Curriculum

      Music

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

• First Place--Jessica Hanson
• Second Place--Riley Frank
• Third Place--Leanne Wilson

Third Grade

• First Place--Ryan Lynch
• Second Place--Abby Neiser
• Third Place--Alexa Patrizio

Please click here to see the grade level photos

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.

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.

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.

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!

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

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.

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!

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.

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!

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

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.

Kindergarten Students Paint with Toothbrushes!

Memorial Kindergarten Students used watercolors and toothbrushes to create some Terrific Toothbrush Paintings.  Aren't these great?

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!

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?

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!