Memories

by John C.
3rd grader

It's the end of the year! Though it is nice to get out of school, I think it is also sad because you leave your teachers, friends and all the experiments we get to do. Also, I have to think; one more year until I graduate from Countryside. Now think back and think about your favorite time at Countryside, what was that favorite time? Was it field day, a field trip or the Back-to-School BBQ? I, also, wanted to talk about field day, there are barely any bouncies! Last year there was one bouncie, two years ago there were five bouncies? Let's hope this year we have more than one bouncie. Please respond with your opinions.

3rd Gade Wax Museum

by John C. third grader

The wax museum was great! Moms and Dads were there, students from other classes were there, the newspaper was there. I think it was very exciting to have the newspaper come. I didn't think I would be picked for the newspaper,but I wanted to be interviewed by a reporter. Some of my favorite wax people were William Clark, Amelia Earhart and Tony Hawk. I was Meriwether Lewis. Who were your favorites? I think that the wax museum was a great way to learn about different people, a genre called biographies. I had a great time at the wax museum. How about you?

The Volcano in Iceland

by Zoe N.
About a week ago from April 20, 2010, (the day Lisa Campbell Ernst came), Iceland had a very huge volcano. Ash shot up as high as airplanes flew. All of the airports in Iceland could not fly, because the ash is still in the sky and it would get caught in the plane's motors. The ash contains particles that are as sharp as glass, so that when they come in contact with the planes working parts, they sand the parts down causing the engines to malfunction, and then the planes would not be able to fly. The ash was so powerful it went from Iceland where it erupted to Europe.

Ash landed in some European countries such as Norway, Poland and more. Many royal people in Poland died from a plane disaster and President Barak Obama was going to Poland for a funeral for them.

Even a week later, the ash is still coming up from the volcano, but it is not going as high as it did before.

How do you think we can help the people of Iceland and all of the other countries where the ash landed? Remember, we cannot fly because the airplanes cannot fly because all of the ash will get in the airplane's motors and then the airplanes cannot fly.

We Are Having a Visiting Author!

by Zoe N.

Every year Countryside has a visiting author. This year it is author and illustrator Lisa Campbell Ernst. She is coming April 18th, 2010. Mrs. Ernst wrote The Gingerbread Girl, a Monarch book. The Gingerbread Girl was a Monarch book this year, if you remember, and it was written by Mrs. Ernst! If you want to order some of her books, I believe you can. You have to send in the order form by April 17th, 2010. This form was sent to the oldest child in Countryside. This order form and the list of Mrs. Ernst's books are in the Countryside newsletter. Ask your parents if you can order some of her books.

I hope you are as excited as I am about Mrs. Ernst coming. What do you think about Mrs. Ernst coming? Do you like visiting authors? What do you think about all of her books? What do you think about her coming to our school? Do you like it? Or are you not interested in visiting authors? You can tell me what you think about visiting authors! I hope you will be so excited waiting for Mrs. Ernst coming!

Listen to We are having a Visiting Author!

Paper Less

by John C.

What would school be like without paper? School would be very different if we did not have paper. Every single day we would be on the computer working on… Everything! ISATs would be on the computer, spelling tests, math tests, social studies, some science even. I wonder if there was no paper, would computers be cheaper or they would they be more expensive? I don't know about you, but I think no paper would be kind of cool and it would help the school be green. What about you? Please respond your opinion.


Listen to Paper Less

Bus Pick Up Line

By: Kendra
I wish we could go back to waiting outside and watch for our car to come. For those of you that always take the bus, what would happen is you sit out at the front of the school, Ms. K. would wait there with you. You were allowed to sit on the benches and talk to your friends while you wait, we had a lot more freedom. Now we have to wait in the hall outside the gym and wait for the teachers to call your number. We are not allowed to talk because of the echo. Basically all you can do is stand there in the hall like statues until the call your number. It is silent. Some kids always worry because they forget their number, Ms. Dionosotes and Ms. Gorges have to tell you your number. I liked being picked up outside rather than in the loud hallway, we were even allowed to do flip-flops in the grass. My sister and I (when she still went to this school) would have a flip- flop contest. I had a lot more fun when we could wait outside.

