Embedded Files
Published March 15, 2021
The New Middle School
↠ By Tara K. ↞
Elm Street Middle School is one of the oldest and largest schools in Nashua. It has about 1,500 students, and the building is about 80 years old. Since the building is so old, the Nashua School District has decided to build a new school. The new school location will be near Cherrywood Dr. The new building does not have a name yet, because there will be no more Elm Street.
When thinking about construction, the district had to go through a big decision; to renovate the old building or completely build a new one. Some of the benefits to renovating the new school was that it was an historic building, and it is in the center of the city. There would also be a bigger auditorium. With the benefits, there were also some challenges to consider. It was difficult to expand, there was a lack of sports fields and courts, limited parking, and pedestrian safety concerns. The overall cost of the renovations would be $130 million.
With the drawbacks the first option had, they moved onto the second option; to build a new school. These benefits were athletic fields and courts could be built, could easily be expanded, overall new construction, more parking, more middle school space, and exceeds modern efficiency standards. The challenges were that the building would be setback by wetland, the model they made would be altered, and the total cost would be over $118 million. It seemed like building a completely new school would have more benefits than challenges, so they went with that idea.
This school will be missed. Multiple memories were made here, and it’s incredible that this school has stood up for so many years, but building a new school was a great idea because now we will have a soccer field, two baseball fields, and a basketball court. There will also be more space, as each wing that would be installed would be for a different grade. With the amount of updates and new features the new school will have, the future students and teachers will make more great memories.
For more details, visit the Nashua District Community Page
Site Plan
Entry view of the new Middle School
Aerial view of new Middle School
Guess the Teacher
↠ By Tara K. ↞
This teacher was born in 1964.
As a kid, this teacher was responsible and a good student.
Their favorite hobby outside of school is card making.
They would describe themselves as organized and spiritual.
Their favorite movie is “Terms of Endearment”, and their favorite book is “The Shack”
They have been teaching at Elm Street for 25 years.
This teacher was born in Philadelphia, PA.
They were funny and quirky as a student.
Their favorite hobby is reading.
They would describe themselves as creative, smart, and kind.
Their favorite movie is “Monty Python’s Holy Grail.”
They have been teaching for 30 years
Answers are on the last page
Power of Habit Book Review
↠ By Vedant P. ↞
The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg talks about how habits work and how they are created. One important idea from the book is the three parts of a habit. First, there is the cue , which is a specific circumstance and it triggers the habit. Next, there is the routine, which is the actual action of the habit. Lastly, there is the reward that you get after performing the routine. In order to change a habit, you need to keep the cue and reward the same, but just change the routine. This tricks your brain into changing the habit, since the brain does not think much about the routine. For example, if you have a habit of eating junk food whenever you are hungry, the hungry feeling is the cue, and eating junk food is the routine. Instead of trying to stop eating junk food, eat healthy food when you are hungry. This preserves the cue and reward but only changes the routine. The more that you practice a habit, the harder it becomes to change. This is why it is important to learn good habits from the beginning since it will be harder to change them later on.
Fun Facts and Trivia
↠ By Gopika N.↞
Fun Facts
Giant Pandas eat approximately 28 pounds of bamboo a day – that’s over 5 tons per year!
The sun looks super close but it would take 70,000 years in our fastest spaceship to reach it.
Jimmy Carter was the 1st US president to be born in a hospital. He was born October 1, 1924 in Georgia.
People reportedly prefer blue toothbrushes over red ones.
You fart on average 14 times a day, and each fart travels from your body at 7 mph.
Trivia
Animal Trivia Questions:
What is the largest lizard in the world?
Rhinoceros Have Horns That Are Made Of What?
In what mountain range would you find the snow leopard?
Disney Trivia Questions:
In the movie ‘ET’ what does Elliot dress up Et as for Halloween to geth him out of the house without his Mom seeing?
What is the name of Andy’s neighbor in Toy Story?
Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?
Movies Trivia Questions:
In the Matrix, does Neo take the blue pill or the red pill?
Which actress plays Katniss Everdeen in the Hunger Games?
In the movie Home Alone, what was the name of Kevin’s neighbor played by Roberts Blossom?
