Beaver Creek

Our 5th grade Theater club Show, Into the Woods, Jr. production last Friday evening was

spectacular. This is a middle school level performance and the students rose to the challenge under the guidance of Miss Molan and Mrs. McKnight.

Students in Mrs. Taggart's and Miss Simiriglio's autistic support classes participated in the the Chester County Special Olympics in Coatesville on Friday. Fun was had by everyone involved. Dr. Lawless enjoyed cheering the students on. Parents, teachers, and aides were full of smiles too.

The IST team, Guidance Counselor, School Nurse, Kindergarten teachers, and our Title 1 aide did an incredible job assessing our entire incoming kindergarten population over a 2-day period this week. We are already making data-based decisions as to who will qualify for full-day kindergarten. A special thank you goes out to PTS for allowing a speech therapist to assist us as well. It was truly a team effort. We look forward to seeing these enthusiastic children again in the late summer as they begin their formal schooling at Beaver Creek!

Dr. Lawless presented some of her research findings on the transition to kindergarten the Early Childhood Council gathering at the CCIU. Mrs. Megan Bauer, one of our kindergarten teachers, also led a table group discussion on kindergarten readiness at the same meeting. There were thoughtful discussions between the kindergarten teachers and preschool personnel. We want to continue to build this relationship next school year.

Bradford Heights

Teacher Appreciation week did not go unnoticed by the Home and School at Bradford Heights. The teachers enjoyed a wonderful breakfast and a delicious luncheon that was organized by our Home and School Association. This year the parents chose a baseball theme. The teachers were treated to a beautifully decorated faculty room with all of the Major League Baseball teams represented, while the teachers wore their favorite team logo. The luncheon concluded with a choice of popcorn from Doc Popcorn out of the King of Prussia Mall. The teachers appreciate all of the hard work that went

into planning this luncheon. It is always one of the best days of the year. The week began with our Math 24 club participating in another successful competition with a local elementary school. While Thursday, brings spirit day to our school. The students of Bradford Heights showed their school spirit wearing their favorite hat. We ended the week with the spring concert. The students have been working very hard on their music for their final concert of this school year. This year the concert will include many staff members and parents, who have volunteered to play instruments during one of the arrangements. It is a fun way to wind down the school year.

Brandywine Wallace

Last Friday, the entire school lined the hallways to cheer on our Special Olympians as they left the building to board their buses for the competition. It was exciting and very emotional to see our students from the autistic support classrooms in the spotlight. Thanks to teachers Ms. Elasfari and Mrs. Blackburn for coordinating a fun experience!

 Last week featured our Spring Concert. Mrs. Otto's band students performed first, beginning with the National Anthem. Next, Mrs. Baer's string students had everyone excited with "Kung Fu Fighting" and Mrs. Heavens' chorus students sang and even  played kazoos. The finale included all three groups performing America the Beautiful. Thanks to our adopted School Board member, Mrs. Jaime Mehler, for joining us for our concert. It was a fabulous performance that highlighted the students' hard work this year. We welcomed our incoming kindergarteners on Thursday at our Open House. Students enjoyed a classroom visit while parents had the opportunity to ask questions and to receive additional information about the kindergarten program. The class of 2025 was very excited to visit BW!!

 East Ward

On Wednesday, May 2, 2012 five members of the East Ward Envirothon team competed against approximately 20 other schools at the Chester County Envirothon competition. The competition was held at Hibernia Park and lasted much of the day. The five students that represented East Ward were Chris Wu (3rd grade), Maya Tucker (3rd grade), Olivia Kvech (3rd grade), Brooke Bornstad (4th grade) and Team Captain, Sean Kannaikal (4th grade.) There were 5 categories that the children had to compete in, Aquatics, Current Issue(nonpoint source pollution), Forestry, Outdoor Safety and Wildlife. There was also a craft station where we were able to create a necklace out of tree cookies (wood medallions) and beads. During lunch, they were entertained with an awesome reptile and amphibian show. Congratulations to these students for all of their hard work and a great first year representing East Ward at this competition!

