Poetry Contest

By Sophia McColley

May 28, 2021

This school year, students at North Polk Middle School got the chance to enter one of their poems into a poetry contest. For the poems in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place, there was a reward. The person who made the poem that came in 1st place received $50, 2nd was $30, and 3rd was $20.

The poems did not have to be a certain length or about any specific topic. Students could choose what they wrote about and how long it was; the student council received poems of many different lengths. Clark Smithey, a 7th-grade student in the student council, stated, "I'd say the average [poem] was probably around 5 to 6 stanzas long. I'd say probably four lines [per stanza], so they were decently long."

The student council received many votes from the student body. “We got about 85 responses from the student body. And the winner came out on top with only 14, so there’s a lot of diversity," Clark stated.

There is a chance students at North Polk will be able to enter their poems into a contest next year, too. Clark said, "If we have enough people that would like to do it again next year, then possibly.” Even if we don't have one next year, it was a fun experience. "It was really fun doing this for everyone and I hope everyone enjoyed it," Clark added. The poetry contest was enjoyable for both the students writing poems and the students who voted for their favorite poem, and we can all look forward to similar activities in the future.

Masks During a Pandemic

By Isabella Caldwell

May 28, 2021

This year, students and teachers needed to wear masks to keep everyone safe. This year was different to say but even Mr. Leach and Mr. Wolf agreed that masks were the things that let us learn on school grounds. "The masks were part of what allowed us to come to school face-to-face. So even though it was hard to wear it, it was just something that we needed to do," Mr. Leach stated.

Even though some students didn’t put their masks up, the teachers were understanding. “I certainly understand that it can be frustrating to wear a mask,” said Mr. Wolf. Mr. Leach, a 7th-grade literacy teacher, also can see why it'd be hard to wear a mask the whole school day. "What I’m frustrated by is that I have a hard time enunciating, saying my words clearly with the mask on," he said.

Teachers, when students won't wear their masks, are assessing the situation well. "I didn’t typically kick people out of the class or, you know, run a roll of tape around their heads so that their masks would stay on it. I didn’t do those extreme things. I usually just said ‘put the mask up,'" Mr. Leach said.

There were some struggles with teaching students virtually, Mr. Leach believes. "I don’t feel like I can totally reach the kids who are online because there are so many charts and posters hanging in this room - there’s so much literature hanging in this room - that they can’t see. And a lot of my teaching is pointing to what I have hanging up, and you know, reading off of it, so, they don’t have that. That part makes me feel sad for them and frustrated with myself," he said, addressing something many virtual students struggle with that frustrates him, as a teacher, since he feels it's harder to get through to students. "And then, the other part is trying to map what it looks like to virtual learners. So, when we’re doing an assignment here, I figure out: how do I get that information to my virtual students?"

“We were able to stay open for the whole and that was a huge success. I think that was a big accomplishment,” Mr. Wolf claimed. “The school board is very important and I think they handled it well.” With this year done, the school, students, and teachers can say that they made it through the year of school with Covid-19 and that the end gave a choice whether to wear masks or not.

Jester Park Field Trip

By Isabella Caldwell and Sophia McColley

May 28, 2021

On May 13th and 14th, 7th grade went on a field trip to Jester park. This was a trip to help the community. This field trip consisted of wood chipping, picking two invasive species known as honeysuckle and garlic mustard, and picking up garbage.

Kaiya Ezerski, a seventh grader, agreed that this trip was a good growth experience for seventh graders. “It was cool to help the environment and it made me feel close to the environment.” Another seventh grader, Caitlin Vonnahme, “Even though we were working and doing labor, I think it was fun. It was also cool to be with people that I was with people that I’m not always with.” Mr. Middleton also added, “It’s nice to get out and have a different change of pace.”

Mr. Middleton had the same mindset of Kaiya Ezerski and said, “It’s really cool to see the kids to respond differently.” He thinks that it’s amazing for everyone to get a break from schoolwork, masks, and worrying about getting sick.

Peopled viewed this experience as a great opportunity and some popular favorites were the trash pick up and garlic mustard. Kaiya Ezerski enjoyed the risk of some harmful plants like stinging nettle and poison ivy and made sure to pick the right plant for the garlic mustard station.

ISASP at NPMS

By: Lainey Jenkins and Reagan Crowdis

April 16, 2021

The week of the April 5th, the Iowa Assessments took place. Although students were not excited for the test, it showed their growth learning. The Iowa Assessments are tests students take in 3rd-11th grade.

These assessments don’t give students their answers right away, it takes a month or more. Some students take testing on paper or online. This year middle school students from grade 6th-7th had their first testing in middle school.

Juliana Klein is a 6th grader in the North Polk Middle School. She was excited for the Iowa Assessments because of the snacks. Yet she was not excited for the actual part of testing, especially the math test.

Yet she does feel like they put kids under a bunch of pressure and base a couple students' scores and make it the standard, which Juliana doesn’t think is fair. Juliana also says that this year's testing will be different than any other year of testing. This year all of the assessments were on the chromebooks.

Juliana stated that she believed that the Iowa assessments would be easier this year than the last time she took them. And she thinks that if we do it on the computer it would take less time then filling in bubbles. Juliana believes that she will do decently well during the Iowa Assessments, especially in reading and writing.

She is not 100% about math though. She hopes that she gets good grades, especially better than her last one. Even if she is not 100% ready for the Iowa Assessments. But she feels pretty confident.

Another perspective on ISASPS

By Mady Cory and Aiyanna Drake

April 16, 2021

This year's ISAPS testing was very different. This year the ISAPS tests were on a computer and not paper like previous years.

Jenna Manock does not like the ISAPS but she hopes to get a good score. Manock believes that she will get the best score in math; she does not like math. She thought the first 2 days of testing were boring.

Campbell Schulz thinks that the ISAPS are tiring, but she believes that you eventually get to where you are in that subject. Schulzs thinks that she will get a fine score. Campbell likes to do math the most. Campbell’s least favorite subject is reading. Campbell thought the week of testing was okay, but still kind of tiring because of being in the same classroom for more than an hour.

The last person we interviewed for the ISAPS was Mr. Middleton, he would prefer to use the written test. He likes the ISAPS because it measures the growth from one year to the next or in this case from 2 years ago to this year. He said that he is very curious about how 8th grade will do since 7th grade doesn’t have a science test, and finally he hopes that everybody will work hard and get good scores.

Friday Funnies

By Lainey Jenkins

April 16th, 2021

The student council set up a cool idea which is called Friday Funnies, it is where every Friday there are a couple new jokes along with videos. The student council either gathers the kids who created the jokes and ask them to act them out or they act out the jokes themselves.

According Clark Smithey and Mya Bond, who are members of the student council, the Friday Funnies came to be what it is because the members were talking about things students could engage in and have fun or do for a future event. Then Mrs. Young actually brought up something revolving around jokes. They thought it was a good idea so they kept it in mind and decided to call it Friday Funnies.

The student council members actually are allowed to submit jokes, but most of them haven’t. Yet they still have favorite jokes, for example one of Clarks and Mya’s favorite jokes are, “Dear algebra, stop trying to find your x, she’s not coming back and don’t ask y.” So funny! They have a process for the jokes going in, such as; first they select the jokes that go in, which are funniest at the moment except they have to be school appropriate they also delete all of the none joke related emails, but they can’t put in jokes that have already gotten in. Second they load up a WeVideo, and then they select either the creators of the joke or themselves to act out the joke. Finally they edit the clips and add intros!