Who is a tree-like humanoid and is an accomplice of Rocket in the 2014 film “Guardians of the Galaxy?”
Which Disney princess has a racoon as a side kick?
Non-Electronic Activites
↠ By Angelise P. and Camryn P.↞
Being in quarantine, people are often finding themselves spending too much time on a screen. This list has some great alternative activities instead of constantly being on your device.
Play a Sport
Sports are a fun and active way to entertain yourself. It’s good for your health and body, and most people find it fun.
Read a book
Books are a fun and logical activity you can do. It can distract you from the current reality you're in, and can take you into a whole new world. You're able to find free books to read online or at your local library.
Start a hobby
There are many different hobbies you can start. Find a hobby you have always wanted to do, there is nothing to stop you from doing it.
Hangout with your pets, families or friends
Hanging out with people is a great way to socialize and interact with other people
Draw or Color
Drawing or coloring is a great way to spend your time because it’s a creative activity and can be very stress relieving
Go to a park
Parks are a great place to go in your free time. You’re able to get fresh air and could possibly meet new people.
Play a board game
Board Games are a great way to spend time with your family and friends because it’s a fun and social activity
Sleep
Sleeping is a calming and stress free activity. Sleep is important and necessary for your health.
Words to Describe Your 2020
↠ By Angelise P. and Camryn P.↞
Students were surveyed on three words to describe their 2020. This word cloud represents the most common words used.
Opinions on 2020
↠ By Angelise P. and Camryn P.↞
Students were surveyed on how their 2020 was on a scale of 1-5. The results are shown in the graph below.
Organization Tips
↠ By Tara K ↞
It’s a new year, and a new you! The New Year means that it’s time to make resolutions and goals for yourself. One of the most popular resolutions is to stay organized, but according to Top 10 Most Common New Year's Resolutions by Brad Zomick, only 4% of resolution makers actually succeed in achieving their goal. This is because most people don’t know where to start with their resolutions. Here are 5 organization tips to help you succeed in school.
Use an agenda to write down assignments- A lot of students forget to do their homework and end up doing it late. An agenda or calendar can help you remember what you need to do, and when you should be doing it. Write down assignments, small tasks, and big projects you have to complete. At the end of the day, go through your agenda or calendar and make sure you didn’t forget to do anything.
Clear out your workspace every week- Keeping your workspace clean and organized gives you less distractions, and helps you gather materials easily when you need them. You should always have pencils in a holder, binders and notebooks in drawers, and books on a shelf so you don’t have to search for ten minutes trying to find a pencil.
Don’t do your assignments last minute- Having all assignments finished before the due date gives you a lot of time to do other things you like. Doing everything last minute can cause a lot of stress and un-organization because you don’t know what to do first and you are rushing to get everything done. For big projects, split up the work into smaller tasks you can do daily.
Create a list and set times for when you want to do assignments- When reading everything you have to do in your agenda, on another piece of paper write down in order the most important things you need to do, and how much time you think you will take on each of them.
Take breaks- Taking breaks is one of the most important factors of mental health, but make them consistent. Don’t work for 3 hours straight, then take a 30 minutes break. Instead, every hour or 30 minutes, take a 10 minute break and get back to working. Be sure to add alarms to remind yourself when to take and come back from a break.
Use the google calendar or a whiteboard to your advantage- Create reminders on google calendar to help you remember when assignments are due. On google classroom, you can get emails reminding you the day before an assignment is due so you remember to do it instead of the hour before it’s due. If there are specific assignments that are weekly, you can set a reminder that it’s always there. Keeping a whiteboard near your work area can help you remember tasks you need to do for the week and it’s easy to erase compared to a pencil on paper.
Being organized can help with your mental health, and your grades. Creating organization habits can help you later in high school when you get a lot more work. With Covid going on, it’s a lot harder to stay motivated and organized, but just know that you can get through it, and hopefully these tips will help you.
Riddles
↠ By Tara K. ↞
Walk on me alive, I will never mumble. Walk on me dead, I mumble and grumble. What am I?
What is always in front of you but cannot be seen?
Janet’s mother had four daughters; April, May, and June. What was the fourth daughter’s name?
