The MS 8 Science department in collaboration with CCM-FYI hosted a wonderful family Science Fun Day last Sunday to the New York Hall of Science. It was a great opportunity for teachers, students and families to spend some time out of the school building engaging in cool scientific experiences. We made slime together, build cars, had hissing cockroaches crawl over us, jumped, climbed, pushed and pulled all kinds of devices.

A fun experience was had by all. Look out for our next science event coming soon.

“Our time at the New York Hall of science was a good one. Although many of the activities were directed to younger children, there was a lot of fun stuff for all ages. From the largest science playground in America, to simple flight demonstrations, everyone can have fun and learn at the New York Hall of Science.”

–Enzo and Massimo N.

The post Science Out Of the Classroom appeared first on PS8 PTA.

Our PTA-organized Kids Cre8 program added newspaper clubs at both the lower and middle schools this fall.  Both clubs have launched their first editions this month.  We are so excited to share their stories with you!

The Hicks Street Journal is run by budding 4th and 5th grade journalists at PS8 with the help of Ms. Catherine Dewan.  The students interviewed Principal Peterson and then got to work writing and researching. Their stories cover a bit about everything from a day in the life of a 5th grader to large-scale current events, like Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.  Check out the link to the very first issue of The Hicks Street Journal here.

The students interviewing Principal Peterson.

Over at MS8, the crew from the Top Floor Times have been hard at work creating a newspaper that shares their voice and vision.  It includes the latest news from the school, the community and the world, as well as original writing, sports coverage and entertainment reviews!  These journalists worked as a team, with Ms. Landy and Ms. Rosenberg’s gentle guidance, to create a paper for kids, by kids.  Take a peek at the members of the Top Floor Times newsroom and their first issue here.

The editorial team of the MS8 Top Floor Times.

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November 13, 2017 - We thank following businesses for supporting our young readers during the Readathon. Read More →

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November 16, 2017 - Join us on December 5th at 8:30 AM for a discussion of “Bullying: What It Is and What It Is Not” with Amy Schmelz, a child mental health professional from the ICL Family Resource Center. We will meet in the lower school auditorium. Read More →

The post Parent Workshop on Bullying appeared first on PS8 PTA.

View your proofs and order your pictures and gift items by Monday, December 4th for free shipping to school. 15% of all proceeds from orders placed by the deadline will be given back to PS8/MS8! Retake Day is December 4th for the lower and middle schools. Click here for instructions to view proofs and order photos.

• Sign up for retakes at PS 8
• Sign up for retakes at MS 8

The post School Photo – Time to Order appeared first on PS8 PTA.

As I walk through the concrete schoolyard, the cold ignores my jacket. I stop in the middle of the yard as if I forgot something. I could feel my heart beat faster and faster. When I was told I had to invite ten kids to help with our front garden redesign I was thinking, what if no one wanted to do it? Would it be awkward to ask someone to do gardening at PS 8? Not many kids knew about the project. I took a few paces forward. Then I finally got myself to say “Hi, would you like to do some gardening work tomorrow?”

The front garden redesign is a major project that the Garden Committee has been tackling. We saw the outdoor space to the left of the main entrance to school and thought about turning that into an outdoor classroom. With help from an expert from the Brooklyn Bridge Park and PS 8 students and parents, we were able to transform this fenced in garden into an outdoor learning environment.

I gathered 10 to 15 kids to help out who were interested. The first day we pulled out all the existing weeds and to make room for the new plants. The second time, we did planting. A lot of the same kids were interested in helping again the second time, so it was fun for all of us to see the garden change so rapidly. If you are a student or adult interested joining the garden committee and helping out, please let us know.

By Ian M., Class 5-314

Weeding!

And Planting!

Want to see even more photos of our October 27th Planting Day? Check them out on our Facebook page! And, if you want to join our efforts, email us or come to our next Garden Committee meeting on December 5th, in lower school room 305, 7:45-8:15am.

The post Our 5th Graders Are Helping Cre8 an Outdoor Classroom! appeared first on PS8 PTA.

Ms. Barth-Werb’s 7th grade Integrated Co-teaching class wrapped up their unit on scale with a week-long design project that culminated in a visit by two MS 8 parent-architects. Students surveyed a room at school, drew a plan of the room to scale, and proposed furniture and accessories that would convert the room into a usable space in which for teachers to work and collaborate. Students were hard-working, engaged and thoughtful designers as they employed their creativity and problem solving skills in a novel, real-world assignment. We are so proud of them.