All in all Clark and Mya really do hope that Friday Funnies continues on for years to come, like Mya said, “I think that’d be pretty funny.” It makes Friday Funnies more fun and just it gives everyone something else to look forward too. They really enjoy it because it’s fun to make others laugh and just to entertain people, they both really hope others enjoy it as much as they do too. The student council wants you to know, if you have any questions just to send one of them an email, and if you want to enter in some jokes you can fill out the form

Student Council Trivia

By Caitlin Vonnahme

April 16, 2021

The student council held a virtual trivia for the school with a reward of ice cream for the winners. The student council took a while to make it. They started with the decision of if they wanted to do a Kahoot, Jeopardy, or Family Feud. They eventually decided on a Kahoot. They wanted to make something students would enjoy doing by throwing in different topics of questions such as pop culture, sports, and geography. They also thought that trivia would be something that in-person and virtual students could do. As for the ice cream reward in Mya Bond’s, a member of the student council, words “ice cream just seems like a fun reward.”

Reis Estey was the one who came up with the idea and eventually led them to victory with it. Students loved it. They were able to be competitive with it while also having fun with their friends. At times it was stressful though, especially when on the leaderboard.

Speaking of the leaderboard the winners from Mrs. Stubbs and Mrs. Slecta Comet Connections were thrilled to have won the competition. The winners included Aubrey Happ, Jordin Halverson, and Calvin Heitzman. They enjoyed the ice cream reward very much. Looks like Mya was right.

Most teams had a strategy but this one got lucky. It could have been their fast clicking or their smart answers, we’ll never know. The one thing we do know is that the trivia was a fun and exciting game for students. The student council has done it again. We hope to see more fun activities from them.

Spring Break 2021

By Aiyanna Drake

April 16, 2021

This year’s spring break stories will have a change from last year with quarantine.

Over spring break Jenna Manock went on a long road trip to Florida. The first night that she spent in Florida she stayed in Orlando, then the next day she drove to a resort in Sarasota and stayed there for the next few days. She went on the vacation with her family. Jenna had fun going to the beach, and enjoyed the warm weather before she came back to Iowa.

Wesley Rutledge also went to Florida for spring break. The first three days he stayed at home with his family. Wesley and his family drove to Bloomington, Minnesota then flew to Orlando. He stayed in Orlando for 5 days and saw a friend while he was there. He went to Disney World, the beach, and enjoyed the resort he stayed in. His favorite part of being in Florida was the weather, and going to the beach.

MathCounts State Competition

By Elise Fosselman and Reagan Crowdis

April 16, 2021

Stockton Huether, an eighth grader at North Polk Middle School, tried out for MathCounts, and eventually made it all the way to the state competition.

Stockton said that he thought he did well in the first and second competitions. There were other students at North Polk who tried out for the MathCounts competition, and passed the first test, but Stockton was the only one who went to state from North Polk Middle School.

Before the competitions Ms. Wolfe held the paper and pencil test to get into the chapter competition which is usually held in January. The actual competitions were held on the following dates: The Chapter Competition was on February 5, 2021, the Chapter Invitational was Thursday, February 25, 2021, and the State Competition was on Thursday, March 25, 2021.

Students can come into the computer lab and use the MathCounts Website. Many students in MathCounts enjoyed the friendly competitions they had when they practiced. Stockton practiced before the competitions, although he believes that others deserved to win since they practiced harder, even though he still practiced hard.

Stockton says that MathCounts is a different experience when it is online than when it is in person. Stockton also says that he had a good experience with MathCounts. Overall, MathCounts is a good experience for students.

Mrs. Taylor's Sacrifice for Food Drive

By Carly Jepsen

April 16, 2021

Mrs. Taylor, a 6th grade science teacher at the middle school, had the opportunity to get duct taped to the wall in the gym because her Comet Time won the food drive. Her Comet Time donated the most food for the food drive and they decided that they wanted to duct tape Mrs. Taylor to the wall.

After the fact, Mrs.Taylor said that she really enjoyed it and she was proud of her Comet Time for donating the most food. Her reaction when she found out her Comet Time won she was excited but mostly proud of their hard work and dedication.

Her students got informed about the food drive and got to work bringing in food and supplies. She says that by the end lots of her students were bringing in supplies, but it was mostly 2 students that brought in the majority of the food.

Mrs. Taylor says, “I love working at NPMS because we have teachers who are always willing to help one another and amazing students who are excited and love to learn.” She was excited to get taped to the wall and she hoped that once the chairs were removed she would stay up.

Overall, Mrs. Taylor had a great time with her Comet Time and she would totally do it again. It was a little nerve racking for her, but she loved it. She thought Mr. Middleton’s advice of wearing a plastic bag was very helpful and worked well. Mrs. Taylor would recommend other teachers to do it. She had a lot of fun.

North Polk Food Drive

By: Nia Weis

February 26, 2021

The NPMS student council has made it their mission to donate to the local food drives. The communities of North Polk have pitched in to give to the ones in need.

Evan Sholtan talked about how the point of the food drive is to raise supplies for the ones in need. But what was the seed in the entire project of the North Polk food drive? Well, Clark Smithy mentioned that the sprouts in the system was slide shows and announcements about where to drop off donations. But the students needed a bigger push to help their local community.

The North Polk student council decided to push the food drive back a week so they could give students a chance to donate more food and supplies. But what exactly was the reason the students helped out?

While North Polk Middle School decided that the comet connection with the most donations will be able to decide what teacher gets tapped to the wall. was taped to the wall. Emmy Davis from student council described how the supplies are going to students and people in need.

NP students display art at the Art Show

By: Katelyn Simoens and Julia Bequeaith

February 26 2021

The art show has been around for a ,while now. You can find the art show at the Ankeny Art Center. A lot of kids get their art submitted into the art show by Ms. Rose. The art center is a place kind of like a gallery, and anyone can come and see the art that is in the art show. Usually there is a big opening but due to covid there isn't. But you can still come in little groups at a time to see art still.

The art show is on the date February 23rd- March 17th. The art show goes on for a long time, so you can come and see the art. Maybe your art is in there too.

Ms. Rose said “It is a really good opportunity to say that your art was in an art gallery.” It's a good opportunity because it can make you feel good about your art which can make you feel good about yourself.

The Ankeny art center is limiting the number of different art pieces to be entered, the number this year is 87-111 North Polk students out of the whole district. Middle school kids have submitted the most art.

Ms. Rose hopes that you check out the art show and enjoy looking at some of the art.

Bakken Bracelets: Communities Support Each Other

By Hannah Haaland

January 21, 2021

“North Polk Middle School is a community, and communities support each other.” Mrs. Young, a 7th grade Literacy teacher and Student Council director, says that Mrs. Bakken always supports us, so it’s important to support her during this time.

The student council ordered bracelets in support of Mrs. Bakken. They will be available on Monday and Tuesday before winter break for two dollars before and after school. All of the money will go to Mrs. Bakken’s family.

Mrs. Young also shared that a Christmas dinner was planned to be provided and that there will be days where everyone wears the same color. Another thing that was done was a bunch of posters that were put together.

Jenna Mannock, a 7th grader and a member of the student council, says that to get things done, we need to work together as a team.

