THE MARK KEPPEL TIMES - DECEMBER 2015

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Mark Keppel Times

Book Review for Half Magic Edward Eager

By Caroline Grigorian The book “Half Magic” by Edward Eager is a fantastic book. It is about four kids who find a magic coin that grants wishes, but only half way. For instance, if you wish for a 100 cows you will only get 50 cows. If you were wondering what grade level this book is, it is 6.2.

I don't really know if it has high vocabulary in it, but everyone has a different reading level and opinion.

The author Edward Eagar is a great author. He has written many books such as, “Knight’s Castle”,“ Magic by the Lake”, and much more books. I hope you will enjoy his books as much as I do.

Meet a new Teacher By: Emily Khachatoorians and Cora Kendrick Meet another new teacher Mr. Pate. He considers teaching a dream, in a nightmare, in another dream.

But overall he loves teaching. Mr. Pate loves having discussions with his class, about what they are interested in. This is his 12th year teaching. Mr. Pate has taught at Our Community School, Foundations School Community, and City Carter Middle School. His favorite book is 1984, by George Orwell, because he says it gives a lot to think about.

Mr. Pate says if he had to change anything in the world he would change the week to having a 4 days school week, and a 3 day weekend, because he believes people should spend more time with their family. Mr. Pate was one of the teachers who wanted the school to have student council. He hasn’t had a chance to help out yet, but Mr. Pate believes we should have student council because kids should be able to be leaders. When he was younger, he enjoyed playing handball the most. Mr. Pate hates PAPERWORK! His favorite grade when he was younger was 6th grade, which is also one of his favorite grade to teach. The first grade he taught was Kindergarten.

Mr. Pate’s favorite place to go is a hotel on a beach. He is a single child, so he gets everything he wants. If Mr. Pate wasn’t a teacher he would be a game maker. He teaches because he likes to help show young people about the world around them. He believes teaching is his “calling.” It was what he was put on the Earth to do.

THE MARK KEPPEL TIMES

WINTER 2015

New Year’s Eve

By Chloe Choe

New Year is celebrated by just about the whole world. It was first observed in ancient Babylon, about four thousand years ago. The Babylonians celebrated the new year with the appearance of the first New Moon after the Vernal Equinox which means that it was the beginning of the spring. The spring was a good time to begin the new year because it was the season of rebirth, of warmer temperatures, and the appearance of flowers blossoming and of planting new crops.

New Year’s Eve celebrations can be a really festive time, with people making a lot of loud noise. It is common to see fireworks on New Year’s Eve. In fact, fireworks were invented in ancient China. As people countdown from ten seconds to zero, the new year is welcomed with the words “Happy New Year’s!” and hugs and cheers.

The most famous celebration for New Year’s Eve in the United States takes place in New York City. The “big apple” is dropped from atop, as people countdown and party together. The ¨big apple” is a big ball with hundreds of different colors. Each nation has their own special way of celebrating the new year, but it is certain it will include fireworks and lots of happy people, excited about the possibilities of new

Ice Skating

January 6 By: Anahit January sixth is Armenian Christmas.

Armenians celebrate on December 25 and on January 6 which is when the Three Kings gave Christ gifts. At night they have foods like blinchiki, tolma, khashlama, ghapama, and spas. Celebrations are with families on both of these days. So if you celebrate on only December 25th or you celebrate both days, enjoy your time with family and friends.

By: Vivian Shahjanian One fun thing to do for winter is to go ice skating. Ice skating occurs both on specially prepared ice surfaces, both indoors and outdoors, as well as on naturally occurring bodies of frozen water, such as ponds, lakes and rivers. A study by Federico Formenti of the University of Oxford suggests that the earliest ice skating happened in southern Finland more than 3,000 years ago.

Skaters did not actually skate on the ice, but rather glided on top of it. True skating emerged when a steel blade with sharpened edges was used. Skates now cut into the ice instead of gliding on top of it. Adding edges to ice skates was invented by the Dutch in the 13th or 14th century. These ice skates were made of steel, with sharpened edges on the bottom to aid movement. The construction of modern ice skates has stayed largely the same since then. In the Netherlands, ice skating was considered proper for all classes of people, as shown in many pictures by the Old Masters. Here are some places to go ice skating Pickwick Ice, Pasadena Ice Skating Center, and Iceland Ice Skating Center.

