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The Village Times StaffEditor: Cheryl FotterGeneral Manager: DaraLyn McCollPublisher: SAILEditor and Writer: Emma SmithReporter: Tyler BartickReporter: Jesse James Art Features: Lillian MinerArt Features: Ethan CastonguayReporter: Lily RubinReporter: Thomas CurtisReporter: Seth Comics Creator: Ethan CastonguayDesign Production: Summer GammonPhotographers: Lillian Miner and Summer Gammon

A Village Elementary School Publication | http://village.gorhamschools.org | Dec.2016/Jan. 2017

Village TimesVillage TimesARTWORK BY SUMMER GAMMON

Important DatesFebruary 2017

15th Early Release20th Presidents Day

20th-24th Winter Vacation

March 201710th Trimester Ends K-515th Early Release K-1217th Conferences K-12

Kids Club Winter Session

January 31February 7

February 14February 28

Dr. Martin Luther King, JrThe Purpose of Education

Monday, January 16, 2017 we observed Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr day by taking the day off from school. Dr. King was a southern bap-tist minister, and civil rights activist. He also believed that the true function of education is to teach one to think intesively and to think critically. We often remember Dr. King as a civial rights activist and his most famous speech “I Have a Dream” but he also valued education. We found his “The Purpose of Education” written for the Morehouse College student paper, “The Maroon Tiger” in 1947 and we would like to share some of his words about education and its true purpose. “…, I too often find that most college men have a misconception of the purpose of education. Most of the “brethren” think that education should equip them with the proper instruments of exploitation so that they can forever trample over the masses. Still others think that education should furnish them with noble ends rather than means to an end. It seems to me that education has a two-fold function to perform in the life of man and in society: the one is utility and the other is culture. Education must enable a man to become more efficient, to achieve with in-creasing facility the ligitimate goals of his life. Education must also train one for quick, resolute and effective thinking. To think incisively and to think for one’s self is very dif-ficult. We are prone to let our mental life be-come invaded by legions of half truths, prej-udices, and propaganda. At this point, I often wonder whether or not education is fulfilling its purpose. A great majority of the so-called educated people do not think logically and scientifically. Even the press, the classroom, the platform, and the pulpit in many instances do not give us objective and unbiased truths. To save man from the morass of propaganda, in my opinion, is one of the chief aims of edu-cation. Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the

false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction. The function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively

and to think critically. But education which stops with efficiency may prove the greatest menace to society. The most dangerous crim-inal may be the man gifted with reason, but with no morals. We must remember that intelligence is not enough. Intelligence plus character--that is the goal of true education. The complete education gives one not only power of concentration, but worthy objectives upon which to concentrate. The broad education will, therefore, transmit to one not only the accumulated knowledge of the race but also the accumulated experience of social living. If we are not careful, our colleges will produce a group of close-minded, unscientif-ic, illogical propagandists, consumed with immoral acts. Be careful, “brethren!” Be care-ful, teachers!”( http://www.drmartinlutherk-ingjr.com/thepurposeofeducation.htm)

Happy New Year!By: Lillian Miner

The new year of 2017 is came over Christmas Break! Did you know that the chinese symbol for 2017 is a rooster? Rooster is almost the epitome of fidelity and punctuality. For ancestors who had no alarm clocks, the crowing was significant, as it could awaken people to get up and start to work. In Chinese culture, another symbolic meaning of chicken carries is exorcising evil spirits.Strengths: Independent, capable, warm-hearted, self-respect, quick mindedWeaknesses: Impatient, critical, eccentric, narrow-minded, selfish



In the Art Room with Mrs. Balcom by Lillian Miner, 5th grade

Seven year old Peyton Richter loves art, dancing at the Dance Studio of Maine in Gorham, and has been suffering from daily seizures since she was three years old. This has been hard for Peyton and nerve wrack-ing for her family. She had two surgeries in August 2016 for a brain tumor that causes the seizures in hopes that the seizures will stop. Peyton was in the hospital for 21 days in Boston, Massachusetts. After the surgery she had to start taking medication and will need to take it for a whole year to see if the medication will stop the seizures. She is excited that she might have a chance to be cured of the seizures once and for all. Peyton’s brother, Jackson, is afraid that she might still have seizures. He is very supportive of his sister, but worries she might have seizures again. On December 18th, Peyton went on the Make-a-Wish boat in the Casco Bay Parade of Lights. Make-a-Wish is an organization where they grant the wishes of kids who have been diagnosed with life threatening medical issues. Peyton helped the captain on the boat

Village School Student Gets Wish Granted By Cole Allen and Lily Rubin, 5th Grade

ride where she found out that her wish was granted, a trip for her entire family to Hawaii. Peyton picked a trip to Hawaii for her wish because she wants to swim with the dolphins and turtles. Jackson is looking forward to going on a volcano and just being with his sister to support her. Peyton said about the Make-a-Wish program, “I really liked the boat. I want to thank the Make a Wish foun-dation and my parents and I love my brother.”

