John Street School fifth and sixth graders in the After-Care Enrichment program have been participating in coding lessons with districtwide coding teacher Julia Caiazzo and differentiation teacher Maggie Tittler.

During their lesson on Sept. 26, the students worked individually or in groups to create mazes out of popsicle sticks. Then, using the Sphero Edu program on their iPads, they utilized text and block coding to program the Sphero SPRK+ robot balls to travel the maze efficiently. The students have learned to code the Sphero SPRK+ to move, change color and emit sound from the iPads.

This after-school program was held over the course of eight days.

Date Added: 9/29/2023

Last January, the band department at John Street School kicked off a paradiddle contest with all the drum and percussion students in the school. A paradiddle is a popular drum rudiment; or, better known as a sticking pattern. The contest concluded in June.

The goal was to see how many paradiddles the students could play in a minute. To make the contest more interesting, companies -- like D'Addario Music (owners of Evans Drum Heads, Promark Drumsticks and HQ Percussion), Paiste Cymbals (one of the world's leading cymbal manufacturers from Switzerland), Marimba One, Remo Drum Heads, RTOM, Canopus Drum Manufacturer and Majestic Percussion -- offered prizes for the winners. Stickers, T-shirts, drumsticks, buttons, stick bags and more were given out as prizes.

Prizes were given to Best Improved, The Person with the One Time Highest Score, The Person Who Averaged the Most Paradiddles from January to June, as well as participation prizes for all.

Date Added: 9/20/2023