CMS IN THE NEWS

Members of the chess club's fifth grade team show off their awards to Principal Kevin Moore

Chess champs 

The CMS chess club’s fifth grade team recently won first place in the New Jersey K-12 Grade Championships held at Brookdale College in Lincroft. Vihari Bhattaram, Saanvi Borra, and Ryan Ciafullo won individual medals. 

Vihari, Saanvi, and Sampath Sajja represented the team at the National K-12 Grade Championships in Disney World and finished in 12th place.

“I like the strategy,” said Vihari about his interest in chess. “It makes your brain work. That makes it thrilling when you win.”

Arnav Gangadhar is also on the fifth grade team. The team’s trophy is on display in the main office.

On February 23, chess club members will compete next in the New Jersey State Elementary Championships. They may also compete in the World Amateur Team East competition. Both tournaments are sponsored by the New Jersey State Chess Federation.

This is the chess club’s fifth year. Coordinated by adviser Koumari Nichinakolla, the club currently has 32 members and meets four days per week. The students study famous chess games and techniques at the meetings, as well as practice their skills.

Making waves 

CMS third-graders are making waves. The students are in the middle of an ocean-themed unit in art that had them create their own versions of “The Great Wave Off Kanagawa,” a woodblock inked print which is one of the most famous and reproduced works of art in the world. 

To begin the unit, art teacher Denise Palmisano led a discussion with each third grade class, helping the students analyze the print. She provided a history of the artwork and the technique used, and asked them to begin planning their own versions. 

“The kids did a great job of interpreting the print,” said Mrs. Palmisano. “It was interesting the detail they picked up on and the feelings they expressed from looking at it. Then as they planned to paint their own waves, we talked about how we want to be inspired by art history but not copy it; we want to put our own unique twist on things.”

After the wave paintings were completed, the young artists moved on to a project that uses a modern, kid-friendly variation of the woodblock printmaking process. The students are using pencils to engrave ocean drawings into slabs of Styrofoam. The Styrofoam will then be inked and printed. 

Mrs. Palmisano has incorporated ocean conservation and marine life awareness themes into her assignments this year after sharing with her classes the details of her summertime experience at a dolphin and marine education complex. She spent time painting with Julie, a bottlenose dolphin at Dolphins Plus in Key Largo, Florida. (Mrs. Palmisano applied paint to a brush and Julie took it from there, holding the brush in her mouth and swiping the canvas.) 

Julie is the official art ambassador of the CMS art room. On display in front of the room is a four-foot plush “Julie” dolphin that, according to Mrs. Palmisano, reminds students “that everyone is an artist” and “encourages them to do their part to protect dolphins and the waters they live in.”