MIDDLE DIVISION NEWSLETTER ~ MAY 2005

 

Dear Middle Division Families,

 

May is here and summer is fast approaching.  Time seems to move faster as the year progresses – it is difficult to believe we have just two weeks of classes remaining, final exams and then a gathering on honors night to celebrate the year’s accomplishments.  What a year we have had.  We began with the excitement and anticipation of every new year and end with the same excitement and anticipation for summer.  Our student’s have worked diligently this year and accomplished much – not only in the classroom, but on the athletic fields, in the art room, music room and on the stage.  Middle division students, led by Mr. Johnson, Ms. Seegers, and the middle division faculty, went into our Tampa community and experienced what it means to give back to the community at large.  We are also so very proud of how the middle division students have embraced our new community service project in the Dominican Republic.  Letters have been written back and forth between the students at the school in the Dominican and hopefully long lasting relationships have been forged.  Our wonderfully generous students have raised over $1000.00 for the school and presently are collecting band-aids, antibacterial hand sanitizer, antibiotic cream, etc. to be used in the clinic at the project.  We in the middle division are excited about how our students can benefit from a relationship with students in another country and can not wait to see where our students take us – as their ideas are many. 

 

Enjoy the remaining days of May and help us celebrate all that is good here at Berkeley.  We look forward to seeing everyone at middle division honors night, Thursday, June 2, 2005, at 7:00pm in the Dimmitt Gymnasium.  Please remember that this is a required evening for all middle division students as it is important to celebrate each other's accomplishments - most certainly the eighth graders as they finish their middle division years.  The evening is followed by a dance which ends at 10:30pm for seventh and eighth grade students in the lower division activity center.  Information on dress has been mailed in a previous letter, though certainly if you have any questions do not hesitate to call.

 

Cindy Boss

 

Student involvement in Convo

 

After International Week, the middle division faculty was impressed with the gifts the students had shared with our community.  As a result, we asked students who might be interested in sharing their cultures in convo to come forward.  Our goal was to let International Week happen every week. We were surprised by the eagerness with which the students came forward.  Each presentation offered a bit of history and tradition, personal experiences, and helped to dispel myths or misconceptions about their cultures.  We have enjoyed presentations by Diane Patrick on her experiences as a Latter-Day Saint (LDS or Mormon), Kami Dimitrova’s Bulgarian heritage, Kalindi Shah and Pulkit Taunk’s differing Indian ethnicities, Stephanie Bole’s Italian immigrant heritage, and Peter and Layla Chami’s Syrian heritage.  These students have enhanced our learning of other cultures and widened our appreciation of our differences.  They are truly representative of the spirit of the Berkeley—Sharing, Education, Acceptance, and Community.  This is a tradition we would like to continue well into next year.

 

Special thanks to the faculty that has helped to work with these students on their presentations: John Huls, Sarah Seegers, Sandra Lake, Carmen Morley, Liz Stevens, Sonya Grimaldi and Jennifer Martinez.

 

 

Community Service News:

 

Entire Middle Division Serves the Community

On Wednesday, March 30, the entire middle division served the community.  Sixth grade students joined the seventh and eighth grade students in their monthly community service efforts.  Once a month seventh and eighth grade classes are suspended so that Berkeley students can begin what we hope will become a life-long commitment to community service.  The seventh graders attended one of the venues on their regular rotation: Environmental Site/Tampa Parks, Ronald McDonald House, Divine Providence Food Bank, Metropolitan Ministries, and the Victory Ship. The purpose of these visits is to help seventh graders get a sense of the different opportunities that are available for serving the community.  The eighth grade attended the regular venue that they selected from the following list in the beginning of the year: Head Start, Hope Children's Home, A Brighter Community, Metropolitan Ministries, The Children's Home (Davis Elementary School),  A Brighter Community, or Bay Crest.  The purpose of the eighth grade experience is to get a more in-depth experience; furthermore, most of the venues involve fostering relationships with young children.  Sixth graders joined in these efforts during this past service day.  This is their introduction to community service as they prepare for the seventh grade experience.  One hundred sixth grade students went to Cypress Point Park to help the Mayor’s Beautification Program in its effort to preserve Tampa’s parks.  Students cleaned up invasive plants and trash in the park and enjoyed a full morning of service and fun.

