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Blessings for all include python and kinkajou By Laura Furniss-Roe and Rafa Urbina On October 3rd we held our annual Blessing of the Animals! There were a lot of dogs, cats, and small animals like fish, hermit crabs, a ferret and even a leopard gecko. All of the animals were blessed. Now, let’s not forget that this year, like every year, we had some mystery animals come and visit St. Thomas. This year we had a kinkajou that goes by its nickname of the honey bear and her name was Delilah. We also had a big albino Burmese python snake named Sunny. We heard that the snake can grow up to 20 feet long. We thought he was already that long when we saw him but it turns out that at that point, Sunny was only 10 feet long. He can still grow MUCH longer. We are sure that some of you heard about what Delilah, the honey bear, did on Miss Knight. Delilah sort of had a bit of an accident—all down Miss Knight’s back. Oops! Delilah was also very squirmy and was always trying to wriggle out of Miss Knight’s grasp. We had some pretty interesting mystery animals this year. Let’s all remember to honor Saint Francis who Evans Crews treated all animals like brothBLESSINGS: Father Mario holds Sunny, the ers, sisters, and family and albino Burmese python, in Chapel. that is the reason that we hold Blessing of the Animals every year. Let’s also give a round of applause to Miss Knight because this is her first year of leading Blessing of the Animals as the new Environmental Science Teacher. Hooray for Miss Knight and our celebration of St. Francis on this wonderful day!
Volume 27 Issue 1 October 2014
Inside this issue:
Halloween Riddles 2 In My Opinion
3
Mystery Teachers
4
National News
5
School News
6
Tech Avenue
7
Mystery Creature
7
Special points of interest:
This year’s Red Ribbon Week theme was “Love Yourself. Be Drug Free.”
Wonder Woman wins student poll of favorite superhero.
The Mystery Creature has great traffic skills.
Frozen and Harry Potter costumes are at the top of the list this year of favorites for Halloween.
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The Spire Crier
Miss Knight is new environmental science teacher
Cristy Carbajales
Miss Knight was inspired to be a teacher by her mother who was also a teacher.
By Laura Furniss-Roe and Rafa Urbina When our amazing Environmental Science Teacher Ms. Oldham left last year, the school needed a new one. But who would be perfect for this job? Hmmmm… Well, you can stop searching because all you need is none other than Miss Knight! Miss Knight has been teaching at St. Thomas for three years. She was a substitute for one year, a first grade assistant and science teacher last year, and now she is our Environmental Science Teacher. Miss Knight’s favorite animal in her Environmental Science Room is Gizmo, the domestic ferret. She has never taught anywhere else other than St. Thomas. Her favorite hobby is scuba diving. She said she was inspired to be a teacher by her mother because her mother was a teacher too. Besides Environmental Science, Miss Knight also teaches science to Sr. Preschool, Kindergarten, and 1st Grade. We also learned that outside of school and her Environmental Science Room, she owns a cute, two-year old cat named Zelda. We both do Animal Care in the morning and we know that Miss Knight is one of the best teachers ever!
Howl with laughter at these Halloween riddles Compiled by Ava-Riley Miles Q: What road has the most ghosts haunting it? A: A dead-end! Q: What monster plays tricks on Halloween? A: A prank-enstein! Q: Which room is useless for a ghost? A: A LIVING room! Q: What do monsters order in a fast food restaurant? A: French FRIGHTS! Q: Why did the vampire give up acting? A: Because he couldn’t find a part he could sink his teeth into! Q: Who did Dracula take to the movies? A: His GHOUL friend! Q: Where did the ghost go to take a vacation? A: The BOO-hamas! To find more of these jokes and riddles go to http://www.squiglysplayhouse.com/JokesAndRiddles/Halloween.php
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In My Opinion: No Kid Hungry makes a difference By Nina Chehab Do you remember the yummy dinner your mom made you last night? Or, how your family took you to a fancy restaurant? Well, it may surprise you to know that many kids around the world don’t have food or clean water to drink. That’s where No Kid Hungry comes in. No Kid Hungry is a foundation where, if you donate money, you feed kids all over. Even $1 can help feed 30 kids in some places. Miss Q has participated in this fabulous act of kindness. She made a bake sale to raise money for this cause. I think that St. Thomas should get involved by setting up a healthy snack sale to raise money for No Kid Hungry. As one of the small number of people in the world who have good food on the table, I think that seeing all these young children suffering, because they don’t have money to buy food, is really sad. St. Thomas is an amazing school and I’d love to see at least some of us participating in such a good cause. If you want to learn more about this great group, you can go to NoKidHungry.com and see how you can join and donate.
