Cumberland First Graders Get Active in the Classroom

Deb Lincer's classroom is one of the state's top participants in a morning exercise program called Adventure to Fitness, which incorporates history and social studies lessons into the routine.

Many professionals start their day with a workout, and now Cumberland School first-graders have picked up the habit. Cumberland teacher Deb Lincer was inspired to make exercise a part of her classroom environment after traveling to New Zealand, where she saw young kids begin the day with a 30-minute workout. Upon returning to Whitefish Bay, she found Adventure to Fitness, which leads kids through a workout while incorporating educational and cultural exercises. Since starting the program in September, Lincer's classroom is among the top five Adventure to Fitness participants in the state out of the 419 teachers in 227 participating schools. As a reward for her efforts, the organization named Lincer a National Champion of Education and …

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Valentine's Day Through the Eyes of Children

Enjoy Valentine's Day artwork and poems submitted from Cumberland and Richards schools.

For adults, Valentine's Day means roses, chocolates and fancy dinners – but what does it mean to your children? Students from Richards School and Cumberland School expressed their feelings about love through artwork and poems, and their art teachers submitted their work to Patch to share with the community. At Richards School, 1st grade students created mirror monoprints of hearts, 3rd grade students made copper foil hearts and 4th grade students made shrink art hearts. Cumberland School students created a Valentine's Day artwork grid based on the work of artist Chuck Close, as well as other art projects. The kids were also asked to write a poem in response to a question that mankind has pondered for centuries: "What Is Love?" Here are …

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Cumberland Students Sell Handmade Bracelets to Help Kenyan School

Fourth-grade girls raise $50 over their summer break to help turn a dilapidated school house in Nairobi into a new, four-story facility.

When Cumberland School students saw pictures of a school in Kenya where students are packed shoulder-to-shoulder, knees-to-back into a small classroom with tin walls, four fourth-grade girls took the extra initiative to raise funds for the school by selling handmade bracelets, hair bows and headbands during their summer break. Cumberland Principal Jayne Heffron visited Valley View Academy in Nairobi, Kenya about three years ago when she heard about the school's needs from Shorewood native Stephanie Koczela, who is working with the school's officials to raise money and construct a new school building. After Heffron gave a presentation to Cumberland students and parents about the fundraising effort upon her return, the school's PTO solicited…

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Cumberland Students Explore Academic Interests at Learning Fair

Fourth and fifth grade students explored their interest in optional learning project then presented their findings at Thursday night learning fair.

Fourth and fifth grade students at Cumberland School showcased science and history research projects at the school's Learning Fair Thursday night. Students spent weeks working on the optional learning project on topics ranging from the history of civil rights and segregation in Milwaukee to making your own hovercraft to type 1 diabetes and sequencing DNA.

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Snapshot: Girl Scouts Make Bowls for Charity

The 25 uniquely painted bowls will benefit local hunger initiatives in the Milwaukee area.

Ann Deuser, owner of Art Trooper, submitted this picture of ceramic bowls painted by Girl Scout Troop #1682  at Cumberland School. They participated in the Art with Heart program and donated these 25, uniquely painted bowls to Milwaukee Empty Bowls to benefit local hunger initiatives.

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Week Ahead: Holiday Concerts, High School Talent Show

This week is packed full of musical performances in local schools.

Here's a look at some of the events in our events calendar this week. If we're missing something, you can add it to the calendar. Dominican Christmas Concert: Dominican High School's Christmas concert, "On a Cold December Night" will begin at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the school's auditorium. The school's band, chamber choir and concert choir will be performing a variety of holiday songs from classic to jazz. Cumberland Winter Festival Concert: Cumberland's all-school concert will be held in the school's gymnasium from 9:45 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Friday. All-day kindergarteners and 1st through 5th grade students will perform at both concerts. Morning Kindergarten students perform at 9:45 a.m. and afternoon kindergarten students perform at 1:30 p.m. …

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Kindergarten Will Start an Hour Earlier Next Year

Five-year-old kindergarten students will spend an extra hour in school, mimicking the schedules of first- through fifth-graders.

Five-year-old kindergarten students will start an hour earlier next year, matching their school day to those of first through fifth grade students. Currently, Richards senior kindergarten students start at 9:05 a.m., whereas first- through fifth-grade students start at 8:05 a.m. Cumberland's K5 students start at 9:15 a.m, with first- through fifth-grade students starting an hour earlier. With the school board's unanimous consensus Wednesday night, kindergarten students at each school will start at the same time as other grade levels. The difference in start times between kindergarten and other grades dates back to labor contracts drafted 12 years ago, when the district first started offering full-day kindergarten. The district used to …

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An Elementary School Vision of 'Whirled Peace'

Students at Cumberland and Richard Schools embark on a new art project this year that promotes peace.

The idea of peace can mean a lot of different things to different people, but Wednesday, on the International Day of Peace, the students of Richards and Cumberland Schools expressed their notion of the word through artistic pinwheels. About 700 pinwheels could be seen twirling in the wind at each of the elementary schools as part of an international art and literacy project called Pinwheels for Peace. Students spent up to two weeks creating pinwheels with messages of peace and planted them in the front lawns of each school. Sally Danforth, an art teacher at both schools, said she learned about Pinwheels for Peace from reading an art magazine. After talking with other elementary art teachers, they thought the project would fall in line with…

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Patch in the Classroom

For New Cumberland Teacher, Education is All in the Family

Margo Miller will follow in four generations of footsteps when she starts her teaching career at Cumberland School next week.

As Margo Miller set up her classroom last week preparing for her first year teaching at Cumberland School, she had a little help from a couple other teachers — her mother and grandmother. Miller, who will teach first grade, will be the fourth generation of teachers in her family’s lineage. Her mother, Janann Miller, is an art teacher at Richards School, and her grandmother Helen Schultz taught first grade in Plymouth for 22 years. Schultz’ mother — Margo’s great grandmother – taught in a one-room schoolhouse in the country. Margot also has three aunts that are elementary teachers. Janann has been a teacher for 31 years, with the last 25 years at Richards. “Margo kind of grew up in Whitefish Bay because she would come at least once every …

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Photo Gallery: Singing in Spring

Cumberland School students flexed their musical and artistic muscles at the Spring Sing concert Wednesday afternoon.

Cumberland School held its annual Spring Sing concert outside of the school Wednesday afternoon. Before the concert, Principal Jayne Heffron dedicated two new basketball hoops to the memory of Jerome Addison, a 2nd grade student who was accidentally shot and killed last year. Heffron said Jerome was intellectually curious and loved playing basketball. The basketball hoops were donated by the Cumberland School PTO.

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