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A Spirited Week for Middle School
May 09 - Sycamore middle students had fun dressing according to the five themed days of Spirit Week: PJ day, hat day, sports team day, class color day, and Sycamore day. This week is planned each year by the Sycamore middle school student council. Hat day sure brightened up the cafeteria lunch scene!

5th Grade's Kind of Town
May 09 - Recently, Sycamore's fifth grade class traveled to Chicago for several days. Their first scheduled stop was the Art Institute of Chicago where Sycamore art teacher Eileen Prince led the students through an exceptionally informative tour of exhibits relating to their units of study in art class while previewing masters they will study in the future. Students then enjoyed some vociferous social time in the hotel pool before heading to Medieval Times for adventure, tournament jousting and dinner. On the second day they explored the Field Museum, including the current Pirate exhibit and had an entertaining music and dance-filled lunch at Ed Debevic's before returning to Indianapolis.

Feeling the Beat
May 09 - Seventh-graders enjoy a few moments in the spotlight with "Mundo Beat" who performed a free concert for 3rd, 4th, 6th and 7th grade students on Wednesday, April 29. Sycamore teachers in attendance were asked to evaluate the band for Young Audiences Indiana in exchange for the lively concert. Young Audiences Indiana empowers children to achieve their creative and intellectual potential through arts in education. The audience went on a musical tour of Latin America, learning songs and dance steps of the salsa, merengue and cha-cha. Students and teachers alike gave the spicy rhythms a thumbs up!

A Whale of a Good Time
April 09 - Thanks to Butler University and their Department of Natural Resources connection, a full-scale inflatable whale visited the Early Childhood division on Tuesday, April 21. Prior to their encounter with the giant mammal replica, teams of 4 student volunteers from Butler went into each classroom, EC1- K, to do a 10 minute "blubber glove" and "toothbrush baleen" activity with the students.

Special Day Shines in the Rain
April 09 - Although last Monday morning was rainy and cold, the hallways and classrooms of Sycamore were filled with the bright cheery smiles of students and guests alike taking part in Grandparents' & Special Friends' Day. The EC classrooms were abuzz with Spanish lessons and the theater and band room were alive with performances from the remaining K-8 grade classes. Games and activities were available in the Library and Lower School science room, photos commemorating the morning were taken in the Meeting Center and the breakfast buffet was enjoyed by all. Through the generosity of grandparents and special friends, the Sycamore Library grew by 80 books - a record amount for this special morning!

7/8 KMO Tops at State/Nationals
April 09 - The Sycamore 7/8 Knowledge Master Team finished the spring competition with a score of 1625 out of 2000 possible points. This ranked us 1st out of 31 schools in Indiana, and 11th out of 700 schools internationally. Sycamore School is the reigning National Champions in the Small School Division.

Spanish Students Compete on HS Level
April 09 - On Saturday, April 18, a compact group of Sycamore eighth-graders competed in the annual State Spanish competition, or Concurso Academico. This event is hosted by the Indiana chapter of the American Association of the Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese. Even though there is a middle school division at the competition, our students competed at the high school level. Sycamore students competed in all High School Level 2 events, testing their Spanish skills against high school sophomores and juniors. In the "Scrambled Sentences" event two students placed first; in "Vocabulary" one placed third; in "Non-Stop Conversation" two paired groups won 2^nd and 4^th places; and in "Impromptu Speaking" one placed third.

On a High Note
April 09 - The Symphonic Band performed in the National Adjudicators Invitational at the University of Missouri on April 25. Adjudicators for the festival included 3 college band directors and a composer. The group was awarded the highest rating of Superior, the 1st superior rating earned by the Symphonic Band in the last 10 years of attending this festival. In addition to their performance, the band also enjoyed the Arch, the Westward Expansion museum, the St. Louis City Museum, the musical Hairspray, Six Flags, and a music clinic on Friday morning.

