Murch Has Talent
Finally! After a long wait, the second annual Murch Talent Show was held on June 4 at 6:30 p.m. in the gym. Principal Ellis said, “I’ve been waiting for this event for a long time, because in February we were snowed in.”
If you like music, singing, dancing and even Hula Hooping, it was the place to be. A lot of people also supported the graduating fifth-grade class by having pizza on the playground before the show began.
There were more than 20 acts with performances from students in pre-k through fifth. We thought one of the showstoppers was performed by fifth grader Perri Hollar and Sophia Poulos, who did a dance and lip sync to “Telephone” by Lady Gaga.
The gym was packed and if you were there…we hope you had a great time at the Murch Talent Show!
-- Julia Arnsberger & Sophie McInerney, 3rd grade
Fake Teeth and Turkeys But Real Sheep Shearing
May 28 was a special day for the fourth grade because we got to go on a field trip to Mount Vernon, the Virginia estate of President George Washington. First, we went to their mansion, which was smaller than Murch. Once we were inside, the first room we went to was the formal dining room where guests were entertained. George and Martha Washington had at least two guests per day - averaging 700 overnight guests per year. The next rooms our group visited were a lot of bedrooms and a stairway. Upstairs, we saw some more bedrooms, a pantry, and a kitchen. The beds were really big and puffy -- I’d say a bit too fluffy to sleep in. There was a fake turkey hanging on the wall and some fake pigs in the pantry. The kitchen had a really big fireplace and a wood-burning stove.
>> Read the full story by Holden Scharpf
After-school Superstars
It was a girls’ afternoon out in style when seven Murch girls – including Principal Ellis! -- got to go around town in a limousine. The other girls were fifth graders Riley, Perri, Anna, Danielle, Allie, and me, thanks to our parents, who won the “After School Superstar” package at the Murch auction. When we got out of school on May 26, there was a red carpet leading out of the parking lot to the limo just for us. The girls were psyched.
The limo was from a company called Chariots for Hire and the inside was, of course, really, really long. There was a mirror on the ceiling, soft drinks, and a music player. The driver, who I’ll refer to as “TC,” was very nice and generous.
The first stop was the Lincoln Memorial. When we got there, the girls decided to count the steps. There were more than 60! When we got up to the top, we took pictures of Lincoln and the Gettysburg Address. Next we went to (my favorite) the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial. The pictures there were the most creative and fun. We took pictures of us sitting with FDR on his wheelchair, one near the fountain, and one near the breadline.
The last stop was at the United States Botanic Gardens. Sadly, we did not go in because it was closed. We went to the pond across the street and saw little ducks. Then we played charades with the security officer.
Finally, it was time to head home. Our wonderful limo ride with Ms. Ellis was over. It was fun having her along as one of the girls. She enjoyed the tour, but maybe not as much as the fifth graders did.
--Sophia Poulos, 5th grade
Working Out on the White House Lawn
 On May 25, I and the rest of the Murch Mustangs track team went to the White House to meet First Lady Michelle Obama -- and exercise with her! Meeting Mrs. Obama was really cool. Although we did not meet President Obama, we did see the Presidential helicopter take off while we were there, with him aboard. After entering the White House we went and sat in one of the libraries and waited for Mrs. Obama to come and take a photo with us, then went back outside, got into groups and started doing physical activities with the First Lady. Inviting kids from a few schools to exercise at the White house is all part of the Mrs. Obama’s Let’s Move plan to help kids keep moving and exercising for at least 60 minutes a day, and to stop childhood obesity.
  
Leading our activity groups on the White House lawn were people who help coach or exercise some of Washington DC’s professional athletic teams. We ran, we jumped, played games, did relay teams, and, most importantly, we had a lot of fun meeting Mrs. Obama and working out at the White House.
--Kalia Hoechstetter, 4th grader
We Are the Champions
At the fourth and final track meet of the season, May 19 at Springarn High School, the Murch team ran away with the city championship.Out of 14 competing schools, our girls came in first place, and the boys second. Our team's goal was to place in the top three schools and, given the results, we feel great about the commitment and effort we've put into this sport.
--Kalia Hoechstetter, 5th grade
Twin Gardeners Turned Authors
 Did you know that at Murch we have not one, but two students who have published a book about gardening -- inspired by the White House garden?
Twins Annie and Veda Hedgepeth, who are in kindergarten, have co-authored a book with their mother, Justine Kenin, called We Grew It, Let’s Eat It. Read all about it in this GreenScene article by Adelaide Kaiser.