Red Ribbon Week teaches students to be drug-free By Laura Furniss-Roe Hooray for Red Ribbon Week! From October 20-25 we celebrated the week in which we say “no” to alcohol and drugs. We follow a different, but special motto every year. This year, we followed: “Love yourself, be drug free.” Many important things happened throughout the week. For starters, we had our dress-down day of red and white along with crazy sock day all in one go! On the same day, the 5th graders had a guest speaker. Mr. Witty came to visit St. Thomas and talked about alcohol and drugs and how they can be extremely bad for you. Mr. Witty put us in the vision of a drunk driver to see how bad drinking can make you when you drive. (He gave us special goggles to look through.) He also warned us to never text and drive. He really showed us the importance of being drug and alcohol free. Throughout the week, many students and parents signed the Pledge of Red Ribbon Week that has you promise to never drink alcohol or take improper drugs. We also held our annual poster, essay, and video contest for being drug-free. Congratulations to this year’s winners! This year, we were reminded of the importance of being drug-free, and never smoking, never becoming an alcoholic, and never drinking or texting while driving. We will always remember the spirit of Red Ribbon Week.
St. Thomas students were reminded to say “no” to alcohol and drugs.
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The Spire Crier
This Mystery Teacher loves The Giving Tree By Laura Orban and Ava-Riley Miles Every issue of The Spire Crier has a Mystery Teacher for you to guess. We will give you facts to see if you know your teachers. Good luck!
Can you guess the Mystery Teachers?
The Mystery Teacher in this issue has a favorite ice cream flavor— cookies n’ cream with crushed Oreos. She has two dogs. She loves arts and crafts and does them as a hobby. Her favorite children’s book is The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. Her hometown is Miami, Florida. She has been teaching for 19 years. Her favorite movie is Titanic. Who is she? The answer is on the back!
The favorite food of this Mystery Teacher is salad By Yara Haddad Good luck guessing this Mystery Teacher. Her favorite food is salad. Her favorite place to visit is Mexico City. She loves dogs. She likes to shop at Nordstrom. Her favorite sports team is the USA World Cup Team. She grew up in Devon, Pennsylvania and she has six siblings. She has been teaching for 22 years. Her favorite movie is Mrs. Doubtfire. Her favorite song is Someone Like You by Adele. And her favorite book is Unbroken. These questions are about one teacher. Try to guess who she is!
What’s your favorite candy? m&m’s win this poll By Ava-Riley Miles and Nina Chehab It’s that time of years for treats and candy. We took a poll to find out which candy is the favorite of students at St. Thomas. Here’s what we found out! Milky Way: 18 votes m&m’s: 28 votes Smarties: 2 votes Sour Patch: 17 votes Starburst: 18 votes Candy corn: 7 votes And the favorite candy is m&m’s!! Yum!
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Leonardo DiCaprio brings focus to climate change By Jack Silva Actor and activist Leonardo DiCaprio recently brought attention to climate change by addressing the world leaders in New York. He gave a speech. His remarks came days after he stood with thousands of people in New York City all seeking an end to global warming. He helped bring in an estimated 400,000 people for the march. “I play fictitious characters often solving fictitious problems,” said DiCaprio at the United Nations Climate Summit. “I believe that mankind has looked at the climate change in that same way, as if pretending that climate change wasn’t real would somehow make it go away, but I think we all know better than that now.” As a famous actor, DiCaprio is making a big difference in the awareness for global warming and climate change. He will help people, animals and living things all around the world.
Wonder Woman wins poll of favorite superhero By Yara Haddad I conducted a poll of the 4th and 5th grade students and teachers to find out who is their favorite superhero. I also asked other teachers and staff around school. Here are the results: Aquaman—1 Thomas the Tiger—2 The Hulk—1 Batwoman—2 Mighty Mouse—1 Catwoman—3 Ben 10—1 The Flash—3 The Incredible Man—1 Iron Man—4 Mother Teresa—1 Captain America—7 Doctor Who—1 Superman—13 Violet—1 Batman—11 Thor—1 Spider-Man—14 Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela—1 WONDER WOMAN IS THE WINNER WITH 32 VOTES!
