The Bookworm Confessions

By Chloe & Lianna

Chloe...

I always look forward to the moment when I can come home from my hectic day and relax. This is usually around 10:30. p.m. I've spent the last few hours after school at dance.

My house is full of lights from the porch, the windows and the automatic light sensors from the neighbors' home. I like to look up at the sky to see if there are any stars out.

Once into the house, I put on my pajamas and begin working on my homework. When I finish, I pick up a book and read until I begin to see double. Then I close my eyes and go to sleep.

Sometimes I stay up until very early in the morning absorbed in a book. When you read a book, you get a break from the normal everyday routine. I enjoy escaping my mind, and going into the mind of someone else. When I read a book that has problems that are far from normal, I get to use my imagination.

When I'm ready for a new book, I take a trip to Barnes & Noble. There I cruise down to the young adult section. I look for a book that would be appealing to me. I look for mystery books usually.

My top-10 favorite books to read are:

Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr

The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

Ana's Story by Jenna Bush

Buchanan-Renard-Mackenna series by Julie Garwood

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

The Confessions of Georgia Nicolson series by Louise Rennison

Evermore by Alyson Noel

Wake by Lisa McMann

Need by Carrie Jones

The Silver Kiss by Annette Curtis Klause

Lianna...

MIS LIBROS FAVORITOS:

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Emma by Jane Austen

Harry Potter series by J.K Rowling

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

I like to read because reading allows you to escape from your own life and get involed in someone else's life whose life is probably much more interesting than your own.

When I look for books to read, I look at the cover and author's style of writing. If a cover is ugly and uninteresting, I probably will not give that book another look. If I see an interesting cover, I pick up the book and read the summary. I also look at the author's writing style because I cannot stand poorly written books. There are so many authors out there that are horrible in my opinion.

Spring Break Plans?

By Chloe

See you back in class on April 6 for the Make-up Snow Day! Then have a great spring break till we're back on April 13.

Here's where some of you will be spending the break.....

Sarah, 8th grade: Vermont

Montsy, 8th grade: Home

Collin, 7th grade: Maine

Sarah, 4th grade: Florida

Jake, 4th grade: Home

Brandon, 4th grade: Home

Aidan, 4th grade: Home

Harry Potter Takes on Twilight

By Lianna & Julie

V.

The winner is clear.

The Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling beats the Twilight saga by Stephenie Meyer, 22 votes to 5 in a recent Cougar Times poll.

Says seventh-grader Sophia: "Harry Potter has more plot."

Eighth-grader Montsy agrees: "Harry Potter has better characters like Sirius Black and Draco Malfoy."

High School Picks

By Nicklas

So, where will all the 8th graders be next year?

Drum roll, please.....

James I. O'Neill High School

Chris
Maddie
Ali
Skye
Julie
Olivia
Montsy
Richard
Chloe
Skyler
Manny

Haldane High School

Frank
Matthew
Nicklas
Simon
Connor
Drew
Jake
Eryn
Lindy
Kady
Hannah
Sarah
Robby
Nicholas
Libby
Ander

The Masters School

Avery
Jack
Graydon
Lianna
Phillip
Casey
Elizabeth
Justin

In Conclusion: 2009 Science Fair Winners

By Chloe & Nicklas

The 2009 Science Fair was full of interesting projects. All the projects were very well presented. The projects were all different. Some were about onions, and some were about crystal. Congratulations to the following students whose projects will advance to the all-county competition:

Grades 2-4

Physics

Ethan, Mrs. Timmons' 4th grade: "Can magnetism flow through liquid in 3D?"

Biology

Eddie-Joe, Mrs. Moscati's 3rd grade: "How Does Television Affect Homework?"

Chemistry

Amanda, Mrs. Kuchera's 4th grade: "Does price affect which nail polish lasts longer?"

Grades 5-8 Winners

Earth Science

Tim, Mr. Berger's 7th grade: "What is the driving force behind ocean currents, water temperature or salinity?"

Physics

Kady, Ms. Akhondzadeh's 8th grade: "Which type of lightbulb, incandescent, compact fluorescent or LED, gives off the brightest light, most heat and has the most energy efficacy?"

Chemistry

Philip Disarro and Jack Revkin, Ms. Water's and Ms. Klubnick's 5th grade: "What liquid coating makes a bar of soap slide the fastest and farthest?"

Biology

Micah, Mr. Keegan's 6th grade: "How effective is Rooibos tea as an antimicrobial?"

Environment

Samantha, Mrs. MacEnroe's 7th grade: "What fertilizer pollutes our water system the most?"

Congratulations to the elementary and middle school science fair winners. You did a great job on your work!

A Day in the Life...

By Lianna

Thursday, March 12, 2009

8:10 AM

I am currently riding to school on the red bus. I woke up 20 minutes ago; I slept way late. All of the younger kids are screaming their heads off and being extremely irritating while us older kids are sitting in the back of the bus half asleep.

10:00 AM

The eighth graders just got out of Math and Spanish. Math was unusually quiet today. We learned about trig functions (tangent, sine and cosine). In Spanish we learned the Spanish words for different body parts. We also watched a very humorous film in which a man walks around a mall and asks various shoppers if he can examine body parts such as the shoulder and the elbow. After he was done with that, he and his friend went to a taco bar and ordered tacos made of brains and tongues. Isn't that just lovely?

