May/Jun 2015

Student Choice Awards 2015

We asked students to vote on a few of their favor-ites. Here’s what you said:

Best Authors:

John Green &

Jeff Kinney

Best Book:

The Fault in Our Stars

& Diary of a Wimpy

Kid

Best Singer: Best Songs:

Eminem “Rap God” & “See You Again”

Best Actor: Best Actress:

Adam Sandler

& Jennifer

Lawrence

Best Movie:

Fast and Furious 7

Best TV Show:

Spongebob

Opening for the Rail Riders

by Alice Cauchi [grade 6] On Saturday, May 8, the DDES Children’s Choir, directed by Mr. Krauss, sang the nation-al anthem before a Rail Riders baseball game at PNC Field. Mr. Krauss said that, “the per-formance was one of the best.” The choir has students from third through twelfth grades, and most of them find it really fun. One of the hard-est things about the perfor-mance was staying focused while the mascots were jump-ing around and you’re on the jumbo-tron, but the choir did great. I would suggest asking Mr. Krauss about joining, be-cause it is a great experience and lots of fun! So, next time you want to see a baseball game, go support your friends in the DDES Children's Choir.

Engineering Club CO2 Car Race by Radhika Kahar [grade 8]

On April 30, 2015, twenty-one students com-peted against each other in the CO2 car race held in the school gym. Competitors were divided into two groups. Each group had three different days to make their vehicles. What exactly is a CO2 car race? It is a race be-tween cars with the same engine but different bodies. The participants had to create an aerodynamic car that would make it past the finish line before their opponent. Club members researched, designed and constructed a car of their own, out of half a block of wood. So how does one proceed? Well after designing your car, you cut it out from the wood, sand it down and paint it. Then using a saw and drill you continue to construct your vision; after that, you have to properly align your wheels and in-sert two eye screws under your vehicle. Now that your car is ready, how does it run if it is just made from wood? Placed at the back of the car is the "engine”, which is a carbon di-oxide cartridge, also known as a soda bulb. This is a metal cylinder filled with carbon di-oxide that has been highly pressurized and sealed. Next, the car is hooked up to a launch pod, which punctures the cartridge. Since there is an equal amount of gas in each cartridge; the winning car would be the lightest and most aerodynamic. This is an example of Newton’s third law of motion; rearward motion of carbon di-oxide pushes the car forward in this case, overcoming inertia or the resistance to movement. On the day of the race, the cafeteria floor was transformed into a race track. The cars were guided by strings that were strung through the eye screws under-neath them and ran from one side of the cafeteria to the other. Launch pods and score boards were at the start and finish lines; these displayed the results at the

end of the track. Two competitors loaded the cars into the launch pods while the other builders sat three feet away from the string for safety. Mr. Comunale then pressed the button to release them. Students watched in anticipation as the cars sped down the track, seeming like fleeting seconds. Some partici-pants became disappointed; while others cheered (that’s competition). There was only one winner- Daniel LaPadula, the owner of a thin, long, sleek car.

The Engineering Club of Dingman Delaware Middle School had a wonderful experience, thank you so much, Mr. Comunale!

Nepal Earthquake by Zack Zazzi [grade 7]

The Deadly Earthquake that hit Nepal killed over 6,000 peo-ple. Around 6,500 were report-ed injured. The epicenter was in Lamjung district. this district covers 1,056 sq mi. Britain sent 30 doctors to Nepal. The earth-

quake was a 7.8 magnitude. The U.S sent 1 million to Ne-pal. Nepal has a population of 27 million people. Nepal is over by Mount Everest which is one of the highest moun-tains in the world. Nepal is ranked 145 of 187 countries. Nepal is a country that is 497 mi long and 124 mmi wide. Nepal is also a very mountainous area. Hinduism is one of the most practiced religious groups in Nepal. In Nepal when the Earthquake hit there was everything from ava-lanches to buildings falling.

Daniel LaPadula’s winning design. Photos by Radhika Kahar [grade 8]

Photo courtesy of www.nbcnews.com

Have a Safe and

Healthy

Summer!

