MCPS
Timberwolf
Times
Issue 3
April 11, 2014
INDEX
Transmission Received
Sixth Grade Myth
Page 2
Movie Review
Page 2
Pranks
Page 3
Chocolate Taste Test
Page 3
Groundhog Day
Page 4
Chinese New Year
Page 4
Valentine’s Day
Page 5
St. Patrick’s Day
Page 5
6th Grade Awards
Page 6
7th Grade Awards
Page 7
8th Grade Awards
Page 8
Comics
Pages 9/10
Students from Ms. Skufca’s 3rd period class with their Seaperch: The Nephilim. Dinali Wijegun‐
awardena, Emily Frashure & Haddi Fofana (left to right) scored 38 points, the highest in their class. From Timmy Yih
Seaperch and How it Works
February 26th 2014
Project Seaperch and its many engineers arrive at Carderock, a naval warfare facility to test their robots. After taking a
tour of the facility to get a look at the projects currently being
worked on at Carderock and where they test them, the engineers
go a separate room to test their Seaperch robots. Veteran engineers waiting in the room take a look at all of the robots,
watched as the engineers competed against one another in a contest to collect the most ping pong balls. The top three teams
were entirely made of girls. The team in first achieved 39 points.
The team in second achieved 38. And the team in third came
close with 36 points.
A month before…
The engineers worked extremely hard on their robots. Lots of
laughter was laughed and tears were shed. Wisdom was gained
from the mistakes they made. After many days of hard work and
troubleshooting, the robots had finally finished. Read about the
work they did while creating their SeaPerch.
Engineer teams started with different tasks due to the
limited resources in the workplace. Some teams started with
working with the structure of their robot. Others started with
mechanics and electrical designs. Structure required drilling and
building the SeaPerch. The mechanics and electrical designs were
the most grueling tasks. Mechanical designs were based on the
motors of the robot. Getting the motors ready was very timeconsuming including the task of sealing the motor with tape, connecting wires to the motors and even waxing the motors without
gloves. Electrical designs were even harder than mechanical ones.
The electrical designs required an ability to solder. Soldering is
the art of melting solder to connect a circuit to the circuit board
and hardening it at once. If you’re not careful, you could hurt
yourself. The young engineers demonstrated a capability to do
these tasks and even do better than the expectations.
Congratulations Top Teams! CADD-ARE Welcomes Potential
Engineers!
Transmission Terminated
6th Grade Myths
By: Jessica Madruga
Sixth graders wrote and illustrated and myths in reading class. Mrs. Narcisenfeld donated the myths her students wrote to Children’s Hospital.
Mrs. N is the only teacher that donates the myths to the children’s hospital.
Mrs.N started donating the myths (with the student’s permission) to the
hospital about 5 to 6 years ago. In past years, the kids and sometimes nurses gave cards to the kids who wrote the myths. That is really nice of the
students who let Mrs.N donate their myths to the kids and of Mrs.N.
How the Earth got its Spin
By: Hope Miers
One day, Goddess Ploria, the Goddess of Exploring, married, God Runard,
the God of Running. The two were in love and inseparable from the day
they met. She loved to explore and with his speed she thought they could
travel the universe together. The couple who were always so in love began
to fight. It all started while they were on a trip to Earth. God Runard
discovered his love for the sport of running. He decided he wanted to stay
on Earth and run. Goddess Ploria however wanted to continue to travel
and explore other plants in the universe. God Runard competed in every
marathon and always came in first place. He was adored by many fans. He
could run so fast, he would make the planet spin. All of the mortals loved
God Runard
for he could change day and night. Goddess Ploria did not
.
like all of the time her husband spent away from home. God Runard
promised his wife they would spend more time traveling together after he
won the gold medals at the Planet Earth Olympics. Based on the promise,
Goddess Ploria planned a trip for the two of them. They were going to planet Jupiter, named after her Uncle
Zeus. At the last minute, God Runard canceled out of the trip to go to another race. This enraged the
Goddess. Goddess Ploria was so mad, she cast a spell on her husband to banish him to run on Earth forever.