Performing Shakespeare at the Folger
Ten students from Murch Extended Day performed Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare at the Folger Theatre on May 12 as part of the Children’s Shakespeare Festival.
The players were: Leonie Aksyonov; Ananiah Bolton-Raigns; Sebastian Guzman; Camille Jefferson; Rachel Larkin; Grace Marion; Asa Nugent; Sara Page; Ella Weiner; and Elliot Whitney.
We got to the Folger and I was really nervous. Sebastian said it was bigger than the White House. We went in the doors, and we came into a room with plays in glass display boxes. There were long fold-out tables with labels for each school. We sat down at the Murch table.
I sat next to Asa. A bunch of the other kids put their stuff on hangers. We were the first ones there so we got a lot of room. After a bit we went to change into our costumes for the play. Most people were wearing wave costumes for the first scene.
When everyone had finished we all went upstairs. Another school had gotten there by then. We looked around a bit, then Sebastian and I had to practice our fight scene. When we got to the stage to rehearse, I was amazed, It was completely white except for the audience part and the two banners from the schools that had come. We practiced the scene. The stage was modeled after Shakespeare’s The Globe Theatre in England.
We sat in the audience during a few plays. Our play was supposed to go on right after lunch, but it went on before lunch, so we went on early.
The backstage was big and had two parts and the center entrance. Everyone was rushing around trying to change costumes in time and looking for props and trying to remember when to go on, and finding out where to go on. It was very confusing.
When I first walked out on stage, I was kind of nervous because there were so many people in the audience. I was looking for my parents in the balcony (where the parents had to sit) and they were there.
Eventually I got less nervous and it got fun. I was happy and kind of surprised at the end because it went so fast.
It ended up going very well. But we went over the allowed 20-minute time limit, so we got chased off the stage by a fake bear. We met the person who held the bear on the Metro going back to school.
We got blue T-shirts that say “I made a Scene at the Folger.”
-- Sara L. Page, 4th grade
Real fleas? No. Fun and flying money? Yes!
 The first annual Murch flea market and plant sale took place on the Murch playground on Saturday, May 8. The event was held to raise money for the HSA. Many Murch families purchased tables to sell things they didn't use anymore. Some of the things for sale were books, clothes, toys, jewelry, headbands, and even glass door knobs – lots of them!
Some people were concerned that it would rain, but it was sunny. The only problem was the wind. At one table, a big gust blew all the money in the air. Kids were running in all directions trying to grab the floating bills. Most of it was saved, but not all. It was crazy.
The plants for sale were beautiful. You could buy pansies, marigolds, zinnias, and more. You could also sample salad from Murch’s own GROW garden.
There was also a bake sale and that was very popular, raising more than $400.
A lot of people worked hard to make this event happen. Hopefully, the sale will turn into a Murch tradition.
--Julia Arnsberger, 3rd grade
Earth Day Photo Contest Winners
Congratulations to the winners of the Student Blog's Earth Day Photo Contest!
First Place: Untitled by Claire Lewis, 4th grade
Second Place: Earth by Jack Burke, kindergarten
Third Place: Rebirth by Marat Washburn, 2nd grade
Runners Up: Caterpillars! by Alexander Holmes, 2nd grade, and Fishing with Dad by Logan McIntosh, pre-k.
 
How did our winners manage to capture these awesome images? Get the back story here.
The top three winners will receive gift cards to Politics and Prose, courtesy of the HSA. The Student Blog judges thank all the contestants for their great photos!
Rick Riordan Visits Politics and Prose
 I bet you have heard of The Lightening Thief and other books in the Percy Jackson series but have you heard of the Kane Chronicles? That’s the new series by Rick Riordan and the first book is The Red Pyramid. He visited Politics and Prose on May 6 to tell the large crowd about this new series and other projects he has planned. According to Lisa Chaplin, Politics and Prose employee and Murch alumna, he signed “well over 1,400 copies of The Red Pyramid.”
The crowd was so big the event was held in the back parking lot. A lot of kids were reading the book while we waited outside for him to speak. Watching all the kids so interested in the book made me excited to start reading my own copy.
He spoke for about ten minutes, which was a little surprising. He said this was because he wanted to sign everyone’s books. He also answered a few questions from the audience. Third grader Camille Kanach said, “I liked how he said that Tyson the Cyclops was his favorite character because it is also mine.”
