Writing is Wacky!

Today in writing we did a lot, as usual. We did our DOL (Daily Oral Language), then some handwriting. Sometimes we do our Daybooks, in which we write about different topics. Right now, we are working on some music people like Woody Guthrie and B. B. King. The Daybook includes both reading and writing.

For DOL, all we do is correct sentences, then write them in the correct way. It is important to listen and make the appropriate corrections. If you don't, you won't have the correct information for the test we have on Friday, which is about the same corrections. We do this to help us write and speak correctly.

In handwriting, we occasionally take time to practice writing in cursive, but not very often. This is what we do in my writing class with Mrs. Harrison.

Reporter: Paige S.
Editor: Mrs. M

Maddie's Story

The Green Team got to make a difference in someone’s life, a baby girl named Maddie. This reporter heard about Maddie at Appleumpkin. She has a rare skin disorder called Congenital Pigmented Nevus (CPN). She was with her family who was selling raffle tickets to help pay for a surgery which is not covered by insurance.

After meeting Maddie, a couple of class members asked Mr. Palmer if we could help. He knew about her because her parents had been his students. When he agreed, we started collecting change, nickels, dimes, and quarters, and sometimes dollars. Altogether, the Green Team raised $211.94 to put towards Maddie’s surgery.

On January, 20th, Maddie went to Chicago on a train. The surgery was at Children’s Memorial Hospital. Maddie’s Doctor was Dr. Bauer. He looks like a lot of fun! The surgery took about two hours to put in the tissue expanders.

Our team is pleased and happy that we could do something to help. If you would like further information, or maybe help with a donation, go to www.helpmaddie.org

Reporter: Brianna W.
Editor: Mrs. M., Renee A.
Photographs courtesy of www.helpmaddie.org

Do you hear wedding bells?

Mrs. Gross, a 5th grade teacher and Mr. Keyser, a 6th grade teacher, became husband and wife on December 20, 2008 late in the afternoon. They got married at the Church of Christ in Tecumseh. The wedding was a full mass and the couple decided on having family and friends at the wedding. Mr. Keyser's daughters were the bride's maids and one of his friends was the best man. Mrs. Gross's sister was the maid of honor and her sons were grooms men. Mrs. Gross wore a beautiful ivory dress, with lots of beading and a lace train.

The reception was at the Pines Banquet Hall in Tecumseh. The newly weds didn't do what most couples do at receptions. They didn't shove cake in each other's faces, but Mrs. Keyser did put a little dab of frosting on Mr. Keyser's head.

HAVE A GREAT LIFE TOGETHER MR. AND MRS. KEYSER!!

Reporter: Kelsey B.

Editor: Renee A. , Jessica C.

Cupid's Comin' to Town

The Builders' Club will soon be holding a Valentines dance! There will be lots of decorations and anyone, 6-8th grade, can get in for a fee. You can buy refreshments like Valentine inspired treats, boxes of candy, and mints. The dance will be held on Friday, February 13th from 7-9:30 PM. The will be Dance Dance Revolution, Rock Band, basketball, pictures, a ticket raffle, and of course, dancing!

The Builders' Club will also be holding Crush sales. You can buy Valentine heart suckers for 50 cents, Airheads for 25 cents, and Pixi Stix for 25 cents. You can buy things for yourself, your friends, or your crush! This can be anonymous if you'd like. Sales start January 28th and end February 6th. You can buy them during lunch.

Reporter: Carley L.
Photographer: Carley L.
Editors: Renee A. Jessica C.

One fancy ride for The Wheelmen!

The Wheelmen is a national, non-profit organization dedicated to keeping alive the heritage of American cycling, promoting the restoration and riding of early cycles (1918 or earlier), and encouraging cycling as part of modern living.

Some of the names of the common antique bikes are a Boneshaker, a Three-wheeled Tricycle, a Highwheel, Hard-tire safety, and a Nomadic safe-tire.

The Boneshaker is one of the first bikes that ever set foot on the streets. This bike is really hard to ride because there is no chain on the bike and usually the pedals are on the front wheel. This bike usually had no rubber for the tires so the wooden rims were in place of that. Currently we have two or three in the club, one which would be my grandfather's if he would have been alive.

A Three-wheeled Tricycle looks just like a nowadays kids tricycle but is much larger than that. These bikes would have hard tires, solid tires made out of rubber, and were normally ridden by a lady.

A Highwheel is pretty much explained by the name. A Highwheel has hardtires, a big front wheel, and a tiny back wheel. You get on this bike by a tiny step on the back of the bike. A highwheel can also be called a Penne Farthing. The height of your highwheel is determined by your inseam, or the height from about your waist to the ground.

Next are the Hard-tire safety and the Nomadic safety. These are very similar and the only differences are the hard tire has hard tires and the safety has regular rubber tires you can buy at the bike shop and how you get on.

Because we go to parades we have to dress a special way. The traditional outfit for a lady is a white blouse, bloomers or a skirt, and fancy tites or socks. The traditional outfit for a gentleman is a white shirt, a blue hat, red or blue suspenders, blue or black knee-high pants, ans blue knee-high socks.

I love the Wheelmen because it gives me a chance to learn about the history of America and it gives me a chance to do something out of the ordinary, ride a highwheel.

If you would like more information you can talk to me or Mrs. Metzler or you can just go to http://www.thewheelmen.org/ to find out some history or just look at pictures of my family and me!

Reporter: Jessica C.

Pictures: Jessica's family and http://www.thewheelmen.org/
Editor: