Presented By:

The Digital Media & Newspaper Club

First Edition

February 2016

@BelmarBulletin

What’s Happening at BES!

Sync your lips …………………………………………………..………… 2 the winter concert ….………………………………………………….4 Belmar Tree Lighting …………………………………………………...6 The Hour of Code ………………………………………………………….7

Reviews

Top 10 Movies To See in 2016 …..……………………………………...9 WattApp ……………………………………………………………………...12

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Sync Your Lips! Written By: Aurelia Whitehead

Belmar Elementary school teachers and students dance to the closing song of the performance on November 16th, 2015.

Pictured: BES Teachers and students: Lexi Byrne, Ana Gavrilovic, Felicia Alacan and Sophia Loria.

On November 16th, 2015 Belmar Elementary School held their fifteenth annual

Lip Sync performance. Lip sync was open to all students, from grades pre kindergarten to eighth grade. The students picked their own music and choreographed their own dance with the help of Mrs.Callahan who has been in charge of lip sync since it started 12 years ago. Mr.Brennan is a huge help to the performers, he edits most of the performers songs and then burns them onto CD’s. Parent sponsors kept the kids focused during the busy practices. They are big reason why lip sync so successful. The groups spent a whole month practicing and putting their dances together.

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This year twenty one groups performed over the course of an hour and a half. Some highlights from this year’s show were the adorable Mama’s Girls who performed their rendition of “Hey Mama” from Kidz Bop, the hilarious “Amenra’s Roundup” who lip synced to “Fat” by Weird Al and the humorous “Fabulous Five” wearing tutus while dancing to the 2011 “Popdanthology Remix”.

Each year a handful of eighth graders are chosen to be MC’s. The MC’s dress up as celebrity characters and announce all of the performers. Eighth graders apply to be MC’s and then Mrs.Callahan picks out of a hat, this year there were seven MC’s. This year Jessica Meyer played Ariana Grande, Jack Gray played Michael Jackson, Gimena Hernandez played Selena Gomez, Ashleigh Sharp played Taylor Swift and Felica Alacan played Katy Perry. Lip sync this year was awesome, if you didn’t get to participate don’t worry because there will be another one next year! A tip from Mrs.Callahan is ”Pick a song early and don’t have too many children in your act. It is hard to get together and practice with kids busy schedules.”

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The Winter Concert Starts off the Season with a Bang! By: Ashleigh Sharp The Winter Concert is a Belmar Elementary annual tradition. The band and chorus get a chance to perform for their families and peers in the school

auditorium. The concert took place on December 9, 2015. There are 109 students in the Eagle band and 171 in chorus, so you can imagine how excited they all were.

Upon asking Mrs. White, the choral director, how she chooses the songs, she said that “The Winter Concert is easier because of the holiday themed music.” She also said that she tries to get student input on more popular suggestions.

Mrs. White said that getting the students ready for the concert was an enormous challenge based on the numbers. However, she broke the chorus into smaller sections for rehearsal, which made for a more effective result.

Mrs. White and Mr. Brennan are the chorus and band directors at BES. They coordinate the concert and teach the students how to perform on stage.

The first year band kicked off the concert with Hot Cross Buns followed by band soloists. The solos were performed by Ashleigh Sharp, Ashley Rudd, Gimena Hernandez, Christine Russo, and Hannah Haberstick. Then, the Concert Chorus, which consists of 6­8th graders sang their songs which include “What A Wonderful World”, “Silver Bells”, “Stitches”, and “A Solfege Christmas”, which was Mrs. White’s personal favorite.

Christine Russo plays a solo during the Winter Concert.

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The Eagle Band played a mix of holiday songs including “Celebrating Chanukah,” “Stille Stille Stille”, and “Kwanza Kwanza”. Finally the 3­5 grade Green and Gold Chorus sang their songs, “December in Our Town”, “Angels We Have Heard On High”, and “Shalom Chaverim”.

The show ended with a sing­along where the entire audience had a chance to sing their favorite holiday songs. “Deck the Halls”, “The Dreidel Song”, and “Feliz Navidad” were just a few songs that were sung.

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Belmar Kicks Off the Holidays By: Gimena Hernandez

Jack and Julia Nicolay pose for a picture with Santa Claus.

We have been putting lights on our Christmas trees since the middle of the 17th century.

Originally, it started as a tradition in Greece to put lights on our trees to represent stars. On the evening of December 4th , in Belmar, we continued the tradition by lighting our town’s Christmas tree. The Belmar Elementary School chorus with students from grades 3rd through 8th, kicked off the tree lighting with some traditional holiday songs including “December In Our Town”, “Silver Bells”, and “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” Following the sing along, a countdown was led by Mayor Doherty and Sophia Rokoszak was chosen to light the Belmar Christmas tree. The kids bounced off the walls as they waited for the anticipated reveal of the child who was going to light up the tree. When they announced that it was Sophia, all the kids cheered with joy because she had won.

Once our plaza was radiant from the tree, Santa Claus arrived. Santa Claus came riding down Main Street on the fire truck which was blaring its sirens. Santa walked under the tent illuminated by Christmas lights. You could hear the joy of the children as he walked by shaking their hands. He led them to his seat where he would listen to what the kids wanted to get for Christmas. The town roared with cheer from the kids when the fire truck was ready to give rides around Main Street. The night was really a big success for the town and the kids were really happy. You could see the smiles on the kids and adults faces and you could really hear the Christmas spirit with the children’s cheer. There was free hot chocolate, cookies and hot apple cider too. In the end everyone had a great time and the holiday spirit was definitely in Belmar.

BES Concert Choir sings holiday songs under the light display.

