Third Grade Pen Pals

Pen Pal

If you are in third grade at Heathcote you should be really excited because we are doing pen pals with kids in China. My pen pal is Donna and she likes to go swimming and skipping. Everybody in third grade gets a pen pal. Today, December 16  we got our first letter. They wrote stuff like questions, things they like to do. My favorite part of my letter is the ending because it very sweet here is what the letter said.

Ending:

“Best wishes to you and your family.”

Come to Heathcote School at third grade and you will be the lucky candidate for third grade pen pals.

Chinese Zodiac Calendar

By: Ben Y. and Ms. Benash

Have you ever heard of a calendar that could predict the future? According to the Chinese, the Chinese Astrology Calendar can do just that! 2015 is the year of Wooden Sheep. The Year 2015 is the 4712th Chinese Year. The first day of Wooden Sheep is on February 4, 2015. Chinese New Year Day is on February 19, 2015. Sheep is the 8th animal in 12 zodiac signs. The Chinese Zodiac consists of twelve signs and is determined by the Chinese Lunar Calendar. It is based on the cycles of the moon. Ms. Benash and Ben were both the year of the Rooster! What year were you born in?

Chanukah

By: Tyler H.

Have you heard of Chanukah? Chanukah is a Jewish holiday. The start of Chanukah is tonight, Tuesday, December 16, 2014. Kids love Chanukah because we get presents! We get presents from our parents, aunts and uncles, grandparents, and other relatives. Chanukah is a very fun holiday. It lasts eight whole days!

We play a game called dreidel on Chanukah. Dreidel is a game where we roll a spinner with different letters on it. The person who rolled the best letter, they got gelt. Gelt are chocolate coins that you sometimes play dreidel for. Some people play for money but this is better! Make sure to get some gelt and…

HAPPY CHANUKAH!

      This is a picture of Chanukah gelt. Mmm.

Crossy Road

By: Tyler H.

Have you ever heard of Crossy Road? Crossy Road is an awesome free game that is available for the iPad and iPhone. It is making the charts on the App Store for Best Free App. This game is created by Hipster Whale. Crossy Road is like a new version of Frogger. If you don’t know what Frogger is, it’s a old version of Crossy Road. Crossy Road, new. Frogger, old. Got that? Good. Now you will learn how to play Crossy Road.

You play Crossy Road by first choosing a character. They have over 50 characters that you can play with. You play by swiping and tapping to avoid moving cars, trucks, and trains. But don’t wait too long to avoid the vehicles, because then you will be swooped up by an enormous hawk! There is also an explosive truck that when you bump into it it explodes! There is also a river or a stream. You must just from log to log on the steam to get to land. You collect coins along the way. You can also collect coins by watching little 15-30 second videos. Another way to collect coins in to get free gifts. You get a free gift first every 5-30 minutes, but then an hour, and the six hours! Next you will hear what coins do good.

Coins allow you to use the prize machine. This can get you new characters, but not always. You can get duplicates. It cost 100 coins to use the prize machine one time. You can also buy characters for mostly all a dollar. Crossy Road is an amazing game, so get it for free on the App Store now!

Emojis

By: Tyler H.

Have you ever heard of emojis? You probably have, they are the little pictures you can put in your writing. People text, email, tweet, post on stuff on Instagram, and even search with emojis. There are emojis for everything and anything. You say it, they have it. There are thousands of emojis.

You can get emojis from downloading apps that have the emojis you want. It’s so simple: Download the app and... POOF! You have emojis. You can now access emojis by clicking the little sphere thing on your iPad, iPhone, iTouch, and other stuff. You can access it on your computer other ways.

Some name of emoji apps are: Emoji>, Emoji Keyboard 2, Emoji Emoticons, and more. A very cool emoji app is called Live Emoji Pro. This will allow you to type MOVING emojis! Isn’t that awesome? Emojis make typing better. Now, you can not only express yourself with words, but with emojis! Tell how you feel, tell what’s next in your day, tell that you are playing with your pet, tell where you are, and much much more! Emojis and awesome, and you know it, so download the amazing apps on the App Store now!

