Author: Pereira, Susan

The Mirror
New Paltz Middle School Student Newspaper
Edition III Spring 2013

School News

Alice in Wonderland
By Kaitlyn Scialpi &
Claudia Kaplan
Every year the drama club performs a play directed by Mrs. Holmes the head teacher of the drama club. This year they got the pleasure to perform the spectacular movie, book, and play “Alice In Wonderland”.
The 6th, 7th, and 8th graders came together to make the play a big hit. They worked hard to practice as much as possible, and their hard work paid off. The main character Alice was played by three people. Little Alice was played by
Julia Eisenberg, Middle Alice was played by Livy Casa, and Big Alice was played by Klaire Branche.
There were many other leads and an ensemble. Over 80 students were involved in this production.
The students raised enough money that the 7th and 8th graders who performed in the play had the privilege of going on a field trip to see The performance “Annie” in New York City on Broadway.

Klaire Branche, Livy Casa and
Julia Eisenberg (in front)

Table of Contents
News pp 1-5,10
Sports p 5
Reviews pp 6-8
Recipe, Poem, Student Travels p 9
Fun Page pp 11-13

My Uncle
Brigadier General Paul M. Benenati
By Hannah Benenati
My Uncle is in the U.S. Army. He lives in Richmond, Virginia. My uncle has been serving our country for over 10 years. He is currently stationed in Ramstien, Mishinbock in Germany. My whole family misses him so very much and we all hope to see him soon. My uncle helps me and my brothers with school work and helps us when we need help. It isn’t the same with him not in the US but it is even harder because since my Grandfather (former Principal of our school) passed away in ’09 we all struggle with keeping my Grandma’s lawn clean. He is a great leader and role model. If you want to read about him ,Google BG Paul Benenati and look at
everything he has done. I miss him and look forward to seeing him in November when he comes home.

PLUTO’S MOONS . . . CHOOSING THEIR NAMES
By Maya Greenfield
During the past two years, astronomers sighted two more moons orbiting Pluto than the three that have already been discovered. These new ones are the smallest of Pluto’s known moons. Up until recently, these moons were just named P4 and P5. A contest was held to choose names for them. Voting was held for two weeks, up until February 25th , on the website www.plutorocks.com. The new names had to be equally as shadowy as the other three, because Pluto is the Roman version of the Greek Hades, lord of the Underworld. The first three moons were named: Charon, Hades’ ferryman who brought the dead to the underworld in his boat; Nix, the goddess of night; and Hydra, a multi-headed monster from Greek mythology.
Some of the name options were: Hercules, the hero who killed Hydra; Obol, the coin put into dead peoples’ mouths as payment to Charon; Cerberus, the three-headed dog who guarded the gates to the underworld; and Styx, the river to the underworld. The chosen names were Cerberus and Vulcan, the Roman god of fire.

Ancient Greeks Come Alive
By Kiah Saxe and Izzy Brill
In Ms. Pereira’s, Ms. Sage’s, and Ms. Sunshine’s classes, the 6th grade learned about Greek mythology and Greek gods. In each class, the 6th grade was practicing different Greek tragedies to perform for other reading/language art classes.
Each play included different Gods like Zeus, Hephaestus, and Oceanus. One of the plays was called “Prometheus Bound” and was about Prometheus stealing fire from Zeus to give to mortals. For Prometheus’s punishment, he was bound to a rock. This play was presented by Ms. Pereira’s and Ms. Sunshine’s classes. In Ms. Pereira’s morning class, Prometheus was played by Lily Jones Guida and in the afternoon, Prometheus was played by Logan Linares.
“I thought it was very interesting and I absolutely loved it,” said Zayquon James, a sixth grader.
In Ms. Sage’s classes, they did two different plays. One of them was called, “The Sea Monsters Rage.” This play was about The Queen, who was named Cassiopeia, played by Lucy Tween, who was vain and said she was more beautiful than all the other Gods. The Gods disliked what she said and gave her a punishment which was to send a Sea Monster to the town. The Sea Monster was going to kill the Queen’s daughter, played by Elizabeth Medrano. The brave Perseus was played by Emma Langsford.

