Parent Teacher Magazine Union County Public Schools May 2014 | Page 8

CATA students take books to East Elementary students

Second graders Kabrieya Staton and Shania Robinson are all smiles while
reading books with CATA National Honor Society students Brianna Holton,
a senior, and Danielle Teel, a junior.

Thirty-nine members of the National Honor Society
(NHS) and faculty sponsors from Central Academy of
Technology and Arts traveled to East Elementary School
earlier this month, distributing hundreds of books to young
readers at the elementary school.
The CATA NHS faculty sponsors who accompanied the
group on the March 3, 2014, trip were Lori Janicki and Deb
Christensen.
The book drive was organized by NHS president
Amanda Privette, and the entire CATA community donated
books.
The March 3 trip to deliver the books was planned to
coincide with the observation of Read Across America Day,
a day of reading that honors the birthday and work of Dr.
Seuss.
The NHS volunteers spent the morning visiting
classrooms, distributing books and reading with the East
Elementary students.
Kindergarteners were given two books and first and
second graders received three books of their own to take
home.
The book drive took a lot of effort, but Privette said
she was very pleased with the results. “All of the planning
that went into the trip was worth it once we saw how
happy the books made the children.”
Written by: Written by: Parker Colbath, NHS Officer
and CATA Senior

Playing With Your Food!

INTO READING
Union County Public Schools AND Alliance for
Children would like to invite you to our family literacy
workshop for parents who have children (ages 0-5, not yet in
Kindergarten). This is a FREE 4-week session workshop that will
help your child become ready to read when he/she enters
Kindergarten. Workshops are both in English and Spanish.
As a participant you will receive
a free book per famil at each session.
y
Free educational activities and
a free educational toy as well for perfect attendance.

Limited Space!
For more information or to sign up
call Jeni Llerena at

704.296.0813
Smart Start Family Literacy

How many times have
Mom and Dad told you not
to play with your food? Well,
recently in Mr. Hazel’s class,
kids were encouraged to
make a mess.

In math, everyone used
Cheez-its to investigate
area and perimeter. Since
the cheesy snack is exactly
a square inch, each student
used the crackers to create
Devan Patel, a third grade student
an image on construction
of Mr. Hazel, learns about the
paper. After using a ruler to
phases of the moon using Oreos.
measure their picture to the
nearest quarter-inch on each side, they counted each Cheez-it
to find the area. Then, they counted the outside of their edible
art to find the perimeter. If they were successful, each student
was rewarded by eating their work…square inch by square inch.
For science, students used Oreo cookies to create the
Earth’s moon phases. As part of their investigation into objects
in the sky, these third graders took learning the difference
between waxing and waning to a whole new level. The cream
represented the part of the moon they would see from Earth.
The cookie part represented the “dark side of the moon.”
Although it takes 29.5 days for the moon to orbit the Earth,
it only took Mr. Hazel’s class a few minutes to create all eight
phases…and even less to eat them!
Written by: Damien Hazel, Third Grade Teacher

6 • May/June 2014 • Parent Teacher Magazine