Wonder Woman was created in 1941. She is an Amazon warrior princess and she is one of the most powerful superheroes.
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The Spire Crier
Engineering and art skills create very strong tables
Chris Mayo
Laura Furniss-Roe was part of a team that built a table to support heavy dictionaries.
By Laura Furniss-Roe and Jack Silva In science class we created tables that were strong enough to hold two dictionaries. Some tables failed, and some succeeded. If your table could hold the weight you got to decorate it. The project helped teach us how to plan and construct things. Mrs. Rosen and Mrs. Dolan got the idea for the project because they wanted us to experience engineering. The different designs were very unique. First, the groups got together and sketched their plans on paper. The table had to have legs and a top, and it had to act like a dining room table. For instance: If you had four little chairs, they should be able to slide under the table. The classes brought in newspapers galore and began working on bringing their sketches to life. Students had to roll up tight and sturdy newspapers for legs and create an even surface for the top. Some students even chose to make a base of newspaper underneath the legs to keep it steady. This whole project took lots of newspaper and lots of masking tape, but eventually the tables were finished. Everyone enjoyed the challenge. We also learned that sometimes things do not work out the first time and you need to try again. Mrs. Rosen, Mrs. Dolan and Mrs. Crews made this a wonderful engineering and art project. Everyone is very happy about the project’s success.
Stop, think, and ask yourself these 14 Questions By Maddie Wagshul Sometimes it’s good to just stop and think. Here are 14 questions to ask yourself. You can also have fun sharing your answers with friends. 14 Questions Do you like pickles? If you got a unicorn what would you name it? What is your favorite name for a girl? What is your favorite name for a boy? If you spell your name backwards, how would you pronounce it? What is your favorite word? What is your favorite scent? Do you know what pumpernickel is? What is your favorite style of a house? If you redesigned your room, what would you make it look like? Do you like the name Owl? If you got your favorite animal as a pet, what would you name it? What is your favorite breed of a fish? What is your favorite punctuation mark?
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Have fun changing your Google background By Laura Orban Did you know you can change your background on Google? All you have to do is go to the little three lines next to the favorites star. Then you go to settings on the list. Then you click to get the themes. Some of the options are Frozen, Minions, Toothless, soccer teams and animals. You can have any design you want. The best part is that they are free! Once you decide on one, you have to open a new tab to see it. Also, you can only have one at a time. To go back to the same one you had before you have to download it again. You will have so much fun with the Google backgrounds! My favorite one of Olaf is pictured here.
This Mystery Creature is two colors and has spots By Laura Furniss-Roe and Rafa Urbina This Mystery Creature is seen hanging around school. His nose has a lot red spots. His real name is “Spot.” His owner is Sergio who works at school helping to take care of the property. The Mystery Creature has two colors and he likes to hang around the field. He was saved from a Publix parking lot 14 years ago. He has great traffic skills. Who is he? For some of you, the answer might be a little bit easy to solve. See the answer on the back page of this issue.
Here’s how to change your Google background to make it perfect for you!
The Spire Crier
St. Thomas Episcopal Parish School 5692 North Kendall Drive Coral Gables, FL 33156 305-665-4851
The Spire Crier is published by the fifth grade journalism class for the students of St. Thomas Episcopal Parish School. Reporters: Nina Chehab, Laura Furniss-Roe, Yara Haddad, Ava-Riley Miles, Laura Orban, Jack Silva, Rafael Urbina, Madeleine Wagshul Journalism Advisor: Ms. Christina Mayo
W E’ RE ON THE WEB AT S TEPSMIA. ORG GO
TO S CHOOL L IFE AND CLICK ON P UBLICATIONS
Mystery Teachers: Mrs. Orms Mrs. McPhillips Mystery Creature: Spot/Oreo the Cat
And the most popular Halloween costumes are... By Ava-Riley Miles Most of us have had our costumes for weeks or longer. I did some research and here are the most popular Halloween costumes this year. Are you going to be one of these? 10. Superheroes 9. Monster High 8. Dorothy 7. Guardians of the Galaxy 6. Disney Princesses 5. Smurfs 4. Witch/Warlock 3. Mickey/Minnie Mouse 2. Harry Potter 1. Frozen Characters