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News & Features December 16, 2015

MS Music Concert Leaves Crowd Wowed

Last Friday, December 4, many Friends’ Centralites were blown away by the amazing performances from the Middle School Orchestra, Jazz Band, iPad Ensemble, and Chorus in the Meeting Room. While some people came for the cookies and lemonade, even they were raving about the musical talent in our Middle School. The night got off to a great start when the FCS Middle School Orchestra took the stage at Shallcross Hall, performing songs such as the Star Wars main theme and “Born this Way” by Lady Gaga. Violins were in action, cellos were playing along, flutes and trumpets blasted their notes, and drummers were adding cool sound effects to help the Orchestra with their songs. Next, the iPads were out as the iPad Ensemble (it wasn’t really an ensemble, as it consisted of only sixth and seventh graders (Skylar Davis ‘21, Sammy Darling ‘21, Sam Kazak ‘21, Liam Giszter ‘21, Benna…

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News & Features December 16, 2015

FCS Food Competition

This year, Friends’ Central School is having a schoolwide food competition to determine a new dish for the cafeteria. The winner will receive the honor of having their dish featured on the FCS menu. So far, the competition is just beginning, but word is even faculty and staff are now allowed to compete. 32 entries, but only 1 can win. As an exciting kickoff for the intense food competition, we had a selected group of student judges, who tasted and voted on their favorite. The jury has decided and “Waffle la Waffle” dominated five votes to three votes. Although the chicken was amazing, the idea of a waffle breakfast sandwich (WITH BACON) was pure genius and Chris Meade ’20 triumphed in this round and is moving on to his next competition (THE SEMI-SEMI-SEMI-FINALS). The winner, “Waffle la Waffle”: Buffalo chicken wings:

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News & Features December 16, 2015

LEGO Robotics Announcement!

Everybody knows that Friends’ Central has sports teams. But now, Friends’ Central has a new kind of team… Team Phoenix, the LEGO Robotics Team! We go to a LEGO Robotics contest (called FLL: First LEGO League) on December 19, 2015! There are three parts of this contest: the robot (which has to do some different actions to get points), the poster (which you don’t need to worry about), and finally, the project. What We Need So, FLL always has a different theme every year, and this year, the theme is TRASH, which is a very big problem around the world. For our project, we have to find a way to reduce some type of waste in the world and in our community. So, we decided to focus on whiteboard marker trash. Almost every teacher at Friends’ Central uses a whiteboard marker brand called Expo. After these Expo markers run out of ink, usually the teachers…

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News & Features, Opinions December 2, 2015

MLB Postseason 2015 Recap and 2016 Season Predictions

Postseason 2015 Recap The 2015 Major League Baseball postseason was one to remember. Many different types of franchises dueled for the title. These included the team with the three young fireballers: Matt Harvey, Jacob DeGrom, and Noah Syndergaard, and second baseman Daniel Murphy, who led the majors with seven home runs in the postseason. Any guesses? Yup. The New York Mets. Another completely different franchise, the Toronto Blue Jays, had the best offense in baseball during the regular season, but sometimes struggled to score runs during their push for the title. They miraculously defeated ex-Phillie Cole Hamels and the Texas Rangers by coming back and winning three consecutive elimination games on the road, but then were dispatched by the eventual World Series Champion Kansas City Royals in the ALCS. Also, let’s not forget the Houston Astros, who miraculously rebuilt their team and made the postseason following 2013 and 2014 seasons…

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Books, News & Features December 1, 2015

Animal Farm Song Project Wrap-Up

It’s been happening for 15+ years… Generations of students (okay, maybe not generations) have been enjoying it for a while… That’s right, it’s the ever-popular eighth grade Animal Farm song project! Here’s how it works: Eighth grade students are required to read the book Animal Farm over the summer. After a series of comprehension discussions, students break into groups, and write and rehearse parody-type songs that tell the Animal Farm story. Fast-forward 1.5 months when students perform their songs for their Language Arts class. During this first round of performances, peers vote for which group they think did the best job. Those with the most votes go to Round Two, the semi-finals. These students perform in Room 10 and their videos can be seen below. Peers then voted a second time for their favorite group. The Red Hot Piggy People are the winners and performed their song in the Meeting…

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News & Features, Opinions December 1, 2015

What Does It Mean to Be a Boy?

On November 17, 2015, students and faculty took a break from the morning’s traditional classes to take part in special programing surrounding the issues of gender identity in social situations. Middle School students had the option of going to Program 1  and hearing visiting author Patricia Ottaviano discuss female social dynamics or Program 2 and discuss what it means to be a boy or man by watching the movie The Mask You Live In, a movie about issues of masculinity. I attended Program 2, and there were a few things that resonated with me from the day. Here are four tips for boys to remember: Be yourself. Though it sounds like something out of a Disney movie, sometimes it is important to step back and say to yourself, “Is this really what I want to do?” By this, I mean it is important to not do things just because they…

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News & Features November 18, 2015

Turtle Talk with Terry

Vol. II, Issue 5? (Not sure…) Hello turtle-lovers! This is Charlie Szwartz, new to the TTWT (Turtle Talk with Terry) community. I’ve got your outer shell with not only with cool turtle facts, but also PHOTOSHOP! Now for our turtle fact… According to PetEducation.com, turtles live in EVERY continent in the world except for Antarctica! Recently, Ms. Sims’s Block 6 seventh grade science class, including me, did some research… And we found out that Terry is actually a FEMALE turtle! 

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News & Features November 18, 2015

FCS Flag Football Season Outcome

So, you’ll remember a little while ago when we wrote “FCS Flag Football Championship Preview.” So, as the winter hammers down with basketball and squash, we’d like to tell you the final outcome of the flag football championship game. Here we go! Semifinals: Blue Team (Blake Roshkoff ’20) vs. Yellow Team (Gordon Wilcox ’20) Well, the score was not 90-0. Since it was a “W” Day, the games were shortened to 20 minutes. I did not realize that by the time I wrote my preview, so my predictions were wrong. It was actually a very exciting (and very controversial) game. At first, the Blue Team, with none other than Tucker Wolfson ‘21 pulling flags like a beast, was winning with 6 points ahead. In a shocking conclusion, the Yellow Team, with none other than Charlie Szwartz ’21 keeping his team together, managed to throw a lucky pass to Sylvan Davidson ‘20, tying the score…

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