Welcoming an Olympian
The students and staff at Warren Street will be welcoming Olympic Silver Medalist Trevor Marsicano at 1:30 p.m. on Friday, May 28. Trevor helped the USA men's long track speed skating team win the silver medal in the team pursuit and, during a school assembly, he will talk to the students and staff about bullying, respect and motivation.

Trevor, who grew up in Ballston Spa, had to overcome many obstacles as he worked toward his goal. Those obstacles included being bullied and harassed by other students during middle school and suffering a life-threatening injury during a race. Through his optimism, determination and positive outlook on life, Trevor has overcome these challenges and worked hard to achieve his goals. He has decided to take his experiences, lessons, and stories and share them with our students, in hopes of having a positive influence on the lives of others as well.

This is a great opportunity, made possible by the PTA and staff at Warren Street, for a famous athlete, but more importantly a positive role model, to speak to our students and guide them on a path of success and responsibility in the future.

Third Graders Published in Anthology
Nine third graders from Mrs. Robinson's classroom had essays published in the anthology "Celebrating What is Important to Me." The students entered an essay contest through Creative Communications and submitted essays titled "What is a Board of Education?" Congratulations to B. Case, H. Heckle,  D. Pinckney, J. Ryder, T. Shaver, A. Tomatore, T. Tirse, D. Town and D. Wood!

PARP Program – Reading Helps Us Grow Warren Street's Parents As Reading Partners (PARP) program kicked off with an assembly March 22. Using trees as a symbol for the theme “Reading Helps Us Grow,” each class creatively crafted a 3-foot paper tree for display in our hallways.
As PARP progresses over a five week period, classroom and individual incentives will be provided with the help of generous donations from Applebees, Agway and Goderie’s Tree Farm. The culminating week of the program will be filled with Drop Everything and Read (DEAR) Day, Community and Guest Reader Day, P.J. & Pillow Day, Earth Day and, finally, Arbor Day with a tree planting celebration. The PARP program would not be possible without our wonderful teachers and the Warren Street PTA working together.

Warren Street Green Club
The Elementary Green Club, which meets monthly in Tammy Johnson’s classroom, has been busy making Warren Street a greener school. Some of the wonderful projects undertaken by the Green Club include implementing the recycling of plastic, bottles and cans in all classrooms; creating items using recyclables; honoring Earth Day; picking up trash around school grounds; and providing up-keep in the courtyard. In addition, the Green Club has applied for a grant to supply everyone in our school with a reusable shopping bag, to help eliminate the amount of plastic bags harming the environment. The Green Club hopes to reach out to the district’s other elementary schools, and also the community, to work on creating a greener Johnstown.

On Friday, March 26, Warren staff and students participated in honoring Earth Hour from 2 – 3 p.m. by shutting off classroom lights. Everyone was encouraged to participate in the global Earth Hour at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 27, by shutting off household lights to help out the environment.

Students Shine at 2010 Art Show
On the evening of March 23, Warren Street students displayed a multitude of creative masterpieces for family and friends to admire during the school's Education Fair & Art Show. Enjoy perusing some of the art works, and the beaming faces of the artists, in these photos. 
 

The NED Show Was Here!
Students at Warren were treated to an engaging, exciting and fun assembly when the NED Show visited our school. Using dazzling and captivating yo-yo tricks, together with fun games, worksheets and curriculum follow-up activities, Joe from the NED show delivered the powerful message to Never give up, Encourage others and always Do your best!

Mummies are Forever!
Studying the ancient Egyptian civilization is much more fun when mummies are involved, which is why Mr. McCullough’s sixth grade class studied how and why the Egyptians made these curiosities, and then modeled the art. The students brought in a discarded stuffed animal from home, constructed a sarcophagus and a canopic jar, and modeled the Egyptian practices and ceremonies during class. See more photos here.

Third Graders Replicate Historic Johnstown Sites
Third graders in Mrs. Robinson’s and Mrs. Johnson’s classrooms have been studying communities in social studies. As a culminating project for their first unit, they completed a historic site project. Each child chose a historic site in Johnstown and created a replica. In addition, the students wrote an essay that included information about the location, history, and current use of the site. Mrs. Robinson and Ms. Johnson said that the students showed excellent creativity and knowledge of the sites in their presentations!

