As we gyrate from 20-below wind chills to 70-degree temperatures within one week, one thing is certain – our 7th/8th grade Governor’s Cup team remains hot either way! Last weekend they participated in the Regional Competition where they produced another round of great results! The team finished fourth overall, and three of our students placed high enough (top five) to move on to the State Competition in March! Here are the regional highlights:

Quick Recall – 4th place

Language Arts – Amelia Gorman (5th place)

Arts & Humanities – Amelia Gorman (5th place)

Social Studies – AJ Stevenson (2nd place), Jack Rutherford (3rd place)

Science – AJ Stevenson (4th place)

Composition – Amelia Gorman (5th place)

From coach Lindsy “Belichick” Serrano:

“Our team was so excited to make it to the final four in a very tough region! To place fourth our first time at Regionals is quite a feat! We are very proud of our teammates that will be continuing on to state in March and are back in the library practicing for next year!”

Lindsy has done a fantastic job coaching this team and our program is really on the upswing! Congratulations to all and the future looks “bright” for our Governor’s Cup team!

Our 4th/5th grade team coached by Misty Chanda and Andrew Frechette swings into action this weekend here at St. Francis, and we look forward to their competition and results, too!

Also, last week, our Middle School Chinese students hosted a Chinese New Year Assembly for the whole school on Friday. Chinese teacher Qiuhua Qin led the Middle School students in many different cultural songs and dances. The 5th graders performed the Chinese Zodiac Song, telling the story of The Great Race and introducing the 12 zodiac signs in order. The 6th graders performed two Chinese New Year songs, Xin Nian Hao (Happy New Year) and GongXi GongXi (Congratulations, Congratulations), and then they gave the traditional New Year’s greeting in Chinese. The 7th graders performed a song called Xue Mao Jiao, (Learn to Meow), which is one of the biggest pop songs of 2018. The 8th graders performed a Chinese fan dance to the song of Chinese Kung Fu. 8th grader Ikhlas Sharif Mohammed also gave a wonderful solo performance on the Hulusi (Cucurbit flute), a Chinese traditional instrument. She thrilled everyone with a joyful melody titled Xiao Ping Guo (Little Apple).

This is also an opportune time to remind everyone that students moving from 4th to 5th grade will choose whether to continue studying Spanish, or start Mandarin Chinese in 5th grade. And Qiuhua has recently been visiting our Lower School classes introducing them to Chinese, as well as working with our primary students during project time. Enjoy The Year of the Pig!