Middle school creates a marching band
Emma
Wellington Middle School has recently suggested the idea of having a marching band! I myself am in the band, and I’m really excited for it! I chose to interview the band teacher, Mr. Olson, and he had a lot to say about the upcoming marching band. Mr. Olson wanted to start the band to help prepare the students for high school, and to give them more of a challenge. The band combines 7th and 8th graders, and will be making their debut performance at Arkalalah in Arkansas City Saturday, the 29th of October. Every person I asked was very excited about this new opportunity. I asked several students in the band to see how they felt about all of this! I interviewed Baylee (7th), Brett (7th), and Rachel (8th) who all seem very pumped to be involved and a part of this band! This isn’t only a one year thing. Mr. Olson says “It’s only the beginning,” and plans on doing even more for the band in years to come. Even though this new event is “ adding one more layer of complexity, “ declared Mr. Olson, everyone who is involved is very excited and ready for it to come.
What is red ribbon week about
Hunter
Red Ribbon week is a spirit week for standing up to drugs. Dressing up is our way of standing up to drugs. Former school resource officer and Sumner County Sheriff’s deputy Mike Westmoreland said, “Red Ribbon Week is about drugs, alcohol, tobacco, and violence. In October they have a month to raise awareness against these things.” He thinks the message came across to a few people, but not all. He also thinks that some students and teachers know and try to educate others about it. A fellow student, Ryan, thinks they do not get the point across very well, because many students don't know why they are dressing up. He thinks we should write our opinions down about the drugs, etc. So, I guess Deputy Westmoreland was right, not very many people know what it is truly about.
The bathroom in the sixth grade pod has been trashed
Lizzie
In the sixth grade pod some boys trashed a bathroom. There are rumors that they took the paper towels from the machine, squeezed the soap out of the dispenser, and got water everywhere. As a result the sixth grade teachers suspended Friday fun day, a day when the 6th grade plays games and fun things, for three weeks.Most teachers think the punishment was fair but the students disagree. Female students were upset about this because they got punished for what someone else did. Kylen said, “No it’s not fair, but it did not affect me very much because I was gone for one of them.” Also, he did not know what they were all about or even if they were fun. After that Hunter said, “Mr.Wilmoth was over reacting at the time he just wanted to put a stop to it.” The goal of this punishment was to show all the sixth graders that the “honeymoon was was over,” as Mr. Wilmoth put it.
The book fair
Alyssa
The Book Fair is here! There are many genres of books from zombie books to historical fiction novels. Some of the most popular books are: Shadow House, Sealed with a Secret, It’s Not Me, It’s You, and Dork Diaries. There are also posters available. The Book Fair is held in the library and ends on Thursday, October 20th 2016 at 7:00 pm.It is run by the school leadership team and the librarian. The students think that running the Book Fair is fun because they like to read books and calculate the prices of their purchase. It is also a good thing to do because the funds from the Book Fair are used to buy more books for the library. The librarian’s favorite part of the book fair is having more people in the library than usual and finding out what kind of books they like, while the students love finding new and better books.
Redline event
Kylen
Last Friday, Redline was held at Church Ignited. Redline is a dodgeball event held by the Wellington Recreation Center for the Wellington middle schoolers’ entertainment. Many different strategies may be used, but only one can win. A losing sixth grade team said that their strategy was to have a formation, they had five people in the front row and three in the back. The team leader said, “ The formation caused us to not be able to get any dodgeballs, when we lost our formation to collect dodgeballs the other team destroyed us while we were not looking.” Another strategy for seventh and eighth graders is to not have any sixth graders on their team so it is not weak. The teams of sixth graders had a severe disadvantage, because the sixth graders aren’t as big or strong as the seventh and eighth graders so their teams are usually out first. Sixth graders are the smallest kids in the school so it’s easier for them to dodge dodgeballs. Being able to do that means their games are sometimes longer than others, but the time limit for a game is five minutes. The dodgeball games are very challenging to win without a good strategy.