GOSHEN GLADIATORS’ GAZETTE _______________APRIL 2015 __________________ Get Fit! The Fitnessgram is a test of the five different parts of healthrelated fitness that are recorded in P.E. classes twice each school year. These are aerobic capacity, muscular strength, muscular endurance, flexibility, and finally, body composition. Mrs. Magid or Mr. McIntee, GIS P.E. teachers, record your height and weight as well. Aerobic capacity is a measure of the ability of the heart, lungs, and muscles to perform physical activity. The more you exercise the higher your aerobic capacity will be. The pacer test is used to measure aerobic capacity. The pacer is a CD that counts how many laps you can do in the gym. Each time you complete a lap you will hear a beep. If you don’t make it to the other side before the beep you have to run a little faster. The more laps you do the faster it gets. You should try to stay in the healthy fitness zone. You should keep out of the “needs improvement” zone. Muscular strength, muscular endurance, and flexibility are used to measure the overall fitness of the musculoskeletal system. The curl-up, trunk lift, push up, and back-saver sit and reach are all used to measure the musculoskeletal system. Finally, body composition determines if a person is the right weight for their height. People should be active for at least 60 minutes a day. People should limit the time watching TV or playing video games. And last of all people should eat a healthy diet with fruits and vegetables and limit food with solid fats and added sugars. Learning good habits at a young age will keep you healthy throughout your life. ~Arun Foster Above, Fourth graders Trinity Terrasi, Matthew Santiago, Anthonny Mumiz and Emma Ryan work on their curl-ups in P.E. class. Left, fourth graders Miguel Burgas and Ryan McLaughlin take the pacer test. Below, fifth grader Freddie Provincial demonstrating a trunk lift. Photos: Victoria Jakakas Great Activities to Stay Fit These Girls are on the Run Girls on the Run has begun once again and runs 2 times a week for 12 weeks. Girls on the Run sign-ups are in the spring and fall. The classes for Girls on the Run are Mondays and Wednesdays and Tuesdays and Thursdays. Girls on the Run builds confidence and every girl is treated unique. There are two teams this spring. Those teams are the pink and green. Members all grow as a team. This program inspires girls to be joyful, healthy, and positive by doing fun activities and running. At the end of the program, you have to do a 5k run. Each day you learn something new, like being unique, or having self -confidence. Last but not least, my favorite thing about Girls on the Run is that every meet, someone gets awarded the Energy Award. You earn this by being kind, helpful, joyful, and uplifting/ encouraging to others. One of the participants in Girls on the Run is Virginia Valens, who thinks it is a very uplifting and fun program. I personally think Girls on the Run is a very fun program that pushes you to do your best and to never give up. I love Girls on the Run! -Madison Schaaff Goshen Little League in Full Swing Member of the Goshen Little League get ready to PLAY BALL! Photo courtesy of Mrs. Diglio Goshen Little League is for anyone who can catch a ball or hit a ball. Anyone ages 4-16 is eligible to play in our league. The Goshen Little League season started on Saturday, April 11 on Opening Day with every team playing a game and where there was a bouncy house and an ice cream stand. There are different leagues for different ages. There is Tee-Ball, 6 year-old Instructional, International, Minor league, Major league, a 50-70 division, Juniors and Seniors. We even have divisions for girls’ softball! The teams are named after sponsors like Advanced Testing and Eagle Ridge Construction. We also play other towns like Chester, the Town of Florida, and Montgomery. The non-competitive divisions play anywhere from an 8 to a 16game season. The competitive divisions play a 12-game regular season, followed by the playoffs. In the playoffs the Goshen teams play for a Goshen Championship. The winning team then plays the champion from the other towns. The winner of that game is crowned the Division Champion! Our season finishes when the school year ends. Even then, baseball is not over. There is still a local All-Star game, a District 19 All-Star tournament, and a Fall-Ball season to play. Last fall, the boys’ Majors team won the 2014 Harvest Cup. Goshen Little League is a fun way for your child to learn how to play baseball. PLAY BALL! -Jackson Diglio Everyday is Earth Day Spring has Arrived The Earth. It’s becoming a wasteland with all the junk, and pollution, and garage poured onto it every day. That’s why Earth Day was created. It all started in the 1960s when many scientists and environmentalists were concerned about our Earth. The idea of the holiday stuck around for about seven years starting in 1962. In 1970, Senator Gaylord Nelson made it all happen. He believed that our environment