Yearbook

By Hannah Haaland and Claire Heuermann

January 20, 2021

The 2020-2021 yearbook committee is hard at work preparing the yearbook for the students at NPMS. Ms. Seligman, the one who makes it all possible, has been helping with the yearbook for 5 years, and says that her favorite part of doing the yearbook is seeing all the activities that students participate in.

“The yearbook is a great way to show the story of this school year.” Students can get in the yearbook by completing surveys, being in activities, and dressing up on dress up days.

Yearbooks will be available in May, shortly before school is out for the summer. The yearbooks are currently $20, and will be available to buy until February 19th. If you want to buy a yearbook, you can go to jostens.com, or contact the office or Ms. Seligman. Yearbooks will be handed out to students in study time or comet connection.

This year, unlike any other year, is different. Thus, the theme of this year’s yearbook is Bounce Back, since we’ve bounced back into school from virtual learning. “It’s also important to include the remote kids in the yearbook,” Ms. Seligman states.

Katelyn Kleaver, an 8th grader on the yearbook committee, says that she likes being a part of something that people will look back on and remember. “I wanted to help with the yearbook because I would help create something that will last and some people can take with them to remember what 2020-2021 was like.”

Solene MacLean, another student on the yearbook, says that students should consider helping with the yearbook because it’s a really fun experience and a rare opportunity. “What I enjoy about being on the yearbook committee is I get to work with very creative people and Ms. Seligman makes it fun to be there.”

Ms. Seligman says that the yearbook is a great way to remember a weird year. If you want to join the yearbook when you’re in 8th grade, an application will come out before spring break.

The Winter Choir Concert!

January 20, 2021

By Kate Muhlbauer

The Winter Choir Concert has been a unique way of showing the 6th-8th grade student’s progress throughout the whole school year.

The North Polk choir has worn masks throughout the whole year. This continues to be the case as 20201 starts, but everyone is confident that choir will go back to normal in no time.

But according to Mr Howell, things are still the same goofy way as they were. “...Behavior can be a thing sometimes, but I, kids like to have a fun time in my class and I’m completely fine with them having a good time. The only thing is that if we don’t get anything done, like it’s good to have fun, and I’m totally good with having fun but we also have to get things done.”

While Covid 19 is still at large, Mr Howell also states that, “... The whole doing like the cool concerts like virtual thing has really been the past couple years, I didn’t see a whole lot of it when I was younger.”

Covid 19 is an event unlike any other that humanity has witnessed. However, the music industry is still able to thrive through publishing their own concerts online, “...There’s a lot of choirs who are doing their concert’s like, like we are.”

This year, Mr. Howell has persevered throughout the difficult things that North Polk, and we are sure that he will be able to pull another show stopping performance.

The Musical Premiere Story

January 20, 2021

By Claire Heuermann

On Tuesday before break the amazing middle school musical, The Addams Family, was premiered.

Hannah Haaland, a 7th grade student at North Polk said this after watching her fellow peers do the musical, ”I thought all of the people who participated in it did a great job.”

Ms. Patricia Slecta, one of the directors for the musical said, “Happy, proud, sad! Happy to see all the hard work complete with an amazing end product, proud of everyone in the cast, so much talent! Sad because it was done and I enjoyed every minute with all cast members…” Kate Brasier, someone in the musical, said, “Pride and excitement.”

There were many roles in the Addams family.

Hannah Haaland also states that, “I would want to be the grandma probably or just an ancestor.” Kate Brasier said, “I played an ancestor, a nurse from WWI”

Most people thought that the hardest part of performing the musical was Covid.

Ms. Slecta said, “The hardest part of Covid was always keeping the masks on.”

Hannah Haaland states that she thinks the hardest part in filming the musical was, “Wearing masks, because they would have to sing louder and try to make their words not sound muffled.”

Ms. Slecta also shows her pride by saying, “This performance is amazing because of the talented students!”

Hannah Haaland said, “It was a great performance and I really enjoyed watching it!”

Kate Brasier said, “I think it is amazing.”

In closing, everyone did a great job, It was awesome!

Christmas at NPMS

By Aaron Greene

January 20, 2021

NPMS Student Council is trying to make Christmas as fun as possible despite the recent pandemic. While the student council was thinking of Christmas events, a sixth grader mentioned that the high school was doing an ugly sweater contest and that became the main event for the middle school.

Mrs. Young, the Student Council advisor says, in her opinion the teacher that won the ugly sweater contest was, “Mrs. Sullivan, who actually won it, Mrs. Batson, and Mrs. Taylor had some good ones.”

She also said the prizes for winners were a lot of different things like candy, slime, funny sunglasses, and silly putty. Other Christmas celebrations in NPMS are the Bakken bracelets, because they wanted to give back to other people, and they were going to do a food drive but because they recently had to go virtual and couldn’t pull it off. But, we were however, able to write cards for nursing homes.

The winners were:

Staff--Tami Sullivan

6th girl--Stella Weers

6th boy--Chase Friedman

7th girl--Kate Brasier

7th boy--Braylon Westra

8th girl--Aubrey Selmecki

8th boy--Ethan Foote

Inside Look at Virtual Learning

By Landon Huber

January 15, 2021

The most common technology issue during virtual learning was when people were trying to get into a zoom call. Technology is an issue because nobody has done virtual learning or done a zoom call ever since COVID-19. It is something new people have never experienced before. Kids say that they think virtual learning is hard when you are home because you get distracted very easily, it's hard to understand, and it is hard to turn in homework.

The reason we went online is because too many kids have been exposed to COVID-19 or tested positive for the virus. Last year COVID-19 struck Iowa and we had to go online. We are now in person and wearing masks and are lucky to be in school.

Middleton the great

By Aaron Greene and Landon Huber

January 15, 2021

A 7th grade science teacher who has been teaching for about 35 years is going to be retiring in a year and 5 months. Mr. Middleton retires because he thought that he had been teaching for a while and is looking for a new opportunity .

After he retires, he said he wasn’t sure what he would do for work but he wanted to exercise more and do more of the things he used to do when he was a kid.

Mr. Middleton said that the most disappointing thing about teaching is when kids don’t listen when doing their work. When asked why he chose to teach, Mr. Middleton says, “I always had an interest with education, I had good teachers, I enjoyed it, I enjoyed school, I enjoyed classes with all my classmates, I was in a lot of activities, I was in band I was in two or three different sports and just all the practices and that it was good for me to get a lot of structure and the adults that were providing that structure were really good solid people.”

In conclusion Mr. Middleton is a great teacher that we’ll all miss when he retires.

Coming Together for Fun Day

By Marley Ali

November 18, 2020

This year, the student council, 8th grade ELP, and Comet Squad, organized a fun day for everyone at North Polk Middle School. Mrs.Young wanted to do something that would take people's mind off of all the recent changes. The groups came up with all the activities. The Comet Squad, is a group of students interested in leadership and are helping out with different activities.

Some of the activities that people could do, were Kahoot, movie clips, open gym, coloring/board game, and two breakout rooms. One was in person, and one was virtual. Not only did the in person students participate, there were also activities that the virtual students could have fun with. Mrs. Young said, “They tried to come up with a mixture, so if you're more of a hands on, active kid, or a more quiet, drawing kid, there's something for everyone.” They wanted to do a mixture of activities, so everyone would be happy.

