Cottage Lane Highlights

Cottage Lane Highlights 2010-2011
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'Twas Ever Authors Visit Cottage Lane

On Thursday, June 16th, fourth grade students at Cottage Lane had a very special visit. Belinda Bell, graduate of Cottage Lane and current 7th grader at South Orangetown Middle School, and her mother, Anita Bell, have co-written ‘Twas Ever. Together they shared their experiences about this endeavor.

‘Twas Ever is the intriguing story of a 12-year-old girl living in 1683 whose friend falls ill during a May Day celebration. The girl travels forward in time to find a cure and ends up in the same town in the present day. An adventurous new friend helps her to explore the modern world of high-tech wonders and megamalls while staying true to her quest. The story inspires young readers to consider and discuss the differences between the past and present—and what remains the same.

Anita Bell is a seasoned writer who has already published nine books, but this work of fiction is a real change of pace for her. She and Belinda were inspired to write ‘Twas Ever by many years of bedtime stories—and summer reading!

Belinda and Anita Bell read excerpts from the book and spoke about what they learned from working on it. Students at Cottage Lane discovered how reading and writing can open up many new worlds. Please visit Mrs. McBride’s website for further details - http://staff.socsdblogs.org/kmcbride/

Cottage Lane Recognizes Math Olympiad Students

Congratulations to Cottage Lane’s 4th and 5th grade mathletes who were among the nearly 150,000 students worldwide to participate this year in the Math Olympiad program. They participated in a series of five monthly contests from November to March, and weekly practice sessions during the course of the year.

Twenty six of these mathletes have won a national award for excellence within the Elementary School Division. The following students earned an embroidered felt patch for being in the top 50th percentile of the competition: Logan T., Yena S., Lawerence C., Kevin H., Palak O., Ivan J., Jenna C., Luke S., Daneal S., Thomas S., Victor T., William H., Logan W., Joseph B., Gary H., Ruben S., Kailtyn B., James O., Nishan T., Juliana M., Ethan P., David F., John V., Matthew R., David J., and Kaylee L..

The gold pin was awarded to Victor T. for placing in the 98th percentile. The silver pin was awarded to William H. and Logan W. for placing in the 90th to 97th percentiles. Trophies were awarded to Victor T. and Logan T. for receiving the highest score on their grade level team.

Congratulations to these students and all Math Olympiad participants!

WordMasters

The WordMasters Challenge is a fun, mind-stretching competition for highly capable Language Arts students. It is a national competition for students in grades 3-8 which encourages growth in vocabulary and verbal reasoning. Over 4,200 school teams, from 50 states, participated last year.
Classes participated in the blue division and additional students came before school to participate in the gold division. All students learned a new appreciation for the wonderful diversity of English words and they were encouraged to think more logically, carefully, and critically as the year progressed.

Three timed contests, starting in November, were given during the school year to increase student interest and healthy competition. Here are the final results:

5th Grade Gold 5th Grade Blue

1st Place Victor T. John L.

4th Grade Gold 4th Grade Blue

1st Place Michael S. Kielty F.

Congratulations to all WordMaster participants. Remember to read, read, read this summer to develop your vocabulary!

Do you Sudoku?
Now is your time to put your wits to the test. Mrs. McBride is sponsoring the 7th annual Cottage Lane Sudoku challenge. All friends of Cottage Lane are eligible to participate. No purchase necessary. Just complete and return the entry form no later than Friday, May 27th. See entry form for further details and visit Mrs. McBride’s website for daily puzzles, the history of Sudoku, and tutorials. And remember … you need to be in it to win it!

http://staff.socsdblogs.org/kmcbride/sudoku/

QR Codes at Cottage Lane
If you haven’t noticed, there has been an influx of strange black-and-white codes showing up all over Cottage Lane. What are they? They are called QR Codes, with the QR standing for Quick Response. Basically, they are bar codes that provide data from websites, files, phone numbers, calendars, coupons, etc. You can download a simple free app on your smartphone to be able to scan the code and visit, save or sync information. Restaurants, stores, movie theaters, magazines, and even billboards are displaying QR codes.

