Spire Crier, March 2015

Crier Spire The St .

T ho ma s

Epi sc op al

Pari sh

Sc h ool

Happy Spring Break and April Fools’ Day

By The Spire Crier Staff You have in your hands a special April Fools’ Day issue of The Spire Crier.

We have found some strange, spooky, weird and bizarre news for you along with some comics and puzzles to enjoy on Spring Break.

See if you can find the five “changes” we made to this issue (like the name of The Spire Crier at the top of this page). We think you’ll be surprised!

See sharks, bunnies and bugs on Live Cam

By Matthew De La Riva Have you heard of the Animal Planet Live Cams? Animal Planet has set up live camera streams of your favorite animals in their natural habitats. There are a lot of animals for you to watch online. Some are fun, some are just plain creepy, like the Cockroaches in their little house.

The Live Cam titles are Kittens, Puppies, Sharks, Wild Birds, African Water Hole, Bigfoot, Bunnies, Penguins, Special: Kitty Channel, Pacific Reef, Hedgehogs, Sloths, Calves, Chicks, Tanked, Parakeets, Sea Otters, Black Eagles, Cockroaches, and Ants.

As you can see, there are a lot of animals. You can check out the live cams at http://www.apl.tv/ For special events, here is the Live Cam schedule:  Penguins: Daily Feedings at 11:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. and live chats Thursdays at 4 p.m.  Kitten and Puppy Chats on Mondays at 11 a.m.  Shark Chats on Tuesdays at 2:30 p.m. and Thursdays at 3 p.m.

Volume 27 Issue 4 M arzo 2015

Inside this issue:

Mystery Teacher

2

Alien News

3

Ask Kiki

4

Comic Zone

5

Messages in Logos 6

Mazes

7

Fiction: A Spooky April Fools

8

Fiction: Coco’s April Fools

9

Page 2

The Spire Crier

This mystery teacher has been at school 26 years

By Yara Haddad The mystery teacher in this issue would love to go to Japan, and loves caramel. She has been working in the school for 26 years.

Her favorite kids’ animated film is Cinderella but, her favorite princess is Ariel. She does not fall in love with neon colors but, if she had to choose one to be her favorite she would choose neon pink.

Can you try to guess who this mystery teacher is? It’s not too hard.

Look on the back page for the answer.

The mystery teacher would love to travel to Japan. She likes the movie Cinderella.

Think about these April Fools’ Day riddles

By Lulu Infante Can you solve these riddles? Remember, you have to be logical!

Q. Brothers and sisters I have none, but this man's father is my father's son.

Who is the man? A. My son Q. What can travel around the world while staying in a corner? A. A stamp Q. Paul's height is six feet, he's an assistant at a butcher's shop, and wears size 9 shoes. What does he weigh? A. Meat Q. A man is pushing his car along the road when he comes to a hotel. He shouts, "I'm bankrupt!" Why? A. He’s playing the Monopoly game.

Q. How many of each species did Moses take on the Ark with him?

A. None, Moses wasn't on the Ark; Noah was.

Here are some April Fools’ pranks, but be careful

By Madison Monroe It’s almost April Fools’ Day and that means pranks. Here are some you can try if you dare. Be careful not to scare anyone too much.

Toilet Seat Surprise—Print out a life-size face of anything you want. Then attach it to the underside of the toilet seat facing up. Then close the lid of the toilet. When someone lifts the toilet lid, they will get a scare!

Milk—Put a few drops of food coloring into a milk carton. When people pour it they will get a surprise!

Toothpaste Oreos—Take the cream of the Oreo out and spread toothpaste on instead. Then hand it to someone as a snack and watch them spit it out. It’s hilarious!

Toothbrush Surprise—Put the matching color of food coloring on your victim’s toothbrush. When they brush their teeth they will have a dyed surprise.

Volume 27 Issue 4

Page 3

Grow your own spaghetti tree and other hoaxes

By The Spire Crier Invisible Reporter Two of the top April Fools’ Day hoaxes of all time got into the news and people went nuts. Here they are: On April 1, 1957, the BBC news show Panorama announced that Swiss farmers were enjoying a large spaghetti crop. The news show had footage of Swiss people pulling strands of spaghetti off of trees.

So many viewers were fooled that they started calling the station to find out where they could get a Spaghetti Tree. The BBC operators supposedly replied, "place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best."

Another hoax was more recent. The Taco Bell Corporation paid for a full-page ad that appeared in six major newspapers on April 1, 1996. The ad said that Taco Bell had bought the historic Liberty Bell and was renaming it the Taco Liberty Bell.

Hundreds of angry citizens called the National Historic Park in Philadelphia to complain. Taco Bell revealed a few hours later that it was all a practical joke.