First graders at East Ward have been studying oviparous (egg laying) animals. There

research included frogs, turtles, snakes, and ended with the incubation of chicken eggs.

This week, our fine feathered friends hatched and parents and siblings were invited to

catch a glimpse of these baby chicks. The students even tasught me how to hold them!

The chicks will be delivered to a farm in Lancaster this afternoon.

On May 2, East Ward held our Spring Concert! After our teacher choir warmed up the crowd, the orchestra, chorus, and band brought the house down. Our students work and dedication was quite apparent! They sounded fantastic!

"Let me win, but if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt.  Last week Ms. Drew took her class of kindergarteners, one second, and one third grader to Coatesville to participate in the Special Olympics! The events were 25 Meter dash, the beach ball hit, and tennis ball throw! The students, teacher, staff, and parents had a very enjoyable time!

Lionville Elementary

Staff, students and parents are so grateful for our many partnership activities with DHS East students throughout the year. Our high school friends have contributed greatly by providing appropriate role models, direct instructional support and friendships for our LE students. The following is a list of programs we conducted in partnership with the high school this year.

World Language Club 

 Science Buddies

Homework Club

Classroom tutors

Rising Stars

Reading Buddies

 Kindergarten teachers, Mrs. Barnes (IST), Mrs. Dennis (Counselor), Mrs. Kurtz (ESL), Mrs. Montemuro (Nurse) and Mrs. O'Keefe (IST) conducted the nearly 100 incoming kindergartner screenings last week.   Instructional support aides assisted with the parent part of the screening and the recording and tabulation of the data.  

The LE Garden Club is now in full swing for the spring. Students in grades K, 1, and 2

and club facilitators Mrs. Mills, Miss McCalla, Mrs. Monroe and Mrs. Graci, have begun planting seedlings, purchasing plants and preparing our beds for the growing season of the gleaning garden. Last season, we donated over 500 pounds of food to the Lord's

Pantry in Downingtown. This year 114 students have joined the club.

 Pickering Valley

Pickering Valley was invaded by birds of prey on Wednesday! This educational program had a collection of feathered predators. The students were enthralled by an outstanding array of eagles, hawks, falcons and owls. Some had permanent handicaps and were donated to The Raptor Project and now have been tamed and trained to educate the public. There were birds of all sizes from small falcons and owls to a majestic eagle. The students were thrilled to see these birds and learned a lot while having fun!

Springton Manor

Fifth Grade Teacher Miss Barbara Hummel has been invited to travel to China this summer to take part in a school-based summer camp program for students from Hebei Province in China. Miss Hummel has been invited by the Hebei Department of Education to come and teach side-by-side with teachers from Provincial Elementary Schools in the summer school camping program. This opportunity is an outgrowth of Springton Manor Elementary School's partnership with the Shijiazhuang Shengshichaig'an Primary School, a demonstration school connected with Hebei University, and our new sister school in China. Congratulations to Miss Hummel!  

Springton Manor Students enjoyed visits from Art Goes to Schoolpresenters from April 10 April 27, 2012. The students truly enjoyed the information our guests shared and we would like to offer a big Mustang thank you to all of the Art Goes to School visitors for giving their time and sharing their expertise with our students.

Springton Manor fifth grade students enjoyed a field trip to Brandywine Battlefield on April 27, 2012. The students learned a great deal about colonial life from the exhibits and re-enactors at the battlefield site.

Springton Manor Elementary held our fourth annual Spring Fair on Friday evening, May 4, 2012. All Springton Manor Families and students were invited to spend an enjoyable evening of games and fun to help the Springton Manor Home and School Association support our teachers and classrooms. The evening was a great success: everyone had a great time and the storms held off until the end of the fair!

West Bradford

It was a Crazy Day of Wellness! On April 27, Jack Chambers brought Crazy Olympics to

West Bradford for students to celebrate their hard work this school year! The school,

split into an AM and PM session of mixed teams (made of up of K-5 students) led by our volunteers, participated in zany, active, noncompetitive and fun activities that capitalized on movement and teamwork. The Friz-A (not to be confused with Frisbee) throw, the Bear Bear toss and catch, the Campbell clean up....were all student favorites. Working together to break the Crazy Olympics record made for a memorable day!

