THE CIRCLE GAZETTE Volume 3, Issue 5 FEBRUARY 2012 A Newspaper by Children, of all Ages, from all Over the World! Your Work can be Published too! Bullying: One of the worst things you can face in life by Jennifer Dieujuste, Age 13 Lake Worth, FL Violence is one of the mas- sive things you will face in life. Remembering yourself as the popular one, the funny one, or the school brain are the memo- ries you desire. But when you have something bothering you; peck, peck, pecking at you like a woodpecker forming a hole in a tree, those positive thoughts are the furthest from your mind. It is through my personal experience that I have chosen to explain the following three acts of violence. Bullying is one of the worst things you can face in life. Last year in sixth grade, people would tease me about the way I walked. My knee was popping and I experienced pain while walking which created a limp. One individual in particular would seek me out every time I was in the hallway to humili- ate and taunt me in front of oth- ers. She would mimic the way I walk and repeatedly ask, “why do you walk like that?” as everyone chuckled in the background. I would defend myself by doing the same thing to the person taunting me. This would only create the same humiliation for her and the bullying just escalated. It was not a winning situation for anyone. When your friends talk about you behind your back, it is very hurtful and hard to accept. At times you feel there is some- thing wrong with you; you loose your self esteem! Limp by limp; experiencing the pain in my leg, I really did abomi- nate it but did not give up. Chil- dren teased me until tears flow through my eyes. “Hahaha,” you would hear them snickering. I tried to ignore it, but it was one of those things that remain forever like a stain on a shirt. Recently, my brother was at- tacked by a group of boys while he was walking home from school. They jumped him from behind and physically attacked him. He was shoved to the ground and held down while others kicked and punched him until he passed out. They stole his backpack and took off. He was unable to see anyone’s face and therefore cannot identify the group who attacked him. He lives in fear it will happen again. POW, POW, POW! Who is beating me, whose hands are hurting me? Cold hard ground; why can’t I move? PAIN… stop… darkness… now fear. Why? I witnessed a third incident while enjoying an activity at school. My friends and I were playing kickball during break when a boy started physically at- tacking and verbally abusing an- other boy. Everyone stopped as if in shock and I ran toward the boy being attacked. I grabbed his shirt trying to pull him away from his violent attacker but was unsuccessful. Others were laugh- ing at the boy being attacked accusing him of “fighting like a girl” and making very deroga- tory remarks. Apparently the boy being beaten has a medical prob- lem with bleeding and blood was flowing from his nose profusely covering both him and the attack- er. It was horrible to watch … I could feel his pain and his humili- ation at the same time. Within a few minutes, a teacher broke it up and everyone went back to their class as if this was normal! Red blood oozing down my face… They laugh, they taunt and now they hit. Please, God make them quit. It feels like hours, only minutes have passed. It finally stopped, but the pain will last! In conclusion, bullying cre- ates humiliation, depression and feelings of low self esteem. It does not matter which form it takes; verbal, emotional or physical… the pain that results from bullying remains forever. It should never be tolerated under any circumstances. We need to start treating each other with kindness and respect. We are human beings. My Experiences with Wildlife Swans by Emma Gómez, Age 8 Margate FL On January 5, I went to pick up my sister Dani, who is eleven, with my mom, dad and other sis- ter Ellie, who is six. We came a little bit early, so we parked at the restaurant that sat nearby. We decided that maybe we would take a walk by the pond. When we went over the bridge and looked into the water, we saw a beautiful white, grey bird with a black and orange bill and a long neck. He also had long, soft, and smooth wings. We walked along the pond bank following his smooth movement. After a while of wandering along with him, he got tired of being watched. He slowly paddled off, and we thought about how we (had) spotted three of the same kind of birds (swan), about two weeks before (in that area). My family and I kept on trotting by the pond and when we were almost at the end of walk, we saw two other white and grey birds gliding gracefully through the water as if in air. My mom told us that if we wanted to take a better view, we could slowly approach them, and go down near the water’s edge. If we went carefully, we could go silently down all the way to the very edge and watch their silent and glossy movement. When he went to eat, it was simple; he just needed to flip up- side down and when he was done he just needed to flip himself right side up again and he would be done. We slowly approached and sat near the edge seeing the swans swim peacefully and un- bothered by us. They simply kept on gliding as smoothly as before so we decided to take an even better look and again slowly we slid down to the very last grain of dirt surrounding the water’s edge. We just sat there watching them playing among themselves and nibbling at the water plants that grew at the banks and some- times they would look at us as if questioning us about food and we just stared straight back into their black smooth, silky, relaxed and unbothered eyes. Some- times they would almost stand in the water and would spread their wings