Santa Claus

By: Tyler H.

There’s a question people have thought about and wondered: Is Santa Claus real or not? This is a very interesting question. The thing is, most people don’t think magic is real, and Santa is magic. And how can there be flying reindeer? It’s been a mystery, until now. Or at least maybe. There is real proof of Santa in the video below. You can believe what you want though.

This is the website for the video. Type in this whole thing correctly. Watch the whole thing. After you watch it, read the next paragraph of this story. The website you have to type in is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S60aNKXSlKI.

Okay. You watched it right? Good. This is amazing proof. Children around the world think Santa is real. Most adults don’t though. Is this proof really real, or is it just made by a ridiculously good hacker. Nobody knows. It’s still a mystery. Do you think Santa Claus is real, or not? Remember to comment your answer. And until then, have a very merry Christmas!

Annie

By: Tyler H.

Did you hear about the new Annie movie coming out? Well there is a big movie that everybody’s buzzing about. It comes out December 19, 2014. It is directed by Will Gluck and has the hit actor Jamie Foxx playing the role of Will Stacks. Cameron Diaz plays Ms. Hannigan. And of course, Quvenzhané Wallis plays the role of the famous Annie. Quvenzhané sang “It’s a Hard-Knock Life” at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and the Build A Bear float. The premiere of Annie was huge, and Beyonce and Jay Z were there! See more information on the upcoming movie plus the trailer and the full cast and crew at this website: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1823664/. We can’t wait for Annie to come out in theater on December 19!

And guess what? Heathcote’s 2014 school play is Annie! Many, many kids signed up to try out for roles and get extra roles if they don’t get the big ones like Annie and Ms. Hannigan. The play is going to be amazing. So stop by and see it. We practice after school for two weeks straight and two hours each day! So we get a lot of rehearsal time. Kids of all ages signed up. We are going to have a blast performing and you, yeah you, Heathcote parent or teacher, you will have a great time listening. We will sing some of the songs like “It’s a Hard-Knock Life” and “Tomorrow.” So make sure you stop by and come see it!

Weather Report for December 9th

WEATHER REPORT

BY RONALD F

Who saw the big rain storm today? The weather is really bad. The wind is increasing. The winds are blowing 14 miles per hour and got to as high as 22 miles per hour. Tonight it will be 36 degrees fahrenheit with a 60% chance  of rain. I also think you should wear tall boots and a heavy coat. I also think it will flood!

Frozen Movie Student Comments

Did you see the movie Frozen?  Let’s  see what other people think.

First we will hear from Tyler...

17. Who is your favorite character in Frozen?

A. Olaf because he really funny.

17. What is your favorite scene?

A. When Elsa built the ice castle because it is very cool

Now we will hear from Bora...

17. Who is your favorite character?

A. Elsa because she has ice powers.

17. What is your favorite scene?

A. When Elsa sings Let It Go

Our last one today is Ronald…..

17. Who is your favorite character

A. Kristoff because he is funny.

17. What is your favorite scene ?

A. When marshmallow throws everybody away from the ice castle.

Thats what other kids thought about Frozen.

By Meena.V and Danielle.G

Weather Report

By: Tyler H.

This is the weather report for tomorrow, Wednesday, December 10, 2014. Tomorrow there is a chance of snow and rain. The chance of precipitation is 70 percent. It will last until Friday, December 12, 2014. The temperature for tomorrow is 36-38 degrees and the temperature for Thursday is 29-37 degrees. You need to wear warm winter coats, boots, gloves, scarfs, hats, and other winter clothing. Remember to wear your hats!

