Imagine having to live on the street; ration food so you don’t starve; or even have to sleep on the ground. Well millions of people have to go through that suffering and aching pain just to survive. People have to dig through garbage and sell objects just to eat. But sometimes a miracle can happen and they can find a hot meal. Well, Cathedral Kitchen is a core program that has been around for decades and their purpose is to serve hot meals to anybody who comes in. They also give take home bags that have extra food and other essentials that are needed to live. In honor of Martin Luther King jr, Mansion Avenue School is making  placemats for the people at Cathedral Kitchen to set out at their tables. The purpose  of the place mats is to send positive messages and put a smile on the face of people that need them the most. I hope that you can try to put a smile on someone's face just like we're doing 

By, Gritty. 

The Lighthouse Award 

By: Striker

Joyfull screams, applause, and confetti everywhere. Well this is how we were told what we have been gifted. This year Mansion Avenue School acheived a great accomplishment. We received the lighthouse award. You may be wondering what the lighthouse award is? Well it is a special award where one school gets hand selected to represent not just the town or the region but the entire state of New Jersey. It is definitely safe to say that this award was a once in a lifetime opportunity. It is also very important that we got it because it represents a beacon of light showing responsibility and safety to the students and teachers. I think that this was a very well deserved award because our school's staff strived to be the best they could be no matter what happened.

                          Funny Farm

                                                                              By Softball Girl

We have recently had a visit from the Funny Farm and they brought 4 dogs and a chicken named Adele. The dogs' names were Farly, Honey, Tucker, and Jesse. The Funny Farm is an animal rescue where you can visit. They have so many animals from chickens to dogs to emeus. Laurie Zaleski is the owner. She loves her animals so much she currently has about 700 animals that were all rescued. She has so many animals that they let out to roam. Yeah they have a lot of animals. The donkeys, horses, cows, sheep, chickens, ducks, geese, dogs, cats and peacocks all roam around. At the front you can purchase a little bucket of food to feed to the animals. I have been there and it is so fun. At the assembly we got to pet animals and see what their life is like. Adele the chicken is the fashionista. Farly is the manager and the lifeguard. Every animal has a purpose on the farm at the Funny Farm. The animals joined us and we got to know a little bit more about them. 

Interview with Chris Grabenstein

By:  Maximus the Great, Fanciest Frog, The Coolest Cat, The Shortest Shark, Rowe Schumacher, and Rain

On Wednesday, March 13 the Newspaper Club had an opportunity to meet Chris Greenstein, famous author of Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library and 75 other books!  We were able to ask him questions about his life, his career, his books, and other interesting topics.  We met here at Mansion Avenue School in our brand new library.  The forty-minute session was packed with great conversation.  

  Mr. Grabenstein was born in Buffalo, N.Y. and spent time there before moving to Tennessee to attend the University of Tennessee.  Soon after graduating, he moved to the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City.  He has four brothers:  three of them are doctors and the other is a lawyer. 

Growing up, his favorite author was Dr. Seuss.  Although he wasn’t great at sports, he succeeded at drawing and writing.  He also loved to make people laugh! He was a stand-up comedian and did improv theater shows with Robin Williams!  He spent a lot of time working in advertising, writing the scripts for commercials.  (His favorite commercials were the ones he wrote for 7up.)  Later, he worked in journalism and then followed his true passion for writing fiction.  Mr. Grabenstein stated that his biggest goal in life was to have fun.  

Shine is the title of his favorite book that he’s ever written because he wrote it with his wife.  On the other hand, his most popular book is Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library, which was published on June 25, 2013.  Mr. Grabenstein was inspired to write this novel after visiting a school in Brooklyn, N.Y.  While he was there, he realized the Library was brand new and didn’t really fit in with the old building environment at the school.  

It took him about one year to write it.  This book was turned into a graphic novel and he’s been getting into them more because they’re becoming very popular. It was also made into a movie by Nickelodeon.  You can view it on Amazon Prime, Nickelodeon, and Paramount Plus.  At the movie premier he walked on the orange carpet, met the actors, and had an unlimited amount of movie snacks.  He liked the visual lighting and effects in the movie, but he didn’t have a say in the screenplay.  Other people state that they don’t like how different the movie is from the book.  Mr. Grabenstein also doesn’t like that he didn’t have a cameo!  He’s looking forward to some other books of his being turned into movies. 

