Mr. Lombardo Interview by Ryan L.

Mr. Lombardo said the reason he started teaching was that he liked taking the classes in college and liked working with kids. His favorite school subject is science. Mr. Lombardo attended college at Northeastern University. If he was not a teacher he said that he would be a marine biologist. If you don’t know this already Mr. Lombardo has many pets like snakes, lizards, and a dog. Mr. Lombardo also helps outside of school; he teaches high school lacrosse. Mr. Lombardo prefers lacrosse over football even though he helped coach our football team. His favorite activity is going to the gym. As you can tell Mr. Lombardo is a very interesting guy.

Social Studies Update by Andrew N.

In Social Studies we just finish South America and now we are going on to Africa. We are studying the western region of Africa and we had a test on Friday the 13th. We just finish doing our poster for the Sahara desert and we are now presenting it to the class. About western Africa we are going to study 17 countries and capitals of them and we are going to need to know where to label them on the map. We just finished the Western Africa test and now we are moving on to the next region of Africa. The next region we are going to study is the south region.

ELA Update by Peter P.

In ELA we just finished our choice read book where you read a book of your choice and read it in about 2 weeks and then do a project about it. Next you present it to your class to try and to explain why it’s a good book and why you want other people to read it.

We are starting  to read Afrika by Colleen Craig and we are reading 1-2 chapters a night. When we finish we are going to make a blog about it with a group. In the book Afrika a girl named Kim is living in Canada with her mom and then they go to South Africa because her mother has to go on a business trip for 3 months. Kim has to go to school there and Kim tires to find her father. We are still working on our grammar worksheets and grammar packets. This is all for the ELA update.

Afrika Blogs

SH

Tim A, Lauren C, Harini S, Matt P, Liam Da.

Mary F, Amber J, Akram N, Jacob W, Spencer W

Cailin Z, Gabe M, Jess M, Chris M

John L, Kristin L, Alek M, Ashley C

Phoebe J, Olivia DiG, Reese B, Sean Bun

Caroline C, Ethan W, Samip D, Nora C

Halie T, Casey J, Jenna M, Sumedh V

WI

Emily S, Lucas D, Adam S, Natalia K

Peter P, Lucy A, J.C. C, Colleen M

Danny N, Jeff H, Roselyn C, Phoebe G, Liam L

Ethen J, Liam W, Mikaila M, Julia D, Charles G

Olivia Dow, Nick U, Katie So, Michael F

Annique B, Jack R, Shane M, Apryl D

Nolan O, Rosemary S, Garrett S, Sami M

OE

Lulu Y, Chris T, Sean Bun, Becca P

Danny O, Stephen S, Fiona O, Talita L

Tucker L, Nishant B, Rakshitha G

Andrew N, Nick M, Teresa M

Roberta S, Jacob G, Kirsten W, Sari B

Emily A, Sam C, Tyler M, Julianna L

Jack S, Kevin D, Sasha S, Rayyed A

TN

Salam L, Shiney A, Shea GK, Liam Dw

Nicolle P, Jacob P, Jon W, Carissa M

Kate St, Mike C, Allison F, John L

Rahi P, Anderson L, Alexa K, Ben M

Dan D, Pranay P, James D, Alyssa B, Shahira A

Ryan L, Ashleigh H, Syon K, Olivia S

Alex C, Jupna K, Jason A, Chloe C, Sami A

Typing Contest by Shiney A.

On Tuesday, November 26th, Mr. Sloan, Ms. Pruett, Ms. Davis, Mrs. Beaton and Ms. Parnell had a typing contest to see who could type the fastest. Ms. Scibelli was the referee. Mr. Sloan triumphed in first, with Ms. Pruett right behind him in second, Ms. Davis coming up at third, and Ms. Parnell finishing at fourth. The topics they typed about were “Test Instructions,” “The Enchanted Typewriter,” and “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.” How do our teachers feel about this contest? Mr. Sloan joked, “I felt okay. I did not expect to win. Umm…I did not expect to blow the competition away like I did. I just said that to make Ms. Pruett upset.” What are Ms. Pruett’s thoughts about the typing contest? She says, “I feel defeated! I felt so confident! He (Mr. Sloan) was like a sleeper…I can’t believe how fast he types! Maybe at the end of the year we’ll have a rematch. I don’t feel so confident anymore!” Ms. Davis feels that, “I thought it was very enjoyable. I was very impressed with Mr. Sloan’s typing speed and I was surprised at how many errors Ms. Pruett had in the final round, but I understand that she was trying to beat Mr. Sloan. I was kind of disappointed at my score because I scored less than in my practice rounds.” What does Ms. Parnell think? She says, “I liked it, it was fun!” Ms. Scibelli would like to say that, “It was fun, it was exciting! I thought it was a good experience to teach students the importance of typing quickly and accurately.” An end-of-the-year rematch will certainly be thrilling! We can hardly wait!