Mrs. McBride’s students incorporated this new technology into an advertising unit. After studying creative expression and psychology in order to understand advertising, students became discriminating consumers. Using creative and critical thinking skills, students used QR codes to advertise people, places, and events at Cottage Lane. Next time you visit Cottage Lane, be sure to scan the latest technology in advertising to find out important news and information.

WordMasters Competition Final for Year

Cottage Lane held the third and final WordMasters Competition. Cottage Lane students continued to stretch their minds and develop their vocabulary and verbal reasoning for this National Competition. Once again, we had terrific results for both the Gold and Blue Divisions.

5th Grade Gold Division:
1st Place: Victor T
2nd Place: Willian H. & Aishling C.
3rd Place: Juliana M. & Kaylee L.

4th Grade Gold Division:
1st Place: Nika C.
2nd Place: Victoria F.
3rd Place: Daneal S., Michael S., & Logan T.

5th Grade Blue Division:
1st Place: Eli G.
2nd Place: Nicole M.
3rd Place: Emma P., Sam d., David F., & Braedon S.

4th Grade Blue Division:
1st Place: Kielty F.
2nd Place: Angus G. & Emma P.
3rd Place: Joe B., Elizabeth T., Jenna C., Laura I., Nika C., Palak O., & Mir Haque C.

Cottage Lane Students Take Virtual Field Trip To the New York Stock Exchange

To celebrate Financial Literacy Week, Discovery Education provided a virtual opportunity for students to receive first hand knowledge of the New York Stock Exchange. Mrs. McBride’s fifth grade students were “live” on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday at 12pm. Students were introduced to the basics of stock ownership and initiate a dialogue on financial responsibility from leading experts in the field. Students had the opportunity to meet young market professionals: brokers, designated market makers, and technology experts, who discussed stock market terminology as they describe their roles at the exchange. Students interacted with executives from the NYSE and financial experts who introduced students to the basics of stock ownership and answered questions about investing. They also gained insight into market volatility, by tracking stock activity live, during the session. With this added information, Mrs. McBride’s students will continue to closely monitor their stock options as they play “Wall Street Survivor.”

Two Cottage Lane Students Step up to the Shears in Act of Kindness

Cottage Lane had two students who answered the call to be heroes! Danny M. and TJ M. signed up to participate in St. Baldrick’s Day. Children have their heads shaved – to stand in solidarity with kids fighting cancer, but more importantly, to raise money to find cures. They raised donations for the St. Baldrick's Foundation. This volunteer-driven charity funds more in childhood cancer research grants than any organization except the U.S. government. The monies they raised will give hope to infants, children, teens and young adults fighting childhood cancers. Congratulations to Danny and TJ. Cottage Lane is proud of you!

A WISE OLD OWL
Fifth graders learned to improvise their own melodies as they played the Orff instruments in music class with Mrs. Kahn. First they learned to recite a poem together. Then they played the rhythm of the poem on xylophones, metallophones, and glockenspiels (also known as Orff instruments). They eventually had five different notes to choose from, which were in the C pentatonic scale. Students created different melodies each time they played the rhythm of the poem. Here is Mrs. Sainz’s class in the final performance of their song.

CAGE FULL O BLUES
Fifth graders learned to improvise their own melodies as they played the recorders in music class with Mrs. Kahn. First they learned a melody with only four notes in it – C, A, G, and E. Then they experimented with creating their own melodies using the same notes. Here is Mrs. Lane’s class in their final performance of the song.

WORLD MATH DAY 2011

World Math Day took Place on March 1, 2011. What a performance from students of the world! Cottage Lane students were part of the 5.3 million registered students from 218 countries to participate. Students played at home and at school against other students around the world in live games of mental arithmetic. Congratulations to the following students and classes for their top performance:

4th Grade Classes
1st Place – Ms. Christie-Blick’s Class
2nd Place – Mrs. Rudin’s Class
3rd Place – Mrs. Caunitz’s Class

5th Grade Classes
1st Place – Mr. Krump’s Class
2nd Place – Mr. Doctor’s Class
3rd Place – Mrs. Schneider’s Class

4th Grade Students
1st Place – Michael S.
2nd Place – Mark S.
3rd Place – Ashley C.

