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Photo of the Day
Students Nathan Gearhart, Madisen Huscher, and Skout Sheperd enjoy playing a game in Circle of Friends.
Valentine’s Day
Katie Collins
February is generally a month full of blizzards, storms, and mountains of snow. This causes icy roads and other such problems. The sky is often dark with clouds and the expectance of rotten weather. Amongst this loneliness, there is always a day of love: Valentine’s Day.
Unlike other holidays, most people do not know the full history behind Valentine’s Day. Valentine’s Day first began in the Roman Empire, where February 14th was a date set aside for their queen goddess Juno. Juno embodied women and marriage.
Valentine’s Day attained its name from St. Valentine, a saint that lived in the Roman Empire. Claudius the Cruel tried to recruit soldiers, but was having difficulty. He believed that the men were not joining because they would have to leave their wives and families behind. To solve this, he cancelled all marriages.
At this time, Valentine was a priest, and secretly married couples. Because of this kindness, he was brought before the Prefect of Rome, who condemned him to death. He was beaten and executed on February 14th. For this act of martyrdom, he became Saint Valentine.
Many different traditions have sprung up for this day. Hundreds of years ago in England the children would dress up as adults and go from house to house singing. In Wales, participants would carve different designs into love spoons. Favorite designs were hearts, keys, and key holes. These decorations meant “You unlock my heart!”
Valentine’s Day is often known to be a holiday where many cand hearts like these are given.
In the Middle Ages, men and women would draw one another’s names out of a jar. Each person would wear their person’s name on their shirt for a week. This is where the expression “To wear your heart on your sleeve” comes from. This expression means that your feelings are obvious to people.
In some countries, a woman would receive a gift of clothing from the man. If she decided to keep the gift, she would marry him. Some other people believed that the type of bird the women saw above her head would determine who she was to marry. For instance, a robin meant a sailor, a sparrow meant a poor man, but they would live happily, and a golden finch determined that she would marry a very rich man.
Several ways have sprung up over the years to decide who a young person will marry. One of these ways is by saying the alphabet while turning the stem of the apple. The letter that the stem comes off on, make up a name that starts with that letter. That will be the person you will marry.
There are also supposed ways to find the number of children you are destined to have. One of these ways is by picking a dandelion that has gone to seed. After you blow the dandelion, the number of seeds left is an omen for how many children you will have. Another way to predict it is to cut an apple in half then count the number of seeds in the core.
Andover Central Middle School has its own traditions. The library sells Candy Grams to the students. Candy Grams are red hearts that the sender can send to their friends. Attached is a piece of candy. These were all sold the week before Valentine’s Day, and were handed out eighth hour on Tuesday. Each cost 50 cents, and the proceeds went to the library.
Valentine’s Day is almost upon us, and excitement is growing. Some friends are planning on handing out Valentine, and others are expecting some. Hannah Farney, an eighth grader at Andover Central Middle, “I am so excited for Valentine’s Day. It is my holiday, and it was made for me.”
The Adventures of Tintin Movie Review
By Kason E
The Adventures of Tintin follows Tintin (Jamie Bell) who casually decides to buy a model ship of the Unicorn. Immediately when Tintin buys the ship, Ivan Ivanovitch Sakharine (Daniel Craig) tries to buy it off Tintin. Tintin is suspicious, so he doesn’t sell Ivan the boat. After finding information in the local library, Tintin realizes the story of the Unicorn. It was a crashed ship that held large amounts of gold and treasure. There are three model unicorns in the world, and all of them have a clue to where the treasure is. Ivan needs all the ships to find the treasure. When Tintin comes back home, he realizes his ship is missing. Knowing Ivan stole it; Tintin tries to get it back.
This is when Tintin is kidnapped and taken onto a ship. There, he meets Captain Haddock (Andy Serkis) who is being held captive like Tintin. Tintin and Haddock escape the ship. While trying to escape, Tintin finds a room full of recordings and maps. Tintin realizes that Ivan is trying to get the third ship because he already has two of them. Once he gets all three ships, Ivan needs to use Captain Haddock to get to the actual treasure (It explains why later in the movie). After Tintin and Haddock escape, it is a race to try to get the third model Unicorn and find the treasure before it falls into the wrong hands.