She packed her bags and left for Jupiter. Little did the Goddess know she was carrying their soon to be first
born daughter, which she would name Spring. Goddess Ploria did not know how difficult it would be to travel
with baby Spring. She was also very lonely and missed her husband. She went back to Earth to visit him but was
unable to break the spell. She began to explore the planet and learned to love it there. Every morning when the
sun came up, Goddess Ploria would see her husband. The couple had three more children named Summer,
Autumn and Winter. While God Runard is forced to run around the earth forever, his power and speed will
continue to make the Earth spin.
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2
By: Tiffany Kalota
I really liked the first movie so I was excited to see the sequel. I give this movie an 8 out of 10 (like
Miley Cyrus said “Nobody’s Perfect”) This movie is about Flint Lockwood who now works at The
Live Corp Company for his idol Chester V. But he's forced to leave his post when he learns that his
machine the FLDSMDFR (The Flint Lockwood Diatonic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator) is
still operational and is churning out food-animal hybrids, that are adorable if I do say so myself when he sees the
other side of Chester V . He has to choose between getting a promotion and saving his friends what will he do?
Cloudy 2 has a 69% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 6.5 on IMDb. The movie is out in the Redboxes for only $1 a day, I
suggest you see this if you are between the ages of 6 and 13.
Page 2
Page 3
Chocolate Taste Test
By Melanie Flippin and Elizabeth Schaefer
January 27, 2014 during CT: The chocolate taste test was given to Julia Parsons, Camryn G, Alex Salas, Micah M,
Ms.Zaks, and Ms. Poole 4 chocolate samples. The first chocolate was Godiva, which was described as milky, lighter,
thin and smooth. The second chocolate, the Dove was too sweet and rich. The third chocolate was Hershey. It was
described as real and dark. The last chocolate was the Wegmans store brand. But don't be fooled by its name, it is
VERY good chocolate. Everyone agreed it tasted like almonds. All of the chocolates were good. But because of the results, we would recommend Godiva and Wegmans store brand for this Valentine’s Day.
Julia, Cameron, Alex and Micah were the stu‐
dents who helped with the Chocolate Taste Test. This graph shows there was a tie for favorite chocolates, Godiva and Wegmans Store Brand, and a tie for the least liked chocolate, Dove and CONTRIBUTORS
3 Easy Homemade April Fool’s Day Pranks
Tiffany Kalota
Lucie Marin
Hope Miers - 3rd edition editor
Ella Huck
Spare Change
This is an old trick but, is funny. Superglue coins to the
sidewalk. As people walk by watch them break their nails trying to get the coins.
Jessica Madruga
Shiwei Tang
Erica Ralston
Madelyn Ceely
Brody Eckstein
Melanie Flippin
Sam Herath
Emily Grudzien-Eaton
Elizabeth Schaefer
Timothy Yih
Johanna Lopez
Arietta Cajthaml
Aja Cajamb
April Showers
If you have a sink with a sprayer, put a rubber band around
the handle when nobody's looking. This automatically keeps
the nozzle in spray-mode. Make sure the nozzle is pointing up
and outward. The next person to use the sink will get a
splash! Too funny!
Got Milk?
If your milk comes in a cardboard container, add a few drops
of food coloring. It's harmless April fool’s joke but the results
are pretty colorful
Groundhog Day
By Ella Huck and Madelyn Ceely
Why the Groundhog?
Since a groundhog hibernates for the winter, when it comes out of the ground it is a natural sign of spring. In Europe centuries ago, people watched for other hibernating animals,
including badgers, bears, and hedgehogs, as signs of the end of winter. Germans who immigrated to Pennsylvania in
the mid-1800s began watching the groundhog. The growing population of the groundhog made it a good choice
for this weather superstition.
And a superstition it is. But there's some truth to it: the winter days when you can see your shadow clearly are
often especially cold, because there are no clouds overhead to keep the earth warm.
Why now?
Groundhog Day happens in early February because not only is it the middle of winter but it has many holidays.
Among these is Candlemas Day, February 2, a Christian holiday that celebrates Mary. Early Christians believed
that if the sun came out on Candlemas Day, winter would last for six weeks more.