Mr. Riordan said he is planning to write another series about Camp Half-Blood and will include new main characters and also our favorite characters including Percy Jackson, Annabeth, and Grover. He said his goal is to publish one book every six months!
I hope you get the chance to read The Red Pyramid! I love it so far.
-- Sophie McInerney, 3rd grade
Comic
by Tim Berger
Poets Toolbox
 This month Ms. Friedman’s class is having a poetry unit in reading. In our “Poets Toolbox” we learned about such things as onomatopoeia, personification, alliteration, and repetition. This week in our homework we have to choose a poem, practice reading it aloud, and answer some questions about it. On Friday, we will read our poems aloud to the class.
-- Adelaide Kaiser, 3rd grade
Girl Racers Finish First and Second
 Our May 5 track meet at Anacostia was a success: Murch came in first and second. It was the East/West championship meet. This means that the West schools race against the West and the East schools race against the East.
We were in the Western division. The Murch girls placed first and second, finishing with a total of 156 points. The boys finished with 116 points.
The Track Championship will be May 19 at Dunbar High School. All District elementary schools go up against each other to see who is the best. Run like the wind, Mustangs!
-- Kali Hoechstetter, 5th grade
Pound, Stomp, Kick!
Step Afrika, which performed at Murch on May 4, is a group of women and men who step to make music, otherwise known as body percussion. First they wanted to have a challenge, so they went head to head on the stage. One person lost every time so they stepped together and got a mighty applause.
 Fifth grader Perri Hollar, said, “I thought it was very cool how they did the stepping with their bodies.”
Jack Poulos, first grade, said, “It was fun that they got us to sing and to move with them and we got to sing to the Kindergarteners.”
They invited us to do stepping with them but first they wanted to introduce us to three new words: Teamwork, Discipline, and Courage. They had us do the pledge of Step Afrika and taught us a step dance from starting position through the end. It was really nice how they got everyone involved and had kept a smile on everyone's face.
-- Sophia Poulos, 5th grade
Going to Galapagos
 
On May 3 the third, fourth, and fifth grades all went to see Galapagos 3D. It was at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. It was about how a scientist tries to find out how animals evolved there.
My teacher, Ms. George, said, "I won a raffle for a free IMAX showing at the Smithsonian, and Ms. Ellis, our principal, and I decided it would be a great reward for our third, fourth and fifth grades after DC-CAS testing."
We had a great time! Murch students had the whole theater to themselves. One of our class's favorite parts was when the scientists went down under water. There are many different types of animals that live on the land and in the water. My favorites were the sharks, the fish, the lizards, the turtles, and the eels. Because the movie was in 3D, the animals seemed real and it felt like you could touch them.
Alex, another third grader, said that his favorite part was when the submarine sucked up a fish in a tube. They did this to look at it in a lab on the boat back up on the surface. Third-grader Zach said his favorite part was when an eel stuck its tongue out at us.
-- John Keating, 3rd grade
Did You Turn Off and Tune In?
April 19-25 was “TV-Turnoff Week.” Did you turn off the TV and do something else? Here’s what some Murch students had to say.
   
    
I turned off the TV because…
“It solves electricity problems.” -- Chris Bond, 3rd grade
“I’d rather be out on the slide.” -- Zachary Crouch, 3rd grade
“I'll play sports.” -- Lachlan Bond, 1st grade
“People shouldn't waste their time looking at a screen.” -- Jacques Nissen, 3rd grade
I missed watching…
“The hockey game.” -- Aidan Jennings-Cashman, 3rd grade
“Nothing.” -- Lucas O’Connor, 3rd grade
“Nothing.” -- Levi Berger, 2nd grade
I didn’t turn off the TV and I watched…
“Mostly cartoons and sports.” -- Max Berengaut, 3rd grade
“Wizards of Waverly Place and iCarly.” -- Sammy Solomon, 3rd grade
-- Survey & photos by Tim Berger, 3rd grade, and Jacob Mintz, 3rd grade
See more photos by Murch bloggers here.
What Are 4th Graders Learning In Music?
 In Ms. Martell-Stevenson’s class, we mostly play with xylophones, but sometimes with other instruments. At the beginning of class, “Announcer” will read our daily message and the essential questions. Then, “Composer” will give us some body percussion to do.
Then we all sit down and “Librarian” reads the word of the week. The word of the week is important because fourth grade has to learn more music words to be able to do music tests and get a good grade.
