April
7
April
6
Game Review: Overwatch
by Nico
Overwatch is a fun game for the PS4 or the Xbox One, which are two gaming consoles. If you want a far-future battle, Overwatch is perfect for you. Overwatch has multiple characters that you can choose from and master.
The only thing that I was upset about was that Overwatch is only one player. I would suggest to the creators of Overwatch to add 2 players on one console except PC. It should also have you versus your friend on the same console kind of battle.
Overwatch is also impressive because it was voted best game of the year. Although Overwatch can have some improvements, I rate it 5 stars.
April
6
On My Mind: State Tests
by Liam
For 3-5th graders March 28-30 were very important. These were the dates of the ELA state test.The ELA is an assessment that measures a students understanding of a text.
There is a lot of backlash against the tests. Some parents think that too much pressure is put on kids with the tests. I agree that there is too much pressure on kids with the tests. The entire school year is about one moment and if you fail at that one moment you’re done. No matter how well you did on practices, if you fail that 1 time your grades are ruined, and then you’re in trouble and because you failed you may not get into the middle school you wanted to go to.
In the comments below, please tell me how you feel about the tests.
April
6
Events: The Talent Show at P.S.102
by Nico and Sophia
The school talent show was a big school event with a night show and an assembly In the assembly there was dancing, singing, and instruments.
The talent show theme was “Can’t Stop The Feeling”. The date for the dress rehearsal seen by the kindergarten and first grade was on March 23, along with the night show. The following day was the date for the assembly, seen by grades 2, 3, 4, and 5.
Farida in Ms. Hoffman and Ms. Gavilanes’ class said, “The best thing that I liked about the talent show was the singing, dancing, and acting.”
There are children who did sound and light effects. The spotlight crew was Camilo, and Geraldo. The sound and lights crew were Nico, and Ivan. Special thanks to Ms.Duffy, Ms. Speith, and Ms. Atanasio.
The talent show was a success Ms. Hoffman said, “It’s always nice to see the students performing in the talent show.”
March
28
School Event: Grade 5 Mayan Mask Residency
These are some of the finished masks completed by students in Mr. Silverman’s class.
by Ryan
All the 5th graders have been making masks for the past 6 weeks with the help of a lady named Nora from the Staten Island Children’s Museum. I had a lot of fun and anybody could do it. Here’s the process that we followed to reach our final product. First we had to take newspaper and make it into any shape we wanted by wrapping a bundle of newspaper. Second we did the same thing for the nose, mouth, and eyebrows and glued it on the mask. After that, things start to get messy. We then took mod-podge and mixed it with a tablespoon of water. We spread it on newspapers and covered it on the mask. We were careful not to cover the back. After it dried, it was hard. Finally we glued little pieces of paper on the mask for color. Soon it looked like a Mayan mask. I honestly really liked making the mask. If you were to try it you could have fun. No, you cant wear it, but it could be used for display.
March
28
School Event: 2017 Pi Day
by Kameron
After interviewing Ms. Sheri, she took a picture of me with a Pi day poster created by a fourth grader named Verna. I got a mini blueberry cheesecake pie. Thanks Ms. Sheri!
Over the years, I haven’t really cared for Pi Day. But ever since I tried a chocolate cream pie, I have not stopped thinking about Pi Day, being held in the library of my own school. Pi Day is celebrated to represent a math symbol- a constant which is approximately 3.14159. Pi’s nature is a fun challenge to remember and computationally calculate more and more digits
Pi Day is coordinated by Ms. Sheri, our school’s parent coordinator. According to Ms. Sheri about 15-20 pies were sold this year on March 15 because of the snow day on the actual Pi Day. There were a variety sold. Some pies included chocolate, smores, and strawberry. Most pies were homemade, but some were Entenmann’s. Mostly staff purchased pies, and some parents and students did as well.
March
28
School Event: The Mathiew Johnson Memorial Blood Drive
by Liam
June Johnson takes a moment to pose with the Journalism Stars reporters at the recent blood drive held each year in memory of her son.
On March 16, 2017 P.S. 102 sponsored the The Mathiew Johnson Memorial Blood Drive. This event was started in 2013 by Mathiew’s mother, June. Mathiew was a custodian at P.S. 102. One day he wasn’t feeling well and decided to rest in a classroom. He ended up passing away as a result of a heart attack. This event is important to the Johnson family because it is held annually to remember Mathiew.
The goal of the blood drive was to raise 100 pints of blood. This blood drive ended up raising more than 80 pints of blood. Blood drives save lots of lives each year.
March
28
On My Mind: 2017 Roland Garros
Yann Caradec via Compfight
by Kameron
The upcoming Roland Garros is the next tennis associated grand slam, and is also my favorite tournament for several reasons. The main reason for why it my favorite is because it takes place in Paris. I always loved the city of Paris, and hope to go one day. Another reason for why this is my favorite slam is because the surface of the court is clay which I believe is made from bricks. It is my favorite surface because you can slide, which is helpful is tennis, and because the balls bounc slower, which I like, because it gives me more time to hit the ball. I also love Roland Garros, because it has a legit prize money because the winner makes millions off the win, and even low ranked players who get eliminated in the first round of the tournament still get thousands! Also, the silver trophy is big, heavy, and shiny.
March
28
Game Review: Splatoon
by Nico
Splatoon is a very fun game, only available for the Wii U. This game is about shooting your enemies with ink, and turning into an ink-squid.The object of the game is to shoot as many people as you can with your team. The abilities of being an ink-squid is: to get more ammo, hide, and climb up walls. Splatoon may be a very fun game, but the controls in my experience are hard to get used to. There is nothing bad about the game in general, but it would be more fun to spread the popularity if it were on different consoles (or gaming systems) that can handle the controls. I like this game a lot, but it’s not one of my favorites. In my opinion, I would rate this game 4 and one half stars
March
3
Around P.S. 102: Robotics Club
by Sara
Robot
ics club is an after school club open to fifth graders in which we learn to build robots. It’s actually more interesting than you might think.
During our first few weeks, we had to collect many different pieces from boxes that we needed to build a robot.
After that, for about 2 or 3 weeks my partner and I had to use a website that showed us instructions on how to put all of our pieces together. When we finally completed building our robot, our teacher, Ms. Scarpa, told us to watch videos from a website about how to teach our robot to do certain things. First, we had to teach our robot how to go straight. Then, we would go out into the hallway and use a measuring tape to tell how long our robot could go for a certain amount of time. After teaching our robot to go straight,we moved on to telling the robot to turn and follow a light sensor.
Fortunately, we haven’t finished the program yet. We have about three more weeks. I will make sure to keep you updated about what’s happening.