RIS Student Newspaper

e l c i n o r h C S RI 2-32 Yangjae 1-dong Seocho-gu Seoul, Republic of Korea Phone: +82-2-571-2917/8 Fax: +82-2-572-2916 www.rischool.org

Volume 1, Issue 1

November 18, 2011

Lotte World Excites Students

By Sophia Santana and Daniela Oh

Inside this issue: Soccer Tournament

2

Bake Sale

2

Spelling Bee

2

Fall Festival

3

Competition

3

Korean Food

3

Meet the Staff

4

Students and teachers excitedly got ready for the field trip to Lotte World.

They gathered in the gym and began talking about what rides they would ride.

It was a sunny and warm day, the perfect kind of day to go to an amusement park.

When they got to Lotte World, there were few people in the lines. Saud, grade 6 student, said, "My favorite ride was the Gyro Drop, but I didn't like the ghost house because it was not that scary.”

Mr. Emin was so pleased with the hard work of RIS students and teachers that he decided to reward them with a field trip to Lotte World on Wed., Nov. 3.

Francisco, another

grade 6 student, said "The Waikiki Wave. The Gyro bumper cars were fun. I Drop is a 70-meter tall didn't bump anyone, but ride that sends riders sitSaud bumped me. I want ting in a ring up a pole, to go to Lotte World again and then drops them at soon with my friends or the speed of 150 miles per my parents.” hour. The Waikiki Wave Lotte World is like two connected amusement parks. One is indoors for the kids, and the other is outdoors for adults and older children. The Grade 5 students pose at the Lotte indoor part conWorld parade. tains kiddie rides, a merry-go-round and The Viking—the big moves back and forth and boat that swings from side simulates riding a Hawaito side. ian wave.

The outdoor part is Lotte World is a great called Magic Island, and it place to visit. If you have has more thrilling rides the chance, you should go like the Gyro Drop and the there!

What Name Did You Vote For? Ninety-two students and teachers voted to select the name of the new RIS student newspaper:

Chronicle 34 Times

26

Voice

23

Mirror

9

Recess Soccer is a Hit

By Hiba Altayyar During second recess students play soccer with P.E. teacher Mr. Muhammed Ali. The minisoccer tournaments are at the outdoor gym. There are five teams challenging each other from grades 4-8.

Each team has four

students. The blue, yellow, green, and orange teams have all boys. The red team has three girls and one boy. Tournaments began Nov. 4. At the first match the orange team won against the green team with a score of 1-0.

Before her match, we asked grade 5 student Julianna if she was excited to play. She said, “I am so excited and a little bit nervous!” The game resulted in a tie. The tournament is scheduled to end this week.

Page 2

RIS Chronicle

Soccer Team Takes Fourth in Tournament

By Mutahar Chaudry and Saud Al-Otaibi, with special guest writer Burak Saglam The first goal was an accident.

Grade 8 forward for the RIS soccer team, Burak Saglam, kicked the ball towards the goal of the other team. It deflected off of the goalie’s foot towards a defenseman on the opposing team. Then, she kicked it into her own goal and accidentally scored a point for RIS! P.E. teacher and soccer coach Mr. Muhammad Ali took the players from grades 4-8 to play at the day-long event in Suwon on Sat., Oct. 22. It was a very important event for the school.

Team captain and grade 6 student, Bassam Alanazi, reflected on the day. “We played very good,” he said.

The purpose of the tournament was to improve soccer abilities and good sportsmanship. RIS placed fourth in the tournament. A Korean team from Gangwon-do won first place.

RIS principal Mr. Emin said, “I feel that our team skills have improved, and the players were very friendly. Winning or losing is not important, but fair play is very important.”

Tournament officials gave players t-shirts as a gift.

Bake Sale Raised Money for African Horn

By Sofia Brantes and Sophia Santana The worst drought in 60 years is affecting Africa, so RIS had a bake sale fundraiser on Fri., Oct. 21 and Sat., Oct. 22. The drought is causing a famine in Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia. Many students, parents, and teachers donated money.

“I feel that the bake sale was a great success. The students and their families learned about Somalia, and we all worked to help people in need,” said Ms. Sawlor, grade 5 hom-

eroom teacher.