The main goal of this fun day was to make sure the students could have a few hours to take a little brain break, and take some social time for themselves. They also wanted to focus on making sure our school is a welcoming place for everyone, and focus on the goal of the school year, which is community.

Sixth Graders

By Jocelyn Manock

November 18, 2020

Libby Baker, a sixth grader at North Polk Middle School, explained that she likes a lot in middle school, but one of her favorite subjects is Literacy because she likes to read and write. Sixth grader Jillian Halupnick and Lynleigh Fales both say that their favorite subject is science. Bri Maserek says that her favorite subject is global studies. They also exclaim that one of the biggest challenges coming to middle school was remembering their locker combination and where their locker was.

But also, Libby Baker says that, “Getting good grades on quizzes,” is the biggest challenge. Bri and Libby both say that they miss recess. Jillian, Lynleigh, and Bri all said that switching classes and teachers is something they like about middle school.

What Bri misses from elementary school is, “I miss not having so much homework compared to last year because now I have more homework and I have more classes to juggle.”

Libby Baker and Jillian Halupnick both share that they are excited for school sports next year. While Bri Maserek says that she’s excited to meet the new teachers. Lynleigh Fales says that she’s excited about science next year because there are going to be harder things.

The Addams Family Musical

By Marley Ali

November 18, 2020

Because of covid, this year's school musical was a little different. Mr. Howell and Mrs. Slechta selected “The Addams Family” for this year's musical. The reason he chose it was because he knew that it would be good for the 7th and 8th graders together. “The ‘Addams Family’ has like 7 leads, and they are all equally important, so I knew there would be plenty of people to step into those roles” said Mr. Howell.

One of the changes with the musical is, instead of showing everyone the musical in the gym, they recorded the musical. Mr. Howell and Mrs. Slechta didn't dislike having to record it. Mr. Howell said, “It's different but it's a little easier to have more control on what the audience sees.” For example if they film a scene more than once he could pick which one was the best. So it was different but in ways it was better. They are planning on having the school watch the recorded musical before Christmas break.

Another change that affected practices/the musical is having to sing in a mask. Mr. Howell said that It's harder for people to try and sing as loud as they can when they have a mask that's holding them back. And they don't want to sing as loud because the sound comes back to him. Also Mrs. Slechta was sad that she couldn't see everyone's face while filming the musical, but still thought everyone did a great job of acting under the mask.

Mrs. Slechta and Mr.Howell both really enjoyed getting to direct the musical. “My favorite part of getting to direct the musical is getting to know the kids,” said Mrs. Slechta. Mr. Howell loved doing it because he loved being in musicals when he was in middle school. And lastly 7th grade student Maddi Pratt said her favorite part about the musical was, “Being around people and having a good time all around.”

Planning Homecoming Week

By Will McConnell

November 18, 2020

As you may know, student council had homecoming on their plate not too long ago. Here's an inside look on how student council planned homecoming and how they plan other events. 7th grader Clark Smithey, said that “we [student council] have a lot of plans still yet to come”

Jillian Halupinick, and Chase Friedman, two 6th graders new to student council, said their first activity planning was fun and like they expected coming into the experience.

With homecoming week each day was a dress up day. 7th grader Nathan Harrington said the planning for the homecoming dress up days took about a week. Nathan also said that the student council has rough plans into the year that could change if something is brought up.

Sophia Cromley, another 6th grader on student council, who helped plan the homecoming dress up days with the other student council members said, “... we all came up with a bunch of ideas and then we narrowed it down to a few at a time until we decided on which ones we wanted.”

With this insider look on the student council’s order of operation with homecoming and other events I hope students outside of student council can understand how it is to plan events for the school.

Behind the Scenes of the

NPMS musical

By Madi Pratt

November 18, 2020

The Addams Family musical might look super creepy, weird, fun, and entertaining, but how do the people putting on the performance feel about the show? We had great opportunities to talk to four out of the nine leads. There are so many fun stories that happened on set, and even some people making their big debut into the acting world. Who are the leads telling all of these stories to us today? We talked to Aubrey Selmecki, Nathan Harrington, Will McConnell, and myself, Madi Pratt. We asked them many questions about their experience with the musical, and what the musical has brought them.

First we talked to Aubrey Selmecki. She is an eighth grader at North Polk Middle school. The first question we asked was, “What is your character's name?” Aubrey plays the young mother of the Addams family. Married to Gomez Addams. Children are Wednesday and Pugsly Addams. We asked, “What is Something that you like about playing your character?” Aubrey told us, “She is serious, but also has a classy, fun side. She also has a dark humor.'' The next question was, “What is something about your character that you admire and relate to?” Aubrey related to this, “She likes to feel powerful and compassionate, because she has kids, and you need to have compassion for that.” We asked if she likes all of her other lead castmates, “I do.” We then asked, “What is your favorite part about being a lead?” She said, “Being in the spotlight and showing my talents.” We asked her if she enjoyed the filming process of the musical. She told us, “Filming is really fun, and we don't have to stress about it all being one take.” The final question we asked was what her favorite part of the show was. (without spoiling it of course) She said, “Everything works out, but not in the way you would expect it to.” We had such a great time talking to Aubrey, then we moved on to her onscreen husband, Nathan Harrington.

We asked Nathan the same question as Aubery. Nathan plays the father of the Addams family, Gomez Addams. He likes playing his character because of how funny he is, and how easy it is to slip into his characters mindset. He admires his character's funny personality, and he makes jokes just like him. (even if they are not the funniest) He told us that he likes MOST of his castmates. Not to worry, he reassured us that he enjoys all of his castmates. He enjoyed being a lead because he got to sing a lot of solos, and it is fun to be the person everyone is watching. He liked the filming process because he got to be around people and have fun. We asked him what his favorite part of the show was and he said, “The jokes ‘cause they’re funny… DUH!” After all the laughs we had with Nathan, it was time to move on to his onscreen son. The trouble maker himself, Will McConnell.

Will plays the trouble maker, Pugsley Addams. He likes how funny his character is and how fun it is to play him. He likes being around his castmates. As he puts it, “Yeah, they're all pretty great.” He likes all of the fun stuff he gets to do as a lead, that his other castmates might not get to do. He enjoys filming and he doesn't have study time. He thinks that's pretty cool. His favorite part of the show is that it is funny, or at least he hopes it is. It is time to say goodbye to little Will, and say hello to his onscreen grandma, Madi Pratt.

I liked playing Grandma Addams. I liked all the freedom I got when playing little grandma. I get to be crazy and over the top for my character. I admire how outgoing grandma is, and how she speaks her mind. Whether that is a good or bad thing, you tell her! I really like how funny all of her castmates are, and enjoy being around them. I like being a lead because I like people watching her and being on stage. The filming process was fun because I got to have fun with my friends. Her favorite part of the show is the family bonds, and how the cast is able to portray it.

That is the musical behind the scenes all wrapped up. The Addams family musical should be on YouTube before Thanksgiving.

Bus‌ ‌Driver‌ ‌Appreciation

By Jocelyn Manock

November 18, 2020

Jenna Manock, a seventh grader at North Polk Middle School and member of Student Council, explained more about bus driver appreciation and why it’s important: “I think bus driver appreciation is very important because bus drivers, they do a lot and the sad thing is that people don’t realize how much they do and that they always take us back home and know all of our names and find where we live and just dedicate their time.”