There's so much more places you can go but there’s three. Does are some facts about ice skating.

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THE MARK KEPPEL TIMES

WINTER 2015

A Winter Feast

By Anais Mardirosian Long ago, in a small town in Canada, only one family would have a feast in the winter.

They called it their “winter feast.” There was a father named Kyle, a wife named Maria, and their only daughter, Annie. Every winter feast, Maria would prepare a large pumpkin pie with a mountain of whipped cream on top. Kyle would hunt for turkey, and then Maria and Annie would stuff it with vegetables and cook it. The family always said their prayers before eating. This one family wished for everyone in Canada to know and celebrate a winter feast with their own families.

A few years later when Annie was nine, Kyle and Maria made enough money to send Annie to a school. When the first day of 4th grade ended, Annie came rushing home with good news.

“Parents, parents, great news! My school has a newspaper group and I’m in it!”

“Good for you dear.” Maria said.

“Yes, good for you.” Kyle said.

“But that's not the best part. We have a chance to spread our tradition! You know, our winter feast!” Annie said.

“That is genius!”

“Yeay! Our dream will come true!”

The whole family cheered. When it was morning, Annie was very excited to go to school. She had just finished her article on the winter feast.

Finally, when Annie came home, her parents were thrilled to see her.

“So, what happened?” Her parents said at the same time.

Annie looked heart broken. “Everyone at school hated our idea, even the teachers. My news group hated it so much, they fired me. Now everyone calls me names and the teachers look at me in disgust.”

Annie mumbled.

And that was the last day Annie and her family ever felt joy or happiness again.

Winter Jokes 1.Why did the gingerbread man go to the doctor?....He was feeling crumby.

2.What do you get when you cross a snowman with a vampire?...Frostbite 3.What is the favorite Mexican food for snowman?...Brr-itos 4.What do snowmen eat for breakfast?...Frosted flakes 5.What do snowmen do on the weekend?...Chill out!

6.What happened when an icicle fell on a snowman?...It knocked him out cold 7.What does a Snowman take when he gets sick?..A chill pill 8.How do you know there is a snowman in your bed?...You wake up wet 3

THE MARK KEPPEL TIMES

WINTER 2015

Thanksgiving Recipes and Decorations For 2016 By: Anais Mardirosian

Hi, I’m Anais, and today I am going to share with you the things you should include in your Thanksgiving feast. For one major food you should include in your feast is a turkey. You can’t have a Thanksgiving feast without a turkey!

You should at least have two turkeys if you have a lot of people coming.

Corn is really important too. You should always have corn at your feast.

Mashed potatoes and gravy are the best side dish when it comes to a feast.

For a dessert, it’s obviously going to be pumpkin pie, pecan pie, or apple pie.

Those are some major foods you should have at your Thanksgiving feast. Obviously you should have more food than that but those are just the main stuff.

Now, on to the decorations. Get brown, orange, and yellow tissue paper. (Or colorful pieces of paper.)

Cut it into leaf shapes. Next draw the vanes of the leaves. When your done with that, get a brown piece of paper and cut it in a small strip of paper, and glue it to the leave so it’s hanging.

Then, get white string and tape or glue the leaves onto the string. You can hang it on the table or on the walls.

Now for turkeys. It is a bit more trickier than the leaves. You need brown, orange, yellow, black, and red tissue paper. (Or colorful paper.) Cut a lumpy circle (not too perfect) out of the brown tissue paper. Get the red tissue paper and cut it into a turkey neck, including the head. Then cut out medium sized circles with the yellow tissue paper for the eyes. Cut tiny (not too tiny) circles out of the black tissue paper. Then cut out a beak out of yellow tissue paper. Also with the yellow tissue paper, cut out four legs of a turkey.

Do you know that red thing hangs under the turkey’s neck? Well, cut that out with the red tissue paper. Now for the fun part. You can get any colors of tissue paper for this. With the colors you want, cut out feathers. The last step is to glue everything in place. For help, look at the picture of the turkey at the top of this page. You can stick the turkey anywhere in your house with tape.

Well, that’s it folks. I’ll see you guys later, and have a happy Thanksgiving!