The Lost Colony of Roanoke

The lost colony, A.K.A the Roanoke colony was founded in August 1587. It was established on Roanoke island in what today is the state of North Carolina.The Roanoke colony was an attempt by Queen Elizabeth to establish a permanent English settlement.The operation was originally financed and organized by Sir Humphrey Gilbert. But soon after the colony was established a naval war between Spain and England broke out which may have something to do with disappearance of the Roanoke colony. One clue we have is a wooden post with the word Croatoan carved into it. Croatoan was the name of the Native American tribe that was living on the island of roanoke before the Europeans inhabited it.  People have come up with many conclusions as to why the Roanoke colony vanished a few of them being that: they got killed by Native Americans; they tried to sail back to England but got lost at sea or maybe they died at the hands of Spaniards  who marched up from Florida. It still remains a mystery.

By Ben Y.

Governor John White returned to Roanoke in 1590 to find the words "croatoan" carved on a tree.

Colonial Day

By Maxwell Z.

Did you know that Heathcote celebrates colonial day? Well, the colonial day is going to be a blast at Heathcote!

Colonial day starts in the morning at 8:45 on December 11.

We are going to dress up, play games, and more!  I am going to dress up as a European soldier. Everybody has to dress up as something related to colonial times.

For games we are NOT playing Xbox 360!  We are going to play school games like sparkle, only it is going to be related to colonial times. We are celebrating colonial day to start off our colonial unit!  It is going to be fun so if you are a Heathcote 4th grade student you are going to have a blast of fun!  

Moon Journal

By: Ronald F.

Who does a moon journal?  Everyone in the third grade does a moon journal. A moon journal is a way to keep a record of what you see when you look up in the sky. Whatever you see you post it in the moon journal. The moon journal is online. You also can type something that is not about the moon. For example, you can’t write about french fries, but it has to be about something you see in the sky.

I learned the moon can rise very early or rise very late or it could set early or set late. It is very weird to me. I learned from my teacher about the different faces of the moon. We even did a rap song. Here is the order of the moon phases: full moon, waning gibbous, waning crescent, new moon, waxing crescent, waxing gibbous, full moon. And the cycle starts over and over again. The whole third grade watched The Mission of Apollo 11. It was awesome.

  

Reclassified

By: Tyler H.

Have you heard of the album “Reclassified?” It’s an album by the hit Australian rapper Iggy Azalea. It’s a reissue of Iggy’s debut studio album “The New Classic.” If you don’t know Iggy, she’s an awesome rapper who’s like Nicki Minaj. These two are rivals in rap. They fight for awards and top songs. “Reclassified” features five newly recorded songs. This rocking album has the hit singles “Fancy” (featuring Charli XCX), “Black Widow” (featuring Rita Ora), and “Work,” from her first album “The New Classic.” The other songs from “The New Classic” it features are: “Change Your Life,” “Bounce,” and “Rolex.” It also has the new hit single "Beg For It" (featuring MØ).

The new five new songs it has are: "We In This”, "Trouble" (featuring Jennifer Hudson), "Iggy SZN", "Heavy Crown" (featuring Ellie Goulding), and of course, the hit single, "Beg For It" (featuring MØ).” On Sunday November 23, 2014 was the American Music Awards also known as the AMAs. It was just nine days ago from today. Iggy won her first two awards! One award she won was best rap-hip hop artist. This album has two versions. One is explicit, which means bad language, and a clean version, where they take out the bad words.

Check out Iggy’s website at www.iggyazalea.com. And make sure to check out the amazing new album!

Thanksgiving

By: Una O

Thanksgiving is here and everyone is excited! It is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November. It started in the year 1621. Do you know about the Pilgrims? I do! So you might like to thank them but they died. This is the story of Thanksgiving!

The Pilgrims were not allowed to have their own religion. So they got on boats from England and sailed to America. After a really tough winter, the Pilgrims went to get help from their Native American friends to teach them what to grow. The next year, there was  a lot of food and crops. The Pilgrims were thankful so they had a big feast!

Peer Mediation

Are you a peer mediator? Have you ever been peer mediated?

