Students Mix-It-Up at lunch

Dan Ivanovich, Sona Chaudary, Emma Azzi and Jackie Hemman.

 By: Vincent Candela

On Wednesday, April 29, Wood Hill Middle School held a Mix It Up Lunch run and organized by the Student Ambassadors. At this lunch students were assigned to tables at lunch, instead of choosing where to sit. This forced students to sit with different people.

The cafeteria was decorated, including a balloon at each table. Icebreakers were also at each table, these were questions that were meant to “break the ice” or start a conversation at each table. Some examples include: what's your favorite food or what's your favorite Mexican restaurant. 

At the start of the lunch, everyone was given a question card filled with Wood Hill trivia, then at the end the answers were revealed. If you got a certain number of questions correct then your group got free ice cream on Monday. 

Sixth graders switch up their seating during Mix It Up Lunch. 

Most people interviewed disliked the event, explaining that it was uncomfortable being with people that they didn’t know. Others liked it because they got to meet new people. 

History Comes Alive!

By Abby Chou

John Lee, Emme Pitts and Emily Chen. 

On Thursday night, May 21, almost all of team 6West and their parents were at Memorial Hall Library, for the presenting of the Andover Research Project iMovies. Though there were some technical difficulties, they were worked out, and overall it was considered a wonderful night.

It started off with a presentation by Emme Pitts, Emily Chen, Lizzie Jones, and John Lee about the process through which we made our iMovies. It involves being grouped, picking our topics, researching our topics at Memorial Hall, and learning how to use iMovie. After the presentation, the movies started. Each group of about four kids was assigned a topic about Andover history, for example, the fire department, the Andover Townsman, Shawsheen and Frye village, Phillips Academy and many more.

The movies varied, showing off the students’ creativity and skills with technology. Some used and interview to show what they learned, some used a game show, and some created a story related to the topic. Each video brought new and original ideas into the minds of the viewers, and the night was a great showcase of the students’ talents.

Parents, teachers, students and friends enjoy movie presentations at Memorial Hall Library. 

Friendship and fun in Buddy Up!

By Emme Pitts

Looking for a an after school activity where you can bond with younger students and learn about different cultures? Then buddy up is the activity for you!

Wood Hill and High Plain students meet every Tuesday with their buddies to help them with their homework, play games and do fun activities. Both Katie Allen (6 East) and Navya Pandya (6 West) agree that Buddy up is a great opportunity to meet younger students. They also think that it helps you develop skills good for babysitting.

Both the younger students and the older students love the activities they do together. They play play games like nine square to get some exercise and fresh air. This helps the students to learn more about each other and each others cultures.

The Earthy Green Summer Concert

By: Katie Benjamin

Wood Hill chorus students will be performing in the Nature Concert on Wednesday, June 3, featuring songs that are nature themed. The songs are "No One Is Alone" from the hit movie Into the Woods, "Tres Canciones de los Elementos," sung fully in its original Spanish, and one Kids' Choice Song, which will be a mashup of "Geronimo" by Sheppard and "Lived" by One Republic.

"I only like the Spanish one, even though it isn't really that summer-y to me, but the song 'No One is Alone' is a good one," says a seventh grade chorus student.

"[In 'Tres Canciones de los Elementos'] I think the fire part is really like summer because it's hot and talks about fire, but I think people might not like it because they might not understand it." The student also says that she thinks it might be like the French song [performed earlier this year], meaning people might not understand it.

The concert is bound to be a hit.

7W Trashion Show celebrates Earth Day

By Eric Qu

Team 7West celebrated Earth Day this year with a "Trashion Show" project. 7West students had to think of ways to take recyclable items, such as paper bags, cardboard, and more to create works of art or clothes to put into a Trashion show! One of the featured creations included Amu Tawawalla's and top hat, made of newspaper, with pennies glued to it.

Crew group helps out around Wood Hill

Students in Miss Menesale's Crew group helped out around the school picking up trash to help celebrate Earth Day and give back to the Wood Hill community.

The History of Earth Day

By Vincent Candela

Earth Day is a day where the earth is recognized and we try think of ways to not wreck our planet. It is celebrated on April 22. It was first celebrated in April 22, 1970 and it was the start of the environmental movement. At that time factories dumped whatever they wanted in rivers, factories could also burn whatever they felt like burning and they could do it anywhere. Companies also made many dumps with toxic materials sometimes in the middle of watersheds and people drove around cars with leaded gas.

The basis of the modern environmental movement began when Rachel Carson published a book called Silent Spring in 1962. It was where she took on the chemical industry. She exposed information about many dangerous chemicals that different companies were using. Before this book was published, the word “environment” was never really used except for in spelling bees. This book raised awareness for the environment.

The founder of Earth Day was Gaylord Nelson a senator from Wisconsin who was worried about the 1969 oil spill in Santa Barbara, California. He thought that if he could get the energy from the anti-Vietnam movement to the environmental movement then there could be actual change for the environment. He persuaded Pete McCloskey another congressman to be his co-chair for his environmental movement. He also hired Denis Hayes as the national coordinator for the movement. Hayes hired about 80 people as his staff. Since many people then realized a lot of environmental problems they staged many protests.

On Earth Day 1970 almost all politicians (except for industry politicians) agreed on national environment reform. The following laws congress enacted were staggering. The laws were the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act. They also created the Environmental Protection Agency (E.P.A.) which protected the environment and managed superfund sites. Superfund sites are places where there are a lot toxic chemicals. The main agency is the Environmental Protection Agency (E.P.A.).