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Schools

Cherry Avenue Students Take Home an Oscar

Recent ceremony delights the students, parents and staff.

Cherry Avenue Elementary School recently rolled out the red carpet for their annual Oscar ceremony for the third graders.

Before the ceremonies, each third grade nominee, arrayed in dazzling attire and award-winning personalities, processed past awed spectators who stood behind the gold ropes. Through the artfully decorated doorway, life-sized posters of golden Oscar flanked the garland-garnished stage.

Taking center stage for a glittering opening number, all the Oscar-nominated performers sang “Let Me Entertain You” to the crowd of family members in the audience, encouraging everyone to “En-jooooy—the—show!”

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Who wouldn’t? With the witty remarks of Hostess of Ceremonies, Geraldine Batterberry, and each Oscar recipient called to the stage, the event was indeed a special time. “To honor our students, for being such wonderful citizens of Cherry Avenue School,” Batterberry explained to the assembly, “we thought to ourselves as teachers; how can we reward this excellent hard work? How can we show them how much we appreciate all their commitment to do their best work each and every day? Then, it hit us. These students are just the best of the best, the cream of the crop—they’re Oscar-award winning students!”

Every third-grader proved to be a winner for one attribute or other. Votes for each category had been cast in advance of the ceremony by the students and their teachers. 

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Among the awards distributed to special adults during the ceremony, Superintendent Dr. Walter Schartner was named Best Producer, and after humbly accepting his award, he thanked all the students and their parents for their dedication. For Best Role Model and Stunt Man on Set, Principal Dr. Stimmel expressed his gratitude for his award with a question; "How great is my job? Yesterday I get pie in the face, today, I win an Oscar!" Schools' Choreography Award went to Mrs. Woerner: "She sings, she dances, she makes all of us laugh all the time," and orchestrates everything behind the scenes.

Behind the scenes of the fanfare and spectacle, the Cherry Avenue Oscars have actually promoted public speaking and helped develop a sense of self-esteem in each of the students. Several years ago, Third-grade teacher Mrs. Batterberry launched this creative activity to fulfill the New York State Standards for public speaking and enlisted the assistance of her Third-grader colleagues Mrs. Donnelly, Mrs. Fulton, and Mrs. Falco, along with the support of Principal Dr. John Stimmel and their indispensible music teacher Kristi Woerner, Now, the annual extravaganza has become a greatly anticipated highlight of the Cherry Avenue community.  

After each Third-grade teacher, bedecked in feather boas and tiaras, announced the category, the named winners took the stage and gave speeches thanking the important people in their lives. Although most had kind words of gratitude (“Thank so much! I am so honored to receive this award.”) for the parents siblings, grandparents, and teachers who got them thus far.

Thanks to the efforts of the Cherry Avenue educators, these Oscar ceremonies may be just the beginning of careers in public speaking for many of the rising stars who seemed already well prepared for the big stage of life

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