Antigone: A Greek Tragedy
By Lily Sackett
On February 6, 2013 Mrs. Sage’s 7&8th period class performed the Greek tragedy, Antigone. The play was written by the Greek playwright Sophocles in Athens sometime around 441B.C. The play revolves around Antigone, who, after one of her brothers is left to die without a proper burial, defies the King Creon and buries him despite the law. Because of her defiance of the law, she is left to die of starvation in a cave. In the end the King realizes he is wrong but it is too late. His son killed himself because he was in love with Antigone and then his wife kills herself because of the grief of losing her son. This is a story with strong morals and was very well performed and entertaining to watch.

Washington DC trip
By Nicholas Zaccheo
On April 17, 18, 19 the New Paltz Middle School had its eighth graders up bright and early for yet another unique New Paltz trip. They were on their way to Washington D.C., the capital, as that grade goes every year, and this year was sure to be just as interesting. Although interesting, this trip is quite far away, about 5 and a half hours away so the students arrived at the school at 5:45 am that day for their extra long trip.
Once the students finally reached their destination, they unloaded at the Ronald Reagan building for their lunch. Afterward they went to the Capitol Building for that well-known picture taken of the entire grade every year. After that, the grade went to the Arlington National Cemetery where the students observed the graves of some famous Americans like John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and several others. The visit also included watching the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
On their second day in D.C., the students of New Paltz Middle School got to do a number of activities. They started out the day with breakfast at the hotel; from there they visited the White House, and moved on along to the Smithsonian Institute, where their individual groups toured the various museums, seeing the interesting things each had to offer. The students all had lunch in their groups at one of the Smithsonian’s and then met up with the whole grade to walk over to the Holocaust Museum for a tour. Finally that day, the students went back to the hotel, got their swimsuits and left for swimming at the Lee District Pool.
On New Paltz’s last day in Washington D.C., they packed up their suitcases, loaded them onto the buses and left the hotel for their last place they were to visit in D.C. The students arrived at the National Zoological Park and were free to tour the park with their groups. The students had a variety of places to visit, like the panda exhibit or the mammal exhibit, or any of the park’s other great exhibits. The grade met back up and got on the buses for the long ride back to New Paltz.

http://www.visitingdc.com/memorial/lincoln-memorial-address.htm

Sixth Grade Memorial Day Service
By Maya Greenfield
On Monday, May 21st, The Sixth Grade Chorus and Sixth Grade Band performed in the auditorium as a special Memorial Day service. Invited were the New Paltz Rescue Squad and Fire Department, the New Paltz Veterans of Foreign Wars, and a guest speaker, Sergeant Kenneth Cole, who is a veteran of the Gulf War.
Four sixth-graders made speeches about people in their families who were in the Armed Forces: Renee Scoppa, Andie Carroll, Kiah Saxe, and Isabella Carlini.
Two Girl Scouts, Mikayla Simmons and Lianna Maley, performed the laying of the wreath.
On this special day, students learned more about the real meaning of Memorial Day.
Boston
By Marta Pankowska
Boston was an amazing field trip. We went on the coach buses and the ride was 3 hours and a half. We had a tour guide and we saw many places like chapels and buildings. We also went to the Science Museum. We saw two movies–one was a normal movie screen, but the second one was so huge that we were almost laying flat on the chairs. It was really cool. We got back by nine, and we all got ready for bed because the curfew was at 10. Then we all woke up and had breakfast around seven and the breakfast was amazing. We continued our tour and we saw a memorial. It was for the bombing of the Marathon. It was amazing and there must have been 200 shoes. After all of the walking, we went and had a co rec. On the last day we went to a Native American place and we walked around looking at how Native Americans once lived. Then we went home.