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THE MARK KEPPEL TIMES

WINTER 2015

Hanukkah By: Anahit Sinanyan afternoon.

You can play this game with a dreidel and you get chocolate coins. There are also good food for example latkes is a food. It is basically a potato pancake. If you ever get a chance you can try a latke and if you see a Jewish person say “Happy Hanukkah�.

Hanukkah is a Jewish celebration. It lasts for exactly 8 days. The celebration takes place in December before Christmas.

Every day you light one candle on the menorah and their are 8 candles. This year Hanukkah starts on December 6th at

SPELLING BEE

By Caroline Grigorian

On Thursday,December 10 the 2015 KEPPEL SPELLING BEE took place. It was a competitive competition. Every year, there are two students from each 4th and 5th grade class. They both compete against each of the students from each class, until there are two people left. Then they play against each other to see if they are either going to be the winner or the runner up. At the end, there has to be a winner and a runner up. The winner for this year is Lillian Issiain.

The runner up for this year is Aren Safarian.

I would like to congratulate the winner Lillian Issiain and the runner up Aren Safarian. I also want to congratulate the students who participated in the Spelling Bee and had the courage to do it . If you did not win the spelling bee that is perfectly fine. Try your best that is all that counts.

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THE MARK KEPPEL TIMES

WINTER 2015

Taking Care of Your Elf on a Shelf Written By Anais Mardirosian You might know about something called an, Elf on the Shelf. Well, if you don’t, it is one of Santa’s handmade dolls that he made alive with magic. It might sound crazy but, it is true. How you ask? Well, you're about to find out.

When you buy your Elf on the Shelf, you must read the book. It is written by humans, not by Santa or his elves, so, some things are missing and some things are not true.

Like, it missed that the elf can eat, use the bathroom, and write notes. I know that because, I see it all. It’s magic, Christmas magic.

When you look inside you also see an elf. You can’t touch it! It will lose it’s magic and just be a doll.

Then, you have to name it. Will you name it Criddle, Jean, Jennings, Loosie, or Clide? It's your choice!

Now, if you're wandering how you get your elf out, you just don’t. But, here’s a little secret: the elves gets out in December.

It might not get out on the 1st because my elf got out on the 5th. So, whatever day it gets out of the box, that’s the day you start taking care of it.

The first rule for you is not to touch the elf. But, if you touch the elf with love instead of hatred, it will not lose it’s power.

The second rule is not to tell people everything your elf does, but, if you trust that person, it is okay to tell them. (As long as they keep the secret too.)

And the third rule is not to videotape your elf moving, because your elf might not like you anymore.

Now that we are done with the rules, we are going on to how to take care of your elf.

This first tip is optional, but you should do it. You can feed your elf! All you have to do is put the food near the elf, (you can cover the food in plastic wrap. I mean, it got out of the box, it can take off plastic wrap.) And when you leave the room, it eats it! I have fed it candy which is, Milky Way, Snickers, and plain milk chocolate. It will not eat gummy bears and Kit Kat. I have also fed it cookies, milk, water, and marshmallows. But every elf is different. Some elves might eat gummy bears but they might not eat Milky Way. So, what do you do after you eat food? Go to the bathroom! Right! So, it sits in a cup or jar, and uses it as a toilet. It poops out candy, so you can eat that. But, it’s pee is real, and it smells like flowers. (Don’t drink the pee.)

Now, I know this is all hard to believe but, just put a paper and pen in front of the elf, and ask it to write what you want it to. That brings me to the notes. For my elf, we gave it a journal to write in---and it works! It writes lots of stuff in that journal.

But, you know a cool thing an elf can do for you? Send Santa notes! You can write Santa a note and ask the elf to send it to him, and ask your elf to tell Santa to give a note back. Really awesome right?

I think should you make some things for your elf. You know, make it feel like it’s home! Me and my sisters got a Barbie house and turned into an elf house. Our elf has a Christmas tree, presents, toys, a bedroom, bathroom, a kitchen, and much more! What lucky elf! Am I right?

Now, I have to make sure everyone knows that every elf is different. Your elf might not do everything my elf does. In this article, I have been talking about what my elf does and what people on YouTube’s elves have done. I know there is one question everyone is asking: How? But you know what? It is Christmas magic, that is all I have to say.