january 2020

Dragon Tales

INSIDE THIS
ISSUE:

2020

General
News
School

Happenings
Trending

Sports

Entertainment

Horoscopes

Much More...

ISSUE 225

In Have you ever felt the ground shake
The beneath you? If you haven’t, you can imag-
ine it would be pretty scary. Can you be-
N
E lieve that Puerto Rico had 22 earthquakes
just in the span of a day? Well, for a little
while, this is what Puerto Rico was dealing
with. After all of the devastation, people
were sad about the collapse of the famous
rock structure, Punta Ventana. This natural

wonder has been standing longer then
you and tumbled down after the violent
shaking of the earth. These earthquakes
went up to the highest magnitude of
6.4 and there were many aftershocks
which didn't help the situation. Many of
Puerto Ricans are still recovering from the

vicious hurricane Maria and let's just say
this earthquake didn't make matters bet-
ter.

By: Megan Basile

W SPACE X

Completes Rocket Safety Test

S

AUSTRALIAN BUSH FEROCIOUS FIRES

The continent of Australia, including its animal/human
population along with its buildings, are being quickly de-
voured by the ravaging forest fires. According to many,
local research cites an estimated 500 million animals
were reported dead due to these terrorizing fires. Sadly,
about 153,000 acres of land were burned down. Luckily,
many Australian citizens safely evacuated the wrath of
the dangerous fires. Many people are trying to put out
these tragic fires, but with such little rain it seems impos-
sible.

Fun fact:
-Chris Hemsworth donated $1,000,000
-P!NK donated $500,000
-Elton John donated $1,000,000
-Dacre Montgomery donated $250,000
-Dami Im donated $10,000
-Kylie Jenner donated $1,000,000

Written by: Maddie Priole & Lillian Kier

The American Music Awards are an annual music ceremony originated in the year
1974 by Dick Clark. The most recent AMA’s were held November 24, 2019. Some of
the award winners include Taylor Swift who won Artist of the Year, Billie Eilish won New
Artist of the Year, Shawn Mendes & Camila Cabello won Collaboration of the Year, and Ko-
rean pop band BTS won Tour of the Tear.

A similar event is the Country Music Association Awards which were started in 1967
by Harry Stone. The top five awards were Male Vocalist of the Year which went to Luke
Combs, Female Vocalist of the Year went to Kacey Musgraves, Horizon Award went to
Ashley Mcbryde, Luke Combs and Robert Willford won Song of the Year with “Beautiful
Crazy”, and the Entertainer of the Year went to Garth Brooks.

By: Lionelray Rodriguez

Lebron James and Serena Williams were chosen to be the male and female athletes of the
decade. Lebron James is a 6’9” professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers. He
was born on December 30, 1984 in Ohio, making him 35 years old. Lebron has won three cham-
pionships, three finals MVP awards, four MVP awards, and 14 All-Star appearances. Serena
Williams is a 5’9” professional tennis player. She was born on September 26, 1981 in Michigan,
making her 38 years old. She has won a total of 23 Grand Slam singles titles. Both athletes
worked very hard in earning these titles.

By: Maddy Priole

The person of the year 2020 is a 17 year old girl named Greta Thunberg. She
was chosen as person of the year due to her amazing career of being an environmental
activist on climate change. Greta is widely known for her straightforward speaking to
many important political men and women about the
horrible climate crisis. People first heard of Greta in
August 2018 when she was only 15 years old. She
got together with her classmates and created a
school climate strike. Since then, her popularity has
blown up all over the world! And to this day, she is
fighting against climate change. She does whatever it
takes to help our environment.

Yes, Greta has been super helpful to our envi-
ronment, but what about her personality? According
to our president Donald Trump, she is always “very
angry”. Donald Trump believes climate change is just a hoax and he mentioned she was a
“mentally ill Swedish child.” That was pretty unprofessional of our president but Greta
didn’t seem to care and quickly fired back. Greta replied, “When haters go after your
looks and differences, it means they have nowhere left to go.” Aside from all the dra-
ma, that is amazing advice and many people need to hear it. All and all, we need more
people like Greta in this world so we can all come together and save our environment.
By: Lillian Kier

Woodruff Ace Music Atlanta Georgia Trip

On January 15, 2020, Woodruff Ace Music went to Atlanta, Georgia to compete against over

100 other programs. Woodruff performed Frozen, Jr. during the competitions. We visited the Atlanta

Georgia Aquarium where we met dolphins and beluga whales. We also went to Coca Cola World,

