E.G.G.S.
By Tom English and Alex Protivnak
April 2007.

Students in the Eighth Grade are participating in a project called E.G.G.S, which stands for Eighth Grade Graduation Studies. Each student selects a career choice or area of interest to pursue. The students are then assigned a mentor who guides them through their career exploration process. Each Eighth Grader is encouraged to “shadow” a professional in their field of interest. “Shadowing” is when students get time off school to watch over someone in their profession of choice. During the “shadowing” the students ask questions and take pictures of their day. On Tuesday, April 17th all the participants put their collected information on tri-fold boards, and do a group presentation in the auditorium for parents, faculty, and staff. E.G.G.S. can help the students find out what they might want to do when they become an adult. “This is an EGGceptional experience,” says Eighth Grade teacher, Mrs. Sadowski.

Dr. Suess
By Michael Alexander and Brendan Camp
April 2007

To celebrate the birthday of Dr. Suess, four parents plus Father Harry came in every half hour to read a Dr. Suess story to Mrs. Watson’s class on March 2, 2007.The class celebrated with a cake that looked like green eggs and ham from his famous book. Mrs. BonAnno presented Lorax using puppets and a flannel board

Classrooms 101
By Michael Alexander and Brendan Camp
April 2007

Classrooms 101 is a new feature of the BCS Buzz. It will focus on teachers from different grade levels and highlight what they are currently doing. This issue summarizes recent activities in Grades 5-8.

Mrs. Sadowski teaches Art Class to 5th through 8th Grade. In the 5th grade art class, they studied “Piat Mandrian,” and the students have completed their compositions in three colors. “The artists did a wonderful job,” said Mrs.Sadowski. In the 6th grade art class, the students completed their idioms implementing various animal sayings. In the 7th and 8th grade art class, the students used heated beeswax and pins to decorate eggs, as a traditional Polish custom. The students then dyed the eggs and were excited when they saw the completed project. The eggs were viewed at the BCS open house on Mar. 15. The students also just completed stain glass windows, which can be viewed by sister’s office. BCS will soon be preparing for an art show at Newhaven court at Clearview. The date will be May 17th.

Mrs. Dorcy teaches Math class to 6th through 8th Grade, Social Studies to 7th and 8th Grade, and a 3rd and 4th grade enrichment class. In 8th grade Social Studies are making time capsules for World War One. In 7th grade Social Studies are studying the Constitution and memorizing the Preamble. In 8th grade Pre-Algebra they are studying Graphing functions such as “Y=MX+B.” In the 7th grade Pre-Algebra they are studying graphing, number sequencing, simple and compound interest. In 6th grade math class they just finished the Geometry Unit, and are now studying Tessellation. They are currently putting together a Geometry folder.                 

Mrs. Leone teaches Literature and English to 2nd, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade. She also teaches Social Studies to the 6th grade. Right now the 7th and 8th grade is focusing on the English Festival at Duquesne University. The 6th grade is also focusing on the English festival at Seton La Salle High School. The 8th and 7th grade is now working in a high level Vocabulary course. The 6th grade Social Studies class was studying Ancient Greece and is now studying Ancient Rome. “I’m learning so much!” said Mrs. Leone, since this is her first time teaching it. The 8th grade is also learning how to do a research report. Some kids have entered into poetry and essay contests. All the students can’t wait for April because its “Poetry Month.” In 2nd grade they were doing Fabulous Winter Wonderland Stories. In all of Mrs. Leone’s classes they are improving their parts of speech and writings.

Mrs. Moran teaches 5th through 8th grade Religion, 5th grade Spelling, and 6th grade Literature. In 5th grade Religion they are becoming experts in the sacraments and will be soon using the bible to expand their studies. In 6th grade Religion class they are studying the Golden Age of Israel and focusing on Kingship. In 7th grade Religion class they were learning of the Passion of Jesus in the four Gospels during Lent. They have been doing scripture searches in the four gospels. They have compared the different accounts of Jesus’ suffering and death. Recently, they have done reports on Parables and are now preparing to do presentations on the miracles of Jesus. In 8th grade Religion class they are continuing Church history with the End of the Middle Ages and the beginning of Modern time; focusing on the clash between faith/science during the Enlightenment. Most recently, they have done reports on Henry the 8th and the Church of England. “I love spending most of my day helping students to find their own way to get closer to the Lord,” said Mrs. Moran.

Mrs. Rensel teaches 7th grade academic literature class and 5th grade science. The 7th grade is researching chocolate such as how it is made and the history behind it. They will work in pairs to create their own candy bar. The process goes, as accordingly, First is the process. Second are the ingredients. Third is the wrapper. Fourth optional: actually makes a sample. The Fifth is a present in commercial form. They will also do an essay. In 5th grade science class, They are coming up with their own food exercise chart (which they will follow for one week).