11:25 AM

I am now in the locker room after gym class, which is by far my least favorite class due to the fact that I am extremely uncoordinated. Our gym teacher had us do the dreaded "three-minute scores." Three-minute scores are a torture method designed by our gym teacher. Each quarter, he had everyone jump rope and run for three minutes straight while counting how many jump ropes we jump and how many cones we run around. This sounds fairly easy, but it is actually very frustrating. By the end of it, many of us can barely breath and the others gloat about how awesome they are. Then we have to shout out our scores in front of everyone, which is quite embarrassing. It is especially embarrassing for me because, as I mentioned before, I am extremely uncoordinated and my scores are always the lowest. Anyway, after the three-minute scores, I played beachball with two friends of mine. I was on a team by myself against two very skilled beachball players. This was an epic failure, because I am terrible at every sport in existence. The teams were made mainly for comedic purposes. We all wanted to see how terribly I would do. Well, now we're going to go to English class. Yay, Shakespeare.

12:40 PM

It is now recess, but instead of being outside like I would like to be, I am stuck in the English room with several other unfortunate souls who were stripped of their outdoor privileges. I was banned from going outside because of my lack of outerwear, though I could have easily walked a couple of feet down to the locker room to get it. Anyway, after gym we had English class, where we are reading the Shakespeare play, Twelfth Night. We will be performing this play in several months. After English we went to the cafeteria for lunch. My friend and I got scolded for throwing handfuls of Lucky Charms at each other. Now I'm in the English room reading one of my favorite books, My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult for the 100th time. In a few minutes, we will be going to Social Studies and Science.

2:10 PM

Now I'm in Science. I normally would not be able to write during this period, since we are always occupied with things of a scientific nature, but I have a few spare seconds because I finished copying my chart early. In Science, we are learning abouty acids, bases, neutral substances and which household solutions contain them. In Social Studies we watched a movie and read about World War I. I have come to the conclusion that World War I is the most pointless war in the history of the world, though it is very interesting to learn about. I'm leaving at the beginning of next period, but if I wasn't, I would be going to study hall.

3:10 PM

I am now on the train going to New York City. My mom and I are celebrating my grandmother's 85th birthday with her and my grandfather. We're all going to eat dinner at Olive Garden (I hate it there, but my grandfather wanted to go there for reasons unknown). Then, we're leaving el viejo behind. My mom, my grandma and I are going to see the Broadway play In the Heights. Normally I would be at ballet class in Beacon from 4:30 to 6:00, but today is an exception.

8:00 PM

I am now at the theatre with my mom and my grandmother. Olive Garden was terrible; I think I gained 10 pounds in one sitting. I should probably stop writing because the play is going to start in two seconds.

11:15 PM

I just got on the train going back home. The play was very good, which means something coming from me because I tend to despise all musicals. The only ones I like are West Side Story, the Wizard of Oz, and the Lion King. My mom and my grandma enjoyed it a ton, since it reminded them of how life was back in the day for them. They made many personal connections with it. Now I'm doing the dreaded homework.

1:30 AM

I am now home, and I just finished my homework. Yahootie. I should probably go to sleep now, since I have to wake up tomorrow at 6:00, but I'm not very tired. So I'm going to go watch That '70s Show.

2:00 AM

Now I am officially tired. Tomorrow won't be fun. Going to school with little sleep is not very fun. Now I'm going to sleep. Adios.

Congrats Cougar Contest Winners!

1st place, Middle School: Graydon

1st place, Elementary School: Kaelin

Finalist: Julie

Finalist: Skye

Special Report: All Wired Up

By The Cougar Times Staff

Nearly all of the 36 students in the Garrison School's eighth-grade class have their own cell phones, according to a survey by the Cougar Times. Many students in lower grades also carry cell phones.

Here are some of the types of cell phones and plans that students are using:

A Motorola Razr with unlimited texting and 500 minutes shared with siblings.

A Verizon LG Dare with unlimited texting and 500 calling minutes.

A yellow Verizon Chocolate with no texting and 500 minutes.

A Verizon EnV2 with unlimited texting and E-Z tip calculator.

A Verizon Venus with unlimited texting and camera.

A Samsung Verizon phone with unlimited texting to all Verizon phones and advanced Bluetooth.

A Verizon Venus phone with unlimited texting and calling and calculator feature.

An LG Dare Verizon phone with texting and web.

A Verizon enV2 with unlimited texting that can send more than 500 texts an hour.

A Chocolate Verizon with texting and web.

A Sony Ericsson w350i, AT&T phone with unlimited talk and unlimited texting.

The survey also found confusion over the rules governing cell phone usage at school. To help clear this up, we provide below the section on "Electronic Devices" found in the "Garrison Union Free School District Middle School Student/Parent Handbook:"

"Students are strongly discouraged from bringing cell phones, radios, beepers, CD players, laptops, cassette players, MP3 players (iPods), headphones, electronic games, laser pens/pointers, and other electronic devices as they are a distraction. Once students have arrived at school, all these devices must be put in students' lockers. Students, however, may use Walkman-type devices (with headphones) on the school bus on the way to and from school and during their own recess times. If students are using any of the other devices during the school day, they will be taken away and returned at the end of the school day. Students are responsible for any or all electronic devices. The school is not responsible for lost, stolen or damaged items."