Farewell Eighth Graders! by Lucia Vitanza [grade 7]

Like every year, eighth graders are leaving this building to go to high school. This is really devastating, as there are so many wonderful (and not so wonderful) eighth graders, that will all be dearly missed. Looking back on the year, here’s what some teachers and students had to say: Teachers, how was your year with this eighth grade class? Mr. Cooley: “It was mainly positive, they all seemed interested in my stories and the class. It was a good year overall.” Mr. Alderfer: “You want the truth or want me to sugar-coat it? The truth? It was good. I wish them the best of luck next year.” Mrs. Strocchia: “ There’s a lot of fabulous personalities in this class. Some could work a little harder, but these are some of the top minds I’ve ever had the privilege of working with.” Mr. Curchoe: “Hardworking kids, a great year.” Students, what were some of your favorite moments? Gabe Valenzuela: “ MITP (Music in the Parks) & Orches-tra.” Caroline Toomer: “Mrs. Swope’s craziness and Lan-guage Arts.” Allie García: “ Hershey and French.” Amber Recksiek: “Hitting a home run and German.” Leila Elaro: “Hershey (MITP) and French.”

May Student of the Month:

Alyssa Freymuth [grade 7]

What’s Your Hab-it?

Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind… “Define your mis-sions and goals in

life.”

Advice for classmates:

Study. Do your work.

Achievement Award: Kaitlyn Greener [grade 8]

What’s Your Habit?

Habit 4: Think Win-Win…

“Have an every-

one can win atti-

tude.”

Advice for class-mates:

Don’t be rude to anyone; everyone has feelings.

Leadership Award:

Abby Dorr [grade 8]

What’s Your Habit?

Habit 5: Seek first to Understand then be Understood… “Listen

sincerely.”

Advice for classmates:

Be true to yourself.

Who’s Who: May Student Awards

May Student of the Month:

Emma Garrera [grade 8]

What’s Your Habit?

Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw.

“Take care of yourself physi-

cally and mentally.”

Advice for classmates:

Take your own advice before any other.

“Protochicken was the first chicken to evolve and mu-tate to become a chicken.” Gage Pearce [grade 8] “The chicken. I believe this is true because there would be no egg without it.” Lucas Santiago [grade 6] “Chicken, because God created animals, but ani-mals reproduce which makes the egg.” Rebecca Riddlehoover [grade 8] “Chicken, because if the egg hatched and it was a male chicken, it couldn’t reproduce.” Devin Brophy [grade 6] “The dinosaur, because the chicken is a modern day dinosaur. Both had wish bones and feathers. So dinosaurs came first.” Jibuhee Jin [grade 7]

“Chicken, because in the question the word chicken comes before the word egg.” Kyle Bicskei [grade 7] “I think the chicken came first, because how could the egg come first? There is nothing to keep it warm, and nothing to guard it.” Terrance Crawley [grade 6] “Neither. When a different species of bird had a mutation in its egg, then that’s when the chicken was born The mutation came first.” Jacob Siek [grade 7]

by Hannah Terranova [grade 7] Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw is really about keeping your personal-self sharp so that you can better deal with life. If you ever feel imbalanced, stressed out, or empty inside, then Habit 7 is going to be a big help. It is specially designed to deal with these problems. Say you walk up to a person sawing a tree and you say, “Your saw looks really dull, why don’t you take a break and sharpen it?” They then say, “I can’t. I’m too busy sawing!” If he took a fifteen minute break to sharpen the saw, it would be done three times faster. That’s what it means for Habit 7.

by Douglas Slate [grade 7] Sharpen the saw—when you sharp-en the saw you take time out of your day to improve yourself or renew your-self. If you follow the other six habits, you’ve found six ways to improve your-self.