5th Grade Students
1st Place – Kaylee L.
2nd Place – William H.
3rd Place – Kayla M.

Congratulations to all the students and staff at Cottage Lane for playing their role in answering 428,598,214 problems correctly.

Two days later, 3P Learning instituted World Spelling Day on March 3rd. Many students at Cottage Lane took this opportunity to be apart of another world wide event. Special congratulations to William H. for making it to the Hall of Fame. William ranked 77th in the world with 2,057 points!

South African Consul Visits Cottage Lane

Consul Sono, from the South African Consulate in New York City, visited Ms. Christie-Blick’s fourth grade class at Cottage Lane School last week. Ms. Thami Sono talked to the class about her own country on the other side of the world. The children had worked hard researching South Africa to prepare for her arrival. She was impressed by how much these young Americans knew about her country and its most famous person, Nelson Mandela.

The students were very interested to hear about Ms. Sono’s life growing up in South Africa under apartheid. They were amazed to hear she had grown up in a house without electricity or indoor plumbing, and that she had not tasted a chocolate chip cookie until she arrived in the United States just a few years ago. Afterward, they talked about how hard she must have worked in school to get a better life for herself as an adult. They found her very inspiring.

The students enjoyed hearing about South Africans, and hope to see them for themselves one day. The video Ms. Sono showed of her country, the descriptions she gave of the beautiful beaches, and knowing that February is summertime in the southern hemisphere, made them all want to hop on a plane!

They were so grateful that she had shared her culture with them that they wanted to share their American culture with her. After her talk, they all enjoyed milk and homemade American chocolate chip cookies baked by Ms. Christie-Blick, as they chatted about going to see giraffes in Kruger National Park, and penguins on the shores of Cape Town. It was an afternoon to remember!

The WordMasters Challenge is a fun, mind-stretching competition for students. It is a national competition for students in grades 3-8 which encourages growth in vocabulary and verbal reasoning. Over 4,200 school teams, from 50 states, participate. Cottage Lane once again had terrific results for both the Gold and Blue Divisions in the 2nd competition of the year.

5th Grade Gold Division:
1st Place: Nicole M.
2nd Place: Victor T.
3rd Place: Jamil A., Aishling C., Riya G., John G., Kaylee L.

4th Grade Gold Division:
1st Place: Logan T., Nika C., Michael S.
2nd Place: Victoria F.
3rd Place: Lawrence C., Angus G., Ivan J., Yena S.

5th Grade Blue Division:
1st Place: Victor T.
2nd Place: Nicole M., Leigha T., William He, Braedon S., Ava G.
3rd Place: John G., John L., Marlena D., Eli G., Juliana M., Ella D., Emma P., Samantha F., Joe M., TJ M.

4th Grade Blue Division:
1st Place: David D.
2nd Place: Elizabeth T., Jenna C., Michael S., Richard B.
3rd Place: Oliver P., Emma P., Palak O., Dylan F., Avery S.

To celebrate Mathematics and Valentine's Day, the following problem was posed to students in the fourth grade:

I bought a box of candy for myself last week. However, by the time I got home I had eaten ¼ of the candies. As I was putting the groceries away, I ate ½ of what was left. There were 6 chocolates left in the box. How many chocolates were in the box to begin with? The correct answer: 16 candies. Over fifty students participated in the challenge by solving the problem, writing an explanation and creating a three-dimensional representation. Congratulations to Fiona M., Kielty F., Luke S., Estelle L., Cassie B., John C., and David C. They received Valentine prizes for the most accurate representation and detailed explanation.

Be Proactive

Mrs. King, Cottage Lane's School Psychologist, along with Judy Pocalyko, Learning Consultant, Tom Dehler and Steven Sutton, Physical Education Teachers, conducted a bully lesson on the role of the bystander during PE Classes. The lesson was designed to empower students to be proactive positive bystanders through exercise with positive affirmations. This unique class supported our character education and anti-bullying initiative. It helped build self-confidence in our students through exercise.