was not paid much attention to by politics or the media. The first Earth Day was held on April 22, 1970. Now that you know why Earth Day was created, you may want to know how you can help it. There are many, many ways to help our Earth from becoming a huge mess. You can even help without leaving the comfort of your own home-by simply turning off the lights when you're not using them, or turning off the faucet when you're brushing your teeth helps our planet a ton! You can also help in bigger ways, like going to the park and picking up all the garbage and litter there, or even making a compost pile to contribute to the soil and get rid of some of your trash without harming the Earth. Whatever way you choose, just make sure you help the Earth in any way you can! Could you imagine what the Earth would be like if we didn’t recycle at all? The skies would be gloomy from all the pollution, the Earth would be covered in trash, and the waters wouldn’t be blue. With all the trash and pollution, many animals would die, along with plants, dropping our food source by a lot. If we didn’t recycle, the air would be too dirty to breathe and all the water would polluted. We have a limited amount of fresh water, and without recycling, it would become polluted and undrinkable. It would take a really long time for the water to become fresh again with all the pollution covering it. Also, all the landfills have lots of plastic, which breaks down and pollutes the soil, therefore killing our crops. I’m sure most of you don’t want to live in a wasteland, so recycle all you can!! You’ve learned a lot about saving our planet, and how you can help. Now it’s your turn! You alone, can make a difference!! By doing so little, can make a huge difference! So stop ignoring our Earth, and make your mark! -Andrew Rampulla There are two equinoxes every year, in March and September. This is when the sun shines directly on the equator and the length of night and day are nearly equal. The March equinox marks the moment the sun crosses the equator from south to north. This happens on March 19, 20, or 21 every year. On the equinox, night and day are nearly exactly the same lengths, 12 hours, all over the world. However, in the real world, equinoxes don’t have exactly 12 hours of sun or daylight. It is called “equinox” because it means “equal night.” On the first day of spring, people feel like, “Yeah,” more open shoes, putting away their winter coat, no more snow, and happiness. You could think of spring in many different sad or happy thoughts.-Imaan Beg PLANT A TREE! When I say Arbor Day, what do you say? You might think....TREES!? Yes! Arbor is a Latin word for tree. Therefore, every last Friday of April in the U.S. is "tree day." This year it falls on April 24 and we celebrate it by simply planting a tree. Arbor Day began because of a man named Julius Sterling Morton who was raised in Detroit, where he was surrounded by trees and grew up being a lover of nature. In 1854, Morton and his wife Caroline were among the pioneers moving into the Nebrasky territory. But there was one problem and it was that there were no trees. He became the editor of Nebraska’s first newspaper and then with writing at his "finger tips" he spread his enthusiasm for trees. With all his speeches and the newspaper he encouraged everyone to set aside a day to plant a tree. In 1872 the Nebraska State Board of Agriculture accepted a resolution by Morton, "to set aside one day to plant trees, both forest and fruit." So on April 10, 1872 was declared the first Arbor Day and they planted over..... ONE MILLION TREES! My parents already got a tree for our house. Mrs. Jung and her class are going to plant trees in pots and then later take them home. Mrs. Jung says, she “wants her students to learn why trees are important and why we need to protect them." She also wants them to learn about the devastation of trees in the rain forest. She will wrap up the day with reading the book to her class. It is a book about a girl named Mangari Maathai who changes her town from plain to a beautiful landscape filled with trees. So talk to your neighbors, friends and family about ARBOR DAY and spread the word. Let’s keep this planet green. So get out there and PLANT A TREE! -- Areyanna McCarthy April is Autism Awareness Month Newspaper Reporter Jason Orzell, pictured here with his younger brother Eric. Photo courtesy of Stacey Orzell. Has someone you don’t know ever run up to you and given you a big hug? Or some kid start doing something random? Or even a child that was saying something from Thomas the Train? That may be a kid with autism. Autism is a developmental disability that wires the brain differently. Think of your brain as a point system, you have a certain amount of points in each section. For example, you might have 42 points in math and 22 points in ELA and maybe you have 30 points in video games. A kid with autism is the same thing, just the numbers are much more drastic. They might have 70 points in math and 5 in