Should we have a new school mascot?

By John H

I was thinking that we should have a new school mascot. The Wildcat is getting kind of old. I want people to care about the school mascot. So what about a new mascot? Since we play sports we should have a school mascot that people care about. Kids should be enthusiastic about their mascot.

I mean it really won't be hard because all we should do is vote (one class at a time) who's the mascot. It could be a wolf, a bobcat or a tiger (or any kind of symbol that's inspiring, you could write them in as a candidate). Anyway, I know most people might not agree of it, but why not see! We want to make our school awesome!

If you want to keep the wildcat, write about why you want to keep it. If you want a new school mascot, also tell me why. I'm looking forward to hearing your opinion on my blog about the school mascot in your comments.

Do You Have A Special Friend?

If you have a special friend or think you do. . . this is how they should act:
They are always on your side; They always help you when you are hurt;
They never lie to you; They never make fun of you; They never share your secrets with anyone else; They treat you the way they want to be treated.

For example if you were hurt, they care. If you like someone who you think is your friend and they laugh at you, are they a true friend? No, they are not. If they share your secrets and shout it out loud then they are not a true friend. Cherish your true friends. They are valuable. Do you have a true friend?

By: Emilie

A Futuristic School?

Wouldn't school be cool if we had a futuristic school? The bus ride that now takes a long time to get to school would be different because we would have personal electric rockets to fly us here. The gruesome lunches I blogged about last week would be limitless in variety, served by robots. Speaking of robots, our teachers would be robots. At recess, instead of bundling up in snow clothes, we strap on jetpacks. The playground equipment would be different, super slides. We would have helmets that go over our head and give us all the information we need for the day. What would a futuristic school look like? I think school will be very cool if it was futuristic!

By John C.

Why can't we have better lunches at school?

By John C., Food Critic for Countryside Cafeteria

I wonder why we can't have better lunches? I mean the pizza is good and all, but come on, I mean it's definitely not the best in the world. It doesn't have to be the best, but why not have Pizza Hut quality. The most disgusting thing in my opinion is the mashed potatoes with turkey and gravy, ewwww! And the French toast sticks, we already had breakfast! Who wants two breakfasts in one day? Another thing is the grilled cheese here is terrible. I ate it here yesterday. The crust is like a rock.

Yes, I still have things to criticize. Now this is just plain crazy. Strawberry banana toast sticks? Like I said, who wants two breakfasts? The only real good food here is the Bosco Sticks. I just had a comment from Mrs. Martindale that the pizza tastes like cardboard. Definitely true. Why can't we have better lunches?

I give this restaurant only 2 stars out of 5.

Do you like the Olympics?

by: Maddie ,Caroline and Kathleen


If you do, then how about we have are own Olympics at school. We could do cheerleading , soccer, football, basketball , tennis, baseball, and kickball, and more. Instead of gold, silver and bronze medals, whichever class wins, they have a choice of a chocolate trophy that is ten feet long or a water balloon fight with all of the teachers. If you want both prizes, your class has to win the water balloon fight. Instead of just a one day long field day, we could have one day for the Olympics and the other for field day. And if you do not want to do one kind of sport, you do not have to do it. You could be a spectator and just watch. Lunch would be pizza or ice cream.
We think this would be very fun for our school to do. What do you think of our idea?

The Winter Olympics

Are you watching the Winter Olympics in Vancouver? We have a number of Olympic website suggestions on our Countryside webpage. Our class is doing Gail Skroback Hennessey's web quest. We want to hear from you. What did you think about Friday night's opening ceremonies? What sport have you enjoyed watching? There is talk about changing the luge structure so there would be limits to the speeds these sleds can reach. At what point does safety supercede the original competiveness of a sport?

BUS RULES

by: Kathleen

I would like it if 3rd graders could sit in the back of the bus because the 4th and 5th graders hog it. This is not fair to 3rd and 2nd graders. 4th and 5th graders say that only 4th and above can sit in the back, but when they were in 3rd they sat in the back. So something I want to know is, Who made this rule?
How can we change this? What do you think?