Are aliens out there?

By Max Sanchez Did you know that there have been many sightings of aliens in their little ships?

The round or saucer-like airships are called UFOs, which stands for Unidentified Flying Objects.

No one really knows what an alien is.

Sometimes, there are experiences reported in the news like the case of a person in Russia who, on a survival expedition, started to hear weird noises.

He took out his camera and there it was—an alien with big black eyes and a huge head was standing right in front of him. The Russian man said the alien then lifted up his hand and the camera broke.

I would probably run for my life.

Wouldn’t you?

I don’t know about you, but I really believe in aliens.

If you want to read more about aliens do a Google search. You can see YouTube videos and read news about the latest “sightings.”

Swiss farmers harvested a “large crop” from their spaghetti trees in 1957.

Page 4

The Spire Crier

Many students ask Kiki for help and advice Dear Kiki, I am having difficulty stepping up for myself.

Love, <3 2261*//:

There are Ask Kiki boxes in the office and in two of the fifth grade classrooms.

Dear <3 2261*//:, A lot of people have trouble standing up for themselves. Trust me, you’re not the only one.

If someone makes fun of you, you should take a deep breath and think, “I have confidence. I can speak my mind.” Have a little pep talk with yourself. Then say, “You have no control over me. This is who I am, and I like it.”

Remember, you are your own person. You have every right to tell someone off if they’re making fun of you. I know you have enough courage and confidence inside of you to stand up for who you are, even if you are a little shy. If that person continues, tell a teacher and a parent.

Wolves in the wild can live up to eight years

By Maddie Wagshul They are usually gray. They howl. Can you guess what they are?

Wolves! Yes, yes, in stories wolves always attack people but in real life they rarely attack.

One thing they commonly attack is domestic animals. This carnivorous animal’s life span is usually 6-8 years old if it is in the wild.

There is a large population of wolves living in Canada, Alaska, and Asia.

In these places wolves are sometimes trapped or poisoned or shot because they are “known” for attacking humans, even though they do not.

To find more about wolves, go tohttp://animals.nationalgeographic.com/ animals/mammals/wolf/.

And to learn how you can “adopt” a gray wolf go to http:// www.shopnwf.org/Adoption-Center/ Adopt-a-Gray-Wolf/index.cat

Volume 27 Issue 4

Page 5

Sports Update: Chris Bosh is out for the season

By Jack Silva Unfortunately, this is a real story.

Currently, Chris Bosh has been fighting an illness and he will be out for the season or even longer. It has recently been announced that he will return in September, but we will have to see.

Doctors found that he has blood clots in his lungs. He will be treated with blood thinners that will limit his physical activities for several months.

He had been feeling pain in his chest and rib area. He played only 11minutes in the All-Star Game, but won the Saturday shooting star event.

Recently, he was hospitalized and received treatment, and luckily, he was released from the hospital.

Chris Bosh is 30 years old. This season he has averaged 21.1 points a game, 7 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 0.9 steels, and 0.6 blocks. He has had an amazing career, which he can hopefully continue.

Comic Zone

Miami Heat Star Chris Bosh will have to wait until September to play again due to illness.

Page 6

The Spire Crier

Subliminal messages are everywhere

By Rafa Urbina, Felipe de Cardenas, Victor Quirch, and Laura Orban A subliminal message is basically a hidden message in a logo, picture, sentence or even a paragraph! And did you know that if fold a twenty dollar bill in a certain way it looks like the Twin Towers?

And, if you fold it a different way, you can see the word Osama which stands for Osama Bin Laden who was the terrorist behind the attacks. Here are some company logos with hidden messages.

In the Goodwill logo, the G is the same as the face.

In the Tostitos logo, the 2 “T’s and the “i” are two people eating Tostitos chips and dipping them in Tostitos sauce.

In the Wendy’s logo, the word “mom” can be seen in the girl’s collar.

If you look closely at the white spaces in the sides of the tree, you can see a lion’s face and a gorilla's face.

In the Baskin Robbins logo, there is the number 31 in pink to represent the 31 different ice cream flavors.

If you look closely in the mountain of the Toblerone logo, you can see a bear.

In the Five Ten logo, there is a 5 and a 10.

If you tilt your head to the right, you can see the 10 and if you tilt your head to left, you can see the 5.

Volume 27 Issue 4

Page 7

Maze Time

Page 8

The Spire Crier

Student Fiction: A Spooky April Fools’ Day

By Nina Chehab “I guess I can come over on Wednesday!” Elli Harrison told Mara Willis, her best friend. Elli had blonde hair and green eyes, while Mara had caramel hair and dark blue eyes. Other than that difference, the girls were like sisters.