E.L.A and over 9,000 in video games. All people have the same amount of points in their whole brain, those are just a few examples. Therefore, in a kid with autism’s brain, the points are spread more drastically. Every one out of 68 children in the United States is affected by autism, and 51 of those are boys. Then there are some other types of autism spectrum disorders like Aspergers or Rett Syndrome. You can think of it as a rainbow, the higher you go up in colors, the more challenging the kid is. April is National Autism Month. To show your support, you are supposed to wear blue clothes because blue is the color supporting people with autism, like pink is for cancer. You are also supposed to hang blue lights from your deck or porch. Now, I come from experience. My bro Eric has a high functioning level of autism, or on the rainbow spectrum, an orange color. Have you ever seen the poster with a cute little boy licking a lollipop with a tie dye shirt on? That's my bro Eric, only five years ago. My mom, Stacey Orzell, is a parent volunteer/consultant for AMOC (Autism Move-A-Thon of Orange County.) A.M.O.C It is a not-for-profit organization that runs events for people with disabilities. All of the money they make goes back to people with autism that need it. They are supporting a great cause! For more information on how they serve the community, you can find their website at www.mhaorangeny.com/amoc.html . Another great websites for learning about autism is: Eric "Delicious" Orzell – the face of New York State’s 2011 Autism Awareness Month http://www.opwdd.ny.gov/opwdd_community _connections/autism platform/ stories of_success/eric_orzell . -Jason Orzell State Tests: Some Parents Choose to “Opt Out” State tests. We all take them. From the time we are in third grade to the time we are in eighth grade, we take state tests. But this year, many parents decided to opt their children out of the tests. In Portland, Oregon nearly 1,000 students have opted out of taking the state test. Many kids think the tests are stressful, but some kids enjoy taking them. This is definitely going to be an ongoing debate, so what do you think? Should parents opt their children out of state tests, or should they stick with the state? What most students don’t know is that the state tests don’t actually affect their grades. State tests are required by the federal government to be given in grades 3 through 8. Tests are given over a 3-day period and consist of multiple choice and written answer questions. Activities for kids who have opted out of state tests were provided in Goshen. At GIS, kids were instructed to sit in the cafeteria and read, draw or do work that they needed to catch up on. Kids in C.J. Hooker were told to sit in the auditorium and read. This had to be done quietly, as there were students testing nearby. Schools must meet a 95 percent participation rate for tests. In just five fifth grade classes, 32 students opted out of the ELA tests. In New York, the number of opt outs is expected to be over 200,000 students. In C.J. Hooker 30 percent of students have opted out of the ELA exam and 20 percent of students have opted out in GIS. So now that you've heard the statistics, what do YOU think about students taking state tests? -Brianna Kimmel April is Autism Awareness Month I had the privilege of witnessing my fifth grade student address the Orange County Legislature on April 10. His speech brought me to tears and I was in awe of the composure and heartfelt speech he gave in recognition of Autism Awareness Month. Please read the speech that Jason Orzell, fifth grade student, brother of a highly-functioning autistic younger brother, gave to a room full of politicians and a few onlookers with absolute grace. –Mrs. Antisin Like a Seashell Chooses a Beach, A Special Child Chooses a Family. Hi, my name is Jay Orzell and my family lives in Goshen. I am here today to speak about families affected by autism. My little brother Eric has autism, which means he has developmental delays. Otherwise, he would be making the speech and I would be sitting in the crowd watching. Well, that and the fact that he is only eight years old. Now, it’s not the easiest thing to have a bro that isn’t quite the “typical” kid, but it does makes things different. Sometimes he teaches me things. Eric’s brain is wired differently, so he doesn’t always function the same way as other eight year old kids. For example, he uses his fork backwards, but he still gets the food in his mouth. In addition, it’s hard for him to listen to people that are asking him something. And it is harder to find family activities that we can all do. Eric often has cartoons constantly running through his head. (He will watch the same thing 10 times or so before changing the channel, or show.) It’s very distracting to him. He also has food allergies, which sometimes goes along with autism. His diet is pretty restricted compared to most people. Eric is allergic to all dairy, all nuts, and other foods. He can eat Utz