Jenna Manock then explains what bus driver appreciation is all about, “What Student Council wanted to do was we wanted to show how much we appreciate the bus drivers and wanted to show how much the students appreciate them and we decided to make a video; had some kids step a side and tell us a fun story about how much they appreciated their bus driver. And then we had a bunch of kids yell, ‘Thank you bus drivers!’

Jenna Manock then tells how they put this whole thing together, “We worked as an entire student council and we decided, okay let’s make a video and then went from study time, to study time and we asked a bunch of kids and said, ‘Hey! Do you guys want to come out to say that you appreciate the bus drivers?’ And everyone was like, ‘Yeah! For sure.’ And we did our video and we let them go back in. So yeah, it was pretty easy, just the little things that count!”

Jenna Manock then says what her favorite story she heard was, “I actually heard this really cool story, this girl, the bus broke down at her stop and she had to leave and the bus driver was really chill about it and was really nice. And she said that she really appreciated how nice he was, and how much she cared that he was like, Oh! The bus broke down! Oh my gosh I’m so sorry!”

Thanksgiving Favorites

By Madi Pratt

November 18, 2020

Thanksgiving is a holiday that has been around for centuries. There are many ways people celebrate Thanksgiving . How does your family celebrate thanksgiving?

We talked to many teachers and students in the North Polk Middle School. These were their answers to our questions.

First we talked to Ms.Halbloom. Ms.Halbloom’s favorite thanksgiving food is stuffing,rolls, and gravy. Her favorite thanksgiving tradition is going to her dad’s farm and hanging out there. Her favorite part of thanksgiving is being with her family. We asked her what the school could do to be more involved in thanksgiving and she said, “We should focus on what we are thankful for and have a tree and people could go write what they are thankful for and everyone could see.”

Next we talked to Mr. Willy. Mr. Willey's favorite Thanksgiving food is sweet potatoes and spiraled ham. His favorite part is connecting with family he doesn't get to see a lot. Mr. Willey's favorite tradition is eating spiraled ham which is one of his favorite Thanksgiving foods. We asked Mr.Willy what is something the school could do to be more involved in thanksgiving. He said, “We should have we should have a bigger school Thanksgiving meal.” Then it was on to Mrs.Rose.

Mrs. Rose has a favorite meal like many others. She likes green bean casserole and cranberries in a can. Her favorite family tradition is making sandwiches with all the leftovers. Her favorite part of thanksgiving is being around friends and family. We asked Mrs. Rose How could the school be more involved in thanksgiving. She said, “Maybe we could do a food collection and we could donate to a homeless shelter.” After we talked to Mrs.Rose

Then we talked to Mallory Martin. Her favorite Thanksgiving food is corn.Her favorite family tradition is making turkey. Spending time with family is her favorite part of Thanksgiving.,” we could decorate the school.”

Then we did Miss Hupp. Miss Hupp’s favorite thanksgiving food is turkey. Her favorite thanksgiving tradition is going shopping after thanksgiving dinner. Spending time with her family is her favorite part of thanksgiving. She says we could be more involved in thanksgiving by, “We should do a thanksgiving lunch.” After Miss Hupp we talked to Mr.Daniels.

Mr. Daniels favorite Thanksgiving is glazed sweet potatoes.He claims his favorite part of Thanksgiving is “Going home to see all of my family that i don't get to see as often as i would like to.”His favorite Thanksgiving tradition is making a big turkey and having a potluck with his family. He thinks the school could be more involved by, “the history of the thanksgiving feast covered.”

Next we talked then to Mr. Furlong. Mr. Furlong’s favorite Thanksgiving food is stuffing. His favorite thanksgiving tradition is playing football with his family. His favorite apart of thanksgiving is eating food. He says, “we could be more involved in thanksgiving by doing a food drive.

Mr. Saddler is the last one we interviewed.His favorite Thanksgiving food is mashed potatoes.His birthday is his favorite part of Thanksgiving. Watching football his favorite part of Thanksgiving. He thinks we could be more involved in Thanksgiving by, “We could do another thanksgiving self care day.”

These were what your teachers and fellow classmates thought about thanksgiving. What do you think we could do to be more involved with thanksgiving?

Online School at the high school

By Anika Schoenberg

November 18, 2020

In an interview with Heidi Schoenberg, she shared her opinions with us. There are pros and cons for the choice of online schooling. Here are a couple of pros, Heidi stated, “Yes I like it because it is way easier for me to sleep in.” "If you don’t like people you don’t have to be around them. She stated, “I don’t have to see people or talk to people.” Two of Heidi’s favorite parts are, “... eating whenever I want, and going to the bathroom whenever I want.”

Here are some cons that happen during online school, when asked what’s your least favorite part she clearly said, “Logging into classes where teachers don’t care about us or ignore us. They get mad at us whenever our mics aren’t working. But it’s not our fault we have internet issues and they don’t understand that.” Besides the cons, Heidi says, “Yes, I think that online schooling is better, I think that it's better if I could do online schooling forever I would so yeah I do suggest it.” Heidi has strong feelings for online school.

Above: COVID social distancing Lunch. Below: New Spanish teacher, Ms Ordonez Jones wears her mask.

Changes Due To Covid

October 2, 2020

By Brooklyn Mellein

There has been lots of changes due to Covid-19 this year at school. These changes have been hard to make, but these changes had to be made for staying safe at school during this pandemic.

A few changes due to Covid-19 are there are no lockers and kids carry their backpacks everywhere. Also coming into school is different. ¨Now we have kids coming in through 3 separate doors,¨ stated Mr. Wolf.

¨I mean look at lunch, we have 6 periods for lunch,¨ said Mr. Wolf. Lunch starts at “10:42 and ends at 1:14” Now only 3 classes eat at a time. This is to spread students out while taking their masks off to eat."

Lots of people have stress with Covid-19 . Mr. Wolf deals with his stress a little bit differentlythan others. For example he likes to go outside and landscape. ¨I'm working on a fence for my garden.¨ shares Mr. Wolf. Mr. Wolf also loves to read and play games.

Sports have also changed due to Covid-19. For example in volleyball everybody has to wear masks at practice and games. Also Mr. Wolf says he is nervous that they will not be able to have wrestling year due to Covid-19.

Mr. Wolf is proud that we have less than 5 positive cases of Covid-19 district wide. Though he does believe that we should still take notice of the small classrooms that have lots of kids in them.

He also is very worried about kids going out somewhere on the weekend and getting Covid-19 and then bringing it back to school. Mr. Wolfs thinks that we need to keep on sanitizing and washing our hands along with keeping our masks on to have a safe school.

A change due to Covid-19 that affects everybody in school is wearing masks. For Mr. Wolf it is especially hard to wear a mask because he has asthma and he has to talk a lot at school, which makes it very hard to wear a mask. Other people can relate to the same struggle as Mr. Wolf too.

Lots of people are wondering when everything will be back to normal. Mr. Wolf does not know a for sure answer but he hopes that we will have a vaccine by Christmas.

A sixth grade study time in the Media Center

New Study Time and Comet Connection

October 2, 2020

By Rachel Morse

The expectation between the old study hall and comet time changed because there are different times to get teacher help like Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday and Friday are games or other fun things.

