The Equipment Problem

By: Antonio Candelario and Alvaro Velazquez

Every day at recess kids run outside to play games. We frequently play soccer, basketball, football, and even volleyball. All these sports have one thing in common: balls. All students use this equipment quite often, but many students leave the equipment out and never put them back. Every day we have less and less to use. Several students have brought balls from home so they do not have to deal with such problems. In my opinion, leaving equipment on the playground is completely irresponsible. The annoying part is the people causing the problems come begging to play. For the future of our recess, something needs to change. On February 22, 2023, I even witnessed one 6th grader recklessly kicking a bouncy ball over our fence. We need to motivate all students (especially the 6th-graders) to pick up the balls. We may even need to come up with a penalty or consequence for students who do not follow the rules. My suggestion is that students lose access to the equipment for 1 week. 

Chromebook Catastrophe

By: Jameson Stowe

Has Your Chromebook been running into issues lately? Because lately at Manzanita, students have been running into many issues with their Chromebooks that seem to be brand new. Some of the issues tend to be:

1. When you close your Chromebook it signs you out. 

2. The keyboards tend to be messed up so when you click a key it would be something random.

3. Sometimes the Chromebook's audio won't work, even with earbuds or headphones!

Some students complain that part of the reason for these malfunctions is when we get Chromebooks that have been used by younger kids before. Some reported issues because their Chromebooks have been that they have been covered in crayons, they had keys that wouldn't work, and one student even claimed they found a string cheese wrapper when they opened their Chromebook! Hopefully, Manzanita takes a look at their Chromebooks and fix these issues, because students don't sound too happy.

The 100th Day of School!

By: Mia Iuli

On Friday, February 10th, Manzanita School celebrated its 100th day of school! Wow! Just look at that. This event celebrates the student's TK-Second Grade during the middle of the School Year in the subject of math, as in counting up to 100 to show the student's growth and achievements. Every student is allowed to bring in 100 of any item. Either 100 pieces of their favorite candy, or 100 models of their favorite toy! The options are endless! This year's 100th day of school was definitely a Big Hit!

7/8 Boys Basketball Closes With an Intense Game.

By: Xavier Fenn

The 7th/8th Grade boys' basketball season comes to an end. In their last game, Manzanita’s Blue team played Ishi Hills. Unfortunately, they lost 26-29, although they put up a great fight. During the first quarter, they came out hot! They were up by 5 and were consistently knocking down shots. The 2nd quarter began and they started to slow down. The other team subbed in a few of their shooters, which made Ishi Hills start to catch up. During halftime, Manzanita’s coach, Coach Fenn, told the players that they need to engage and box out because the other team had two six-footers on their team. The coach had also told the players not to listen to the Ishi Hills' parents because they were talking smack to the players. During the 3rd quarter, Manzanita was down because the two best players on Ishi Hills kept scoring repeatedly. Another reason why this happened is that the Manzanita team kept on making long passes and Ishi Hills kept on scoring the ball. In the end, Ishi Hills hit a lucky shot and won 26-29. Even though Manzanita lost they put up a good fight. They weren't going to let this team blow them out.

Will the Girl's Team Bring Us a New Trophy?

By: Daniel Ayala

The 7th/8th girls' basketball team just started their basketball season three weeks ago with a bang. Both of the girl's teams started in a tournament with some of the top girl's teams in our league. Both of the girl's teams were combined in the tournament so their team was huge. The girls ended up losing all three of these games but they were super close to beating the top team in the league. They went into overtime and kept scoring on each other but in the last second, Sycamore scored. Other than the tournament, the girls have had three more games each, so six in total. The Blue team has lost two games and won one game. The Gold team has lost all three of their games, but considering that some other teams have been playing longer than our girls, we have been doing pretty well. So will the girls take home the trophy in their next tournament?

5/6 Boys Basketball Starts Up

By: Maximiliano Topete and Leonardo Vargas

Ready to watch some hoops? You're in luck because the 5/6 Boys Basketball season has just begun.  The team has been intensely practicing for the last 2 weeks. Coach Sannar has been training them in the basic offense and man-to-man defense. They have been mastering layup drills, and the team got their jerseys and Monday, February, 6, the day the 5/6 basketball team had their picture day. The Manzanita Hoopers are Max Topete, Blake Warren, Chase Cari, Aiden Girardot, Hudson Oakley, Talan Sannar, Tyler Behrising, Luis Jasso, Melchor Salinas, Cannon Sannar, Alexander Chavez, Tristan Heusser, Antonio Alegria, Issac Medina, Antonio Reyes, Drew Snyder, and Will Tolman. The team played their first game on Monday, February 13th at 6:25 pm at the Manzanita gym vs Stream. The game was a nail-biter, but Manzanita ended up pulling it off 26-25

Middle School Valentines Dance

By: Mia Miskin

Ladies and gentlemen, be ready for The Valentine's Dance on February 24th! Five o'clock to seven o'clock pm. Wear semi-formal clothes. To dress in semi-formal attire, students should wear their prettiest dress, or maybe their finest pants and button-up shirt. Tickets are $3 and will be sold at lunch recess from February 21st through the 23rd. If you forget to buy a ticket, don't worry, you can purchase a ticket at the door. However, the price at the door will be $5. Don’t be late! Remember five o’clock pm, February 24th.

Badminton is the Best

By: Logan Hansen

I believe there should badminton team. Badminton is an elite sport that takes amazing athletic ability and will get people in shape and is very fun. This would be a good activity for kids that don't have an interest in basketball, volleyball, or track. Badminton could also help with hand-eye coordination. Badminton is a way superior sport compared to basketball which is a peasant sport. So this all proves that there should be a badminton team because it is the greatest sport of all time.