Tiger Talk

By Aza Chang

On Wednesday, May 22, Central Middle School’s Debate Team came back with some thrilling news! In total, CMS sent 4 teams for the Debate Competition at Saint Elizabeth University - 2 affirmative and 2 negative.

By Ilia Pankratov

On Friday, May 10th, the Victorian Era, 63 years of rule by Queen Victoria in England, 1837-1901, was brought to our classrooms in Central Middle School. Students were able to explore a multitude of aspects of Victorian Era life provided to us by the PTO and school staff. Students moved with their groups, from different parts of a common day for a person of the Victorian Era and experienced the different games available over a hundred years ago in partners or larger groups. Those games included versions of dominoes, bowling, ring toss, backgammon, checkers, and of course chess. Contrary to popular belief, many tabletop games that we play in the twenty-first century share some of their roots in older games like those during the Victorian Era; some even remained unchanged. Students participated in a dance class where they learned the basic skills to perform a simple partner dance, which originated in England. Additionally, the 7th graders played a guessing game where one person stands while encircled by others, with them passing around a marker, representing a shoe, to one another while music is playing. When the music stops, the person in the middle has to guess who has the marker, making a fast-paced game of luck and poker-faces. Next, students made and designed their own thaumatrope, a card with a picture on each side, attached to two pieces of string you hold in your hands. When you spin the strings rapidly, the two pictures blend and look like they are part of one. Finally, rounding out the day was a Victorian tea, filled with as many snacks and beverages as you can count. Thank you to all the PTO and school staff who helped bring this wonderful event to educate and entertain seventh grade students about Victorian life to Central Middle School!

By Aza Chang

On April 17, 2024, at Oak Knoll, six of our Central students participated in the math consortium with Mr. Gillespie. Aza Chang, Anya Jain, and Camila Rodriguez represented Central's Varsity team, and Ilia Pankratov, Emily Spencer, and Siyona Sanghavi represented the Junior Varsity team. Our school this year competed against Frelinghuysen, Morris Plains, Oak Knoll, Oratory Prep, and Ridgedale.

In the main competition, there were 30 math questions to solve in 30 minutes. This year, Central's JV team placed 1st in the Math Consortium Competition, answering 27 out of 30 questions correctly, which is absolutely incredible with the time given to these students!

After the competition, the students were separated into three separate groups to rotate among three stations. One section was finding a suitable equation or formula for the famous Painted Cube Problem. Here students used sugar cubes to construct cubes with all sorts of dimensions to recognize a pattern among the number of sides a smaller cube in the bigger cube would be covered if dipped in paint. For example, in a 3 by 3, there would be 1 cube with no sides covered since it is inside and isolated from the outside, 6 cubes with one side covered, 12 cubes with two sides covered, and 8 sides covered on three sides. Using this organizing system, students experimented with 1x1, 2x2, 3x3, 4x4, and even 5x5. Another challenge students experienced was probability. This was an introduction to statistics, where a coin would be flipped countless times to be recorded, to show the difference between a humanly formed pattern and a natural coin flipping sequence. Finally, the third station was a strategic game. In this problem, two dice were be rolled, and the resulting numbers would form the dimensions of a quadrilateral to be placed in a 10 by 10 grid. Strategy is needed in order to fit all these possible quadrilaterals into this grid. Depending on how one placed their shapes in the grid, it may result in no space for the next shape to be placed, which would end your game, or the exact number of spaces left for the randomly rolled dimensions from the dice. Here the objective is to have the closest number of grids covered to 100.

“It was just absolutely brilliant! Just seeing the students smiling faces as they race through the given math problems, would just put a smile on your face,” stated Mr. Gillespie, the coach of CMS for the Math Consortium and the 7th grade Social Studies teacher.

All the students enjoyed their time together solving math problems in such an adrenaline rushing event. ...won chocolate coins from winning a game ....

So, if you are now interested in joining the Math Consortium, don’t forget to sign up next year.