and flap them hard to shake at the little water that socked into the wings. After do- ing this they would return to nib- bling on the water plants and ed- ible bugs. My dad and mom took several pictures of them softly purpling themselves through the water and they even took videos of us and them together. My dad knows a special technique that makes it look like we were hold- ing them in our hands. While he took the picture some time after they sort of gained trust and got even closer to us and examined us with their blinking soft eyes and in my opinion I think that they decided that we meant no damage. After a while of play- ing without touching each other (meaning we used a kind of sign language with our eyes), one of them got tired of the water and I guess decided to take some sun and spread his or her wings high above the water and flapped harder than I’d ever seen. Then, as if by magic, his body lifted up into the air and gracefully land- ed softly and smoothly on the ground. He went on wandering around the pond until he found a perfect spot (which means a very sunny spot). Sometime af- ter that we started (my sister and I) pacing around the end of the pond until my mom and dad said it was time to go. We hurried up the grassy bank and went to pick- up my older sister Dani. I hope you’ll be around for the next issue of MY EXPERI- ENCES WITH WILDLIFE. Did You Know... … that most bullying happens when adults aren’t around, such as in between classes, at lunch or recess, after school, and online? Still, bullying rarely takes place without an audience - kids are around to see bullying 85 percent of the time. But even though they see it, kids usually don’t try to stop bullying, and may even be unknowingly encouraging it. Two out of three kids want to help when they see bullying, and helping out is one of the most effective ways to stop bullying and prevent it from happening again. When friends help out bullying stops in 10 seconds, 57 percent of the time. Swans at Boca Raton Lake “...they would look at us as if questioning us about food and we just stared straight back into their black smooth, silky, relaxed and unbothered eyes.” NBA LOCK-OUT by Ismail Ercan Page 11 SARAH’S CINEMA The Adventures of Tintin by Sarah Thompson Page 6 President’s Day by Elizabeth Abrams and Kate Maier Page 5 ART WORLD A new column by Alyssa Fantel and Daniela Gómez Page 7 If you want to visit the Boca Swans, go to City Fish Market Restaurant, 7940 Glades Rd., Boca Raton, Fl, 33434, located on the corner of Glades and the Turnpike.
Transcript
THE CIRCLE GAZETTE Volume 3, Issue 5 FEBRUARY 2012
A Newspaper by Children, of all Ages, from all Over the World! Your Work can be Published too!
Bullying: One of the worst things you can face in life
by Jennifer Dieujuste, Age 13Lake Worth, FL
Violence is one of the mas-sive things you will face in life. Remembering yourself as the popular one, the funny one, or the school brain are the memo-ries you desire. But when you have something bothering you; peck, peck, pecking at you like a woodpecker forming a hole in a tree, those positive thoughts are the furthest from your mind. It is through my personal experience that I have chosen to explain the following three acts of violence. Bullying is one of the worst things you can face in life.
Last year in sixth grade, people would tease me about the way I walked. My knee was popping and I experienced pain while walking which created a limp. One individual in particular would seek me out every time I was in the hallway to humili-ate and taunt me in front of oth-ers. She would mimic the way I walk and repeatedly ask, “why do you walk like that?” as everyone chuckled in the background. I would defend myself by doing the same thing to the person taunting me. This would only create the same humiliation for her and the bullying just escalated. It was not a winning situation for anyone. When your friends talk about you behind your back, it is
very hurtful and hard to accept. At times you feel there is some-thing wrong with you; you loose your self esteem!
Limp by limp; experiencing the pain in my leg, I really did abomi-nate it but did not give up. Chil-dren teased me until tears flow through my eyes. “Hahaha,” you would hear them snickering. I tried to ignore it, but it was one of those things that remain forever like a stain on a shirt.
Recently, my brother was at-tacked by a group of boys while he was walking home from school. They jumped him from behind and physically attacked him. He was shoved to the ground and held down while others kicked and punched him until he passed out. They stole his backpack and took off. He was unable to see anyone’s face and therefore cannot identify the group who attacked him. He lives in fear it will happen again.
POW, POW, POW! Who is beating me, whose hands are hurting me? Cold hard ground; why can’t I move? PAIN… stop…darkness… now fear. Why?
I witnessed a third incident while enjoying an activity at school. My friends and I were playing kickball during break when a boy started physically at-tacking and verbally abusing an-other boy. Everyone stopped as if in shock and I ran toward the
boy being attacked. I grabbed his shirt trying to pull him away from his violent attacker but was unsuccessful. Others were laugh-ing at the boy being attacked accusing him of “fighting like a girl” and making very deroga-tory remarks. Apparently the boy being beaten has a medical prob-lem with bleeding and blood was flowing from his nose profusely covering both him and the attack-er. It was horrible to watch … I could feel his pain and his humili-ation at the same time. Within a few minutes, a teacher broke it up and everyone went back to their class as if this was normal!