This project was inspired by the ongoing efforts of the PS8/MS8 PTA to redesign several rooms at MS 8. See how the students’ designs compare to parent architects’ work HERE and HERE. And be on the lookout for an announcement of a work day after the winter break — likely Saturday, January 6th!

The post 7th Grade Architects at Work appeared first on PS8 PTA.

Ms. Barth-Werb’s 7th grade Integrated Co-teaching class wrapped up their unit on scale with a week-long design project that culminated in a visit by two MS 8 parent-architects. Students surveyed a room at school, drew a plan of the room to scale, and proposed furniture and accessories that would convert the room into a usable space in which teachers could work and collaborate. Students were hard-working, engaged and thoughtful designers as they employed their creativity and problem solving skills in a novel, real-world assignment. We are so proud of them.

This project was inspired by the ongoing efforts of the PS8/MS8 PTA to redesign several rooms at MS 8. See how the students’ designs compare to parent architects’ work HERE and HERE. And be on the lookout for an announcement of a work day after the winter break — likely Saturday, January 6th!

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January 1, 2018 - PS8/MS8's annual basketball event DUNK FOR 8 is coming up on Friday, January 26th, 6-9pm. The evening promises to be full of excitement with tasty food, fun games and contests for all ages. All are invited to come out and play or just watch the fun!  Read More →

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WEATHER ADVISORY: Due to expected severe weather conditions, all New York City public schools will be closed Thursday, January 4, 2018. After-school programs, adult education, YABC programs, and PSAL activities are also cancelled.

DOE central and field offices will remain open. Information for staff can be found on the Staff Emergency Page.

New York City district schools will be open, Friday, January 5, 2018. All programs and activities will be held as scheduled.

The post Schools Closed Thursday, January 4th appeared first on PS8 PTA.

This year 5th graders at PS 8 are taking part in the Facing Differences Challenge. Students made portraits that represent themselves and then submitted them to Students Rebuild. Students Rebuild partners with the Bezos Foundation who donates three dollars per portrait with a goal of $600,000. This money will be used to train boys and girls from different religions in leadership and conflict resolution in Nigeria. It will also be used to promote diversity and understanding in Sri Lanka and bring boys and girls of different ethnic backgrounds together in the South Caucasus region of Eastern Europe. To learn more visit students rebuild.org.

By Jacob and Aidan
Class 5-320

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Our School Leadership Team is starting a “listening tour” to get input from the community at large on a question that our community has considered off and on for more than a year:  whether, when, and under what conditions we would support splitting our lower and middle schools into two stand-alone schools. We are balancing the need to make a decision in a deliberative, community-minded, inclusive way but also a way that doesn’t continue the drag of ongoing uncertainty. This is in follow-up to a conversation that took place at an SLT meeting in March ’17. The intent was always for the SLT to revisit the conversation once an administrative team was in place.

To that end, the SLT has set 3 meeting dates:
February 1^st @ 6PM, directly after the 7th grade Administration/Curriculum meeting at the middle school
February 6^th @ 8AM in the lower school auditorium
February 6^th @ 6PM, after the 5^th grade Administration/Curriculum meeting in the lower school auditorium

To allow for a full discussion of ideas, we are planning to break the full meetings into smaller groups facilitated by SLT members. We hope to hear your thoughts and concerns at one of the above scheduled meetings. If you are unable to attend and have questions or concerns that you would like to share please reach out to Eileen Carrier.

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January 30, 2018 - Join other parents for a fun night out! Wine and whiskey tastings, delicious food and socializing all supporting PS8/MS8! Buy your tickets now. Read More →

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On Friday, January 26th, PS8/MS8 hosted our third annual Dunk for 8, featuring basketball skills contests and 3 on 3 games for students of all ages. These were followed by the main attraction, a full-court game between the teachers and students.

The teachers’ team featured Mr. Ellison, Ms. Manning, Mr. Gari, Ms. Shultz and Ms. Sophie, who were joined by recent MS8 alumni and a few intrepid parents. The game was nip and tuck all the way, with the student team pushing the tempo and knocking down a number of three pointers. After trailing by as many as 11, the students fed off the crowd’s amazing energy and cut the lead to two. However, a late basket by Mr. Gari sealed the 45-41 win for the teachers.

