The Informational Media Center of
Charleston Middle School is a great environment for students. It hosts all sorts of events, including most recently a book “speed-dating” session, which is featured in another article in this issue of Classroom
Courier. Ms. Pantle, the librarian, also holds and judges box top competitions and reading counts contests. In January the IMC held a bookmark design contest. Nineteen artists submitted their works to be voted on by the student body. 133 votes were cast and the winners were 7 th grade students: Bri Garvin and Nichole Fulk. Copies of these bookmark designs will be available now until the end of the school year to help mark the place for CMS readers.
Another event held was the Rebecca Caudill Challenge. All Illinois students in fourth through eighth grade can participate in the Rebecca Caudill Young Readers’ Book Award. It is in honor of Rebecca Caudill, who wrote many children’s books and lived in Urbana, Illinois. More information is available on the website www.rebeccacaudill.org
.
Ms. Pantle gave
CMS students until
February 23 rd to read three Rebecca
Caudill books. The students who succeeded were rewarded with an ice cream sundae. On
February 25 th , all students who had read at least three books voted for their favorite Rebecca Caudill book. The CMS votes will be submitted to the
Illinois vote, and a winner will be announced mid-March. Good Luck to all participants!
By: Ellie Stankiewicz
Mrs. Sherwood, black team’s seventh grade science teacher decided to try an experiment. Her students were learning about animal and plant cells through
January and February. The purpose of this experiment was for the egg to model the cell membrane and to determine if it was permeable or not. There were four days of this “Eggsperiment.” Each day the students sat the egg in a different liquid. On day one they put the egg in vinegar, and then they measured the egg with a string of thread. Finally they weighed the egg and put it in a different liquid. On day two they put the egg in water, measured the egg with a stirng of thread, finally they weighed the egg and put it in a different liquid. On day three they repeated every step, and added corn syrup. On day four; they did not fill the cup with any more liquid, but they made the measurements and weighed the egg.
A lot of the students enjoyed this “Eggsperiment” project. A few eggs did break during the
“Eggsperiment” because students were not handling them carefully or the eggs just got so weak that they could not hold up any more. The data from the
“Eggsperiment” proved that the cell membrane is permeable or semi-permeable because the egg would gain or lose weight and change in circumference.
By Kendall Davis
This year at CMS, the black team social studies class has been learning some pretty important stuff! One of Mrs. St. Gemme’s favorite topic is the
Constitution and government. She says it’s important to learn these topics because it’s a good way to know the characters that formed America’s history. She says the founding fathers were the ‘’daredevils of their time’’. Mrs. St. Gemme says it’s particularly important to learn about these topics because being an active citizen verses a passive one is what makes the political world work. She especially loves the time of year when the class talks about the events leading up to the Constitution and the Constitution itself. She enjoys watching the students engage in reenactments, skits, or when they participate in cool projects! To conclude CMS is lucky to have such a wonderful staff-especially the black team social studies teacher!
By Mia DiNaso
CMS Classroom Courier, page 2