Read more: Groundhog Day | Infoplease.com
Chinese New Year
By Hope Miers
Page 4
Chinese New Year starts with the New Moon on the
first day of the New Year and ends on the full moon
15 days later. The 15th day of the New Year is called
the Lantern Festival, which is celebrated at night with
lantern displays and children carrying lanterns in a parade. The Chinese calendar is based on lunar
and solar movements. The lunar cycle is about 29.5 days. In order to "catch up" with the solar calendar the Chinese insert an extra month once every few years. This is the same as adding an extra day
on leap year. This is why, according to the solar calendar, the Chinese New Year falls on a different
date each year. New Year's Eve and New Year's Day are celebrated as a family affair, a time of reunion and thanksgiving. The celebration was traditionally highlighted with a religious ceremony given in
honor of Heaven and Earth, the gods of the household and the family ancestors. The sacrifice to the
ancestors, the most vital of all the rituals, united the living members with those who had passed
away. Departed relatives are remembered with great respect because they were responsible for laying the foundations for the fortune and glory of the family. The presence of the ancestors is
acknowledged on New Year's Eve with a dinner arranged for them at the family banquet table. The
spirits of the ancestors, together with the living, celebrate the onset of the New Year as one great
community. The communal feast called weilu. It symbolizes family unity and honors the past and present generations.
Page 5
DIY Valentine’s Day Room Decoration
By Shiwei Tang
Are you sad that Christmas is over? After you take down your decorations, isn’t it just plain? Here are
a couple of ways to spice up your room with something you might already have at home.
Heart Garland
Materials: Yarn, premade felt heart, some felt of your choice,
scissors, mod podge, and heart stickers (optional).
Step 1: Cut the felt into about 10 hearts.
Step 2: Take some mod podge and glue the premade felt heart to
the heart you already cut.
Step 3: Repeat this for all of your hearts (you can change up the combination if you wanted)
Step 4: To spice it up even more, you can add a sticker in the center of your heart and it will look a
million times cuter (optional)
Step 5: Heat up your heat glue and attach the yarn to the heart. (As you are doing this, make sure you
space out the hearts evenly on the yarn.) Now you can put this wherever you want!
Tin Can Caddy Organizer
Materials: A bunch of empty tin cans (you want one large one and the rest small), some different colored and pattern fabric, mod podge, scissor, and paint (optional).
Step 1: Remove all the labels from your cans.
Step 2: For the biggest can, you can paint it if you want it to stand out among the others (optional).
Step 3: For all of the other small cans, you want to choose a piece of fabric and if you want, you can
glue the edges of the fabric so there is no fray (optional).
Step 4: Cover each can with mod podge and wrap your fabric on to the can.
Step 5: Take each can and apply a bit of hot glue to each can and attach all the small cans to the big can.
And you’re done! Now you can store whatever you want!
St. Patrick’s Day
By Brody Eckstein
Saint Patrick’s Day is celebrated each year on March 17. St. Patrick’s Day was established in the early 17th century. Usually there
are feasts, parades and all sorts of other things. The day is about
St. Patrick and the arrival of Christianity in Ireland. Also the heritage and culture of the Irish. Irish music and dance are seen on St.
Patrick’s Day. A traditional meal on St Patrick’s Day is corned beef
and cabbage. Shamrocks are a symbol of St Patrick’s Day because
St. Patrick used it to explain the holy to Irish Pagans. (A pagan is a
person who is not Christian, Jew or Muslim.)
Leprechaun artwork by Jason Luke SGMS 6th Grade Awards Assembly
By Arsalaan Sayyed
At the 2013-2014 6th Grade Awards Assembly more than 50 parents came to see their children get awards.
Many of the parents brought their younger child to the awards ceremony allowing them to become part of the
SGMS tradition. Ms. Zaks greeted the parents and students and the SGMS band played “All the Pretty Little
Horses”, which was greatly applauded by the audience.