New Paltz Veterans of Foreign Wars

The Sixth Grade Band

Student Recognition Breakfast
By Claudia Kaplan
The Student Recognition Breakfast was held to recognize the students that try their best to make the school a better place and is well suited for all the New Paltz Middle School’s students, teachers and staff.
Dr.Wiesenthal gave out awards to all of the students. Guest speakers were Mr. Patrick Rausch, president of the New Paltz Board of Education, and Mrs. Katie Tracz, guidance counselor in charge of the breakfast who made the closing comments. The breakfast was a delicious success and a nice way to begin the day.
The students included: Sean Boyle, Kyle Bredberg, Christian Burda, Hannah Fillette, Maya Gold, Melanie Grau, William Hall, Deanna Hasbrouck, Philip Jones, Iman Khan, Lia Kucera, Amanda Mele, Derek Mercier, Karla Navarro, Katerina Pisciotta, Matthew Rose, Alex Salanitri, Deanna Savelson, Catherine Scaduto, Owen Sheekey, Mikayla Simmons, Athena Vlamis, Jedidiah Weires, and Nicholas Zaccheo.
Congratulations to all the students.
School of Rock Leaves Us on a High Note for Spring Break
By Maya Greenfield
On Tuesday, March 26th, School of Rock performed for the entire school. The songs they performed and their artists are:“Signed, Sealed, Delivered” by Stevie Wonder; “Gimme Some Lovin’” by The Spencer Davis Group; “Mustang Sally” by Wilson Pickett; “Respect” by Aretha Franklin; “Hold On, I’m Comin” by Sam & Dave; and “Ain’t Too Proud To Beg” by The Temptations.
The following are the musicians and their instruments: Lauren Torres on bass; Dylan Abramson on guitar; Elijah McKee on alto sax; Steven Scribani on tenor sax; Matthew O’Connor on bari sax; Mia Dimaio on keyboard; Adin Wistreich-Tannenbaum, Oliver Goland, and Gabby Pisciotta on trumpet; Logan McPherson and Logan Linares on trombone; Nick Thompson and Will Sloane on the drums; Olivia Casa, Carmen Chu, Dana Ciernak, Jennifer Cook, Allie Defoe, Rebecca Dugatkin, Lizzie Eriole, Alex Guzman, Caroline Joseph, Julia Judge, Mikal Kalus, Molly Litton, Nadine Mansour, Tahlia Quintero, Caleb Sheedy and Jacob Sirof singing; and Dylan Scribani and Elarick Persaud as crew.
Special kudos to Elijah McKee for his sax solos, Gabby Pisciotta for her trumpet solo, Dylan Abramson for his guitar solo, and Lizzie Eriole, Alex Guzman, and Molly Litton for their singing solos. Great job to everyone, and rock on!

Cute Surprise in the Garden
By Emily Barbato & Elizabeth Medrano
On April 18th the Garden Club was launched. Every day that the Garden Club is held will be on the Morning Announcements if you are interested. But this is about another interesting find. Moshe Katz was digging in one of the gardens to get rid of weeds when he saw a pile of bramble. He was about to dig it up when he realized there was a small amount of movement. He picked up the bramble and………………THERE WERE FOUR BABY WILD RABBITS!!!!!!!!!!!! They were small and their eyes were not even open yet. We all gathered around the garden and stared at the babies; they were in a burrow sleeping. We were surprised that there was no mother with them, since they were so young. The next week we saw the rabbits with their eyes open and they were hopping around the garden. Then the next week…they were gone! The rabbits grew up and left the burrow. Although we were sad that the rabbits left, we were happy that they survived.

Photo of wild rabbits by Elizabeth Medrano

First Day of Spring?

