One Book Kick Off

TMS kicked off our summer reading One Book program on Friday May 27th with an assembly in the Gymnasium. The book is by Jacqueline Davies (she will be visiting Tyrrell in September of 2011) and is called Where the Ground Meets the Sky. It takes place in the Southwest during WWII and the building of the bomb that would be dropped on Japan.

We will be focusing on the recycling aspect of the book and Mayor Dunn joined the entire student body in the assembly to disseminate information about Wolcott’s new streamline recycling program. The biggest factor in the change being that it costs $64 / ton to dispose of trash and only $20/ per ton to recycle. Mayor Dunn explained the new program to the kids and also plans to improve recycling efforts at Tyrrell and all of the town’s schools. We held a poster contest (slogan SLOW THE FLOW) and the winners, Bethany Gallucci, Ellissa Cibelli, Patrick Baxter and Patrick Cosgrove, were announced as well. Runner up, Tu Van Nguyen and Alexis Mulhall, were also honored.

Students and staff will be transforming our courtyard into a Victory Garden. During the War period in the 30s and 40s, US citizens were encouraged to supplement food supplies with homegrown vegetables and fruits. Tyrrell 8th graders will be learning about this piece of history, weeding and planting the garden next week and the food harvested will be used in Summer School cooking classes or to help feed needy families in town. Mr. Fran Hubeny, director of maintenance for the district, along with Mr. Steve Mirto, TMS technology education teacher, have been/will be instrumental in building vegetable beds and planting the garden.

Superintendent Macary was on hand to help Reading Specialists, Tonyia Tafuto and Holly Schinkel present the student body with the Governor’s Summer Reading Award that Tyrrell won from Summer 2010. Our top readers were honored as well, Darrell Dublin, Christina Velezis and Kara Santoro.

Lastly 7th Grade Language Arts teacher, Ms. Joanne Mumley showed a book trailer that she produced to encourage kids to read and pique interest in the book.