BROOKLAWN STUDENT ACTIVITIES
Major Events
The tabs below provide a summary of the major events sponsored by Brooklawn Student Activities, listed in chronological order for the current school year. Click on any tab to learn more about these events which have Brooklawn traditions over the years...
There's fun for all grades at our dances!
Dances are held throughout the year for students in all grades. Seventh and eighth grade dances are held in the evening, while sixth grade dances are separate and typically held in the afternoon.
Advance tickets for most dances are FREE with a Student Activity card or $5.00 without, and are on sale for three days prior to the dance. All door tickets are cash only, and no discounts are given. We have our own professional sound system on which Student Council Executive Board members learn how to DJ and play most of the music; this saves a lot of money and helps keep costs down. Food (usually pizza) and soft drinks are provided at each dance, for no additional cost.
With the exception of the Last Blast Semi-Formal, outside students are NOT allowed at Brooklawn dances. For that special dance, advance permission to bring an outside guest in GRADE 8 ONLY is required. A calendar of dances for the current school year is provided below...
WELCOME BACK DANCES Tickets FREE with S.A. Card, or $5.00 without |
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ALMOST HALLOWEEN DANCES Tickets FREE with S.A. Card, or $5.00 without |
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HOLIDAY DANCES Tickets FREE with S.A. Card, or $5.00 without |
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VALENTINES' DANCES Tickets FREE with S.A. Card, or $5.00 without |
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SPRING FLING DANCE Tickets FREE with S.A. Card, or $5.00 without |
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SPRING UNDER THE STARS DANCE Tickets FREE with S.A. Card, or $5.00 without |
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ALMOST MIDNIGHT DANCE/BARBECUE Tickets $7.00 with S.A. Card, or $10.00 without |
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LAST BLAST SEMI-FORMAL Tickets $5.00 with S.A. Card, or $8.00 without |
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Supporting the NJASC State Charity!
The S.A. Penny Wars is our primary annual fundraiser for the NJASC State Charity, which we conduct each October. Many schools in New Jersey do Penny Wars in one form or another, but our unique
version has been successful year after year...
- CLICK HERE to view the 2011 S.A. Penny Wars Rules
- CLICK HERE to view final 2011 statistics by homeroom
In just two short weeks we typically collect about a quarter-million pennies, along with several hundred dollars worth of additional change. Here's how it works...
Homerooms in each grade compete against each other:
- Each homeroom receives an empty 2-liter bottle. For two weeks in early October, they compete against each other to fill their 2-liter bottles (each holds about 2700-2800 pennies) as fast as possible.
- Only pennies may be placed in the 2-liter bottles - other coins will not be counted toward their penny count.
- When a homeroom fills a bottle, they turn it in and receive a new 2-liter bottle to fill. This continues for two weeks, and updated homeroom standings are posted daily.
- The pennies are counted using the TD Bank Penny Arcade (at no cost to us), and each homeroom is credited with the actual number of pennies counted by the machine.
- The homeroom in each grade that turns in the most pennies per person wins a free pizza and soda party.
- Grade level totals are also calculated and announced each day. Just when it seems that we have a winner...
- During Spirit Week, the Fight Back Bottles are placed in the Cafeteria. These are 3-liter bottles in which nickels, dimes, quarters, or golden dollars are placed in. Each coin placed in these bottles takes away its value in pennies from the RAW COUNT, which gives the ADJUSTED COUNT. For example, a quarter placed in the 6th grade bottle reduces the 6th grade count by 25. Needless to say, a 6th grader is going to put their loose change in the 7th or 8th grade Fight Back Bottle.
- Meanwhile, the homeroom bottles continue to collect pennies to increased their RAW COUNT, since that will determine which homeroom gets the pizza party and bragging rights for their grade.
- Sometimes the Fight Back Bottles will cancel each other out, but more often two of the grades will collaborate to sink the third. Whatever the result, we typically collect an additional $1000.00 in these bottles for the State Charity.
- After the counting (and subtracting) is finished, the grade with the highest ADJUSTED COUNT wins 15 Spirit Points, which are important because the grade with the most Spirit Points on May 31 wins a Field Day Barbecue held in June.
