
The Royal Scroll - January
October 2nd, 2023

Aronimink Elementary School
Physical Education News
The Reindeer Romp was a huge success! Thank you parents for coming out and watching your children run in the Reindeer Romp. Appreciation is also extended to the wonderful home and school parents for having a coffee, donuts and passing out hand warmers. We hope that fun runs like the Romp will encourage your child to better understand the importance of running and the benefits it has on their body. Please make sure your children dress appropriately for outside Physical Education class by wearing winter hats and winter gloves to school beginning on January 22nd.
We will be having Physical Education class outside for the next six weeks and it’s going to be cold!
~Mr. Dunn, Phys. Ed. Teacher
2nd Grade News
Happy New Year! Our second graders have been very busy and are very excited for all 2024 has in store for us! By now you should have received a permission slip for our upcoming field trip to the Franklin Institute which is on January 25th. Please make sure you have signed and returned to your child’s teacher. We are very excited to explore the museum and see all it has to offer! Please also remember to work on Amira, Waggle, and IXL at home. These programs will enhance your child’s academics as they are set up to meet the needs of each student, so please have your child work on
these programs during any free time at home.
Reminders
Your child needs to bring their Chrome book to school everyday CHARGED. Your child needs to have a working pair of headphones. It is that time of year when your child needs to replenish their supplies (crayons, pencils, tissues, and paper towels are a few things needed!)
Second Graders should be increasing their reading fluency and math fact fluency.
To Increase Reading Fluency
Have your child rereading familiar stories, reading sight words, completing the homework fluency passages, Read with AMIRA
To Increase Math Fact Fluency
Review math flash cards, practice facts on paper, complete XTRA math on computer, access teacher
recommendations in IXL
If you need assistance or materials to help your child please reach out to your child’s teacher.
Also, reach out with any questions or concerns.
~The Second Grade Teachers
Beverly Hills Middle School
Puzzle Wars
in Ms. Rush's class
Dissecting Frogs
in Mr. Malloy, Mrs. Cocco, and Mrs. Panella's class
Bywood Elementary School
A Message from Principal Meehan
Happy New Year Bywood Families,
We are off to a great start this New Year. Already we have begun our Aimsweb Benchmark Reading Testing with students. This is where the students are tested to see how many words they can read in one minute. Ask your child how many words they read! Next up we have our Map Benchmark Testing for Math and Reading. This test is on the computer, so please make sure your child has their computer charged and ready for school everyday. Although there is not much your child can do to study for these tests, it is important that they get a good night's sleep and start their day off right. Our EL student's are also taking their ACCESS tests this month and next month. As always please appreciate each other, and remember.....keep smiling!
Students and teachers play "Cookie Face" at the Student of the Month Assembly
Charles Kelly Elementary School
5th Grade - ELA
Students in Ms. D’s 5th grade ELA class worked on story elements by creating a “Christmas Roll-a-
Story”. They had so much fun in their groups developing a story based on each roll, incorporating a character, setting (time), setting (place), and conflict. They had great creativity, teamwork, and even got to share these at the end to the class!
Drexel Hill Middle School
Check out some of the things happening behind the doors of DHMS!
Garrettford Elementary School
Winter Breakfast and Card Giveaway - The Traditions Continue
The Home and School Association hosted a fun-filled Winter Breakfast for our families. The event was well attended and provided a time for families to come together before the break to enjoy some downtime with the children. The Home and School Association also provided the opportunity for anyone who wanted to see Santa and get a free picture taken for the holidays.
This year Garrettford celebrated our 42nd year doing the community card give away! This tradition is something not only the staff and students look forward to, even the community members are excited! Over the years there have been so many stories accumulated reflecting how this activity has touched community members and made a difference in their lives. This year, Mrs. Udovich returned from the walk and was excited to report that a resident with an Irish brogue met them while standing on her front steps waving to the children and shouting "We've been waiting for you all and were worried you weren't coming this year!" The students loved the positive affirmation. Garrettford also has a wonderful couple who donate tremendous amounts of things for our students each year, and their contact was initially started by just that holiday card left in their door.
Mrs. Kennedy's favorite story is still one from several years ago, while Mr. McAllister was still the Principal. She received a phone call from an elderly resident who explained that he was keeping watch at his wife's deathbed and hadn't really been home to see if the children had left a card at the house this year. Then his voice broke and he began to cry and said, "The nurse just brought in a few homemade cards and said that they had been given to the nursing home by one of the schools." When the gentleman opened the cards, he discovered they were from Garrettford students. He called to make sure we knew how much this meant to him at this difficult time and reported that his wife always enjoyed the cards over the years. We are hopeful that if we can make a positive difference in one person's life, then it will be a good day. This activity was one more way we shared the kindness theme with the students.
Making Memories!
Hillcrest Elementary School
Hillcrest Holiday Sing-A-Long
Fourth Grade surprised the school with an awesome performance of All I Want for Christmas is You! They have been working so hard on this performance and they did a GREAT job!
Mr. Martin ready for his role in the Staff 12 Days of Christmas Song!
Mr. McCauley in the holiday spirit for the Staff 12 Days of Christmas Song!
Mrs. Sattherwaite ready to go for her role in the Staff 12 Days of Christmas Song!
Frosty the Snowman made an appearance at Hillcrest!