Four Ways You Can Keep Yourself Sharp by Daniel LaPadula [grade 7]

Body: The Physical Dimension

Exercise

Eat Healthy

Sleep Well Relax

Heart: The Emotional Dimension

Build Relationships

Give Service

Laugh

Learn to Love

Brain: The Mental Dimension

Read

Educate

Write

Learn New Skills

Create

Soul: The Spiritual Dimension

Meditate

Keep a Journal Pray

Take in Quality Media

Illustration by Stephen Demmo [grade 7]

“Eggs, because God put the eggs on Earth and had them hatch.” Jessica Gould [grade 6] “I believe the egg came first, because first there was a protochicken and a ge-netic mutation happened. Then came the first egg.” Jonathan Toro [grade 8] “I believe the egg came first, because you can’t have a chicken without an egg and people could’ve genetically modified the egg.” Ryleigh Maney [grade 7] “The egg, because when the chicken lays the eggs, the chick comes out of the egg not out of the chicken.” Joshua Joseph [grade 6] “The chicken and the egg formed at the same time.” Damian Baranowski [grade 7]

“It’s a trick question whether the chicken or the egg came first. I believe it’s the egg, be-cause the world didn’t have animals, it had cells.” Cole Yankalunas [grade 6] “The world could not be creat-ed from The Big Bang. If we take the example of a building, you need concrete, bricks, glass, paint, wood, etc. You also need a person to create all this [not an explosion]. So it doesn’t matter which came first—there was someone who was there to create either one.” Radhika Kahar [grade 8] “The chicken has to be there to make the egg. The egg has to be there to make the chicken. It could be either one that went first. Who cares and why?” Micah Conant [grade 8]

Who’s Who:

April Student Awards

April Student of the Month:

Ashley Hart [Grade 6]

What’s Your Habit?

Habit 1: Be Proactive… “Take responsibility for your

life”

Advice for classmates:

Follow your dreams.

April Student of the Month:

Ciara Dindiyal [Grade 7]

What’s Your Habit?

Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind... “Define your mis-

sion and goals in life.”

Advice for classmates:

Believe in yourself and speak out.

April Student of the Month:

Micah Conant [Grade 8]

What’s Your Habit?

Habits 1 & 2

Advice for classmates:

Decide what’s important in life. Pursue it.

Grade-Eight Leadership Award:

Emily O’Brien [Grade 8]

What’s Your Habit?

All 7 habits!

Advice for classmates:

Always have self-confidence.

Achievement Award:

Aniyah Richardson

[Grade 8]

What’s Your Habit?

All 7 habits!

Advice for classmates:

Stay happy. Smile even on your worst day. Just smile.

May Student of the Month:

Milada Burovova [grade 6]

What’s Your Habit?

Habit 1: Be Pro-active… “Take responsibility for your life”

Advice for classmates:

Be who you are, because that is you.

Riddles of the Week Compiled by Matthew Hollay [grade 7]

Question: In a one-story pink house, there was a pink person, a pink cat, a pink fish, a pink computer, a pink chair, a pink table, a pink tel-ephone, a pink shower– everything was pink! What color were the stairs? Question: What is the longest word in the dic-tionary? Question: If I drink, I die. If I eat, I am fine. What am I? Question: A man leaves home and turns left three times, only to return home facing two men wearing masks. Who are those two men? Question: If a blue house is made out of blue bricks, a yellow house is made out of yellow bricks and a pink house is made out of pink bricks, what is a green house made of? Question: Tuesday, Sam and Peter went to a restaurant to eat lunch. After eating lunch, they paid the bill. But Sam and Peter did not pay the bill, so who did? Answers below.

There weren’t any stairs, it was a one story house! ; Smiles, because there is a mile between each ‘s’ ; A fire! ; A Catcher and Umpire; Glass ; Their friend, Tuesday.

Embryology Project Memoir by Flora Trost [grade7]

Over the past few weeks, many students in Mrs. McCarthy’s seventh grade class have helped hatch eggs. The first step in this process was to properly incubate them (keep the eggs at the same temperature and level of humidity). This was a tricky job to do, because it was such a limited temperature range. The range, when I incubated the eggs, the temperature range was 99°F-108°F. After that weekend, many students would go to the library to check on the eggs. Later that week, twelve happy, healthy chicks were born. And finally after spending a few days in our library many students and teachers brought the chicks home.

Even after hatching, the chicks temperature needed to be care-fully monitored.