The great night also featured pre-game performances from two after-school programs — the Kids Cre8 MS8 rock band (special thanks to band leader Dmitriy and parent supporter Carter) and CCM-FYI’s dance team.  We are so grateful to our after school partners for their help in organizing and managing games and contests.  Special thanks to the amazing 5th grade Teaching Assistant Jessica Hand, Hector from CCM-FYI, and Michael (who helped referee the intense big game) Hajar, David, Davia, and Bryan from Kids Orbit.  And, of course, 6th grade teacher Michelle Rosenberg, for her help as emcee announcing activities over all the very loud fun — and Principal Trish Peterson, Assistant Principal Tracey Scronic, and middle school teachers Sarah Elrafei and Nicole Marcellin for their presence and guidance throughout the night!  We couldn’t have done it without them.

Thanks go out to our event sponsor Modell’s for supplying $200 in $10 gift cards to inspire our basketball competitors.  Also much appreci8ed are the many area restaurants who donated food (Westville, the Park Plaza Diner, Gran Electrica, and Starbucks) and additional gift cards (Luciano’s and Concord Market)!  We were able to offer B.good salads, sandwiches, lemonade and iced tea thanks to their naming us as a “community partner” last year — we reaped rewards from hundreds (thousands?) of diners who donated food to us through that program.

Huge kudos to event co-chairs Caleb & Elisabeth Heidebrecht and Murray Edwards, and all the volunteers — especially Ann Dooley for her amazing poster art, Lindsey Engler for fun t-shirt design and organizational prowess regarding all things merchandise, the 8th grade bake sale team led by Cat Henry and Mary O’Connell, Kathy Chandra for picking up and delivering all the food, Melis Bromberg for all-around amazingness, and Ansley Samson for helping with paperwork, communication and loose ends leading up to the event.

And, last but not least, congrats to all our contest winners:  John D., Justice, Badr, Anna B., Davian, Mark H., Corte, Julian S., Shia, Sam B., Aeden, Jayden, Dashawn, Mohammed E., Warner, Hakeem, Jaelen; Casey, Emma B., Sophia D., Lamont, and Taylor!

Check out more photos from this amazing night at PTA of PS8’s Facebook Page.

By Andy Flamm

The post Dunk for 8 was Gr8! appeared first on PS8 PTA.

February 8, 2018 - Donate from February 5th-15th and a group of Kindergarten family sponsors will match your donation  – up to $20K! Read More →

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Demonstrating “Sae Bae”

Showing respect to Ms. Marquez

Reading of the Great Race!

The post Happy Year of the Dog appeared first on PS8 PTA.

Recently, the seventh grade has been learning about the constitution and how it was created. As part of this process, we reenacted the Constitutional Convention, although there was a catch. In our version, all the groups of people who lived in early America were represented, even the people who weren’t at the original convention. The roles that we used were Native Americans, enslaved and free African-Americans, white women, indentured servants and white workers, as well as the groups that were represented at the actual convention, such as the southern plantation owners and northern merchants and bankers.

We discussed two major issues during our version of the convention, the same issues that were discussed during the real convention, suffrage and slavery. Each group at the convention gave speeches about their opinions on each topic followed by an open debate. This procedure was carried out over two days.

There was a lot of preparation and planning before the convention itself began. Every group had a week’s worth of classes that we spent reading, researching, writing, and making deals with other groups of people that prepared us for the debates, speeches and proposals and gave us a very good idea of what the issues at the convention were in real life, as well as the reasons that the real convention took place.

The role that I played was an enslaved African-American, so my group mostly focused on the abolition of slavery. Other groups, such as the white women, were mostly focused on suffrage. Still more groups, such as the northern bankers and merchants, focused on both of these issues because the wealth of the roles they played depended on both issues. The arguments were very heated, with people constantly questioning the effectiveness of different systems that were being used during the time period of the colonies, and early America (money systems, elections, etc.).

I learned a lot from this experience. I learned how to look through a perspective that is not mine and how to better debate and give speeches. It was a great way to learn about the convention and the Constitution. It was a great experience, and I would love doing something like this again.

By Aeden A-M., Class 704

The post The 7th Grade’s Constitutional Convention appeared first on PS8 PTA.

The first signs of spring have arrived at PS8.  Last Friday a few members of the PS8 garden committee visited the 2nd grade classrooms to teach them all about kale.

The kids had lots of questions about how long it would take to sprout, how much water would it need and most importantly—when could they eat it!

In the coming weeks, the kids will water the seeds and measure and record their progress. Once we’re back from March break the garden committee and the 2nd graders will replant the kale in the larger planters outside.

Stay tuned for updates on our tiny plants and planters.

The post Our 2nd graders are KALE-ing it! appeared first on PS8 PTA.

