Highlighting activities in and around 246 Warren St.
(2007-2008)
Walking into history at Gore Place
By RYAN O.
Cunniff Kids News staff reporter
On May 29, the Cunniff School’s third-grade classes walked to Gore Place. It was a hot sunny day and the kids were excited to go on the visit.
Gore Place is a mansion that was built in 1806 as a summer home for Christopher and Rebecca Gore. Christopher Gore was governor of Massachusetts for one year (1809).
When the classes arrived, the students were separated into groups and given a tour of the inside of the mansion, the farm, and the carriage house. The house has many objects that are 200 years old! The rooms are large because the Gores liked to throw parties and have guests stay.
The students also got to see the servant's room which was much smaller and had very little furniture.
In the carriage house the students were able to play with toys from the 1800s and dress up in clothes from that time.
The estate, which is in Waltham near the Watertown line, also has a farm with chickens, sheep, and other animals. People can visit the farm any time.
(To learn more about Gore Place, go to http://www.goreplace.org/)
-30-
Watching chickens while they hatch
By DANIEL D.
Cunniff Kids News staff reporter
They’re here!
Finally, after three weeks, the eggs in Mrs. Munger’s third-grade classroom have hatched. Well, five have hatched, but the last one should be alive but can’t get out of the shell.
Only two have been named. One is a yellow chick named Tweety. One is a rare breed of a brown chick named Cheepie, because you can hear him from down the hall.
Many classes have come to see the chicks. The oldest chick is only three days old, as of April 30.
They are going to a farm in about one or two weeks, then all of the excitement will be over.
The eggs came from a farm in Concord, near Drumlin Farm. They were kept warm in incubators in the classroom and at Mrs. Munger’s house.
-30-
Kids attracted to science visits
By AIMEE B., KAITIE M., and SHANNON M.
Cunniff Kids News staff reporters
The Discovery Museum has been coming to teach each grade at the Cunniff School about science.
For example, the fifth-graders learned about lasers April 7. The students were taught that all light is a reflection. The person from the Discovery Museum gave the students mirrors, flashlights, and halves of 3-D glasses.
One experiment that the kids did was putting a laser on the board, then twisting fans to make different shapes.
The third grade had a program in the art room the same day. It was about magnets.
First, the students tested things in the room to see if anything stuck to magnets.
The students also made electromagnets. Then they had to test how many paperclips the electromagnet could pick up with five coils, with 15 coils, and with 80 coils twisted on a nail.
At the end of the class, the woman from the Discovery Museum gave the third-graders magnets and bottles with iron pieces.
The kindergartners had a program about bubbles April 10, and the fourth-graders learned about machines and levers April 14.
After vacation, Grades 1 and 2 will have programs May 5. The second-graders will learn about physics and the first-graders will experiment with magnets.
-30-
Pasta dinner has taste of success
By AUSTIN F. and JULIA F.
Cunniff Kids News staff reporters
In a cafeteria filled with hungry people and relaxing Italian music, the Cunniff School fifth grade held a pasta dinner fund-raiser March 5.
All of the pasta, sauce, meatballs, and sausages were cooked by several fifth-grade families. About 50 pounds of pasta and 500 meatballs were served. One guest commented, “”I love Carmella’s meatballs!”
Other families donated soda, water, bread, salad, salad dressing, and baked goods.
Approximately 25 fifth-grade students volunteered their services by working the bake table, serving guests, and cleaning up.
According to event organizers, the event raised $937, which will be used toward the cost of the annual Sargent Camp trip.
All of the leftover food was brought to a homeless shelter in Waltham. According to Walter Wright, a fifth-grade parent, the shelter had to turn away eight hungry families earlier that evening because it had run out of food, so the donation helped a lot of people.
-30-
Special on the menu: Pasta night
By MATT M.
Cunniff Kids News staff reporter
The annual pasta dinner will be held Wednesday, March 5, in the Cunniff School cafetorium. There will be two seatings, at 5 and 6:30 p.m.
The fund-raiser is run by the fifth-grade parents. The fifth-grade students will be serving the meals and their families will be making the meatballs and sauce.
The event will raise money for the fifth-grade events at the end of the year, especially Sargent Camp.
Tickets are $6 for adults, $5 students and seniors, with a $25 cap per family, and will be available at the door. Desserts and raffle tickets will also be sold.
