By TERRI REUTER
Publications/public information coordinator,
Southern York County School District

Students at Southern Elementary School opened their hearts and change purses for families in need recently by collecting spare change to benefit the Ronald McDonald House in Hershey.

The school was given one dollar in “seed money,” and the students were challenged to see how they could make it grow, first-grade teacher Georgia Draucker said. In just two weeks, $742.27 was raised to help the charity, which provides a home-away-from-home for families of children who are being treated at the Hershey Medical Center.

Students in every grade participated in the fundraising effort. First-graders wrote advertisements to promote the event and then read them during the morning announcements. Students in third, fourth, and fifth grades also collected the donation jars each day.

This was the first year that students collected money for the Ronald McDonald House charity. “Kids just gave because it was a kind thing to do for someone less fortunate,” Draucker said.

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Southern York County School District students from Friendship, Southern, and Shrewsbury elementary schools performed in the Pennsylvania Music Educators District 7 Elementary Song Fest on March 31 at Cocalico Middle School in Denver, Pa. Students were chosen by recommendation of their choir teachers to perform in the festival, which includes singers from 42 different elementary and middle schools in York and the surrounding counties.

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By TERRI REUTER
Publications/public information coordinator,
Southern York County School District

Glen Rock, Pa. – Several choral students in fifth and sixth grades at Southern Elementary School performed in the 2012 York County Elementary Honors Choir Festival on March 24 at Eastern High School.

Students were chosen by recommendation of their choir teachers to perform in the one-day festival. It included 350 fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders from York County school districts.

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By TERRI REUTER
Publications/public information coordinator,
Southern York County School District

Glen Rock, Pa. – Students in grades 4, 5 and 6 at Friendship, Southern, and Shrewsbury Elementary Schools participated in this year’s National Geography Bee.

Following a qualifying test, the students from each class then proceeded to the preliminary round competition, where they answered questions on U.S. geography, state geography, American cities, continents, world capital cities and cultural geography.

The top 10 students proceeded to the final round of competition to determine the school winners. The National Geography Bee is an educational program of the National Geographic Society.

From Southern Elementary, winners are Michael Torbert, who came in first place; Katie Heiser, who placed second; and Josh Alwine, who finished third.

At Shrewsbury Elementary, the winners included Connor Woods, in first; Kyle Orndorff, who placed second; and Alec Kramer, in third.

The winners from Friendship Elementary included Ryan Pugaczewski, who placed first; Nick Standiford, in second place; and Steven Burchett, who finished third.

Submit your own kid-friendly news and kid creations to the Junior Dispatch by e-mailing stories and photos to juniordispatch@yorkdispatch.com. Please see our Submission Information page for ideas on what you and your kids can offer to Junior Dispatch.

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By TERRI REUTER
Publications/public information coordinator,
Southern York County School District

Glen Rock, Pa – Several Southern Elementary students conducted experiments on simulated plants recently when a mobile science lab visited the school.

The Ag Mobile, also known as the Mobile Agricultural Education, is part of the Pennsylvania Friends of Agriculture Foundation, a division of the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau. The lab creates an opportunity for students to learn about agriculture in a fun and hands-on way.

“With fewer children having a tie to farming, we created the Ag Lab to help teachers educate more students about the importance of agriculture,” PFB President Carl T. Shaffer said.

A certified teacher travels with the Ag Lab to teach agricultural experiments. The lab is equipped with all of the materials and supplies needed for the experiments.

“I teach somewhere different each week,” Ag Lab Teacher Ruth Smith said. Smith retired from the Red Lion Area School District, where she worked for 37 years. She has been working with the Mobile Ag Lab for two years.

Some of the experiments include germinating seeds under different conditions, creating crayons from soybeans, and testing the water capacity of different soils. At Southern, some of the classes created a model of a plant and tested how water moves in that plant.

“You will be scientists and you will create and conduct experiments for the next 50 minutes,” Smith told the students.

Second-graders identified parts of a plant and what the plant needs to survive. Before conducting their experiments, they hypothesized as to how the water will move in their plants. They measured a straw, threaded a paper towel through the straw, taped the straw to a cup, added food coloring, and used a graduated cylinder to measure water. They then poured the water into the cup and watched it react with the food coloring. In most experiments, the paper towel absorbed the colored water, which rose inside the straw, through the process of capillary action, Smith explained. Some plants, however, did not absorb the water.

“Sometimes we put plants into the ground and there isn’t enough space for the roots to expand and absorb the moisture,” Smith said. “Then the plants won’t grow.”

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By TERRI REUTER
Publications/public information coordinator,
Southern York County School District

Several Southern York County School District elementary orchestra students participated in the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association District 7 String Festival at Eastern York High School April 9, 2011. Students were recommended by their orchestra teachers to participate in an honors orchestra, sponsored by the PMEA. Students were placed into two different orchestras and were sent music to prepare. They joined more than 200 other selected students from the PMEA District 7 to rehearse and perform in the concert.