College Football Hall of Fame, and The Civil Rights Museum. The Woodruff Ace Music team

tried our hardest during the trip. We went toe to toe with some of the greatest programs like Nash-

ville and Bravo. We were the blue pod. The Ace kids gave it their all to earn our placing. We got best

Acting Award from our performance. Nashville and Bravo didn’t receive that award so of course the

Ace kids were very happy. Ace kids saw and met famous people like Joshua Bassett and Olivia Ro-

drigo who were the main characters in the show High School Musical: The Musical The Series. At

the end of the trip, Woodruff had a great time together and went back home. Our trophy of best act-

ing will be one of our greatest feats. —Anthony Bui

—————————————————————————————————————————
JTF was a really fun trip and I would like to share my experience. First, when everyone got to
the school we packed our stuff onto the huge bus. After that ,we spent 16 agonizing hours on the
bus. Eventually we made it to Atlanta and we stopped at Shoneys to eat breakfast. It was a long
wait until we got to our destination, The College Football Hall of Fame. When we got there, there
were a ton of fun interactive games you could play. As we walked through, we noticed there was a
huge wall of football helmets and a football goal. After that, we went to the aquarium and it was re-
ally cool. We saw whale sharks, sharks, stingrays, manta rays, starfish, fish, and a lot more. Finally,
we checked in the hotel and went to sleep after a long day.

The next day we went to JTF to get our pictures and shirts and then left. We went to the Civil
Rights Museum which was really sad because of all the stuff that happened. We learned how back
in the day, the world used to be so cruel and really bad. Thankfully it is not like that today! Then we
went to Coca Cola world which was really fun. We saw a 4D movie, watched a lot of old Coke com-
mercials, tried a lot of drinks that were good and awful, and we even got items from the store. So
that was really fun but the next day is the day we perform.

Finally, it is time to perform. We go straight to JTF, sit down in our seats, and wait for our pod to
get called. We did get to watch others perform before we had to perform. As soon as we saw the
other kids doing great performances, many of us got really scared. After a wonderful rehearsal, we
were ready to perform. After we performed we did a LOT better than we thought. Eventually we all
went to the mall and came back for the rewards and new junior musicals. We won best acting which
was really surprising! The new junior musicals were announced like Newsies Jr., Matilda Jr., Mona
Jr., and Elephant and Piggy. Finally, we were done for that day and had a great sleep.

The last day we went to JTF and saw some famous people like Oliva Rodrigo and
Joshua Bassett from High School Musical: The Musical The Series. At the end, we did the acting
and dancing workshops which were fun. We ate lunch and made it back to JTF to see Cazey Levy's
concert. Right after the concert, we hopped on the bus and left. —Kaleb Hadley



Mrs. Browne’s sixth grade science class were exploring the unit on the In-
ner Solar System.

The students were given a bunch of materials to make the Mars Rovers.
Some of the materials were construction paper, paper plates, straws, tape,
string, index cards. They also had a cup and a ball which were the “space
man” in his/her capsule.

Mrs. Browne explained, “The purpose of the rovers was learning the engi-
neering and designing process.” After a discussion, we dove further and
asked “Why Mars?” After some thought she responded with, “Mars would
be the next planet to support life. It would be the closest planet to Earth.”

This lesson/project came from the TeachTCI program. Mrs. Browne
thought it was a good idea because it was using what was learned in class
and putting it into a project-which helped make it easier to understand.

Here are a couple of student responses to the lesson: Jadon Pierce stated
“It was fun, but challenging. It was challenging because the ball has to stay
in the cup, but that also made it fun to test.” Elizabeth Chu, responded “I
liked it, and it was very fun. I liked it because I like engineering and I got
to build something.”

Concluding this, Mrs. Browne’s Mars Rovers were a smash hit.

— Rylee Glenn



The Mystery Mix Up
In Mr. Taylor’s Room

8th grade reading teacher, Mr. Taylor, is mixing up his teaching
strategies like he mixed up his crock pot meals for his puppy!

This year he is trying something new and giving his students mysteries to
solve. “Mysteries are, first and foremost, the most fun to read and engaging,”
said Mr. Taylor.

Lots of students have enjoyed these mysteries way more than book reviews
which he had done in the past. Madison Priole, an AP student in his classroom
says, “I have done a couple of these mysteries and I’d have to agree that they
are very enjoyable as well as interesting!”

