A short, but busy, week!

Special Olympics

Seventeen Stonehedge students  participated in the Special Olympics at  Cicero - North Syracuse High School today. All the 5th grade classes and Miss Longo's 3rd grade class were there to cheer our athletes on. The entire Stonehedge community welcomed back the Special Olympics contingent. We are very proud of all of our athletes!

Jump Rope Club Performs at the High School

This morning, our fifth grade Jump Rope Club, led by Mr. Shoults, entertained high school students  with their jump roping routine.

Reminder- There is no school tomorrow, Friday, May 22 and Monday, May 25.

Have a safe and enjoyable Memorial Day weekend!

Brent

Open House

Thank you to all who attended our Open House last Night. We had a fantastic turnout. As always, we greatly  appreciate our PTA for providing the delicious ice cream sundaes. Our faculty and staff did a wonderful job getting everything ready for this event. Of course, we don't want to forget to thank all the former Stonehedge students who volunteered their time to help make the evening so successful.

Congratulations

Congratulations to Mrs. Peggy Barbuto and Mr. Steve Shoults, our Physical Education teachers. They both received the 2015 Teacher of Excellence award. 

The nomination was written by 5th grade teacher Mr. Mike Perkins. He expressed the thoughts of the entire faculty in his nomination letter.

                 

Dear Senator DeFrancisco:

I am contacting you so that you might acknowledge a team of amazing teachers that we have here at Stonehedge Elementary School.

I know you are looking to recognize individual teacher excellence, however, Stephen Shoults and Margaret (Peggy) Barbuto are an inseparable team that make up our physical education department.

Coming into the district from teaching elsewhere for fifteen years, I am amazed with how Peggy and Steve worked together and how much they both do for the students in our school. They have developed an incredible physical education curriculum that incorporates ideas from the classroom. Every physical education class is engaging and fun for the students. This team definitely represents the highest level of teaching for physical education teachers in New York State.

Some of the fantastic things that these two teachers do for our students are:

Halloween obstacle course

Swimming at the high school

Turkey Trot (for cancer research)

Winter Carnival

Water Carnival

Jump rope club

 In addition, both Peg and Steve support the community and teach our children good citizenship through community service. Steve organized a fundraiser for cancer research through a Saint Baldrick’s event at school this year. Peggy each year organizes our fifth grade students to make cookies for the Samaritan Center.

 These two teachers do so much for our school and community. I hope that you see fit to award them as teachers of excellence.

              

On May 7, Senator DeFrancisco presented each teacher with a certificate and a "Golden Apple" pin. Stonehedge is lucky to have wonderful Physical Education teachers who go above and beyond their duties to help our children learn to lead healthy lifestyles. 

Brent

April

Spanish Club

Fifteen fifth grade students are participating in our Tuesday Spanish Club with Señora Hayes. They each have chosen Spanish names, and practice basic greetings and numbers. YouTube songs and skits are used to enhance our learning!

The students use a map of Latin America to study a different country each week. They enjoyed a travel video from Costa Rica, and viewed how masks in Mexico reflect cultural history. Señora Hayes also brought in some souvenirs from those countries. In the next weeks of the club, the students will learn about Puerto Rico and Spain, and will explore some Caribbean foods, music and dance!

Gracias Señora Hayes!

5th Grade students are practicing Spanish greetings with a "Memory" game that they made and took home for extra reinforcement.

Cooking Club

A big thank you to parents Mrs. Ribble and Mrs. McIntyre who are making our Cooking Club a wonderful experience! We had a tremendous response from "future chefs" in fourth grade. The creations have been delicious and the students have learned kitchen and cooking skills. It is incredible to hear the knowledge of terms and techniques the children already have. 

For their first class "Eat a Rainbow", the children made their own fruit kabobs with a yummy dip on the side. A tray of rainbow veggies was passed around for them to try. Mrs. Ribble and Mrs. McIntyre were surprised to see the children devour every tomato, sweet pepper and carrot! Psst Parents: They really do like their veggies!

The students will  try their "Picasso" abilities in the kitchen, taking turns creating pancake artwork on the griddle and learning that pancake mix doesn't have to come out of a box. This lesson will pay homage to the book "If You Give a Pig a Pancake". To wash down those pancakes, fresh fruit smoothies will be whipped up as well. The goal for this Cooking Club is to enlighten the children that cooking is creative, fun and most of all - delicious! Happy cooking!

Newspaper Club

The Stonehedge Newspaper Club has almost finished its first Hedge Herald of 2015. Headed by Mr. Hank Domin, Managing Producer for College Sports for Syracuse Media Group, a dedicated group of fifth-graders is writing, editing and taking photographs for stories about the jump rope and book clubs, the library, school construction and more. The Hedge Herald is hoping to have two editions for the first time this year. The club meets Mondays and Fridays at 8:00 a.m. and welcomes any fifth-graders who want to join. They are having a ton of fun and learning about many different things, both inside the school and in the world of journalism. Thank you Mr. Domin!

Jump Rope Club

Mrs. Barbuto and Mr. Shoults are leading over 50 fifth grade students attending Jump Rope club every Monday and Friday Morning. The students are showing great perseverance and developing their skills. The club is hoping to perform here at Stonehedge and at WGHS in May or early June.

5th Grade Atlantic Salmon Project

As part of our ecology unit, 5th grade students here at Stonehedge Elementary School have been learning about and raising Atlantic Salmon. In January, our students adopted over 50 Atlantic Salmon eggs from a local hatchery.

In the early stages, the salmon eggs had to be kept in a refrigerated tank near 36*F. As the eggs slept throughout the months of January and February, our students learned about the history of Atlantic Salmon, their life cycle, and kept close measurements of the water temperature units in order to calculate when the salmon would hatch.

Students learned that over 100 hundred years ago Atlantic Salmon lived throughout our Central New York water ways. Because of overfishing and habitat loss, the local Atlantic Salmon populations were decimated. Through the Atlantic Salmon Project our students are working to return Atlantic Salmon to our local streams, rivers and lakes.

Since April break, our salmon have grown from alevin to fry. Soon they will be parr (finger size). They eat up to 8 times a day. At the end of May our students will be releasing our Atlantic Salmon into the local water system. Hopefully our salmon will thrive and help the Atlantic Salmon population return to what it was over 150 years ago.

SPCA Visit

The Let's Unite club raised money for the local SPCA. Two representatives from the CNY SPCA , Mrs. Graham and Legend, visited Stonehedge on Thursday to accept the donation and answer the students' questions.

Mrs. Graham and Legend

4th and 5th Grade Orchestra, Band and Chorus Concert

The students have been practicing diligently and are looking forward to showcasing their talents on Thursday, May 14 at 7:00 p.m. in the High School Auditorium.

Band Practice

Chorus practice

Orchestra Practice

Reminders

Thursday, May 7 - Spring Open House Ice Cream Social-6:15-7:15 pm. Bring the whole family!

Friday, May 15 - Half-Day for Students

Monday, May 25 - Memorial Day ~ No school.