Overall, Mr. Grabenstein loves writing!  He has worked in various careers in writing, and he’s worked with many famous authors, including James Patterson. His favorite author to meet was Stephen King.  He is hoping everyone enjoys the next series that he and his wife are working on: Stinky’s Stories coming October 1st.   

Planetarium Assembly

Written by: Sketch

In October, kids 3rd-6th grade gathered in the cafeteria for a special morning assembly. As you walked into the all-purpose room, you would immediately see a giant, plastic dome, and you may have wondered what it could possibly be. As of later on, you would find out it was in fact, an inflatable, mini planetarium. 

Mr. Tie was the host of this special occasion, and after going over the basic rules for the assembly, he led us inside the dome. After crouching through the short tunnel, everyone was instructed to sit along the wall in the dark, and look up for the full experience. When the assembly finally starts, you could see a projected image on the ceiling of stars floating in deep space. Throughout the lecture, the screen would transition through videos showing close-ups of planets, moons, and even constellations. Over the lesson we went over things from parts of the universe, down to our Earth! Some topics mentioned were the moons of our solar system, the planets of our solar system, and zodiac signs. This was truly a riveting experience for everyone. We thank Mr. Tie for sharing this wonderful event with us!

NEW YEARS EVE

By:  Miss Preppy

3,2,1 HAPPY NEW YEARS! New Year's Eve is a holiday people celebrate all around the world. This holiday is all about starting a new year and throwing away all of the bad things that happened in the previous year. The colors that people decorate with is black, silver, and gold. In New York City New Year's Eve is a big thing because in time square people go and watch the big ball drop and there are bands playing. People also stay up till 12 a.m the next day. People go to their friend's houses and have many things like some people have wings or chips and maybe even champagne and also sparkling water. People also have many desserts. 

Then the next day people celebrate New Year's Day. Some things that people do on New Year's Day are to make New Year's Resolutions. Some people also clean their whole house to reorganize your room or other rooms in your house to start off the new year with a clean house. Another thing that people do on New Year's Day is go on a family hike to spend time with family.   

By: The El Chez Chef

Hanukkah, pronounced with a hollow “h” like your hacking up a hairball, is the festival of lights. During Hanukkah you play dreidel.

”As you can see”-- Dhar Mann, so Falafel(with the yamaka) won dreidel by rolling a gimel when the pot of gelt(chocolate coins) was full, thus winning him the game. Schmuck(the floating head) is a sore loser and has a bit of a kerfuffle(a little skirmish or fight) with Falafel. This should be a lesson to all sorts of people who get angry when they lose.                    

Christmas

By:  The Shortest Shark  

Christmas Day is coming soon and people are ready for the big day. But before Christmas starts there is a lot before that like the sing along on the 22! Mr.E has been preparing for the big day. He has been letting us sing the songs before the sing-along. But that isn’t all the cookies and crafts are coming up and people are so excited. People are excited for the cookies and crafts. I mean who isn’t. Finally it's a half day on Friday. On Friday I hope everyone has a holy jolly 22. And then christmas is right around the corner.

                              ATTENTION ALL EAGLES FANS!  Eagles play the Not so Giant Giants on christmas day so after your done unwrapping gifts or any christmas traditions hop on your coach and lets watch some football. Game info on the bottom.

Game start: 4:30 eastern time 

Record: 10-4 or 11-3 eagles giants 5-9 or 6-8

Record on Xmas or Xmas eve: 2-0 eagles giants 0-1 

       Why is F1 getting slower and more single file?

                              By: Rowe Schumacher

     What is F1?

    F1 has been around since 1951 and is known as the world's fastest motorsport. Formula 1 cars were actually invented in the 1920’s before the motorsport was even introduced, this was because it actually wasn’t an official motorsport yet. F1 didn’t have any sponsors in the 1950’s so the teams were just colors, for example, Italy (Ferrari) was red, Britain (Lotus) was green, France (Alfa Romeo) was bright red, but Germany (Juan Manuel Fangio) had no paint on it, it was just silver because they wanted to save weight. Today the Mercedes F1 cars are called “silver arrows” because their long silver noses remind them of the classic German F1 cars. F1 cars are shaped like arrows because it helps them gain speed faster and it allows them to turn quickly through turns.

What is happening to F1?