Photo by Erin McAllister

THE GEO BEE CARNIVAL
By Aurora Mendez
The Geo Bee carnival was April 11, 2013, in room 2, Ms. Naclerio’s room. There were many different types of games there. Different games had different prizes, like gum, candy, balloons, water gun (some small and some big), pencils, pens, erasers, glue sticks, pencil cases, lollipops, soda etc. wheel of Geography, The great U.S Bean toss, Bean bag Europe trivia. No one wanted to miss this event!

The New Paltz Middle School Modified Baseball Team
By Hannah Benenati
The modified boys are coached by Coach Norcross. They are having a great season this year with 9 wins and 4 losses.
The roster includes Brian Ackert (#1), Vincent Barresi (#25), Joshua Berry (#30), Sean Boyle (#17), Skyler Cain (#7), Dylan Dellay (#13), Mike Holohan (#41), Max Lunati (#42), Nicholas Marshall (#9), Christopher Massaro (#31), Brennan McEntee (#21), Aaron Murphy (#27), Anthony Nittolo (#11), James O’Connor (#19), Harrison Segal-Kelly (#15), Adam Stolfe (#26). Anthony Nittolo and Christopher Massaro are captains of the team.
“We are a young team. Our baseball IQ and athleticism are getting better every week. We have improved tremendously since tryouts,” says Coach Norcross. Sean Boyle remarked, “It was a great experience. I got to play a lot and build up my baseball skills.”
Congratulations to the whole team for a great season!

Dylan Dellay

Coach Norcross talking to the team

Catcher Anthony Nittolo

Taylor Makes a Big Hit
By Claudia Kaplan and Kaitlyn Scialpi
Usually you would think of this song to be just another one on your playlist, but now it is the 4th most popular song in the United States this year so far. The song “I Knew You Were Trouble,” written and performed by Taylor Swift from the album Red, is now a mega hit, and sold more than 416,000 copies within its first week of release.
Taylor explained the back story to the tune before playing it to Good Morning America’s viewers and said “It’s a song that is one of my favorites on the album Red, because it sounds chaotic as the feeling when I wrote it.” Taylor Swift previewed this upbeat track on October 8th , 2012 to ABC’s Good Morning America. The song features some dubstep parts, but Taylor admitted to Spin magazine that she was unaware that she was dipping her toes in the EMD genre when she recorded this tune. She also said, “I never really thought, ‘Hey, I want to download some dubstep music!’” Thank you Taylor for making this the 4th most popular tune in the U.S!

Abduction
By Isabella Carlini
Abduction is a thriller centered on a young man who sets out to uncover the truth about his life after finding his baby photo on a missing person’s website, but it’s really a trap. Nathan finds a picture of himself as a child and wonders why his picture is on the website. So Nathan asks his “mom” and she tells him all these secrets that he had no idea about. A very exciting scene is when they’re on the train and Karen, his friend, is abducted. Then Nathan tries to save her. There is a lot of drama and action. It’s also very intense.
This movie is rated PG13.

LIFE OF PI
Movie Review by James Hyland
Life of Pi is a movie about a boy who gets stranded in the ocean after his family dies in a tragic storm and his boat sinks. Pi is a teenage Indian boy who travels to Canada once the family zoo closes. Pi’s real name is Pissing (named after a French swimming pool), and for obvious reason he changed his name to Pi-3.14159265. In Pi’s zoo there is a tiger named Richard Parker.
When the Japanese immigrant ship the family was traveling on sinks, Pi and Richard Parker are the only survivors. Sharing a lifeboat with an adult Bengal tiger is hard, but soon Pi realizes he needs the tiger to survive and must get to civilization in this incredible film about a race for survival. In the end the movie has a different moral than anticipated.
Life of Pi was an amazing movie! I would rate it 5 stars! The movie wasn’t good just because of the plot and actors, but because of the breathtaking pictures. The moonlight reflected on the deep water. The jellyfish glow miles beneath the water. The acid springs eerily filling with dead fish or the boat slowly sinking into the deep trench. The tiger attacking the unsuspecting dog. All the pictures were spectacular and the special effect animals looked so real. I would not recommend this movie to animal lovers, because it involved a lot of animals getting killed.