EC3 visits McSycamore
April 09 - EC3 students were delighted to discover Sycamore's version of McDonalds on the playground. Each student needed to ride a vehicle up to the drive through window to place their order. Who knew a Transportation Unit could be so tasty?

Experiencing the Good 'ole Days
April 09 - The week of April 6, Sycamore third-graders immersed themselves in a day full of hands-on activities of school children circa 1892 during their visit to the Simmons School in Hope, Indiana. The school is a restored one room schoolhouse from 1879-1906 now used to teach visitors about the life long ago. Students dressed in period costumes and carried lunches typical of that time period. The day included a spelling bee, penmanship practice, arithmetic, and reading. Popular recess activities were tug-of-war, stilts and sack races.

Through the Eyes of a Survivor
April 09 - Just before spring break, Sycamore's seventh-graders traveled to Terre Haute, IN to visit the state's only Holocaust museum. The CANDLES Museum features the life story of the museum's founder Eva Kor, a victim and survivor of the well-known "twins experiments" conducted by the infamous Dr. Mengele at the German concentration camp Auschwitz during WWII. Ms. Kor spoke to the class about the horrors she and her twin sister survived as well as her efforts to locate other victims of the experimentation of the "Angel of Death" there. The visit ended on the positive note that Ms. Kor has forgiven those who abducted and abused her so many years ago.

5/6 Knowledge Masters 1^st in State/Nation  
March 09 - Sycamore's 5/6 team competed in their final Knowledge Masters Open contest of the year on Wednesday, March 18. Sycamore is ranked first in the nation and is also ranked first in the state of Indiana for our school size. Overall, the team finished third in the nation out of 368 schools, including some schools in Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, and Korea. Sycamore's team scored a mere 3 points behind the first place team from a middle school with a student body of 1300 students.

Three Earn Purdue Scholarships
March 09 - The Sycamore MATHCOUNTS team placed 2nd this past weekend in the Indiana State MATHCOUNTS competition. They missed defending their state championship from last year by the slimmest margin possible. Teammates competing for Sycamore finished in 4th, 9th, 10th, and 13th place. Three Sycamore students earned $16,000 scholarships to Purdue University by finishing in the top 10. Also, by finishing in the top 4, one earned a place on the team that will represent Indiana at the national MATHCOUNTS competition in Orlando, Florida.

Sycamore Hosts 12th Girls' Conference
March 09 - On March 14 Sycamore hosted its 12th annual "Curiosity, Confidence, Challenge," a statewide science, technology, engineering and math conference for middle school girls. The event is designed to awaken girls' interest in scientific careers and help them select high school courses that will lead to success in college. The conference features a series of small-group workshops led by women whose professions include mathematics, science and technology. Registrants select four workshop preferences from 27 choices including anatomy (dissection), applied mathematics, architecture, biochemistry, biology, biomedical engineering, botany, chemistry, communications (Podcasting), dentistry, dermatology, environmental studies, film editing, fitness and wellness, food science, forensic anthropology, graphic design (Photoshop), materials engineering, mathematics through dance, mechanical engineering, nature studies, nursing, nutrition, ophthalmology (dissection), psychology -- educational, surgery (dissection) and veterinary medicine. The conference also offered special programs: "The Earth Dome," "Reptiles & Amphibians of Indiana" and a free parent forum, "Can Dad's Influence Daughter's Interest in Math and Science?"

Auction Success
March 09 - The 2009 Auction for Advancement was held Saturday night, February 7, in the school gym. The gym was transformed into a romantic nightclub reflecting the "Snapshots" theme with lighting, room decorations, and tables covered in black with candles and red and white flowers set on mirrored tiles. More than 300 attendees enjoyed an evening of easy camaraderie, feasted on sumptuous food and drink, were entertained with funny and moving slideshows, and bid silently or out loud on a variety of exciting items and experiences. Thanks to the generosity of parents, faculty and staff, trustees and alumni, Sycamore friends and our event sponsors, more than $78,000 was raised for Sycamore School! This includes $30,275 for our wish list items: choir risers, band instruments, stage enhancements/lighting, athletic uniforms, outdoor lab furniture, the Biztown field trip, artists in residence, speaker/author in residence, smart boards, checkout Macbooks, cameras, kitchen/building enhancements, and financial aid.