After that, Ms. Smith teaches us something that goes by the essential questions. We sometimes do work sheets. Once in a while we watch movies—there was one on Bach, for example.
At the end of each class, “Stage Manager” lines up people who are sitting quietly or are ready. Then class is over, and we go back to our classroom. Now you know how fourth grade’s music class works.
-- Leonie Aksyonov, 4th grade
The Great Zucchini Performs Amazing Feats of Silliness
 After school on Friday, April 9, The Great Zucchini enthralled students in the Murch gymnasium. Tickets for the performance were sold at the Bring on the Blue Spring Auction and were available at the door as well. The Great Zucchini is famous in DC for his quirky sense of humor. “He put a toilet seat on his head and made his tongue like toilet paper!” exclaimed one delighted pre-K boy.
-- Photos by Jacob Mintz >>See more.
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Track and Field Hits Ground Running
The Murch Track and field team did really well at our first track meet, which was April 7 at Dunbar High School. This was a developmental meet, where the coaches see what events you're good at and what areas you need improvement in.
It was awesome to hear your friends and your teammates cheering you on. The spirit and excitement-filled atmosphere was great to be back in again.
“It was fun and exciting, but it could have been shorter,” said Josh Valdez, a fifth grader. The meet lasted from 1 to 7 p.m. and the day was very hot.
Even with only three practices before our meet, we placed first, second, and third in many relay events. Coach Berger said he was very impressed at how well we did, which meant a lot to the team and to me.
--Kali Hoechstetter, fifth grade
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Getting to Know Mr. Smith
 Jason Smith is a dedicated aide in Ms. Hsu’s third-grade classroom. This is his first year at Murch. Before he worked here, he was a substitute teacher at Maya Angelou Public Charter School on East Capitol Street.
Mr. Smith became a teacher because he really loves helping kids. His favorite part about being a teacher is seeing kids learn things for the first time.
Mr. Smith is 31 years old. He was born and raised here in Washington, DC. He went to school at Brightwood Elementary and studied history at Morehouse College in Atlanta.
When he was 14 years old, he went on vacation with his grandfather to Paris. He got to go sightseeing and he loved the food. It is his favorite place to visit.
Mr. Smith really enjoys sports. He swims, plays flag football, basketball, and baseball, and he likes extreme sports such as sky diving, scuba diving, and rock climbing. He also coaches football and track at Arch Bishop Carroll High School on North Capitol Street. Mr. Smith is [very] strong: He can lift up to 500 pounds. That’s like lifting five to eight Murch students at once!
--Jacob Mintz, 3rd grade
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And Mystery Teacher #2 is …
Ms. Cresswell!
Thank you to everyone who played the Murch Mystery Teacher Challenge #2. Congratulations to sisters Emily and Zora Colleye who correctly guessed her identity.
Yes, first-grade teacher Wendy Cresswell really was one of the first delivery people for Dominoes and she had to drive around in Arizona (which is very hot) in her Volkswagen with a big pizza oven in the back seat.
She’s lived in many exotic places and says, “At the time I went to Colombia it was considered to be very dangerous so very few people traveled there, which was too bad because Colombia is beautiful. But South Africa was amazing too because I was there right after Apartheid ended and Nelson Mandela was elected President.”
And she really is double jointed: “I can lean on a table and my elbows flip inside-out -- hard to explain--and stick way out the wrong way,” she says. “It looks very weird.”
Besides Tacky the Penguin, she has dressed up as a candy corn, a bat, Araboolie, and Lilly, but she loves Tacky because Tacky was “wacky.”
And, yes, she really did act in a non-profit Star Wars fan film called "Revelations". “I was an inter-galactic diplomat at a party and I got arrested by the Storm Troopers--very exciting!” she recalls. “Unfortunately, the beings from my planet wore head-to-toe black shrouds so I am very hard to recognize unless you recognize my hands. I look like a big, black blob!”
Look for future Mystery Teacher Challenges on the Student Blog.
-- Adelaide Kaiser, 3rd grade
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Lip Sync Acts Rock the House
The second annual Lip Sync show was held Thursday and Friday nights, March 11 and 12, in the gym. There were lots of different genres of music. There were songs from musicals, rock songs, and more.
I interviewed some of the performers. First graders Eilythia Penati, Lyna Davidson, Madeline Conway, Emily York, Zara Kovner, Sabina Lordan, and Stella Schwartzman performed "Do-Re-Mi" from the musical “The Sound of Music.” Zara said, "Our group all saw the ‘Sound of Music,’ so we choose the song ‘Doe, a Deer.’" Zara and her group were proud of their performance.