Mama
By Lily Sackett
The movie Mama is a horror film about two young girls named Victoria and Lilly who are left in the woods by their insane father and are cared for by the ghost of a mental asylum inmate named Edith from the 19th century. Edith, who committed suicide by jumping off a cliff while running away from the nuns who kept her and her baby separated, cared for and loved the children as substitutes for the one she lost. Over the years the two children grow attached to “Mama” as they call her. Five years later the girls are found by a search party and are adopted by their uncle Lucas and his girlfriend Annabel. But the girls aren’t the only ones to move in with Lucas and Annabel! Mama follows the girls to the house and terrorizes the family trying to get Lilly and Victoria back. Even though this movie was under the category of horror, I found the movie funny because of the very climatic music and lots of special effects.
I would highly recommend this movie and rate it around 6.8 out of 10. This movie is PG-13.

Movie review

Game Review MINECRAFT
by Cristian Pannuto
Minecraft is a game about building with cubes. It’s also a game about survival, discovery, community, loneliness, creativity, and despair. When you first start the game, you are dropped straight into the wilderness. But it won’t be a wilderness quite like anyone else’s - the game’s environments are randomly generated from the word go, and will continue to expand until you’ve travelled enough to make the game generate a world three times the size of Earth.
Your starting point could be a forest, a desert island, or the peak of a snow-covered mountain. And to begin, it’s all very peaceful. But what most players don’t initially realize is that monsters can appear from any unlit area in the game. During the day, this generally just means that caves and tunnels are unsafe. But after your first 15 minutes with the game, the sun begins to set. Some spend the night running across grassy plains, chased by skeletons and zombies. Some panic and dig a hole in the ground with their bare hands, and proceed to sit at its bottom all night, watching the stars passing overhead and praying for daylight. Some, dash into a nearby cave, seal up the entrance with blocks of dirt and think they are safe, until a venomous spider comes out of the darkness and bites them.
But you soon learn that it doesn’t need to be this way. The next day, you gather wood, build some basic tools, mine some coal, and hey presto - you’ve built a hut with some torches on it. Being permanent sources of light, the torches keep the monsters at bay. It’s not much, but it represents safety. And as each new day comes, you gather more materials. Your hut becomes a house. You add another floor. You attempt to install a fireplace, but a hilarious accident convinces you to switch from wood-based construction to stone. You build a ladder up to the roof, and every night you sit up there, watching the world turn hostile as monsters roam the land.
Unfortunately, that’s all that can be said for now. The story is yours.
See more information at minecraft.net or download on app store.

Movie review OZ the Great and Powerful
By Elizabeth Medrano
“Oz the Great and Powerful” is an amazing movie about an ordinary magician who wants to be a great man. One day a tornado ruins the carnival where he is performing, and he is swept away in a hot air balloon into the land of Oz. Oz is a magical world with many amazing creatures, like people made of china, flying monkeys, and witches….. good and bad.
On the magician’s journey he meets many friends, like a flying monkey named Finley, who he saved from a lion. He also meets a broken china girl and fixes her shattered legs, using glue. She insists she helps the magician on his quest to destroy the wicked witch. If these three heroes band together, could the magician help restore peace in the world of Oz - or will he bring disaster to the wonderful world?

What Does “Dignity for All” mean? By Zauquon James
Dignity means that you have to stand up for yourself. It means to not let anybody bring you down. Dignity is to never let anyone make you feel bad about yourself. I want to be treated fairly and nicely. I would want for people to treat me good. What I can do is I can tell a teacher about what is going on.

