1. Driswood Elementary School’s Fall Newspaper Edition 2017
The Winking Owl
Driswood Elementary School’s Fall Newspaper Edition 2017

2. New School Year, New Activities and Staff
New School Year, New Activities and Staff! By: Brandon Hedrick, Keira Basenback, Kaleb Harris, Tiffany Kohan and Kayla Schilling
Welcome to a new school year at Driswood Elementary School, where we have new staff, new activities and a whole lot of other new stuff this year! We did some research and want to inform you about all that we found out! To start, we have our first ever assistant principal, Mr. Astorino! We asked him what it was like going from a teacher to an assistant principal. He replied, “It’s a good challenge going from a classroom of students to an entire school of hundreds of students and staff members.” He continued to say that he is here to take care of our needs and to be involved more in our learning. Next, we have many new teacher’s in the building this school year! We interviewed Ms. Morris, our new 5th grade teacher and asked her if this was her fist year teaching. Ms. Morris replied, “ No, I taught first grade in southern Maryland for three years.” She then told us that she loves teaching and that the students in her class are funny and that she enjoys doing things with them.
Something else new this year is the new student council officers. It was a close race! Colby Carter is our new president, Julia Lassen is the vice president, Mason Coderre is it new public relations officer, the new secretary is Samantha Ogden, and the new spirit officer is Luke Viands. A new fundraiser for this school year is the Glory Day’s Fundraiser. Anytime you go to Glory Days 10 % of the receipt will go to Driswood once you give your teacher the receipt! This fundraiser is through our PTO. There are many other new things about this school year, just look around our building! What do you see?
Ms. Morris, 5th Grade Teacher, Photo Above

3. HURRICANE IRMA STRIKES   By Chance Park, Megan Edwards, Nathan Cruz, Braelyn Moncherry
A Hurricane is water and powerful, destructive wind. Lately, we’ve been seeing many of these storms and the destruction that they cause. We decided to focus on Hurricane Irma, which impacted Florida greatly. Hurricane Irma hit Florida with the force of a steam train, in early September of this year.
A student from our school, Avery Baione who is in Mrs. Paris’ second grade class, has a mother who has a very important job. She works for FEMA which is an organization that helps with disaster relief. She was there assisting with the relief in both Texas and Florida, and we had the opportunity to send her our questions about Hurricane Irma.
The first question that we asked was: Do you know what the wind speed was, was hurricane Irma powerful?
Mrs. Baione replied, “ I did not feel them personally because I was in Texas, but I had several coworkers staying at hotels in Puerto Rico and Florida during both Irma and Maria describe it as one of the scariest things ever!”
We then asked her, if she saw a lot of damage. Mrs. Biaone explained that she was working in the town of Homestead Florida but had to stay an hour away in Miami because of all the damage and that there was still a lot of damage in Miami as well. “Trees that fell were completely uprooted and sometimes took the sidewalk with them when they fell. Billboards along all the highways in Irma’s path were completely ripped apart.”
Next, we asked her if she saw a lot of flooding. “Yes, Driving from Homestead to Jacksonville all along the highways the tress there was flooding covering the trunks of the trees. It was pretty strange to see mile after mile of trees underwater.”
Ms. Biaone also commented that she did not see people in shelters but that the people were very hot, exhausted, and wanted their normal lives back. She also commented that food and water were hard to find, which made it very difficult even for her working long hours in the hot Florida sun!
Did you have any friends or family members in Florida during Hurricane Irma? If so, we hope that they are alright!
Photo courtesy of Ms. Georgia Baione of a tree uprooted after Hurricane Irma hit Homestead Florida

4. Why leaves turn colors???? By: Sydney Britton, Calin Kreger, Zoe Kesterson, Kadyn Kerr
September is the first month of Fall. All you have to do is look up at the trees surrounding the mountains to see the changes. In Spring, chlorophyll turns the leaves green. In Fall, carotenoids allow the leaves to turn colors such as orange, yellow, red and brown. Leaf colors are related to the weather conditions. Certain conditions can cause chlorophyll in the leaves to dwindle. Leaves are colored by molecules called pigments. The color change usually happens before the leaves fall off the tree.
Fall usually occurs in the Northern Hemisphere in September and October and in the Southern Hemisphere in April and May.
We interviewed Mrs. Morris, an awesome Kindergarten teacher and Mrs. Lady, our amazing 5th grade teacher to see the similarities and differences between how they teach about fall leaves. Mrs. Morris said that they take a walk to observe the changes, next they see images on the computer, then they use a crayon to scribble on the leaves and stamp leaves on paper and last they read a lot of books about leaves.
Next, we interviewed Mrs. Lady about how she teaches her students about leaves. She said she teaches about photosynthesis and reasons they change color, and like Ms. Morris’ class the 5th graders get to observe outside but also take pictures of their observations. Then they watch a BrainPOP video, talk about the reason leaves change colors, and learn that the heat in the fall causes the leaves to not be able to produce as much chlorophyll and so they lose their green color, and underneath the color will be orange brown, yellow, and red!
What Parts of The World Have Leaves That Turn Colors?
West Virginia
Europe
New York
Canada
Japan