Red blood oozing down my face… They laugh, they taunt and now they hit. Please, God make them quit. It feels like hours, only minutes have passed. It finally stopped, but the pain will last!
In conclusion, bullying cre-ates humiliation, depression and feelings of low self esteem. It does not matter which form it takes; verbal, emotional or physical… the pain that results from bullying remains forever. It should never be tolerated under any circumstances. We need to start treating each other with kindness and respect. We are human beings.
My Experiences with Wildlife Swansby Emma Gómez, Age 8 Margate FL
On January 5, I went to pick up my sister Dani, who is eleven, with my mom, dad and other sis-ter Ellie, who is six. We came a little bit early, so we parked at the restaurant that sat nearby. We decided that maybe we would take a walk by the pond. When we went over the bridge and
looked into the water, we saw a beautiful white, grey bird with a black and orange bill and a long neck. He also had long, soft, and smooth wings. We walked along the pond bank following his smooth movement. After a while of wandering along with him, he got tired of being watched. He slowly paddled off, and we thought about how we (had) spotted three of the same kind of birds (swan), about two weeks before (in that area). My family and I kept on trotting by the pond and when we were almost at the end of walk, we saw two other white and grey birds gliding gracefully through the water as if in air. My mom told us that if we wanted to take a better view, we could slowly approach them, and go down near the water’s edge. If we went carefully, we could go silently down all the way to the very edge and watch their silent and glossy movement.
When he went to eat, it was simple; he just needed to flip up-side down and when he was done he just needed to flip himself right side up again and he would be done. We slowly approached and sat near the edge seeing the swans swim peacefully and un-
bothered by us. They simply kept on gliding as smoothly as before so we decided to take an even better look and again slowly we slid down to the very last grain of dirt surrounding the water’s edge. We just sat there watching them playing among themselves and nibbling at the water plants that grew at the banks and some-times they would look at us as if questioning us about food and we just stared straight back into their black smooth, silky, relaxed and unbothered eyes. Some-times they would almost stand in the water and would spread their wings and flap them hard to shake at the little water that socked into the wings. After do-ing this they would return to nib-bling on the water plants and ed-ible bugs. My dad and mom took several pictures of them softly purpling themselves through the water and they even took videos of us and them together. My dad knows a special technique that makes it look like we were hold-ing them in our hands. While he took the picture some time after they sort of gained trust and got even closer to us and examined us with their blinking soft eyes and in my opinion I think that
they decided that we meant no damage. After a while of play-ing without touching each other (meaning we used a kind of sign language with our eyes), one of them got tired of the water and I guess decided to take some sun and spread his or her wings high above the water and flapped harder than I’d ever seen. Then, as if by magic, his body lifted up into the air and gracefully land-ed softly and smoothly on the
ground. He went on wandering around the pond until he found a perfect spot (which means a very sunny spot). Sometime af-ter that we started (my sister and I) pacing around the end of the pond until my mom and dad said it was time to go. We hurried up the grassy bank and went to pick-up my older sister Dani.
I hope you’ll be around for the next issue of MY EXPERI-ENCES WITH WILDLIFE.
Did You Know...
… that most bullying happens when adults aren’t around, such as in between classes, at lunch or recess, after school, and online? Still, bullying rarely takes place without an audience - kids are around to see bullying 85 percent of the time. But even though they see it, kids usually don’t try to stop bullying, and may even be unknowingly encouraging it. Two out of three kids want to help when they see bullying, and helping out is one of the most effective ways to stop bullying and prevent it from happening again. When friends help out bullying stops in 10 seconds, 57 percent of the time.
Swans at Boca Raton Lake
“...they would look at us as if questioning us about food and we just stared straight back into their black smooth, silky,
relaxed and unbothered eyes.”
NBA LOCK-OUTby Ismail Ercan
Page 11
SARAH’S
CINEMAThe Adventures of Tintin
by Sarah ThompsonPage 6
President’s Dayby Elizabeth Abrams and Kate Maier
Page 5
ART WORLDA new column
by Alyssa Fantel and Daniela GómezPage 7
If you want to visit the Boca Swans, go to City Fish Market Restaurant, 7940 Glades Rd., Boca Raton, Fl, 33434, located on the corner of Glades and the Turnpike.