Warriors
By Elizabeth Medrano
The Warriors is an exciting series by Erin Hunter. It’s about Rusty, an ordinary house cat who wants to roam the forest. Later on he meets Graypaw, who is an apprentice in the Thunder Clan. Rusty becomes a Thunder Clan apprentice, because the Thunder clan needs more cats to train so they can have warriors. But poor Rusty is not treated fairly because of his “kittypet” – or housecat - roots. He then finds out there is a treacherous murderer in the clan . . .so his adventure begins.
This series has six books, and Erin Hunter wrote another series, the “Power of Three”. It still takes place in the Thunder Clan, just in a different time period. She also wrote the “Seekers,” which is about polar bears. If you like action, adventure, and mystery, then this is the book for you.
THE HOBBIT
Review by James Hyland
The Hobbit is by J.R.R Toilken, and it is the prequel to Lord Of the Rings. Recently the movie of the Hobbit came out, and many people wanted to see the movie. But reading the book first is always better. The book and the movie are usually different. So in this article I will compare them and rate them.
The Hobbit takes place in Middle Earth, a made-up land. There is one part of Middle Earth called the Shire, and in the Shire there are hobbits. Hobbits are like happy midgets with hairy feet.
The main character of The Hobbit is a little hobbit named Bilbo Baggins. One day a lot of dwarves came to Bilbo’s doorstep. The dwarves had their gold stolen by an evil dragon, Smaug. The dwarves’ names are Thorin, Ori, Nori, Dori, Oin, Gloin, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Balin, Dwalin, Fili, and Kili. The dwarves are led by Gandalf, the wizard. Gandalf says they need Bilbo to join them on their adventure. They encounter trolls, goblins, giant spiders, Giant dragons and much more.
I think The Hobbit was very well written because it moved along quickly but was still detailed. (unlike Lord Of the Rings). It was action-packed and has adventure after adventure. For example, Bilbo got lost in the Misty Mountains while being chased by goblins, and then he encountered the evil Gollum. The Hobbit also had some funny and some serious parts. For example, Gadalf tricked some stupid trolls into arguing all night about how to eat Bilbo. The Hobbit was overall very good and I would rate it 4½ out of 5, because even though it was really good, the beginning went pretty quick. I would recommend reading the book before seeing the movies and you can see the differences.
The movie of The Hobbit is very different from the book in many ways. The plot stays mostly the same, but everything is made very long, and the movie is three hours—but only half of the book is there. In the movie there were a few new characters, like Radagast, The Brown and the pale orc. There was a few random scenes and long explanations but it always came back to the storyline. Overall, I think the people who made it tried to stretch it out too much just so they could make 2 movies and get more money. I would rate this movie a 3½ because there was a lot of action that kept it going but some parts were unnecessary. I think the book was better, so I think you should read it first.
GAMEBOY© MICRO
Device Review by Cristian Pannuto
Imagine, the world’s smallest device, capable of HD games. That is called the GAMEBOY MICRO. The GAMEBOY MICRO is 51 mm / 2 inches long!
The GAMEBOY MICRO was originally targeted for the teens and “Kewl Kids”, but sooner became a collector’s item. It was announced at E3 (Game Convention) in 2005, and came out soon after. This newest addition to the Gameboy family also boasts their best-ever screen—it's sharp, colorful and remarkably bright. This little device number commands a premium above the larger, older, clamshell-style Game Boy Advance SP (successor to the original, horizontal Game Boy Advance), setting back the gotta-have-it crowd-$90. A rechargeable battery is built in, and the micro includes an AC adapter, along with a drawstring cloth pouch, two alternate faceplates, and a faceplate ejector tool. Oh, and the Game Boy micro also plays the vast array of amazing Game Boy Advance games.

