School News

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School News

Annual Turkey Trot

The Turkey Trot is a race that our school does for charity. The race has four races in one actually. The race starts out with one of the four homerooms on each team (except team 6D, which has two homerooms but each homeroom runs twice) in a lane in the gym. Each lane has hurdles and other things in it. The homerooms are separated into to groups—one group is at the end of the gym and the other at the beginning. At the start one student has a frozen turkey and runs across the gym going over and under the obstacles. He then pass the turkey to the next team member and then ran sits down. The first homeroom with every student sitting wins that race. This is repeated four times.

They determine the winner in many ways. For instance, if a homeroom comes in first they get twenty points. If you come in second you get fifteen points. If you come in third you get ten points. Unfortunately if you come in last then you only receive five points. The four race scores are then added up with two other scores to determine who the winner is. One of those other scores is behavior. That’s right—if your team has the best behavior you get twenty points, and so on. So keep in mind that if your team is well behaved you get points for that, which means that if your classmates are acting up you should probably remind them that they are hurting your score. The other thing that is judged is a poster. Before the Turkey Trot each of the four teams makes a poster. Mr. McArdle and Mrs. Slezak judge the posters by neatness and creativity. Even though every poster is well done, a winner must be chosen. This year each team did a wonderful job with behavior, posters, and running the race, but this year Team 6A won the Turkey Trot.

—Colleen W.

Mr. Buckley & Ms. Foley cheer on Team 6A

Clubs and Activities

Our school has a lot going on right now. Between fundraisers and signing up for after school activities, I don’t know where to begin.

Well for starters we all hope that you sold a lot of pies. If we want to raise money for the school, everyone is going to have to try to get family and friends to buy pies for our school. The flavors range from Apple to Pumpkin, but we all know that they taste delicious.

Besides the pies we have many other things going on, things such as Musical Theatre, the Ryan Ringers, the Ryan Chorus, Art Club, and many more. In Musical Theatre the sky is the limit—you can be a whole different person if you want to. It’s a great experience if you want to get into the field of acting when you are older because it will give you a feel of how the theatre works. In case you were wondering, the production this year is High School Musical. The play in on December 11^th and will be a wonderful production.

The Ryan Ringers are a group of people who ring bells and make joyful music with them. So if you want to play an instrument that is different from the ones offered while school is in session, this may be the club for you.

Next we have the Ryan Chorus. The Ryan Chorus is an after-school singing group offered by the school. Certain people will be chosen to sing certain songs and hopefully there will be a concert at the end of the club’s session. If you want you can go and listen to the beautifully sung songs. If you want to explore the world of art more than what is taught in art class, Art Club is for you. It is a place where you can express yourself through your art, and the projects are some what different from the ones taught in regular classes— somewhat more challenging and surely are not your regular art.

During school we have the option of extending our musical talent other than what is taught by our music teacher. The instruments range from the flute to the saxophone, and they come in all different sizes, sounds, and shapes. No matter what the instrument looks or sounds like it may be a good idea to try and learn a new instrument. This class is an excellent opportunity to expand musical talent, but please remember that the class is taught during the day and whatever class you miss you will need to make up the work and keep on top of your homework as well.

Also keep in mind that if any of these activities are after school, you will need a ride provided by someone that you know at the end of the program. Also make sure that your parents know where to meet you when you are being picked up, which is usually near the front office. Your parents cannot wait in the parking lot for you to come out; they must come in the building so the teacher in charge of the program can see that you are going home with someone that you know.

See, we do have a lot going on here at the John F. Ryan School!

—Colleen W., Grade 6

An Awful Virus

As you probably know, there was a virus going around the school a little before the holiday vacation. This all started on the 14^th of December. On Thursday, the number of students out sick varied between 150 and 200. More than 55 students went home sick. There were classes with only 10-15 people in them. It was not only the kids that got the virus, but about 11 teachers were out sick too. I hope you have a healthy winter!

—Michael C., Grade 5