Or do you have no idea what a peer mediator is? In Heathcote School, the fourth and fifth graders get the opportunity to help younger kids solve lunch or recess problems, such as someone calling someone else a bad name or insulting them.

Peer mediators get assigned a grade, time, and day to peer mediate. I peer mediate the third and fifth graders from 11:45 to 12:15.

Since I am only in fourth grade it is kind of awkward to peer mediate the fifth graders. You also get peer mediation partners. My partners are Emily and Luke. One way that I have helped already is that when some people were calling each other names I told them that they were being really mean. They listened to me and stopped. Peer mediation really works!

Now you know that when someone is being mean, you can come to the peer mediators and we will help solve your problem.

                               By: Meena V.

Opera Interview

Maxwell and Ben visited SUNY Purchase and watched Hansel and Gretel with the fourth graders from Heathcote. When they returned they interviewed one another about the experience.  Here they are talking about the opera. Enjoy!

Elecricity Interview

Ronald and Bora discuss the electricity project in third grade. They made different types of circuits and talked about what ones were their favorite and why they liked the science activity so much.

 

Heathcote Interview

Here is an interview about life at Heathcote with Meena and Danielle. They discussed opinions about the school overall. Enjoy listening!

 

4th Grade interview

Listen in to hear Una and Tyler talk about 4th grade. They talk about teachers, specials and school work. Enjoy!

New Learning at Heathcote: Invasive Species

Invasive Species

By Benjamin Y.

In the fourth grade, we were reading a magazine called  Time For Kids. In this magazine, I came across an article about invasive species. This was so interesting that it inspired me to share my newfound knowledge.  

I learned that in many cases, new animals are good, but sometimes they can be harmful to the ecosystems and the environment. Some animals can kill off some of the essential elements in an ecosystem. For example, if you introduced an animal that likes to eat a lot of grass the other animals that  also eat grass may  be in danger of their species becoming smaller in population. The predators that eat those animals will also have a lower population because they will run out of animals to eat. This cycle is called the food chain. These harmful animals are called invasive animals.

FIFA World Cup

FIFA WORLD CUP

By: Ronald F.

The FIFA World Cup was first held in the year 1930 and was held in Uruguay. Here is the list of the best players of all time: Pele, Lionel Messi, Maradona, Johan Cruyff, Franz Beckenbaur, Michel Platini, Alfredo di Stéfano, Ferenc Puskás, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Eusebio. In 2014, Germany won the World Cup.They were playing against Argentina. At the last second, Germany scored the winning goal and the score was 1-0! Lionel Messi when he lost the game against Germany. I was very unhappy, but it still was a good game.

Argentina won two World Cups and Germany won five World Cups. Brazil was the best team. They won six World Cups, but this year they came in fourth place.  

Classroom Aquarium

By: Benjamin Y. and Maxwell Z.

Have you ever been to an aquarium? Come check out 4 Ra’s classroom aquariums! We have fish, snails, and much, much more.

The fish we have are called mosquito fish. Mosquito fish look a lot like guppies. When female mosquito fish are pregnant they will start to form a black spot on their stomach called a gravid spot. The spot will slowly grow until it is almost the width of the fish. Mosquito fish babies are called fry. When the fry are first born they are almost microscopic. This is not only because they are small, but because their skin is transparent.

We also have snails whose jobs are to clean up the aquarium.  They do this by eating anything that other animals leave behind. Another thing we have are plants in our aquarium. One of our plants is called duckweed and one is called elodea. The elodea and duckweed  jobs are to feed the fish and snails. Having an aquarium in our class is a lot of fun! So come on down and check it out!

Opinion Section: We want a better school district!

By: Tyler H.

Some Heathcote School students want a better school district. We will have two fourth grade students share what they feel their problems with our district are. “We want or own desks!” says 9 year old students Paula Dantzig and Giovanna Laporta. “On tests people looked at our papers! We saw their eyes looking right at our papers!” I feel this is a big problem! We feel there are many more problems too. This is a big one that should be fixed!