West Bradford was treated to Seussical by Theatre Works USA, a musical theatre performance that mesmerized our K-5 students. Thanks to the Home and School for sponsoring this theatrical event that recognized the reading goal met during Dr. Seuss week! Also last week, West Bradford held their Spring Concert on Wednesday, May 2. The orchestra, band and chorus performed a variety of selections that showed not only their musical growth, but showcased an amazing level of performance!

What do Bacon, Dolphins, Legos, Wawa, Static Electricity and The Army Phonetic Alphabet have in common? They were all topics at the WB Learning Fair! The Learning Fair (which has become one of my favorite days of the year!) is an opportunity for any K-5 student (and this year 390 participated!) to choose, research and present a topic of their choice to share with classmates and parents. Kindergarten teacher Stacey Fisher organizes this amazing event that promotes learning, family fun, presentation skills! Thursday evening was open for families to come to browse the plethora of topics researched. My brain was bursting!

DMS 

DMS 7D students are currently presenting their Road Trip Project. For this project, students had to travel to a place from the 7th grade US History curriculum (Colonial Era through 1861) and create a presentation for the class. Some destinations included the Downingtown Log House, Ft. McHenry, historic Georgetown, South Carolina, and the

Downingtown Public Library. Many students have commented on how much they actually enjoyed traveling with and spending time with their parents.

DMS students once again made us proud as our athletes participated in the Special Olympics events last Friday. Our students gave their all in the 50m and 100m races,  softball throw and standing long jump events. Dressed in hot green tie-dyed shirts students returned to school at the end of the day with lots of ribbons and even more smiles.

 The 8th grade concert band is preparing for their concert on Tuesday, May 15. Their  dress rehearsal will take place on Monday, May 15. Sixth grade was given a surprise treat during lunch this week as the 8th grade played for a true dining experience. Many of our students will be playing solos and student conductor, Colin Evans, will lead the band during the performance of one of their songs. This year the band will also be performing a song they composed. There is great music in the air at DMS.

Mr. Kowal's life skills class has been busy using the iPads they received through funding

from the Downingtown Community Education Foundation. The class has downloaded

apps that differentiate instruction for students with severe intellectual disabilities. The

applications are extremely engaging and allow Mr. Kowal to teach varied assignments based on student readiness.

 Students are currently using an app that simulates the process of going to the grocery

store, selecting food items from a list and paying for them. As a result, students are

able to transfer that exercise from the iPads during their classroom community based

instruction trips to the grocery store. The iPads have provided a way for students to

acquire life skills much quicker. In addition, teachers and aides have been using the

iPad to progress monitor and hone in on challenging task for the students.

LMS

Lionville Middle School students and Downingtown East High School students competed

in the Chester County Envirothon. LMS came in 4th and 5th respectively with great

young teams. DEHS won the High School competition and will represent Chester County

in the upcoming state competition at the University of Pittsburgh in Johnstown this May

22 and May 23rd. These former Lionville students are working hard to prepare for this

event as much is at stake. First place winnings include $1000 scholarship for each team

member and a week all-expense paid trip to the International Canon Envirothon

competition held this summer. We wish them much luck at the upcoming statecompetition!

For District Wide Wellness Day, 7th and 8th graders in Family and Consumer Sciences

participated in healthy recipes. Students made fruit salsa and homemade whole wheat

tortilla chips. Earlier that week, 8th graders had the opportunity to write their own

healthy recipes using ingredients from our very own LMS garden.

¡Viva la poesía!

Seventh and Eighth Grade LMS Spanish 1 students classes wrote two different poems in Spanish. Students wrote a short poem about the seasons and a longer "I Am - Yo Soy" Poem in Spanish as a culminating activity to wrap up the first four units in our textbook. In their "yo Soy" poem, students wove vocabulary and grammar concepts together with their imagination to describ

themselves, to write about imaginary things, things they pretend to do or be, things they

 hope for and things they dream about. Students peer edited before submitting their final poem. The poems were thoughtful, insightful and some were also funny.