The students who participated included:

Shrewsbury Elementary: Christian Baer, Casey Kummer, Rachel Sergent, Julia Mackenzie, Jacob Hebel, Angelina Gilbert and Lucas Gartrell.

Southern Elementary: Emily Rivers, Katelin Tyler, Justin Feild, Claire Morrison and Aaron Fair.

Friendship Elementary: Taylor Kopp, Hannah Munch, Lucas Miller and Kelsey McCullough.

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Choral students in fifth and sixth grades at Friendship and Southern Elementary schools performed in the 2011 York County Elementary Choral Festival at Red Lion Area High School on March 26. The event featured students who were chosen by recommendation to perform.

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Students from Friendship and Southern Elementary schools, Southern York County School District, performed April 9 in the Pa. Music Educators District 7 Elementary Song Fest.

The students were chosen by recommendation.

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Southern Elementary School students who were named to honor rolls for the second marking period of the 2010-2011 school year are:

Grade 6: Colin Allen, Kelcie Baker, Conor Charlow, Emily Christian, Ethan Daviau, Riley Gasdia, Emily Hellwig, Adam Hedgeland, Yulia Houseal, Philip Karpouzie, Valerie Kosson, Michael Koval, Matthew Laven, Mackenzie Marzullo, Jessica McDonald, Claire Morrison, Jacob Ness, Emily Rivers, Brittany Roberts, Julien Sherman, Kelsey Sneed, Shawn Spurlock, Nicholas Stem, Rachel Stockslager, Chase Summers, Kylie Taylor, Kimberly Thomas, Madison Tomasic, Katelin Tyler, Alexia Williams, Tyler Williams and Rebecca Woods.

Grade 5: Kendel Abrams, Alexander Bongardt, Megan Bell, Kate Burgess, Dylan Burke, Kari Cox, Emma Day, Joshua Fair, Justin Field, Kelly Graffin, Molly Hogan, Jackson Holloway, Colin Kernan, Connor Kish, Paige Kish, Eleanor Lindauer, Anna Mahan, Sarah Minacci, Brady Mock, Christopher Norris, Brendan Paules, Matthew Rohrbaugh, Virginia Shelley, Lucas Sherman, Parke Simms, Danielle Simpson, Joshua Smiley, Emma Stiffler, Dylan Tabak, Taylor Tannura, Michael Torbert, Brendan Wilson, Melinda Yeh and Erik Younkin.

Grade 4: Meghan Adams, Joshua Alwine, Brandon Bosley, Camryn Brakmann, Megan Brose, Payton Carrier, Julianne Cassady, Greyson Daviau, Emily Ditt, Jessica Fox, Kendra Gemmill, Allison Grothey, Margaret Howells, Julia Kelbaugh, Grace Kelch, Matthew Keuler, Anna Kirby, Mia Kobylski, Sravya Kommuri, Emily Leach, Christina McClure, Matthew McGillin, Leah Miller, Noah Miller, Lilly Minacci, Mary Nolan, Hayden Roberts, Olivia Schroeder, Jacob Silliman, Gillian Snader, Sarah Stanley, Christopher Stem, Audra Thomsa, Juliana Wagner, Mei Mei Tomko, Asher Vendramin, Rachel Wachter, Jaden Walker, Jessica Welch, Eli Wetzel and Ben Wilson.

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Photo caption: From left are Robert Schefter, School Board President; Sheri Miller, Southern Elementary School PTO Vice President; Karen Stiffler, PTO President; Glenn Geiple, SYCSD Foundation President; and Bruce Bauman, School Board Director.

By TERRI REUTER
Publications/public information coordinator,
Southern York County School District

Glen Rock, Pa – The Southern Elementary School Parent Teacher Organization recently donated $5,000 toward scholarships to the Southern York County School District Foundation.

Since the 2004 – 05 school year, the Southern Elementary PTO has donated $19,600, said Wayne McCullough, Director of Administrative Services. More than $3,000 has already been distributed in scholarships to graduating seniors. Susquehannock High School already has one fully endowed scholarship from the Southern Elementary School PTO. This $5,000 contribution is the first payment of the second endowed scholarship, he said.

Each year, Southern Elementary PTO awards two $500 scholarships to graduating seniors. To be eligible, students must have completed at least one academic year at the elementary school. In addition, they are required to have a minimum GPA of 3.0 and plan to attend a four year program at an accredited college.

“This goes a long way to make a lot of seniors happy in years to come,” said Foundation President Glenn Geiple. “Southern Elementary is well known to be one of the better organizations in the area.”

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