PAGE 2 THE CIRCLE GAZETTE FEBRUARY 2012
Editor in Chief PATTY GOMEZ
Editorial Board
Production
Prepress Technician
Christie Voss
Graphic Designers Dora Font Christie Voss
Cartoonists and Illustrators
Matias Sosa Wheelock Daniela Gómez Emma Gómez Sofia Serrano
Regular Columnists Daniela Gómez Aaron Cross Bilal Amodu Sara Cross Sarah Thompson
Regular Contributors
Maria & Natalie Schlecht, Daniela & Emma Gómez, Aaron & Sara Cross, Liora Elkoby, Sofia Serrano, Danny & Andy Hernández, Shadya and Bilal Amodu, Ismail Ercan , Matias Sosa Wheelock
Proof Readers
Serena Serrano Sandra Damas
Website Master Victoria Martinez
Circulation
The Circle Gazette is available online and it’s distributed in paper via individual, classroom and library subscriptions. Free copies are available at community partner institutions (libraries, museums and educational
organizations). This publication is currently distributed in more than twenty cities in South Florida and has subscribers and contributors from California, Kentucky, New York, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, New Mexico, Virginia,
Caracas-Venezuela, Rivas-Nicaragua and San Jose-Costa Rica.
Free Copies Available at The Coral Springs Museum of Art The Fort Lauderdale Children’s Theater
The Northwest Regional Broward County Library The British School Caracas
Sales, Advertising and Sponsorship Mindy Joseph Jodi Jaffe 954-684-9096 954-253-6584
TO SUBMIT WORKThe Circle Gazette is a publication available to public school, private school and homeschool students. Email a copy of your work, as a major word processor file or as a jpeg file, at [email protected]. All entries should be accompanied by the parent/guardian consent to print. Submission Form to be found online at www.enrichmentcircle.com.
Information to contributorsThe Circle Gazette reserves the right to edit, accept and refuse articles in the interest of brevity, clarity and appropriateness of subject matter.
YOUNG CHILDREN PROVIDE A WEALTH OF WISDOM, FRESHNESSAND NEW PERSPECTIVES
The Circle Gazette is packed from cover to cover with the latest stories and creations of children of all ages; about local affairs, the environment, art, sports, entertainment and puzzles that engage and inspire young minds!
The Circle Gazette is a one-of-a-kind publication because:
• It transcends one school/homeschool community. It goes beyond a state or a country. It’s about widening writer’s and reader’s horizons!• It is addressed to children and the content is created by children• It involves a multi-age/multi-level group of contributors• The editorial team keeps a holistic and nourishing quality in the selection of content and design• It’s a high quality mix of a variety of styles and topics• It offers valuable feedback to authors
TO SUBMIT WORK The Circle Gazette is a publication available to public school, private school and homeschool students. Email a copy of your work, as a major word processor file or as a jpeg file, at [email protected]. All entries should be
accompanied by the parent/guardian consent to print. Submission Form to be found online at www.enrichmentcircle.com.
Information to contributors
The Circle Gazette reserves the right to edit, accept and refuse articles in the interest of brevity, clarity and appropriateness of subject matter.
YOUNG CHILDREN PROVIDE A WEALTH OF WISDOM, FRESHNESS
AND NEW PERSPECTIVES
The Circle Gazette is packed from cover to cover with the latest stories and creations of children of all ages; about local affairs, the environment, art, sports, entertainment and puzzles that engage and inspire young minds!
The Circle Gazette is a one-of-a-kind publication because:
• It transcends one school/homeschool community. It goes beyond a state or a country. It’s about widening
writer’s and reader’s horizons! • It is addressed to children and the content is created by children • It involves a multi-age/multi-level group of contributors • The editorial team keeps a holistic and nourishing quality in the selection of content and design • It’s a high quality mix of a variety of styles and topics • It offers valuable feedback to authors
THE CIRCLE GAZETTEA Newspaper by Children for Children
Monthly Independent Publication available to children of all ages.
This publication is an initiative of THE ENRICHMENT CIRCLE, INC.
A Non-Profit Organization for the Advancement of Education
The Enrichment Circle 501(c)(3)A Non-Profit Organization for the Advancement of Education
Christie VossPrepress Technician
Kids & PoliticsKids & Politics
2012: Decision Countdown: Ten Monthsby Bilal Amodu, Age 14Deerfield Beach, FL
Hello my loyal readers and welcome to this edi-tion of “Kids in Politics.” This month, the Repub-lican presidential contest officially commenced with the Iowa Caucus, an event that the media had spent two years anticipating. The seven candidates in the election all made several visits to the initial Caucus state, all of them eager to be crowned with the first primary victory. I will discuss the prima-ries, how they function and what to expect, but first, I want to provide my dear readers with a brief synopsis of the race so far.