Mr. Barnett stated in his opening speech that 58% of sixth graders earned honor roll. SGMS separates the honor roll students into four categories:
1. Students who receive straight A’s for the first time: Martian Sebastian Apilado, Madelyn Ceely, Brian Do,
Lindon Luu, Emilia Medina, Elizabeth Schaefer
2. Students who receive straight A’s for the secBand
Nqaba Mamba
ond time: Diego Bigelow-Gonzalo, Anas Brim,
Orchestra
Riyaq Jaamac
Mariam Bukhari, Michael Chopra, Natalie
Cross, Agatha Hando, Madeleine Johnston, AlFine Arts
Carlotta Raker
exander Kerrigan, Peter Kozlov, Loretta Luu,
Bismita Mallik, Andres Martinez, Haley Mazza,
Physical Education
Natalie Cross, Erica Ralton, Preston Savey
Hope Miers, Bridget O’Hare, Carlotta Raker,
Preston Savey ,Joshua Thomas, Juliet Wynn,
Health
Emily Grudzien-Eaton
Zachary Zhao
ICT
Madelyn Ceely
3. Students who received honor roll for the first
time: sixteen students
Pathways
Mauricio Merino
4. Students who received honor roll for the secSpanish
Diego Bigelow–Gonzalo
ond time: 70 students
“Congratulations to our 6th
grade students. Your excellence is a shining example to
others. Having watched the
Lego movie with my own children recently I often think
how the "ordinary and regular
person" can make the biggest
impact on others. That is you.
Keep shining and leading the
path for others. As the theme
song in the movie went, Everything is Awesome!”
Mr. Owusu—6th Grade Administrator
Page 6
French
Britti Mallik
Citizenship
Riley Powell, Blake Posada, Diego BigelowGonzalo, Matthew Krivitskiy
Olivia Glazer, Mariam Bukhari, Jamilah
Boston, Ella Huck, Daniel Schorr, Martin
Apilado.
Outstanding Academic
Performance & Effort
Most Improved
Reflections Award
Rising Star
Geography Bee Class
Winners
Geography Bee SGMS
Champion
Grit Award
Precious Adams, Jeremiah Baxter, Juan
Castillo, Malachi Clark, Jason Cortez Vallejo, Hunter Eberlin, Oscar Flores Munos,
Ashley Hanson, Diamond Harris, Ayana
Henries, Kaya Huff, Alex Joya, Kendall
Mahone, Marco Mattocks, Tristian
McClung, Mauricio Merino, Alejandro
Orellana, Dylan Riegel, Isaac Righter, Joseph Simmerman, Te’Asia Smith, Caleb
Taylor, Iris Ventura
Andres Martinez / literature, Riyaq Jaamac/
film production
Precious Adams, Jeremiah Baxter, Diamond Harris, Kaya Huff, Kendall Mahone,
Marco Mattocks, Dylan Riegel, Joseph Simmerman
Martin Apilado, Hunter Eberlin, Jeremy
Brooks, Sam Herath, Malachi Clark
Cody Allen
Ms. Stevenson
Page 7
SGMS 7th Grade Awards Assembly
By Arsalaan Sayyed
At the 2013-2014 7th Grade Awards Assembly more than 30 parents came to see their children get awards.
Many of the parents brought their younger child to the awards ceremony which is great so they can be part
of the SGMS tradition. Shortly after Mr. Owusu greeted all the parents and students into the awards ceremony. The SGMS band played “All the pretty little horses” which was greatly applauded by the audience.
Twenty-five students earned straight A’s for the second time this year:
Heshani Amugoda
Alexander Bailey
Aniq Islam
Shashwat Basnyat
Jin-Young Lee
Jordan Blackwell
Jazmin Castelo
Vivian Nguyen
Joshua Clugston
Samiksha Paudel
Diana Cruz
Matthew Spear
Buo-Zhong Deng
Fatama Elsayed
Caleb Wein
Megan Hu
Timothy Yi
Eleanor Zang
Thomas Helgesen
Racheal Sentongo
Emily Frashure
Paula Fudolig
Isabel Guimaraes
Jia Tong Liang
Dinali Wijegunawardena
Two students earned straight A’s for the first time: Justin McKinney, and Ishan Neupane. There was 1 first
time Honor Roll which was Maria Fuentes, and a whopping 66 second time honor roll seventh graders.