Senegalese Chicken and Peanut Soup
Food.com
By Lucy Tween
Ingredients:
1 large onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
¼ teaspoon cayenne
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
¼ cup curry powder
1 tablespoon yellow curry paste
1 quart chicken stock
1 quart diced tomatoes with juice
4 cups cooked chicken, diced
¾ teaspoon sambal oelek chili paste (red chili paste)
1 cup chunky peanut butter
1 (14 ounce) can coconut milk
1 bunch of cilantro, chopped
Lemon juice to taste (1 small lemon)
Directions
Sauté onion, garlic and cayenne in oil until onion is translucent.
Stir in curry powder and curry paste; sauté 1 minute.
Add chicken stock and tomatoes in juice; bring to a boil, then simmer for 15 minutes.
Add cooked chicken and sambal; simmer for 10 minutes.
Whisk in peanut butter a little at a time until incorporated; add coconut milk and stir to incorporate.
Turn soup to low and add cilantro and lemon juice to brighten the taste; check seasoning.

Poem inspired by
the Albany Museum of Art and History
By Claudia Kaplan
The mummy was wrapped up super tight.
It looked like he slept many uncomfortable nights.
With no meat to keep warm,
I could have sworn,
it was unlike the regular form.
His bones stick out.
If he was alive he would shout.
There were so many bones
it was hard for me to count.
The mummy was interesting.
It was quite a creepy thing!

Iceland
By Michael Fillette
Iceland is located in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Iceland is part of Europe yet still has a boundary between North America and Europe. There is a place in Iceland that is in between the continents. Also, in Iceland there is a volcano called Eyjafjallajokull. One news reporter nicknamed the volcano Kevin.
Iceland has a very interesting Vikings history. One famous Viking, called Leif Eriksson, discovered Iceland. He later saw the nice land and named it Iceland so no one would go there. Meanwhile, he called Iceland’s frozen neighbor Greenland. Most Icelandic blood goes back to Leif Eriksson, the founder of Iceland. Iceland has many different types of food such as lamb. Lamb is not cooked long enough to dry it out but just enough to make it delicious. Icelanders will often serve it with potatoes and seasonings. One other popular food is fish with potatoes. They serve this in countless forms and varieties. Fish is their main export along with fish oils. Icelanders use the oils to light up their beautiful houses.
The job of being a fisherman is dangerous. My great-uncle died fishing when his boat sank in the ocean during a storm.
Iceland is a beautiful country with many things to do.
Mike Fillette shares his trip with Ms. Pereira’s class.

Google Tricks
By Luciano Crimi
There are many interesting tricks that you can do with Google. All of these tricks can be done by typing the title into the Google search bar and clicking “I’m feeling lucky.” If this doesn’t work, try clicking search.
Google Pacman: In this spin off of the retro game Packman, you take control of Mr. Pacman trying to gobble up all the balls you can eat before the ghosts chasing you make you lose a life.
Google gravity: In this special edition of Google, you can manipulate all of the search bars in Google. You can control all of the links and make them interact with others while all of them are still able to be clicked on.
Google Zerg Rush: Get ready to defend from the oncoming Zerg invasion. Destroy the O’s before they can destroy all of the links. They keep coming and don’t stop until all links are destroyed. Compete with your friends to see who can get the high score which is counted in the top right corner of the screen. Can you defend from the oncoming Zerg invasion?
Google Snakes: Feeling lucky? In a spin off of the original game Snakes, you have to collect as much food as possible. Some foods have a different amount of points awarded for collecting them.
Elgoog: Click search and be brought to a Google home page that has everything a normal Google home page has except… backwards. Everything from the links to when you type stuff in the search bar is backwards. Unfortunately unless you have chrome or Firefox the links after you hit search aren’t backwards.

Author Day
By Maya Greenfield
On Thursday, June 6th, author Nora Raleigh Baskin visited New Paltz Middle School for a sixth-grade presentation. She told the story of her life as a growing writer, which included many partings, lies, and misconceptions. She explained how her books related to her life. Her book Almost Home is the tale of her childhood life. The Truth About My Bat Mitzvah is a tribute to her grandmother. All We Know of Love explores what it would be like if she could find her mother, who committed suicide when Nora was two years old. As Nora says, “Writing is really, really powerful. . .writing, for me, saved my life.” It brought her to terms with her confused and mixed feelings, and helped her create a better world for herself.