 

 

Dominican Update

In one month, middle division students have put together an amazing offering for the children attending the school we sponsor in the Dominican Republic.  Bake sales, a dress-up day and a school-wide request for help have garnered the following items:

 

  • One-thousand dollars to help defray the cost of installing a solar power system at the school.
  • Band-Aids, Neosporin, and hand sanitizer for the clinic adjacent to the school.
  • Used calculators and batteries.
  • A response to the pen-pal letters written by seventh and eighth graders attending the Dominican school.

 

These items will be sent in June, and they constitute the first of many care packages the division will assemble for our Dominican friends.

 

 

Club News:

 

Student Forum news

The Student Forum collected $225 for the Tsunami Relief by selling raffle tickets for the chance to win two candy jars.  The winners of the candy jars were sixth graders Britt Bailey and Tayler Orobello.  Student Forum member Alex Goodman sold more than 100 raffle tickets herself – way to go, Alex!

 

The Forum will wrap up the year by putting on the 5th annual middle division variety show and members will be helping at Honors Night.  During a morning convocation Kalindi Shah and Brian Shim will be given awards for their three year membership in the Student Forum. Elections for next year’s members will occur in the fall.

 

 

Forensics Wrap up

Another successful year of forensics is over.  Berkeley hosted all four meets this year, and each meet ran successfully due in large part to those who were willing to help.  We would like to thank Mrs. Bedell who took charge of the snack table for all four meets as well as Mrs. Garcia, Mrs. Patel, Mrs. Leonov, and Mrs. Hashmi for their assistance with judging.  In addition, we would like to thank those faculty members who helped us out by judging in the meets. The students performed in various categories and did well.  Duo-drama continues to be one of the more popular categories, and after our second season with the impromptu category, the league has voted to retain it.  Sadly, we say goodbye to Pulkit Taunk, Abe Hashmi, Brittany Lee Garcia, Amritha Sastry, Sonam Patel, Kalindi Shah, and Vinutha Rattehalli, but we wish them success in upper division forensics.  As the year comes to a close, we look forward to next year’s season.    

 

Stock Market Club

The game is over!  The team called “The Stockers” came in first in our middle division.  Overall, they came in 41st in the region with a net profit of 2.31%.  Congratulations to team members McLean Baran, Akil Craig and Neal Singh.

 

Anime Club

The anime club will finish watching the entire series ‘Fruits Basket’ this week, and next week the final meeting will take an in-depth look at a new phenomenon, anime music videos.

 

Science Olympiad

The Science Olympiad club had a successful state competition the first Saturday in March (5th). The students who participated in the Science Olympiad club this year included Kyle Dent (grade 8), Elliot Stein (grade 8), Masha Leonov (grade 6), Adarsh Dave (grade 6), Lukas Hillmer (grade 8), Akil Craig (grade 8), Bryan Marshall (grade 8), and Ben Allred (grade 8).  Seven of the eight students participated in the weekend event.  Of the seven students who attended, four came back to Berkeley with medals. Masha and Adarsh won silver medals for their construction and oral presentation of an aquifer.  Lukas Hillmer and Akil Craig earned gold medals for "Road Scholar" in which they took a written test concerning map questions. Elliot Stein and Kyle Dent built an awesome bridge with the help of Mr. MacConnell.  Although it held 10 kilos of sand, its mass was not light enough to be competitive.  All students worked hard this year to make the club and year a successful one.

 

Art Club

Art club time has been spent focusing on mosaics.  The club members have come in once a week to work on a piece of their own, whether a tray, a birdhouse, or whatever else they chose.  The eighth grade members of the club worked together to produce a BEAUTIFUL mosaic Adirondack chair for Shades of Blue.  The chair was well received at the event and even brought on a bidding war!  The happy new owners are the Prentiss family (Katie and Patrick).  Many art club members and art students worked on the chair, but the "original" five consisted of Jenna Gebhart, Katie Prentiss, Gabrielle Sena, Jane Elizabeth Watts and Meg Weiss.

 

A good sampling of the artwork produced this year can be seen at this year’s Concepts Art Show, our 20th annual!  The show, which runs from May, 15 - 22, 2005, is in Old Hyde Park at 716 S. Village Circle.  The opening reception is Sunday, May 15, 3-5 p.m.  Please come if you can!

