
The Royal Scroll - February

Aronimink Elementary School
100th Day Highlight
Reading Team's February Reading Frenzy
The Reading Team is encouraging Aronimink classrooms to participate in a healthy competition to promote fluency. During the month of February, classrooms will be competing to earn the most hearts for daily fluency practice. Prizes will be awarded to the winning classrooms and teachers!
Goal: Each student will practice oral reading fluency for a minimum of 15 minutes a day during the school day. Teachers will post a heart with the date outside of their classroom each day their class meets the goal. February Fluency Frenzy will begin on Thursday, February 1st and end on Thursday, February 29th. Don’t forget that students are also encouraged to practice fluency each night with Amira, Waggle, library books, ebooks on MackinViIA, HMH, or any other resources to keep them reading!
~Reading Team
Art News
Grade 1
Our first graders are creating zoo animals out of painted and textured paper they made.
Grade 2
Second graders just completed heart prints demonstrating symmetry and patterns.
Grade 3
Third graders are putting their finishing touches on their animal for their Philadelphia Zoo logo designs. Several of their creations are in this newsletter.
Grade 4
Fourth graders are in the process of completing their radial design paintings.
Grade 5
Our fifth grade students are learning about how artists use the illusion of space in their work and they will use this knowledge to develop their own compositions.
~Mrs. York, Art Teacher
Philadelphia Zoo logo designs and paintings by 3rd graders Above: Ashton S. Below: Willow W.
Clockwise: Radial design with contrasting warm/cool colors by 4th graders Priya R., Heleena H. , and Lucy P.B.
Beverly Hills Middle School
Mrs. Ruddy's Folktales, Myths, and Legends Elective Class
The Great Clash of the Clothes-Pin Titans
Recently, in Mrs. Ruddy's Folktales, Myths and Legends Class, students learned about the Battle of the Titans and decided to have their own clothespin battle to see who would be the king of the clothespin mountain. On A day, Ghulam Khan captured the most clothespins from his opponent. On B. Day, Jordan Berthau came from behind to rock-paper-scissors himself to victory.
Next, the students learned the Myth of Sisyphus, the King of Corinth, who tried to cheat death. However, Sisyphus would be doomed to push a boulder to the top of a steep hill forever, the rock rolling down again every time he reached the top. In Room 215, a "mountain" of books was assembled and teams took turns attempting to roll their paper boulder up the hill by blowing it with a straw. The teams were fast, but one student had the fastest of both classes. After a lot of practice, Ayan Ansari propelled his boulder up the mountain in just seconds!
Spelling Bee
Bywood Elementary School
100th Day Highlight
Student of the Month Assembly
Playing Minute-to-Win-it Games
Charles Kelly Elementary School
PECO Sponsored Assembly
Students enjoyed a live comedic performance sponsored by PECO about energy and energy conservation. 2nd grader Amine was even invited to join the show as his fellow classmates cheered him on!
Students Celebrate Love and Kindness
Mrs. Lori's 3rd grade enjoyed ice cream sundaes. Students also decorated their bags and filled them with all the cards and treats that they received from their classmates.
Ms. Pandola's 4th graders enjoyed sweet treats and a little extra time for creativity. Students painted their very own canvases.
Drexel Hill Middle School
Check out the students dissecting frogs!
Garrettford Elementary School
Student's Comments Inspires New Academic Club
Each Tuesday in January and February, students have been arriving by 8:15 a.m. and working with each other to improve their math skills. This activity was inspired by one of Mrs. Udovich's students. During one of the math classes, students were paired to help each other. Jianna said to Mrs. Udovich, "That was really fun, I wish we could do this more often." With that, Mrs. Udovich started to look at the calendar to figure out a morning time which would not conflict with other scheduled activities to start Math Club. Mrs. Udovich asked her team for some help and gathered names of students who would be great coaches and names of students who would be interested in getting some extra help. This collaborative effort has been very successful and well received by the students. The end date for Math Club has not been determined because if students want to continue helping and getting help, Mrs. Udovich's door will always be open.
Students Celebrate Diversity and Acceptance Through Their Art
Mikayla’s Voice® is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded to include kids of all abilities. Earlier this year, Garrettford was approached and offered a scholarship to provide an assembly program followed later in the school year by a hands on art project, conducted by a visiting artist and Mr. Carey. The mission of Mikayla’s Voice is that “all children should feel valued and welcome in their school and community, and understand that it’s their responsibility to help others to feel the same.” Mikayla’s Voice challenges kids to create a kinder, more inclusive world where everyone has a friend. In support of this mission, a group of Garrettford students worked together to create a collaborative masterpiece which will be installed in our cafeteria.
This project is part of “Wheels of Friendship and Kaya’s Kaleidoscope.” Inspired by Mikayla and her art class, Wheels of Friendship is an original art program that incorporates painting and offers success for children of all abilities. Together they choose the theme for their art and decide how best to represent diversity and inclusion. As they incorporate different colors and interesting textures the artists are learning, and will ultimately teach others who view their art, about different challenges and supports. “Kaya’s Kaleidoscope is created when students complete their own individual canvases that work together in an interactive, almost puzzle like design. Symbolic of school communities, every canvas is as essential to the mural as each student to their school.” The students involved in the program were very excited and it was awesome to see them helping one another as they worked. Everyone is anticipating the completed canvas. The Garrettford community is very appreciative of Mikayla’s Voice and Senator Casey for providing this unique and creative opportunity for our students to learn and share kindness while representing the diversity of Upper Darby students.