Science Olympiad Team Advances to State
March 09 - Sycamore fielded two teams for Science Olympiad team this year. Each team competed in separate regional competitions, with teams medaling in 15 out of 23 events. The "Butler" team finished 3rd out of 14 schools, allowing Sycamore to field a team for the state competition March 28. A combined team of 15 students will be competing with other Middle Schools in a wide range of scientific disciplines including anatomy, fossils, robotics, flight, and more.

Painting with Light
March 09 - A middle school art class had a unique opportunity to try a very unusual medium. As part of their study of 20th Century art, students bring in objects and approach them in a wide variety of ways, including Realism, Expressionism, Formalism, Surrealism and Conceptualism among others. Recently, the class was introduced to "blind contour drawing," a very helpful technique in which the student draws the object without looking at the paper. After a bit of practice in the traditional method - using pen on paper - each student went into a dark room and "drew" the object with a light source, aiming the light at an open camera lens. The results were exciting!

Six Artists Honored by ISO
Feb 09 - All six of Sycamore's entries in the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra's Symphony in Color competition received recognition in this year! Four were named Finalists and two Sycamore artists received Blue Ribbons! It is unusual for all six entries from a school to receive recognition. Five hundred and six students from across the state entered works in the 2009 competition. One group of judges picked 100 of those to be Finalists, and a second group selected 36 of those 100 to be Blue Ribbon Winners. The works of the Blue Ribbon winners will be on display in the Oval Promenade Gallery of the Hilbert Circle Theater from February 23 to March 29. Finalists will be exhibited from April 4 to May 10 at the Indiana State Museum.

School Hosts MATHCOUNTS Regionals
Feb 09 - On Feb. 12 Sycamore hosted the Indianapolis Region MATHCOUNTS contest. Sycamore placed 3rd out of 27 teams, finishing just 1.75 points from first place. This qualified the Sycamore team for the state competition. One Sycamore student finished in 3rd place out of the nearly 200 students and he also placed 1st in the countdown round. The Sycamore team will be defending Sycamores state championship at Purdue University on March 14. Three students also qualified for the state competition as individuals.

Second Grade Physics Fun
Feb. 09 - The second grade traveled to Bloomington, IN to visit the WonderLab Museum of Science, Health and Technology as part of their physics unit. Students experienced many fun and exciting hands-on exhibits and programs such as a static electricity demonstration and an activity using the forces of tension, friction, inertia, gravity, chaos and centripetal force to perform a task.

Student Selected for World Leadership Program
Feb. 09 - A Sycamore sixth-grader, Lizzie Snyder, has been accepted into the People to People World Leadership Forum. She will join a select group of students in Washington, D.C. from March 30 to April 4 to study leadership and explore some of the country's most prominent monuments and institutions. From Capitol Hill to the Smithsonian Institution, and from Gettysburg National Military Park to the International Spy Museum, the group will examine the characteristics of American leadership during times of national challenge and prosperity. Forum delegates will also participate in small-group discussions and exercises to experience first-hand how successful leaders develop strategies, make decisions, build consensus, and foster change. Lizzie was nominated and accepted based on outstanding merit, civic involvement, and leadership potential.

Painting the Sistine Table
Feb. 09 - Sycamore's Early Childhood art appreciation teacher does her best to share not only the work of an artist but also the experience of creating art. Recently her students learned what it felt like to be Michelangelo as he painted the Sistine Chapel. Students all decked out in painting smocks and hairnets experienced the challenge of painting while lying on their backs.