Everybody in the crowd seemed to enjoy all of the performances. The teachers' song, "Walking on Sunshine," was a really big hit. One third grader commented, “Their costumes matched their song, and it looked like they worked really, really hard on it."
Money from the tickets from the show went to two good causes. One of them was the Murch Student Council. The other was a charity called Save the Children that the Student Council picked for Haiti relief.
The show was a big success. If you weren't here this year, hopefully you will be there next year.
>> Lip Sync 2010 Photos
-- Julia Arnsberger, 3rd grade
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Thomas Friedman Coaches Third-Grade Essayists
On March 2, Thomas L. Friedman visited Ms. Friedman’s third-grade classroom. He’s the foreign affairs columnist for The New York Times. Did you know that his book The World Is Flat has been translated into 37 languages? He gave us some writing tips for our persuasive essays and answered questions. He even critiqued some of our writing. “It was awesome,” said Lily Forte-Fast.
It’s not every day you get a Pulitzer-Prize winner to come in and teach you about persuasive writing! Of course, when your teacher is his daughter, it helps a lot.
-- Adelaide Kaiser, 3rd grade
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Third Graders “Tourmobile” the Mall
The third grade classes went on a Tourmobile to explore some of the DC monuments on Feb. 24. First, we were picked up by a school bus at Murch. The bus dropped us off at the Tourmobile stop on the National Mall. We took a guided tour and then we got to go inside the Jefferson Memorial, which is located at the Tidal Basin. We saw a statue of Thomas Jefferson standing on a pedestal. He looked enormous! We took a bathroom break after that. Who knew the Jefferson Memorial had a bathroom in it!
Next stop was the Lincoln Memorial, where we had lunch. We all had the same food: an apple, a hotdog, potato chips, and a bottle of water. Then we went in the Tourmobile a little more. Our last stop was to see the FDR Memorial. All of the teachers said many times that we were not allowed to play on the statues. We obeyed. We went back into the Tourmobile and were dropped off at the Van Ness Metro station. That was really fun. We got off and walked back to Murch. It was a great day and a great tour!
-- Sophie McInerney, 3rd grade
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And the Murch Mystery Teacher is...
Ms. Bergin!
Several students guessed Ms. Cresswell, but only Langley Custer from Ms. Mathur’s class emailed in the correct answer.
Thank you to everyone who participated. We encourage everyone to try Mystery Teacher Challenge #2. To learn more fascinating things about Ms. Bergin, read her interview.
Mystery Teacher Challenge #2
Can you guess the identity of this Murch teacher? Here are some clues...
Before she became a teacher, she was one of the first female pizza delivery people for Dominos.
Among her many talents, she is double jointed all over her body.
During her time at Murch, five years, she says her best Halloween costume has been Tacky the Penguin.
She was once arrested by storm troopers – in a Star Wars “fan film” called “Revelations.”
Who is she? Email your answers
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
-- Adelaide Kaiser, 3rd grade
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Hot Lunch Freshens Up
Murch students who get hot lunch have been seeing more variety on their trays lately. In January, the food supplier for DCPS started serving “fresh-cooked” food at Murch. The revamped menu is part of a District-wide program designed to improve the quality of the food for the students, says Curtis Trent, a Chartwells/Thompson employee assigned to our school.
Chartwells/Thompson always had fresh pears, apples, oranges, and other fruit. Now, instead of having one option of food to pick from as the main course, they offer two, so if a student is allergic to one option, they can eat the other. “It is a different type of food altogether,” Trent says.
The menu is based on the food pyramid created by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Murch gets its food from Wilson High School, which is located a few blocks away. Kitchen employees at Wilson “prep” most of the food because the kitchen at Murch is tiny. It has a convection oven, a freezer, a refrigerator, and a sink.
Sometimes Trent cooks the food in the small kitchen next to the teacher’s lounge at Murch. For example, he cooks burgers in the oven and adds cheese, he says.
Surprisingly, a lot of the kids at Murch like tuna, Trent reports. They also love pizza. Trent says that an average of 135 people each day get hot lunch at Murch, but when he serves pizza the number can be as high as 160 students eating lunch. Any leftover food just goes into the trash.
Now that Murch has two options for lunch, most students think that the food is more interesting. Curtis has noticed that the kids are more excited about the food, he said.
