PARP Daily Themes

As we celebrate PARP week we have daily themes to help students get into the spirit of PARP and reading.  Monday's theme is "Reading jogs the mind" and all students are encouraged to wear their sneakers!  Tuesday's theme is "Get comfy with a good book" where students can wear their sweats and favorite team jersey.  Wednesday's theme is "Take pride in reading" and wear your Mustang Pride gear!  Thursday's theme is "Readable shirt day" where students can wear a shirt with a saying or quote.  Friday's theme is "Miss match day" where we will all be wearing some crazy unmatched socks! 

Many other activites are going on during PARP week.  Author Christie Casciano and her sister Rose Mary Casciano Moziak joined us to kick off our PARP week with assemblies for students in grades 4-6.  Christie talked about her passion for writing and how she got started writing using hockey as her platform for writing ideas after her children started to play hockey and she spent many hours at the rink.  Her sister, Mary is her illustrator and has completed her books with wonderful illustrations.  Christie and Rose Mary published The Puck Hog in 2010 and many of our students ordered autographed copies of the book.  Students were very attentive for their presenation and asked good questions about becoming writers.

Throughout the week a few classes participated in Read Across America through video conferencing ... see our separate article for more information on that experience!

Each day we have DEAR time which is "Drop Everything and Read!"  This time is a surprise everyday where students read for about 15 minutes.  We will also celebrate Dr. Suess's birthday and honor his legacy!  Watch for later articles in the week that so off our tribute to Dr. Seuss!

PARP Week at DMS

Congratulations to our student artists who submitted a cover drawing for our PARP week packet. The following students submitted work:  Ben Carranti from Mrs. Carey's 5th grade, Cory Knox from Mrs. Pawlewicz's 6th grade, Jess Majo from Mrs. Carey's 5th grade and Victoria Chase, Emily Grinnell and Deanna Gannon from Mrs. Hart's 4th grade class.  Nice work!!!

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.

Students Donate Materials to Send to Hurricane Sandy Victims

Under the direction of Kathy Rein, National Junior Honor Society students organized an effort asking our student body to bring in supplies to donate to the victims of Hurricane Sandy.  Grade levels were designated particular items to focus upon based on the needs of the victims.  The supplies collected created 69 school supply kits along with many other items (pencils, paper, construction paper and notebooks) sent along separately. We also created 88 health kits and sent extra band-aids, toothbrushes and combs. This school wide effort will help out over 157 people/families that are in need of supplies and support. With a little friendly home room competitions, special recognition goes out to Mrs. Sevey's home room who brought in 210 items and Mrs. Pawlewicz's home room who brought in 109 items! Way to go students!

After collecting all the items, the NJHS students boxed them up into kits. Special thanks also to some special people at National Grid who are getting our supplies downstate by Thanksgiving! Our supplies are going directly to Rockaway Beach.