This time last year, the Republican Party field was barren and desolate, with a dearth of major contenders. Several Republicans who had been favored to seek the presidency such as former Ar-kansas governor Mike Huccabee, Indiana gover-nor Mitch Daniels and South Dakota Senator John Thune had all declined to seek the presidency. It appeared as NBC’s Chris Mathews joked, “We are having an election and no one is showing up.” Toward the beginning of the summer, the field had begun to take shape with seven candidates, the leading candidate being former Massachusetts governor, Mitt Romney. Throughout most of the summer, Mitt Romney maintained his lead, with Minnesota congresswoman Michelle Bachman close behind. On Saturday August 13, Bachman had won the vital Aimes Iowa straw poll, a victory which was short lived since Texas governor Rick Perry declared his intentions to seek the presi-dency, encouraging former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty to withdraw from the contest, the subsequent day. Rick Perry replaced Mitt Rom-ney as the front runner for the rest of August and much of September. Romney remained persistent, obtaining endorsements from the withdrawn can-didates Tim Pawlenty and Congressman Thad-deus McCotter, and continuing to attack President Obama. Romney reclaimed his position as front runner subsequent to Rick Perry’s first debate which successfully proved the Texas governor’s incompetence as a debater. Rick Perry’s down-fall contributed to the birth of the popularity of businessman Herman Cain, who obtained support for his 9-9-9- tax plan. Cain became Romney’s primary opponent, alternating leading positions with him throughout October. By the end of Oc-tober however, allegations of misconduct as well
as harassment crippled the campaign of Heman Cain, reducing his favorability among Republi-cans throughout November, permitting the former Speaker of the United States House of Represen-tatives, Newt Gingrich, to obtain prominence. Af-flicted by dwindling support as well as increasing allegations, Cain suspended his campaign. Newt Gingrich seized the opportunity to replace Rom-ney as the front runner, performing several points ahead of him in all of the major primary states. However, Gingrich’s momentum was terminated days before the Iowa Caucus, with negative adver-tisements about his past activities raining down on his head, crippling his statewide support, which allowed Texas Congressman Ron Paul to obtain the popularity needed to capture his party’s nomi-nation. However, Paul’s lead was also curtailed by accusations of his past racist remarks which he had made in publications more than two de-cades ago. Just days before the Iowa Caucus, for-mer Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum finally obtained the alternate support which had evaded him for most of the second half of 2011. Despite discouraging results, Romney continues to cam-paign since nothing is proved until the votes are cast and count.
DROPPING OUT OF THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE
On January 4: Michele BachmannOn January 16: Jon Huntsman (Endorsed Mitt
Romney)On January 19: Rick Perry (Endorsed Newt
Gingrich)The party nominating system in our nation is
highly complex. Whenever a candidate wins a primary in a state they win a certain amount of delegates, or representation, for the national con-vention. The delegates in the state are based on both representation and support from the party within the state. The candidates need to attain a certain amount of delegates to obtain their party’s nomination. The month of January saw four pri-mary elections: Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida.
Iowa: 28New Hampshire: 12South Carolina: 25Florida: 50Total delegates that are decided on January: 115
Camaraderie, a spirit of friendly good-fellowship, is a perfect word to describe the Cir-cle Gazette. The multi-faceted relationships that come together to produce the paper, strengthen our camaraderie.
Our parents and grand-parents, our friends and colleagues and fellow authors, contribute valu-able time, resources and talent that is brought to life in a won-derful format, a newspaper!
On behalf of the Circle Ga-zette, I would like to extend a gracious “Thank you!” to Sara Cross, who personally donated $100, and to her family who also donated additional money to cover the printing for the February issue.
We have several fundraisers coming up and we will need you to support yourself to volunteer-ing or donating. We need to fo-cus our efforts raising money to
maintain the paper.Even though some dedicated
adults have created and work together to always get a finished product out, this is your paper. We want you, the writers, poets and artists to own it, to take re-sponsibility for its’ success, to work in synergy and discover how wonderful this project is.
It is a joy and gift to be part of the Circle Gazette. Chil-dren: I look forward to reading your articles and watching you sharpen your skills. Parents: thank you for your support.
The Circle Gazette has or-ganized monthly Newsroom Meetings to foster our cama-raderie, to brainstorm ideas and topics. It is a safe place to share our thoughts, hopes and trepidations.
Our next scheduled meetings are Sunday, February 5 at 12:30 p.m. and Sunday, March 11 at
12:30 p.m. We really look for-ward to seeing you there. Please make an effort to attend, these events will be fueled by your participation and they prepare you for real life work models.
Our Newsroom Meeting will be hosted by Arts Alive, a community performing arts school in Coral Springs. We look forward to working with them on future proj-ects and are thankful for the space provided.
We want you to know that you are being “read.” We value your feedback and appreciate all your hard work. The outcome is an amazing newspaper, the Cir-cle Gazette! I am honored to be a part of it!
