On Feb. 16th the first grade students looked like they were 100 years old! They were celebrating the 100th day of school in first grade. Some students had gray hair and others had canes and were dressed like they were very old. The teachers planned for the students to travel to each room which had a different activity for the 100th day. The students had fun building towers with 100 cups. Some towers were wide and some were tall.

Next, they played subtraction Bingo and then they made pictures using the numbers that make 100.

They made giraffes, Pokemon, houses, and a baseball stadium. The students were very creative. Finally, the students were asked to do several things in 100 seconds. They had to clap their hands, blink their eyes, and jump up and down while saying their ABC’s as many times as they could in 100 seconds. All of the students were happy and excited during this 100th day celebration. They can’t wait until next year in second grade to see how they will celebrate the 100th day again next year.

Peter Reynolds made a stop at Afton School to share his new book entitled,Reflections of Me. He is going to visit 10 schools across the United States to encourage kids to read.Peter Hamilton Renyolds lived in Canada with his twin brother and three other siblings in a small kitchen with a big kitchen table. His mother encouraged the children to tell stories about their day. So Peter began his writing career when he was nine years old. He always likes to tell stories and they all began when he was a child. Now he's 63 years old and has written 85 books for children to enjoy reading. He gave us advice to always be strong and never give up when you are writing. It will always help you be a better writer. He likes to draw and tell his stories. One of his most famous books is the Dot. The book tries to have you be creative with a single dot on a page. Usually it takes him about 2 months to write a book. His favorite book is Matilda, and his favorite character is Ms. Honey. He loves to write stories for his children and now has a new granddaughter named Hazel. He will be writing stories for her, too. His inspiration for writing comes from his chidlren. He uses his imagination to be creative. Millions of children love to read his books. He wote the book ISH and the Word Collector which are very popular for kids. He owns a company called Fablevision which turns his books into videos and Peter reading the books. We think he will continue to write many new books for kids in the future.

We were very lucky to be able to meet the author Sara Shepard at a school assembly. She is the famous author of the Penny Draws books for children. She has four books about Penny and plans to write more. Sara asked the students to give her ideas for new books about Penny. Some of the ideas were: Penny goes to a Taylor Swift Concert, Penny gets a new dog, and Penny faces her fears.The students enjoyed hearing how she gets her ideas for books and how she writes them. She told us she had a diary when she was a kid. She would draw characters with square heads. Then she read the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books and noticed how the characters were made. This helped her to make drawings of her characters in her books.

Also, she got ideas for her characters from people she has interacted with over time.

Now, everyone wants to read all of the Penny Draws books and Mrs. Moyle has them in the library to borrow. Happy Reading!

Every year on March 14th Mrs. Murphy’s class celebrates Pi Day. The 5th grade students made Pi pillows and we decorated them with various digits of Pi. In preparation for Pi day we made a poster which included a diagram of a circle with the labels: radius, diameter, and circumference. We then made it to the younger grade classrooms to share with them. While we were there we read to them the book,¨Happy Pi Day to You¨ to them by Dr. Seuss. In math, we made Pi circle graphs with characteristics about ourselves and we animated our faces. While doing all those different activities we munched on delicious Pi shaped cookies that Mrs. Murphy made for us.

We will never forget the Pi day at Mrs. Murphyś fifth grade class.

This year, Afton’s PTO hosted a Small & Tall Starry Ball for all Afton students and families to enjoy! The PTO prepared for hours and hours to make it a fun and awesome experience for everyone to enjoy! There were various activities to do at the Small and Tall Starry Night Ball: including an awesome DJ ( DJ James) who played popular songs for people to dance to, tons and tons of snacks and candy in the cafeteria, a photo booth in the gym, and beautiful decorations in the lobby. There was also a variety of glow bracelets and rings, star glasses, and gold, blue, and silver necklaces for the parents and kids to wear that lit up the event! Boy does Afton know how to party!!

DJ James had everyone jumping and singing in the gym. Also, DJ James was handing out raffle prizes and coupons to Wendy’s and passing out Target gift cards to people who were having a good time and singing their hearts out!

Time flies when you’re dancing and singing!

Overall, Afton’s Small and Tall Starry Night Ball was a great success! All thanks to our wonderful PTO! Here are some pictures of that awesome night!

On Wednesday March 20th 2024, the first grade students had a Fancy Nancy Day to celebrate reading the wonderful Fancy Nancy Books. The first graders dressed up really fancy and walked down a long red carpet in different ways. They shared a boring word and then they made that word fancier by picking a synonym for the word and used the word in a sentence.The purpose of this fancy Nancy day was to show new words that they learned over the school year. Now here are some words some kids shared with us.

