Tumbling

Have you seen the cheerleaders do their famous "flippies?" Do you ever wonder what goes into these flips? Many of the cheerleaders have gone to tumbling classes since they were very young. Flip flops are the first stunt you need to learn for cheerleading. This is the most common. Nearly all the floor cheers have one. Back tucks are the next hardest. Standing back tucks are pretty difficult cause you have to remember to pull up all the way with your arms and pull your abs in and tuck your legs. Our cheerleaders are known for our "flippies" also known as fronts, and flippie things. While we have not been able to do these for a while because we don't all do them right we hope to bring them back at homecoming. Make sure to look for them. Our cheerleaders are very strong in their tumbling and sometimes we take it for granted. Bystanders don't realize that a lot of work goes into these "sweet" tricks.

-Jenny S.

Gingerbread Cookies

6 cups all purpose flour

1 Tbs baking powder

1 Tbs ground ginger

1 tsp ground nutmeg

1 tsp ground cloves

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 cup shortening

1 cup molassas

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup water

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla



1. Sift together flour, baking powder, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon. Set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, mix together shortening molassas, brown sugar, water, egg, and vanilla until smooth. Gradually stir in dry ingredients until they are completely absorbed. Divide dough into three pieces, pat down until 1 1/2 inch thickness, and refrigerate for at least three hours.

3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Place cookies on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes; remove from sheet and let cool on wire racks.



Thanks to AllRecipe.com

-Jenny S.

Gingerbread House

On November 22, 2006, the largest gingerbread house was completed, according to Guinness Book of World Records. It was constructed in the Mall of America by Roger Pelcher and was more than 67 feet tall. It took Pelcher and his team 9 days to complete the 1,496 square foot house. It consists of 14,250 pounds of gingerbread and 4,750 pounds of icing.

Top Ten Christmas Songs

With Christmas coming up, here are the top ten Christmas songs (according to WCBS FM) to get you ready for the season.

1 White Christmas -Bing Crosby

2 The Chipmunk Song -The Chipmunks

3 Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer -Gene Autry

4 I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus -Jimmy Boyd

5 Jingle Bell Rock -Bobby Helms

6 The Christmas Song -Nat King Cole

7 Snoopy's Christmas -The Royal Guardsmen

8 Here Comes Santa Claus -Gene Autry

9 Little Drummer Boy -Harry Simeone Chorale

10 Donde Esta Santa Claus -Augie Rios

What's your favorite Christmas song?

Christmas Pick-Up Lines

1. Are you one of Santa's babes?

2. Shouldn't you be sitting on top of the tree, Angel?

3. You are all I want for Christmas.

4. I must be a snowflake, cause I've fallen for you.

5. Giant polar bear. "What?" It's an icebreaker.

6. Can I take a picture of you so I can show Santa what I want for Christmas?

7. Other than me what are you asking Santa for this year?

8. If a fat man puts you in a bag at night, don't worry I told Santa I want you for Christmas.

[Mrs. Cross responds: Well, I'm so creeped out right now. #8 has serial killer / stalker written all over it.]

Studying

With exams coming up many students are starting to "freak out" with the stress. Here are ten tips to rock your exams.


1. Give yourself TIME! Don't cram...it doesn't work very well. You can also ask your teacher questions if you don't understand something.


2. Use an agenda. Try to study every night, even if it is just for a little bit.


3. Set up a good workplace. Put away your phone, iPod, and other distractions.


4. Look at the big picture. Sometimes it may seem like a lot to do, but break it down. Figure out how much needs to be done each night.


5. Study a bit each night. You will find stuff easier to remember if you repeat it all the time.


6. Make notes. This helps you remember and get information straight in your mind.


7. Put it in your own words. Make it easy for you to understand everyone learns different. Find a way that works for you.


8. Cover, recite, and check. Paraphase. After you read a paragraph try to put it in your own words.


9. Don't study stuff you already know. Start with the hard stuff. There is no point wasting your time studying stuff you already understand.


10. Try to learn in class. Concentrate and participate in class.

Cheerleading

The cheerleaders this year are...

Seniors: Anna Mitchell, Shelby Antrim, Briana Schuette, Molly Schuette, Chelsey Spruell, and Sarah Haarmon

Juniors: Liz Wortman and Jenny Schmidt

Sophomores: Emmie Schultz, Taylor Dirks, Barbara McGuire, and Paige Oltman

Freshman: Sarah Wortman

We are looking flashy with new uniforms as we cheer on the crowd and the team to the win this year. But cheerleading is not just cheering at games. We are working on their routine for competition already and are excited about it. We hired a choreographer -that's why we held so many bake sales- to make up the routine and it is very difficult to do. Although the competition will not be until after Christmas break we have started to try to master the lifts and jumps associated with the routine. Between triple-toe touches and 360s to heel stretches, everyone has to work to get this routine perfect.

Sweden

My informative speech was on Sweden. I learned 9 Swedish words for this and became a whiz at pronouncing them. Hey, my name is Jenny and I am going to talk with you about Sweden. I used this to introduce my speech. I talked about Sweden in general, about their government and their climate and landscape. I also talked about their holidays and the influence Sweden has had on our daily lives. For example, both H&M and IKEA are Swedish along with Volvo and Saab. Alfred Nobel, the founder of the Nobel Prize is also Swedish. I did pretty well on my speech, but I didn't have it memorized so I had to look down at my notes.

Jenny Schmidt

*Opening up with Swedish was really cool... you'll have to come in next year and teach Swedish to the English II classes (think...major bonus points for AP Lang).

10 Random Facts

1. Ancient Egyptians revered their dogs. When a pet dog would die, they would cut off their eyebrows, smear mud in their hair, and mourn out loud for days.



2. For The Twilight Saga: New Moon, each actor portraying one of the wolf pack was required to have documentation proving Native American descent.



3. The term “junk food” was initially used in the 1960s but was popularized during the following decade when the song “Junk Food Junkie” reached the top of the charts in 1976.



4. Fats from junk food trigger the brain to want more food. This effect can last for several days.



5. The present age of the sun is estimated to be 4.6 billion years, halfway through its lifetime.



6. The science of kissing is called philematology.



7. More than 80 spelling variations are recorded for Shakespeare's name, from “Shappere” to “Shaxberd".



8. Facebook has over 350 million active users. More than 35 million users update their status each day, with more than 55 million status updates each day.



9. In 2009, the top most stressful jobs were a surgeon, commercial airline pilot, photojournalist, advertising account executive, and real estate agent. The least stressful jobs were actuary, dietitian, astronomer, systems analyst, and software engineer.



10. Laughing lowers stress hormones (like cortisol, epinephrine, and adrenaline) and strengthens the immune system by releasing health-enhancing hormones.

Words That Will Rock Your Socks

Words for the Week

Shenanigans-(v, n) ACTUAL WORD
1. Trick or prank. Ex.) Our shenanigans are cheeky and fun
2. Used in place of other words when there are little ears present. Ex.) Shenanigans!!! I just slammed my finger in a door.

3. Also used in the movie Super Troopers.

Tintinnabulation-(n) ACTUAL WORD
1. Ringing or sounding of bells. Ex.) The tinnabulation of the bells woke them up in the morning.

Jabberwock-(n) ACTUAL WORD
1. Nonsense, gibberish. Ex). You are speaking in jabberwock.

If you have any other sweet words, please comment. We are very interested.
Jenny and Katie