Band Trouble

By Liz Chase 

In band, Mrs. Moncrief is having trouble with her students. So she is giving people with different parts of music to look over. Mrs. Moncrief will chose who she wants to stay in band. She is getting pretty upset because a lot of people don't take their instruments home or they don't practice.

The way Mrs. Moncrief is going to solve this problem is she is going to audition people to make sure they know their part and if they don't she will know who will not be in band or jazz band. Some people know their parts really well and she will probably tell those people to stay. Mrs. Moncrief can tell whether you practice by the way your sound.

Mrs. Moncrief likes when people practice so we all can be ready for the spring concert because she really excited for this concert. As I was saying

Mr. Anes is the high school band teacher for Conval and has been coming to jazz band to help us.

When she told him that a lot of us don't sound that good, he said to do warm ups. Mrs Moncrief said ,'' I want you all to do your best, and practice''. What happens is people just don't play their parts right like some of the trumpets they just guess their notes, or they just blow the wrong note out of their trumpets this also happens with the saxophone, Clarinet, drums and other sections. Also people are leaving their instruments here and Mrs. Moncrief isn't too happy with those people. She has been checking. She keeps telling us to take them and she marks them down in her grade book. People just don't listen to her and she doesn't like it.

What’s your type of dog?

By Emma Kendall

Most people like dogs and many people have them as pets. I have 2 hounds but my favorite type is a beagle, one of the most popular in the world. Would you like to know what breeds of dog 6th graders at GBS like the most? I went around and asked 24 6th graders what was their favorite type of dog. The following is a chart of by breed popularity.

Number of Students Breed Character
5 Beagle lots of energy good in a family 
3 Hound good sense of smell
3 Golden Retriever beauty and brains
3 Siberian Husky strong and loving
1 Labrador Retriever strong, athletic, well balanced
2 Pit bull great warrior, strength, courage, agility, grace
2 German Shepherd classic beauty, superior intelligence
1 Pug big dog in a smalls dogs body, loyal
1 Rottweiler powerful and serious, can be fun loving
1 Poodle sense of humor and love of life
1 Black Lab strong athletic, well balanced
1 Boxer exceedingly high energy level


As you can see 6th graders love dogs, but the most popular breed is a Beagle with 5 votes. 




picture from aspcacommunity.ning.com

Asian Project Starts With a Bang!

by Andrew Hunt

What is going on in 7th grade? In 7th grade there is an Asian project with all the students.

All the classes in 7^th grade and each student will choose one topic and for every class no one can have the same subject. In all there are 50 choices so there is a great selection to choose from. Some of the choices are foot bindings, Mount Everest, and samurai.

The last day to finish this project is Friday the 15^th of January. Everybody has chosen their topic and are doing research on their idea. They're making a web with their information and they will make a slide show to present. At the end of their slide show, they will have three questions that people will need to be able to answer from their slide show.

I asked Mrs. Janulis a few questions and she said, “The project has lasted two weeks. One week for getting information and one week to present.” She also said “I hope everyone liked what they got because they got to choose. And no one this year asked about [having two topics] and if someone did, they would have it combined.”

She has been doing this project for 4-5 years and every year gets better and better. Mrs. J. thinks that this is a great way for kids to use technology. Lets hope that everybody's project is great!

Dragons in Ms. Egan's Room!

by Angie LaFave

In Ms. Egan's 8th grade science room, class has suddenly become even more interesting than before. That's because Ms. Egan is using one of the most popular magical creatures to teach us about genetics! That's right, we're using cute little dragons! There are all different kinds of dragons – fire-breathing dragons, spiky dragons, dragons with wings, and many more! Will your dragon be purple or green? Here's how it works:

We drew letters from a cup – uppercase and lowercase. These represent dominant traits and recessive traits. Dominant traits are more powerful than recessive, so if a dominant trait is present, that trait is what you will see as a physical characteristic. After we drew the letters, we recorded the results. The gender of the dragon matched our own gender. Then we went around the room and found two partners of the opposite gender for our dragon to “mate” with.

When we were done recording the results of the mother and father, we figured out what the baby dragon would look like using this system:

(D= dominant, R= recessive)
D + R = D
R + R = R
D + D = D

As soon as we discovered what our dragon looked like, we chose one of the two baby dragons to sketch. We had to be extremely careful to include all of the features, because there were so many little details such as the amount of toes, the tongue length, the comparison of the leg lengths, and the shape of the eyes. Then we moved on to Model Magic. The Model Magic always fell apart because it hardened overnight and was very fragile.

After that, it was time to bring some color into their artificial lives – we used some paint. This also proved to be difficult, since it was near impossible to fill in all the tiny crevices and gaps. Most people weren't ashamed to admit that it looked much better on paper.

Now came the tedious part; after all, this project wasn't just a fun vacation from normal work. We had to answer complicated questions such as, What was the likelihood of your dragon acquiring the traits it did? What characteristics of your dragon were based on its gender? and Your dragon had twenty-six different traits. Compare this to real life.

Now, if you walk into Ms. Egan's room, you'll see some colorful dragons soaring around, surveying the tops of students' heads and making friends with the other decorations.

“I really like them because people worked hard on them,” said Liz Chase. “A lot of them are colorful, some look weird, but all together, they're really cool.”

“I thought it was really cool how different the dragons turned out,” Ms. Cullinan said. “I also liked how some had wings and were flying around, and the ones who didn't have wings were just hanging out on the shelves together.”