Listed below are the results from each year we have conducted the S.A. Penny Wars:
| YEAR | CHARITY | PENNIES | FIGHT BACK |
TOTAL RAISED |
| 1998 | Missy Maloney Foundation (NJASC) | 138,551 | Not done | $1385.51 |
| 1999 | Hurricane Floyd Relief Effort (Red Cross) | 206,168 | $744.35 | $2806.03 |
| 2000 | Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (NJASC) | 244,062 | $675.75 | $3116.37 |
| 2001 | Brooklawn S.A. 4 N.Y.C. Fund (Red Cross) | 303,487 | $966.60 | $4001.47 |
| 2002 | The Sunshine Foundation (NJASC) | 251,841 | $1358.60 | $3859.95 |
| 2003 | Cherished Creations (NJASC) | 234,274 | $1235.51 | $3578.25 |
| 2004 | Buddy Ball (NJASC) | 220,591 | $1044.80 | $3250.71 |
| 2005 | Simpson-Baber Foundation (NJASC) | 177,639 | $465.42 | $2241.81 |
| 2006 | The Little Rock Foundation (NJASC) | 239,525 | $1288.37 | $3683.62 |
| 2007 | The Valerie Fund (NJASC) | 235,312 | $1028.41 | $3381.53 |
| 2008 | P.O.A.C. (NJASC) | 157,335 | $789.30 | $2362.65 |
| 2009 | Family Reach Foundation (NJASC) | 128,560 | $726.05 | $2011.65 |
| 2010 | Spread The Magic Foundation (NJASC) | 212,896 | $841.15 | $2970.11 |
| 2011 | Good Grief (NJASC) | 100,213 | $829.06 | $1831.19 |
Reading is fundamental...and supports our program!
Each November, we conduct this fundraiser to financially support our program expenses and keep overall Student Activities costs down for all students. This fundraiser pays for the annual Eighth Grade Fun Day, which takes place the final day of school on the morning after our Moving-Up Ceremony.
We encourage everyone in the Brooklawn community to renew their magazine subscriptions through our Magazine Drive. The renewal rates are low (QSP will match competing offers from a magazine publisher that is lower) and 40% of all proceeds STAYS at Brooklawn to support the Student Activities program.
For more information about QSP, please visit their website at www.qsp.com.
There is no night quite like our B.I.G. Night!
An event truly like no other, Brooklawn's Intense Games (also called B.I.G. Night) brings together over 400 students, parents, teachers, and alumni each November. It's simply the B.I.G.-gest event of its kind just about anywhere. Click on any of the official logos from Brooklawn's Intense Games over the years to view the results from that year's competition...
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Event Descriptions and Rules
Click on any of the links below to view descriptions and rules for events used at Brooklawn's Intense Games...
EVENTS OF THE 13TH ANNUAL INTENSE GAMES - FEB. 29-MAR. 1, 2012
 EVENT 1 Garbage Pickers |
 EVENT 2 Gutter Ball |
 EVENT 3 Crazy Cups |
 EVENT 4 (NEW!) Skin The Snake |
 EVENT 5 Terrible Tubes, Too! |
EVENTS THAT HAVE BEEN USED IN PAST INTENSE GAMES
 OLD EVENT Human Hoops |
 OLD EVENT Brooklawn Bowls |
 OLD EVENT Lose Your Shirt |
 OLD EVENT Balls, Balls, Balls |
OLD EVENT Terrible Tubes (Original) |
 OLD EVENT Grand Relay |
 OLD EVENT Blind Catch |
 OLD EVENT Hyper Hoops |
Being top dog in our school has its' privileges...
S.A. TRIP TO MEDIEVAL TIMES |
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| S.A. TRIP TO DORNEY PARK Tuesday June 5, 2012 Our annual eighth grade S.A. Trip to Dorney Park provides our soon to graduate class a great day of roller coasters, water rides, and overall fun. The trip fee includes full admission to Dorney Park and Wildwater Kingdom, an all-you-can-eat barbecue lunch, and bus transportation. Forms and payment are collected in March and April. |
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Supporting the Parsippany Community Food Bank
Each year, the Brooklawn Student Council collects hundreds of canned and other non-perishable food items in a three week competitive event to support the Parsippany Community Food Bank.