The Gogo's Craze

by John C.

Everyone in 3rd grade is going crazy for Gogo's. They are little trading people that are very, very fun! Boys and girls love to play with them during indoor recess. We trade and battle with them.

Some Gogo's are rare, and some are ultra rare. There are 15 rare gogos, and 5 ultra rare Gogo's. The way that we like to battle is to have two people [maybe three at the most] line their Gogo's up and try to either flick or push them and get theGogo's to hit the other person's Gogo. You get 3 lives, but you lose your Gogo if you are playing for keeps. If you play for fun, you don’t have to give up you're Gogo.

There are 5 different series of Gogo's. Most people only have series 1 but some have series 2, 3, and 4. I've never seen a person with series 5. The best place to go for Gogo's is Learning Express, but they are also at Target and other stores like that. I will give you one of the names for an ultra rare Gogo. The answer is: Fist. You will learn more about this when you get GOGO'S!

Do you collect Gogo's?

Let's Learn a New Language

by Maddie
Sometimes I feel lucky, because I am in Dual Language. Dual Language is where you learn to read and write and talk in Spanish. I would like to talk to more people in Spanish. So I was thinking maybe students that aren’t in Dual Language could learn Spanish in a one hour class. They could attend a class once a week and then maybe everybody would get better at speaking and understanding Spanish. We would become one of the smartest schools. I think it would be fun for other students to learn Spanish. What do you think of my idea? Please respond.

An Interview with Mr. Groundhog

By: Shivani

G reat, you made us have 6 more weeks of winter.

R eally, we don't need it

O n the first day of spring, I will draw a mustache on your picture

U h – oh, more snow

N ow it might snow for a month and 2 weeks!

D on't rub it in!

H eat will come soon (I hope)

O nly SOME people like winter

G roundhog!

How do we know the recession has ended? What are the indicators? What is a personal benchmark for you?

“When banks stop failing” MG
“Housing sales increase.” TB
“When you start to see stores return to all of the empty strip malls.” JH
“Unemployment would decrease.” RF
“People would go out and shop.” BF
“My house would sell for more than I paid for it.” NG
“More money in my pocket.” LD
“Less unemployment.” MM
“Unhappiness decreasing, smiling increasing.” CM
“Starbucks would quit raising their prices.” LL
“When prices go down.” KS
“More jobs.” AK
“When employment is not at a record high and jobs return.” PG
“When I can go from coach to first class seats.” JM
“My neighbors would have jobs, houses would sell.” DK
“There wouldn’t be a Cash for Gold store on every corner.” MA
“The prices for rent in Chicago would increase again.” CT

Let's hear from kids and adults. What is an indicator for you that the recession is ending?

How to Feel Better in this Horrible, Cold, Weather

By Maddie
This weather is terrible, this weather is horrible, but I think we can still have fun. We can throw a huge party inside our school class rooms that reminds us of the beach. We could put the heat up high, sweltering, so we are sweating, just like the summer. Everybody would wear shorts or a bathing suit. We could drink smoothies in colorful cups and use a straw with a little umbrella. We could put on beach music and somewhere in the building we could set up a miniature golf course.
Can you think of other ideas that we could do to make this a beach party exciting?

Haiti

By: Maddie

Haiti has had an earthquake. It was 7.0 on the Richtar Scale. IT'S THE BIGGEST EARTHQUAKE THEY HAVE HAD! They're running out of food. How can we help them? Maybe we can help them by setting up a fundraiser. All of the ones I have heard about were a big success. We could raise tons of money. What ideas do you have to raise money? Please respond.

Why Can't Students Change Some Things in School?

By John

A change I would like to see is…
a day where students plan the day.

Another change I would like to see is…
to bring chocolate milk back!

And another change I would like to see is…
that we could check out more than two books from our school library.

And yet another change I would like to see is…
to bring back "those inflatable things" on field day!

And one last change I would like to see is…
more and more recess.

Let me know how you feel about these changes or others.