Jazzing Up Eighth Grade

Just so we’re clear, the three things in this post’s title are not related!

Monkeys

In our school’s production of Seussical Jr., I am a Wickersham Brother.   (Well actually, we are Sisters since we are all girls.)  Anyways, the Wicks are monkeys who make fun of Horton the Elephant for talking to a speck of dust.  Instead of literally portraying the Wicks as monkeys, we are going to be “bad boys” with ripped jeans, white t-shirts, and leather jackets.  It’s going to be a ton of fun!

Eagles

As a tribute to our band conductor who passed away from breast cancer in 2008, our band commissioned a piece to be written by Michael Sweeney for our eighth grade band.  Our school’s mascot is the eagles, so the song title is “Soaring with Eagles”.

Warfare

On Friday, after 3 weeks of hard work, our large team project finally concluded.  Our group of nine people (yes nine people) researched and then created a magazine on warfare innovations.  Our magazine was 48 pages long including the front and back cover.  Each person had to write four articles 300-500 words each. (Yes, if you just did the math that’s 36 articles on warfare innovation.)  Our grade for this project goes into our math, science, language arts, and social studies grades, and it will be about half of our nine weeks grade.

So the three big things going on right now are monkeys, eagles, and warfare.  I live a crazy life!

Original image: ‘The Thinker…‘

by: Keven Law
Released under an Attribution-ShareAlike Lice

Today in Language Arts we were given time and a prompt to free write. Mine is below. My prompt was: “Write a paragraph and that starts with the sentence Why can’t we just get a tattoo or something? and ends with the sentence The ring maker will be here in 10 minutes.”

“Why can’t we just get some tattoos or something?” asked Sam as he leaned back in his chair.

“Because, sweetie, we’re getting married. People who get married don’t get tattoos. They get rings,” said his fiancée, Mackenzie.

“But I don’t wear rings. I have never worn a ring. And I don’t ever plan on wearing a ring.”

“You will if you want to get married,” she responded. “Now, about the floral arrangement. I was thinking that the bridesmaids would . . .” Her voice trailed off as she looked thoughtfully at her husband- to- be. Then she shook her head and kept on going. “The bridesmaids, Cindy and Lilly, will have white carnations and small pink roses. My bouquet will be larger, and it will have the white carnations, large pink roses, large yellow roses, and one red tulip in the center. You will have a pink rose on your collar.”

“Pink?” Sam asked.

“Pink,” Mackenzie responded firmly.

“But Macky, can’t I have a yellow rose? That’s more manly.”

“Manly? Hon, we’re getting married. Our color is pink.”

“Fine. But what about those tattoos?”

“You can’t let anything go, can you?”

“I don’t want a ring!” Sam stood from his chair and walked across the room to stand behind Mackenzie. “I love you, but I don’t think that a ring is the best way for me to show that to the world. I’m wearing gloves almost all day on my bike and at the shop anyways. No one would see it. Couldn’t I just get a tattoo with our initials and a heart? I’d even make it pink for you.”

Mackenzie looked up into his eyes and smiled. “I’ll think about it sweetie.”

Sam gave her a big hug and returned to his chair. “Will our invitations have to be pink?”

“No silly, they’re yellow and white.”

The both started laughing. Mackenzie said, “You know what? Here’s the deal. You can wear a yellow rose. It’s the color of the sunshine. And we’ll cancel the yellow invitations and order pink and black ones. And we might as well go for it. Tomorrow we’ll head to the parlor about those tattoos. But first, the ring maker will be here in 10 minutes.”