First and foremost, I want to say this movie looks amazing. It is all animation, but the animation looks very life like and real. The worlds’ Tintin explores are absolutely gorgeous and are very realistic to the location they are in. I found the story very exciting with a small amount of predictability. Tintin is a very lovable character because he has a taste for adventure and is very smart for his age. The movie had some very funny lines in it. Luckily, there wasn’t an overflow of them. The action is intense and quite fast at times. You’ll need to focus a bit on those parts.
I also must point out the opening credits were handled brilliantly. They had a certain 2D art style that actually showed a story within the credits. It was a nice touch and it showed how Tintin actually works. The voices were nice and matched the look of the characters perfectly.
The Adventures of Tintin was very entertaining. It had a great appearance, excellent voice acting, funny comments, and exciting action on every turn. The only things I would change about Tintin are I wish it wasn’t as predictable. The ending of the movie left me wanting much more. Unfortunately, there are no signs they are making a sequel. It is a possibility, since the total box office for The Adventures of Tintin was around $350,000,000 which is pretty good. I would rate this movie 4.5/5
Student of the Week – Ashton Mick
Brooke Dreiling
This week’s student of the week is Ashton Mick, who is in 6th grade. She was nominated by her friend Jaycie Rust, who is also in 6th grade.
Jaycie said that Ashton always welcomes her and others to come and sit with them at lunch. She also said “I love sitting by Ashton. At lunch one day, Jesse, one of my friends, made up a game called the Laughing Game and Ashton made Jesse laugh right away. Ashton is one of the kindest people I know!” Jaycie also added saying that Mick loves meeting new people. “Ashton is so nice. She always listens and pays attention to the teacher. She will sit by me [at lunch] when I’m not sitting by anybody else. She is always in a nice mood and so sweet!” commented Jaycie.
Ashton said she was surprised that she won this award. Her favorite class is science with Mrs. Kincaid, who is also her favorite teacher. Her favorite part about 6th grade is getting to go to all the classes. Some of her closest friends are Shayla Bailey, Hanna Chastain, Kaitlyn Cowen, and Claire Rodgers.
In her free time, Ashton enjoys spending time with her family. She also likes running track because it’s her favorite sport. Ashton has one older sister named Savannah who is a sophomore in high school at Andover Central High School.
Congratulations to Ashton Mick for winning this week’s student of the week!
We Bought a Zoo Movie Review
By Gracie Shepherd
We Bought a Zoo starring Matt Damon, Colin Ford, and Scarlet Johansson is a hit. Director Cameron Crowe directed and wrote the movie, Crowe has also made a number of eye-opening films including Jerry Maguire, Almost Famous, and Vanilla Sky. However, he appeared to go off the charts when his 2005 drama, Elizabethtown was received poorly at the box office. After that, Cameron knew he needed to prove himself and came back with a bam with We Bought a Zoo.
The movie is based off of Benjamin Mee‘s memoir, We Bought a Zoo. The anticipated true story is about a young family who buys a broken down zoo, along with 200 animals. Crowe had a tough story to bring to the screen; but he accomplished it showing that he is back in the show business. The movie brings amazing scenery, hit performances, and a soundtrack by musical artist Jonsi.
When I saw this movie I thought it was great. I never got bored throughout it, which is a good sign. Throughout the movie there were twists and turns, but it stayed smooth and enjoyable. When you watch it, it can be very easy to follow along. Altogether, I thought Crowe did a great job directing it to the big screen.
8th grader Faith Vautravers said, “It was really refreshing to see a real quality film, I haven’t seen one like that in a long time.” With all the horrors, comedies, and action movies out there, it’s nice to have just a great film. The reviews got 3/5 stars, and the movie is 2hrs. 15min. Go see it, it’s worth it.