“Surfin’ Summer” by Rahi P.

The play “Surfin Summer” was directed by the talented Nathan Colby! The play takes place during the summer of 1963 and the kids of Point West Beach in Southern California have just graduated from high school and are looking to their futures. Sandy wants to start a singing group called “Sandy and the Sonics” with best friends Zoey and Joanie. Yup wants to live on the beach for the rest of his life. Vinny is going to be in charge of the beach food shack, Ziggy’s, while his Aunt Ziggy, the owner, takes a trip to Greece. Everything changes when the teens learn that the next Gina and Johnny film “Surfin’ Summer” will be filmed at Point West Beach and they were using local kids as extras. The teens get disappointed when they see how the stars of the movie act in real life. Sandy gets brainwashed in becoming the star of “Sandy and the Sonics”, Zoey and Joanie think so.

The play was acted out by very talented OMS students, but the actors shouldn’t get all of the credit. There was very colorful lighting in the background that really went with the beach setting. The sounds were always on time; bravo sound crew. The stage crew were very quick, and also prepared for any surprises on stage. The costume crew was very detailed on what they put on the actors and could be prepared for anything that may happen to the costumes. I saved the bests for last: the dramaturges. The dramaturges made sure the actors knew what they were talking about during the play so that it would be easier to memorize the lines. The dramaturges research about the play. I was a dramaturge for the OMS Fall Play, and I got to decorate a display and I also had the opportunity to be inside of the display. I also got to usher with another dramaturge. There was an after party for the cast and crew; it even snowed! During the after party, the cast and crew saw a slide show of them practicing for the play that the parents who helped.

Thanksgiving Food Drive by Garrett S.

This year’s annual food drive was a great success. It would not have been possible to get all of the food collected without everyone’s contributions. This year’s school total was 3,918, a new school record. Eight white came in first for the 8th graders with 825 items. Eight green was very close behind them with 824. Good luck next year 8 green. Eight blue needs to step it up next year, they came in last for the 8th graders with 265. Seven blue came in first with 554 and seven white was close behind with 520. If seven white was handing in more food in the beginning we would have had a better chance of coming in first. Every team did well this year; let’s keep it up next year!

Saving the Earth One School at a Time by Rosemary S.

Lately, everyone’s been fussing about global warming and killing the Earth. But sadly, not many people who mentioned global warming worked hard enough to actually take action and start conserving. In this article, I’m going to talk about how schools are slowly trying to save Earth and the people living in it. In Oak Middle School, there are two bins in each classroom: one for recycling paper and one for recycling plastic bottles. So, over the year, students and teachers, maybe even visitors decide to use paper and bottles, and then discover that they don’t need it anymore. Instead of throwing it away and wasting a tree, they toss the paper and plastic bottles in the correct bins. After one or two weeks of tossing paper and plastic, one set of students gets the recycle bins from every classroom and sorts them into larger, rolling recycling bins. These bins get brought to a recycling company to be sorted once again. After everything’s sorted and there’s a difference between paper and plastic, they somehow manage to break everything into bits and then create new things out of them. It’s like using an egg carton as a good place for a mini garden, except that the egg carton isn’t an egg carton anymore, it’s actually used to garden little plants! So, to end this article, I leave you to ponder on this last sentence. How can I save the Earth?

Shrewsbury Girls’ Lacrosse by Lauren C.

Shrewsbury girls lacrosse now have three seasons: fall, spring, and winter. Its main season is spring because we have around 8 games and a jamboree. In fall we have about 6 games and practices. A jamboree is when you have 6 games in one day and they sell sticks, shirts, sweatshirts, and other lacrosse items. We would probably have 6 games and indoor practices last but not least for fall ball we have about 6 games but no practices! We now have winter lacrosse because they had more money to spend for lacrosse due to donations , some of the seventh grade are Coach Karp, Coach Barry, and coach Hogan. Coach Hull and Coach Beall are the coaches for the sixth graders.

Science Update: Onion DNA Extraction Field Trip by Shiney A.

In science, 7 White went on a field trip to the to do an onion DNA extraction. Groups and (I) went on Tuesday, November 19th and groups (E) and (T) went on Wednesday, November 20th. Ms. Scibelli walked us to the UMASS Foundation where we met Mrs. Lebeau, the scientist there who taught us what to do. We learned, step-by-step what the procedure was. After mixing some chemicals, we used a method called spooling to take the DNA out of the test tube and put it into our sample containers. In spooling, we stirred the DNA with a glass rod to get the DNA to stick to the rod. The DNA was greenish, clear and appeared to be little strands, almost stringlike even. Several of those strands clumped together looked like a small cloud! Despite the smelliness and grossness of the trip, this was certainly an educational experience loved by almost everyone. Now, everyone is looking forward to the trip in April, back to the UMASS foundation!