F1 has been getting slower and slower, so what's happening? Due to safety reasons, F1 cars are slower because of their new safety technology, this includes, the Halo (2018), seat belts (1967), today's helmets (1973), and they made today’s F1 cars shape into an arrow (1991) . F1 cars are shaped like arrows because they reduce the chance of the car flying up into the air due to high speeds, this was the biggest problem that caused many fatal crashes. The Halo was created after the tragedy at the South African grand prix 1977, this involved British driver Tom Pryce and Fredrick Jansen Van Vuuren. Before this accident, another driver's engine had caught on fire, he had actually stopped his car on the wrong side of the track which was where all the cars drove by, so Vuuren and other marshalls sprinted toward the driver, by that time Tom Pryce was already on that road. All of the other marshalls had already gotten to the driver, but Vuuren was too late. Pryce didn’t have enough time to move, and he hit Vuuren,  Vuuren dropped his fire extinguisher and it hit Pryce head first that almost ripped his helmet off and broke his neck, this caused both of them to die. This was known as the worst crash in F1 history. 42 years later, F1 was inspired by this crash and they decided to make the Halo, this protected the drivers head from flying objects. Even though Pryce didn’t deserve this death, he still saved many lives.                                                                                                

Why Is F1 so single file?

F1 has been getting more single file today because of safety reasons, you could kind of move a little, but during turns, then you would have to be more single file. This was a rule in 2011 after more than 50 fatal crashes were caused. This was the most common way that F1 cars crashed.

Summer Is Coming Up 

By:Miss.Daisy

6th grade congratulations lawn signs,spring break,yearbooks are close to being released,6th grade dance is soon,the beautiful flowers around the town and on lawns,the spell of sunscreen,and the hot and warm air. This could only mean one thing: summer is coming up. 41 more days! This time of year is my absolute favorite thing! I love this time of year becaues of the smell.It smells warm and peaceful. I also love the smell of sunscreen and it's hot out so people are going to be putting sunscreen on more because sunburn hurts! The smell of flowers makes my face light up! Everytime I pass people selling flowers or flowers on a tree my nose flys over there and smells it.They smell amazing!  

Another reason why this is the best time of year is because school is closing! Although the teachers are amazing and I get to see my friends everyday it is very tiring and you have to do a lot of work. I know your teachers probably tell you this and it's annoying, but it's very good to do at least some IXL during the even 2 skills a month would help. This would be very good for you so you don't forget what you just learned in the school year. The beach! The best part about summer is that it is warm, feeling the sand go in between your toes when walking,and hearing the sound of the waves is just a great feeling. You can get ice cream all/or most of the nights you're there and you get a tan. 

               Skateboarding Assembly 

                  By: Busy Bee and Star Boy

You're sitting on the ground in front of skaters jumping off of the ramp. This was the skating assembly and I was super surprised what they could do.

It was so cool that you could see them do all the tricks. I also liked that they taught us how to do the ollie. They told us about safety and positive attitude too. The skaters told us to wear a helmet and always drink water. They also said to always stay positive if you can't get something right away. 

In my experiences with Mansion assemblies, I never saw one quite like that one. Usually when I ask kids after school how the assembly was they usually say I didn’t like it or it was ok. Thanks to the amazing Mansion PTA, they were planning for this assembly for a while. The reason I know this is because my mom is in the PTA. As the PTA thought it was going to be the most awesome assembly ever, they are obviously correct. Two really nice guys from Audubon, New Jersey taught us a lot of different tricks you could do on a skateboard. They taught us how to do jumps on ramps by jumping over cones. Overall, I think that is the best assembly I ever experienced. Do you think this the best assembly Mansion has ever experienced? 

ROAR  Rallies  

By:  Midz 2

ROAR Rallies, oh ROAR Rallies. Roar rallies are a monthly event at Mansion Avenue School. They consist of many activities including honoring our students of the month. Students of the month is when one student from each class gets an award for showing all of their ROAR behaviors. The roar behaviors are. 

R-respect!

O-ownership!

A-achievement!

R-responsibility!

Next we have our skits or episodes about how we can ROAR in different places. This year’s theme is Star Wars. The staff members each dress up as different characters from the movie. At the end of the year we get to see which staff member dressed up as who. Some of the characters that are featured are C-3po, R2-D2, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and more. Some of our other past themes were Toy Story and Superheroes. 

Each ROAR Rally is held on the first Friday of the month.  So don't miss out on the next ROAR Rally!