potato chips and french fries from Burger King or Wendy’s. Everyone loves those. He is touch sensitive. We have to “police” him for his safety. When we go to the movies, we have to be careful of all the buttery popcorn, chocolate, and cheese nachos. One good thing about his autism is his amazing memory. It’s called photographic memory or eidetic memory. He can say the alphabet backwards. He can also play songs on our piano by just listening to them. These are some of his autism super powers. He will never, and I mean NEVER run out of energy. Nowadays, we are in the baseball season and it is Eric’s first time playing. So, my dad and I are training him. When we work on skills and drills, we have to break down the steps and give him a lot of reminders. Eric will always want to play with me. He once wrote in a school St. Patricks Day project “ Jay is worth more than a pot of gold because he plays with me!” He is a great younger brother to me, and because of his autism, he has made me a great older brother to him. Because of Eric’s autism, I have learned a lot about people with disabilities and differences. Having patience is very important. You can’t treat them as if you would treat a typical kid. For example, Eric had trouble saying certain things that I could have said when I was his age. Or that he gets distracted a lot so he doesn't listen as well as other kids his age. Eric wants to do more of what he wants to do, not what the rest of the family wants to do. I (and some of my friends) have been volunteers for AMOC (Autism Move-A-Thon of Orange County) since I was 6 years old. I think it’s really important to support people who need assistance in the community. I’ve met lots of people and made some good friends because of volunteering, like the Currao family and Jesse A. Saperstein. So I want to thank you for having me speak today. I want to ask the Orange County Legislature and everyone who is here today to continue to support laws, events and causes that help families affected by autism and other disabilities. Thank you, good day! This Month in History President Lincoln Tragically Killed Civil War General and Shortly after Union Victory Did you know on April 14th, 1865 Abraham Lincoln was shot and killed? But Lincoln did not die right away. He did die the day after at 7:22 a.m. His killer, John Wilkes Booth, shot Lincoln below his left ear. He was shot in Ford’s Theater in Washington D.C. Booth strongly disliked Lincoln because President Lincoln banished slavery in the United States. Due to this, Booth killed Abraham and also wounded Rathbone (a major in war) in the shoulder. Doctors felt his pulse in his neck and his wrist all night and into the morning. At 7:22 the doctors knew that he was gone forever. John W. Booth was proud that he assassinated the president. It just so happens that Booth broke his fibula, a bone in your foot, when trying to escape. On the same day, an attempted assassination on Secretary of State Seward was made by David Herold. Steward was just critically injured but, it was an injury that could have caused death. No one actually knows how John Wilkes Booth actually died but he did die. The rest of his accomplices were hung. Then not many knew at first, that Mary Surratt was at the center of the assassination plot. Now there is no slavery due to President Abraham Lincoln’s courage to fight and lead the Union to victory. Whenever you hear about the Civil War or slavery then you know who to thank for no more slaves! ~Alexis Jakakas President of the United States Ulysses S. Grant was born on April 27th, 1822, in Point Pleasant, Ohio. He is the son of Jesse Root Grant and Hannah Simpson Grant. He was a Methodist. Ulysses had five other siblings. When he was 17, he was accepted into the United States Military Academy in West Point in New York. He graduated as the class of 1839, and ranked 21st. He married Julia Dent on August 22, 1848. Ulysses fought in the Mexican and American War. He also fought in the American Civil War in 1865, as a general on the Union side. Later in 1869, he became the 18th president of the United States. When his term ended in 1877, he became a partner in a financial firm. Ulysses S. Grant died in 1885. He still rests in the General Grant National Memorial in New York City.