Astonishing, Spectacular, Intelligent, Thrilling, Gorgeous, Generous,Fantastic, Exhausted,Ginormous, Exaggerated, Excellent, and so many more.

The parents and teachers all clapped for the great performances that the first grade students shared with everyone. It was exciting to see what new words the first graders had learned so far.

Great job First Graders!

In the beginning of fifth grade the students were given the opportunity to join a great team, the Reading Olympics team! Thirty-two students joined and created 3 teams to represent Afton Scbool. We met almost every Friday to discuss the novels that we had read.There was a list of twenty-five we had to take the time to read before the big competition on Wednesday, April 3, 2024. The team names were: The Reading Rebels, The Bookworms Rise Again, and The Cliffhangers.

Some of the more popular books we read were: From the Mixed up Files of Mrs.Basil E Frankweiler,Saving Winslow, Unplugged, El Deafo, Clicked, Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes,and last but not least Louisiana's Way Home. Overall, we really got a charge out of reading all of the books and answering questions against other teams at the competition. After all three rounds of questions, the Afton teams were unbeatable going 3 for 3. Every team was announced as blue ribbon winners scoring 59,60,and 66. We felt flabbergasted about how we did so well answering all the questions, it was a big,emotional feeling of shock and disbelief but we were still happy we won. We are looking forward to doing this again as sixth graders at William Penn Middle School.

To kickoff the fourth semester of the 2023 - 2024 school year, the Philadelphia Union Soccer came to Afton school on April 9th for a fun assembly.

The coaches who came wanted to encourage students to play soccer. They asked current and former Pyscial Education students of the month compete against each other in a shootout to win a Philadelphia Union shirt. Two students from each grade level competed against each other to see how many goals they could score in 1 minute. After they let any students 1v1 the mascot, Phang the Snake. At the end every class got a picture with Phang the snake.

During lunch, and recess, they gave some students the opportunity to shoot the soccer ball into a mini net outside of school. The kids enjoyed the special treat.

They came to spread the word that the Philadelphia Union has a summer youth camp for soccer. They also wanted people to come see the Union play in person.

Spring is very exciting at Afton School. We had many events and one of the best events was the Fun Run. The PTO asked the students to get pledges of money from their families and friends to support our school. Each class had a goal that included each student raising at least $60.00. Each student was able to win prizes for getting pledges from their families. Some of the prizes were: bracelets, keychains, water bottle raffles, and fun bins. Then there were special gift baskets that were given out, too.

On the day of the event the students ran the Fun Run on the school blacktop parking lot during special time. Mr. Sodano told everyone they could start by walking to warm-up. Next, they could run with friends around the oval course.

At the end of the run every student got a popsicle. Every morning we got a fun run update from the 5th grade announcers. People from all over the world donated to our Afton fun run. We raised $46,101.00! Now we get the chance to put a pie in Dr. Masgai's face!

Thank you to everyone who signed up to raise money for our school. We are very proud of you!

This year the annual Odyssey of the Mind competition took place at Temple University in Ambler, PA. Eighty schools sent their school teams to compete against other schools in a creative problem-solving challenge. Each team was given choices to solve a problem. There were spontaneous in which the team would have to either have to say something about a certain word, say something about a certain object, or build something according to a certain prompt.

The Manor team, which was the team I was on for OM, had many members and we chose Opening Night Antics as our long-term prompt. The prompt required us to retell a book from a list we were given make something go wrong and have a sound effect. We chose Treasure Island and decided our antic would be a wormhole opening up out of nowhere when somebody slips and falls and accidentally presses it. My role was the critic which meant I got to show my opinion on a lot of the scenes. Overall,I recommend it to anyone and everyone.

AI Techno was the project of the Makefield Team which Seraphina & Sami were part on for OM. In the skit, they created artwork and a machine that would judge the artwork and then dismantle it. The artist would have to defend their work that it was amazing. The artwork was about gods from nature. After the competition, the Makefield Team was selected to go to States. They will go to the state competition in May. Good Luck to the Makefield Team.

The Afton Science Fair took place on May 16, 2024. Every student from kindergarten to fifth grade was invited to enter a science project. Over 50 students made a Science Fair Project for the fair.There was a large variety of projects to see. Each student stood by their project and explained the details of their projects.

Some of the projects were: How many blades should be on a wind turbine? and Gummy bear bath, and Your Brain and Electrical Connections. Some children did projects about plants and testing different kinds of food. Two projects focused on figuring out what water bottle is the best and worth the money. Some students did sports or egg experiments. Other students did experiments about boats and buoyancy.

