KNIT NUTS TIE UP FUN!

A new BASE class was offered this spring – Knitting!  Beverly parent Kim Thorsen is an avid knitter and wanted to share her passion with Beverly students.  Over an eight week period, with the help of another Beverly parent Barb Bloink and some BASCC volunteers, seven Beverly students learned how to knit and completed several fun projects.  They named themselves the “Knit Nuts”, and hope to continue to get together to perfect their knitting.  If interested in joining the Knit Nuts, watch for a new BASE Knitting class in the fall!

Beverly Wins Cereal Food Fight

Imagine 45,900 bowls of cereal.  That’s how much cereal was collected in the recent Food Fight for Gleaners at the Birmingham schools.   All eight elementary schools, Covington and Wee Care participated in this fun contest this year.

In May, students and staff were encouraged to bring in boxes of cereal.  A total of 3060 boxes of cereal were collected by the ten schools combined.  And thanks to a matching program by PNC Bank, the donation to Gleaners will go even farther in feeding hungry neighbors.

Beverly School won bragging rights with 420 boxes of cereal collected (more than 1 box/student!), but the real winner of this beneficial battle is Gleaners Food Bank, whose shelves are now stocked with cereal for the summer months.

Octolifi: Amazing Creature of the Deep

By: Lilly Richards

The amazing Octolifi is an extraordinary species of animal that lives in the dark, cold waters of Mars. This elusive animal is very well adapted to living anywhere in the water. It is usually found in the bottom of the water (the reason for its lamp like projection made of mucus) where the pressure is so much that only very few and rare creatures can inhabit.           

            The Octolifi is an omnivore (even though most people get commonly mislead it is a carnivore because of its many sharp teeth) and eats seaweed and small krill and crustations. This creature strains its food through its teeth and baleen plates at the back of its mouth.

            Its big single eye makes it easy for it to see all around it. The Octolifi’s eye can turn 180 degrees on either side. Its 8 spiraling legs (octo) are not used to grasp prey, but instead to let the Octolifi maneuver across the ocean floor. The Octolifi can swim, but only straight up because of the fact that the Shartevore (a deadly predator) can only stay on the bottom of the ocean. This confuses them so that the Octolifi is safe from being eaten.                    

Fact or fiction? You decide!

Spring

By:Lily Richards

In our yard, spring time is marvelous!  It is a pure wonder of nature to sit in the midst of it, soaking in the brilliant rays of sunshine, and enjoying the sights and smells of spring. Read on to find out how our yard feels in the spring.                               

Our yard is fairly expansive, covered with a lush, thick, green grass and much plant life surrounding it. Most of the trees all around our yard are varying shades of green (apart from a few trees colored magenta, pink, and a charming yellow) and are of considerable size. Not only are the trees so amazing, thousands of flowers thrive in our yard. I would say that the most prominent of them all are the tulips. They open the earliest in spring, and it is quite a welcoming sight to see their cheery faces looking up at you when are feeling sad. Another one of my favorite flowers are the peonies. They are a beautiful deep, dark pink and smell just as lovely as they look. For some strange reason, every time I see them, thousands of ants are swarming all over them!                                          

 Besides all this magnificent plant life, there are also many kinds of intriguing wildlife in our yard! We have an occasional timid visitor who nibbles on the stems of our tulips and sits lazily in the grass (a bunny). There are also a myriad of frisky squirrels, either basking in the sun on a branch of our oak tree, crazily chasing each other, or invading our feeder meant for the birds! Besides these mammal guests, more visitors of ours are the birds. My favorites of the many birds we see are the Red-Breasted Nuthatch and the Northern Cardinal. The Red-Breasted Nuthatch is a small bird, only about 4 inches that makes a tiny cheeping sound. It likes to crawl up our oak or redbud tree in search of insects. The Northern Cardinal is a bright red bird that makes a call that sounds like “cheerily, cheerily”. Amazingly, I have seen the male Cardinal feeding the juvenile! The male gets a seed from our feeder and then gives it to the baby. It almost looks like they are kissing!                                                                                                            

Our yard is very special to me in spring and now you know why.

A Day in Beverly Elementary

By: Katherine DeRonne

Hilton Head, South Carolina

By: Reese L Culbertson

Hilton Head, South Carolina is a fun place to go.  First reason why is you can go in the Atlantic Ocean.  Then, you can stay in a comfortable condo.  Last, you can sleep in a comfy bed. 

Do you want me to tell you a story about our trip to Hilton Head?  I can tell good stories!  This is a story about my brother breaking a paddle on the beach.  Now read my story!

 

Paddle-Breaker:

Once upon a time, 8 families were at the beach.  One was my family, then there were the Bumbaughs, the Ziegeles, the Silcox family, the Davis family, the Browns, the Shrefflers, and the Lieblers.  As soon as we got there, I wanted to paddle board.  So JP (my brother) went with me.  My mom said not to go far in the water.  So JP and I stayed close to shore.  Well, a big wave came and knocked over the board.  I fell off and there was another wave that knocked the board on top of me.  I got  up and ran on the shore.  After, JP got so mad that I was hurt, he started slamming the paddle on the waves.  Well, it broke off and my mom sent him back to our condo. 

                                                        The End!

 

 Illustration by Elizabeth Culbertson

Beverly Fourth Grade Takes Trip to the DSO

By: Lilly Richards

Today the Beverly Fourth Graders took a long but eventful and exciting trip to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for a field trip. Since we had a half day because of student-led conferences, the field trip took up the entire school day.                

I have been to the DSO before and my visits didn’t take that long to drive to. This trip was a different case. It took about one boring hour to get there on some roundabout way. 

When we finally arrived at the concert, the musicians were just beginning to start the show. The theme of the concert was “Why Is Music Popular?”  The conductor, Teddy Abrams talked to us about it and told us that this music was called an orchestra. The first piece of music we listened to was called “Entrance of the Queen of Sheba” by George Handel. The conductor told us that a long time ago people would go to theaters and listen to music with a story for amusement. This song was written for a theater. The next song was very funny. Called “Surprise”, it played a bunch of little quiet notes and then a really loud note! It shocked all of us! The conductor said that he was glad we noticed the surprise because some audiences that he had before failed to notice anything. After “Surprise” we heard a happy, loud Beethoven symphony. But not everything was so joyful. The next piece of music we heard was very sad and by Tchaikovsky. It made me feel sad just like Teddy Abrams said it would.  Next, we heard a song called “Saturday Night Waltz”. To me it sounded like happy, fast carnival music. Next to me, Jack was bobbing his head up and down rapidly to the music! After that, we heard a short section of Saint Louis Blues. I enjoyed it a lot because I have always been a fan of jazz. Lastly, to everyone’s delight, we heard the theme song of Star Wars.          

I was glad we went on this field trip to give everyone a chance to experience some good music.