They didn’t have school for the rest of the week due to parent-teacher conferences, so they planned a sleepover at Mara’s house. “Yay! I’ll see you then, Elli!” Mara said and bounced out.

The next day was Wednesday. Elli waited patiently until 6 p.m. when she was able to run over to Mara’s house two houses away. FINALLY, the time came. Mrs. Harrison handed Elli her bag, kissed her head, and she was off.

But when Elli arrived, Mara’s house wasn’t the usual bright peach color. Instead, it was pitch black. Elli knocked and the door flew open, but no one greeted her. “M-Mara? I’m here for our sleepover!” Elli called out nervously. The floorboards creaked as she walked.

“Oh! Mara! Company!” Mrs. Willis’ scratchy voice said.

Elli waited at the foot of the stairs. Mara came down, with a freaky smile on her face. “Why, HELLO ELLI. We’ve been expecting you. Come upstairs!” she said, staggering.

Elli smiled weakly, as Mara’s eyes suddenly turned yellow. Mara led her into a creepy room, where Elli was forced into a sleeping bag, and Mara on her bed.

“Oh no, oh no, oh no!” Elli thought. Suddenly, Elli heard a whisper from Mara.

“Happy April Fool’s Day.” Elli sat up and said, “Wait, what?!”

The lights were flicked on and Mara, accompanied by Mrs. Willis, yelled, “HAPPY APRIL FOOL’S!” When Elli figured out that all of this was a joke, she asked, “How’d you guys do that?”

“Well, we covered the house with black fabric, made a script that would scare you to death, AND we wore eye contacts!” Mara said, pointing to her eyes, as she took out the contacts to show her.

“B-But what about the f-floorboards?!” Elli sputtered.

“They’ve been like that ever since we moved in! You’ve just never noticed since we tried covering them with a rug…” Mrs. Willis explained.

Elli laughed and hugged Mara.

That was the best AND spookiest, April Fool’s day ever.

Volume 27 Issue 4

Page 9

Student Fiction: Coco’s April Fools

By Laura Furniss-Roe Coco’s alarm went off. It was 5:30 a.m., April 1st. April Fool’s Day. Coco brushed her orange hair and strawberry-pink highlights out of her face and grabbed her green dye, toothpaste and a hot pink Sharpie. Her pranking this year was going to be great.

She was known for trouble and her fantastic pranks. Her parents and her sister Charlotte took careful steps on April Fool’s Day to be sure that they didn’t fall into any of Coco’s pranks. But yet, they failed every year.

Coco crept down the stairs trying to stop the creaking of the old oak wood as her shivering foot hit the plank.

Eventually, Coco felt the welcome of the cold linoleum under her feet as she stepped into the kitchen. Coco heard the soft grunt of her Yorkie, Shoo-foo. She was snoring lightly and not waking up any time soon by the looks of it.

Coco kept moving but very slowly. She ended up next to the refrigerator. Just to be sure that she hadn’t mistaken the fridge for one of the white cabinets, Coco ran her hand across the refrigerator door and immediately felt the unmistakable felt magnets that she had made in first grade. Then she felt the solid round magnets from countries around the world and knew for sure that this was definitely the refrigerator.

Coco opened the door slowly and blinked ferociously as the automatic bright light from inside of the refrigerator lit up. She rubbed her eyes and located the green, orange and cream-colored orange juice carton that her family always drank from. Her shaky hand grabbed the green dye, and very slowly and carefully, she screwed open the lid of the orange juice and popped open the lid from the green dye bottle. The slight “Pop!” from the bottle of dye set off Shoo-foo in a slight growl, but Coco’s soothing voice to Shoo-foo, “There, there Shoo-foo. It’s only me,” calmed her down.

Coco gave a grim yet smirking face in the darkness that Shoo-foo could not seek out. Then Coco went ahead and poured the dye. Oh, this prank was gonna be good.

It was just that morning at breakfast when Charlotte slumped over to the fridge and grabbed the orange juice carton. Letting out a giant yawn, she poured the orange juice into her Disney princess glass. Without even realizing that the juice had gone green, Charlotte took a sip. That was when she rubbed her eyes, forcing herself to wake up and finally notice the nasty color that the juice had become ‘overnight.’

“Oh my! Why is the ORANGE JUICE GREEN? Oh, that’s just nasty! It must be a prank. Oh, I’m not drinking this…that’s just…oh, my goodness…I bet it was Coco! Mommy! Daddy! Look what Coco’s gotten away with now!

Ew!” Charlotte said.

It was now 7 a.m. and Charlotte was off in her bedroom getting dressed. It was the same with Coco’s parents.

