Focus on a Student: Dannan Murphy

By Nadja Anderson-Oberman

 

Dannan M. in her classroom.

This school year, Lisa Pack, the fourth and fifth grade group teacher at Project Learn School (PLS) has a class of only eight kids. One of the new, younger students, Dannan Murphy, likes being in such a small class. “When there are less kids in my class, I feel  like I have more focus than when there are more kids,” Dannan commented. “With less kids, Lisa can focus more on me than she could if she had 15 other kids that also need help,” she added.

  One thing unknown about Dannan is that this isn't her first year at PLS. Dannan went to PLS in 2009, but left in 2010 to go to Greene Street Friends School. “I didn't like going to Greene Street Friends. The teachers were really strict. That’s one of the reasons that I left and came back to PLS this year (2014-2015),” Dannan said. Even though Dannan was at Greene Street Friends, her brother, Jimmy Murphy, continued to go to PLS.

  Outside of the classroom, you can often find Dannan hanging out with her friends or dancing. Dannan is currently taking jazz lessons at the Wissahickon Dance Academy. She used to be interested in ballet, but now she is more interested in jazz. She’s been dancing for about three years.

 Inside the classroom, you can find Dannan enjoying herself the most during Social Studies and Geography. Overall, she loves all of her classes. So far, she really likes Lisa’s group, and Lisa of course. Dannan loves Lisa’s classroom, and feels like it’s an ideal learning environment for her. She is happy that she decided to come back to PLS and enjoys laughing, playing, and learning with Lisa and her group.

Climbing to New Heights!!

By Ian Holbrook

Years ago there was a metal climber at Project Learn School (PLS), which was removed in the summer of 2009 after a tree fell onto it. The loss of this climber upset the students. Last year, the Development Committee held some fundraising events intended to raise money for a new climber. There are four people on the committee:  Aubrey DiSanto, teacher of 2nd and 3rd grades at PLS who is currently on maternity leave, Laurance Rosenzweig, father of Mei R, sixth grade student at PLS, Melissa Klein, mother of Tani K, 3rd grade student at PLS, and Kathleen Karhnak-Glasby, mother of Tim and Alma K-G, fourth and second graders at PLS. First there was a book fair, but this did not work to raise money because the committee did not know that it would only get Scholastic credit. Next the Development Committee asked for donations by using letters given out at grandparents day; this fund raised $3,500 when they were only looking for $3,000.  The money was raised very fast.

A dome climber was what the students were interested in. It was to be installed before school started this year but there was not enough clearance space. Clearance space is the safety space needed so kids do not bang their heads on the nearest object if they fall off the climber.  The committee's solution for this problem was to add to the existing climber instead of purchasing a new one. This extension will need to be installed by a specialist from Kompan, the playground experts. The committee is investigating what kind of extension can be bought with the amount of money that was raised. New insurance will not be needed to get the new climber. 

Students at PLS hope to see a new climber soon and also appreciate the Development Committee’s great efforts to work towards this goal.  

Fridays Are Lunch Sale Days

By Tia Simone

Donna Waxler in line for mashed potato and topping sale.

Mashed potatoes, spaghetti, taco’s, and soup - oh my! These are the things that you can buy on Friday’s at Project Learn School (PLS). The eighth graders Ma’ayani GK, Kennedy AL, and Jim M, host weekly lunch sales in order to raise money for their trip to Costa Rica in April. These weekly sales have been going on for about four years. Going to Costa Rica requires a certain amount of money and these sales help provide that money.

      Food sale ideas are generated by the kids and when there’s one that everybody likes, then the sale is repeated. This years have been tested, with the help of the teachers, Liam Gallagher and Joan Fox. They all run smoothly. Last year, there were ten eighth graders and this year there are three, so it is a little bit easier to cook. However, since there are so few eighth graders, the seventh graders help serve.

      Joan is in charge of buying the ingredients. She uses some of the profit from the week before to purchase them. The teachers try to make it a goal to have a reasonable price for the sales, plus make enough profit that helps the cost for Costa Rica. The cost of each weekly meal is five dollars. The teachers make it a goal to not go over that price.