Not only are these mysteries very fun and engaging they are also helping stu-
dents grow. Mr. Taylor states, “Mysteries force students to perform a close
read. which is a necessary skill in life, in class, and on standardized tests.” Per-
sonally, I believe that this is a completely true statement and I fully agree with
what he is saying. Not to mention, these mysteries are also helping students
learn how to cite textual evidence properly as well as elaborating upon it. By
elaborating on the cite, you are digging into the deeper meaning. This would
mean students are going to be able to understand that cite and the text more
clearly.

So, thank you Mr. Taylor for making learning fun and helping us
as students grow in life, in class, and on our standardized tests in
a new, unique way!

Social Media, practically everyone has at least one form of it on their phone. From
Youtube to Snapchat and even Facebook. These are all cool apps but what about Tik
Tok? What is TikTok anyway?

The app started out as another app called Musical.ly. It was later rebranded into
the newer and better TikTok. TikTok is a free social media platform that lets people
watch, create, and share videos. It has an estimated 500 million active users! The app
has a wide variety of users from anime fans and cosplayers to beauty gurus and comedi-
ans. Overall, it's full of meme related content.

The whole point of the app is to lip sync to an audio which could be a song, dia-
logue from a movie, or just somebody talking in general! If one prefers not to, they can
just watch other peoples creations. It's very enjoyable to use either way. One may find
themselves scrolling through the “for you” page for hours. The “for you” page is a fea-
ture in TikTok that recommends videos uploaded by others that you would enjoy.

If you enjoy being creative and making your own personalized videos-you will love
this.

Written by: Alex Stebbins

In December, the Woodruff Ace Music put on their performance of Elf Jr. The Musical. This is
the story of Buddy the Elf, who after an incident at the North Pole, goes to New York City, in
search of his father Walter Hobbs. In New York he meets his father, his stepmother Emily
Hobbs, and his little brother Michael. After getting kicked out of his father’s office, he ends up
in the store Macy’s where he meets his love interest Jovie. Then after an incident at Macy’s,
he's taken to his father’s apartment and they find out he is actually his son. Everything goes
wrong when he accidentally ruins an opportunity for his father and then also misses his date
with Jovie. Michael and Emily decide to go look for him when he runs away. When they all make
up, Buddy and his family help Santa’s sleigh fly again by getting enough Christmas spirit and
end up saving the day.

The cast of Elf Jr. was as follows: Brendon Pierce and Aiden Yeboah played Buddy the Elf.
Sophia Everingham and Carli Morgan played Jovie. Andrew Higgs played Walter Hobbs. Grace
Frazer played Emily Hobbs. Eva Vittorini played Michael Hobbs. Kayleigh Smallwood played
Santa. Theresa Ingegneri played Deb. Nya Stephenson played the Manager. Last but not least,
Storylynn Dagostino played Ms. Greenway.

During our final rehearsals, we started to develop some urgent problems. One of the lead
characters’ microphones had snapped. We had to come up with enough money to afford a new
one. The day prior to our first show, we also still didn’t have one of the major props for
Michael's scene. After what seemed like thousands of fixes, time came for ACE’s first show.
Microphones were dying and cutting out left and right, but we were able to overcome the
obstacles. At the beginning of our play, we started out with around 75 performance difficulties.
By the end of the next show, we had eliminated over half of the problems we were facing.
Although we struggled through the experience, we managed to make it out the other end, put-
ting on a great performance for the people of Upper Deerfield.

Written By : Eva Vittorini and Cecilia Hauserman



WHAT IS THE HASHTAG FOR YOUR LIFE?

#MEMES-ARE-MY-FAVORITE #Passion&Dedication_Beat Talent

“I really love funny things and “That is the quote I live by in
memes make me laugh most of soccer and everyday life.”
the time. My life can almost al-
ways be described in a meme.” - Julia DiFilippantonio 7th grade

-Kaleb Mesler 6th grade

#YourVibeAttractsYourTribe

“This hashtag shows how you
act and how you put yourself
out in the universe—is what you
get back in your life.”

-Makaylah Warren 8th grade

#breakAleg #happy

“This is a good luck wish and “I feel like this is the best
hashtag for my life because I
motivates people to do well. It am always happy and excited
motivates me to motivate about the littlest things.”
them—which really makes me
happy.” -Emma Ott 6th grade

Brendon Pierce 7th grade

VOICE ALL I NEED IS A FRIEND

The music in our hearts Books fill up my room.
Grasps our wings Not baseball cards or basketballs.
At least I can read.
It plays over and over again, I read a book a week
SPEAKING to us, But a book isn’t necessarily a friend
But it has no voice,
It’s just a beat And here I am
With Black-framed glasses
Playing in its own lyrics And a white
Which helps us find our beat pale, lanky body behind them

that can only play for us. The kids at school laugh.
Is it the way I dress?
By: Maahishee.M.Patel Is it because I look funny?
Is it because I am too nice?