Photo by Mrs. Strocchia

Happy Birthday, Orchestra! by Leila Elaro [grade 8]

This year our school district celebrated 25 years of having an orchestra program. As one of only two districts in the area to have this great program, it’s something that should be celebrat-ed, and it has been. This year in honor of this milestone, there was a concert at the high school that incorporated the DV and DD elementary, middle and high school orchestras for the song festival. This concert has been held every few years since Mr. Swinehart brought an orchestra program to the school. Partici-pating in orchestra is a great opportunity for students to experi-ence music, and the program was properly celebrated by these concerts.

Disneyland Turns 60! by Zack Zazzi [grade 7]

Did you know? Disneyland was first opened July 17, 1955. Disney world opened in Florida in 1971. In its 60 year history the park has entertained more than 515 million people. The Disney Monorail was the first operating monorail in the west-ern hemisphere. The original land and attractions costed about $16 million. The architects trick you into thinking that it takes a longer time to walk in than walk out of Disneyland. They trick you with forced perspective (a technique to make an object feel farther away). There are many hidden Mickey Mouse’s in Dis-neyland. Two-hundred cats roam the park at night. Sleeping Beauty’s castle measures 77 feet tall but looks much bigger be-cause forced perspective. Disneyland has forty rides and attrac-tions. The Haunted Mansion has 900 spooks inside. Space Mountain was first opened in 1977, but it was remade in 2005. The King Arthur Carousel has 68 horses. The carousel is in Fan-tasy Land. The Fast Pass Express was made in 1999. The Fast Pass Express is a way to get across the park.

Statistics courtesy of www.themeparks.com; Photo courtesy of www.travellife.ro

Orchestra students rehearsing for performance.

Warrior Softball by Elizabeth Bobo [grade 8]

DD Warrior Softball is really something to watch. The 2015 season was led by two strong eighth grade captains, Amber Recksiek and Lyndsay Floystad. Leading with five wins on the season, this team really defined hard work and determination. The team was coached by probably the three best coaches: Mrs. Snyder, Miss Donavan, and last, but certainly not least, Mr. DePadua. Being a player myself, I can honestly say that this was a great team. Sometimes you find teammates that absolutely cannot stand each other. Well, our team was like a bunch of bickering family members. Because of that, it made the team bond better, and helped us play fluently. Of course when you’re on a team, there is always things to work on. For our team, we all had a strong lack of focus. When something went wrong, it’s easy to get in the dumps and give up. Remem-ber to always keep your head high. At the end of the game, we’re always a team.

A Cog in the Lineup by Elizabeth Bobo [grade 8]

Amber Recksiek was a total cog in the lineup against Honesdale. She batted fourth, and was a threat to all the outfielders. Well, that statement definitely proved true when she hit the first over the fence homerun. This was the first in the school’s history since the fence was put up. When the homerun was hit, it was like time stopped. Everyone was turned around, watching this fly ball, seeing if it was actually going. After the fact, Lyndsay Floystad stated, “By the crack of that bat, I knew it was going over.” So, congratulations, Amber Recksiek, and hopefully this homerun will be one of many.

Lyndsay Floystad warm-ing up as catcher; photo by Elizabeth Bobo [grade 8]

Amber Recksiek warming up; photo by Elizabeth

Bobo [grade 8]

Baseball Season Highlights Submitted by Coach Koretz

4/20/15- The boys' baseball team recently split a DH with Wallenpaupackpack. The team perfectly executed a set pickoff play and ensuing rundown to seal the 1-0 victory. The team im-proved to (1-3), being led by James Conza, Ryan Wingerter, Zach Scillia, and Shayne Cooke. 4/30/15- The baseball team has improved to (4-4), coming off a 9-7 victory over Abington Heights. Ryan Wingeter got the Win on the mound to improve to (3-1). Travis Norman and James Conza led the way offensively. 5/21/15- The baseball team finished the season with a 6-8 rec-ord, thanks in part to Ryan Wingerter, James Conza, Shayne Cooke, Travis Norman, and Zach Scillia.

Boys and Girls Track by Matthew Hollay [grade 7]

Many people like running. Some are better than others. Well, in DDMS, John Ruzzano, Corey Hardy, and Darryn Ouk are some of the best. Mr. Wolff thinks Darryn and John are excellent sprinters, and that Corey excels in the high jump. Corey joined track because to him, it sounded fun and he’s good at it, possibly be-cause he often runs at home. He thinks he is succeeds in track because he puts in a lot of effort. He puts in so much effort, that he nor-mally wins competitions. Along with John, Corey believes that Darryn is the fastest in

“I’ve been doing it for ten years now. I have had several

friends and my brother pass

away.”

