The group of five joined the members of the Coney Island Polar Bear for the club's annual New Year's Day splash. The Polar Bear club has hosted the annual dip since 1903.  Maarika, a native of Finland, organized the group who were jumping in for the first time. They all had a great time and look forward to - maybe - doing it again next year!

  

      5th grader Kyree Wingate spent part of his vacation in Orlando, Florida with his neighbor, Kyle O'Quinn, who is now a NBA player for the Orlando Magic.  Kyle graduated from Campus Magnet H.S. in 2008 with a full athletic scholarship to Norfolk State. While at Norfolk State Kyle earned several athletic awards and was called the "King of Queens" by the Daily News when he led Norfolk State to a historic win over No. 2 seed University of Missouri  in the 2012 NCAA March Madness tournament.  Kyle graduated from Norfolk State in 2012 with a BA degree.  He knows that he will not be a basketball player forever and intends on becoming a Guidance Counselor after basketball.  

 

   It wouldn't be normal to go to Orlando without going to Disney World.  Kyree went to Magic Kingdom and Sea World with several Magic players, Kyle #2, Maurice Harkless (Moe Harkless is also from Queens, attending Forest Hills H.S.) #21, and Victor Oladipo #5.Not only was this an exciting fun trip for Kyree it also allowed him to realize that playing for the NBA is not all fun and games, it's Kyle's job.  He has to get up early every morning for scheduled practices & meetings, see a nutritionist and follow rules.

Francisco & Marissa Sosa spent much time with family members.  Their family extends their best wishes for a Happy New Year to everyone at Renaissance! 

       All of my hard work over the years has finally paid off. I am humbled to announce that out of 3,800 high school students that were nominated in New York City, I have been chosen as one of ten Dickinson College Posse Scholars for the class of 2018.The first semester of my senior year was very challenging. Balancing a rigorous College Now Psychology 101 course at Queens College, calculus, AP biology and AP English was a nightmare. It feels good to say that I will be the first in my family to achieve a bachelors degree. I am still looking for other scholarships to cover room and board fees.  I plan to major in Biochemistry  and Molecular Biology and minor in African or Women & Gender Studies. My dreams of becoming a Medical Examiner feel more realistic now than ever before. I can honestly say that hard work pays off!"

        Shout Outs to 8th graders Luisa Uriarte, Ruth Uriarte and Kilala Vincent for starting the first-ever Middle School Online Newspaper!  They are looking for writing submissions from 6th-8th graders in this call to action:  "Wouldn't you like to have an online place where you can express who you are and how you can improve your school? Wouldn't it be nice if you could shout out people on their good deeds or acknowledge someone's talent, even have feedback on your own writing? Instead of using paper to write shout-outs, embrace the modern age on electronics. Help create an online community just for your school. Don't just tell someone they've done a good job, announce it. Bring out the inner writer in you. If you love to write, don't be afraid, show us what you've got. The community will help you." Way to go middle schoolers--we look forward to reading your news!

Upon our return to school in 2014, we started literacy centers and Guided Reading! This is very exciting. We are merging various programs to create an engaging approach to balanced literacy.  

Kindergarten also came back to a revamped classroom! Kindergarten has a beautiful new carpet, new open layout of the room and a larger block area. It has been wonderful to see the class moving freely and happily in the renewed space! The class is also beginning a new social studies unit about making peace in our community inspired by Martin Luther King Jr.  We read the book  Martin's Words and made peace flowers to remind us of what we have learned. The class has begun unit 4 in Singapore Math, which focuses on ordering and patterns.  

       First graders have delved into a brand new writing unit with the new year! We are writing nonfiction teaching books and everyday we are eager to teach all about our topic! We are doing lots of subtraction in math, using many different strategies to solve our subtraction problems! We have also started learning about different tooth traditions all around the world - not everyone puts their tooth under the pillow & gets money from a tooth fairy!!

       Second grade is very excited to have just mastered multiplication and division! In writing, we celebrated the end of our unit on narrative writing with a publishing party, complete with a toast to "good writing"!  We have now moved on to a unit on informational writing.  We'd like to thank all of our parents that were able to come visit our culture bubble.  We are now working hard towards the 100th day of school (coming in February)...

       This week the third grade is taking the ELA practice test.  The tests will be graded and scores will be uploaded by next week.  Students are representing and interpreting data in math using, tables, graphs, charts and other visual organizers. On February third we will attend a show aligned to our study of Africa and trickster tales. In March Renay will attend professional development to create curriculum with the National Park Service in hopes that they will accept the third grade for an overnight camping/science learning experience.  In the past it has only been open to fourth grade and up.

       Fourth grade is working hard. In Literacy, we are finishing up our Nonfiction Unit. It's taking a bit longer with the ELA Mock Test and a week of Junior Great Books, but we are forging through. To finish the Unit kids will make a Nonfiction page relating to a Lenape topic of choice. We will be moving on to a character study. We are enjoying reading The One and Only Ivan, our fifth chapter book of the year. In math, we have moved on to Division and have done a few various hands on activities to get our minds programed to "sharing equally." Word problems continue to pose a bit of challenge, and both Ali and I have equipped students with tools/ strategies to help figure out those tricky multi-step problems. Kids are working towards memorizing multiplication facts. In Social Studies, we finished our study on the Lenapes. Kids made wonderful artifacts, made wampum from Rainbow Loom, and even simulated a trading expedition. Next topic: The colonization of New York. Our writing unit coincides with our Lenape Unit. We are learning how to write informational books. Each child will write an informational piece about a Lenape topic of choice. Next writing piece will be a persuasive one. We will having a performance incorporating both Science, and Dance. The theme: A vacation to the Solar System. Students will be writing infomercials for the "travel channel". We are moving mountains!!!

       In Literacy, the fifth grade students worked diligently on expanding a small moment into a fictional personal narrative. In these stories, they explained a cultural/family tradition that they depicted in their culture bubble window. In social studies, the students finished their first geography unit on tension between the colonies and Great Britain. We are currently, working on exploring the elements of writing a persuasive essay. This month we are continuing to read Esperanza Rising and work in our guided reading groups.

5^th graders are solving real world problems in math involving addition and subtraction of fractions with unlike denominators. We are using visual fraction models and equations to represent problems. Benchmark fractions and our number sense of fractions allow us to estimate mentally and assess the reasonableness of our answers. 5^th graders also want to thank our friends and family for coming out to see our Culture Bubble and Multicultural Museum. We are proud to say that Cluster 1 helped to raise over $1,000 for our Angel Fund!