Thanksgiving Have you ever wondered how or even why Thanksgiving exists? Well let me explain.

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1 BLUE NOTES November * December 2013 Volume I Corvallis Middle School Student Newspaper The meaning behind Thanksgiving What does By Andrea Stevens * 8th Grade Thanksgiving Have you ever wondered how or even why Thanksgiving exists? Well let me explain. mean to you? Thanksgiving began when the Pilgrims and Native American gathered together to celebrate a successful harvest. The first Thanksgiving was held in the fall of 1621, sometime between September 21 and November 11, and it was a three day feast. By Emily Seifert * 7th Grade Getting together with family, eating pumpkin pie and turkey and hunting. Christian Easley, 5th Grade The Pilgrims were joined be approximately 90 of the local Wampanoag tribe, including Chief Massasoit. They ate fowl and deer for certain and most likely also ate ber Spending time with my family. Madison ries, fish, clams, plums, and boiled pumpkin. Though the current holiday of ThanksBierer, 6th Grade giving was based on the 1621 feast, it didn t immediately become an annual celebra I like to be with my family. Kaitlin Irwin, tion or holiday. 7th Grade The very first national day of Thanksgiving was held in 1789, when President George I get to travel to places. Caylin Diaz, 7th Washington proclaimed Thursday, November 26 to be a day of public thanksgiving Grade and prayer, to especially give thanks for the opportunity to form a new nation and Eating pumpkin pie and turkey with my the establishment of a new constitution. family and hunting. Josh Easley, 7th Everybody has many things to be thankful for even if they don t know and appreciate Grade it or if they don t have as much. It is a way to show thankfulness through trials, oppor- Eating a lot of food and playing Apples to tunities, and life. Apples with friends. Kyran Hughes, 8th Grade All those things are lessons and messages to you and others that you can make it. That in my opinion is the meaning of Thanksgiving and frankly eating all the food is It s the time to get together with all your just a plus! friends. Bryant Brown, 8th Grade Modern Thanksgiving thoughts By Emmalee Patterson * 8th Grade Thanksgiving is never about eating food. It s never about Black Friday shopping and getting more things that you don t need. Thanksgiving is about spending time with family and friends and being thankful for what you have. Thanksgiving is meant to be a holiday for thanks. To me it means you should be thankful for the roof over your head, clothes on your back, and the food and supplies you have to survive. People should be playing games with their families and rejoicing for the life they have. These are things you should be thankful for all the time and not just on a holiday. To me Thanksgiving is meant for love and happiness. Turkeys fleeing the feast photo by Mercedes Covert * 6th Grade

2 SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT We flip for gymnastics By Celicia Jessop & Hannah Hutchison * 6th Grade Have you ever wondered what it means to be a gymnast? It s a lot more than you might think. Gabi Douglas, Olympic gold medalist, talks about gymnastics like this: Hard days are the best because that s when champions are made. Hard work beats talent when talent doesn t work hard. That means that you don t have to have talent to be successful, you just have to work at it. That is so true when it comes to gymnastics. We get so close with our team so we can be honest about performances during competitions and no one gets offended. Gymnastics takes dedication courage and to want the skill extremely bad. It s a way of life. We start competition in January and end in March. Gymnastics is a combination of strength, speed, and coordination. Failure we can live with, not trying is what we can t handle. When you are so close to getting what you have wanted your whole life and it is time to make the decision whether to do whatever it takes to succeed, will you let it slip on by? Or will you work for it? This is the definition of a true gymnast. 8th grade boys basketball By Allie Auch * 8th Grade Another season of boys basketball is starting up, and they are very excited to make Corvallis proud again. The team is looking forward to another great season! But they can t do it alone. The team needs your support, so come to their home games: Monday, November 25 at 4pm; Monday, December 2 at 4:15pm and Tuesday December 3 at 4pm. When I talked to some of the boys, I found out that they are wanting to improve on free throws, staying in shape and overall shooting skills. Their favorite professional players are Kevin Durant and Michael Jordan. Many boys started playing because it looked and sounded fun and they had family members teach them the game so it was special to them. They also knew it would help to keep them in shape. They are excited to see you support them. Hope to see you there! Swish! Sixth grade girls travel team By Kaycee Brown & Mikayln Brickley * 6th Grade The 6 th grade girls select team is a traveling basketball team that travels around Montana. The select team is a group of girls that are selected to play on a traveling basketball team. We will play in tournaments at Missoula, Anaconda and maybe Florence. The head coach of our team is Coach Brown. We interviewed some people on our team on why they enjoy basketball: Ashlynn Nixon said, It s competitive, it s a sport, and you get to play aggressive. Brooklyn Wirt said, My parents played it in college and they got me to play it; and it s competitive. Maria Hickey said, It s fun, I like to play it and it s competitive. Mikayln Brickley said, You can play aggressive and it s a competitive sport. Kaycee Brown said, I love basketball because it s really fun, aggressive and I like that it s competitive and it s a challenge. Brianna Letzig said, It s a way to get active, you can be aggressive and competitive. Book review: Vector Prime By Cody McCartney * 5th Grade If this inspired you to become a gymnast then you get the point. Look for Velocity Gymnastics Academy: 1269 S. 1 st Street Hamilton, Montana My book review is on Vector Prime by R.A. Salvatore. It is about the Star Wars galaxy when aliens from another galaxy invade it! This book is best for the people who like action, Sci-Fi and adventure books. I think you should read this book because it is funny, adventurous and dangerous at the same time. Also, it includes all your favorite Star Wars characters and more. In conclusion, I think Vector Prime is a great book!