 

 

Class News

 

Art Room Wrap-up!

 It has been a full and exciting year for students in the middle division art classes and art club!  In class the art students have worked on projects that developed their artistic skills.  These projects have a fine arts bent, and include drawing, painting, printmaking and sculpture.  Artwork by 7th and 8th grade art students is eligible for submission in SCHOLASTIC ARTS AWARDS, a national competition held annually for which the Berkeley art department has an amazing record.   

 

Each year more than 200,000 works of art are submitted to the regional programs of The Scholastic Art Awards.  From these, about 15,000 works of art become national finalists.  On the national level, only about 750 young artists are recognized with national honors.

 

This year we had twenty-three students submit thirty-seven works of art in mixed media, drawing, printmaking, and painting.

 

Works of art were submitted by the following: Alisha Anand, Juan Carlos Blanco, Sonia Chheda, Caroline Dillabough, Brittany Lee Garcia, Charles Godfrey, Lauren Hogan,

R.J. Johnson, Evan Kotranza, Hector Miranda, Lucas Mitchell, Emery Morris, Ashton Murray, Eric Sahlsten, Amritha Sastry, Millin Sekhon, Vidhi, Shah, Meghana Shetty, Brian Shim, Avani Singh, Miranda Steele, Monica Torres, and Meg Weiss.

 

Fifteen of the twenty-three students who submitted works of art won Gold Keys in the Region-at-Large of the Scholastic Art Awards for 2005.  These works were among 767 out of 2,000 pieces that progressed to the national level of judging in New York City. 

 

                     Alisha Anand                Printmaking

                     Sonia Chheda               Printmaking

                     Caroline Dillabough     Painting

                     Brittany Lee Garcia     Printmaking & Drawing

                     Charles Godfrey           Printmaking

                     R.J. Johnson                 Printmaking

                     Hector Miranda            Printmaking

                     Eric Sahlsten                 Drawing & Painting

                     Amritha Sastry             Printmaking

                     Millin Sekhon               Painting

                     Meghana Shetty           Two Paintings

                     Brian Shim                    Printmaking

                     Avani Singh                  Painting

                     Miranda Steele             Three pieces of Printmaking

                     Monica Torres              Printmaking

 

 

Sixth Grade Math

Our sixth grade math students are having a great time learning everything there is to know about perimeter and areas of polygons and circles.  Students worked through many types of interactive problems using their Understanding Math software program for reinforcement and enrichment. Through hands-on activities, they discovered the relationship between the diameter and circumference of a circle (pi).  They also hula hooped their way through T.D. (total distance) problems.  Hula hoop champions in Mrs. Gerding class were Kelly Cucchi, Sydney Hughes, and Nd Ubezonu.  In Ms. Liedman’s classes, Scott Campbell, Taylor Douthitt, Alejandro Alvarez, and Samantha Kurtz were the winners.  Our surface area cookie lab will be coming up soon.  Yum!

    

Science Class News

Six middle division students performed a science “magic” show for second and fifth grade students during the lower division science discovery day.  The three eighth graders (Jackie Wooley, Peter Mueller and Neal Singh) and three seventh graders (Vanessa Rayan,  Lynn Nguyen and Vidhi Shah) did fourteen science demonstrations in each of four different twenty minute shows.  Jackie began the show by making the word “Welcome” appear in bright pink on a large piece of white paper.  She was followed by Vidhi being shocked with large visible sparks from the van der Graff generator, then Lynn having her hair stand out by placing her hand on the generator.  Vanessa made hot chocolate by boiling water using a piece of ordinary notebook paper folded into a cup.  A favorite of the crowd seemed to be Neal expanding a small amount of shaving cream in the vacuum pump.  Neal and Peter made and exploded hydrogen while Vidhi produced a large flash of flame and smoke by burning gunpowder.  Peter ended the show by producing large multi-colored flames, the result of various metal ions dissolved in alcohol, then sprayed into a burner and exploding hydrogen yet again.  With a little time left over, several fifth graders “enjoyed” being shocked and looking silly with their hair standing out in all directions. 

 

 

                            

 

 

Cloud Callout: Lynn Nguyen has a bad hair day  

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

                                  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spanish Class

Eighth grade Spanish I classes have been writing letters in Spanish to students in the Dominican Republic.  Students are learning about families, hobbies, cultural traditions and the way of life in the D.R. through pictures and communication with the students at Fundación Integral.