The bake sale raised 2 million won to send to the African Horn. Aid organizations will buy food, water and other needed supplies for the victims of the drought.

The bake sale was held in the school lobby and gym during RIS Parent-Teacher conferences for the first quarter. Parents and students came and bought the bake sale goodies. There were cookies, cakes, pizza,

Korean traditional snacks, donuts, and even coffee. Coffee was very popular with some teachers and parents on Saturday.

Ms. Rukkiye, the grade 8 homeroom teacher, explained how she felt about the bake sale. She said "I love to help people in RIS. I was so happy when I told my friends to bring food.

Also students can see how important sharing is.”

Students Buzzing Over Spelling Bee

By Hang Nguyen and Neha Rehman Elementary students had a spelling bee competition on Oct. 26.

It was very interesting!

It began in the RIS auditorium at 9:30am, and finished around 10:30am. First, Ms. Allen introduced the students in attendance. Then, she explained the rules and answered all students’ questions.

After that, the competition began.

A teacher said a word to the competi-

tor, and then that student had to spell it aloud correctly. They were so good at spelling! (There are words that even I couldn't spell.) After 9 rounds, they finally had 3 winners.

First place belonged to Monica, grade 3; second place went to Hadiqa, grade 4; and Nasar, grade 1, won third place.

And how did the competitors feel

about the competition? Joshua, a student from grade 5, said " My heart was beating so fast and I couldn't stop it!" .

This competition helped students to improve their spelling skills and it was really fun. I can’t wait for the next spelling bee!

Volume 1, Issue 1

Page 3

Fall Festival Benefits Earthquake Victims

By Neha Rehman and Sofia Brantes Students at RIS celebrated Halloween on Fri., Oct. 29. Students took advantage of the fun games and activities hosted by the teachers and middle school students of RIS. Some of the main attractions were: go fish, pin the nose on the clown, ducky grab, basketball, bowling for bats-- which was a huge success, and face-painting.

"RIS held the Fall Festival because we wanted to have a fun and interactive way to raise money and awareness for the *earthquake dis-

aster relief needed in Turkey," stated Ms. Davis, an RIS middle school ESL teacher.

RIS students realize that peoples’ lives are at stake, and so RIS collected 5,000 won from each student as a fee for wearing a costume.

All the money collected was donated to help Turkey due to the devastating earthquake that took place few weeks ago. Some popular costumes were: angels, vampires, princesses, witches, pirates, ghosts, Dracula, and monsters. *As of this printing, earthquakes are still occurring in Turkey.

Knowledge Competition is a Nail-Biter

By Amina Chaudry and Jeny Kim The middle school students had a knowledge competition on Wed., Oct. 26. There were four teams. Each team had six students. The teams were named after colors, like red, blue, orange and green.

The competition was in the auditorium at RIS. It began at 1:20pm, right after middle school lunch, and it finished at 2:40pm.

There were three rounds of questions. Each round had ten questions.

After the first round, the blue team was in the lead with a score of 8 out of 10. At the end of the second round, the blue team was still winning, with a score of 16 out of 20. In second place was the orange team with a score of 14.

At the end of the competition the

blue team won with a score of 21 out of 30. The second place teams were green and orange with tie scores of 20.

We asked one of the winners from the blue team how she felt about the competition. Grade 6 student, Sophia, said, “I felt happy and used teamwork. It doesn’t matter who wins or loses.”

The Koreans’ Taste: Some Food Traditions Explained

By Ms. Hyojin Lee November 11 is Pepero Day. Pepero is a long chocolate stick candy.

Pepero Day is like Valentine's Day for Korea and Japan. The snack company created the holiday to sell more treats, but younger people give Pepero to friends or someone they like.

In Korea there is also Saint Valentine’s day on Feb. 14, of course. On that day, people give chocolate to

each other. But in Korea, only the girls give chocolate to whom they like.

Also, there is one more special day called White day is on March 14.

White Day is observed in South Korea and Japan. On White Day, men pay back the women who gave them chocolate on Valentine's Day. I wonder what the people eat in your country on special days. Let me hear your story next time. See you again with new interesting topics!

Meet the RIS Chronicle Staff!

Neha Rehman Neha is from Islamabad, Pakistan. She was born in Korea in 1997 and she is in grade 9.