Phoebe Long-Sires, Murch second grader, says that she likes the popcorn chicken the best. “The food tastes the same, but it is much fresher. Only two things come in a container, the applesauce and the fruit cup. The rest of the food comes on a tray with spaces. We throw the containers and the tray away,” Long-Sires adds.
--Meghan Dayton, 3rd grade; photos by Tim Berger, 3rd grade
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Take the Mystery Teacher Challenge
Can you guess who this Murch teacher is?
You have probably seen her in the hallways with a smile on her face. But did you know that our mystery teacher grew up in College Park, Maryland?
She has taught at Murch for six years. She likes to see her students read longer books at the end of the school year. Her favorite book is Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and her favorite children’s book is ish by Peter H. Reynolds.
She was in last year’s Lip Sync Show and performed the song "Proud Mary." Her favorite sport is swimming.
She has an unusual talent: She can touch her tongue to her nose.
Who is she?
Please send your answers to
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
. Be sure to include your name and teacher. Look for the correct answer here on the Murch Student Blog on March 19.
-- Sophie McInerney, 3rd grade
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Friedman's Class Chases Vermeer at National Gallery
Ms. Friedman's third-grade class went to the National Gallery of Art on Jan. 20. We saw four paintings by 17th-century Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer: "A Lady Writing"; "Girl With A Red Hat"; "Woman Holding A Balance"; and "Girl With A Flute."
We split up into two groups, each with a curator. A curator is someone who guides you through the museum. The curators talked about how Vermeer painted scenes from everyday life.
We got the idea to go to the museum after we read a mystery by Blue Balliett called "Chasing Vermeer." It's about a girl named Petra, a boy named Calder, and a Vermeer painting - "A Lady Writing" - that gets stolen. You'll have to read the book to find out what happens! It's very exciting. Whenever our teacher said it was time to stop reading, the whole class would moan, "Nooo!"
We also looked at a painting by another Dutch master, Jan Steen, called "The Dancing Couple." Guess what - the artist painted himself in the scene, tickling the chin of a lady in an elegant gown!
-- Adelaide Kaiser, 3rd grade
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Annual Shoebox Project Helps Homeless
On Friday, December 11, the second and fifth graders got together and did the shoebox project. First, we covered the shoeboxes in holiday wrapping paper (top and bottom separately). Then we went to Ms. Schafer's room and filled them with such toiletries as shampoo, conditioner, and toothbrushes; clothing items like hats, mittens, and socks; and fun little toys or games. The boxes will go to homeless children in DC through the nonprofit organization SOME (So Others Might Eat).
"It's great that all of us can get together and help people who are less fortunate than us," said Allie Schwalb, Murch Student Council president. "These gift boxes will be given to children who may not be getting any other gifts this holiday season," added Ms. Mahar.
I think this is a great thing for the Murch students to do because I think people who are homeless should get special things for the holidays too.
Thank you to all the Murch students and parents who donated things for homeless children, and the teachers who helped us make the shoeboxes. We would also like to thank Dr. Ricardo Perez of Metropolitan Pediatric Dentistry in Chevy Chase, who donated lots of toothbrushes and tubes of toothpaste for the project.
-- Arielle Klein, 2nd grade
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Murch Student Wins Politics and Prose Bookmark Contest
Sophia Diggs-Galligan, Murch fourth grader, loves to read, so it is no surprise that she entered the Politics and Prose bookmark contest to celebrate the store's 25th anniversary. As Diggs-Galligan told the Murch Mustang Express, "I am crazy about books!"
The judges at Politics and Prose were apparently crazy about her bookmark design. Diggs-Galligan was one of three winners selected out of 50 local students, ages 5 to 17, who entered the contest. Her prize was a $25 gift card to the independent bookstore.
Diggs-Galligan's bookmark design is titled "Growing Up With Books At Politics and Prose." It shows three stages of life: a baby looking at a picture book; an adult reading to a 4-year-old girl (the same age as Sophia's younger sister); and a 9-year-old girl reading The B.F.G. by Roald Dahl, looking like she’s really buried in the book. Diggs-Galligan says she selected those three things "because they were the most familiar" to her.
Diggs-Galligan said she was surprised and proud that she won. The Murch community is very proud of her, too!
-- Sophie McInerney, 3rd grade, and Julia Arnsberger, 3rd grade
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Fall Fair - Four Hours of Fun
This year's fall fair was delayed by a day because of rain, but when the sun came out on Sunday, the fair turned out to be perfect.