-30-
Ben Franklin puts charge into students
By JILLIAN M., RACHEL Q., MICHELLE A.,
RACHEL A., and DANIEL D.
Cunniff Kids News staff reporters
Did you know that Ben Franklin went to the Cunniff School?
Rich, an actor who played Ben Franklin, performed a one-man show for students Jan. 17. He came dressed with different wigs, canes, hats and clothes. They represented different times in Ben’s life. These included when he was a candle shop owner, printer, writer, statesman, and inventor.
Rich, as Ben, told interesting stories about each part of his life.
The show was written by Joan Schaeffer of Historical Perspectives for Children. While Ben Franklin was at the Cunniff, she was at work Chicago.
In an e-mail interview with Cunniff Kids News, she said she decided to write a show about Ben Franklin for many reasons.
“First, he very closely complemented several areas of your school curriculum such as science (static electricity), social studies (the colonial period and the founding of our country) and language arts. (Ben was also a writer!),” Schaeffer wrote.
“Also, I do consider him to be a true role model for students as his life story teaches how anyone -- any of you students -- can set goal and achieve them through hard work, determination, and a belief in yourselves.”
Schaeffer, who has put together 11 other shows, wrote that Franklin always tried to make life better for others.
“Indeed, he started each morning with the question, ‘What good can I do today?’ And he ended each evening with, ‘What good have I done today?’ What a good example for the rest of us!” she wrote.
To write her plays, Schaeffer has to do a lot of research.
“I learn about my characters from reading many, many books and from visiting the places where they grew up and lived. I find that from actually visiting the places where they lived, I can learn more about who they really were and gain a deeper understanding of what motivated them to do and achieve what they did,” she wrote.
“For Ben Franklin, I, of course, visited Boston, but I also spent time in Philadelphia since this is where he lived from the age of 17. I also went down to Texas to see the international exhibit they had there about Ben Franklin. They had many interesting artifacts there, and I learned some details about his life I had not know before.
“Finally, I do look on the internet, but I use the internet sparingly. I find I learn much, much more from reading books.”
Schaeffer told Cunniff Kids News that she is considering writing next about Jane Addams, but is always looking for ideas: “Are there any historical characters you all would like to learn more about? I would welcome your suggestions!”
(To learn more about Joan Schaeffer and Historical Perspectives for Children and to contact her, go to www.historicalperspectives.net.)
-30-
Mounds of fun at fund-raiser
By DANIEL D.
Cunniff Kids News staff reporter
On Friday, Jan. 11, the fifth grade had a special fund-raising event in the Cunniff School cafetorium: bingo and ice cream night.
Coordinator Laura Farry said the event raised about $700. It will be used for fifth-grade Sargent Camp.
The bingo callers, Diane Berkley and George Souliotis, said they were having a lot of fun.
Emily Carito, Jessica Russo, and other fifth-graders said their favorite part of the night was the bingo and that they had fun.
The photographers, Patty Murphy and Patricia Connors, took many pictures of the fifth-graders for the yearbook.
There was a lot of excitement after each bingo game because the winner could choose from a lot of different prizes. Fourth-grader Michael Giordano and second-grader Matt D'Amico won tickets to a Boston University hockey game.
When the ice cream was ready, the line stretched all over the lunchroom. There was a choice of vanilla or chocolate ice cream and many toppings, including Oreo cookies, gummie bears, and M&M's.
Third-grader Patrick Walsh said, "I had every topping on my ice cream!"
-30-
Brownie Troop 1988 helps animals
By LAUREN P. and ISABELLA V.
Cunniff Kids News staff reporters
Brownie Troop 1988 is collecting old towels and blankets from Cunniff School students and grownups for the Boston Animal Rescue League. The towels and blankets will be used to make softer beds for the dogs and cats in the Dedham shelter.
The collection was supposed to last until Jan. 11, but it has been extended.
At a meeting Jan. 5, the troop decorated a collection box to put in the Cunniff main lobby, right across from the art room. The troop, which is made up of second- and third-graders, also made dog biscuits for the animals and decorated a sign to go above the box. The girls all signed their names on the poster above the collection box and the box was decorated mainly with pictures of animals.
“I like that it’s making the animals healthy,” said one of the 16 Brownie members. “It was fun.”
The troop will bring the biscuits, towels, and blankets to the shelter.
Another Brownie said, “I like that it’s helping the animals.”
-30-