    Project Learn has recently gotten a new kitchen. Teachers and students have said that it’s a great help to the lunch sales, and using the kitchen in general, because it’s more spacious. The new stove, because it is a six burner, helps also because some of the meals require big pots. The old stove was too small, so the pots wouldn't always fit. Now that there is a bigger stove with six burners, cooking with bigger pots runs a lot smoother.

    “It’s kind of happier in there. More cheerful. The space just makes your spirits higher, you know, cooking is more fun in there. The sink also has been more helpful because it’s easier to wash dishes.” Joan says.

    Check out the weekly sale - it may just be the perfect meal!

Kitchen Changes for the New Year

By Penny Rhoads 

Portfolio Elective kids cooking in the new kitchen.

Last spring Ian Holbrook’s dad, John Holbrook, contacted Roni Anton, Project Learn School’s (PLS) Administrator about an IKEA grant for $ 10,000. The grant, sponsored by IKEA was for IKEA materials and design expertise for a given project. The staff thought it would be a great way to get the older kitchen remodeled. Daily votes was the way to win the grant. Roni sent out an email to the PLS community asking each person to vote. She sent reminders each day to go onto the IKEA website and vote for Project Learn. The results came back and PLS had the most votes. This meant that PLS won the ten-thousand dollars worth of IKEA planning and cabinets and hardware. So began the summer renovations of PLS’ old kitchen.

    Joan Fox, PLS’ art teacher, describes the old kitchen as old, dirty, and dingy. There were no doors on the cabinets and at one point, Roni brought some from her house.

    Roni says it took all summer to demolish and rebuild the new kitchen and they had to hire people to help put in the appliances. Lots of people came in to help put together the kitchen. Some of those people were Joan, her daughter Annie, Fran her mother in law, Roni, John Holbrook, Zulette Henry, and James Strauss, Aidan and Cora’s dad.

    Joan says that even before the remodeling the kitchen was used a lot. She says that cooking is a big part of PLS but the new kitchen has made it a lot easier.

    Nadja Anderson Oberman in sixth grade says,” It’s made cooking a lot easier. The new set up makes the kitchen look much bigger and the new kitchen has improved cooking at PLS, so much.” Cooking is a big part of PLS, but with the new kitchen  cooking is much easier.

     Roni says that five or six years ago an anonymous person donated a large amount of money to PLS. In the end, PLS only had to use a small portion of it to help offset the cost of the kitchen. With the extra money it was decided to buy new water fountains for the first and third floor.

     All the groups who cook in the kitchen agree the remodel has been a perfect addition to PLS’ cooking adventures.

Book Review: Wonderstruck

By Sylvie Goodblatt

The characters of the book Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick, Rose and Ben, seem to have nothing in common, other than that Rose is deaf and Ben is deaf in one ear. They are from different time periods and places; Ben from Gunflint Lake, Minnesota, in 1977, and Rose from Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1927. Even though Wonderstruck is historical fiction, it is told in a way that I think, even people who don’t like that genre can enjoy.

Rose and Ben’s stories are even told differently; Ben in words and Rose in pictures; though both are pretty amazingly done.

    When Ben’s mom dies in a car crash, he moves in with his aunt, uncle, and cousins, and his house is left to be dealt with by his aunt and uncle, although he doesn't want them to sell it. On a stormy night, he visits the house and finds what might be information about his long lost father. Trying to contact him by phone, Ben gets knocked out by a lightning strike. He is sent to a hospital and his good ear is damaged. Then, without anyone knowing, Ben sneaks out to  New York City to find his father.

    Rose spends her time looking out her bedroom window at New York City and making models of the buildings she sees. She keeps a scrapbook of an actress named Lillian Mayhew, who is actually her mother. Her dad does not like Rose going out in the city, as he feels it’s not safe for a deaf girl to be out alone. However, Rose sneaks out to the movies anyway, and then sneaks out to New York City to see her mother. Lillian Mayhew gets very annoyed and gets someone to bring Rose back, but she sneaks back home by herself.

