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Welcome to
Memorial Elementary School
3301 South Park Road
Bethel Park, PA 15102
Phone: (412) 854-8506
Fax: (412) 833-5014
District Voice Mail: (412) 833-5005
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Latest News |
The
2007-2008 school year has begun! Please keep checking back to
this page to see highlights from 2007-2008!
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Spelling Bee Champions Crowned!

Memorial's Spelling Bee gets bigger and
better every year. The 2008 Bee was a
great competition and the following
students won their grade levels:
Fourth Grade
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First Place--Jessica Hanson
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Second Place--Riley Frank
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Third Place--Leanne Wilson
Third Grade
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First Place--Ryan Lynch
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Second Place--Abby Neiser
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Third Place--Alexa Patrizio
Please click
here to see the grade level
photos |
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Mr. R Comes to Kindergarten in a Red
Racecar!
Memorial Kindergarten students in
Mrs. Mills' and Mrs. Porter's
classes welcomed Mr. R Rainbow Ribbons
to their school in fine fashion--he
arrived in a Red Racecar driven by
Memorial parent David Kerr. The
students were equally excited to see Mr.
R as they were the red racecar, and they
asked Mr. Kerr some very good questions
about the car and his interest in
racing. Welcome to Memorial,
Mr. R!
Please click
here to see more pictures from
the afternoon kindergarten session. |
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Memorial Welcomes Celebrity Readers!
Read
Across America Week is a celebration at
Memorial and the celebration annually
concludes with a visit by Celebrity
Readers, who share a favorite story as
well as their love of reading with the
students. This much-anticipated
event is coordinated by the Memorial
PTA--Thank you!
Please click
here to see a list of readers
and pictures from the event. |
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Third Grade Orchestra Performs Its First
Concert!

Congratulations to the members of
Memorial's Third Grade Orchestra, under
the direction of Mrs. Tweel, who
performed its first concert for Memorial
Kindergarten and Third Grade students.
Also in attendance were members of the
musicians' family. The concert
included a demonstration of correctly
holding the string instruments, plucking
and seven musical pieces, including
"Skip to My Lou," "Baa Baa Black Sheep,"
and "Mary Had a Little Lamb." The
students were fantastic!
Please click
here to see more pictures from
their first performance. |
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Seven Nominated for Teacher Excellence
Awards
Congratulations to Memorial Teachers
Donna Chmelynski, Georgeann Collins,
Betty Francis, Melissa Hruby, Mary
Mancinelli. Toddy Reese and Cathy
Valocik, who have been nominated for
a 2008 Teacher Excellence Award.
Good luck to all of these teachers! |
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BPHS Students Visit to Encourage
Participation in Science Fair
Memorial welcomed a visit from Bethel
Park High School
students Roma Amin, Rachel Marini
and Brian Walsh, who visited
classrooms to encourage participation in
the upcoming Science Fair. The
high school students prepared a science
lesson that dealt with a favorite topic
of elementary students--pizza! The
Memorial students had a chance to talk
about the ingredients in pizza and
focused on one particular
ingredient--yeast. The students
learned what yeast does and how it
impacts pizza dough. The Memorial
students learned about the five steps of
the Scientific Method and by the end of
the lesson, they had some exciting ideas
for their own science experiments.
The project was coordinated by Roma
Amin, who was one of 10 area students
selected to participate in the Gene Team
Program last summer at the University of
Pittsburgh. As part of her
participation on the Gene Team, Roma
designed this presentation for the
Memorial students to get them excited
about science. In addition, the
classroom with the most participation in
the Science Fair will get the use of a
Scope on a Rope for a month from Pitt's
Department of Biological
Sciences--thanks to Alison Slinskey
Legg, the Director of Outreach
Programs. The University of
Pittsburgh Gene Team is sponsored by a
Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA)
grant from the National Center for
Research Resources, a component of the
National Institutes of Health.
Thanks to Roma, Rachel, Brian, Dr.
Slinskey Legg and the Gene Team for
making science so fun!
Please click
here to see more photos from the
students' presentations |
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Flat Stanley Project Sends Flat First
Graders Across the Country and All over
the World
Mrs.
Collins' first graders enjoyed
reading the picture book version of
"Flat Stanley," and they
thought they might like to experience
what it's like to be flat as well.
The students made flat paper doll
versions of themselves and mailed them
to friends and family all over the
United States and the world. The
recipients of the flats took them to
many exciting locations and photographed
the flats in their new surroundings.
They also returned the photographs to
the students with information about the
places the flats traveled to, including
brochures, postcards and scrapbooks.
Mrs. Collins created a large
map/bulletin board in her classroom, and
as you can see by the picture, the
students were excited to see where their
flats ended up, including such far away
places as Texas, Florida, California,
New York and even Canada and Germany. |
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Students Make Quilts for Project Linus