FEBRUARY 2012 THE CIRCLE GAZETTE PAGE 3
E v e rg l a d e s A d v e n t u r eby Kaiyah Kenny, Age 10Coconut Creek, FL
There is a place where grass
and water meet to form a wide river. This watery place is called the Everglades. It is also known as the River of Grass. The Ev-erglades is home to many, many creatures. For example, there is the panther, the cottonmouth snake, crayfish, insects, herons, ibises, storks, egrets, red-winged black birds, and raccoons. In this story, we will go on a journey, and see the beauty of the Ever-glades. Check out the Florida panther. These cats are shy, and they’re camouflaged. Their fur is tawny, and, sadly, they are endan-gered. There are only about 50 of them left in Florida! Thankfully, the “Glades” people are helping them and their babies. Next stop, bobcat’s lair! This little critter is named after its tail, which is “bobbed.” Its babies are, like the panthers, very adorable! Also, bobcats have little tufts of fur on their ears. Calling all flyers! It’s time to visit the graceful blue her-on. I like the blue heron the best. It is very, very tall. It has a big, orange beak and blue feathers around its beak. This heron looks very majestic. You would be very lucky if you saw one up close! I don’t know what the heron’s ba-bies look like, but I bet they are
very cute! Now, we get to a crea-ture that digs in garbage cans and has a black ringed tail. Can you guess what this furry critter is? It’s the… ravenous raccoon! This mischievous animal can do a lot of things. It is not shy of people, and may even walk up to them, perhaps to see if they have food. Some people think raccoons are pests, and they have a point. Last but not least, we will talk about the cool stork. This majestic bird is as tall as the blue heron. It has white feathers and brown heads. Storks can fly long distances, and their wings are wide. Well, I just wanted to share the beauty of this wild and free place. The Everglades is indeed a beautiful, magical place!
Green Tip of the MonthThere’s a Lot at Stakewith Invasive Snakesby Aaron Cross, Age 14Boca Raton, FL
Did You Know...… that the Everglades is the only place in the world where alligators and crocodiles co-exist?
Burmese pythons are a spe-cies of snake that have made their mark in Southern Florida’s ecosystem. They are native to Southern and Southeast Asia and Eastern India, but have become an invasive species to Florida’s Everglades. These snakes grow to be an average of 12 feet long and eat varying sized meals of mammals, birds, and some other reptiles depending on their size.
Invasive snakes that big have become a huge problem to the environment. Adult Burmese pythons consume other ani-mals that are native to the Ev-erglades, such as deer, many species of bird, and even en-dangered animals! This also decreases the amount of food for native predators such as the alligator and will deplete their populations. Losing our native wildlife, that we are desperate-ly trying to save, to creatures that are not even supposed to be here is just wrong. One large Burmese python had even tried eating a six-foot alligator! Although the snake succeeded in doing so, it exploded after eating such a big meal.
There are many theories as to how the Burmese pythons got to Florida in the first place. Some say it was because they traveled aboard shipping crates from their native habitat and made their way to the Ever-glades because it was most like their natural environment. Others say the pythons es-caped from zoos in the major hurricanes and came to the Everglades in search of food
and shelter. The most common opinion is that pet owners who no longer had the capacity to house a 12-foot snake and did not wish to have their pet eu-thanized released them to the wild. These snakes made their way to the Everglades where they thrived and reproduced.
Whatever the reason, these reptiles have become a huge problem. Even if you have not had a pet that you released and have done nothing to cause the problem -- that does not mean you cannot be part of the solu-tion. If you observe a Burmese python or other large constric-tor in the wild; or have an unwanted pet python or other reptile, then contact the fire rescue department of Miami Dade at: 786-331- 4454. If you spot a dead Burmese python in your backyard, at the park,
or anywhere else you happen to be, then call the hotline at: 305-815-2080. If you own any non-native animal that you would like to get rid of, then find out about animal shelters and/or zoos in your area that will take unwanted pets and care for them. Do NOT release them outside.
Even as much as I love ani-mals I still think that these py-thons are a problem and must be eliminated. I would say that we should put them on an airplane and ship them back to where they came from; but then if one of these reptiles has picked up a Florida disease, we would be infecting the native overseas population, which is already suffering badly. There’s a lot at stake with invasive snakes!
IMAGE 1: IMAGE 2:
“These snakes grow to be an average of 12 feet long and eat varying sized meals of mammals, birds, and some other reptiles.”
“One large Burmese python had even tried eating a six-foot alligator!”