Highland Park Elementary School
R.O.A.R.!
In January, Highland Park started ROAR!- Regular On Time Attendance Rocks! Congrats to homerooms 107, 209, 201, 302, and 309! Special shout out to 201 for having the best attendance in the whole school for the month of January! Students in each homeroom got certificates to celebrate! Thank you to Mrs. Hanna and her fifth grade helpers for presenting ROAR! to Highland Park.
Fourth Grade
Fourth grade competed in the annual jump rope contest! Each homeroom had a competition during PE to find one student to represent their class. The six homeroom winners competed for the spot as fourth grade's number one jump roper!
Officer Returning Home
In early February, there were local officers injured in the line of duty. One of the officers was returning home with a police escort on February 9th. The Highland Park 4th and 5th graders made signs, and held flags to line West Chester Pike and wave at him as he was escorted home. We are thankful that he is home safe with his family.
Hillcrest Elementary School
100th Day Highlight
5th Graders in Mr. Tolomeo's music class are learning to play the ukulele!
In Mr. Tolomeo's 2nd grade music class, students are doing a "Write the Room" activity, where they try to find different instruments posted around the room and write them down on their worksheet!
Fourth Grade
Fourth Graders were "Earthquake Engineers"! We created structures to withstand a simulated earthquake.
Kindergarten Center
100th Day Highlight
Learning addition
Learning science with marble run
Learning with technology!
Learning new words!
Primos Elementary School
90s on the 90th Day
Students and staff dressed like the 90s for the 90th day of school!
Stonehurst Hills Elementary School
100th Day Highlight
News from the Art Room
Art Teacher: Megan Connell
In art we studied the color wheel. 1st - 3rd grade students focused on primary, secondary, warm, and cool color groups. 4th and 5th grade students focused on primary, secondary, and tertiary color groups as well as touching on warm and cool colors. Students were then provided with baskets of colorful paper and were asked to create their own color wheels by finding the colors and gluing them into a circle.
Primary Colors: Red, Yellow, Blue
Secondary Colors: Orange, Green, Purple
Tertiary Colors: In between (yellowish orange, blueish green, etc)
Warm Colors: Red, Yellow, Orange (remind us of fire)
Cool Colors: Blue, Green, Purple (remind us of water)
To celebrate Black History Month we will be starting a project inspired by artist Faith Ringgold. Students will be creating their own versions of her famous story quilts by drawing a story of a time that was important to them as well as decorating the frame to look like a quilt.
Duct Tape Fundraiser
The attendance and tier 2 teams ran an exciting fundraiser where students could pay to have the chance to duct tape either Mr. Chisholm or Mr. Josh to the wall! Mr. Josh ended up with the most votes!
Westbrook Park Elementary
Black History Month
First Grade
In first grade, we have been talking about what Black History Month is and the importance of celebrating it. We have researched and learned about various African American people that have made a difference in American history.
Second Grade
Students in Mrs. Desantis's class learned about six different countries and their immigrant population's history in the United States. They worked in groups to match captions with pictures.
Third Grade
Third graders in Room 204 learned about the famous Jackie Robinson for Black History Month. Students honored him by hanging a "42" Jersey in the hallway and making their own baseball gloves. Students in Room 208 researched famous African Americans for Black History Month.
Fourth Grade
Fifth Grade
Autism Support Classrooms
Students in Room 21 decorated their door featuring famous African Americans on the Autism spectrum.
Upper Darby High School
Taking the Plunge for a Good Cause
Upper Darby High School Represents at Philadelphia's Polar Plunge
On a chilly Friday, February 9th, Upper Darby students and staff attended the annual Polar Plunge, held at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. This fundraiser for Special Olympics Pennsylvania raised a total of $139,080. The Upper Darby High School Team finished 6th in fundraising, contributing $5,950.
Top Fundraiser Liam
Liam raised $1080, and was in 7th place for individual fundraiser.
Anticipating the Plunge
An excited Miss Reynolds and company on the way down to the stadium.
UDHS Underdogs Triumph at Hi-Q
As the attached picture shows, the HI-Q team had an impressive match on February 1, triumphing over Garnet Valley and the Academy of Notre Dame with a score of 53. For some context, a good score for Hi-Q is in the low 40s, making UDHS's 53 one of the highest scores in the past several years for UDHS. Club advisor Joe Riggs explains that "Defeating Garnet Valley is the HI-Q equivalent of beating Tom Brady era Patriots, Mahomes-Kelce-Reid Chiefs (or Manchester City/United, Bayern in the Bundesliga), the bull in The Sun Also Rises." Mr. Rigg extends his thanks to "All staff members and administrators for nurturing such talented students."
Model UN Team
Model UN Team Advisor Marlene Brubaker and her students attended their first official Model UN Conference at Moorestown High School in New Jersey on Saturday, February 3.
To participate, students write a three-page essay representing a country, a state, or individual, and argue on their behalf. For the USA and Argentina, the Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee (SOCHUM) debated solutions for the reproductive rights and autonomy of women. For Ecuador and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) discussed solutions to the refugee crisis. For the state of Maryland, solutions to prison reform in America, And finally, Sarah Ferguson discussed the cause of the death of Princess Diana.