I am a green amphibian of the land, and controlled by the hand of man. What am I?
I have a tail and a head, but no body. What am I?
Answers are on the last page
Looking for Something to Do?
↠ By Liam C. ↞
Custom mask- Get some markers, dye, Sharpies, anything like that and draw/color a RAD or elegant design on your mask! You could wear it out and if people asked, you can say you made it!
Play a fun game- Either inside or outside-play chess or a crossword puzzle, even a game of battleship would work.
Play indoor hide and seek- You should do this carefully as you don't want to break something or get yourself hurt!
Paper airplanes competition!- While this includes a friend, you can make a paper airplane and throw it and see whose can fly the farthest!
I SPY!- While this also requires a friend, you can each see an object and have your friend guess what the object is that they saw in the room/area.
Bottle message- (If you can) go to the beach and put a piece of paper carrying a message in the bottle make sure the bottle is filled with air, Cap it and push it in the water at low tide.
Build a House fort!- Take materials from your house and make a cool fort with blankets, pins, pillows but make sure you have permission.
Painted rock- Find a nice rock and paint a design on it. You can make it look like an animal and have a pet rock or even paint a nice message and leave it somewhere around town for somebody to pick up.
Invisible Ink Secret Messages- In the winter months leaving marks that you were here or secret things on the walls that in the future people with purple lights or such can find. you can write down notes, chore lists, secret messages on the walls, and know that only YOU know that is there. NOTE you need special invisible markers and lights to make this work and ask your parents before drawing all over the walls!
Plant small flowers- My personal favorite, planting flowers like Marigolds, Chinese Forget-Me-Nots, and more in your window when it's cold in pots and outside in warmers times in pots or even in the ground though in the ground there's bunnies to worry about so that's also a fun thing to do make a system to safe your garden from the bunnies!
Handling Stress With Online School
↠ By Leah F. and Katelin M. ↞
Online learning can be very stressful and you may want to procrastinate all of your work, but there are better ways to deal with this stress.
First of all, you want to make sure you’re staying healthy. Getting at least 8 ½ hours of sleep is super important. Staying up too late when you have to wake up early the next day will leave you exhausted. Keeping a healthy diet and exercising a lot is also important. Staying healthy helps your brain function better, making school easier.
Another thing you can do is stay organized. Having a clean space to work in is important for staying focused. Also, making to-do lists and schedules can help, as they plan out your day for you. If you have a planner, definitely make sure you are using it. Google classroom calendar is also a good option. It helps keep track of your assignments and when they are due.
Taking a break every so often helps get rid of stress. Overworking yourself is not good for your mental health. It is okay to relax. Make sure to spend time doing the things you love. Sports, hobbies, and talking to friends are good choices. Just make sure to not push off all assignments until the last minute.
Dreamers
↠ By William M. ↞
CHAPTER TWO: You’re going to Las Vegas! But you can't drive.
As we walked to lunch I noticed one other thing about Adam. He was really fidgety, but nothing was happening. We sat down at a table and Danny walked over smiling.
Adam looked at the door and muttered, “No no no. They can't be here already! The gate was closed.”
I stared at the door, then Clo walked over and sat down (which was strange since she always sat with her little group).
“Clo, why are you here?” I interrogated.
“Mike, as much as I hate you here, you are the only other person I know.”
”What’s going on here?”
I looked back at Adam and he looked at the doors in horror, then a large blast blew them down and sent them across the room.
People started running towards the back door, but it froze solid instantly. And as if it couldn't get worse they showed up.
Jack walked in from the frozen door, while another guy in red was blocking off the other door. About then the lights flickered off and the red flashing lights of the siren went off.
They kept spinning and spinning and spinning and s-
Answer Key
Guess the Teacher
Mrs. Belanger
Mrs. O'Hara
Riddles
1: Leaves.
2: The future.
3: Janet.
4: Kermit the Frog.
5: A coin.
Animal Trivia
Komodo Dragon
Hair
The Himalayas
Disney Trivia
A ghost with clown fee
Sid
Spongebob Squarepants
Movie Trivia
Red
Jennifer Lawrence
"Old Man" Marley
Groot
Pocahontas
Page updated
Report abuse