Mr. Wolf said the feedback from the teachers is good and he will talk about continuing these new things next year but it's too early to say that he WILL next year. Mr. Wolf also says that if they think it's successful they will talk to some teachers and students about what they think about it before continuing it onto next year.

Teachers say that they like how it's more organized and constant because they can talk to their students more instead of it being all over the place and in Comet Connection you can basically do whatever you want.

They say they came up with the new study time and Comet connection towards the end of last year and over the summer and made the decision within those times when they said that it was going to be a new thing.

It was changed so that all the rooms would be the same and it would not be super messy with classes doing all different things so it's not crazy anymore.

Student council members lead a meeting.

A New Student Council

October 2, 2020

By Reagan Petersen

COVID-19 has changed the student council because their decisions are partially based on the safety concerns and all of the other parts that go into deciding what the school does.

Blythe Knight said she wanted to accomplish this year, “This year’s focus was on the word: community, and that is what I mainly wanted to focus on and I feel like it is very important considering COVID being around and making the school feel connected even through social distancing or masks.”

Brady Scholten said he thought he would get on the student council. He said, “I have no idea, I didn’t know if people would want someone new on the student council. But overall I felt really confident.”

Evan Scholten said that the reason why he wanted to be on the student council was that he wanted to work on being a leader, and he said that it was a fun opportunity to plan events for the school.

Mrs. Young also says there have been a lot of changes to this year’s student council due to COVID-19, such as not being able to do the Comet Relays or the quilt. While trying to make sure that we can do fun things, she also wants to ensure that the virtual students feel like they are connected even through a screen.

Covid19 impacts NPMS Custodians and Cafeteria Staff

October 2, 2020

By Reagan Petersen

The custodians and cafeteria staff have adapted to the new changes through coming to school a lot earlier to clean and having to wear masks and stay socially distanced.

Cafeteria staff member, Tara Downs said that the main change for her was having to wear the masks and her breaks. She says that her breaks were for her to catch up with her other cafeteria staff for about fifteen minutes. But she can’t do that anymore because of COVID-19.

Custodian, Ryan Thornburg said that the main change for him was the number of times a day he has to clean the school. He also says that the cleaning is non-stop.

Tara Downs’ least favorite parts of the change and circumstance we are in right now is, not being able to talk of get close to people as they walk past in the lunch line. Also the fact that she has more work with all of the cleaning and sanitizing.

Ryan Thornburgs major changes because of COVID was that he has to spend all day cleaning from 6 am to 4 pm every weekday. Another change for him is how all of his attention has to go to cleaning the school, and making sure everything is clean and not as many germs are getting spread around.

NPMS students move on to the State MathCounts Competition

February 24, 2020

By Lilly Smith

North Polk Middle School had twelve students compete at MathCounts competition on February 11. The Eighth grade was represented by Mitch Brasier, Colton Manock, Nolan Mandernach, Zach Verbrugge, Caroline Cromley, and Noah McKinley. Seventh graders who attended the event included Stockton Huether, Zach Doering, Evan Kelsick, and Meadow Pliler. Sixth graders Sophia McColley and Clark Smithey also competed in the event.

Colton Manock, Mitch Brasier, Nolan Mandernach, and Stockton Huether all qualified for the State MathCounts competition on March 10th.

MathCounts is a middle school mathematics competition held in many places in the United States. The subject includes geometry, counting, probability, number theory, and algebra. Students are able to participate by taking a test during their math period. The students only have 30 to 40 minutes and cannot use a calculator.

MathCounts has many different levels of difficulty and the students who scored the highest go to a state competition. The North Polk students went to the Ankeny DMACC campus for a competition against 225 students from different schools compete in four rounds sprint target team countdown.

Ms. Halbloom "hit the woah," a popular dance trend

Trends at NPMS

February 24, 2020

By Kayli Evans

Teachers at North Polk Middle School have come across a lot of different trends over the years. Mr. Middleton, science teacher, said that kids are more techy now. “There was not a lot of tech when I first started teaching,” he said. Some teachers shared that current middle schoolers are less independent and respectful at times, but some are more motivated to read and write. Mr. Wolf shared that he believes current middle schoolers are similar to those he taught twenty years ago. “They all have social stuff, but it used to be outside and now there are activities,” he said

Both Mr. Middleton and Mr. Leach said that when they started teaching big, tall, puffy 80’s hair was a trend. Mr. Leach said students would have competitions and he would measure to see who had the biggest bangs.

Over their many years of experience, these teachers have noticed some memorable trends. Mrs. Leach and Mr. Wolf noticed the technology and social media changes. While Mr. Middleton said that the most memorable trend is country western wear that is still kind of going on. Mr. Leach said one of the most memorable trends to him was when boys started putting blonde in their hair.

When thinking about trends now, Mr. Wolf said “as I start to get older I get farther away from trends--boys with perms maybe?” Both Mr. and Mrs. Leach noticed the visco girl trends with scrunchies on the wrist. Mr. Leach said that holes in pants are really common as well.

Food at North Polk

February 24, 2020

By Lilly Smith

Most would agree that there are a lot of different views about what the best foods are, however, Maddeleigh Zavacki and Drew Figgans have different opinions on what food makes them the most joyful.

Maddeleigh believes pineapple is her favorite food. She likes the way it tastes in her mouth and how nutritious pineapple is. Maddeleigh states, “My favorite food is pineapple because it's pineapple and it has a lot of vitamin C. It can reduce cancer, and can help your digestion.”

She also talked about how breakfast is important. She believes this is because it can give you a good start to your day. “This helps me because I am active because of cheer. I choose to eat breakfast because it is important,” Maddeleigh exclaims.

Maddeleigh also likes to use pineapple as a representation of confidence. “Stand tall, be proud and wear a crown," she said. It gives her a boost of satisfaction and happiness. She enjoys pineapple very much.

On the contrary, Drew F. has different views than Maddeleigh. He thinks that Mac and Cheese is the best food because he thinks that it is just the best.

Furthermore, Drew believes that breakfast is an important factor for having a good amount of energy. He plays football so he needs food to help him to get through practice. Football is the highlight of his day and he would like to enjoy it as much as possible.

In conclusion, no matter what food you think is the best, it is important to have an open arm to trying new things and not judging the food by the way it looks. It is important to try new things in your life and to have a healthy balance between snacks and healthy food.

Students Views on Social Media

February 24, 2020

By Morgan Eyanson-Renken

Depending on how people view it, there are many different opinions on what should and shouldn’t happen concerning social media. Two people gave two very different answers. Rees Goering believes that social media is very beneficial in life because social media is entertaining and can connect society. He strongly believes that social media can help connect people however it can get people into arguments because people have freedom of speech and can say whatever they want.

“In hindsight, yes, it can bring people together. It depends on the person,” Goering adds.

Goering has Reddit because he thinks that there is a nice community on social media and he also thinks that people can post funny memes that make his day better.

“You can never spend too much time looking at memes” Goreing states.

He also believes that social media can at times bring people together. “Depending on the person,” Goreing says, “it can bring people together because of things like fundraisers however, it can get people into arguments.” Social media can be very improving or very downgrading.

Goreing also adds that social media can help people learn more and more things about what is going on in the world. He believes that You can learn anything with just the push of a button.

On the other hand, Addison Ollindike thinks differently. She states, “It depends on the app. Some are good because you can get in contact with a lot of people however, a lot of others have bullying on them.” She also believes that people can spend way too much time on social media. “I one-hundred-percent think that people spend too much time on social media,” Addi. O. states. Some people are on their devices 24/7.