Coco now had the tube of toothpaste in her hand and she was headed for the family’s ‘famous’ Oreo bowl in the center of the kitchen island. She grabbed the first Oreo, separated the two chocolate cookie borders and filled the inside with the super minty toothpaste that her Mom and Dad had recently bought from CVS. Oreo after Oreo, she filled them with the fresh minty Colgate toothpaste. Finally, leaving no evidence behind, she stuck the last Oreo pieces together and ran back to her bedroom, planning to use the rest of the toothpaste to brush her smiling white teeth.

It was her Dad who discovered the toothpaste. He was simply grabbing a ‘to-go’ snack before rushing out the door and hopping in the car for work. He started driving and popped the Oreo into his mouth. Then, before you knew it, his eyes bulged and he spat the Oreo straight out. The cookie pieces went flying and the toothpaste stuck to the window.

“Coco!!!” Coco’s Dad yelled, rolling his neck in a frustrating way.

Coco bounded through the door, and ran straight to her room to avoid trouble from her sister telling on her now that she was home. Before doing anything else, she grabbed her fat pink Sharpie and ran to Charlotte’s room.

“Charlotte! ‘Charlie and Lola’ is on TV!” “Really?” Charlotte replied, dashing off to the living room to gaze at her favorite TV show. As if on cue, Coco pressed against the wall until Charlotte was out of view and then turned (continued on back page)

The Spire Crier

St. Thomas Episcopal Parish School 5692 North Kendall Drive Coral Gables, FL 33156 305-665-4851

W E’ RE ON THE WEB AT S TEPSMIA. ORG GO

TO S CHOOL L IFE AND CLICK ON P UBLICATIONS

The Spire Crier is published by the fifth grade journalism class for the students of St. Thomas Episcopal Parish School.

Reporters: Nina Chehab, Felipe de Cardenas, Matthew De La Riva, Laura Furniss-Roe, Yara Haddad, Rosie Infante, Lulu Infante, Ava-Riley Miles, Madison Munroe, Laura Orban, Victor Quirch, Max Sanchez, Jack Silva, Rafael Urbina, Madeleine Wagshul Journalism Advisor: Ms. Christina Mayo Journalism Class Assistant: Emily Wong Mystery Teacher: Mrs. Jenks

(continued from page 7,000) straight into her room. She headed towards Charlotte’s clothes drawer and grabbed Charlotte’s white t-shirt that said, “I’m a star!”

Whipping out the Sharpie, Coco slowly and carefully wrote Charlotte’s name in big pink bubble letters across the middle. She then left $20.50 on top of the shirt so that Charlotte could pay back the cost of the ruined shirt. Then she made a kind of regretting look.

This was a very daredevil thing to do to her poor little sister. But there would be other t-shirts…Coco’s mind trailed off until she heard Charlotte skipping down the hallway humming the ‘Charlie and Lola’ theme song.

“Uh-oh,” Coco muttered, dashing out back to her bedroom, but pausing to close the door silently.

When Charlotte reached her room, she heard Charlotte screech: “Cocooooooo!!!!!!!!” But Coco just snickered.

Now, Coco knew that she could pull some pretty wicked pranks, but never did she imagine that someone would get her back, until now. It happened when Coco went off to her room to grab a snack of bananas and chocolate chips (don’t judge her). After pressing the little chocolate chips into her crescent moon shaped banana, Coco scuttled off back to her room. Her hot pink cell-phone was sitting on her pink hearts bedspread and Coco noticed it begin to ring. So, of course, she answered without really bothering to look at the caller ID. “Clem?” asked Coco, thinking that most likely her ‘besty’ (best friend) Clementine had called her with some juicy gossip. But the voice on the other end wasn’t Clementine!

“Coco, it’s Mom. You’re in BIG trouble young lady.” Coco gasped. But the sound had some sort of echo as if Coco’s Mom was currently in Coco’s room.

“Huh?” Coco said. But then, Coco’s Mom and Dad popped out from under the bed and Charlotte stuck her head out of the bedspread.

“Gah!” shrieked Coco. “April Fools!” said Mom, Dad, and Charlotte. And Shoo-foo rounded the corner from Coco’s open bathroom door and let out a happy, “Yap yap yap!”

“Oh you guys!” replied Coco to the everyone’s surprise. “Nice one!” “We finally got you back, Coco!” Charlotte said with a wide grin. “Yeah, Co, nice pranking this year!”

“But we got you back! Finally!” said Coco’s Mom. “Yeah,” said Coco. “Sorry for the pranks. I’ll watch my back! But for me – maybe not for you! – this has been the most fun and surprising April Fools ever!”

And Coco’s entire family nodded in agreement. Shoo-foo started barking and licking everyone in turn, causing the family to burst into laughter. Even dogs were full of surprises. HAPPY APRIL FOOLS!