Neha has been at RIS since 2007.

She loves reading and writing newspaper articles because it’s very educational, and it expands knowledge about current events. For this issue of the RIS Chronicle, Neha covered the spelling bee and the fall festival.

Mutahar Chaudry Mutahar is from Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

He is 13 years old and he likes to play soccer. Mutahar cowrote, “RIS Takes Fourth Place at Tournament,” with Saud for the premier issue of the RIS Chronicle.

Mutahar’s sister, Amina, is also on staff and she wrote the article about the middle school knowledge competition for this issue. In the future, Mutahar hopes to take pictures for the newspaper.

likes to write and read. Sophia is also the student council president this year. Articles written by Sophia in this issue include “Bake Sale Raised Money for African Horn” and “Lotte World Excites Students.”

Sofia Brantes Sofia is from Santiago, Chile. This is her second year at RIS. Sofia joined the journalism club because she wanted to make her dad

Hiba Altayyar Hiba is from Saudi Arabia and she likes to play soccer.

She is in grade 6 at RIS. She is very friendly and funny, and a hard worker. When she grows up she wants to be a soccer coach. For the first issue of the RIS Chronicle Hiba reported on the mini-soccer tournaments at recess arranged by Mr. Muhammed Ali. Amina Chaudry Amina is 10 years old and she is from Pakistan. She speaks 2 languages. She likes RIS because it is a good school to learn new things. When she grows up she wants to be a doctor. She likes to sing, dance, type, play basketball, write, draw, and play violin. She wants to learn how to play violin well, and she is going to do her best!

Jeny Kim Jeny is a grade 5 student born in Colombia. She is Colombian and Korean, and her favorite kind of food Back Row L-R Ms. Jones, Saud, Mutahar, Neha, Ms. Hyojin is Colombian food. Before Middle Row L-R Sophia, Hiba, Sofia, Daniela coming to RIS, Jeny went Front Row L-R Jeny, Amina (not pictured, Hang) Saud Al-Otaibi to a British Montessori Saud is 13 years old, school and a Chinese and he loves newspaschool. For this issue of pers and taking pictures. For the the RIS Chronicle, Jeny co-wrote the proud. She is also the grade 6 stufirst issue of the RIS Chronicle Saud article about the knowledge competico-wrote, “RIS Takes Fourth Place at dent council representative. For the tion with Amina.

Tournament” with Mutahar and spe- premier issue of the RIS Chronicle Ms. Hyojin Lee Ms. Hyojin has Sofia co-wrote “Bake Sale Raised cial guest writer Burak Saglam. He been at RIS since 2010 and she is Money for African Horn” and the is from Afif, Saudi Arabia, and he the Korean teacher for foreign stuarticle about the fall festival. came to RIS in 2009. Saud likes to dents. She likes to read the newspaplay soccer and games, and watch Daniela Oh Daniela is from Seoul, per and scrapbook the articles about Korea and she is in grade 6. This is movies. international news, cultural events her fourth year at RIS. She likes Hang Nguyen Hang is from Viand travel. She’s very glad to join the drawing and all sports, such as etnam, a beautiful country. She was journalism club, and she’s looking taekwondo and hockey. Daniela has born in 1997 and she is in grade 8. forward to reading the RIS newspahoped to have a school newspaper She loves to listen to Korean pop per. since grade 4. When she grows up music and watch movies. Hang will Ms. Jaclyn Jones Ms. Jones is a she wants to be an artist, an actress be writing entertainment news for certified grades 6-12 English Lanor a designer. (Her dream changes future issues of the RIS Chronicle. guage Arts teacher from Michigan, often.) For this issue of the RIS For this issue, Hang co-wrote the U.S. She has written newspaper and Chronical Daniela, co-wrote “Lotte article about the spelling bee with magazine articles for publications in World Excites Students,” with SoNeha.

Chicago, Michigan and Seoul. She is phia. She also assisted Ms. Hyojin Sophia Santana Sophia is a grade very impressed with the young jourwith the article about traditional 6 student and has come to RIS for nalists emerging at RIS, and looks Korean foods, and she drew some two years from California, U.S. She forward to an excellent newspaper. illustrations and a comic.