Phoenix Press
WeBring News From FCS Lower School
What's So Simple About Simplicity?
By Savina Copas,Madison Williams and Quin Stovall
SP I CES! Quaker testimonies put us to the test! Thisyear?sfifth grade play on March 17th jumped right into the Quaker theme of Simplicity.TheApplePipPrincesswasabout three princesseswho had to choose away to make the kingdom more beautiful.Thisstory showed that the simplest choice can give the biggest reward. In The Quiltmaker?sGift,agreedy king wanted aquilt from amysteriousquilt maker. She wouldn?t give him one unless he gave all histhingsaway. The king found that you don't need alot of possessionsto be happy. The 5th grade and Teacher Peggy worked hard to make thisplay asuccess. Everyone wasvery happy with the outcome.
Pippin
By Noah Porter,Sevren Fahr and Emilio Ovalle
On Friday,March 3rd,Kindergarten-5th gradersgot on busesand went to our City Avenue campusto see the Upper Schoolersperform apreview of the award-winning Broadway musical, Pippin. Some of usalso went to see the entire play on Friday or Saturday.
Pippin,played by Alex Black Bessen,isaprince who wantssomething meaningful to do with hislife. He doesn?t know what that is,but someone else does...
Enter...theLeading Player (Noelle Mercer).She leadsaperforming troupe who isthere to entertain and cheer on the audience repeatedly asPippin strugglesto find meaning in hislife.
The costumesin thisplay were vivid and colorful,and really helped portray the story with tights,hats,shoulder pads,awesome shirts,and,in the case of one character, pajamas! The scenery had castlesand platformswith colorful lightsshining all over them.
The acting and the dancing were breathtakingly amazing.The actorsreally brought the story to life. And last but ABSOLUTELYnot least were the songslike MagictoDo, Corner of theSky,OntheRight Trackand SimpleJoys. They stick with you wherever you go,and bring apositive message to your heart.
Overall,thisplay wasawonderful Upper School production!
Magical TricksandIllusions
By Jey Brown,Hannah Lowry and Jacques Pierre
January 27th was filled with illusions and magic because 4th grader Theo DeSouza?s father performed aspecial assembly. Marc DeSouza,aworld famousmagician,did avery intriguing string of magic tricks,including classic card trickswith some Pre-Kers.
Two of our favoriteswere the one with the double-sided door and the bunnies,and the Chinese sticksthat grow. Theo performed a trick too,with the help of hisfriend Omar.
Mr.Desouzaperformed again on Family Night,March 1st. The parentsfinally got to see how amazing and spectacular Mr.Desouzais! He did atrick with hispet raccoon,Rocky,who climbed up hisarm and shoulders. He put Rocky (who looked real) in abox and closed the lid.He then took each wall off the box and placed them in apile. Rocky wasn't there! ?Where isRocky?Oh wait,I think I see him,? said Mr.Desouza,pulling Rocky from a kindergartener?shand! The crowd erupted and Mr.Desouzabowed.Another great trick wasthe self-levitating ball.
The show had everybody laughing, smiling and thirsty for more.?It?scool and it never getsold,?said Quin,afifth grader who hasseen the show every year for 7 years.This show inspired usto believe in the impossible.
Wild About The Wild Ones
ByHannahLowry,AnHuynhand Clara Behling
The day we had all been waiting for,February 10th,wasthe day C.Alexander London came to Friends' Central Lower School to visit 3rd-5th graders. Alexander London isan author who writesbooksfor children and young adults. He haswritten over 20 books. Some of hiswell known book seriesare TheWildOnes,TheAccidental Adventures,and DogTags.
Asachild,Mr.London didn't like to read until hisfifth grade teacher handed him abook called Redwall by Brian Jacques. Thisbook isabout a young mouse who goeson an adventure to save hisabbey from the evil rat leader.The book inspired Mr.London?slove of reading and eventually gave him the ideafor TheWildOnes. Another thing that inspired TheWildOnes washisdog,Baxter and the neighborhood?sstray cat. Everyday,Baxter would try to attack the cat,but the cat wassmart enough to know about leashes.He wasalso inspired by acouple of naughty raccoonsin hisbackyard. Besidesthe assembly,our fifth grade book club wasin for atreat. Mr. London came and talked to usabout the WildOnesduring our lunch period! He answered most of our questionsand we learned lotsof cool facts. For example,Mr.London?sbarber wanted to be in the book,so the barber in The WildOnesisbased on areal person. Also we learned that asakid,Mr. London learned the structure of astory from just playing Wii.We were so lucky to have Mr.London come to our school!
Author Emily Jenkinsandher CreativeFlow
By Avery Lewis,DaphneVolpp and GraceSchlegel
On Valentine'sDay,the 14 of February,Emily Jenkins,an admired author and skilled orator,visited Nursery- 2nd grade. She talked to the kidsabout her booksand got them to notice the fine details,taking them into the storiesso that they felt asif they were there.She talked about acouple of her books,including Water In thePark,TheGreyhoundandtheGroundhog,LemonadeInWinter and ToysMeet Snow. When she showed the children her booksall their faceslit up.
She also talked about her life asan author,and how she lovesher job so much. She said she ismore creative and inspired when her room ismessy. Emily Jenkinshaswritten 44 booksfor varied ages,including ToysGoOut,and brought her fascinating creative flow to us.
KB in theRainforest
By PhoebeDavidson and Nora-SimoneThorne
On February 2nd,KBperformed an amazing play about the rainforest.Each kid got to pick the animal that they were in the play.Animal groupssuch asthe four toucanswould sing asong together.Their music teacher played the songs.
KBalso created agiant mural of the rainforest layers.Each kindergartener created an animal using craft materials.With the help of 5A,they used Makey-Makeysand Scratch programming to make their animalstalk when you touch them.They recorded themselvestelling one or two factsabout their animal. The mural and the play were agreat success.
Robotics Club
By Jacques Pierre
Thisyear,Mrs. Bhosted aroboticsclub for fifth graders. We used the LEGOMindstorm app to program robotsto complete missions. There are missionsthroughout the course that reward you with adifferent amount of points. At competitions,you face ateam and have 2-½ minutesto get asmany pointsasyou can. Whichever team getsthe most pointsat the end of the given time,wins.Thisyear,the roboticsteam didn't have enough time to go to the competition. Instead,we hosted an expo for people who are interested in joining the club next year.
Sometimesprogramming the robotscan be frustrating.But when you finally get it to do what you want,you feel asense of accomplishment that isamazing.I definitely encourage 5th graderswho are interested in joining to ask their parents. It?svery fun!