a
special candle holder called a Kinara.
There are 7 candles. Three red ones,
three green ones, and one black one.
The black one represents our culture
(African American), the red ones repre-
sent our blood, and the green ones
represent our land. My favorite part is
making the gifts. You have to either
make a gift or buy a book, nothing
else.”
There are seven days of Kwanzaa.
Here are the days and what they
mean:
Umoja (which means unity)
Kujichagulia (which means self-
determination)
Ujima (which means collective
work and responsibility)
Ujamaa (which means cooperative
economics)
Nia (which means purpose)
Kuumba (which means creativity)
Imani (which means faith)
The festive holiday of Kwanzaa
always begins on December 26th , the
day after Christmas.
“I want an itouch 5.” ~Ben Lerner
“I want a remote control airplane.”
~ Max Heurtgen
Enjoying winter parties at Simmons.
Page 4
Story and Photo by: Na Hoffmann, Alyssa
Benjamin and Anna Kruidiener
The first graders were very excited
to meet their eighth grade buddies!
When the first graders arrived they
went to the cafeteria in Keith Valley to
meet their eighth grade buddies. They
were going to play a game of Bingo.
Before the game started, the an-
nouncer announced the prizes you
could win if you won a round. Some of
the prizes were stuffed animals along
with a blanket, jar of candy and many
more.
Bingo Buddies
By: Natalie Schildt and Avery Miller
Its holiday time again… look at the graph to see what other kids want for
their holiday!
Favorite Holiday Gifts
After that, the game of Bingo
started. The first pair of buddies who
won were really surprised. The first
grader got to select the prize. Her
name was Nyla. Nyla’s buddy was
Veronica. Nyla was quoted saying, “I
really like having Veronica as a
buddy!” The announcer told all the
eighth graders and their buddies that
the game was still going on, so every-
one except for the pair who already
won, had a chance to win! Surely,
everybody was glad about that, but,
nobody left empty handed. Everyone
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
5
puppies other animals phones itouches other electronics
hot tubs food other
got a pencil and a tiny eraser to bring
home.
After the game ended, they said
goodbye to their buddies. Thankfully
this isn’t the last time they will see
each other, because the buddies meet
up four times a year.
It’s fun to get out once and a while
to see their buddies!
Mark your
calendars for
Literacy Night-
February 8th!
Fun for all ages,
come to celebrate
reading! Activities
will include:
Reading Relay
Races
Word Games
Flashlight Read-
ing
Reading Olym-
pics Jeopardy