Read-a-thon Buddies
Feb. 09 - During this year's Sycamore Read-a-thon, the 8th-grade Spanish class visited the Early Childhood wing and shared books with the preschool extended day students.

Local Poet Conducts Student Workshop
Feb. 09 - In preparation for the upcoming Poetry Tea on February 11, Carmel children's poet Rebecca Kai Dotlich visited with the 3rd grade classes to conduct a poetry writing workshop. She helped the students write two poems, with a focus on revision and word choice. She also had the opportunity to meet with the Middle School's Poetry Cafe' flex. As their guest, she read one of her poems about the Viet Nam Memorial to the student poets as well as some of the students poems, accepted three editions of the Middle School's recent literary magazines, and spoke to the students about her own days as a student poet.

Parents Share Knowledge with Students
Feb. 09 - An Associate Professor of Chemistry at the University of Indianapolis and mother of a Sycamore seventh-grader spoke with the seventh-grade class about the joys of studying and knowing chemistry. She focused mainly on combustion chemistry and performed many fantastic demonstrations. In second grade, an IUPUI math professor visited his sons classroom to share his enthusiasm for learning math. Beginning with a story about Harry Potter and his math assignment, he proceeded to show the students extraordinary patterns in our number system. Given the long task of adding all of the numbers from one to one hundred, he demonstrated that using patterns in large amounts of numbers can make the job much faster. The laughter emanating from the classroom indicated that it can be fun, too!

Multilingual Storyteller
Jan. 09 - At the public library downtown a Sycamore eighth-grader read stories to children in Russian, translated them into English and answered questions about life and culture in the Ukraine. As the Secretary of the Indiana Network for Early Language Learning, Sycamore's Middle School Spanish teacher recruited her to participate in this project. INELL and the Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library are working together to conduct bilingual story times for children on the second Saturday of every month at 2:00 p.m.

6th Grader Wins Freedom Essay Contest
Safwan Khatib, gr. 6, was named grand champion in the city-wide freedom essay contest sponsored by the Broad Ripple Sertoma (service to mankind) Club. His was one of hundreds of essays entitled "What Freedom Means to Me" written by sixth graders at various schools in the Indianapolis area. This is an extraordinary achievement. There were approximately 12 judges for the contest, and it is rare that any essay scores 100 pts from some of the readers. In February, Safwan will receive a $500.00 savings bond and will be honored at a luncheon where he will read his winning essay.

7th Graders Discover Math in Product Research
Seventh graders in math class had the opportunity to observe applications of math in the real world by participating in Candy Dynamic's market research of a new product. Students learned about the company, product shelf life and profit margins, and gained insight into marketing new candy. Then they sampled a new product, completed a survey on the product, and ranked their choice of the possible names for the candy.

Symphonic Band Selected Perform at Convention
The Sycamore School Symphonic Band was the only middle school concert band selected from the 10 states in the North Central Division to perform at the Indiana Music Educators Association convention with North Central High School's Wind Ensemble on Friday, January 23 at 4:00 p.m. in the Wabash Ballroom of the Indiana Convention Center in downtown Indianapolis. The band was selected for this honor based on an audition CD submitted last spring.

Bridge Building Showdown
For years, Sycamore's middle school scientists have been competing in the academic competition of Science Olympiad. This year, for the first time, students had an early head-to-head bridge building contest prior to the regional competition. Ten students designed bridges then tested them to failure. The winning bridge had the highest load/bridge mass ratio. First place was earned by a bridge with a ratio of 0.756, second place was 0.287, and third place was 0.245. The winning bridge designs will be rebuilt and go on to compete in the regional Science Olympiad competition on February 28.

Diane Borgmann Named Head of School
Dec. 08 - The Board of Trustees is proud to announce that on Dec. 3, it unanimously selected Diane Borgmann as the new Head of School for Sycamore School beginning July 1, 2009. She is currently the Lower School Director at Greensboro Day School in Greensboro, North Carolina. Diane previously served as Head of Lower School and Associate Head of School at Sycamore. Her intimate knowledge of and commitment to gifted education makes her a natural selection to lead the school.