 

 

Technology – A few reminders:

  • The new bundle information was mailed home to those families whose warranty is soon to expire. 
  • Students are encouraged to back up their academic work before exams start and before leaving the campus at the end of this school year.
  • Keyboarding and computer classes are available through Summer Programs.
  • The Help Desk is open during the summer to handle laptop issues from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.  It is best to call ahead as staff have other duties on campus as well. 
  • Re-imaging is encouraged before the start of school in the fall—information will be going home during the summer.

 

 

Parent Club News:

 

Middle Division Parents' Club News 

The 2005-06 Executive Board has been named and they need volunteers and chair-people for next year.  There are many ways you can get involved, have fun, meet other middle division parents and lend us your talents. Just by being a Berkeley parent, you are a member of Parents' Club.

 

These are just a sampling of some of the events that occur throughout the school year.  A more in-depth volunteer sign up form will be sent out to all families soon.

      Shades of Blue Auction

      Field Day

      Teacher Appreciation Coffee

      Teacher Appreciation Brunch

      Middle Division Dances

      Grandparents' Day

      New Parent/ Orientation Committee

      Forensics

      National Junior Honors Society

      ....plus many special events held for Eighth Graders

 

Ruth Silverstein (813-979-9221) and Anjali Singh (813-948-8967) are the in-coming vice-presidents for Middle Division Parents' Club.  Please call them if there is an area in which you can help.

 

Laurie Jacobs and Diane Wood would like to thank the many chairs and volunteers for their help and leadership this past year. You have made our job as vice-presidents so much easier by contributing your time, effort, and talents to the Berkeley Parents' Club.

 

....have a great summer!

 

Sixth Grade Girls Scouts

 

Sixth Grade Girl Scouts Visit “Give Kinds the World” to Help Terminally Ill Children

 

The sixth grade Girl Scout troop has earned the Bronze Award, the highest honor for our age group.  We earned the Bronze Award by choosing Give Kids the World as our service project.

 

Our project was to pick out fun Christmas crafts and practice them, then teach the children how to make the crafts.  We split into groups and each did our own craft, to help the project run smoothly.  Prior to our visit, we trained each other on how to make them.  We thank Mr. Pepin for supplying transportation, Mrs. Dabbs, Mrs. McGriff and Mrs. Rogel, the leaders of our troop and Kristen from the Give Kids the World staff, who gave us our tour.  Our project took place in the “Castle of Miracles in the Give Kids the World Village in Kissimmee, Florida. 

 

Our project was a huge success.  We were part of a happy experience for terminally ill children and we helped them celebrate a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!

 

Troop 447 members are Reilley Dabbs, Amelia Colton, Alex Rogel, Ericka McGriff, Jessica Hahn, Kate Lambos, Abbey Taub, Jackie Lozano, Kat Weston, Jo Jo Mendoza, Alissa Kotranza, Claire Fyvolent, Alexis Tsavoussis and Kayla Mines.

 

 

Used Uniform Sale

 

The Used Uniform Cupboard will be open during finals Tuesday, May 24 – Friday, May 27 and Tuesday, May 31 from 8:00 – 10:30 a.m. This is a great place to get long pants for community service days, shorts, skorts or polos for growing students, or replacements for lost blazers, ties, etc.  All proceeds go to the scholarship fund.  Remember – gently used uniform and text book donations always accepted! 

 

 

Calendar

Thursday, May 19                   Marking period IV ends

Friday, May 20                       Middle division review day

Monday, May 23                    Trimester III ends

                                                Middle division review day

Tuesday, May 24                    Mathematics examinations

Wednesday, May 25               Science examinations

Thursday, May 26                   English/Reading examinations for grade 6

                                                English examinations for grade 7 & 8

Friday, May 27                       Geography examination for grade 6

                                                History examinations for grade 7 & 8

Monday, May 30                    Memorial Day – School Holiday

Tuesday, May 31                    Foreign Language examination for grade 8

Wednesday, June 1                 Exam make-up day

Thursday, June 2                     Honors Night convocation, 7:00 PM in the Dimmitt Gym

                                                Dance for 7th and 8th graders following Honors Night convocation in the lower division activity center.  Please pick your children up in front of the lower division at 10:30 PM.