   These two stories intertwine in unpredictable ways, not unlike the way the characters in Brian Selznick’s last book, The Invention of Hugo Cabret. In Wonderstruck, Brian Selznick takes Ben and Rose, and joins their stories together, helping both protagonists.

Wonderstruck has slight mystery, and even though it is short, it is very thoughtful.

Brian Selznick has found a creative new way to write books for kids.

    I would rate Wonderstruck three out of five, because even though it is very good, it is a little too short in my opinion. The concept is so thoughtful, I would have liked to have read more. In the beginning it was also a little hard for me to get into the book because of all the illustrations.

 I think Wonderstruck is good for a lot of different ages. From a nine year old who is a good reader and who wants a more interesting story, to an eleven or twelve year old who wants a quick read with pictures, that still has a good story.

Jr. High Engineering Challenges

By Ian Holbrook

      What does Rube Goldberg and Project Learn school junior high have in common? They both designed machines.

    This year, in the beginning 2014 Project Learn School spring electives, eleven kids and two teachers walked up Germantown Avenue to create art with senior citizens at the Germantown Home. While they were doing that, the rest of the Junior High, nine of them, stayed at the school and made Rube Goldberg machines and potato cannons, in what was called the “Engineering Alternative.” Most of the kids enjoyed this. Most of the kids made a section of the Rube Goldberg machine and one just helped other people. This alternative was a good combination of fun and learning.

 The kids also made a potato cannon. A potato cannon is a cannon made out of PVC pipe with an igniter taken from a gas barbeque grill, to set it off. The name is self-explanatory but a potato cannon is basically a cannon that shoots out a potato at a very fast speed. These cannons are pretty dangerous, but sometimes things need to be dangerous to be educational. The pieces of the cannon were secured with PVC glue.

    The Rube Goldberg machine students built moved a marble from one place to another. The machine included a weight going down a string like a zip line. That weight then hit a golf ball pushing into a tube; the golf ball came out of the tube and hit a domino that set off a domino chain. That went up stairs made out of blocks. The last domino hit a marble that went through a marble track and fell out at the bottom.

    Rube Goldberg was an artist who made comic drawings of machines that helped people do everyday things in unnecessarily complicated ways. Goldberg did not make the machines, only drew them. Then people were inspired to make the machines. He was born in 1883. Rube Goldberg’s comics were syndicated in the early 1900s. He won the Pulitzer Prize for cartooning in 1948. Rube Goldberg died in 1970.

    The machine did not work the first time because they are complicated and take a lot of patience. The participants learned how to make an effective machine while having fun, too.

  

Jr. High Does Art with Seniors

By Kennedy Alston-Lucky

For ten Mondays, during January, February, and March,  Project Learn School’s (PLS), Jr. High students walked up Germantown Avenue to do art with Senior citizens at The Germantown Home. Lots of their projects had to do with nature and other earth elements. The last project they worked on was collaging pictures they found in magazines that fit the genre and the projects went on a wooden canvas.    

    Jill Sherman, the founder of this program, is an artist and a teacher of college students. Jill, being very comfortable with college students, originally started this program for them. Fortunately for PLS, she decided to use Jr, high students instead. Jill is new to working with seniors and middle school children but, said she enjoyed the experience. Having her own kids, Jill has always enjoyed the interaction between age differences, and feels as though everyone experiences something positive when leaving her program.

    Jill’s program took some preparation before she got it started. She needed to write an essay on what her project was about and show some example of her own artwork.  A jury then judged it to see if they thought it was a good idea. If it’s okayed the program would be official, and would run. Jill didn't have much trouble with the program, it was a little difficult deciding the lesson plan and sticking with it consistently. The project had a few bumps in the road, like lots of snow days. But went quite smoothly, for the most part.

    The kids also enjoyed the project as much as the adults. “ I like the senior citizen project because I am able to work with people outside of my age group, and helping them do stuff that might be difficult on their own,” said Nasya, one of the kids who attends the senior project.

    Project Learn was very grateful to be  apart of Jill Sherman’s project, and hopes to be able to participate in other activities like this very soon. This art project was fun and allowed the kids to interact with new people in their community. Everyone involved will remember their experience with fondness.