EC food drive helps neighbors
Dec. 08 - The EC division sponsored a successful canned food drive for the Fay Biccard Glick Neighborhood Center at Crooked Creek Food Pantry the week of Dec. 7. Pictured here, pre-kindergarten kids pose with the food collected.

National Knowledge Master Champs!
Dec. 08 - The Sycamore 7/8 Knowledge Master team earned the national championship title of the Small School Division in this year’s Knowledge Master’s fall competition. The team scored of 1553 out of 2000 possible points, ranking them 1st out of 27 schools in Indiana and 14th out of 700 schools internationally.

Students Shine at Speech Contest
Dec. 08 - Sycamore middle school students competed at the Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School speech tournament on Saturday, Dec. 6. The eighth-grader on the left competed in the impromptu event where she placed 1st out of 27 participants. Her performances included three rounds of assignments: a current event topic (the benefits and disadvantages of legalized gambling); a theme (failure); and a quote (“Eat for thyself, dress for others”). The seventh-graders on the right competed together as a duo and individually in the original oratory competition. In the “original” category, they wrote and memorized a speech then presented it in three rounds before the judges. The student pictured in the middle placed 5th, speaking on the topic of sports injuries, and the other placed 3rd, speaking on childhood obesity.

Students' Poetry Published in Collection
Dec. 08 - The work of two Sycamore middle school students has been selected for this year's publication of the 2008 Poetry Collection of the America Library of Poetry. The seventh-graders poem "Silence" and the eighth-graders poem "November Gray" appear in this year's paperback edition entitled Brilliance. Each year, the America Library of Poetry receives thousands of submissions and publishes hundreds of talented young authors, many for the first time. These young poets are two of the most avid participants in Poetry Cafe' flex and have been members of the flex for several years.

Four Selected for All-Region Honor Band
Nov. 08 - four Sycamore middle school students were recently selected for the 28th Annual Indiana Bandmasters Association All-Region Honor Band from a pool of over 250 applicants from 27 area middle and high schools, grades 7-9. Selection was based on their written application, participation in private lessons and solo and ensemble, and director nominations. They rehearsed with the other honor band students on Saturday, Nov. 22 in preparation for the concert on Sunday, Nov. 23 at Zionsville West Middle School. 

PreK Learns About Health & Fitness
Nov. 08 - The half-day pre-kindergarten class took a trip to National Institute of Fitness and Sport (NIFS) to learn all about health and fitness. Students put their strength and endurance to the test with various fun activities and obstacle courses.

Creating Native American Art
Nov. 08 - With the help of a visiting expert on Native American art, the second grade class learned about effigy pots and then had the chance to create their own. Native Americans used to make containers in the image of animals, things or people. Students made their own pots shaped like a turtle, coyote, beaver or opossum.   

Experiencing Life - Then vs. Now
Nov. 08 - Kindergarten students went to Conner Prairie as part of their Pilgrim unit and had a chance to help make candles and do other chores with the colonists such as bringing in wood and sorting beans. When they returned to class, they added a third circle representing the historical period of Conner Prairie, to their Venn diagram. The circles in the diagram represent groups of items that share common properties. Students are comparing life today, Pilgrim life, and life at Connor Prairie.  

Young Chess Teams Succeed at Tournament
Nov. 08 - The Sycamore School chess team enjoyed great success on Saturday Nov. 1 at the Orchard Fall Scholastic Tournament where nearly two hundred participants played five rounds of Swiss-style competitive chess. A kindergartener won first place in the 1st-grade-and-under division by winning all five rounds, a third-grader won 2nd place in the 3rd grade-and-under division; and another third-grader won 5th place in the 3rd-grade-and-under division both by winning four of the five rounds. The Sycamore 1st-grade-and-under team won 1st place overall and the Sycamore 3rd grade and under team won 2nd place overall.  