And the Number is... Math Olympiad take 2!

The first number on a list has two digits. The second number is the first number plus the sum of its digits. The third number is the second number plus the sum of its digits. The third number on the list is 44. What is the first number?

This was one of five questions posed to mathletes in the 2nd Math Olympiad at Cottage Lane. Mathletes worked for 24 minutes to challenge themselves complex problems beyond the everyday curriculum. Congratulations to:

1st Place – William H. & Victor T.
2nd Place – Logan T. & Matthew R.

Congratulations to all mathletes who challenged themselves weekly!

Blogging from China & Egypt

Do you want to learn more about Egypt? How about China? Two students from Cottage Lane are documenting their experiences through a blog. Students and staff from Cottage Lane and South Orangetown Middle School have been following the adventures of Kaylee in China and Toby in Egypt. Everyone is reading and responding to posts to hear and learn of these lucky students’ adventures. We can all travel to far away places by reading additional posts from Kaylee and Toby through Mrs. McBride’s website - http://staff.socsdblogs.org/kmcbride/.

Gulliver’s Travels at Cottage Lane

On Saturday, December 25th Jack Black stars in the 20th Century Fox adaptation of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. Mrs. McBride’s fifth graders just finished their recreations of objects in Brobdingnag, the land of giants. In the classic story Gulliver’s Travels, author Jonathan Swift accurately portrays each detail in the story using mathematics. Gulliver had to discover the scale of things to understand a new world and learn to live in it. 5th grade students linked literature, writing, and mathematics as they stepped into Gulliver’s Worlds to help him determine the size of things in order to survive. Journal entries helped students learn more about measurement, estimation, computation, scale, and proportion. Students applied these concepts as they create 3-D objects from Gulliver’s Worlds.

WordMaster Challenge 1st Competition

WordMasters Challenge is a fun, mind-stretching competition for highly capable Language Arts students. It is a national competition for students in grades 3-8 which encourages growth in vocabulary and verbal reasoning. Over 4,200 school teams, from 50 states, participate including Cottage Lane. The results from the 1st Competition among Cottage Lane students are:

Gold Division	5th Grade	4th Grade
1st Place	Victor T.	Michael S.
2nd Place	William H.	Logan T.
3rd Place	Aishling C.	Angus G. & Richard B.

Blue Division	5th Grade	4th Grade
1st Place	John L. - Perfect Score	Kielty F. Avery S.
2nd Place	Joshua B. Victor T. Braedon S.	Laura I. Nika C. Angus G. VIctoria F. Alexandra K.
3rd Place	Lily G. Michael G. Matthew R. Adam C. William H. Joe M.	Jennifer D. Eizabeth T. Cassie B. Yena S. Evan T.

Next Competition will be held in February. Start practicing analogies now at Mrs. McBride’s website - http://staff.socsdblogs.org/kmcbride/wordmasters-2/

The results from the 1st Math Olympiad Competition are in from Cottage Lane

Math Olympiads for elementary schools is an international competition that promotes interest in and enthusiasm for mathematics. This program originated in 1978 as an extracurricular project for students to foster their pursuit of individual excellence in problem solving while enhancing creativity and resourcefulness. Mrs. McBride coaches 4th and 5th grade students who have demonstrated mathematical excellence and want to challenge themselves further in mathematics. Math Olympiad challenges the most able math students to solve complex problems beyond the everyday curriculum. “Mathletes” practice regularly before school with Rockland County's Virtual MOODLE in preparation for the contests.

Congratulations to…

1st Place – Victor T. (Perfect Paper)
2nd Place – Kaitlyn B., Ethan P., David F., Michael G., Joseph B., Gary H., & Logan W.

Cottage Lane Celebrates with Scholastic and Taylor Swift

On Wednesday, October 27th, thirty students watched Taylor Swift live from the Cottage Lane Library. She spoke about the importance of reading and followed the interview with a live performance.