JHS Students Team Up with Warren to Promote Literacy
In November, Ms. Catucci, an English teacher at Johnstown High School, brought her public speaking students to Warren Street Elementary School. The high school students were each assigned to an Elementary classroom to read a children's book of their choice to the students.  Not only did this serve as a great way to collaborate between schools and promote literacy, but it was also great practice for Ms. Catucci’s students to practice speaking in front of an audience.  We can’t wait for our high school friends to visit again in the Spring!

Learning From The Past
Students in Mrs. Robinson's classroom have been discussing ways artifacts help us to understand how people lived in the past. The third graders examined and listened to a renovated 1941 radio and enjoyed a PowerPoint presentation illustrating events occurring in 1941 that people may have heard about on the radio.

Accelerated Reading Program Year End Report
The Accelerated Reader Program at Warren Street Elementary School officially concluded its 2009-10 run on May 28. More than 94 percent of the student body took part in the program this year, tying last year’s record. The 251 participating students cumulatively earned 21,511 quiz points during this sixth year of the program.

During the last weeks of June, students who reached significant reading milestones of 75, 100, 150, 200, 300, 400 and 500 points participated in a wide range of special events, from watching a movie with popcorn, to a water relay, a staff vs. students kickball game, a pool party at the high school, Meet the Mayor, job shadow and, finally, lunch with Mr. Ziomek.

An Awards Ceremony was conducted in conjunction with the school’s Field Day Event on Monday, June 14. On this auspicious occasion, the top reader in each grade received a personalized plaque marking his or her achievement and second and third place finishers were acknowledged with a silver or bronze reading medal. All award recipients received Scholastic books for some light summer reading.

Students receiving plaques and medals in each grade are listed below in order of finish:

First Grade:                  Colleen Long, Asjiah Rivera, Madisen Akers
Second Grade:               Gina Franko, Emily Long, Kathryn Romano
Third Grade:                 Joshua Morton, Melissa Ellis, Dalton Town
Fourth Grade:                Alison Trajlinek, Patrick Blake, Victoria Baker
Fifth Grade:                  Alec Blanchard, Aylene Newman, Mason VanDeusen
Sixth Grade:                  Zachary Morton, Kristen Barry, Joseph Licciardo
Mr. Gilsten’s Room:       Theresa Spucches, Zachary Bartholomew
Mrs. Murphy’s Room:     Riley LaPage, Connor Peterson, tie: Corey Cook, Trey Nemecek
Ms. Swatt’s Room:        Elli Doyle, Chelsea Crounse, Beverly Morey

In addition to the grade based awards, the top three outstanding readers were honored with a trophy and gift certificate from the Mysteries on Main Street bookstore. Those distinguished readers are as follows:

Zachary Morton, sixth grade       1507 points
Alec Blanchard, fifth grade         483 points
Gina Franko, second grade         461 points.

Mr. McCullough’s sixth graders won the class-based reading competition with 5408 points and celebrated their achievements with a pizza party on Tuesday, June 15. Mrs. Heroth’s fourth graders finished in second place with 3315 points, while Mrs. Miller’s second graders took third place with 2852 points.

With the conclusion of the 2009-2010 Accelerated Reading Program and the academic year, our students can look forward to a well deserved summer vacation. While it is the best time of year to be outdoors, rainy days are sure to happen and are the perfect time to pick up a good book and READ. Be sure to check back next year, as plans for the 2010-2011 Accelerated Reader program are already underway!

April Update
We’re getting ready to enter May, which will be the final month of the Accelerated Reader program at Warren Street. Don’t worry though - there’s still plenty of time to choose a good book and add a few more points on your yearly totals before the program ends on May 28. Now is also a good time give encouragement to a friend who has waited all year to take his or her first quiz. Who will be the Top Class? It could be yours if you make a plan and take the time to read!

April’s Top Readers were:
First Grade:                  Colleen Long, Asjiah Rivera, Madisen Akers
Second Grade:               Gina Franko, Kathryn Romano, Emily Long
Third Grade:                 Joshua Morton, Hannah Nettles, Melissa Ellis
Fourth Grade:                Patrick Blake, Alison Trajlinek, Renick Blanchard
Fifth Grade:                  Alec Blanchard, Aylene Nnewman, Austin Warn
Sixth Grade:                  Zachary Morton, Kristen Barry, Joseph Licciardo
Mr. Gilsten’s Room:       Theresa Spucches, Zachary Bartholomew
Mrs. Murphy’s Room:     Riley LaPage, Connor Peterson, Corey Cook
Ms. Swatt’s Room:        Elli Doyle, Chelsea Crounse, Beverly Morey

March Update
With the addition of hundreds of new titles to Warren Street’s Accelerated Reader program, students have ample opportunities to grab a good book and read. They can even make their AR time do double duty, by applying it to the Parents as Reading Partners Program (PARP) taking place until April.

