Our Staff Maya Conway

Marika DupontBerry

Siska DupontBerry

Miranda Torres-

Garcia

Ava Jackson

Faith Labrada

Valentina Mendez

Ilana Sanz

Kathryn Serra

Sabrina Shipley

Advisors

Ms. Skinner

Amy Shipley

A newspaper by and for the students of Key Biscayne K-8 Center

Shark

Attack

May, 2015 Volume 3, Edition 3

‘Shark Attack’ Staff Gets Tour of WPLG TV Set

Continued on page 2

By Miranda Torres-Garcia and Sabrina

Shipley

Next year, a new curriculum from an Eng-

lish university will be coming to Key Bis-

cayne K-8 Center to start to prepare stu-

dents for MAST. This new program, the

Cambridge Program, will be implemented

in grades 5, 6, and 7.

MAST already offers the program.

Ms. Tarafa says that the main reason for

the Cambridge Program is that it “will help

with the transition for the students [to]

MAST, whether they leave in middle school

or in high school.”

You don’t know what the Cambridge Pro-

gram is? Well, the Cambridge Program is a

curriculum for grades K-12 including math,

science and English (language arts).

The Cambridge program is used in 160

countries by over 9,000 schools across the

globe. The Miami-Dade school district

plans to have 80 Cambridge Programs at

about 70 schools by 2016.

The difference between the new Cam-

bridge Program and the current program is

like the difference between typing and

writing with a pencil – two different

Cambridge Program Coming to KB K-8 Center

Continued on page 4

By Faith Labrada

The Shark Attack newspaper

crew went to WPLG Local 10’s

Hallandale headquarters on May

19 and we got to see how a real

news station really works. A tour

guide showed us what goes on

behind the scenes as well as on

the air.

First we saw where the stories

that are reported are written. It

was a big room full of cubicles

and the writers were busy at work

to get ready for the news at noon.

Next, we were taken to the con-

trol room where all of the shows,

commercials and the news are

broadcast.

In this room there is one person

who switches on the shows and

makes sure nothing goes wrong.

So remember this when you’re

watching shows like “Once Upon

A Time” and “Modern Family.”

After that, we were shown to the

room where the producers con-

trol the background and speak to

the reporters through their ear

Ms. Skinner, Ilana Sanz, Tiffany Berry, Miranda Torres, Sabrina Shipley, Ava Jackson,

Amy Shipley, Valentina Mendez, Siska DupontBerry, Kathryn Serra, Faith Labrada

and Marika DupontBerry flank Kristi Krueger, Constance Jones and Julie Durda.

P a g e 2 S h a r k A t t a c k

Newspaper Club Gets An Inside Look at Channel 10

pieces. We got to see what goes on outside of

the newsroom when the news came on live.

When they went to commercial we went into the

live studio, stood feet away from the live broad-

cast and met anchors Kristi Krueger, Constance

Jones and meteorologist Julie Durda.

Overall, the trip was both fascinating and educa-

tional.

“I felt like a girl in high school because I’ve been

watching these people for so long, and the plat-

form and the wall in the news room were just

beautiful,” said Ms. Skinner the head of the

Shark Attack newspaper.

So yes we had a very good time and we hope to

do this again next year!

By Valentina Mendez and Marika

DupontBerry

A lot of construction and a lot of kids have

left Key Biscayne K-8 Center with a big prob-

lem: Damage to the playing fields and green

space at the school.

There are big

open patches in

our courtyard

between build-

ings one and

two. There are

also problems

that continue

on to the P.E

field.

“They will be

removing the

portables once

they are done

with construction. So we want to fix all that

area,” Ms.Tarafa said.

The improvement will also take part in our

garden. For this concept, Ms. Tarafa will be

willing to concentrate on our garden to ex-

pand it and to make it beautiful. By doing

this, she could add more plants and flowers

and make sure they are watered daily so

they won’t die.

We have interviewed a couple of children to

see what their opinion is on the condition of

the green space.