—Ms. Schneck

“My uncle passed away and so did my grandma.

So we’ve been doing this since my grandma

passed away.” —Devin Brophy,

grade 6

“I like running and it was fun

last year.”

—Matthew Hollay,

grade 7

“What made you decide to participate in Relay for Life?”

“My friend’s dad recent-ly passed from cancer,

and my mother also had cancer. It seemed like the right thing to do.”

—Kiara Simonson, grade 8

question to Mr. Co-munale, “Are they al-lowed in the school?” Mr. Comunale gave him the great news, to which Mr. Mitchell ap-plauded. I’m really happy we won and I would like to thank; Richard Al-banese, Matthew Chabak, Christian DiPri-ma, William Ehlers, Melissa Kelleher, Chris-tian Secular and Isaac Thollot. They did really well in representing our school. Although we are graduating and moving to Delaware Valley School and will take part in future competitions, our hearts will remain with Dingman Delaware Middle School and our gratitude will always be with our engi-neering teacher, Mr. Comunale, thank you!

Radhika Kahar [grade 8]

ture.” Afterwards both teams entered the library separately where the judges were waiting. Our groups’ presentations were on content, organization, delivery, preparation and time management. Scoring was also given on creative design for design process, selection process, functional testing, performance and further modifications. When we first entered the library, the judges mixed us up with Wallenpau-pack— that made me even more nervous. But the presentation was over in less than three minutes. Seeing that time was running out and we could not stay for the results we went back to the gym to pack our things. At 2:12 post meridiem (pm) we were in our school van, and Mr. Comunale drove us back to DDMS. Halfway from the school, Mr. Co-munale got a call; he informed us that our teams won first and third places, Delaware Valley came sec-ond. In 2013, our school placed first, and in 2014, we got second and third. So this was really an accom-plishment. We arrived at school at 2:36 pm in perfect time due to the shortcuts that Mr. Comunale took. Our charismatic principal, Mr. Mitchell, greeted us with a

Fate’s Journey to DDMS by Julia Thompson [grade 8]

Guide dogs are some of the most intelligent and dependable companions an individual could have. Guide dogs help people with disabilities, especially those who are blind or visually impaired. They help their owners complete everyday tasks, like crossing the street or going up a staircase, that they may otherwise struggle with on their own. But what separates guide dogs from other dogs? Why are they qualified to assist the disabled while other dogs are not? Future guide dogs receive special training that helps them learn all of the things they need to know to help their disabled friend. Guide dog training is a very special job. It takes a lot of patience and a lot of love to train a young pup to become such an im-portant part of someone's life. DDMS's very own sixth grader, Ava Nienstadt, is one of those important and impactful trainers. Ava has been training an adorable puppy named Fate that's just as bright and enthusiastic as she is. She and her furry friend have been working together for about 15 weeks. I got a chance to talk to Ava about her experience as a guide dog trainer a few weeks ago, and I'm very excited to share her story with you. Ava and her family are involved in a nationwide guide dog training pro-gram. They are part of the New Jersey branch of the organization along with 10-12 other families. Their job is to take in a specially chosen puppy and teach him/her how to be gentle, alert, and well behaved. Once the family and their canine trainee have completed their portion of the training, the puppy will then go back to the training center. At the training center the puppies will move on to working with their disabled partner and completing more complicated tasks. Ava said that her favorite part of being a guide dog trainer is spending time with Fate and having the experience of caring for a dog. She also told me that she hopes to have her own dog someday, and she and her family agreed that getting involved in guide dog training would help prepare Ava for the responsibility of possibly having her own dog in the future. Right now, Ava is helping Fate learn basic commands like come, sit, and stay, as well as teaching her to stay off of furniture and to be calm around other people and animals. Ava can't use treats to help reinforce what she trains Fate to do, but she can give Fate a treat when putting her in her crate. She and her family also try to bring Fate wherever they can and have her meet as many people and animals as she can to help her be more friendly and sociable. Excitingly, one of the strategies that Ava will use to help Fate become more comfortable around other people is to bring her to school with her next year! It’s an honor to know that there are people our age, and even in our school, that are working so hard to make a difference in other people's lives. I hope that we as a school will help her in her exciting jour-ney to help others next year when Fate comes to vis-it!