The fifth grade classes is working on clay sculptures in art. For their project, they are doing a “hollow” sculpture of whatever item they want to make. Photographed (L to R) Sophie Gunn, Olivia Sawyer and Summer Gammon.

The 5th grade classes have gone on a field trip to the Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI). We studied the Gulf of Maine waters and the life in the water. We did lots of hands on learning using lobsters, learning how to identify height and gender. We used micro-scopes to see microscopic animals in the ocean and took pictures to see how big the animals are. We used devices to put what we learned and connect it to the following items (people, lobster, cod, copepod and herring.) We used simulated games to discover what works better for fisherman to use to catch fish. We also looked at a tank with live fish and looked at their movement and have they hide or stand out. We recorded videos in the end to answer the questions they gave us. Last we took tools to answer how the lesson changed the way we think about what we did in the activity.

5th Grade Field Trip by Emma Smith, 5th grade

First Lego League update On December 10th, 2016, at the Augusta Civic Center, there was a robotics competition going on, and it wasn’t just any competition, either. It was a state finals FLL robotics competition! Our team leaders (Mrs. Lockman and Mrs.Knott) told the team our schedule: 9:30 opening ceremony, 10:15 Project judging, 10:30 Technical judging, and 10:45 Core Values for the morning. At 9:30 the opening ceremony began. There were a lot of speeches and then the national anthem started playing. After the opening ceremony, we had 45 minutes of to explore, so we looked at some of the posters other teams had set up. One even had an ipad built into their poster! Soon it was time for our project presentation. We had to carry in a table, 2 ft by 2 ft loon nesting raft, computer, and a portable projector. It took us a while to set up. How-ever, once we got set up, the presentation ran smoothly. Our presentation was about modifying a loon nesting raft. We spoke about what dangers loons face, and how we can help them. After some questions from the judges, we were done. Then we lugged all of our things out and zipped over to Technical Judging. In Technical Judging we all gathered around a robot performance table. The judges asked us how we programmed the robot, why we programmed it that way, what went wrong and what went well.

All sySTEMs Go

We rushed right to the next judging event. It was Core Values, in my opinion, one of the most exciting judging events in FLL. After that, there was an unknown assignment waiting for us. It turned out to be a pretend crash landing on Mars. We had to take 5 things from the spaceship and rate them 1 through 5. We ended up taking water as our option we also took extra air, a tent, and food rations. After the problem/solution part was done, we explained how we, as a team, solved problems, and extended our knowledge of robotics and programming. That afternoon, we had our robot game. We had three chances to set our robot up correctly on a game board and let our robot autonomously complete tasks. We got points depending on how hard the task was and if we did it correctly or not. In the first round we got somewhere around 45 pts. In the second and third round we got lower scores, around 15 and 30 pts. We came in 29th overall. FLL is a fun experience, and I encourage anybody that has even the slightest interest in robotics to sign up. It also builds team skills and other useful life skills. So, once again, I encourage people who have an interest in robotics to sign up.

By Tyler Bartick, 5th grade



Genius Hour is one hour every Monday where every student in Mr. and Mrs. Penley’s classes can research anything they want and make a presentation out of it. You have to research a topic or learn to do something new. In a presentation, you can make a Google Slides or you could share what you created in front of the entire class. Some of the projects and presentations made the audience get involved. Kira, in Mrs. Penley’s class, did a sock snowman that everyone in the class could make. Ethan, in Mr. Penley’s class, made a board game about football that he played with a partner in front of the class. Aidan, in Mrs. Penley’s class, did a magic show and had volunteers from the audience. These are some interviews with students in Mr. and Mrs. Penley’s classes who did different kinds of projects. Interview with Hayley Tufts VT:Why did you choose to make a stuffed bunny? Hayley: Because my mom is good at sewing and I wanted to try it.VT: How did you make your project? Hayley: I started out looking for patterns and then I got the fabric. Then I had to trace out the pattern on the fabric and then I cut it out. Once I cut it out, I sewed it and stuffed it. I put eyes and a nose on it. VT: Did you have any help from teachers or other adults? Hayley: I had help from my mom. She helped me sew little parts and helped me pin it together. VT: What did you like about Genius Hour?Hayley: I liked how we could do anything that we wanted for an hour and then present it.