Student of the Quarter Awards:
Outstanding Academic
Performance & Effort
Most Improved
Band
Justin McKinny
Orchestra
Joshua Clugston
FACS
Fatama Elsayed
Fine Arts
Paulina Leder
Physical Education
Abigail Ferouz, Nylise Lestaevel,
Tiago Silva
Reflections Award
Health
Vivian Nguyen
Rising Star
CADD
Pathways
Madeline Eckstein, Aniq Islam,
Samiksha Paudel, Matthew Spear
Jordy Quintanilla
Geography Bee Class
Winners
Spanish
Diana Cruz
French
Nichole Bright
Geography Bee SGMS
Runner Up
Grit Award
Citizenship
Shazil Usmani, Jazmin Castelo
Heshani Amugoda, Samiksha
Paudel, Tiago Silva
Vanessa Fuentes-Reyes,
Lauren Fuller, Nylise Lestaevel, Josselyn Martinez Hernandez, Jordy Quintanilla,
Baboucarr Sanyang
Andres Martinez in the
category of literature and
Jessica Cleveland in the
category of film production.
Josselyn MartinezHernandez
Alex Bailey, Michael Suzich,
Daniel Gomez, Fernando
Fontan, Nathan Eshbaugh,
Malcolm Jennings
Zeeshan Anam
Ms. Wright
“Not only is achieving in the classroom and in school essential, many of
our students are experiencing success and seeking opportunities beyond
the doors of Shady Grove. Congratulations to those students who are
engaged in the community and who are doing well in other endeavors in
the community.”
Mr. Montgomery—7th Grade Administrator
SGMS 8th Grade Awards Assembly
by: Arsalaan Sayyed
At the 2013-2014 8th Grade Awards Assembly many parents came to see their children get awards. Many of
the parents brought their younger child to the awards ceremony which is great so they can be part of the
SGMS tradition. Shortly after all the parents and students were seated. The SGMS band played “All the pretty
little horses” which was greatly applauded by the audience.
There were 63 honor roll students and twenty-seven eighth graders who earned straight A’s for the first quarter and second quarter are:
Luis Amaro
Anastasiya Brown
Jonathan Flores
Jason Kaye
Zhen Zhou
Tori Bird
Madeleine Birney
David Caceres
Aja Cajthaml
Nichelle Columba
Elaine Do
Delaney Gunster
Akhil Gupta
Sung Yun Hong
Abdulnoor Jaamac
Jessica Luu
“Congratulations 8th grade students. You all have worked very
hard achieve your accomplishments. You continue to prove to
be simply the best! Maintaining
academic success is more of a
marathon than a sprint. Maintaining effective effort even in
the face of obstacles and distractions is oftentimes very difficult
and you have proven that you
can do it! Congratulations to all
who have showed that hard
work certainly does pay off! As
Will Rogers once said, “Even if
you're on the right track, you'll
get run over if you just sit
there.” Keep moving forward
and working hard! I’m very
proud of you. “
Mrs. Zaks - 8th grade administrator
Page 8
Ian McBain
Julie O'Hara
Samuel Pasti
Gauri Sood
Andrew Tran
Andrew Sonnenberg
Melanie Villatoro Flores
Lucy Webster
Jacob Wellek
Zelda Zhao
8th Grade Students of the Quarter:
Band
Orchestra
Delaney Gunster
Jasmine Hill
Fine Arts
Tori Bird
Physical Education
Alexandra Salas, and Ethan Savey
Pathways
Bryce Raiford
IED
Elaine Do, Jacob Wellek
Spanish
French
Citizenship
Outstanding Academic
Most Improved
Reflections Award
Rising Star
Geography Bee Class
Winners
Scarlet Barahona, Ilyas Dasti, Elaine Do,
Ethan Forbes
Tori Bird, Madeleine Birney, David CaInaara Molina, Bryce Raiford, Angel Williams
Jennifer Llerena, Alexis Martinez, Eduardo
Rodriguez Vasquez Santiago Suarez
Carlos Burga, David Caceres, Daniel Durbala, Abdul Jaamac, Natacha Kamsu, Marcos Valladares
Comics
Ruffy and Kitty
By Elizabeth Schaefer
The Timberwolf Times is always looking for contributors. Send us your story ideas, artwork, comics, photographs, anything that will interest students at Shady Grove
Middle School! Or better yet, come to a meeting. We
meet every Thursday from 3:00-4:00 in the 7th grade
computer lab.
Page 9
Cats Day on a Summer Delight
By Naafia Thangalvadi
Next issue of the Timberwolf Times will include continuing coverage of summer events. Such as where your going on vacation,
holidays, and trying to keep cool!!!!!
Have something to share? Contact a Timberwolf Times contributor (see listing on page 3), or send us an email:
[email protected].
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