With all of this,
or none of this –
it depends how you look at it –
All I need is a friend
-unanimous

John Dolittle lives in solitude behind the high walls of his lush manor in 19th-century
England. His only companionship comes from a mixture of exotic animals that he
speaks/communicates with on a daily basis. But, when young Queen Victoria be-
comes sick, the doctor and his furry friends embark on an epic adventure to a mythi-
cal island to find the cure.

Jump on the adventure and watch this movie….it is definitely a MUST SEE!

When Spencer goes back into the fantastical world of Jumanji, pals Martha, Fridge and Bethany
re-enter the game to bring him home. But the game is now broken -- and fighting back. Every-
thing the friends know about Jumanji is about to change, as they soon discover there's more ob-
stacles and more danger to overcome.

This movie doesn’t get the same great reviews as the others, but it is still good. I’m perfectly fine
with the sequel not deviating too far from what made the first modern Jumanji work. That movie
made huge changes to the Robin Williams original, but I don’t think each movie in a franchise
like this needs to shake things up every time. It is good the way it is. You make your own mind
up and go see it.

By: Julianna Santos and Lillian Kier

Aquarius-

Jan.20- Feb.18 2020 is the year you will people’s doubts to rest.
You will be at your creative peak this year, make the most of it.

Pisces-

Feb. 19- Mar. 20: 2020 will be a year of excitement and adventure
for Pisces, you will be brave enough to be open yourself to chang-
es and try new things.

Aries-

Mar.21-Apr.19: Even though you will be ambitious, you will be
more realistic about your goals. Aries, everything will work out in
your favor. But you need to take the initiative to make the first
move.

Taurus-

Apr.20-May.20: The 2020 year will be a calm and steady year. This
will be the year when important choices need to be made.

Gemini-

May.21-June.20: The Gemini zodiac sign will have a refreshing
2020, this is a year to improve the different aspects of your life.

Cancer-

June 21- July 22: The Cancer star sign needs to be ready for
changes in 2020, Observing the tiny details in life will help you
overcome all problems in 2020.

Leo-

July. 24-Aug.23: Life will be full of twists and turns for the Leo sun sign in
2020 and the Leo’s will be vigor to achieve their dreams this year. Overall,
2020 will be an enjoyable year for the Leos.

Virgo-

Aug.24-Sep.22: The Virgo astrological sign will be out of their nature in
2020. known to be practical, the Virgo’s might make some very impulsive
decisions in 2020.

Libra-

Sept. 23- Oct. 22: The Libra star sign will have a relatively easy 2020, relax

and rejuvenate your mind in preparation for the coming years.

Scorpio-

Oct. 23 - Nov. 21: The zodiac 2020 predictions foretell that this will be a year
of liberation and freedom for the Scorpio zodiac sign. You will feel free of all
restrictions and limitations in your life. This is a good time to focus on
learning a new hobby or improving different skills. You can use your posi-
tive energy to help others move forward in their lives.

Sagittarius-

Nov.22- Dec.20: 2020 will be a year of resolutions for the Sagittarius zodiac
sign. This is a good time to let go of your past and clean up on different as-
pects of your life that may have been bothering you, but to achieve suc-
cess, you need to be patient. You might be very social in the coming year
and open to meeting new people.

Capricorn-

Dec. 22-Jan 19: 2020 will be the year you will strive for calm and tranquility
in your life. You will be tired of running the race and ready to take a break.



6TH GRADERS 7TH GRADERS 8TH GRADERS
Maahishee Patel Anthony Bui Cecilia Hauserman

Rylee Glen Lionelray Rodriguez Eva Vittorini
Alexandra Stebbins Kaleb Hadley Madison Priole

Lillian Kier
Julianna Santos

Dayja Klotz
Megan Basile

Just a reminder for important dates coming up:

February 4-6 Early Dismissal/Conferences
February 7 In Service/School Closed

February 12 Family Night

February 17 School Closed/President’s Day
February 20 PBSIS Bowling Trip

February 26-27 CRHS Course Scheduling
February 28 Blue & Gold Day