*MISCELLANEOUS*

By Dory, Ian, and Nicolas

Miscellaneous is all of the things that happen regularly at school, but they are not always on the schedule. Here are the extra things that 5Z does.

Snack and Recess
At Foote, we’re lucky because we get two recesses each day. The first one is snack recess and this happens every day at 10:00AM. For snack we have many different things. On Monday we have graham crackers, on Tuesday we have Ritz, on Wednesday we have bagels, on Thursday we have saltines, and on Friday we have goldfish or donuts (although you to pay 75 cents for them). This recess last for 15 minutes and we get some time to play. Our second recess is just before lunch at 11:45. This one lasts for 25 minutes. At recess, people like to play four square, play football, talk, go on the tire swings, go on the monkey bars, and other things. People enjoy recess a lot.

Lunch
In fifth grade, you can eat lunch in any classroom you want. There are three fifth-grade classrooms, so you can sit in any of the three classrooms. At lunch, people mostly just eat their lunch and talk. After lunch, many people play games such as: boggle, chess, mankala, and computer games. It is fun play these games after lunch as a sort of cool-down.

Buddies
At Foote, we have a very special thing were two different grades pair up and one kid from each grades pair up and become buddies. They then do special activities together. In the fifth grade we went apple picking with our third grade buddies (this is the first year we are the older buddies). Sometimes we send each other a card. Other times we hang out and play with each other. There are also a small number of buddy assemblies. At those you hang out with your buddy during an assembly. It’s great because you know lots of kids in all different grades in the school.

Challenges
Challenges are when the teacher or the assistant teacher comes up with a sort of contest for you and your classmates to try to win. Some of the contests are trying to build something, like make a boat out of tinfoil that will hold the most pennies, or make a tower out of index cards. Other challenges ask you to create a new thing, like a helpful object for the kitchen or a vehicle for the future. You always do the challenges in groups of two or three. The point of the challenges is to learn to work together as a team and to think creatively. They are very fun because we vote at the end to see whose is the best.

North Star
North Star is a program where groups of girls and groups of boys get together to have lunch, talk about their feelings, learn about each other and sisterhood or brotherhood and do some really cool projects.  One of the projects the girls did was where they each got a notebook, and
they got to decorate and then keep it as a sort of diary. Another project the girls did was they took pictures of each other, and then they got to decorate them with markers and clothes from magazines. The boys made a movie using pictures they took of nature. North Star is a fun chance to get to know your fellow classmates.

Recycling
At Foote School the fifth grade is responsible for recycling. This means we get assigned a classroom or other room and once every week, we go to that spot and take all of its recycling bins. We then run over to the recycling house, where we sort out all of the recycling into five categories: flattened cardboard, newsprint, ledger paper, bottles and cans. An eighteen-wheeler then picks up all the stuff and delivers it to a bigger recycling plant where it will actually get recycled. Recycling is great since it helps the earth and saves the school lots of money!

Compost
Compost is more fun than it sounds. You place fruit and vegetable remains – like apple cores or banana peels – into the compost container. It’s a little metal trashcan with a lid. It’s really ugly and squishy inside, which is sort of cool. Also, it really stinks. That’s not so cool. As soon as the compost is full, you and a classmate take it to the woods near the MAG classrooms. There’s a fenced in area where you dig a hole, then drop in the compost. We take turns doing this. Soon, the fruit and vegetables turn into dirt, which helps the earth!

Loft, Couch, Computer
Every fifth grade class has a loft. It’s a platform where you can go to read, draw, or just hang out with your friends. 5Z is lucky because we also have a couch to relax and read on. We also have computers to use to play games or do work.
We have a schedule that tells us when we can go on the loft, couch, and computer. There are four desk groups (numbered 1 to 4) and the schedule tells you which three desk groups have that day to do use the loft or couch or computer (one group does not have anything each day). This is the way the schedule looks:

Field Trips
Field trips are very fun to do. We’ve been to different places like Deer Lake, the Peabody Museum, Edgerton Park, IMAX movies, and many other places. The reason why we go on field trips is to learn and have fun. I thought that Deer Lake was the best field trip.

Jobs
At the end of the day, everyone looks forward to one thing. DISSMISAL! But before dismissal, there is one more thing to do and that is jobs. Jobs are when you help keep the classroom clean and help put everything into its place. Some special jobs for 5Z are cleaning the floor, straightening the loft and couch, erasing the board, shutting down the computers, and organizing the class library. You only have a job every other day, so that’s not too bad. Some jobs (like erasing the board and fixing the loft) can even be fun.

Bribes
Bribes are the one thing that make children get ready to leave school. Bribes are just a small treat you get during dismissal or during the day. Bribes can be a candy, like Sweet Tarts, Nerds, Laffy Taffy, or a Hershey’s kiss. It could also be a cookie and many other things. They are good because they are free and we like sweet stuff!