The Chagrin Falls Speech and Debate Team had much success in three separate tournaments the weekend of Oct. 27.
Speech and Debate Team Excels in Tournaments
The Chagrin Falls Speech and Debate Team had much success in three separate tournaments the weekend of Oct. 27. Chagrin Falls High School sent its first-year competitors to the novice tournament at Vermilion High School. Students competed in several categories, earning high rankings for their efforts.
In the Duo Interpretation category, freshmen Delainey Wyville and Celia Hawk placed first, freshmen Hattie Sherman and Camille Paoletta placed second and sophomores Emma Donnellan and Ella Deuberry placed third. In the Dramatic Interpretation category, freshman Brenna Sincaglia placed first, freshman Eric Feucht placed second and sophomore Fiona Garvey placed third. Senior Brandon Denton rounded out a sweep by Chagrin Interpretation novices by ranking first place in the Humorous Interpretation.
In debate, junior Emma Helkey and freshman Sophia Avery continued the high marks by tying for second in Lincoln Douglas and the teamwork of freshmen Kinga Turoczi and Lance Buescher debating together earned them second place in Public Forum debate.
In another tournament at Kennedy High School in Warren on the same day, junior Molly Miller placed third in Original Oratory and junior Robert Snider placed first in Humorous Interpretation. Both Miller and Snider earned their first of four bids needed to pre-qualify for the state tournament in March.
Finally, two public forum debaters attended the Blue Key National Tournament at the University of Florida. Juniors Grace Lee and Maggie Mills attended the tournament and placed in the top 32 among teams from across the nation.
On Nov. 3, the students participated in their first tournament of the year as a unified team. Brenna Sincaglia placed eighth in Dramatic Interpretation; Mikey King and Eli Shall placed first in Duo Interpretation; and Sasha Haines and Maggie Mills placed eighth in Public Forum Debate. The duo teams of King and Shall and Haines and Mills both received their first of four bids required to pre-qualify for the state tournament in March, with King and Shall each took home director’s chairs as their first place trophies. Also, Sincaglia received first in two of her four rounds in Drama, placing one spot shy of her first bid in her first ever non-novice tournament, marking an unprecedented start to the season.
Students Write About Small Moments
The first-grade students at Gurney Elementary shared in each other’s small moments during their writing unit. Since September, students have written “small moment” stories. A small moment is a smaller event that took place within a larger event.
First-grade teacher Rena Polien gave the example of not writing about a whole birthday party, but rather writing about something that happened when opening presents, playing games or eating cake.
Students chose one of their small moment pieces to edit, revise and enhance by coloring pictures to accompany the story. Following the completed stories, students celebrated a job well done with juice boxes. They then walked around the classroom to read their classmate’s writing pieces. They were interested in other’s pieces and the stories are now hanging up in the hallway for others to enjoy.
Student Wins #TribeorTreat Contest
The Cleveland Indians had an online #TribeorTreatcostume contest and Gurney Elementary third-grader Lauren Eickhoff was the winner. Slider surprised Eickhoff at school on Oct. 31 to congratulate her in front of her classmates. Her father, Eric, submitted a picture of his daughter as Indians’ pitcher Mike Clevinger. From the hair, uniform, arm tattoo, hat, glove, body position to the shoes, she really did look like Clevinger. In the picture, she even included a pumpkin with a #52 carved in it. It was one Halloween all of Gurney Elementary will remember forever.