The grade that donates the most items wins Spirit Points, and the homeroom in each grade that donates the most items per person wins a free pizza party. The overall standings from our most recent Canned Food Drive are provided below:
| Grade | Total Cans |
1st Place |
2nd Place |
3rd Place |
| 6th | 557 | C-11 | C-3 | C-5 |
| 7th | 391.2 | B-12 | B-28 | B-9 |
| 8th | 239 | B-2 | D-10 | C-10 |
| Mixed | 82 | C-14 | C-21 | B-4 |
| Overall | 1269.2 |
- CLICK HERE to view our Canned Food Drive Rules & Collection Procedures!
Brooklawn's own Leadership Training Conference
"B.L.T. Saturday"
is the annual Leadership Training Conference sponsored by the Brooklawn Student Council. Each year over one hundered students from the schools below join us for fun
educational experiences that develop, reinforce, and promote leadership
skills...
- Brooklawn Middle School - Parsippany
- Central Middle School - Parsippany
- Park Middle School - Scotch Plains/Fanwood
- Eastlake School - Parsippany
- Knollwood School - Parsippany
- Intervale School - Parsippany
- Lake Hiawatha School - Parsippany
- Lake Parsippany School - Parsippany
- Littleton School - Parsippany
- Mount Tabor School - Parsippany
- Northvail School - Parsippany
- Rockaway Meadow School - Parsippany
- Stewartsville Middle School - Stewartsville
- Troy Hills School - Parsippany
B.L.T. Saturday takes many of the best features of the NJASC Leadership Training Conference (LTC) program and condenses them into one day. The idea is to give many students a small taste of what LTC is all about, so they are encouraged to get more involved in their schools and student councils. We hope that this leads to they and their schools becoming more active in NJASC programs, expecially participation at LTC in July.
Student leaders are at the heart of B.L.T. Saturday. Current Brooklawn Student Council Executives serve as Junior Counselors (JC's), organizing and leading delegate groups through the day's activities. High school and college students - some of whom are past or present NJASC State Officers - come back to serve as Senior Counselors (SC's), facilitating leadership sessions and conducting other activities for the delegates.
The main component of B.L.T. Saturday is the Leadership sessions, adapted from activities conducted at LTC and the NASC National Conference. Delegates are given the chance to experience each of these sessions with their Junior Counselor, and two or three Senior Counselors. The Student Council Leadership Committee works with our Advisor, Mr. Miller (who is NJASC Executive Director, and has spoken at the NASC National Conference about starting Leadership Training programs), to determine the sessions used. Sessions used at B.L.T. Saturday have included those described below:
- Speaking With Ease! What makes a good public speaker? Practice, practice, practice! First, delegates will gain awareness of several important principles of effective Public Speaking. Then they will get the chance to try out their skills, with peer evaluation and staff support to help them examine their public speaking behaviors. The goal is to emphasize the good ones and become aware of the not so good ones...
- Elected to Lead Everyone! Whether you were elected to or volunteered for Student Council, you are now in a position to represent and speak for all students in your school. But do you truly speak for ALL of them? Do you really know who your fellow students are, and how does this affect what you think about them and what they think about you? How does this affect you and your Student Council? You'll have a lot of fun as you find out what "headbands" you would like to wear...
- Effective Communication! Do people listen what you have to say? Do you really listen to other people? There is a big difference between “hearing” and “listening”. How well you listen to others directly affects how well you represent your fellow students. It also affects how well they will listen when you have something to say. Find out for yourself how good a listener you really are in this session…
- T.E.A.M. Time! T.E.A.M. means "Together Everyone Achieves More". What qualities do you look for in an effective leader? What effects do different types of leadership have on group performance? Delegates will find out some answers to these questions through a fun activity that clearly shows the difference between transactional and transformational leadership…
- True Colors! You can't effectively lead a group unless you really know who you are leading. Delegates will explore and discover some of their own personal characteristics, as well as strategies to work with and lead individuals with different characteristics…
- Understanding Conflict! How do you react to and handle conflict? When should it be avoided, when should it be allowed to happen, and when should it be provoked? Is conflict always such a bad thing, or can it be the sign of leadership and progress? Delegates will find out how they deal with conflict, and when to apply different strategies to make the most of it …
There are also activities to make B.L.T. Saturday feel like a true Leadership Camp. The Junior Counselors coordinate welcoming activities and icebreakers (like those at Summer LTC) before the three leadership sessions. Icebreakers are done within the delegate groups, so that each delegate gets to better know their fellow group members before the leadership sessions began. In the "B.L.T. Olympics", delegate groups compete against each other in a series of fun games that test their leadership skills and their ability to work together as a group. Junior Counselors prepared and lead each delegate group while Senior Counselors run the events, just like at Summer LTC.
