SKHS Principal's Newsletter
November 2016
From the Desk of Mr. Mezzanotte...
Team Gianna
Rebel Fall Sports
Sadie's
Rebel Music
Follow SKHS Music on Twitter at @MusicSKHS
The newest High School music course offering, Piano Class, and our new Keyboard Lab are up and running with great success! The lab includes a beautiful set of seven 88-key, Yamaha keyboards, complete with stands and headphones. In Piano Class, students are currently learning major scales and simple chord progressions, as well as a variety of solo and ensemble repertoire!
Our High School Barbershop Quartet returns for it's 4th consecutive year, after it was revived in 2013 as "Five Guys." Mrs. Murray is also pleased to announce that a select ladies ensemble has formed this year: "The Chordette Quartet." This ensemble is named for the famous female quartet, The Chordettes, who brought us "Lollipop" and "Mister Sandman." The Barbershop and The Chordette Quartets performed at our Fall Concert on November 1st!
Our SKHS Band performed at the town Fireman's parade on Sunday 9/25. Students from the Jazz and Concert Band classes combined to form the SKHS Rebel Band. You can catch the band again at the annual Veteran's Day Parade on Friday November 11th.
Our High School Music Department performed at its annual Fall Concert on Tuesday, November 1st at 7pm in the HS Auditorium. Featured in the performance were our HS Chorus, eSkape, Jazz Band, Symphonic Band, String Ensemble and Symphony Orchestra. It was an exciting and inspiring night of music for all!
Several SKHS Band students participated in the annual URI Band Day on Saturday, October 1st. They rehearsed with URI Marching band and prepare a performance of two pieces that they played at halftime of the Brown-URI football game. Congratulations to students Alex Crudale, Michael Robinson, Leah Robinson and Matthew Robinson for their work and for braving the rainy conditions that day!
Over 50 SKHS student musicians will audition for All-State music ensembles on Saturday, November 19th at Moses Brown School in Providence. These students represent every performing area including choral, jazz, concert band, orchestra, and guitar ensemble. Best of luck to them as they prepare for auditions in November!
Mr. Benz, the new director of instrumental music at SKHS, has been selected to direct this year's RIMEA Jr. Division All-State Jazz Ensemble. Students will begin rehearsals in January with their performance March 15th at URI.
Guitar Students are rocking and making great progress this fall! These students have recently completed their "Rhythm Guitar" Unit, learning 12 different chords and many songs using these and variations of these chords. Next, students are learning to play bass and have started the "Lead Guitar" Unit where they will learn to read and play melodies, eventually forming an ensemble to play melody, harmony, chords and bass!
National Merit Commended Scholars
Sofia DeSimone
Matthew Greene
Sarah Hackey
Rosalind Lucier
Isobel McCullough
Matthew McGovern
Christopher Nadeau
Matthew Vetter
Pumpkin Illumination
A "Cubbie" Story
Recently, a number of factors fortuitously converged to benefit many members of the South Kingstown School Community.
When the South Kingstown School Maintenance Department replaced the old, worn wooden bleacher seats from the gymnasium Curtis Corner Middle School, they fortunately did not discard the old lumber, but saved it instead, hoping that it could be reused for other purposes.
After a couple of years, the Maintenance Department passed this substantial pile of lumber onto the woodshop at South Kingstown High School. Mr. Swanson, the Carpentry teacher at SKHS, was happy to receive the lumber.
At about that time, Mrs. Kimberly Mather, principal of West Kingston Elementary, decided that the kindergarten children at her school badly needed someplace to store their winter coats, boots, and lunch bags. She found a suitable cabinet design in a school supply catalog, but was somewhat dismayed by the cost. She had the fortunate idea to contact Mr. Eric Swanson at the High School to see if it would be possible for his students to construct some coat locker/cubbie cabinets. Mr. Swanson knew immediately he had found a use for the old bleacher seats.
This past fall, Mr. Swanson’s students set to work on the old seats, planing off the old flaky finish (and many years’ accumulation of wads of chewing gum!), revealing beautifully clear planks of straight-grained, old-growth Douglas Fir. The planks were then worked up into five very sturdy cabinets, each cabinet with 10 coat hooks, enough space for fifty kindergartners to store their belonging. The numerous old hardware holes were plugged with wooden bungs, and all of the cabinets were finished with several coats of shellac.
Through the construction of these cabinets, Mr Swanson’s students learned many practical hands-on woodworking skills, learned a lesson in the environmentally friendly practice of reclaiming lumber and achieved community service hours towards their graduation. In addition, Mrs. Mather’s kindergartners received a wonderful and sturdy set of storage units at no cost, and the Maintenance Department freed up some much needed storage space in their Columbia Street garage. This project was a win/win/win situation for many members of the school community.
Fall Clean Up
Lip Sync Contest
Ping Pong
A new tradition started at SKHS thanks to 6 brand new ping pong tables purchased by the Athletic Department. This event was organized by the Senior Class Officers and was a whole lot of fun. We had 30 singles competitors (3 of which were faculty/staff) and 16 doubles competitors. Over 90 spectators came to cheer on their friends. Our fantastic Woodshop teacher crafted the trophies by hand and the champions were very excited / proud to receive them.
Italian Club
Ciao a tutti!
The Italian Club has gotten off to a great start! The club had its first club meeting of the year as a meet-and-greet and eat! Students enjoyed listening to and singing along to some of their favorite Italian songs while socializing and getting to know fellow members. Some even got to meet our Italian exchange students from Italy, Laura and Dario.
A FANTASTICO time was had by all!
The Italian Club looks forward to a fun year of celebrating Italian culture through film (i.e., Up!, Elf), holidays (Festa della Donna, La Befana, Il Carnevale), cultural game days, and more! All are welcome! Benvenuti! Ci vediamo al Club Italiano!
SKHS Color Run
Bridgette DuBois and Paris Sekator- UCA All-American Cheerleaders
Lit Drama Field Trip
Guidance Department Items
New Student Breakfast: a welcome breakfast to recognize the new students to our SK community hosted by the Guidance Department
Freshman Mentors welcomed ninth graders on Opening Day and have been visiting with Ninth Graders in Advisory
PSAT informational workshops for sophomores and juniors to be held October 13 and 14 during Advisory
Financial Aid Night for families of juniors and seniors on Oct 5 to be held in collaboration with College Planning Center of RI; 6:30, Cafeteria
Mini College Fair attended by 28 college reps and over 160 students on Sept. 22
RI College Early Enrollment meeting for juniors and seniors: Oct 13th
Throughout the fall we are welcoming more than 58 individual college representatives
Welcoming Mr. Jeff Taber to our department!