Here’s the list of Top Readers for the month of March:
First Grade:                  Colleen Long, Asjiah Rivera, Madisen Akers
Second Grade:               Gina Franko, Kathryn Romano, Emily Long
Third Grade:                 Joshua Morton, Hannah Nettles, Melissa Ellis
Fourth Grade:                Patrick Blake, Alison Trajlinek, Joshua Licciardo/Renick Blanchard
Fifth Grade:                  Alec Blanchard, Samantha Wright, Austin Warn
Sixth Grade:                  Zachary Morton, Kristen Barry, Joseph Licciardo
Mr. Gilsten’s Room:       Theresa Spucches, Zachary Bartholomew
Mrs. Murphy’s Room:     Riley LaPage, Connor Peterson, Corey Cook
Ms. Swatt’s Room:        Elli Doyle, Chelsea Crounse, Beverly Morey

February Update
At last count, over 83 percent of Warren Street students in grades one through six are participating in the Accelerated Reader program. More than 25 students have earned 100 points or higher. Despite these achievements, there were only a few changes made to February’s Top Reader’s List, as follows:

First Grade:                  Colleen Long, Asjiah Rivera, Madisen Akers
Second Grade:               Gina Franko, Kathryn Romano, Emily Long
Third Grade:                 Joshua Morton, Hannah Nettles, Nathan Schrom
Fourth Grade:                Patrick Blake, Alison Trajlinek, Joshua Licciardo
Fifth Grade:                  Alec Blanchard, Samantha Wright, Hannah Warn
Sixth Grade:                  Zachary Morton, Kyle Polidore, Joseph Licciardo
Mr. Gilsten’s Room:       Theresa Spucches, Zachary Bartholomew
Mrs. Murphy’s Room:     Connor Peterson, Corey Cook, Trey Nemecek
Ms. Swatt’s Room:        Elli Doyle, Chelsea Crounse, Abigayle Morey

January Update
More than 209 Warren Street students are participating in Accelerated Reader and 35 students took their first reading quiz this month. The following faces were added to the Wall of Fame:

First Grade:                  Colleen Long, Asjiah Rivera, Madisen Akers
Second Grade:               Gina Franko, Kathryn Romano, Kimberly Fountain
Third Grade:                 Joshua Morton, Melissa Ellis, Nathan Schrom,
Fourth Grade:                Patrick Blake, Alison Trajlinek, Joshua Licciardo
Fifth Grade:                  Samantha Wright, Alec Blanchard, Hannah Warn
Sixth Grade:                  Zachary Morton, Kyle Polidore, Joseph Licciardo
Mr. Gilsten’s Room:       Zachary Bartholomew, Theresa Spucches
Mrs. Murphy’s Room:     Riley LaPage, Connor Peterson, Trey Nemeceh
Ms. Swatt’s Room:        Chelsea Crounse, Talon Clark, Elli Doyle

December Update
The AR program posted some strong numbers by the end of December. The Top Readers in each grade are as follows:
Grade 1:  Colleen Long, Asjiah Rivera, Madisen Akers
Grade 2:  Gina Franko, Kimberly Fountain, Emily Long
Grade 3:  Joshua Morton, Hannah Nettles, Devon Pinckney
Grade 4:   Alison Trajilnek, Patrick Blake, Victoria Baker
Grade 5:   Samantha Wright,  Hannah Putman,  Victoria LoDestro
Grade 6:   Zachary Morton, Kyle Polidore, Haylee VanValkenburgh
Mrs. Murphy’s Classroom:  Riley LaPage, Cory Cook

…and we’re still waiting for a number of other classrooms to join in the fun!

November’s Top Readers are off to a Great Start:
Grade 1:  Colleen Long, Madisen Akers, Mina Baldwin
Grade 2:  Gina Franko, Emily Gordon, Kimberly Fountain
Grade 3:  Joshua Morton, Devon Pinckney, Dayton Handy
Grade 4:  Alison Trajlinek, Victoria Baker,  Patrick Blake
Grade 5:  Samantha Wright, Jordan Herron, Ashlee Ackernecht
Grade 6:  Zachary Morton, Kyle Polidore, Haylee VanValkenburgh