First Grade students in Mrs. Collins'
class used their artistic talents to
help others. Each student
beautifully decorated a quilt square
that was assembled into four quilts,
that were donated to Project Linus,
which provides hospitals with blankets
and quilts for babies and children with
health issues. A special thanks
goes to Joy Olszewski, who
assembled the quilts and delivered them
to Project Linus!
Please click
here to see up-close photos of
each of the quilts! |
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Students Collect Items for U.S. Soldiers
In lieu of purchasing holiday gifts for
their teachers this year,
Memorial students were asked by the
staff to take whatever money they were
going to spend on presents and use it to
purchase items for American soldiers
stationed overseas this holiday season.
The Memorial students generously
responded to their teachers' request and
pictured behind them are the items they
purchased to send overseas. Items
included non-perishable food,
toiletries, pens, writing paper,
blankets, pillows, duct tape, phone
cards, stamps and a whole host of
others. The items were donated to
Bethel Park-based Military Connections,
which provides weekly shipments at no
cost to the soldiers or their families. |
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Third Graders Stage Play about Jamestown
Colony
Third
Grade students in Ms. Leman's
classroom did a fantastic job staging,
"Welcome to Jamestown," a play about
America's first successful English
speaking colony. The play talked
about the struggles of the English
Settlers and the Powhattan Indians as
they learned to live together in peace.
They performed the play for all of the
Memorial Second Grade classes.
Please click
here to see more photos from
this outstanding production! |
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Students Support the Nyadire Project in
Zimbabwe

Memorial students were happy to be a
part of a district-wide effort to
support a school in Nyadire, Zimbabwe.
Each homeroom sponsored an African
student by purchasing a back pack and
filling it with lots of school supplies.
Each homeroom also raised $50 to cover
the administrative/uniform costs for the
student for the entire school year.
The Memorial PTA, under the chairmanship
of Mrs. Drahusz, stayed after
school one day and packed up all of the
supplies for delivery to Zimbabwe.
Sixteen backpacks were filled with lots
of great school supplies! Thank
you, Memorial, for your support of this
meaningful project.
Please click
here to see more pictures from
the backpack packing day |
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PRIDE Conducts Poster Contest During Red
Ribbon Week
PRIDE of Bethel Park sponsored a poster
contest in all Bethel Park Elementary
Schools during Red Ribbon Week. The
contest was open to third and fourth graders
and the posters had to portray a drug-free
message. Memorial's winners were
Rachel Toogood and Lindsey
Hulbert.
The winning posters were displayed at Bethel
Park Stadium during the last home football
game of the season an d the winners received
a Wal-Mart gift card.
PRIDE is a group of high school students who
are devoted to drug prevention and education
among their peers and elementary students.
They promote a positive, healthy lifestyle
through community service, outreach
activities and educational performances.
For more information about PRIDE and its
activities, go to
www.prideofbp.org. |
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Kindergarten Students Paint with
Toothbrushes!

Memorial Kindergarten Students used
watercolors and toothbrushes to create
some Terrific Toothbrush Paintings.
Aren't these great?
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Fourth Graders Write on the Wall
Generally students are not encouraged to
write on their school walls, but an
exception is being made, because fourth
graders are being instructed by art
teachers Ms. Smeal and Mr.
Wallisch to help and decorate a
temporary wall that is blocking off a
construction area in their school.
Students have been asked to draw a
surrealistic portrayal of something that
is currently in their art classroom on
the wall. It's currently a work in
progress, but the students definitely
have mastered surrealism!
Click
here to see pictures of the
finished wall! It's beautiful! |
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First Graders Design Their Portfolio
Covers
First
Grade Students in Mrs. Kennedy's
room had the opportunity to design their
portfolio covers for the school year.
Students cut shapes out of felt to
create self-portraits that were glued to
their portfolio covers. It's
important for students to keep track of
their work during the school year, to
see how they're progressed and what
areas need improvement, and what better
place to keep that work than their very
own portfolio with a specially designed
cover? |
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Miss Francis Introduces Kindergarten
Students to the Letter Person, Ms F!

Who better than Memorial Second Grade
Teacher Miss Francis to pay a visit to
the kindergarten classes to introduce
them to a new Letter Person named Ms F?
Miss Francis was happy to introduce her
new friend to the Memorial Kindergarten
Friends and the students had a great
time learning about this new member of
the Letter People.
Please click
here to see more pictures! |
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