Greek Drama in the Classroom
Nov. 08 - The fifth-grade history class created Greek dramas as an enrichment activity for their current unit of study. Both comedies and tragedies were represented as students simulated the characteristics of theater in ancient Greece, wearing Greek chitons. 

Learning about the Senses
Nov. 08 - Sycamore Plant Manager LeRoy Richens spent two mornings with EC3 students grinding wheat to make flour then helping them bake the most delicious bread with it. The activity was part of their study of the senses, demonstrating smell and taste.

Hanna Honored as Indiana Foreign Language Teacher of the Year
November 08 - Last Spring Sycamore middle school Spanish teacher Patricia Hanna was selected the teacher of the year for Indiana Association of the Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese. Her award put her in the running as a nominee for the Indiana Teacher of the Year for the larger Indiana Foreign Language Teacher’s Association (IFLTA). On Nov. 8 at the annual IFLTA conference, it was announced that she was selected the Indiana Foreign Language Teacher of the Year! Srta. Hanna said she was very honored, somewhat surprised, and very grateful to work in such a place as Sycamore which has allowed her to develop and prosper as a teacher.

Track & Field of Dreams
November 08 - Thanks to forty-two generous donors, outstanding trustee leadership and project coordination, Sycamore has completed the long-dreamed about campus enhancement of a new track and soccer field. These exciting additions to the school campus will benefit both the physical education and athletics programs. The track program has never been able to practice at Sycamore due to the lack of this facility. The defending I.I.S.L. championship track team looks forward to training on it next season as do the soccer teams.

Service Club Seeks United Way Grant
November 08 - Members of OHANA, Sycamore's middle school community outreach club, recently presented their 10-page grant proposal entitled B.F.F. (Buddies Finding Friendship) to the Youth As Resources board at the United Way. They researched the needs of the students in the Crooked Creek Community after-school program and proposed four after-school sessions that would include homework help, tutoring, story-time, a craft, games, and a snack if the grant is approved. Students are hoping their proposal receives funding in early December so they can get their project underway. Students had to present their project completely with a detailed budget of their anticipated expenses.

Students Contribute to Children’s Book
Oct. 08 - Last year during Sycamore’s Read-a-Thon week, Middle School humanities teacher Mary O’Malley read to 1st graders a rough draft of a children’s book entitled Who Makes the Sun Rise? Afterward, the students made suggestions as to how to make the book better. The author/illustrator, Lois Templeton, appreciated their ideas and made the changes. The book has been published and she and her creative director Phil O'Malley came to back to Sycamore to reread the book to the "contributing" students who were the first to see it in final form! The class is being credited as "the focus group" for the book. The duo also donated a signed copy of the book to the Sycamore Library and a teacher’s manual to accompany the book.
 

Teaching in Cyberspace
Oct. 08 - Middle School science teacher, David Schuth is teaching two classes for Indiana University’s Online High School: Introduction to Physics and AP Chemistry. Mr. Schuth also attended a professional development session on the ANGEL Learning Management Suite as part of his responsibilities for the IU courses. The ANGEL LMS offers online teaching and learning tools which enable efficient and effective development, delivery and management of courses, course content and learning outcomes. Engaging communication and collaboration capabilities enhance instruction to deliver leading edge teaching and learning.

Sycamore Hosts Chess Tournament
Sept. 08 – Sycamore hosted its first Scholastic Chess Tournament on Sat. Sept. 27. Seventy elementary, middle, and high school students from around Indiana participated, including seventeen Sycamore students. A Sycamore alum helped at the event and played a “Legends Match” at the end of the tournament with one lucky participant. Students had a great time and many earned individual awards. Sycamore’s 3rd grade-and-under team placed first and the 7th grade-and-under team placed second. Sycamore will host a spring tournament May 2, 2009.