5. Welcome, Mr. Astorino! By: Jhonatha Pineros, Emilie Boudreaux, Addison McDonald, Sean Pearson, and Reese Cannon
Have you met our new Assistant Principal, Mr. Astorino? If you have you might know what we are going to tell you. For those of you who do not know him, you will learn about him. Here are a few facts about him. Mr. A is his nickname and he is nice because he never yells at us. He is funny because he laughs at our jokes. I think he will laugh at your jokes. If you are in kindergarten you probably do not know that this is Mr. A’ s first year. We asked some students if Mr. A went into their classroom. Students said that he does sometimes and that he might stay for a whole subject. He told me he likes being Assistant Principal. Do you think he likes being Assistant Principal? When you grow up would you like to be Assistant Principal one day?
Above is a photo of Mr. A at lunch duty, photo bombed by Domenic Bonilla!

6. What about North Korea? By: Hunter Beamer, Parker Bondurant, and Aden Egan
In North Korea, the language spoken is Korean. Lately we’ve been hearing about this country in the news, so we thought we would research and try to explain what is happening in kid language. North Korea is located in East Asia. There is an estimated 21,400,000 people living there according to Grolier’s The New Book of Knowledge. North Korea’s leader is Kim Jung-un and his dad is Kim Jung Ill. Their government is called a communist party, that is where a very few select people get to make all the decisions. They have a lot of nuclear weapons and have been caught testing nuclear bombs in the past, which has made many other countries, including the United States, upset, to say the least. wiki/North_Korea We do not need another war, what does war solve? Nothing. For more information about Korea check out: au/page/no/North_Korea
This is the leader Kim Jung-un
Image from:

7. Favorite Subjects by: Ronan Smith, Sean Gordon, Jesse Beverage, Bjorn Opseth, Domenic Bonilla
Do you have a favorite subject in school? We were curious what the ultimate favorite subject was through out the 4th grade, so we interviewed people from the fourth grade. We distributed surveys to the entire 4th grade asking the to choose their favorite subject between, Science, Social Studies, Math or Reading and to tell us why.
After the votes came in, the first subject of choice was Science with 22 votes followed by math with 17 votes. The least favorite subject was Social Studies with only 10 votes. Hunter Beamer said that he likes math because, “It is challenging and fun.” A lot of students like Science because they like the experiments.
So those are the results of the 4th grade. What is your favorite subject in school?
The student’s results for favorite subjects: 22 science, 17 math, 12 reading, 10 social studies, and 1 person for dismissal (they wrote it in)

8. Who’s Who at Driswood Elementary
Who’s Who at Driswood Elementary? By: Graclyn Dodson, Gabby Dove, Maggie Holzberger, Isaac Mahoney, Bradon Haley
On, Monday, October 2,2017, we interviewed our new assistant principal. We asked him, why did you want to be an assistant principal? He replied that he saw it as an opportunity to be able to help more students and teachers. Next, we asked him if he enjoyed working with Mrs. Osborne? He said yes because he has learned a lot from Mrs. Osborne. He's looking forward to working with Mrs. Osborne more. Finally, we asked him what the hardest part of his job way, he said, “ It Is assuring that I meet the needs of the teachers and students.” On Thursday, September 28, 2017, we interviewed Mr. Evan, our cool custodian. We asked him why he wanted to be a custodian. He replied that he wanted to because his father did and when he started the job he liked it. Next we asked him if he ever wanted any other job and he replied, “ I wanted to live on a farm and cut wood,” then he added, “That’s what I do on my days off.” Mr. Evan finished by telling us that he has been a custodian for 5 years. Finally, do you know who that lady is in our office after school, who announces the bus numbers? She’s Graclyn Dodson’s mom! You can call her Ms. Anita, she has been volunteering her time before and after school since our school opened and she says, “ I have been working in the school system since my son was in elementary school and have continued to help while my daughter is in school. It is a great feeling knowing that I can do my part to help out and help make someone's job a little easier even if it is for one second.” She added, “The reason why I help in the afternoon is to help out the office because at the end of the day it tends to be very busy with the phones ringing and parents coming in to pick up their kids early and to also call the buses.” Now hopefully you know a little more about who’s who at Driswood Elementary!
Ms. Anita Moreno helping out at the front office

