The Viking Press the Student Newspaper of Voorhees Middle School
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Volume 14 Issue 3 April 2009 The Viking Press The Student Newspaper of Voorhees Middle School OMG! It‟s the NJASK! The scary date we dread since the beginning of the year, the date of the NJASK is here. Hours of testing in a stuffy room each day, pressure to sleep well and eat well, and studying 24/7 for the test. It‟s not fun, so here are some tips to make it easier for you. Before the test, maybe during homeroom or on the bus, challenge yourself with some easy common knowledge questions. This‟ll get your brain cells up and working so you don‟t have to read each sentence multiple times. You should listen to the directions your teacher gives you and the one‟s on the test. Al- ways remember, at the end of each section, to go through your Scantron sheet and make sure you haven‟t skipped anything. If you have extra time, go through the test and check the answers you had problems on. Another trick is to use the test to take the test. If you don‟t know an answer, keep going and maybe something said in another question will ring a bell in your brain for the answer to that question. Of course, eat well and sleep well. This really helps, because there is a big difference between a person who has whole-grain cereal and slept nine hours and a person who slept five hours and had Coke for breakfast. Keep yourself stress- free, and try to pretend it‟s a normal worksheet in school, not a big test. If you don‟t do well in it, it‟s alright; but you should try your best. Congratulations! Congratulations to the VMS Boys and Girls Basketball teams for winning the Camden County Elementary League Conference Championship this year! Your hard work paid off! The Perfect Presentation By Ashleigh Frazier As you may know, VMS is the home of Rocco, a very special student who is blind. Only you couldn‟t tell this from his personality! Rocco is a high achieving student with an outgoing personality, and an amazing singing voice. Last month Rocco and his mother came to VMS and gave a presentation to the seventh graders. This presentation was designed to help students understand Rocco and know how to act around him. During the presentation, students were given background information about Rocco; how he be- came blind and how his mother started The Little Rock Foundation, for visually impaired children. Later each student was given a card that had a clear peephole with different de- signs so that the students could picture what visually impaired children see. Rocco‟s mother gave very useful information about their camp including how it was started and how you can volunteer, at Camp Ockanickon. A Braille card was also handed out in ad- dition to a packet to practice Braille. Rocco reads fluently in this code, but I had to take two minutes to figure out one word!! In addition to this, students got to ask Rocco questions. The information given was very inter- esting and valuable. The seventh grade class would like to say thank you to Rocco and his mother for educat- ing us about his many achievements. For more information about Rocco’s summer camp and The Little Rock Foundation visit www.tlrf.org or contact the Little Rock Foundation at 877-220-2500. Healthy Habits Lead to Happier Life By Judah Jamison Nutrition and good health is extremely important in one‟s life because it can determine whether you are going to live a long and healthy life or not. Most students in middle school are teenagers, and they are developing more independence. Your mother cannot tell you to wash your hands or brush your teeth anymore. It is your responsibility to do these things well and keep up with healthy habits. It is scientifically proven that if you have good nutrition, you can live longer. Doing simple things like washing your hands every so often can help you im- prove your health. After people sneeze or cough, they should ask to go the bathroom, and wash their hands. As you probably know, this can spread sicknesses and diseases. If there isn‟t any soap, use had sanitizer. Most teachers have hand sanitizer in their classroom, if not carry a pocket sanitizer with you. Other ways to keep your body in good shape is to eat a variety of foods, which is very important to keep from getting overweight. It is very unhealthy to eat the same thing con- stantly without switching up your diet. Try having two cups of strawberries in the morning with cereal. There‟s two cups of your daily supply of fruit right there. Getting sleep is also an- other part being healthy. It may not seem right, but if you don‟t get enough sleep, your body won‟t grow properly. You will feel better and learn better if you get enough sleep and keep your body in good shape. ther. In the beginning of the day as we, stu- dents, start piling into the school, we walk through ever-so-clean hallways with tall, glossy red lockers attached to the walls. When the clock strikes 3:10 and most of the students are gone, the hallways turn from ever-so-clean to ever-so-messy. Papers and worksheets, pencils and pens, reading books of all sort, and some- times even jackets, lying on the floor! What has become of our hallways that were once so clean at 8 AM every day? Even though these facts are tough The Other Side of to swallow, they are true. However, there is a way to stop the cans and paper flying out of win- the Window dows creating pollution. Here are three easy By Navneet Guleria steps that students, like us, can accomplish; they aren’t hard, so no worries! Have you ever been in the 8th grade hallway? If Simply, don’t litter! Recycle cans and paper. you have, it’s great, right? If not, I would under- Throw out candy wrappers; don’t just stand. It’s a little creepy with all those big eighth pick them out of your pocket and throw graders picking on you or just hovering over you them on the ground. like clouds. Yet, if you are an eighth grader, you Particularly on Earth Day, do your part! probably have looked out the windows a couple Join or create a group and clean the of times while walking to classes. If you haven’t school grounds, inside of the school, or already noticed, our school is polluted! community parks! Imagine this: You just left math class Take Action. If someone litters near you, say where you took a complicated math test and something! Stand up for the Earth be- you’re on your way to Spanish. You walk down cause it can’t. [Of course, don’t start a the 8th grade hallway frustrated with yourself. fight! Just tell them politely that the The only thing that can make you feel better is Earth needs taking care of.] the beautiful, sunny, spring day outside and the only way you can see that is through the eighth On April 22, it will be Earth Day. Let’s all grade windows. You stop by the windows, ex- join together to fight the challenge of pollution cited, and suddenly become shocked. The on our Earth. ground is polluted with cans, paper, and other junk. The grass isn’t so green on the other side after all! Okay, so maybe you don’t care so much “Live Simply, Go Green” about the day outside, but do you care about how our Earth is affected because of these insen- sitive actions? The truth is: our school is pol- luted and we should do something about it. In addition to school grounds out- side being polluted, the inside isn’t so green ei- A Spring Special! By Navneet Guleria During Spring Break, you may become a little bored. If that Dear Vanessa, th unfortunate event occurs, here is a great, delectable treat that Well, I like this guy in 8 grade and I‟m in is easy to make! 7th grade. I do nothing but talk about him and my friends get really annoyed, but they don‟t under- Cake Ice-cream stand. They keep on telling me to make a move but he hangs around with the “mean‟‟ kids in 8th Cones grade. He‟s like my halo. He‟s so sweet, nice, car- Ingredients ing, and smart. I see him every day and I don‟t even know what to say to him. He sees me to but 1 box favorite cake mix I get so nervous when our eyes lock. I don‟t know 1/2 cup cold water what to do, and this is what you are here for. How 2 eggs do I get his attention? 3 tablespoons water -Dream Boy (halo) trouble 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 tablespoon cooking oil 24 flat-bottomed ice cream cones Dear Dream Boy (halo), Directions If he‟s really sweet, nice, caring, and smart like you said that maybe he won‟t be mean Preheat oven to 350° F. to you. That‟s what I think well than maybe by Combine cake mix and 1/2 cup cold water. Beat 2 min- utes. Beat in eggs, water, vanilla and oil. Mix well. Place chance he will give you a chance, you never ice cream cones in muffin tins or on cookie sheet and fill know.