By Tim Hansen

The Central Middle School baseball team went 12-0 in conference and 12-1 including out of conference games. They finished the season with a championship title and the best record in the league. They had close calls in games of the regular season and in the semifinals of the playoffs.

The baseball team started the season at South Hunterdon on April 9, 2024 and won 15-0 in 6 innings. They were led by Brady Simo who had 2 hits and 4 runs to his name. This game started a 4 game winning streak where they outscored their opponents 46 to 4. They collected their first and last loss on Tuesday April 23, where SPF out scored them 7 to 6 the Central team only collected 6 hits and 4 earned runs on SPF. They quickly bounced back from this loss with a 3 nothing win at Valley View. They were fueled by Lucas Sheehan who had 1 RBI and pitched 7 innings with only 3 hits allowed. After this they beat Readington 17-2, Green Brook 11-3, JP Case 5-4 and for the final game of the season they crushed North Plainfield 8-0. This was the end of the regular season and the start of the playoffs.

In the first round of playoffs, Central faced South Hunterdon, who had saved their best pitcher, for they feared the Central team. They battled hard keeping the score 4-1 through 5 and scored 2 in the top of the 6th. The Central team quickly recovered and dropped 7 in the bottom of the inning and held them in the 7th, ending South Hunterdon's playoff run. Central's next challenge was Bound Brook, where they scored early and took the lead into the 5th with a double making the score 5-3. Central scored 3 in the last inning making the score 7-5, taking the win. In the championship, Central did not give up and ran and easily beat Valley View 10-0! This was the end of the season that the team will never forget!

By Lena Stohrer

The Central girls' softball team is currently undefeated as of May 3rd, and off to a great start. They are coached again by Mr. Hockmeyer, and the players include: Paige Anthony, Orla Butler, Ellie Clark, Maddie Falvey, Ella Giambrone, Riley Hall, Ava Maio, Micah Pritzlaff, Lena Stohrer, Leah Szekeres, Arielle Varvar, Deirdre Vanderstreet, Kathryn Wanamaker, and Bella Wiggins. The team has already played Valley View, Bedminster, Bridgewater, South Hunterdon, Somerville, Manville, Bound Brook, Readington, Greenbrook, Warren Hills and Bernardsville. The most interesting game was against Greenbrook since our team has mercy ruled many other teams. Greenbrook was definitely our toughest competitor, as they have a very skilled pitcher, defense, and offense. Central's softball team is as skilled as they are because Mr. Hockmeyer pushes them to work to their highest potential. Just recently, on Wednesday the 22nd, the girls won the championship for the third year in a row against Greenbrook, going undefeated for two years in a row!

Congratulations to Central 8th grader, Amanda Shatz, for earning the Morris County Superintendent's Leadership Award! She was selected by Central's faculty for her character and for the positive impact that she has had on our school.

As a thanks to all the PTO members who worked so hard throughout the year at Central and Millington, a small event was held here at Central Middle School during the first week of June. The PTO helped with Colonial Day, International Day, Medieval Day, Victorian Day, Food days, CMS merch, and so much more. To show our gratitude, CMS held a little reception. After an introduction from Mr. Viturello, the Guide Band All Stars performed "Satin Doll" for the PTO.

Listed below are the students who performed and their instrument:

Band: Satin Doll

Aza Chang (Alto Sax)

Sreepriya Shylesh (Alto Sax)

Lennin Rodriguez (Tenor Sax)

Ilia Pankratov (Bari Sax)

Eloise Guarin (Clarinet)

Sreelakshmi Shylesh (Flute)

Niya Raghu (Flute)

Franklin Clark (Percussion)

After the tunes, our Student Council presented their speeches in their gratitude for the PTO. Our student Council included:

Student Council

President: Leo Yao

Vice President; Aza Chang

Treasurer: Shelby Lipman

Secretary: Anya Jain

We would like to thank the PTO again for all they do for our students and staff.