Most of the games and rides had a steady stream of customers, spending the more than 22,000 tickets sold. There were lots of kids on the big, big slide, and it seemed that every other child's head had colored hairspray.
This was the first year for the Dunk-a-Hunk booth and some of the soaking wet "hunks" seemed shocked to discover just how accurately some Murch students could hurl a ball at a target. Third grader Jacques Nissen (shown left) hit the bull's-eye twice in a row!
The cakewalk was held on the newly resurfaced blue hard top near the little white building. This is how the cakewalk works: Music starts, people walk around a circle of chairs, then when the music stops, people sit down on a chair with a number in front. Someone picks out a number from a hat, and the winner is the person sitting in front of that number. The winner picks out a cake to take home.
Across the playground, Murch dad Brendan Canty, had set up a great sound system with nonstop festive tunes. Marsha Goodman-Wood, mother of first grader Olivia Wood, played a set of rollicking songs on her acoustic guitar.
At the student council table, reps and officers did a brisk business selling Murch sweatshirts, new tie-dyed "Murch Mustang" t-shirts, and this year's brand new navy, hooded blue sweatshirts with white writing. They sold out of the new sweatshirts, the children's t-shirts, and they almost sold out of the adult t-shirts, (only 1 was left).
"I think the best thing about the day was how the community worked together to make the day a success even with the date change on such short notice,'' said Michelle Cochran, who co-chaired the event with Kathryn Harllee.
As one Murch mom told Harllee, the fair is a "win, win, win" because "the kids all know each other and can enjoy the day together and you know what and where the money is going towards so she feels like she can say 'yes' to her kids all day long!"
-- Adelaide Kaiser, 3rd grade, and Meghan Dayton, 3rd grade
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Posters Say Their Peace
The winners of the annual peace poster competition are Ms. Schafer's class for the pre-k through second grade division and Ms. Levy's class for the third through fifth grade division.
The prize is the same for both: an ice cream party.
Ms. Schafer’s second-graders created a poster that has “We Love Peace and Peace Loves Us” surrounded by colorful peace symbols. The poster by Ms. Levy’s fifth-grade class features “Peace From Earth” on a drawing of our planet and is framed with boxes describing what peace means to each student.
“We think it is important for everybody to think about peace and what it means to them,” says school counselor Lauren Miller, adding that when the contest was first started several years ago, “the peer mediators wanted to stress to the student body that peace is an important part of the school.”
-- Adelaide Kaiser, 3rd grade
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Blue Sky Puppets' Green Message
 On Nov. 10, the Blue Sky Puppet Theatre came to Murch to perform "Lights Out on the Bunny Brothers." First, we saw the sun and moon, who were both 9 feet tall. Mother Nature, a large, swirly-haired woman, was 10 feet tall! After that came the best and funniest part of the show: Sunny and Funny Bunny, who are fourth graders, turn on every light in their house and overflow the tub while they're playing. Honey, a sixth grader, teaches them a lesson by making them think they’ve used up all the electricity and water in the world!
The show’s message was how you can save the planet by doing things like turning off the lights when you leave a room. You can listen to their catchy tune "Turn It Off, Turn It Out".
"We thought this performance aligned with the environmental goals we have for our school," said Assistant Principal Norah Rabiah. She sponsors the school’s Green Club, which is focusing this year on issues related to conservation.
After the show, one of the puppeteers, Blue Sky’s Artistic Director Michael Cotter, picked some fifth grade volunteers to help teach the school to "save the world"!
-- Adelaide Kaiser, 3rd grade
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The Real Deal
I attended Alice Deal Middle School Buddy Day with all the Murch fifth graders on November 18. My experience at Deal was great. The building is very large, with a new part and an old part. There are also a lot more students than at Murch -- a bit more than 900 students, I am told. Not all of the Deal students come from Murch, they also came from elementary schools such as Lafayette, Janney, and Shepherd Park.
First, a chorus in the cafeteria welcomed us. I think everyone was still nervous since Deal is a big school with a lot of different faces. After the chorus stopped, we received nametags that included our name, either an "N," "S," "E," or "W," and three numbers. The letters stood for North, South, East, and West wings. The numbers stood for the classroom number where our buddies were waiting. At Deal, the students are grouped into teams of about 100 students, and each team is named after a well-known location in the world. My buddy was in Team San Francisco, which is located in the West wing.