Interview with Ashton Leclerc VT: Why did you choose to make basketball cards?Ashton:I decided to do basketball cards because I’ve always wondered how they made them.VT:How did you make the cards?Ashton: First I put their team logo in the background for the base of the card. Then I did a little description of the player. Next I did the stats.

VT: What players did you do?Ashton: Anthony Davis(Pelicans), Steph Curry (Warriors), and Kyrie Irving (Cavaliers)

Interview with Roman LandreVT: What did you do for your Genius Hour project?Roman: I made a 7 foot 7 sculpture of Manute Bol (mun-ute bowl).VT: Why did you choose this?Roman: I chose this because I love basketball. VT: Did you have any help by an adult?Roman: Yes I had a little help from my mom because she bought stuff.VT: What was your favorite thing about Genius Hour?Roman: Probably presenting it.VT: Why?Roman: I liked sharing it with the whole class

and got good questions and people compared themselves to it. I think Genius Hour is a good way to express yourself. I have enjoyed actually learning something I will use for my entire life and using skills we learn in school in a fun way. For example, I love basketball, so right now, I am doing a basketball league with Ashton and Jackson for my next Genius Hour project. We have to figure out the salary of each player to see which players you can have on your team of stardom. So far we have done a lot of researching what salaries are and doing math to see if we can sign all the players we want to our teams. If your teacher doesn’t have Genius Hour, you can still try it yourself- just pick a topic and start. Or you can try to convince your teacher to try out Genius Hour (it should be pretty easy).

Genius Hour Presentations by 5th Graders by: Thomas Curtis, 5th grade



If 9999=4,8888=8,1816=6,1212=0, Then 1919=?4, look how many closed areas there are9999 has 4 closed areas (The top of the ‘9’)8888 has 8 closed areas,the top and bottom part of the 8 and there are no other digits1816 has 3 closed areas,(top and bottom of 8 and 6,and it has 2 other digits (32=6)1212 has 0 closed areas, (04=0)

Math ProblemA bat and a ball costs one dollar and ten cents in total. The bat costs one more dollar than the ball.How much does the ball cost? 1.05

Answers from previous issue On October 12, 2016 five Village School fifth grade student ambassadors, Emma Smith, Aera Hyson, Kaleb Reed, Lindsey Curran, and Sheldon Dyer spoke in front of the school board and it’s audience about being an ambassador. The questions they were asked were: “Why did you apply to be an ambassador?” “What is your role as a student leader in our school ambassador program?” “What do you enjoy about being a student leader in our school?” “What have you learned about leadership?”

Village School Ambassador’s Attend Gorham School Board Meeting By Emma Smith, 5th Grade

Jesse’s Brain-TwistersFind the answers in the next issue of to both in the

February/March Issue.An athlete is able to jump FOREVER. However, every time she jumps she gets a bit more tired, and every jumps she jumps half as much as her last jump. Now for the very first jump she is going to jump ½ of a foot. On her second jump she is going to jump ¼ and then half and so on. The beginning of her journey is shown down below in the giff. How many jumps does it take to jump one foot?

Math Problem6/2(2+1)=?

Village School has a new vice principal, Mrs. Fotter. She has been working as vice principal for about 3 months. Three kids from the Village Times news staff interviewed her and here were the questions she was asked:VT: “What did you have to do to become vice principal?”Mrs. Fotter: “I had to take additional classes and I already had the certificate I needed to apply.”VT: “Why did you apply for the job?”Mrs. Fotter: “I’ve always been working to-wards becoming vice principal. I have worked at three different schools, but I wanted to be part of one school community.

VT: “How did you feel when you got the job?”Mrs. Fotter: “So excited knowing I could come back to where I started.”VT: “How long have you worked in the school system?”Mrs. Fotter: “I taught 1st grade and 2nd grade at White Rock. At Village I taught 3rd grade for 9 years and I was a math coordinator 5 years. I have been in Gorham for 15 years and I was at Biddeford for 9 years.”

Mrs. Fotter, New Vice Principal of Village School By: Ethan Castonguay, Summer Gammon and Thomas Curtis, 5th grade

Some of the responses were: Aera Hyson: “My role as a student ambassador is to be at morning recess and make sure all students are following the code of conduct and make sure no one is feeling down.” Sheldon: “I signed up for ambassadors so I can help out kids and help guide the younger children.” Emma: “My role as a student ambassador is to help students and Village School, but my larger role is to make sure everyone feels warm and welcome in our school.”

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