9. The 5 W’s about Ms. Price by: Ms. Price’s Entire Class
Ms. Price’s first grade class had the chance create questions for their new teacher! Each student thought long and hard about a good who, what, where, when, or why question to ask her. Here are their questions and her responses:
Who is your best friend? Christine Who is your mother? Missy Price Who is your hero? My mom, Missy
What is your first name? Sydney What do you like to do outside of school? I like to spend time with my friends and family, go hiking, go to sporting events and shop. What is your favorite restaurant? Glory Days and Chick-Fil-A What is your favorite food? Tacos
Where do you picnic? I would like to picnic at Maryland Heights on a hike! Where did you grow up? I was born in Columbia, Maryland and lived there until I was eight years old. Then, I moved to Shenandoah Junction and have lived here ever since! Where did you go to college? West Virginia University Where did you use to work? I worked at Sam Michaels Summer camp for five years.
When did you go to college? August 2012-May When did you decide to be a teacher? I wanted to be a teacher since I was five years old! When you were a child who did you want to be? Lizzie Mcguire, I loved her! When did you get your drivers license? On my 16th birthday, which is October 28th.
Why did you come to Driswood? I have grown up in the community and I was familiar with the students so I thought I would fit perfect and I wanted to give back to my community. Why do we read in class? To become smarter and it can help with your spelling. You will also get to read and find some of your favorite books! Why do you like teaching? I love working with kids and I want to help them grow as individuals and as learners!
Ms. Price pictured above with her students, Cali Raley and Ryleigh Sheffler

10. Hurricane Harvey By : Xavier Gonzalez, Mason Derrick, Aeryn Mincin, and Ronan Bartosevich
Thousands without power!
Do you want more information about Hurricane Harvey that happened back at the end of August? Hurricane Harvey hit Texas pretty hard and we know a lot of Driswood families had family and friends effected by it, so we are here to report on the tragedy.
Rainfall
Hurricane Harvey triggered many flash floods. The total rainfall that fell, was inches in Cedar Bayou on the outskirts of Houston. Much of Harvey's damage came from massive rainfall. It created a 1-in-1000 year flood event. (thebalance.com)
Federal Aid Package
On September 8, 2017, President Trump signed a bill approving $15.25 billion in storm aid. It includes an increase in the debt ceiling and an extension of government spending to December, 8, Houston received $91 million and it went to an organization called FEMA aka Federal Emergency Management Agency. (thebalance.com)
FEMA Interview with Georgia Baione
Mrs. Georgia Baione, is a parent of a Driswood student, Avery Baione in Mrs. Paris’ second grade class. She also works for FEMA. We ed her our questions because she had the opportunity to travel to Texas right after the Hurricane to help out and provide relief for many of the people in need. Mrs. Baione told us that her job at FEMA is to coordinate relief supplies even before a disaster hits and then the HUGE team that she works with helps to get all their basic needs to people after the disaster has struck. She told us that while she was there she was on an Air Force Base and was in direct contact with people who were in great need of water, food, and medical supplies. Finally, we asked her how she felt about Harvey and here is what she had to say, “So many feelings! Shocked at the amount of rain that came over 5 days. Sad at all the damage that the hurricane did. Proud at everything all my colleagues have done, and continue to do. And I won’t lie, while I was there I was exhausted, but kept going.”
Extra Information We Got About Hurricane Harvey
Hurricane Harvey was a category 4 Hurricane and left the death toll at nearly 100. People everywhere in it’s path struggled to find food, water, and gasoline after the Hurricane hit. It has cost our country over $180 Billion dollars in damage costs! (thebalance.com)
Top: Mrs. Georgia Baione is pictured working hard with two other FEMA workders, Below is pictured thousands of tractor trailers filled with supplies for Hurricane Harvey Victims in Texas. (Photos provided by Georgia Baione)

11. Favorite Video Game Interest?
By Kieran Laughner, Leah Boyer, Isacc Thompson, Avery Moshier
What is your favorite video game? We got opinions from some kids at Driswood and the most popular are Minecraft, Call of Duty, Star Wars Battlefront, Subway Surfers, and Roblox. Our favorite one of these is Minecraft! Roblox and Minecraft are fun exciting games in which you use your imagination and create things. The possibilities are endless! Call of Duty and Star Wars Battlefront have lots of action and adventure. Subway Surfers continues on a constant run in game that goes on forever until you don’t have enough gems to continue or run into something and don’t want to pay to continue. Most of these games have in-game purchases such as sometimes you have to pay and get coins for the game. If you are into gaming, you should check out the Guinness World Records 2016 Gamer’s edition in our library. It has a Mega Minecraft section and also all the other games that we mentioned in this article. Check it out!
These images are of the games Subway Surfers, Roblox, and Minecraft from Google.