Videoconferencing in the 5th Grade

Students in Mrs. Ercole's class participated in a videoconference this week with 5 other schools.  The following classes participated with us in the Holiday Storytelling Extravaganza: Mrs. Gonzalez's 2nd Grade class from McNeill Elementary, Lamar Consolidated ISD in Texas, Mrs. White's 2nd Grade class from Oxford, Kansas, Mrs. Larose's 4th grade class(librarian) from Lakeshore Rd. Elementary, North Syracuse CSD and Mrs. Meldrim's Kindergarten class from Tully Elementary, Tully CSD Younger classes from Tully.  Ms. Ercole read a Christmas book titled,  Marvin's Best Christmas Present Ever by Katherine Petterson while the other students listened.  At the end of the story telling the classes talked a little about the weather in their area.  Everyone agreed it would be nice to be in Texas right now!  Mrs. Ercole's class also took turns reading parts of the story, "'Twas the Night Before Christmas".  What a fun way to share some reading time with other students!

DMS Drama Club Presents an Amazing Performance

Congratulations to our DMS Drama Club on an outstanding performance over the past weekend.  Students performed Big Rock at Candy's Mountain!  Under the direction of Mrs. Ryann Riefler over 75 students had a role in acting, staging, directing, managing and assisting.  The performance filled the house both nights and received a ton of praise and laughs.  The play was a rock musical inpsired by the events of Woodstock.  Students had fun designing their set, creating their wardrobes,  assuming the characters they had to portray and totally "getting into" their performances.  The cast inlcuded: Alex Henderson, Brianna Linn, Quimonei Bell-Hunter, Anna Canny, Grace Vensel, Courtnee Waldref, Alyssa Goodwin, Rachel Kaufman, Shannon Spears, Nate Murphy, Noah Carbone, Anna Perry, Zach Osborne, Trinity Benyon, Brooke Buchanan, Violet Moncavage, Taylor Crysler, Makayla Spicer, Chantelle Jandrew, Caroline Delaney, Megan Connor, Sam Stearms, Briyana VanHelsdingen, Abby Vancamp, Hannah Tarolli, Lily Powell, Olivia Bird, Crystal Silliman,Haley Aldridge, Alex Fitzpatrick, Trisha Curtin, Mary Colella, Madeline Lanning, Madison Ricardi, Sara Southern, Saige Burbank, Cierra Kelly, Nate Murphy, and Katie Brenneman.  Stage crew, lights, spotlights, props were run by: Mary Catherine Coon, Elizabeth Kelsey-Gossard, Abigail Delaney, Cameron Finnie, Jonathan Katzer, Joe Norris, Anna O'Conner, Courtney Otis, Emma Stuart, William Kisil, Allison Comer, Rebecca Nutting, Becka Searle, Emily Weeks, Bella Matro, Shelby Panek, Hope Redfield, Liliana Cushman, and Alyssa Cook.  The Pit Band was our very own high school students from their own band, Take the Stairs, Tom Dailey, Sean King, Neil Minet and Cecil Nelson.  Additional high school students offered support for the performance: Adina Martin (vocalal director), Mike Clark, Aaron Fern, Kristen Goodwin, Abby Vensel, Kaylee Waldref, Mackenzie Sadler, Rebecca Martin, AJ Murphy, and Matt Bailey (most of whom are former DMS Drama Club students themselves).  Special thanks to Mr. Riefler who helped design and build the set.  He also create an awesome car that amazingly resembled a VW Bug!

Congratulations to all of the cast and crew and to Mrs. Riefler for a wonderful and fun performacnce!  Way to go!!

Spelling Bee 2012!

Congratulations to all the students who participated in our annual Spelling Bee.  We had over 400 students take a written spelling test on the 6th of December to qualify for our Oral School Spelldown.  Some of the 25 words students had to spell in the written test were:  visual, hydraulic, punctual, kinetic, smithereens, blizzard, patio, and procrastinate.  Additionally there were 5 tiebreaker words such as: contentious, crustacean and excruciating.  All students in grades 4-6 took the spelling test along with  interested students in 7th and 8th grade.  Congratulations to Jeffrey Shi, 6th grade, who missed only one word on the written test and spelled ALL the tiebreakers correctly! 25 students qualified to participate in the oral spelldown by getting 16 or more words correct on the written test.

The oral spelldown took place on the 13th of December with 23 students participating: Violet Mahler, Max McAulif, Peter Tulowieci, Zach Osborne, Grace Coon, Amy Francesconi, Rechael Kaufman, Ethan Mosure, Jackson Masters, Katy Wangeness, Emily Falge, Dan Wrona, Sebastian LaVine, Maddy Mahoney, Jeffrey Shi, Josh Barlotta, Justin Shoeneck, Kevin Brown, Nick Zimmer, Brett Weiler, Noah Brown, Nate Keller, Anna Perry, Lyle Freeman, Matthew Mathieson, Riler LaFrance, Mike Provvidenti.  This group consisted of three 4th graders, two 5th graders, nine 6th graders, six 7th graders and eight 8th graders.

It took 8 rounds of words to get down to our final three! Zach Osborne came in third place as our runner up. After the 10th round we had our two finalist that will be moving on, Anna Perry and Daniel Wrona.  It took another 7 rounds of words to name a new school champion, Anna Perry!  That was the longest and toughest spell off we have had in many years.  The last two words spelled correctly by Anna were: pompadour and parliamentary. 

Both Anna and Dan are 7th graders and will represent Driver Middle School in the Regional Written Spelling Bee sponsored by the Syracuse Post Standard and WCNY studios.  The next phase of the competition will be on January 19th at Onondaga Community College.  If Anna and/or Dan are in the top 35 spellers after that round they will move on to the televised oral spelling bee at the WCNY studios in February.

Congratulations Anna, Dan and Zach!  You are amazing spellers!!!  We are proud to have you represent our school!

Concert Season has Begun!

Congratulations to our DMS Bands who kicked off the DMS Winter Concert season last Wednesday.  The Elementary Band and the 7/8 Middle School band each performed to a full house last week. Some of the pieces performed by the Elementary Band under the direction of Mr. Carmen Costa were:  The Star Spangled Banner, Funfest March, Zap!, Holiday Bells are Ringing and the Polar Express.  Additionally, the students played Christmas Time is Here while pictures from "A Charlie Brown Christmas" were being displayed behind them!  The Middle School Band under the direction of Mrs. Audrey Turner played:  Awake the Iron, Canto, Joyful Journey, On The March, Groovee and Santa Meets the Big Bands.  Both bands performed fabulously!  Thank you for an enjoyable evening.  Your talent is amazing!  The 4th and 5/6th grade choirs take the stage this week on Wednesday the 5th! Please join us for another wonderful concert evening.