--Emily Dong Surrender at Appomattox The Civil War was a very important battle between the North and the South. This war went on for five years. Eventually, General Robert E. Lee and his 9,000 men surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant on April 9, 1865 in Appomattox County, Virginia. The surrender allowed the Confederate soldiers to keep their horses and return to their homes. General Grant and his men were outnumbered so they fell back and left the road wide open. But the South did not win yet. The North had more reinforcements coming in to help aid them in battle. Troops began to close in on Lee and his army. Grant’s goal of cutting off and destroying Lee’s army was very close at hand. Realizing the North was unbeatable, Lee ordered his army to retreat to the Appomattox River. Small groups of resistance continued until flags of truce were sent out from the Confederate army between 10:00 am and 11:00 am. General Lee was smart because he did not want to lose anymore soldiers so he decided to surrender to the Army of Northern Virginia. This battle was not the end of the war, but Confederate soldiers everywhere heard about Lee's defeat. They were allowed to return to their homes and the Union soldiers were refrained from celebrating too much. If we did not have an amazing general like Ulysses S. Grant we would not have won that battle! -Victoria Jakakas This Month in History A Gift from Japan Do you like to go sightseeing? Do you like beautiful flowers? If so, the best place you should go to is the National Cherry Blossom Festival. It takes place in Washington D.C. for three weeks. This year, the festival started on March 20 and ended on April 12, 2015. The National Cherry Blossom Festival commemorates the 1912 gift of 3,000 cherry trees from Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo to Washington D.C. The gift of the plentiful cherry trees and the annual celebration honors the lasting friendship between the United States and Japan. During this festival, there are so many different festival events that take place. Some of these fun and wonderful events are the Blossom Kite Festival and the Southwest Waterfront Fireworks Festival. Did you know that there are some specific ways to celebrate the National Cherry Blossom Festival? A few ways are to fly a kite, to go to an art museum, and to find blooms and bonsai trees at the National Arboretum. There is so much to learn about at this festival. The National Cherry Blossom Festival is a blast of fun and is a wonderful event to go to in Washington D.C! -Rachel Seo DEVASTING EARTHQUAKE: THEN AND NOW Over one hundred years ago, on April 18, San Francisco suffered a major earthquake. It happened at 5:12 a.m. on April 18, 1906. The earthquake made gas lamps fall, electric wires break and gas mains explode which triggered a very dangerous fire. Firefighters could not fight the fire because the city’s water mains had exploded. As a result, the fire burned on for three days. The firefighters then began exploding TNT and destroying entire blocks to stop the spreading of the flames. During this natural disaster, at least 3,000 people died and about 250,000 people lost their homes. Twenty-eight thousand buildings and five hundred city blocks were destroyed. The survivors slept in tents in city parks and they waited in long lines for food. The San Francisco earthquake was one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history, but San Francisco was rebuilt. Another devastating earthquake just occurred in Nepal on April 25, 2015. Nepal is a country located between India and China in the Himalayan Mountains. More than 2,400 people died and 5,900 people were injured. The search for more people in Nepal is still ongoing so the number of people dead and the number of people injured is going to rise. The earthquake also set of many avalanches in the mountains. At Mount Everest, as many as 17 climbers were killed by avalanches. Rescue efforts are ongoing but it is difficult because the country is relatively poor. International aid will be needed to help survivors rebuild and recover from the disaster. If you would like to donate money to help people in Nepal, you can check out the website www.charitynavigator.org to find charities that will be helping. Kapil Foster Booker T. Washington: Champion of Education Many people do not appreciate school. They would do anything not to go. Booker T. Washington would have done anything for a real education! With school books and teachers! But Booker T. Washington was born during a tough time in history. Booker T. was enslaved. He lived in an uncomfortable home and was forced to eat pig slop. One of Booker’s many jobs was to carry many girl’s books to school. He would look through the window and watch the kids learn math and ELA. He starved for education but it was against the law to teach African Americans. That didn’t stop Booker. Even after the Civil War ended, Booker had to work in the salt mines to support his family. They needed to save every cent. He taught himself the numbers scraped into the barrels and his mom brought him an old spelling book. When night school started Booker would finish work at the mines and he would hurry off to night school. Soon he heard about Hampton Institute. It was five hundred miles away and a year tuition was $70. Booker scraped together extra pennies and was donated pennies and nickels by half the town of Malden! He rode a train and stagecoach about 100 miles away. Then he ran out of money and was forced to walk the rest of the way to Hampton Institute! When he made to the school he quickly became a star student. He even worked as a janitor after school to attend. He made it to college and soon became an educator, author