Every student scientist won a science medal for their great projects they presented at the fair. Afton families came to view the students' projects on Thursday night. On Friday morning each class was able to go and see all of the projects on display. Everyone learned a lot about many different science topics. Also, everyone enjoyed seeing their friends' projects. It was a great way to celebrate science.

The third grade students were happy to go on a field trip to the Churchville Nature Center on April 15th. It was a splendid trip into the past to learn about the Lenni Lenape Native Americans. We went to six different centers: fire making, cordage making, cooking, family life, hunting, and gardening. In the fire making we made fire by rubbing sticks and wood to make friction which causes the ash to come out and create a flame by blowing on cattail fluff.

In the hunting center we played a game where we threw an ear of corn through a hoop. Also, we threw sticks through hoops to practice hunting.

We used rafia to make cordage. We weaved the rafia into string or rope. The Native Americans used the cordage to hold up the houses they built.

In family life they showed us a small door in the Wigwam to keep the heat in. We sat on animal skins while the guide told us about how the women took their babies to work in the garden. The men had to clear the area of plants and scrubs so the women could plant the three sisters, corn, beans, and squash along with herbs.

The men planted and picked tobacco in their gardens.

Before hunting, the men would take a steam bath in a small wigwam to cleanse themselves so the animals would not smell them coming. The men did not want to kill the animals but they had to survive. They used every part of the deer and other animals. They used the bones for fishing, hunting, and gardening.

We were able to participate in cooking, too. We mashed corn kernels into cornmeal and poured water on it. Then with our hands we made a ball and we put it on a rock next to a fire to cook. We made cornmeal cakes like the Native Americans used to do 500 years ago.

Overall, everyone had a great time learning and doing the same types of things that the Native Americans did. The Churchville Nature Center was an amazing class trip!

On May 15, 2024, Mr. Woodward came to our school to teach us about the art of the jump rope. He taught us how to use it, and he showed us some tricks he could do with it!

Mr. Woodward was born in Texas. He began jump-roping when he was 6, and has been doing it for 28 years. He realized how jumping rope can keep you in good health and make you a better athlete. In his lifetime, he has won National and World Championships in Jump Rope. He promotes the sport by doing shows, workshops, and camps.

When Mr. Woodward came to our school, he picked 4 students to teach them the basics of jump rope. They had to learn the speed of the jump rope, how to jump over it, and how to spin and do tricks! He showed the students how to do double dutch jump rope. He asked for teacher volunteers to do double dutch! Mrs. Berkowitz and Ms. Wells were brought up to try it! They did a great job and had fun jumping rope.

He demonstrated a lot of different tricks including a backflip, a handstand, and tossing the rope up in the air and catching it by the handles!

He wanted to encourage everyone to try jump rope to get physical activity in order to be in good condition to play sports. Now, we are using jump ropes in our physical education class to keep us healthy and strong.

If you want to learn more go to Mr. Woodward’s website at:

www.learnintheropes.com

In the book, “Riding Freedom”, the story begins in the mid 1800’s in an orphanage in New Hampshire where we were introduced to the main character, Charlotte. Her parents were killed in a horse-drawn wagon accident when she was 2 years old. She went to an orphanage full of boys. Her best friend Hayward, had been adopted a few days after her horse Freedom died. One day, she escaped from the orphanage, with the help of the stable boy Vern aka… her good friend. She disguised herself as a boy because in the mid 1800’s, girls didn’t have as many civil rights as boys. Charlotte came across a stable, cleaned it and slept in the loft. The owner let Charlotte stay because she cleaned the stalls and later became a stagecoach driver herself. She became Ebeneezer’s most well respected worker and moved with him and the company to Rhode Island. Later in the book, Charlotte moved to California where she became blind in one eye because a horse kicked her in the eye. She was determined to still drive stagecoaches so she worked hard to prove it. Surprisingly, Charlotte found out that Ebeneezer knew she was a girl all along. At the end of the book, Charlotte lived on her own ranch that she had wanted since she was a toddler.

I, Sarah Smith, think that if you want a taste of adventure that you would want to read this book. It puts you on the edge of your seat, and I’d give this book a 5 star rating.

I, Kavya Khanna, would give this book a 5 star review. I really liked this book because it contains a lot of cliffhangers and drama. I would say this is a great adventure book.

Congratulations to all of the Afton Express Reporters who gave of their time and writing skills to make the Afton Express Newspaper possible this year! Your stories of the various happenings around our school were interesting to read and highlighted all of the wonderful things happening at Afton School. We wish you a wonderful summer break and thank you for all of your interest in writing for the newspaper!

Happy Summer,

Mrs. Koch & Mrs. Mendlow