PAGE 4 THE CIRCLE GAZETTE FEBRUARY 2012
Adventures of a Young Police Ex-plorerby Ryan Smith, Age 14Coconut Creek, FL
Did You Know... … LEGO is an abbreviation of two Danish words? “Leg Godt” means Play Well. It is estimated there are 53 Lego bricks for every person on the planet. Laid end to end, the number of LEGO bricks sold yearly would reach more than 5
times round the earth.… if you built a column of about 40,000,000,000 LEGO bricks, it would reach the moon?… in 2006 the LEGO website had an average of 8,137,062 individual visitors a month?… there are 915 million ways
to combine six LEGO bricks?… approximately seven LEGO sets are sold each second?… Lego has been entertaining kids for over 50 years?
• Birthday Parties• After-School Programs• Kidz Night Out• School Field Trips• Summer Camps• Mommy & Me Classes
6280 W. Sample Rd, Ste. 202, Coral Springs(just a few stores down from Publix)
• 954-255-5233 • www.bricks4kidz.com •
My Adventure at Legolandby Alizdair Sebastien Ray, Age 8Davie, FL
I want to start off by saying that my family and I took a home school field trip with our friends to Lego land. We went there last November 11. It was Vet-eran’s Day. The rides are made of LEGOS. Yes! Legos! Legos are my favorite. The park has 11 areas to pick from when you en-ter. First, you start off at Begin-ning and then you visit Fun Town, Miniland USA, Duplo Village, Lego Kingdoms, Lego Tech-nic, Imagination Zone, Pirate’s Cove, Land of Adventure, Lego City, and the Cypress Gardens. I had a hard time deciding what to do because I wanted to ride and see everything. It was fun to see Miniland and the cities made out of Legos. I loved the Daytona Beach Speed Way and the Eiffel Tower. They were some of my fa-vorites because I love Nascar and
my parents went to France for their honeymoon in 2001. It felt like I was getting a history lesson after seeing the whole Miniland. The Ford Driving School was my
#1 favorite thing to do because I drove a Lego car through city streets. The best thing after the drive was getting my own driving license. Also, the Lego City Res-
cue Academy was fun too.Spring Break will be here soon
and I thought this place could be on the top of your list. Here is the address: Legoland Florida One
Lego Land Way, Winter Haven, Florida 33884.
Alizdair Ray at Legoland, Florida. New York City in Legos.
FEBRUARY 2012 THE CIRCLE GAZETTE PAGE 5
by Elizabeth Abrams, Age 7, and Kate Maier, Age 8South Florida
Presidents’ Day is the day that we honor the Presidents of the United States of America. Presi-dents’ Day is celebrated on the third Monday of February every year. There used to be two Presi-dents’ Days in February celebrat-ing the birthdays of Presidents George Washington and Abra-ham Lincoln, but in 1971, ONE day was set to celebrate ALL the presidents.
George WashingtonGeorge Washington was the
Commander-in-Chief of the Rev-olutionary War and was the first President of the United States of America. His face is on the one dollar bill today.
George Washington was born in Virginia on February 22, 1732. He loved farm work and his fa-vorite subject was math. He was amazing at horse riding. He joined the military when he was twenty years old. He left in 1759 to become a politician. He got married to Martha Custis who was a widow with two children.
King George III of England put taxes on many goods like news-papers, tea, and stamps. This made the colonists angry. Many became patriots, which meant that they felt more American than British. One night they planned an unusual tea party: The colo-nists disguised themselves as Mo-hawk Native Americans. They dumped 250 chests of tea from a boat in Boston Harbor. The King was furious! He closed the harbor and sent British soldiers everywhere. This was the begin-ning of the Revolutionary War.
During the War, Washington became the Commander-in-Chief of the patriot soldiers. On a freez-ing cold Christmas night early in the War in 1776, Washington led his men across the Delaware River. They loaded horses and bombs on the boats. There were
blocks of ice which the row-ers had to smash with their oars. After Washington and his troops crossed the Delaware, Wash-ington led them for a nine mile march to where the Hessians were staying. The Hessians were Ger-man soldiers fighting for the Brit-ish King. They were celebrating Christmas and so were surprised by Washington and his troops who captured almost 1000 Hes-sian soldiers! This was important because the British were winning the War and this was a big victory for the American patriots.
During the Revolutionary War, Washington read to his men the words of Thomas Paine: “The harder the conflict, the more glo-
rious the triumph.” These words mean that the harder something is to do, the more wonderful you feel when you get it done. They gave the American patriot sol-diers hope and strength to win the War.
After the Revolutionary War, George Washington went back to his home Mount Vernon. Back in Philadelphia, the Americans were making a democracy. They chose Washington to be their President.
A President is a person who has been chosen to lead the coun-try. This was important because Washington was chosen, not born royal like a king. Washington was President for eight years.