Twenty four poems were selected to be on display at LMS's Book Fair at Barnes and Noble, Main Street at Exton, PA. Selections were made by an independent judge, a native speaker of Spanish, who said selection was very difficult as the poems were exceptional. Ultimately, those with the most accurately typed poems were the ones that went on to be displayed.

Mrs. Catrambone's 6th Grade Team raised 620.00 for the March of Dimes, March for Babies. The March of Dimes was created in 1938 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to find a cure for polio. Once that vaccine was proven effective, the March of Dimes shifted its focus to saving babies by preventing birth defects and infant mortality.

The Downingtown East Volleyball Team is hosting the 5th annual volleyball clinics at Lionville Middle School. 51 LMS student-athletes are participating in the clinics on Monday and Wednesday evenings in April and May at the LMS gym. The Downingtown East High School Volleyball Team members teach and coach the LMS girls and at the end of each night they play together in a mini-volleyball tournament. Several of the high school student-athletes use these clinics as their senior graduation project as they mentor the middle-school girls in the sport of volleyball. A good time is had by all!

With the help of Mrs. Mary Ann Jakubczyk and Dr. Marcy Hessinger, Mrs. Leslie Smith, aReading Specialist at Downingtown East, has implemented a  for her Content Comprehension classes. On Monday, Mrs. Smith walked her ninth grade students to Lionville Elementary School to read with Mrs. Mills Kindergarten class. Each of her students read a book aloud to a small group of children. They practiced comprehension strategies such as predicting, inferencing, visualizing, and making

personal connections to the text with the Kindergarteners. The interaction between her

students and the elementary students was an extremely positive one and will hopefully

continue to inspire all the students involved. This project serves to build up our low

readers' confidence; help to motivate them to read more; encourage them to become a

role model for others; allow them to practice their comprehension strategies; and give back to the community.

DHS East

On May 3rd, members of the Downingtown east envirothon team traveled to Hibernia Park to compete in the 25th annual Chester County envirothon. For the second year in a row, the third time ever, Downingtown east's team won the Chester county Envirothon.   As a result of winning the County Envirothon, the top 5 scoring team members will  travel to Pittsburg on May 22 and 23 to compete in the Pennsylvania state envirothon. These members, Stephanie Gill, Melanie Klufas, Pallavi Kotturu, Heather Cai, and Angela Cai will be accompanied by coach Thad Van Gilder.

DHS West

Erin Barton, an 11th grader at Downingtown West, was one of 274 juniors from across the country honored as an outstanding writer by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).

 Dana Clay is being awarded the US Presidential Scholar Teacher Recognition Award by the US Department of Education. Her student, Dan Frantz, was 1 of only 20 students nationwide recognized as Presidential Scholars. There is no higher honor than the

 Presidential Scholarship. West is very proud of this outstanding student and his equallyoutstanding teacher.

 Kristina Barnes won first place in the West Chester New Century Club Photography Contest County competition. Her picture then went to the State Level of the competition where the picture entitled "Jinx" won second place. This accomplishment is made greater by the fact that Kristina is only a 9th grader.

 Congratulations to Ryan Dooley for placing 1st in the Digital Design category of the Chester County Intermediate Unit Computer Fair. Ryan will advance to the States at Dickinson College on May 21. We wish him luck.

The West Outstanding Athlete of the Week was Alex Cuttic. On April 24th against

Unionville, Alex had 10 save in a 16-4 victory, giving West Boys Lacrosse a 6-0 league

record and its 12th victory of the season. On April 26th against Downingtown East, Alex

had 13 save in a 12-9 league victory, keeping the Whippets undefeated in the league

and on the season. On April 28th against the Brunswick School from Connecticut, Alex

had 9 save in a 9-7 non-league victory at the Katie Samson festival in Radnor. Prior to

his outstanding week, Alex had 70 saves on the season for a 59% save percentage.

The Daily Local News named Eric Rankel Athlete of the Week. Rankel led the Whippets

lacrosse team to three victories with 9 goals and 3 assists. Along with his feats on the

field, Eric is an honor roll student and a key factor in the Whippets' success this season.