Kindergarten
Kindergarten is getting ready to celebrate our 100th day of school next month! We are busy learning and growing in our classrooms. We can't believe we are half-way done Kindergarten and on our way to being first graders!
Highland Park Elementary School
HP Magazine Club
HP Magazine Club printed their first magazine in December. It included artwork, book reviews, interviews, codes to solve, and more. The students worked hard under the direction of Mr. O'Sullivan, Ms. Fox, and Mr. Rorem to print such an amazing first issue.
Gingerbread Fun
It is a Highland Park tradition for 5th graders to build a gingerbread structure in December. This year, we had some amazing designs, including houses, towers, schools, farms, barns, a school bus, a fashion runway, soccer fields/stadiums, and many more!
Kindergarten Center
Cultural Fair
Students grabbed their "passports" and jetted off to different countries to learn about different cultures and to celebrate diversity!
Italy
Mexico
Albania
Bangladesh
Germany
Australia
Ecuador
India
Spain
Honduras
Greece
Poland
Brazil
Italy
Egypt
USA
Ireland
Primos Elementary School
Student of the Month Assembly
Our November Students of the Month were acknowledged. Winners had the opportunity to participate in fun activities!
Stonehurst Hills Elementary School
ELL News
ELL Teachers: Kristie Bean, Lillian Young, & Lisa Egan
For the month of January, our bilingual buddies made buddy bracelets. Third, fourth and fifth grade buddies helped our newcomer students pick their colored string, spell out their name, and say the colors of their beads as they placed them on the string. To conclude, buddy pairs counted the number of beads on their bracelet in English.
First Grade
Prior to Winter Break, the first grader's created and decorated Holiday cards and distributed them to teachers and staff members within the building to spread Holiday cheer!
They enjoyed using graham crackers, candy, and icing to create their own gingerbread houses!
Listening to a story read by Sergeant Stevens from UDPD.
Making 2024 headbands and discussing resolutions to celebrate the New Year.
Westbrook Park Elementary
Reading MTSS
Kindergarteners are working hard learning their letter names and sounds during MTSS using playdough and technology!
G.L.A.M. Notes
Gym
In December, our students participated in a Bowling unit. They practiced a number of skills including rolling, accuracy, and other skills used in the game of bowling. To finish the month, they participated in our annual winter rock and bowl with laser lights and other added fun. The students look forward to doing this every year and had a lot of fun with it.
Library
Library looks a little different on Fifth Day Fridays. The students have the opportunity to explore their creativity while working together to collaborate and explore a variety of activities. They teamed up to build using magnetic tiles, legos, making posters, partner reading, beaded bracelets, and good old board games. We all look forward to Fifth Day Friday!
Happy Reading,
Suzanne Farrell
Arts
In art class we are working on wonderful art projects together. In First Grade we are working on large Georgia O’Keeffe flowers. In Second Grade we are working on shape pictures that are reduced and that are colored using a crayon rubbing technique. In Third Grade we are working on colonial portrait silhouettes. In Fourth Grade we are finishing our landscapes and seascapes based on Vincent Van Gogh’s artistic style. In Fifth Grade we are working on symmetrical team jerseys.
Music
Words cannot describe how proud I am of all of the students for putting on such a successful concert back in December. Between the orchestra, band, the revival of the select choir, and the 4th and 5th grade chorus, so much talent was showcased, and the students put on quite a show for their families and friends. For the vocal program, we officially started on a fantastic spring set, which will include Sound of Music for the select choir, and Rainbow Connection from The Muppet Movie for the 4th and 5th grade chorus. In music class, we are continuing to work on performance etiquette and other concepts for all grades, and 3rd graders will be starting to learn recorders soon.
Upper Darby High School
Model Senate
Twelve Upper Darby students competed on December 17 at the 2023 Model Senate on Science and Technology at Temple University. From the perspective of U.S. Senators, Expert Witnesses, and Journalists, students explored two topics of critical importance confronting the legislative branch of the United States; Examining the Regulation of A.I. and Cybersecurity, and Ensuring Medical Innovation. Two Upper Darby students earned awards: Outstanding Senator: Angelique Mora and Outstanding Expert Witness: Tasneem Yeasmin.
Unified Bocce
Congratulations to the Upper Darby High School Unified Bocce team, who tied against Ridley High School during their first match of the season just before the break!
Ethics Bowl
Congratulations to both competing teams in The 11th Annual Upper Darby Ethics Bowl, a rigorous collaborative discourse, where seminar students from two combined classes face off against each other in a sudden death competition. It was a very close match this year, but the combined Junior/Freshman team edged out the combined Senior/ Sophomore Team.
Students spent the semester researching and preparing cases with topics including; the morality of true crime shows, whether it is morally permissible to lie to someone who is dying, and revising racist passages in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The teams are scored on their understanding of key dimensions of the cases, as viewed through various ethical lenses, as well as awareness and consideration of opposing viewpoints, insightful response to questioning, and respectful dialogue.
Junior and Freshman Team
Delanie Jordan (11), John Peter Quillen (11), Kenya Breakenridge (11), Sylvia Langston (9), Caileigh
Miller(9)
The Super Speaker Award: Alice Master (12)
Senior and Sophomore Team
Alice Master (12), Janell Moore (12), Mike Tully (12), Josiah Marker (10), Khandakar Mahin (10)
Moderator: Rayan Hansali (12)