In advance of the live webcast, and, as a condition to participate, teacher Mrs. Kerri McBride offered a challenge to all Cottage Lane students. They were asked to submit an entry explaining how they would convince others to read every day.

With over 110 submissions, the selection process was extremely difficult. There was a remarkable level of creativity involved. Students created commercials, wrote poems, sang lyrics, developed presentations, and wrote convincing essays on Why We Should Read Every Day.

Mackenzie S. reported, “Taylor Swift told us that if you read it does not make you un-cool, and reading can empower you to do anything. Reading poems and rhyming books by Dr. Seuss helped her to write lyrics. Her favorite book is To Kill a Mockingbird, and Romeo and Juliet inspired her to write a Love Story.”

Taylor Swift Entries
Reading PowerPoint
Reading PowerPoint 2

Cottage Lane Highlights 2009-2010

One Man's Trash is Another Man's Treasure

Back in March, students in Mr. Onativia and Mrs. Wagner’s classes videoconferenced with Andy Fowler, a parent at Cottage Lane, who was on assignment in Haiti. As an engineer for NBC, he was covering the earthquake disaster. The ability to communicate directly with the media gave students firsthand knowledge of the devastation.

“When Mr. Fowler told us that 90% of the schools were destroyed, it made me want to do more,” stated Mathew Russell.

Since then Mrs. McBride has been in contact with Mission of Hope, a school in Haiti. Students decided to collect unwanted school supplies before school was let out. From gently used notebooks to unwanted markers, the donations came pouring in. The staff at Cottage Lane generously donated the cost of shipping. The ability to help those less fortunate was a great way to end the school year.

WordMasters

The WordMasters Challenge is a fun, mind-stretching competition for highly capable Language Arts students. It is a national competition for students in grades 3-8 which encourages growth in vocabulary and verbal reasoning. Over 4,200 school teams, from 50 states, participated last year.

Classes participated in the blue division and additional students came before school to participate in the gold division. All students learned a new appreciation for the wonderful diversity of English words and they were encouraged to think more logically, carefully, and critically as the year progressed.

Three timed contests, starting in November, were given during the school year to increase student interest and healthy competition. Here are the final results:

	5th Grade Gold	5th Grade Blue
1st Place	Sam G.	Jack S.
2nd Place	David L.	Ean W.
3rd Place	Alex G.	Jane C. & Brianna V.

	4th Grade Gold	4th Grade Blue
1st Place	Juliana M.	Kaylee L.
2nd Place	William H.	Sofia T.
3rd Place	Victor T.	Vilnis P. & Nishan T.

Congratulations to all WordMaster participants. Remember to read, read, read this summer to develop your vocabulary!

Cottage Lane Recognizes Math Olympiad Students

Congratulations to Cottage Lane’s 4th and 5th grade mathletes who were among the nearly 150,000 students worldwide to participate this year in the Math Olympiad program. They participated in a series of five monthly contests from November to March, and weekly practice sessions during the course of the year.

Nine of these mathletes have won a national award for excellence within the Elementary School Division. The following students earned an embroidered felt patch for being in the top 50th percentile of the competition: Matthew R.and Victor T., Chris C., Brendan H., Ean W., Russell J., Alex S., Daeseob L., and David L.. The silver pin was awarded to David L. for placing in the 90th to 97th percentiles. Trophies were awarded to Victor T. and David L. for receiving the highest score on their grade level team.

Congratulations to these students and all Math Olympiad participants!

CLE Valentine Challenge
2/14/2010
The following math problem was posed to students in the fourth grade: I bought a box of candy for myself last week. However, by the time I got home I had eaten ¼ of the candies. As I was putting the groceries away, I ate ½ of what was left. There were 6 chocolates left in the box.
How many chocolates were in the box to begin with? The correct answer: 16 candies. Over forty students participated in the challenge by solving the problem, writing an explanation and creating a three-dimensional representation.

Congratulations to Brenna, Ilana and Luke. They received Valentine prizes for the most accurate representation and detailed explanation.

World Math Day