Track story cont. track. He may join track in high school. Darryn joined track because he loves running. He runs about four times a week. Darryn thinks he stands out because he practices a lot. He usually wins competitions. He is certain that he’ll join track in high school. John joined track to stay in shape for football. Like the others, he often runs at home. He believes he does well, because he puts in the most effort. He usually wins competitions. He also believes he will join track in high school. As said from the girls track coach, Mr. Baker, three of the best are Morgan Harvey, Aniyah Rich-ardson, and Gia Cicileo. Here are some things about them and their middle school track careers. Aniyah joined track because it helps her stay in shape for other sports. She’s one of the best even though she rarely runs at home. Like many others in track, she be-lieves the fastest is Darryn Ouk. She plans to join track in high school, and that’ll be good for the team considering she says she nor-mally wins competitions. Morgan also joined track to stay in shape, but it was also so she could hang out with her friends. She also rarely runs at home. Like the rest, she believes Darryn Ouk is the fastest. She says she normally wins competitions. She also thinks she will join track in high school. Gia, at first, joined track to stay in shape for volleyball, but then she really started to like it. She often runs at home. She doesn’t have an opinion on who is the fast-est. She plans to join track in high school. She sometimes wins first, second, or third in competitions.

Engineering Invitational by Radhika Kahar [grade 8]

On Friday the 5th of June at 8:06 in the morning, Mr. Comunale took eight students to the Delaware Valley High School for the second annual engineering invita-tional, in which several High and Middle Schools partic-ipated. During the ride, we were all quiet because of being nervous, but the silence broke when the boys started to crack jokes; this helped us relaxed a little. On arrival there we went to the office, signed in and pro-ceeded to the gym. Then Mr. Comunale gave the two groups tablets, laptops, and a packet containing: the instructions, a list of materials, the grading system and the rules. Our objective was to make a wind turbine. At 9:00 ante meridiem (am) the judges spoke to us and said we could ask any questions during the compe-tition, and then we started working. We drew up a plan for our project and started to carry it out, using the given materials. You got points for using green materi-als, and the materials that lay before us on the table were very random; at least a dozen rubber bands, some balloons, several solo cups, a small handful of screws, a bottle of Nestle™ water, a roll of duct tape, electrical tape, a few kabob skewers, a square of fabric, a copper wire, a round cardboard tube, some wire nuts, a sheet of poster board and a lot of garbage stuff to throw us off— like marbles. Everything was going well, then— 1) the blades started hitting the tower; 2) the upper part fell off; 3) the judges, testing the tur-bine, were not getting a voltage reading. So I decided to implement an idea I had at the testing table. The turbine started turning, but not as fast as it should. We returned to the table and remade the blades, because we wanted to make a long nacelle; but when we repeatedly asked for the drill, and were

promised “next five minutes,” “next ten minutes,” “next twenty minutes,” and finally were told that it was given to someone else, then we had no choice but to take our wind turbine to the testing table. My group was unable to test it because there were too many people. Sadly, we had to go back to our table, put down our stuff, and sit and wait. Each team was then called by the judges to go to the testing table, so their turbine could be tested on voltage and amperage (multiply them to get wattage). My team got high scores in both cate-gories. We felt joyful because some of us are aspir-ing engineers and this was a great opportunity to start us off. We broke for lunch and headed to the Warrior Café, a dimly lit room with bricked red walls, black and white checkered tiled floors— it displayed the school colors. Well laid tables with cutlery and nap-kins and smiling students in dress pants, white shirts, red ties and aprons gave a pleasant atmos-pheric restaurant feeling. There was a Smart Board on the wall; this café was also a class. There were many food items to choose from, but Mr. Comunale, the boys, Melissa and I quickly ate and then re-turned to the gym. We had to make a presentation that would count for twenty percent of our score. I edited and added animation to our presentation while the others con-tributed to the creative design. The PowerPoint had to follow the “Engineering Design Process,” which is a series of steps that engineers follow to come up with a solution to a problem. The problem, in this case was: “One of the most significant consumers of non-renewable natural resources on the planet is the production of electricity. With the projected growth of the world population over the next 50 years, these resources will continue to be depleted at an ever-growing rate. The improvement of renew-able energy sources such as wind power will contin-ue to become more important in the fu-