The Garden
By Ms. Bryant
The middle school garden is up and running! We have plants donated by Philly's Bridge, plants from the 6th grade science final assessment project and potatoes!
This week we will plant pepper plants and add details to organize the beautiful new shed donated by the Boy Scouts of New Paltz.
The crops will be harvested in the fall and used in the Home and Career's class where students will learn to make many recipes using fresh, organic vegetables from the middle school garden.
Mrs. Ehlrich and myself (Mrs. Bryant) have worked after school on Thursdays with a small group of students in all three grade levels. The students have learned to differentiate between weeds and plants, mix soil, learn about various types of plants, water, and in general, feel what it is like to be hot sweaty and play in dirt. In addition, students in the 8th grade have earned community service hours for their work in the garden, a great learning experience for all! Any student who still needs to earn community service should come to the garden on Thursdays.

http://www.dltk-holidays.com/spring/images/s-wordsearch.gif

Jokes and more!!!!
By Aurora Mendez
What has six eyes but cannot see? Three blind mice!
What happened to the cat that swallowed a ball of wool? She had mittens!
What do you call a bear with no ears? B!
How do you stop an elephant from charging? Take away his credit card!
How can you make seven even?
Remove the "S".
What do you call a turtle that flies?
A shell-icopter!
http://jokes-for-kids.com/html/animals.html
Fun facts!
by isabella carlini
Did you know most people who read the word “yawning” will yawn?
Did you know that women have a better sense of smell than men?
Did you know that more than ten people a year are killed by vending machines?
Did you know that a toothpick is the object most often choked on by Americans?
Did you know that 99% of people cannot lick their elbow?

Steam Roller vs. Snail
By Claudia Kaplan
A snail and a steam roller had a race. You should have seen the snail’s face. The snail went forward and back. In no time the steam roller rolled him flat. The moral of the story is, you should be careful where you go, or roll over something and continue to roll.

The Mirror
Staff
Emily Barbato, Hannah Benenati, Marcus Baker, Izzy Brill, Serena Brandt,
Isabella Carlini, Luciano Crimi,
Maya Greenfield, James Hyland,
Zayquon James, Lily Jones-Guida,
Claudia Kaplan, Marta Pantowska,
Erin McAllister, Elizabeth Medrano,
Aurora Mendez, Cristian Pannuto, Lily Sackett, Kiah Saxe, Kaitlyn Scialpi, Lucy Tween,
Mitchell Zapka and Nick Zaccheo.
Advisor
Susan Pereira
President
Nicholas Zaccheo
A special thanks to Karen Heaning
for all of her help and expertise, and
Jeff Lipton for all his editing help.
Meetings for The Mirror are held once a week in room 3. Think about joining us in September!!
Thanks for reading The Mirror!
Look for our next edition
around the holidays.
Modified Volleyball!
By Liv Forness
The girls modified volleyball season is underway, among many other fall sports. This year, the team consists of three teams, A, B, and C, Players are organized based on skill level, cooperation, and other various elements. This season, the team has only lost one game (as of 10/14/03), which was against Marlboro. This is a dramatic change from last year when they lost every game except for one, which was only a scrimmage. Games are played either two out of three or three out of five, rally scoring.
Practices are held regularly after school 2:20-4-20. If you would like to go to a game, just contact any one of the players .
Girl’s Modified Soccer
By Emily Freeman
The NPMS girls’ soccer team practices hard. Everyday, after school, 2:30-4:15, at the NPMS fields they work to improve their skills . The girls’ coach, Laurene Cook, helps them with shooting, blocking, passing, dribbling, and other drills.
Although the season ends October 24, these girls still work hard at every game because they aren’t just a part of the team for an after school activity; they’re there because they love soccer!

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