Mr. Edwards visited Roslyn Sisley-Kazelunas’ classroom to congratulate Shelby and all of the other students who participated in the program. He explained what a County Executive does, why having a Sports Fishery Advisory Board is important and to talked to each student who wrote an essay. He also handed out certificates to everyone and Shelby received a “Hannah Montana” fishing pole. Shelby’s essay was a humorous account of fishing with her dad.

“I’m very excited to be here and meet each and every one of you. Your essays were incredibly creative and you are lucky to have a teacher who encourages writing,”  said Mr. Edwards. “I hope you all go home  and show whoever you wrote about, whether it’s your parents, grandparents or a friend, the essay. They will think it is really cool that you wrote about them. I heard that this class was very smart and meeting with you today, I can see that it is true. Reading and writing is so important to your future and I thank your teacher for taking the time to enter the contest.”

“It was a great team effort and learning experience,” said Mrs. Andrews. “The students reflected that creating and selling involved more work than they thought!”

Students study careers and entrepreneurship in FACS  including, what are the traits of an entrepreneur? What do you need to become an entrepreneur? Is it difficult to develop a concept (idea) into a profitable product….what about advertising…. a slogan? a logo?

The class brainstormed  possibilities for a business and picked creating  cupcakes to feed the hungry. They were inspired by the book, The Hunger Games that they were all reading, and decided that the “ad campaign” would be, “Make the Hunger Games Less Hungry.”

The “business” had a president, vice president, secretary, a schedule planner and head of marketing.  The students baked, frosted and decorated the cupcakes with the mockingjay from The Hunger Games. There were teams of students who carted the cupcakes to sell after school, and other students were the clean-up crew.

“It takes a lot of hard work to sell anything,” said “President” Aliya Schobey. “My favorite part of the company was advertising and figuring out the best way to promote our cupcakes.”

Yes – 414

No – 130

Three school board seats were up for vote at the election. The following candidates were elected to the JPS School Board beginning July 1, 2012:

Laurel Lucas – 348 (3-year term)

Daniel Johnson – 368 (3-year term)

Patrick Slagle – 327 (1-year term)

Mr. Scanlon was talking to Ring Elementary School third graders as part of the Lake Erie Speedway’s Race to Read Program, which included 19 schools and 5,500 local students this year. Ring students were asked to read 250 minutes in any genre.

“I love watching racing on television and I also love reading, especially the Dragonbreath books,” said third grader Toby Price. “It’s fun to do something like this because you get to accomplish something and then do a fun activity.”

As an incentive for reading, Lake Erie Speedway brought a racecar, a driver and all of the equipment to show the students. They also donated six free tickets to each student for the June 2nd Race to Read Night at the Lake Erie Speedway.

“This program demonstrates the importance of reading and that it can be fun and rewarding,” said Ring Elementary School teacher Melissa Yost. “There is immediate, positive reinforcement for students who meet their reading goal. Students could read books of their choice and at their reading level. They could involve their families in both the reading and in the incentive, which are tickets to the Speedway. This was the first year that we participated, and I know that we will again next year. It was a great experience for all of us.”

“Our teachers put a lot of hard work into making sure we succeed and we wanted to show our appreciation for all their efforts,” said the students. “The teachers were really happy that we did the breakfast for them and it’s a good way to show our thanks but not take a lot of time out of the day. We also want to thank all the local businesses that donated to help provide this breakfast.”

Students received donations from local business including: Dunkin’ Donuts, Eagle Zip, Farm Fresh Foods, Renaldo’s, Starbucks and Tim Horton’s. The committee consisted of: Katie Baudo, Abbie Blixt, Katy Calarco, Zach Eklum, Lillie Gabreski and Rachael Rugg.

The JHS National Honor Society has 87 members. To be eligible for membership consideration, students had a weighted cumulative grade point average of 96.0% , or an unweighted average of 91.0%. Additionally, potential members had to meet high standards of leadership, service, and character. The Faculty Council evaluated members of the junior and senior classes. Leadership is based on the student’s participation in two or more community and school activities, or election to an office. To meet the service requirement, the student must have been active in three or more service projects in the school or community. Character is measured in terms of integrity, behavior, ethics, and cooperation with both students and faculty.

The students opened their “eggs” to ohhs and ahhs over their creatures – ranging from owls to snakes to spiders. Each student counted the creature’s legs and placed the creature in the correct number column depending on how many legs it had. After a few creatures are on the graph, Miss Schrader began asking questions.

“How many creatures on our graph right now have four legs?

“Two,” says a student.

“How many six-legged creatures do we have? Make sure you look down the correct column on our graph.”

“Three!”

“Is there any other column that is represented with three creatures?”

“The zero column – there are only three snakes.”

Miss Schrader and her UPK students were working on one part of a GEMS Unit called “Eggs, Eggs Everywhere.” The GEMS (Great Explorations in Math and Science) kit introduces young students to the wonder of—and the story inside—eggs from a variety of creatures, allowing them to begin developing key concepts in biology and the life sciences. In a gentle and engaging exploration of animals that hatch, children study real and plastic egg-layers, including turtles, fish, snakes, and birds. The activities are noteworthy for their interdisciplinary richness, interweaving literature, mathematics, and the physical sciences. Through role-playing, sorting, organizing, graphing, and exploring shape and movement, students develop an understanding not only of the process of egg-laying and hatching, but of the animals themselves, their roles in the life cycle, and fundamental mathematical concepts. Miss Schrader also read the story “Chickens Aren’t the Only Ones,” by Ruth Heller to end the lesson.

