Music to Send us on Our Way

Thanks to Mrs. Turner and some of our band students who played Christmas music as we dismissed! What a nice treat!

Chorus Concert

Making Candy

Members of the FACS and Yearbook Clubs with help from Liz Flamman and Cindy Cook, recently made Christmas candy after school to sell at the Holiday Happenings. The proceeds from the candy sale went directly to the Samaritan Center.

Exploratory Language Class heads to KCH

Exploratory Language students in 7th grade have been travelling to KCH during their class period to teach Brenda Buso's first grade class and Suzanne Alexander's Kindergarten class. They have been learning a French Holiday song which they will perform at the KCH Singalong on December 19th. The 7th graders have also taught Brenda’s class a few basic phrases in French including greetings and asking/telling your name. The 7th grade students work with the same first grade student every time they visit KCH. We hope to be able to continue this connection after the sing-a-long as well!

5th Grade Participates in the Pillowcase Challenge

Students in Jill Zoccolillo’s class took up the challenge to make as many pillowcases as possible in one afternoon to donate to The 1 Million Pillowcase Challenge. The pillowcases are sent to local children's hospitals and programs to be distributed. With generous donations of fabric, money and time they were able to successfully make 57 pillowcases in just over 3 hours!

8th Graders Complete Learning Module from Cornell

Hannah Naczi’s Accelerated Living Environment 8th grade class has just completed a pilot for a learning module being developed by Cornell. The University contacted her last spring, and sent the materials to be previewed. This included some introductory materials and some student handouts that were aligned with the NYS standards for teaching the concepts of Natural selection/ evolution. The pilot was approved, and the materials were sent to us. The module also included a simulation game called "Cellvival" that had protists in a pond that had different traits that favored the different environmental conditions they encountered. It helped the students visualize that certain traits would be advantageous in different environments. They also completed a pre-assessment survey and a post survey at the end of instruction. The students also had the chance to comment on the game and make suggestions, test how it ran, etc. In return, Marcellus gets to keep the game on our machines for future classes, and use the lesson materials. It was a good example of STEM in action, helpful to both Cornell and our students.

DMS Chesstangs!

Deep in thought and strategizing!

7/8 Winter Choral Concert

Congratulations to our DMS Select Choir and Full Choir who performed to a full house Wednesday night. The Select Chorus sang, Throw Open Your Shutters!, Candles in the Window (while in the dark holding lights), and We Wish You a Merry Christmas.  7th and 8th grade Chorus sang African Noel, Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fair , Riu, Riu, Chiu, and If I have My Ticket.  Our 7th and 8th grade boys sang with the HS Men's chorus, You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.  It was an awesome concert! Nice job to all our students!

Classwork in the Halls

Here is some of the classwork that hangs in our 7th and 8th grade hallways! Some of the work is ELA work, some is Family and Consumer Sciences. Students in 8th grade had to research a country and create a proposal for a restaurant in Marcellus that would match the culture of the country they researched.  The Reef was the winning restaurant! In ELA, students were pulling "flashpoints" from their reading and stating claims to support those points.  The top posters show work from the history of Marcellus. The posters were a piece of the Project Based Learning students did about the community of Marcellus. They wrote biographies about community members or people connected to the history of Marcellus and then worked in groups to create the posters using their biographies and other work we did to present a theme about the community.

Hour of Code

4th grade students from Mrs. Patrick's class working in Hour of Code!  "The Hour of Code is a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify code and show that anybody can learn the basics.  The Hour of Code is organized by Code.org, a public 501c3 non-profit dedicated to expanding participation in computer science by making it available in more schools... An unprecedented coalition of partners have come together to support the Hour of Code, too — including Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Boys and Girls Clubs of America and the College Board."  (http://hourofcode.com/us)

Cookies for Soldiers

A big "NICE JOB!" to the students in FACS Club and Mustang Pride who made cookies for soldiers that could not come home for Thanksgiving!  What a very cool thing to do!

DMS Drama Club Presents ...

Congratulations to the cast and crew of the drama club who presented Football Theater: First Down and Frankenstein To Go on Friday and Saturday night.  Under the direction of Mrs. Reifler and Ms. O'Meara students practiced for 5 weeks to prepare for their performances.  Much work went into learning lines, staging, props, scenery and collaborating together to pull off an outstanding performance.  BRAVO! BRAVO!  Cast members:  Mackenzie Sadler, Grace Alexander, Genny Cioci, Jodi Dubar, Meghan Faulkner, Abby Hoag, Skylyr Honeywell, Kendall Koloski, Violet Mahler, DiAnna Markham, Jake Orandello, Murphy Reilly, Hayden Sadler, Jake Sheridan, Chloe Strand,Mikayla Streiff, Maggie Stremple, Jenaros Shoff, CeCe Sheridan, Megan Rynkiewicz, and Carolyn Wight.  Stage Crew:  Grace Fabian, Rose MacLachlan, Ryan McCormick, Devin Sager, CeCe Sheridan and Sam Townsend.  Nice job everyone!