“Honestly for right now I think it looks ugly,”

said Marcela Sauce, a fourth grader. “When

I am on the field I notice it a lot when I am

playing. When I am playing on the field, I get

tired and decide to sit down but there is

nowhere to sit because of all the empty

patches of dirt.”

Marcela said she looks forward to when the

green space is done.

“I would be grateful because I would be able

to sit down and see the beautiful flowers,”

she said.

Right now Ms.Tarafa is working on the in-

side of our school. For instance, bathrooms,

cafeterias and classrooms.

After she is finished with her work on the

inside of our school, she would move on

to the green space -- to transform all those

ugly patches and empty spaces to beautiful

flowers and green grass. Soon enough, our

school will be a dirt-patch free school!

Fourth-grader Marcela Sauce.

Ms. Tarafa wants to replace construc-

tion-damaged grass like this patch.

Continued from Page 1

The Grass Will Be Greener at KB K-8 in the Fall

Marika, Faith, Siska, Valentina, Kathryn, Ilana, Ava, Miranda and Sabrina

pose for a photo in Channel 10’s newsroom.

P a g e 3 V o l u m e 3 , E d i t i o n 3

Students Hit D.C., Boston and Many Local Stops for Field Trips

Parents, Students Enjoy ‘Take Your Child to Work Day’

By Kathryn Serra and Siska DupontBerry

Imagine five kids sleeping next to a dolphin,

three kids sleeping next to an orca, and 10

kids sleeping next to a sea lion. Well, this is

what the seventh grade does on its overnight

field trip to Sea World: Kids sleep next to

animal habitats for one night.

Field trips in Key Biscayne K-8 center come

in an abundance. This year alone we have

participated in over 20 field trips. For exam-

ple, the kindergarteners went to Butterfly

Garden; second grade went to the movie

theater; the fourth grade went bowling -- and

that’s just three of the field trips.

On a much larger scale, fifth and sixth grade

went out of the state to Boston and Washing-

ton for three nights (most students without

their parents). Those three days weren’t just

fun and games, though. Every day students

get jam-packed with a lot of information.

Plus, they have to wake up at 6:00 a.m. and

go to bed at 10:00 or 11:00 p.m.

“We walked so much in those three days my

legs nearly fell off, but it was worth it!” said

Ava Jackson, a fifth grader who participated

in the Boston trip.

Why does the school go through all the trou-

ble to have students participate in field trips?

As Ms. Ferreyros Jr., a fifth-grade teacher,

said:

“it offers students to learn in an engaging

way.”

And, as most students, like Maya Conway, a

fifth-grader, will say:

“It is an amazing way to learn new things,

and it’s the most fun we have in school.”

By Ilanna Sanz and Maya Conway

Take Your Child to Work Day is a

day that was created to let chil-

dren learn more about their par-

ents’ jobs.

It used to be called Take Your

Daughter to Work Day because

girls were not able to get the

same jobs as men so people cre-

ated a day for girls to learn more

about the jobs of men. Then eve-

rybody felt that Take Your Daugh-

ter to Work Day should be for

everyone so they changed it to

Take Your Child To Work Day.

“It’s a great way to learn about

the different jobs that I can have

when I grow up.” said fourth-grader Kathryn Serra. Kathryn Serra worked with her

mom who is a speech therapist.

“Take your child to work day is

fun especially when I got to teach

the second graders with my mom

and Ms. Peña,” said fourth-grader

Brianna Babani.

Brianna Babani is the daughter of

a second-grade teacher from this

school named Ms. Babani.

“It’s not something that just

Dade County came up with,

it’s something that is out there in

all the state and everybody does

it,” said the school principal Ms.

Tarafa.

Take Your Child to Work Day is an

opportunity for you to go out and

see the different types of careers

that there are out there.

Key Biscayne sixth graders visit the White House during their May trip to Washington, D.C.