All The Way for Kari J. Soccer 

By: Miss Pepperoni 

In our town we have lost someone very special and every year we do our best to commemorate her. Her name is Kari J. and this year our town's soccer teams played games in honor of Kari.J will be talking about two of the games. The 2011 team’s game and the 2012 team’s game. Even Kari’s mom and dad were at the game. For the 2011’s game they played their game on Saturday and won 3-2. As a member of that team I was very excited knowing that we honored Kari by winning that game for her. 

Before the game we do a coin flip to decide which team gets first ball and the winner of the coin flip chooses what net they want to defend. So the refs let Mrs. J (Kari’s mom) do the coin flip. For the 2012’s game they also played on Saturday and tied their biggest enemies 1-1. For both teams we got purple socks, purple headbands, and purple makeup. We wore the color purple because it is the color that represents the disease that Kari lost her life from. I am happy to know our town succeeded in honoring Kari.

What’s up with RPG club?                                By: Hectic Hockey

“What is RPG club about?” is a question Mrs.Englehart asked me. Back then I didn’t have the answer, but now I do, and I’ll tell you! 

First you must choose a race for example: human, elf, dwarf, animal-human hybrids, such as a dragonborn(dragon people). Then you will rate strength, wisdom, charisma and so on. You have to score your traits one to six, and you can only use a number once, so think wisely. 

Then you draw a picture of your character, and name them. Then you roll a dice, and if you roll under ten, then reroll but if you roll in between ten and twenty, then that is how much health you have. After that you pick an armor class. Low armor 1+ to dexterity, medium armor 1+ intelligence, heavy armor 1+ strength. Next you say what kind of weapons you have. For instance, a katana, a crossbow, and an electric arrow. After that we have spells. Don’t worry if you aren’t a witch or wizard, because everyone has some kind of power like flying if you have wings. Then you take notes. Imagine you found treasure and you don't want to forget so you write it down in notes. Finally you go off on your journey. To sum it up it's basically D&D, but with Mr. Bentley. I rate it   5 out of 5.

Singing ‘Round The Good Old Tree

By : The Burds

Christmas is on it’s way, as you may know, but nothing beats the holiday spirit that the good old Christmas Tree. December 5ths Tree Lighting Ceremony has shined us into a brand new year! On the 5th of December, 2021, the annual Tree Lighting Ceremony was held in Audubon Park around 5:00. Fire trucks that had been decked out in festive lights took off in the parade to spread some jolly spirit around. You could hear the music and see the flashing lights from far away! 

That night parents and citizens had gathered at the ecommunity center to enjoy the Tree Lighting with none other than the Select Choir! Select Choir had been invited to perform their breath-taking songs at the community center, but not before singing some traditional Christmas carols such as We Wish You a Merry Christmas and Deck the Halls. As the fire trucks rolled back around, the Select Choir members counted down from 10, and on the number 0, the tree was lit up, shining brightly with all rainbow colors. The crowd then headed inside for some food and a special treat. The Select Choir sang their four well-practiced songs up on the stage.

If you want to hear these songs, join everyone on December, 16 for the upcoming Winter Concert! There, Advanced Band, 5th and 6th Grade Choir, and Select Choir will perform their songs that they’ve been practicing for the first semester! Bundle up and we’ll see you there!

Tech Tips

By: C. Pepperoni

Tips for today are For GOOGLE MEET

• While on google meet you can display the meeting onto any tv in your house

• You can also unmute by pressing Ctrl, Alt, D

• You can Turn your camera off by pressing Ctrl, Alt. E 

• If you have just unmuted or hit any other button you can do the same thing by pressing the spacebar

• And to leave the meet and exit the tab on your hotbar press Ctrl, Alt, W

• Turning on captions for google meet is as easy as just Pressing C

These are all of the considerable possibilities for your use so have fun with it and have a great day. 

The Comeback of mansion

By ThePoet

As Spring crawls it’s way around the corner, more and more students will be coming back to Mansion near the end of March. The time has finally come for the “Merging of Cohorts” to start. No more Green, Gold, cohorts! You’re either going 4 days a week or not at all! Almost all the students will be in class, separated only by a plastic wall on their desks, and finally being in the same classroom once again. Wednesdays will still be all remote, to limit the amount of interaction, but other than that, Mansion is making a comeback. And sitting here listening to the speakers boom overhead of us, I think we can tell that the school is absolutely overjoyed for the new 4 day schedule.