In addition, she strongly believes that social media can pressure people into being things that they’re not. There are things on social media that don’t reflect the reality of real life. She thinks that people on social platforms can make people who aren’t like them feel bad.

Furthermore, Addi. O. thinks that social media can set people apart because it can take away from real life, however, people around the world can communicate with each other. The world can be more at peace because they can feel more connected to each other. People can also know many things at the push of a button.

Moreover, Addi. O. also believes that today’s self-image on social media can make someone feel bad about themselves. “The people on social media don’t reflect the people in real life,” Addi. O. states. She talked about the new trends can pressure people way too much. People cannot be themselves to fit in.

In conclusion, it depends on your point of view. Social media has many benefits for connecting people, but people can downgrade others. With all of that being said, the world can be more connected and more at peace due to people interacting with each other at the push of a button.

NPMS Lip Sync Battle

February 24, 2020

By Reis Estey

NPMS held a lip sync battle for Comet Time students. This year the eighth grade winners were Eli B. and Noah B. from Mr.Eberly’s comet time. In seventh grade the winners were Reagan Z. and Luke E. from Mr. Leach's comet time. Finally, in sixth grade the winners were Aidan S., Charlie B., and Chase K. from Mrs. Taylor’s comet time.

All of the groups had a great time competing and were happy to win. The groups had a lot of confidence going up to perform. The sixth graders were asked if they were surprised that they won they said, “no, we expected it.” The sixth graders' performance was to "Never Gonna Give You Up." When asked why they chose the song they said that it was, “a great song”.

Reagan and Luke performed "Breaking Free" from High School Musical. During the performance they both had good energy. Last year Reagan came in last place for the lip sync battle. This year after winning Reagan said, “If I can make that much progress from last year, so can you! Don’t be afraid of the competition!”

Eli and Noah did Amish Paradise. They said they chose the song because they knew that no one else would choose that song and it would be easy to dance to. They said that they were confident because they practiced and put in a lot of effort.

All of the groups had entertaining performances and were able to have the audience engaged the whole time. The judges said that for every grade it was difficult to pick just one winner. It was clear that all comet times from every grade had fun and put in a lot of effort.

This competition was created by the middle school student council a year ago. These activities are made for students to have a fun break from the stress of school. Even though it hasn't been around long, seeing how much it is enjoyed, it seems like it will stay awhile.

Mr. Richards

January 14, 2020

By NPMS Staff

Mr. Richards is in his 9th year of being principal at North Polk Middle school. He didn’t always want to be a principal, in fact, that was never his plan at all. He originally wanted to be a teacher, but before that, he wanted to be an athlete.

He grew up in a small town named Ponca, Nebraska. The town only had about 800 people and 23 kids in his graduation class, and two of them were exchange students. The college he went to was Mount Marty College in Yankton, South Dakota. He was a good student but struggled sometimes as everyone does. His favorite subject in school was math.

Mr. Richards likes being a principal because he gets to work with the students. He enjoys helping people which is why he feels like being a principal is a good fit for him. He shared that best thing about being a principal is giving kids opportunities, and he thinks 6th, 7th, and 8th is the most important age for that. His reasoning would be that in middle school you are finding your friends and what groups you fit into which leaves great opportunity for choosing who you want to be.

One piece of advice he would give to students at NPMS is get involved in other activities with different kids and people so you don’t feel like you just have to play basketball and or be in the play. Try new things and meet new people.

Mr. Richards’ family is his wife Angie and two kids, Kaitlyn and Jacson. They also have an exchange student Adela Cerna who is sixteen years old. She is from Czech Republic and will stay with them until the first week of June.

One thing he values most in his life, besides his family, is traveling. He and his family travel rather often. The reason he values traveling is because when he was a kid they never really got to travel. He shared, “Adventureland would be a pretty big deal.” Now that he's older, he goes on a lot more trips and travels with his family.

Mr. Willey, Mr. Leach, Mr. Larson, and Mr. Spittler with their beard designs

No Shave November

January 14, 2020

By Ava Wessels

This November we decided to have a fundraiser for Blanks Children's Hospital. Middle schoolers raised money by doing No Shave November. Four teachers volunteered to grow out their beards and let the students pick their designs they shave their beards. Students got picked by buying a ticket and putting it in a cup for the teacher they want. The teachers who participated were Mr. Leach, Mr. Larson, Mr. Willey, and Mr. Spittler.

The whole process of the event started about three months ago. When Mr. Leach and Mr. Willey came up with the idea to make tie blankets to donate to Blank Children's Hospital. Mrs.Young told the student council the idea and then they came up with the idea for No Shave November and decide to put the tie blankets with it. A small group of kids came up with the designs for the beards the students could pick from if they got chosen.

They decided to donate to Blank Children's Hospital because older people who were on student council donated to it before and wanted to do it again because they knew it was for a good cause. They raised $212 to donate to Blank Children's Hospital they also donated tie blankets to the hospital.

Mr. Spittler one of the participants said, “I participated because I knew it was for a greater cause and it made sense.” Mr. Spittler was a bit nervous about what design he would get because he didn’t want to get the designs Mr. Willey and Mr. Leach got. He said “I was glad that I got the Abraham Lincoln beard style because I'm a history teacher and it was the best one to get." Mr. Spittler enjoyed the event and hopes to do it again next year and raise more money.

Even though everyone enjoyed the event there are a few things the student council would change to make it better if they do it again next year. They really liked how it turned out and liked to plan the event cause it had a fun twist to it compared to the other events and hadn’t done something like it before.

Comet Cup Opinion

January 14, 2020

By Jakob Phillips

Drew Owen is a 7th Grader at North Polk Middle School and is on the student council. When discussing Comet Cup updates, Drew said that in order to make the Comet Cup better there should be more events. The reason he enjoys the Comet Cup is because there is a lot of competition. It also gives people something to look forward to because it is fun. Several of the events involve sports and things that interest middle schoolers. The Comet Cup also has competitions that help people in a good way like the food drive.

In Drew's opinion, the worst part of the Comet Cup is when people use excuses for losing. Also when people accuse other classes. Drews favorite event that we have had so far is the Red Ribbon Relays. He liked this event because it had a lot of different events. It also had a good message not to do drugs.

Drew is glad to be in student council and a part of the Comet Cup. He is feels like he is in something special and unique to have fun. Helping out other people and making an impact on the Comet Cup are the reasons Drew joined student council. If there was one more competition to add to the Comet Cup, he would want to add a baking competition. The Comet Cup impacts not only the kids competing having fun but sometimes the community.

GeoBee winners: 2nd place Nathan Harrington (6th grade), 1st place Stockton Huether (7th grade), and 3rd place Brett Postel (7th grade)

Geobee

January 14, 2020

By Sam Mumma

This year at NPMS we tried something new, the Geobee! The GeoBee is an annual competition designed to inspire and reward students' curiosity about the world. The whole thing kicked off at 9:00 and went till around 9:50. Mrs. Wolfe was the director of this year’s GeoBee, and she says that they have already planned out next year’s GeoBee. The overall winner, Stockton Huether, has the chance to go to UNI for state. Also according to Mrs. Wolfe, everything smoothly because of how much they practiced before the actual competition on Friday before Winter Break. When asked what was most memorable about the whole Geobee, she said that having Mr. Latimer there was the most memorable moment.