and orator. He was even an U.S. presidential advisor! He became one of the most powerful and respected black men of his time and throughout history! On April 5, people celebrate Booker T. Washington’s birthday, for starting a path for other important African-Americans! And to think, it all started out with an enslaved boy with a dream! -Madison Clark New York Yankees Icons of Major League Baseball The Yankees first became a team in 1903 when Bill Deverg and Frank Ferell purchased the Baltimore team in the American League for $18,000. The New York franchise was approved as a member of the American League. The team played in a hastily constructed, all-wood park at 168th Street and Broadway. Because the site was one of the highest spots in Manhattan, the club would be known as the "Highlanders" and their home field "Hilltop Park.” Their first game was Apr. 22, 1903, a 3-1 loss at Washington. Their first win was April 23rd, 7-2 at Washington. In April 1913, the Highlanders became the Yankees. In 1920, the Yankees purchased the contract of Babe Ruth from the Boston Red Sox. The Yankees have had some of the most famous players in baseball history including Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Reggie Jackson, Don Mattingly, Mariano Rivera, and Derek Jeter. They have won 27 champions! That’s the most out of all sports . Their stadiums are consistently sold out. At the stadium you can get an assortment of food and drinks! You can also get jerseys, toys, and lots of many souvenirs. I love going there! There are so many things to do! I hope one day you get to go there too. - Grace Gardner Meow: Life of a Kitten Kittens are adorable little creatures. At one week old kittens are helpless newborns. All they have to depend on is their mother. During the first week of a kitten's life the main concerns are feeding, staying warm and developing social skills. These hairless, pink kitties stay with their mother for five weeks before they can go on their own. There’s a lot to learn before then. At two weeks old, they develop the ability to see. At three weeks old, they are able to smell. Ability to hear develops at four weeks old. Their teeth also grow in at four weeks. At week five weeks old, play begins. The kittens start stalking prey. Right now, their idea of prey is a little different than you might think--from bathrobe sashes, to curtains and your own two feet, all destroyed by the little rascals! When they are not “killing” each other, the kittens start grooming themselves and each other. By six weeks old the kitten has mastered litter training and now can start to eat soft cat food. They are not so dependent on their mothers anymore. They begin to explore their world more. The universe has no limits for a kitten: exploring the outside world, or maybe new parts of the house. At eight weeks old the kitten is ready to be adopted. They do not need their mother to care for them anymore. They soon grow up and become an adult cat. But, there is still a lot more to explore! -Carissa Bayack The Excitement of Motocross The earliest motorcycles were a little more than bicycles with small engines attached. The first actual motorcycle was built on October 19, 1885. When people used to race motorcycles they used to use the trail for bicycles. The real birth of motocross was in the 1960s. Motocross is a form of off-road motorcycle racing on dirt and off- road areas. Motocross is held in any weather conditions, indoors and outdoors, as long as there is no snow or severe flooding. Recently, motocross has gradually developed new forms of riding disciplines. Racing from indoor stadium arena events such as Supercross and Arenacross freestyle motocross where riders display an array of skills while performing thrilling jumps and stunts. My sister, Samantha, and I both love to ride and we ride for American Classic Racing (ACR). ACR is an organization dedicated to the sport of vintage motocross and off-road racing. ACR conducts AMA sanctioned amateur racing events in the northeastern region of the United States. It is a group and the mission goal is to keep alive the old fashioned motocross bikes and appreciate how bikes have changed in the past twenty years. Back then there were two stroke motors which were not environmentally friendly. Modern bikes now are four stroke motors, which are more efficient for environmental purposes. Another club is AHRMA. Their mission is to preserve a particular time in the history of the sport of motocross. First class for AHRMA is $45 and ACR is free, but there are donations and track fees. ACR is the place to be when you are looking for vintage riding! Most people think that motocross is just for boys and NOT girls, but I believe that girls can do whatever boys can, including motocross. In ACR there are several girl riders, including my sister and me. So do not think that girls are not as good as boys because I can ride motorcycles as good as anyone can! -Valerie Webster
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