“My favorite part was that there were only two purple ones and the rest were green,” Emmasae Hallen said.

8th graders in Ms. LeClerc's class will do this project too, after The Great Switch-Up. They will transfer from Ms. LeClerc's to Ms. Egan's class.

Keep your eyes out for stray dragons, and beware! For you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

7th and 8th Science Switch Up

By Emmasae Hallen

Get ready 7th and 8th graders! On Monday, the scientific geniuses of GBS will switch from Ms. Egan's to Mrs. Leclerc's classes. The 7th grade smarties in Mrs.Leclerc's class will switch to Ms. Egan's and the ones in Ms.Egan's will switch to Mrs. Leclerc's. Then the 8th grade Einsteins will do the same thing, but Mr. Bolduc's class will stay the same.

"They are so great, I don't want to get rid of them. But I can't wait for the other group of kids," Mrs. Leclerc said. Some kids groaned and some kids cheered when they heard about switching.

"I love Ms. Egan and Mrs.Leclerc but I don't want to switch. It confuses me and I wont know what I am doing," said an 8th grader from GBS.

In Ms. Leclerc's class for 7th grade they do many things. They have been learning a lot about energy.

"We have been learning about kinetic energy which is the energy that is stored. Potential energy is the energy that's is pushed up," 7th grader Andrew Hunt said.

But in Ms. Egan's class they have been learning about cells and microscopes.

"Ms. Egan is a lot of fun but she yells sometimes," Tyler Phillips said.

In Mrs. Leclerc's 8th grade class they have been learning about the periodic table and its elements.

"[Ms. Leclerc] is so nice about everything and she helps me with alot of my work," Erik Lakus said.

In Ms.Egan's 8th grade science they have been learning about evolution and genes.

"The best part of the class is doing all the activities she does with us. I love it," Angie LaFave said.

Are you wondering why they are switching classes? Well, they are switching because Ms. Egan teaches life science and Ms. Leclerc teaches physical science. The reason they are doing it that way is because they thought it would be easier for them that way. Instead of making a ton of lessons to go throughout the year, they can make a few and do them each twice. If they didn't like one they could try something else. So be prepared 7th and 8th graders, for the scientific switch up!

Boys A Basketball Game

 by JT Clough


The boys A basket ball game on 1/13/10 was a bad basketball game. 

The boys were playing their brothers, SMS. SMS is a very good school that excels in sports. SMS is the school that we go to Conval with. The final score was 38 to 49, SMS won. 

The people who started the game on the GBS team were Campbell French, Kyle Murray, Malik Earle, Thomas Hall and Cory. Cory is a home schooled student that plays on the basketball team. For SMS the starting people were Jordan Moore, Mathias, Damal Faton, Nick Philips and Gavin Chamerlin.

The people who scored for GBS were Campbell with 6 points, Kyle with 13 points, Malik with 8 points, Cory with 3 points, Duke with 6 points, and JT with 2 points. The people with fouls were Campbell French with 3 fouls and JT with 1 foul. 

The game was very intense for the first half. Then the team started to fall apart in the second half. The GBS team did not score any points in the second half. It was a defeat for the GBS team but they hope to face them next time to get a better chance for the win at home.

The New G.B.S Photo Album

By Julia Cooper

Remember those decorations in the hall by the office? Did you notice that when the decorations went up in the hall the photos went down? After the decorations went down the photos did not go back up. Why? Because the front office decided that they would take the photos and make a new photo album. There are other photo albums in the hall by the office/gym for parents/students to enjoy. Mrs. Picard was looking for some students to help make the new photo album during their recess and Emma Kendal and I decided that we would be glad to help.

We had to take all the pictures out of their frames to begin with. Then we will have to take them and cut them to size so they will fit in the album. After that we will have to sort them by sport, season, and year. The years range from 1992 – 2008(or so) (the one from 1992 has Mrs. Ripley in it with no glasses). Once that is done we will finish up by putting it all in a photo album that is a black color.

I asked Emma a few questions about the photo album. Here they are…

“Do you like working on the photo album?” I inquired.

“Yes, it is really cool looking at all the pictures,” Emma reply.

“Do you like not going out for recess?” I asked.

“I don’t like bring my boots to school so I usually stay in,” Emma answered.

“Is making a photo album hard?” I said.

“No, I don’t think so,” Emma stated.

“Do you enjoy making the photo album?” I question.

“Yes, it is really fun!” Emma exclaimed.

After we finish it then it will be out in the hall with the other ones. Maybe next time your parent is picking you up or your parent is waiting for you, then you’ll have a look at it. Enjoy!



Picture from http://www.tonyhalford.co.uk/images/main_album4.jpg

Slideshow for the Christmas Concert

Pickle Making

by Heather Brown

Do you like pickles?On Tuesday Ms. Kidd's class and the alt room made Pickles.

Ms. Cullinan helped us with making pickles so did Ms. Martin, Mr. Cooper, Ms. Welch, Ms.Kidd and Mr.T.To make the pickles you cut up the cucumbers,then you put the cucumbers in a jar,with dill,garlic,vinegar,some pickling spices,salt and water. Then you let them sit for five days. And put them in the refrigerator so you can eat them. They tasted spicy and good. Johnny said the the pickles were “spicy but tasty-a good tasty.”And Anala said “the pickles were juicy and I liked them”.I thought the pickles were good and it was easy making them.