Photo courtesy of www.bluestampengineering.com

Photo courtesy of www.toolmonger.com

Happy Birthday Pac-Man by Joseph DeVito [grade 7]

Did you know that Pac-man is one of the oldest video games still played? The game Pac-man was first created May 22, 1980. It was first played on the Atari game system. They make apps, TV shows, and they also make new ver-sions of Pac-man even today. Pac-man has just reached its thirty-fifth anniversary, so the company wants to make a Pac-man themed restaurant in Chicago. They also want to make an entertainment cen-ter called Level 257. The Lego company is making Pac-man themed Lego builds for young and old fans alike.

Call of Teacher’s Duty by Luke Rivera [grade 7]

Many people love the game Call of Duty Black Ops: Advanced War-fare (COD). But did you know two teach-ers love the game too? Two teachers named Mrs. House-knecht and Mr. Kim. I have been instructed to keep their screen names anonymous so they can remain un-dercover. Mrs. Houseknecht is purposely at the top level of the first pres-tige because she doesn’t want to give up her favorite guns. She started playing

COD around 2009 because her son came home from college and persuaded her to play with him. At the time, she had no interest in the game, but she did it anyway to hang out with her son. When her son went back to college, she started playing on-line with him. She started to get addicted. COD is actually the one PS3 game she plays. She loves the technology and how she can play with her family members who are in other states. She plays COD nights after she’s done cleaning up, grading papers, walking, and her husband is asleep. Mr. Kim is also first prestige. He started playing COD before release day because he preordered it. He loves that in COD, he can play with friends. He doesn’t have time to play very often, which is why he’s only at the first prestige level.

League of Legends by Yumi Jin [grade 8]

Ezio by Amber Hernandez [grade 8]

The top ten video games in the world are:

1. Tetris with 100 million downloads 2. Wii Sports with 82.54 million downloads 3. G.T.A.5 with 45 million downloads 4. Super Mario Bros. with 40.24 million down-

loads 5. Mario Kart Wii with 35.53 million downloads 6. Minecraft with 34 million downloads 7. Wii Play with 28.82 million downloads 8. New Super Mario Bros. Wii with 27.88 mil-

lion downloads 9. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas with 27.5 mil-

lion downloads 10. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 with 26.5

million downloads

The top selling game consoles

in our generation are: 1. Wii with 101.44 million users 2. Xbox 360 with 84 million users 3. PlayStation 3 with more than

82.7 million users 4. Nintendo 3DS with 50.41 mil-

lion users 5. PlayStation 4 with 19.9 million

users 6. X-Box One with 10 million users 7. Wii-U with 9.20 million users 8. PlayStation Vita with more than

4 Million users

More than 1.2 billion people are

playing video games in the

world.

About 700 million of those are

playing internet games.

Mario is the top game franchise. Mario came out on July 14, 1983.

Statistics compiled from Wikipedia by Kyle Grunwald and Zack Zazzi [both grade 7]

The bestselling PC game is Minecraft.

Can you spy the lie? Three of the statements

about each of these teachers is true, but one is not.

Miss Swope 1. I play the saxophone very well. 2. I was extremely shy in middle school and high school. 3. I love to play games like Magic: The Gathering and World of Warcraft. 4. I love rap music.

Frau Miller 1. I can write simultaneously with the left and right hand mirror image or backwards. 2. I love guinea pigs. 3. I love ice cream. 4. I speak Swedish.

Lies:Miss Swope #1; Frau Miller #3 Student Choice Awards 2015

We asked students to vote on a few of their favorites. Here’s what you said:

Best Device:

iPhone

Best App:

Clash of Clans