“The students love the GEMS unit and just today my students learned a new word, oviparous, which means hatched from an egg. They were very cute trying to use, pronounce and define the new word,” said Miss Schrader. “Part of our goal in UPK is to prepare our student for kindergarten and the GEMS unit is just one way we help students learn multiple new subjects.”

UPK in JPS

The GEMS unit is used in all classrooms in the Jamestown School’s UPK Program, which is available for children who are four-years-old, on or before December 1st. Jamestown Schools is proud that the free, grant-funded program provides the youngest students with a strong first school experience. The Jamestown UPK program is a mix of school- and center-based programs. While each of JPS’ six elementary schools has a UPK program in their building, parents have several options for UPK, including: full day, half day, integrated setting with special needs students, and center-based programs. For the center-based programs, the district contracts with community agencies, which are able to provide wrap-around day care services. The UPK classrooms provide a rich learning environment with many active learning opportunities for children. The teachers provide instruction that is aligned to the NYS Common Core Learning Preschool Standards, focusing on the whole child to prepare children for school and lifelong learning. Students in the JPS UPK Program have combined activity times with the emphasis on learning. Literacy, math, science and writing programs are incorporated into fun activities to keep students learning but also develop a love of learning.

“UPK is important because it gives our students a great start to their school career,” said Lincoln Elementary School UPK teacher Betsy Homan. “They are given many experiences and learn the early literacy and math skills they need to succeed in kindergarten. I get so excited when I see students’ eyes light up–it might be when they learn something new about the natural world, or when they hear a surprising ending of a story read aloud. It may even be when they learn what is means to be a friend. There is so much that is new for them at this age, and it is absolutely a delight to facilitate that kind of learning.”

Benefits of UPK

Many different types of research show the benefits of a UPK education. The national Early Childhood Longitudinal Study—Kindergarten Cohort shows that students who attended a pre-kindergarten program scored higher on reading and math tests than children only receiving parental care. High-quality pre-kindergarten programs also provide substantial cost savings to federal, state, and local governments by reducing use of special education services and lower grade retention among pre-kindergarten participants. There is also strong evidence showing that young children who participate in high-quality pre-kindergarten programs enter school more ready to learn than their peers. They become familiar with their home school and learn the necessary academic skills to prepare them for kindergarten.

“I definitely see a big difference between students that attend a UPK program and those that do not when they enter kindergarten,” said Bush Elementary School kindergarten teacher Julie Yochim. “Our UPK students work in the same ELA, math, and writing programs that we use in kindergarten so it is a natural progression for UPK students to be able to jump right into something they have seen or heard from the previous year. It is exciting to hear them say that they already read a book like we are reading or have done a math problem we are trying. Also, the UPK students are prepared for the daily routines of school and the challenge of attending school for a full day. They understand getting ready in the morning with unpacking backpacks, making a lunch choice, writing their name, and then doing these same routines in the afternoon. Having taught for 19 years, I see how kindergarten is now what 1st grade used to be. UPK is the new kindergarten and it is so beneficial for students to have that building block of an extra year to be ready for all the skills that will be covered in kindergarten.”

Goals of JPS UPK Program

Goals of the JPS UPK Program include: preparing students for the academics of kindergarten by learning shapes, colors, numbers, letter and sounds, pictures and words, speaking in complete sentences, reading out loud as a group, basic science and math, writing their own names, but also just as important, socialization skills like listening, sitting still, learning their own address and phone number,

“We prepare our youngest students for the rigors of kindergarten, which students must be more academically prepared for than in the past,” said Ring School UPK teacher Terry Ortiz. “We are their first teachers. UPK gives students an insight in what fun school can be. We try to give them a love of school from their first experience. I love teaching this age group and find it most intriguing there willingness and ability to take on any assignment and learn.”

JPS UPK students are provided transportation by the district. Full-day UPK students receive breakfast and lunch and half-day UPK students receive snacks. Every JPS UPK teacher is fully New York State certified to help meet the New York State educational requirements. For more information about our Universal Pre-School Programs, please feel free to contact either the JPS Director of Elementary School Education, Tina Sandstrom, at (716) 483-4395 or email at tsandstrom@jamestownwnyric.org or contact Ms. Martha Jordan, JPS UPK liaison, at (716) 483-0924 if you are interested in registering your child for UPK or have any questions.

Ten Chautauqua County schools competed on three courses, having to complete the first course before moving on to the second and/or third course. There were obstacles in the way that students’ robots had to avoid using sensors (light, sound, touch or proximity).  The first course had obstacles in the middle of the field, the second had bricks that the robot had to either climb over or reach over to grab the flag and the third course had a robot that was defending a flag. It was fun and challenging. JHS students built their robots in Mr. VanStee’s Robotics course, which is held at the Tech Academy and in Mr. Propheter’s after school Robotics Club, which is funded by the 21st Century Community Learning grant.

Schools were also able to enter names for the entire competition.  JHS student Dominick Hulett suggested “Robot Olympics” and JCC picked that name for the annual competition name. He won a $25 iTunes card for his winning suggestion.