After that, I met my buddy who took me to the next class period. I went to English, science, and math classes. Overall, the teachers I saw were great and well organized.
Then we went to lunch, which is a lot earlier than it is at Murch. Lunch takes place at about 11 a.m. for the sixth grade. Students can buy lunch or bring it from home. Students even get to choose what to buy. I bought Doritos with beef and cheese. Also on the menu were fried chicken sandwiches and deli sandwiches.
After lunch the students go to recess on the patio or they can play basketball. After recess, it was back to class for only ten minutes, then all of us fifth graders reported to the gymnasium so we could go back to our school. The gymnasium was twice the size of Murch's gym. It had brand new basketball hoops and bleachers.
What a wonderful day!
--Lindsay Harper, 5th grade
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Fourth Graders Tour American Indian Museum
On October 27, all of the fourth grade classes went to the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian.
We walked, and took the Metro. When we got there we split up. My group went to the fourth and third floors. We saw small movies about Native American myths. Most of them were about how constellations and the earth were made.
I liked the movie about an old man and woman and how they formed the world. Some of the ideas the Indians had seemed strange, because we had just finished studying geography and geology in school. For example, some of the Indians thought that the world was flat with elephants and turtles holding it up.
Next we went to a section on the Inuit, and saw how the modern-day Inuit uses a special machine to ice fish. That was cool. (For information about the Inuit pictured above, click here.)
We also went to a Resource Center where some of us learned to weave and some of us sent picture e-mails to each other. We saw spearheads, dolls, an Indian made out of baseball mitts, and even woven cell-phone holders. One of the groups found a library with books about specific tribes. These books can help them do their Indian projects.
-- Ana S. Kiknadze, 4th grade
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What Was Here Before Murch?
When the construction crew dug up the soccer field this summer, they found this old Quaker State Motor Oil sign. According to collectors of "petroliana", this is a rare piece of vintage advertising, but how did it get here? Did there used to be a gas station where our school stands? We've researched and here's what we've come up with:
In the late 1800s, this part of Washington was "the country" and the first school built on the site was the Grant Road School for African-American students. It closed in 1903 and was used as a warehouse. Then the city built four temporary school buildings that were horrible. According to a history of Murch written by Ann Kessler in 1990, these portable buildings "had no electric lights, so no reading or school work could be done on dark days. In winter, the children froze, and in the spring and fall, they were too hot. Because the roof leaked, drops of water would fall down on the children's papers on rainy days. The portables were also infested with such creatures as rats, mice, roaches, assorted bugs, an occasional dog or cat, and possibly a snake. Finally, in 1928 a rare tornado struck Washington and blew off the roof of one of the portables."
The first wing of the new Ben W. Murch Elementary school on Davenport Street welcomed its first students in 1930. But, based on what we can uncover, there doesn't appear to have ever been a gas station or garage on what became our soccer field. So, how this old metal sign happened to be buried here remains a mystery. Maybe it blew here from Oz!
-- Adelaide Kaiser, 3rd grade
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Judy Moody Author Visits Murch
When author Megan McDonald visited our school, it was RAD! (That is, "radical" -- read Judy Moody Goes to College.) She told us how she gets ideas for books – they sometimes start out on paper napkins. She showed us a giant jawbreaker, which was supposedly the world's largest and is how she came up with Stink and the Incredible Super-Galactic Jawbreaker. Afterward, she gave us a sneak peek of the tenth-year anniversary special edition Judy Moody books.
-- Adelaide Kaiser, 3rd grade
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First Art Show a Success
Did you go to opening night of the art show? We did and it was great! On opening night, December 4, there was wonderful food and musicians. There were 80 entries from 65 participants. Approximately 200 people attended.
We caught up with art teacher Miriam Cutelis at the show and she said it only took about two hours to set up because there were so many volunteers. She was very happy with the show and said there was "amazing variety in the pieces."
Some of our favorites on display now are: "Pears," by Eileen Rose Reynolds -Collette, and "African Elephant" by Andrew Tam. One of Murch's younger artists, Duncan Kanach, drew a bear called "Time to Hibernate."
The first Murch art show was definitely a success. It looked like everyone was having a great time on opening night. One of the artists, Johnny McInerney, said he had fun making the artwork and looks forward to doing it again. We hope there will be another art show next year.
-- Sophie McInerney, 3rd grade, and Julia Arnsberger, 3rd grade
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