Spirit Week Food Fight
Sept. 08 – Spirit Week culminated in an energetic display of rally towels and school cheers at the Spirit Day Assembly in the gym. The results of the food drive and Auction for Advancement photo contests were also announced. Congratulations to the entire Sycamore School body for making the food drive benefiting the Fay Biccard Glick Neighborhood Center at Crooked Creek so successful, collecting 3630 items! The first-grade class was the proud recipient of the pizza party for submitting nearly 19 items per student. The school was showing its true spirit!

Auction for Advancement Art Contest
Sept. 08 – Ten winning student photographers representing many grade levels were honored at last week’s Spirit Day Assembly and received a certificate and a cash prize for their efforts. The winning photos have been assembled into a collage that will serve as the centerpiece image of this year’s Auction for Advancement, appearing on auction invitations, posters and other documents. Twenty-three Sycamore students photographed the Sycamore campus during a special after-school activity. A panel of judges selected the winning images from 69 entries, without knowing the names of the photographers.

Student Awarded 4-year High School Scholarship
Sept. 08 - Christopher Jones, a Sycamore 8th grader was recently selected to be one of 15 national 2008 Caroline D. Bradley Scholars. Christopher was chosen from an applicant pool of several hundred gifted students in the country. Recipients must demonstrate leadership, motivation, maturity, integrity, and a passion for learning. Each scholar receives a four-year scholarship to the high school of his choice.

Breaking Ground on Track & Field Project
Sept. 08 – Late Spring 2008, the Sycamore School community responded enthusiastically to a challenge grant to raise funds for expanded and new outdoor athletic facilities for its students. Including the $75K challenge grant, $199,905 in gift commitments have been secured for this unique project. Soon Sycamore will have a newly graded, seeded and professionally irrigated soccer field and track, transforming the west end of the campus.

Naturalist Author/Artist Visits Sycamore School
Sept. 08 – Naturalist, wildlife artist, educator, and author Clare Walker Leslie presented Exploring Your Own Backyard to Sycamore families and staff on September 16. During the week she spoke to several classes about appreciating the outdoors. Currently studying their plant unit, second-graders had the opportunity to work with Ms. Leslie as they observed, then sketched a tree on the play ground.

Yearbook Receives National Recognition
Sept. 08 – The 2007-08 Sycamore year book was recently inducted into Walsworth Publishing Company’s Gallery of Excellence. Nationally, only a small percentage of yearbooks are chosen each year. The iBook will now be displayed at regional, state and national conventions and will also be shown to local schools as an example of a quality publication. Congratulations to last year’s yearbook staff!

3rd Graders Help Local School
September 08 - As a community service project the third grade will be collecting Box Tops for Education again this year. Proceeds from last year’s project helped a local school in need of books and school supplies. The third graders will come by each EC and LS classroom on Fridays to collect any box tops that are turned in. There will also be a collection box in the Middle School hallway. Pictured here are third-graders counting box tops for redemption.

Mac Attack
September 08 - 7th graders are enjoying their computer class this year using the 25 new Macs that have replaced the PCs in the instructional computer lab. Programs, including the iLife suite (GarageBand, iPhoto, iMovie, and iWeb), offer fantastic opportunities for students of all ages to use computers in different and sometimes more creative and productive ways. As an added bonus, they run Boot Camp, a program which also allows Windows to be run on these computers. Students are very excited about these Macs, and as you can tell, very engaged when using them. All students that attend Technology class (officially K-8) are using the new computers. With the Library’s mac portable lab, teachers can now start technology projects in their rooms, then instruction can continue in the computer lab. This is a great step towards the full integration of technology in the classroom.

Summer Alumni Gathering
August 08 - Alumni from the classes of ‘04, ‘05, ‘06, ‘07’ and ‘08 were invited to a gathering on August 7 to share a picnic dinner, play some corn-hole, and socialize with friends and faculty members in Sycamore’s new outdoor pavilion. Grads from the class of 2008 enjoyed looking at their new yearbooks together and signing each other’s books. The Development Office planned the event.