Here’s another problem: “The buses stink!” Paula says. “We need new buses and we want SiriusXM radio. We don’t like the radio that is already on the bus.” Now that’s an annoying problem. Children want to listen to radio that they will enjoy.” “Radio Disney,” Paula says. “The bathrooms are gross,” says Giovanna and Paula. And they are not the only people that think the bathrooms are gross. I am a fourth grader. And I say, “There is a poisonous spider in the boys bathroom! Paula says there is also a poisonous spider in the girls bathroom. This needs to be changed. “BETTER SCHOOL DISTRICT! BETTER SCHOOL DISTRICT!” Will this get changed? We hope so. Please change this. We feel these problems are getting out of control! This needs to be changed. Do you agree?

The Halloween Parade

By: Maxwell and Una

The Halloween Parade is when everyone in Heathcote wears a costume and walks around the school driveway.  There are no weapons allowed in the parade ( Even fake ones ).  It is at 9:15 on October 31st, 2014.  If you are a  parent of a child of Heathcote you are in luck!  Any parent can come over and take pictures of his or her child!  The rumor is that the teachers are going to be minions and the principle is Gru!  Have fun at the parade and happy Halloween!

Una In The Garden

Check out this on the scene reporting about the Heathcote Garden. Let Una take you around and show you some of her favorite vegetables! 

Click on the links below to see Una in action:

https://docs.google.com/a/scarsdaleschools.org/file/d/0B3qeeMsK891jS0lOXzRLSjIxN2s/edit?usp=docslist_api

https://docs.google.com/a/scarsdaleschools.org/file/d/0B3qeeMsK891jUU92THRSdk1sRHc/edit?usp=docslist_api

Buddy Bench: The New Way to Find a Friend

If you ever need a friend and you are shy you can go to the Buddy Bench. Have you ever needed a friend on the playground? If you have, the buddy bench is the place to go. You walk over a kid will notice you and come, it might be the start of a beautiful friendship.

An example of that is when a kid feels left out and goes to the buddy bench and another kid walks over and plays with you ,thats how the buddy bench works.

By Meena V. and Danielle G.

Halloween Window Painting

Did you ever hear of Halloween window painting? Well it’s an event where you get to paint windows at a time near Halloween. People do creative paintings about Halloween. There are four awards: 1st place, 2nd place, 3rd place, and honorable mention. If you don’t already know, honorable mention means super great job. It’s worse than 3rd place, but better than nothing. They give out a few honorable mention awards. People are super super happy when they get any of these awards. I did window painting this year, but I don’t know if I got any awards yet. Last year I got honorable mention.

This year it was held on October 19, 2014. More than a hundred people entered. Halloween window painting is a big hit. The grand prize is one hundred dollars! Wow! Imagine yourself winning that big lot. Well, you have a chance when you enter. It’s super fun. See you by the windows!

By Tyler H.

Curiosity Project

The Curiosity Project is a project that allows students to write about what they are interested in.  The teacher assigns a student this project like any other project.  The fourth grade writes about it in Heathcote School.  You do this project in fourth grade.  You first come up with a subject you are interested in.  The second step is to find all the resources you can get and choose which ones you want to use. The next step is to research or get information about it.  The step after that is to find photos or pictures to go with the subject or information.  The final step is to type and print all the information and photos you have and stick it to a poster board.  You have now made your own Curiosity Project!                                                                                                               
By Maxwell Z.

Buddy Bench- A New Way to Find A Friend

Imagine if you were lonely and nobody was there to stand up for you? Well you can go to the buddy bench! This is a place where people will see you and come sit next to you and ask you to play. Its a place where people can check on you. And remember always check for the bench and make a buddy!

By Bora S.

Recess Heros

Recess is supposed to be fun. Right? Well at Heathcote we are having some problems! Kids are being mean to each other and excluding each other. For example, some people aren’t passing to each other in football and soccer plus, kids are pushing and shoving certain other kids. But don’t be discouraged, there is a solution. Heathcote has created a peer mediation

program.