The day ends with lunch, and a special slide show. Throughout the day, we take many pictures of delegates, staff members, and all the activities taking place. While the delegates eat lunch, we put together a slide show to music that is shown to the delegates after lunch as a concluding activity. The slide show was handed out at the 2004 NASC National in Las Vegas to those who attend Mr. Miller's roundtable sessions on starting Leadership Training programs in schools.
We were honored to win state and national awards for our program, which is now well established. More importantly, B.L.T. Saturday has resulted in better prepared Student Council Executives, more student participation in our Student Council, an increased interest in student leadership, and more involvement with other schools in our community. It has also served as a valuable recruiting tool, getting other schools more interested in LTC-type activities, and ultimately in joining and/or becoming more active in the NJASC.
Supporting the NJASC State Charity!
Volleyball Night at Brooklawn is an extremely competitive double-loss elimination volleyball tournament which involves students in all three grades on mixed teams. All proceeds raised from this spring event are dedicated to our overall State Charity donation to NJASC.
The winning team gets ten tickets to Six Flags Great Adventure! There is a $5.00 per player entry fee - this is one of the most exciting and anticipated events at Brooklawn each year...
- Click the graphic above to learn more about this year's State Charity at the NJASC website
- CLICK HERE to view our Volleyball Night Tournament Rules
- CLICK HERE to view the Volleyball Night Tourament Brackets/Results
To involve all students and make the teams competitive, the following registration rules are enforced:
- Students may register individually, as a complete team of SEVEN players, or as a partial team. Individual registrants will be randomly assigned to complete partial teams or newly created teams with other individual registrants. They may also be assigned to teams that lose originally registered members. Registered teams will NOT be allowed to propose their own replacements.
- Each registered team of seven players may have NO MORE THAN 4 BOYS OR GIRLS on it - therefore, it must contain either 4 boys - 3 girls or 4 girls - 3 boys. This guarantees that at least 2 boys and 2 girls will be part of the six players on the court for each game.
- Each registered team of seven players must contain students from all three grades, and the grade levels of the seven registered team members must ADD TO BETWEEN 46 AND 52.
- Once a team registers, it may not substitute or propose a replacement for any of the seven members originally registered. If for any reason an originally registered member drops out, he or she will be replaced by an individual registrant who is ASSIGNED to that team. Both the team and the individual registrant will have to live with the new assignment, and the entry fee is NOt refunded to the player who dropped out.
- All seven team players will play in each game. There will be a seven player rotation, with six on the court and one on the sideline, that will rotate each time service is received/won.
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Games will be announced when courts open up to play them. Any team that fails to take the court within five minutes of their game being announced will forfeit that game.
To make all games consistent, the following game play rules apply:
- All games will use "Rally Scoring" and be 15 points to win with the margin of victory to be at least 2 points. Therefore, any game reaching a score of 14-14 will continue until one team goes ahead by 2 points. A “shutout rule” will instantly end any game reaching a score of 10-0.
- A team may not use more than three hits to return any volley or serve. The fourth hit by any team will result in a dead ball and either a point for the other team (if the offending team is not on serve) or a loss of serve (if on serve).
- While a team may return any volley or serve on the first hit, a serve may not be spiked back. Any live ball may be played off the net except for a serve, which will be ruled a dead ball upon hitting the net.
- Any ball that hits a ceiling obstruction is a dead ball, resulting in a point for the other team (if the offending team is not on serve) or a loss of serve (if on serve).
- Teams must rotate their players upon receiving the serve. There must be a setup of three players on the front line, with the other three playing in back.
How our double-loss elimination tournament works:
- All student teams begin in the "Student Team Brackets" winners bracket (numbered games). After a team loses its first game, they will be move to the Losers’ Bracket (lettered games) to play against other teams that have also lost one game.
- A second loss eliminates a team from the tournament.
- The tournament championship will be a ONE GAME - WINNER TAKE ALL final between the Winners' Bracket finalist and the Losers' Bracket finalist. Tournament results will be announced, updated and displayed throughout the evening.
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SPIRIT POINT STANDINGS |
6TH GRADE  |
7TH GRADE  |
8TH GRADE |