Source: Click Here

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The WorldWide Hour of Code! By: Declan Mannion

My creation in Khan Academy was amazing; it had big, cute oval eyes, a single leaf stood there on his head, and he had a tiny red seed body. I cannot believe I wrote the code for that Pikmin that looked right at me through my computer screen.

An event that took place in December was the Hour of Code, which has teachers teach students around the world to write and understand code. The Hour of Code is a “global movement” with over 194,000 events taking place across the globe­ one being right here at BES. Celebrities like President Obama, supermodel Karlie Kloss, and musician Usher are just few of many people who are endorsing Hour of Code. The Hour of Code happens every year the first week of December and was created by code.org, a non­profit website that shows the basics of coding so anyone can do it. The event was adopted by corporations like Apple, Microsoft and Amazon, creating a coding workshop for kids. The Hour of Code event was created because it helps “nurture problem­solving skills, logic, and creativity.” (hourofcode.com)

Recently, I interviewed Mr. Kevin O’Donnell, a technology teacher for Belmar Elementary School. “I think it's a great idea for all of our grades to learn coding at the level that is most appropriate for them. The great thing about the resource out there is there is a lot to choose from and many areas of interest to explore,” Mr. O’Donnell explained when asked what he thinks about what grade would be more important to learn coding. Mr. O'Donnell is saying that it’s good for all grades to learn coding and that there are many websites to help people with

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coding. He recommends sites like Code.org, Code combat, Tykner, and Google CS first­­just a few of many sites that help people learn to code.

When asked, “Which grade do you think will have more fun with coding?” Mr. O’Donnell replied, “From what I have observed in the technology classes and throughout our Hour of Code event, all of the students seem to have found something enjoyable.” Mr. O’Donnell is saying there is always something fun in Hour of Code for everyone. Mr. O’Donnell believes that “ Each grade will learn a decent amount about coding. What I am enjoying seeing is students asking to code, coding on their own outside of school for their own enjoyment, or hearing about coding their own games. It's great to see students excited about it. It is so much easier to learn coding now than when I started.” This shows us that kids have different levels of learning and that some students would code for enjoyment. Some may even have a future career in coding.

The Hour of Code is a worldwide event going on the first week in December and has many people participating. We all can benefit from learning to code, since computers are connected to everything we do. So, will you participate in the Hour of code next December?

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Top 10 Movies You Should See In

2016! Written by: Declan Mannion

1.Star Wars VII : The Force Awakens

From originals to prequels, from A New Hope to The Return of the Jedi, and now the

force awakens in the Star Wars movies again.

Rating: PG-13

Released: December 18, 2015

2.Kung Fu Panda 3

Poe and his furious friends are coming back for Poe’s origin.

Rating: PG

Released: January, 29 2016

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3.Finding Dory

“She just kept swimming” until she got lost just like Nemo in this epic sequel.

Rating: Not yet rated

Released: June 17, 2016

4.Alice Through the Looking Glass

Alice is having one of those throw back thursdays by going back to wonderland and save

the Mad Hatter while meeting some old friends and Time himself.

Rating: Not yet Rated

Released: May 27, 2016

5.Captain America Civil War

The sequel of the patriotic man of the past vs. the unstoppable Iron Man!

Rating: Not yet rated

Released: May 6, 2016

6.Batman vs. Superman

The Caped Crusader vs. the Man of Steel, “day vs. night”, in this epic movie “The red

capes are coming the red capes are coming.” (Lex luthor played by Jesse Eisenberg)

Rating: PG-13

Released: March 25, 2016

7.Zootopia

A fox and a Hare working together; what could go wrong? You can see, in this animal

civilization movie.

Rating: Not yet Rated

Released: March 4, 2016

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8. X-Men: Apocalypse

A man who can heal himself with the drop of a hat, a man who can bend metal to his

will, and a guy who has lasers in the back of his eyes; these are just some of the mutants

who are going to face the toughest villain they will ever face.

Rating: Not yet rated

Released: May 27, 2016

9.Tarzan

Coming home from London, Tarzan will see this mining problem.

Rating: PG

Released: July 1, 2016

10.Jungle Book

A little orphan boy is left in the jungle and is being raised by a playful bear, a watchful

panther and a pack of wolves for an amazing remake.

Rating: Not yet Rated

Released: April 15, 2016

Source: IMDB

Clipart: clipartpanda.com

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WATTAPP Are you reading? By: Yvonne Martinez

Since so many teens love reading on their phone a lot more than books, I have decided to share an app with you all. An app I have is called “Wattpad”. Launched in November 2006 by All Lau, this digital story app allows you to read books as well as create your own digital stories. Another thing you can do is search whatever genre you like to read & then browse through a story/book online.

The good thing about this app is that Wattpad is completely free! All you have to do is make an account before you begin. (You can sign up with a valid email address or by simply using your Facebook account). Just go to the App Store for Apple or Google Play Store, search for Wattpad, and download it. Then you are free to use the app whenever you’d like. Some features you can do is adjust the light to make the screen less bright, change the background to black and white, white and black, or even you can choose a different color all together. When looking for your favorite type of book, you can search stories with tags. Another feature is that you can add stories to your personal library and when you do the app will notify you whenever the author of the story you are currently reading updates it.

If you like to read FanFictions like me, then Wattpad is the app for you.

There’s A LOT of Fanfictions on there such as “Adopted By Sleeping with Sirens”. Since I love reading stories about my favorite bands I just had to look them up my first day using the app. I found multiple Fanfictions for me to read. There are also Fanfictions of One Direction, 5 Seconds Of Summer, The Vamps, & more! I’m sure that some of you will find something to sink your teeth into.

My rating (out of 5 stars): The best age groups for this app is 13+. Common Sense Media recommends this app for ages 16+ due to the blog­like format and content. Younger teens should proceed with caution while using this app and parents should monitor what their child is doing and reading while using the app. Source: Common Sense Media Review

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