Our school administrators are letting students in grades 4 and 5 choose to be a peer mediator. Heathcote`s peer mediators are people who help younger grades with problems and arguments throughout recess.

The peer mediators have a special dress code. Usually they will be wearing a yellow vest with the Heathcote circle of friends symbol on the front, so if you ever have a problem at recess just look for a people in yellow vest.

By Benjamin Y.

Circle of Friends Assembly

At Heathcote School, we have an assembly called the Circle of Friends assembly. The assembly represents friendship and kindness. We started with saying the Pledge of Allegiance. I sat next to my kindergarten and first grade buddies.

We also sing friendship songs like “We Are The Future of The World” by our music teacher Ms.Bescherer.

This is how she came up with the song, she thought about the children and Heathcote School and a song that would represent our school community.

By Danielle G.

Your Top 30 Favorite Pop and Rap Songs and Artists!

By: Tyler H.

You voted and now here are your favorite songs. We put together this list of your favorite songs just for you! Over all, your favorite kids radio station is. . . Radio Disney! This is the place where all these songs are! Visit the website at: www.radiodisney.com and listen to it on SiriusXM channel 79. Over all your favorite pop artist is Ariana Grande! Your favorite rapper is… A tie! Iggy Azalea and Nicki Minaj! Ariana has performed songs with both Iggy and Nicki. Wow! Iggy and Nicki have been battling for best female rapper awards for years. Most children in Heathcote like pop more than rap. Pop is a very popular type of music, but so is rap. If you want, listen to these great songs.

Now here is your list:

Hurricane Sandy: A Look Back Through Interview

Hurricane Sandy

By: Una O.

I interviewed Ms. Benash about her experience during Hurricane Sandy.

What did you go through during Hurricane Sandy?

I was not very affected. I did not lose power or hot water. I did lose my cable tv! I did not have any guests stay at my house.

Did you see Hurricane Sandy blowing?

Yes, there was a lot of wind and rain . I stayed in for 2 days.

What did you do to keep busy during the hurricane?

I read, I watched DVDs, and I went to the gym to keep busy during this time.

Was it hard to sleep during the storm?

No, it was ok.

Meet the Staff

Here's the 2014 Staff of the Heathcote Herald. Look out for our articles-many are ready for publish next week!

Minecraft-Is your favorite game owned by a different company?

By Tyler H.

Is Minecraft your favorite game? Well, it was owned by Mojang, but now it is owned by Microsoft. You probably know Microsoft as an awesome store for selling video games such as Mario games, Disney Infinity, Skylanders, and much more. But now, the more than million dollar store bought Minecraft from Mojang, for 2.5 million dollars. Do you think they will change Minecraft? As far as we know, their making Minecraft a lot better. The game we all know and love, is probably getting a lot more awesome! What do you think will happen to the amazing game? Will they add more mods? Will they try to stop the lagging that some of us are suffering of? What will happen?! There is much more to come of Minecraft and keep playing!

Day 1

The first day was a success!

Our journalists were busy at work. They have chosen their first stories to cover.

Our first edition of Heathcote Herald will be on the "shelves" soon. Here are some articles you will see coming soon.

Tyler- Minecraft change of hands
Meena-Strict or Soft-What makes a good teacher?
Una-A Look Back: Hurricane Sandy
Ben-How do you solve your recess problems?
Danielle-The Heathcote Circle of Friends Assembly
Ronald and Bora- Halloween Past and Present

Here are some behind the scenes photos from our newsroom. Don't forget to check us out on Twitter @HeathcoteHerald

Welcome Journalists

Welcome Heathcote Herald Journalists!


This will be the website for our Heathcote Herald Scarsdale After School Club.  We are bringing the newspaper into 2014 by becoming a news media outlet through this blog.  Here we will be posting published articles, photos, videos and podcasts. Check here every week for new posts to track our progress.

Enjoy!