3 SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT Montana youth football By Kendra Hendrickson * 8th Grade Schools from Missoula all the way down to Darby are in the Montana youth football. The league play started September 14 and went through October, continuing with the playoffs and ending with the championship game at the Montana Grizzly stadium. Grades 5 th through 8 th played. Corvallis 5 th grade team, The Dolphins, played in the league. They didn t make it to the championship, but they will hopefully make it all of the way next year. Youth football provides a great outlet for kids. photo by Kendra Hendrickson * 8th Grade The amazing experience of being in 3 rd grade and running with a giant football helmet, the thrill of having that adrenalin and playing your heart out; this is what this program is all about. My favorite Thanksgiving By Hannah Martin * 6th Grade My favorite Thanksgiving was five years ago. We usually have Thanksgiving at our house. Our relatives from Drummond, Missoula and Corvallis came to celebrate with us. This particular Thanksgiving was very fun because we had lots of snow one of the only times we had snow on Thanksgiving. Our family ate, laughed, and played inside on that bitter cold holiday. Then, it was time for our game outside. As a Thanksgiving tradition, everybody plays a game of any kind of sport. Sometimes it s basketball, kickball or baseball. This year it was football. Playing football in the snow is extremely fun because when you fall, you don t fall on the solid hard ground; you fall onto the fluffy, powdery snow. To me, Thanksgiving is a time to gather with friends and family; to laugh and play together. It s also a time of giving thanks for everything you have. So eat, laugh, play and give thanks. The Thanksgiving turkey: A short story By Briar Welling * 6th Grade It was the night before Thanksgiving and all through the woods the turkeys were rushing through the trees scared out of their wits. The hunters will be here at 12 o clock and they will be hunting. The turkeys will have to hide and fly away before they can be shot by the hunters. There was one turkey named Pete. He was not the brightest light bulb in the pack. He had one eye that was missing and he often got shot at during turkey season but it was remarkable because he never got hit. Hunting season opened at 12 o clock sharp so they had to hide fast. Pete was thinking, I wonder what is going on. He just watched and observed. When it turned 12 o clock they heard the first gun shot and everyone fled except Pete. He just decided to stay right in the open in the meadow. The hunters knew of this turkey and they shot but it never seemed to hit him. It always went over him or to the left or right of him. It was like he was protected by the Turkey God or something like that. A new hunter came to town. He was a famous hunter and had his own T.V show, magazine, etc. He went out to hunt this turkey, Pete, as they call him. He brought his best gun sighted and all. When he found the turkey he got all ready and shot. He missed and the turkey just sat there. He shot again. He missed again, and again and again. He just kept missing. He finally walked up to the turkey and Pete just sat there. He raised his gun and went to hit the turkey. When the gun collided with the turkey, the meadow had a giant explosion and the hunter went flying. He landed in another town. After that incident no one went to hunt the turkey named Pete. And that is the story of the Thanksgiving turkey.

4 UPCOMING EVENTS Nutcracker performance in Hamilton By Kaylee Evans * 8th Grade This year s Nutcracker will be playing at the Hamilton Performing Arts Center on Saturday, Nov. 30 at both 2pm and 7pm and Sunday Dec. 1 at 2pm. Playing the role of Clara this year is Josie VanDenburg, a freshman at Hamilton High School. Prices for the performances are $20 for adults and $10 for 6-10 year olds. Children under 5 years old are free if they are with a paying adult. Molly Gale, Corvallis 8 th grader, will also be performing in the Nutcracker. The Nutcracker is fun and time consuming, Molly said, But it is all worth it in the end. Shared holiday traditions By Chloe Stanley * 6th Grade Thanksgiving We have a big dinner, say what we are thankful for, and we play board games! Austin Medlar, 5 th grade We have a huge Thanksgiving dinner. Also we give food and clothing to charity! Willow Whitewolf, 6 th grade We try to interact with holidays here, we roast a big turkey with family recipes. Carlos Paredes, 7 th grade We have a huge feast, have family members over, and have family time as in watching TV and relaxing. James Gladden, 8 th grade Christmas We have a family Christmas party and give clothing to charity! Kailee McCready, 5 th grade We wake up at six o clock in the morning, open presents, and have family time! Bridger Williams, 6 th grade We have a huge breakfast, wake up early in the morning take turns opening presents, and play board games with family, and also make snowmen! Chloe Nevin, 7 th grade We stay home, watch Christmas movies or shows. We have this type of bread called Stollen which is bread with nuts, candy fruit, and raisins etc. Kyran Hughes * 8 th grade Two weeks of bliss By Kyran Hughes * 8th Grade Christmas break!!! Everyone s excited for the two weeks of Christmas break we get this year. What brought this on? This is the first year, as far as we know, that we get two weeks of vacation. Kyran Hughes asks Mrs. Rodewald why this is so. Kyran: Why do we have two weeks of Christmas vacation this year? Mrs. Rodewald: Well, this is because of the position of Christmas this year. It s on Wednesday so the calendar committee decided to give us both weeks off. The calendar committee includes someone from the middle school, high school, and primary school who form a committee to see which days we have off. They meet up and make two calendars and let the staff vote on which they like best. Birthdays! By Kaylie Wilson * 8th Grade Elsie Read Nov. 27 th Kamri White-Nov. 27 th Kitana Carson- Nov. 29 th Ethan Mull- Nov.29 th Isabel Jessop- Nov. 30 th Justin Sieber- Nov.30 th Cham Weizmann- Nov.27 th Bill Nye- Nov.27 th William Blake- 28 th Ed Harris-Nov.28 th Andres Bello-Nov.29 th C.S Lewis-Nov.29 th Jonathon Swift-Nov.30 th Billy Idol-Nov.30 th

5 COMICS The World of Mishaps By Sammy Shegrud * 7th Grade I m a Chemist By Kiley Mullen * 8th Grade