Ms. Peña and Brianna Babani

Glitches Accompany Debut of FSA Test at Key Biscayne K-8

Going to 1st Grade

Biscuit Goes to School, Baby Dol-

phin’s First Day, Wemberly Wor-

ried, La Oruga Muy Hambrienta

(EFL), The New Kid (ESOL), Let’s

Have a Play (ESOL)

Going to 2nd Grade

Hey Diddle Diddle: A Food Chain

Tale, Nate the Great, Abuelo y Los

Tres Osos (EFL), Click Clack Moo

(ESOL), Henry and Mudge and the

Big Sleepover (ESOL)

Going to 3rd Grade

Who Was Helen Keller? Lost Treas-

ure of the Emerald Eye, Una Tarde

en el Amazones (EFL). How to Eat

Fried Worms (ESOL), The Lemonade

War (ESOL)

Going to 4th Grade

Bobby Vs. Girls, Alvin Ho: Allergic

to Girls, School and Other Scary

Things, Me Llamo Maria Isabel

(EFL), Summer Reading is Killing

Me (ESOL), Lawn Boy (ESOL)

Going to 5th Grade

Hoot, Wonder, El Amor es Como el

Queso (EFL), Joey Pigza Swallowed

the Key (ESOL), A Long Way from

Chicago (ESOL)

Going to 6th Grade

The Name of this Book is Secret?

Chew on This: Everything You Don’t

Want to Know about Fast Food,

Kidnapped in Key West (adv.)

Going to 7th Grade

Technology, 90 Miles to Havana,

Tooth and Nail: A Novel Approach

to the SAT (adv.)

Going to 8th Grade

Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie,

The Wright Brothers: How They

Invented the Airplane, Gifts (Annals

of the Western Shore) (adv.)

methods of doing the same thing.

This summer, teachers in grades 5,

6, and 7 will be trained by teachers

from the actual Cambridge Univer-

sity in England.

Next year will mark the beginning of

our school as a Cambridge school.

“It’s basically focused on enhanc-

ing the types of learning students

get in language arts, math and

science so that it’s a more worldly

perspective,” Ms. Hill said about

the program.

Teachers are mostly supportive of

the program, including Ms. Moore,

who said that “anything that is for

the benefit of the kids, the teachers

are supportive [of].”

By Ava Jackson

Every year, the Key Biscayne K-8

Center has the children doing the

reading, writing and mathematics

FCAT. But this year we don’t have

the FCAT assessment test --

instead we have to take the

FSA assessment test to

determine where we will get

placed next year.

Right when the test was going

smoothly, the technology and

weather just had to cause many

issues.

The computers had major glitch-

es occurring in them, maybe be-

cause of the weather issues or

the power surge occurring. But

luckily the computers saved stu-

dents’ work once the glitches had

subsided.

“It’s kind of frustrating, when

you’re taking a test, you’re read-

ing, and all of a sudden – voom!

The computer goes down, black,

and then you have to start

again,” said Ms. Tarafa. “Luckily,

we’ve been doing really well. The

kids have been great. The teach-

ers have been great. And we just

have to deal with Mother Nature

sometimes, and the technology is

not always the best.”

Soon the children were able to

turn in the FSA test so now we

wait for our results.

Finally, what is the FSA assess-

ment test?

“The Florida Standards in Mathe-

matics and English Language Arts

were approved by the Florida

State Board of Education in Feb-

ruary 2014 and will be fully im-

plemented in grades K–12 in the

2014–2015 school year,” ac-

cording to the Florida Depart-

ment of Education. “All Florida

schools will teach the Florida

Standards, and the Florida De-

partment of Education (FDOE)

has contracted with the Ameri-

can Institutes for Research

(AIR) to develop and administer

new statewide assessments.”

Even though the computers had

many issues going on we still did

a fantastic job on cooperating. So

now the anticipation is killing me:

what are the results of the test?

You may not have the same opin-

ion I had, but still!

“All of a sudden — voom! The computer goes down, black,

and then you have to start again. Luckily, we’ve been do-

ing really well. The kids have been great.” — Ms. Tarafa

Continued from Page 1

Cambridge Program to Start Next Fall

Fifth graders visit Harvard during their annual Boston trip (see story page 3)

2015 Summer Reading List