This is half of the North Polk 6th grade at Garden For Good.

Garden for Good

November 19 2019

By: NPMS News Team

In Sheldahl on October 9th 2019, NPMS 6th graders went out to the fields and started to pick vegetables. The project “Garden for Good” is where the 6th grade goes to the Gardening for Good garden right outside of Slater and picks vegetables and fruits to give them to the food banks of Iowa and then the food banks distribute them to the homeless or less fortunate throughout Iowa. The farm is owned by the Blackmer family.

This is part of many field trips involving volunteering and teamwork to teach kids to be active in their community. Even the kids and teachers say that after they do work at the Garden for Good they feel happy because they know they did something good. Volunteering is benefiting them physically and emotionally

The garden contains peppers, cantaloupe, and a whole lot of other assorted fruit and veggies. The sixth grade mainly picked and planted peppers during their experience at the garden. The farm also grows and donates green beans, tomatoes, summer squash, cherry tomatoes, sweetcorn, zucchini, radish, apples, eggplant, and kohlrabi.

Multiple schools help the garden and also learn about volunteer work. The Blackmer family is working to teach schools about where the food in their kitchens come from. Their mission is to increase local food productions across Iowa. They are already on their way to complete this mission because in 2014 the harvested over 18,000 pounds of produce. In a video promoting the farm, Blackmer said, “There’s no reason in a place like Iowa, we can’t grow enough of certain vegetables during times of the year like this, to give everybody the food they need.”

To make this organization possible they have lots of tools and equipment for planting and harvesting. They highly recommend bringing work gloves and old shoes to protect your hands and feet. This organization is completely dependent on volunteers.

The sixth grade class was split in half for the day. One half went to the garden in the morning, while the other half stayed at school and worked on some activities. They also watched the movie The Lorax. The groups switched after lunch so everyone could participate and have fun at the garden.

During the Comet Relays the students had to move the skittles using only the straw. Photo by Lexi Rediske and Sara Shoemaker

Comet Cup Updates

November 19, 2019

By Solene MacLean

This year, North Polk Middle School (NPMS) has had several Comet Cup competitions, but November’s competition was the Red Ribbon Relays. This was when all the Comet Times of each grade competed against each other (6th grade against 6th grade, 7th grade against 7th grade, 8th grade against 8th grade) for the largest amount of points. “The relays went well,” stated Mrs. Emily Young, 7th Grade Literacy teacher and Student Council teacher/adviser. This is Mrs. Young’s first year helping the Student Council. She was asked to help out with it. She states that it was kind of a natural fit and a good learning experience for both Student Council students and herself.

Mrs. Young also says that the new competitions at The Red Ribbon Relays were who could get the most bottle flips and land them in a certain amount of time, and the second new event focused on who could move an oreo from their forehead to their mouth first. There were a lot of other competitions like Tug - of - War, Lip Sync Battle, Comet Ball, who can collect the most box tops, who can collect and donate the most food at our food drive, etc. At the end of the year, Mr. Wolf (assistant principal) or Mr. Richards (principal) will announce the 1st- 3rd place winners for each grade. Mrs. Rose’s Comet Time- 6th grade, Mr. Middleton’s Comet Time- 7th grade, and Mrs. Wurr’s Comet Time were the 1st place winners last year.

The 7th grade play shared how to survive a Zombie apocalypsePhoto by Ms. Seligman

North Polk Middle School Plays

November 19, 2019

By Payton Lehman

On Friday, October 18th, 2019, the North Polk Middle School (NPMS) performed a magnificent play entitled 10 Ways to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse (7th grade) and Game of Tiaras (8th grade). The play began when Ms. Rinehart (supposedly spelled), the director who ran the 7th grade play, asked Mr. Wolf if the Middle School could create a play and he and he agreed. Next year, the plan is to have 7th and 8th graders perform in a musical.

The 7th grade play was suggested this year by some students who were disappointed that only 8th grade was allowed to have a play.

The play was practiced in the choir room and the auditorium, and they decided to do the play in the summer. Even Kelsick, and Aubrey Selmecki had the most lines. Ms. Rinehart’s said her favorite thing about the play was seeing kids funny sides of themselves. The last thing Ms. Rinehart had to say was “I hope to see new kids next year for the play.”

Mr Wolf in his new office

New Assistant Principal Mr. Wolf

By: NPMS Journalism Team

Ben Wolf, the former 8th grade social studies teacher at NPMS (North Polk Middle School), is now the assistant principal. Mr. Wolf said he decided to apply for the position as assistant principal because he can “make a bigger impact on the students.”

Mr. Wolf’s new job has two parts. He is the assistant principal and NPMS activity director. In the assistant principal part of his job, he disciplines students, plans professional development meetings, supervises students and makes sure they get to class on time. In his other part of his job, activity director, Mr. Wolf plans games, play practices, and cheer activities.

Mr. Wolf misses his old job being a social studies teacher, but is happy now as well because he gets to help even more kids and solve even more problems. He enjoys being the assistant principal because he can help more kids and can work with the teachers and students. Mr. Wolf said that the hardest part of being assistant principal is the work hours.

When he was young, Mr. Wolf wanted to be an architect, an accountant, a professional golfer, and a teacher of course. His parents both started out teaching. His first teaching job was at North Polk. He then went to Ankeny for one year but came back because he loved the feeling of a small town. His favorite thing about being a Comet is being part of something special. He loves that he sees students he taught years ago at football games.

When Mr. Wolf is not working he enjoys playing board games with his daughter, reading fiction books, playing golf, and watching the Minnesota Vikings play football. His favorite candy is Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.

Changes to the school

By: Jenna Volz

This year at North Polk Middle School there are many changes to the school. Mr. Wolf, Assistant Principal, was a part of these changes. The school made these changes because our school is growing every year. When Mr. Wolf started working in 1999 and he only had 75 students. Now, we have over 400 students. The changes made to the school were rebuilding the media center, rebuilding the office, adding carpet in the hallway, and painting walls. Mr. Wolf loves the new changes because it made a big change, and he believes the changes added really nice details. His favorite change to the school is the carpet because it feels more like home.

In the future, they hope to add brighter lights and more security cameras. Mr. Wolf said they are looking to have carpet in every room and painting walls in classrooms. He excited about these changes and having our school united. The students hopefully feel positive about the changes, and Mr. Wolf hopes that the students feel welcome at school.

North Polk Girls Go to Little League World Series

By: Lane Sparks

Several NPMS students were a part of the central Iowa softball team that played in the Little League World series in Portland, Oregon. The girls got to go to the Little League World Series because they beat Johnston in districts. After districts they went to state and won.

All of the girls that play little league can be nominated to tryout to play for Central Iowa All-Star team. Players Elyse Engebretson and Katelyn Klever shared that the best part of being in Portland was playing with their friends. They also got to meet some girls from Canada, the Philippines, and Italy. They finished 8th out of 10 teams. The team that won was Southeast from North Carolina.

Elyse said the opposing teams were very good: “Hawaii had a pitcher that threw 60 miles per hour. Sixty mph in softball is equal to 90 mph in baseball." They were in Oregon for 10 days. Elyse said, “We ate pizza 6 out of the 10 days we were in Oregon. On the day that we didn’t play most of us went to the coast."

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