Bacteria Experiment in Mr.Bundas' Room

The students in 7B are currently doing a bacteria experiment. This will be going on for a few weeks. My opinion on experimenting with bacteria is, "Eww, how gross!"

In the experiment you can tell the species by color. Basically, we collected bacteria, we rubbed the bacteria on a food called agar, and now we wait for the bacteria to grow.

If you don't think it is gross, read the stuff we used for sources of bacteria. My group did Mrs.Wallich’s nose. Some others collected samples from Mr. McGovern’s ear, a locker comb, the bottom of Mr.Jastrow’s foot, the mouth piece on the drinking fountain, a staircase railing, Mrs. Richardson’s foot, a toilet handle, and Mr.Bundas’ plastic skeleton ribs. If you would like to see the bacteria samples growing, they are located in Mr.Bundas’ room.

I think seeing all this bacteria growing from samples collected here at school may cause me to stay home from school forever.

Reporter: Andrea J.
Photographer: Andrea J.
Editor: Mrs. M.

Magnetic Mayhem

Throughout the past week, we have been studying magnetism. To look at some of the properties of magnets, 6D All Stars did a science experiment.

First we looked at a regular unmagnetized metal nail. It wouldn't attract any steel paper clips, no matter how small.

Second we put a cow magnet on the head of the nail. Then it could can attract up to 20 large clips!!

Reporter: Eryn B.
Photographer: Eryn B.
Editor: Dakota C.

So that's American Democracy

Last week in our social studies class in Mrs. Naugle's room, we did skits. The skits were about the Core Democratic Values we have as Americans.

We formed small groups, and Mrs. Naugle passed out a paper that had a definition of one of the Core Democratic Values. Then each group made up a skit about the value, which we performed in front of the class. The class had to guess which of our values applied. Some of the values represented in the skits included equality, justice, and the common good.

In my opinion all of the skits were very good. I think the kids in my class were excellent actors and actresses. I think they demonstrated the Core Democratic Values they were trying to portray.

Reporter: Elissa Kedziorek
Editor: Mrs. M.

Time to get FUNKY!

Mrs. Marr, the orchestra teacher, often plays the keyboard as we get ready for class. She has played many songs, such as Fancy Fiddles, The Halo Theme song, The Family Guy Theme song, and The Simpson’s Theme song. This is part of orchestra fun.

Sometimes I imagine us all becoming famous because Mrs. Marr got her camera and took a video of us dancing and decided to post it on her myspace page. (Of course, she would never do that!) I imagine Mrs. Marr being so proud that she boasts to everyone about the wonderful dancing of her 6th grade students. That gave me the idea to make my own video.

In this video, Mrs. Marr is playing and Paul, (the kid dancing in the background), is rockin’ it out on October 9, 2008. When this video was taken, it was at the beginning of class and The Family Guy Theme song was the last song Mrs. Marr played before class began. After that song, Mrs. Marr said, “OK, I’ll play this game at the end of class if there’s time.” We replied, “Ok,” and class time officially began.

After that, the class went on as usual; we played The Lion King Song. Normally we then go into either Brandenburg, Play Ball, or, on some occasions, Fancy Fiddles. We must get to the real work of orchestra, which is still kind of fun. Still, somewhere in my mind I think of all the fun we had and the next time we get funky!

Mrs. Marr's great playing inspires us to dance, including Paul M. shown above.

Reporter: Ryan L.
Photographer: Ryan L.
Editor: Mrs. M.

BAND-O-RAMA CONCERT!

On October 22^nd, TMS is having their first Band-O-Rama Concert of the year! There will be fifth and sixth graders there. Many instruments will be played at the concert such as French horn, tuba, trumpet, oboe, clarinet, flutes, and don’t forget the percussion. You have no band without percussion.

Now this concert is our opener concert, the first one of the year if I’m not mistaken. We have worked very hard on these songs. Believe me, we have worked hard!

Mr. McInchak is very excited. In fact I have a direct quote from him, “I think our first concert of the year will be very exciting.” I think it will be too. The concert will be at the high school at 7:00 p.m. I hope, if you go, you enjoy it very much!

Reporter: Courtnie L.
Photographer: Courtnie L.
Editor: Mrs. M.

Magnetic, or Not?

On October 4, 2008, we did an activity with Mr. Keyser. The activity was with magnets. Each table was given four magnets, seven pieces of paper, iron filings, and another piece of paper for drawing. We placed a sheet of paper over a magnet, poured iron filings on the paper, and observed what happened.

This is what had happened: the iron filings moved to the shape of the invisible magnetic field. After that, we drew out the magnetic field on the piece of paper for drawing. Then it was show time. We took a magnet, held it up to certain items, to find out if they were magnetic or not.

Fortunately, all the items we held up to a magnet were magnetic. Tune in later for another story about magnetism.

Reporter: Ryan L.
Photographer: Ryan L.
Editor: Mrs. M.