This year the robotics competition was really fun. This is basically how it works at the competition: This was the first competition for everybody doing the FLL (First Lego League) program. There were different competitions for every borough. Because our school is in Brooklyn, we for the most part all live in Brooklyn, we went to the Brooklyn competition at the Van Siclen Community Middle School in East New York. But there were also competitions for the other boroughs besides ours so one for Manhattan, one for Queens, one for the Bronx, and one for Staten Island. For the Brooklyn Competition, there were 17 teams from all over Brooklyn.

This was the agenda for the day: We first settled in. Then, at about 9:15 a.m, everybody went up to the opening ceremony, where they tell you about everything we needed to know for the tournament and we sang songs, it was pretty cool. After that, we all headed back down to practice at our pit and made sure everything was ready for our next 3 big activities: The Robot Design, Research Project and Core Values. They all are worth points depending on how you and your group did in each of them. The judges add up all of the points together at the end which is what qualifies you for the next tournament, the Citywide Tournament.

The robot design is about the missions you do and the design of your robot and how sturdy/efficient it is (we’ll get into more detail about that later). For the research project this year, because the theme is water, you had to find a problem about how we either use, transport, dispose, or find water. Then you need to make a solution for it and make a whole informational poster with your group. The Mission Masters, our team, researched lead and how to keep it out of our water. Also our other PS 8 team, the Tech Titans, researched Combined Sewage Overflow and how to prevent it from happening. Finally, we did the Core Values project which is a poster on how you work together as a robotics team and even outside of robotics and school too! After you show off your poster, you and your group have to do like a small activity together. This year we had to solve a puzzle, getting the water from one end to the other with puzzle pipes. NO PARENTS OR TEACHERS ALLOWED! This is a kids only thing! No help from the adults. We go in all by ourselves and look out for each other. It can be nerve-wracking, but fun. But it feels good when it’s all over.

After we do all of that, we get taken back to our tables downstairs, tell the parents about our wonderful journey – and get back to practicing. We kind of snacked here and there, had some stuff. And then we headed out for the robot game. There are 3 rounds in the robot game. There are a minimum of 2 people per mission table in each round, a maximum of 3 people but only 2 people at the table, the other person stays back. I have no idea why, but that’s just how it is. The mission pieces are made out of lego. When they are completed, they are worth a certain amount of points, the map looks something like the picture below.

They add up your scores from each round and will project them on to the robotics leaderboard on a computer projecting an image on the wall. Each round they show you your team, your total of points and even rank you by points. PS 8 was so psyched we qualified in the top 6 teams which means we go the Citywide TOURNAMENT! And that pretty much sums up how it went down. Now, if you want to read the full experience, emotion after emotion, just keep reading!

Leading up to our time at the tournament we were working really hard to perfect our missions on our robots and our research project. Our research projects were about getting lead out of water in our water system, our other project is about sewage overflow and stopping it. We also worked hard on the robot game for our missions and making them perfect. After the main parts of the tournament were all over, we went to the ending ceremony where we got to dance around until it was time to hear the awards. At first we were pretty nervous but when we got called up four times we knew that we did great. Since we got four awards we got to take pictures and celebrate with our team, friends and family. It was an experience of a lifetime! Then we got to go home after a day of hard work and started preparing for the next tournament that’s on March 11th, you can come support our team there.

By Annabel S. and Wilder C.
Class 5-304 and 5-304

Photo credit to Ann Dooley, and graphic credit to the Lego First website — here,
linking to here

The post PS 8 Mission Masters and Tech Titans Take 4 Awards at Boroughwide Robotics Tourney! appeared first on PS8 PTA.

Two weeks ago marked a very important milestone for our Kindergartners –  100 days as  PS8 scholars! (80 more days to go before they are 1st graders…but, who’s counting?)

Their smiling faces have come a long way in 100 days – they have made friends, become more independent and have started reading! Before the break they celebrated by showcasing their 100 Days projects and sharing what they have learned since starting PS8.

“My favorite part of school is art with Ms. Mack and playing Gaga at lunch.” – Krish

“I’ve learned how to write and how to read. My favorite is going to art.” – Grant

“I loved learning to read and how to count to 100 and 100 days of choice time!” – Charlotte

“In 100 days I learned about sight words.” – Tommy

“I learned how to behave in kindergarten.”  – Tony

“I liked making an alien with 100 eyes.” – Dyaln

And, cheers to our kindergarten teachers who have helped these kiddos come so far!

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