During this time, Washington helped make the Constitution. The Constitution was the law of the new 13 United States of America. It was a very impor-tant document. The first thing it says is: “We the People.” This is important because a faraway king did not rule a faraway land anymore. The United States gov-ernment and people ruled Amer-ica. The Constitution said there would be a President, not a king. It said there would be law mak-ers from all the states called Con-gress. And it said there would be one big court called the Supreme Court where people would go if they needed a big brain to help make decisions about the law.
As well as the Constitution, the people made a Bill of Rights which said you could be Chris-tian, Jewish, Moslem, or any reli-gion you wanted to be. You could say anything you want to out loud and you can protest and the gov-ernment cannot lock you up and torture you. The Bill of Rights gives laws that protect the people.
Washington loved animals, es-pecially dogs. He had 36 dogs in his whole life. He had a white horse who was not killed through the whole Revolutionary War. One day, when fighting was over that day, Washington saw a dog sitting on a hill without any sol-dier. He took the dog back to his camp and read the name on the collar. It said, “William Howe.” William Howe was the leader of the British troops! Washington got his friend Alexander Ham-ilton to write a letter to General Howe. The letter said that he wanted to return the dog. Both enemies put white flags up. That meant no fighting. He returned the dog and some people in Eng-land even liked Washington for his good deed.
Abraham LincolnAbraham Lincoln is considered
one of the best presidents our na-tion has ever seen. He brought an end to slavery when he signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which ordered the release of all slaves. He also guided America
through the Civil War. At a dedi-cation of a national cemetery cre-ated to bury soldiers who lost their lives in the war, Lincoln gave one of the most famous speeches in U.S. history. It lasted no more than 3 minutes. The Gettysburg Address reminded the people to respect soldiers for defending our country and that freedom and equality are worth fighting for.
Abraham Lincoln was born 203 years ago on February 12. You may know a lot about Abraham Lincoln, the president. What do you know about the man? Here are few ways to celebrate Febru-ary 12 in his honor.
(1) Get lost in a book. When young Abe would plow the fields he would always keep a book in his back pocket. At the end of each plowed row he would pull it out and read. He read anytime he could. Some of his favor-ite books were Robinson Cru-soe, Aesop’s Fables, the Bible, a book about George Washington and plays and poems by William Shakespeare.
(2) Host a family joke night. At the end of a long day Abe would sit with his sister and mother and listen to his father’s jokes and sto-ries. They would laugh together. Abe loved telling jokes so much that he kept joke books in his desk drawer in the White House.
(3) Donate your time or sup-plies to your local animal shel-ter. Abe Lincoln was an animal lover. After killing his first and
only turkey for food, Abe was so filled with sadness that he prom-ised he would never kill another animal again. While living at the White House he had lots of pets, even a couple of goats named Nano and Nanko. His wife Mary once scolded him for feeding his cat Tabby at the dining room table with a gold fork.
(4) Start a journal. Abraham Lincoln only had one year of offi-cial schooling. He taught himself the rest. He thought words were like magic and kept a scrapbook of his favorite ones. Who knew that the boy who wrote this poem at age eleven would later write one of the most famous historical speeches?
“Abraham LincolnHis hand and penHe will be good butGod knows when”(5) Host a Strawberry Party.
Abraham Lincoln’s wife Mary was famous for her strawberry parties, where she served fresh strawberries and cream to her
guests. Strawberry parties were very popular in the 1850s. The country had strawberry fever.
Abraham Lincoln once said, “My father taught me to work; he did not teach me to love it. I never did like to work, and I don’t deny it. I’d rather read, tell stories, crack jokes, talk, laugh - anything but work.” In honor of this great President’s birthday take time to read a good book, tell an interest-ing story, crack a silly joke, talk to your friends, and just laugh.
Did You Know...
Black History Month was founded in 1926 by Carter G. Woodson, a noted African American historian, scholar, educator, and publisher? It became a month-long celebration in 1976. The month of February was chosen to coincide with the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was the U.S. president who issued the Emancipation Proclamation, and Douglass was a leading abolitionist of his time.
Did You Know...
… that in the 1980s, retailers began to use President’s Day as a time to clear out their old stock in preparation for spring and summer? This is how the great President’s Day sales got started. Today most businesses offer great discounts on this holiday.
What Black History Month Means to Me
by Alizdair Sebastien Ray, Age 8Davie, FL
Black History month is not for one race but all races and we all should learn about each other. I’m lucky to have parents that teach me to treat everyone fairly and not judge anyone. I feel like we all can learn from each other and make this world better.
Pictured right: Alizdair Ray won First Place for his essay about Dr. Martin Luther King for the Elementary school category in Davie.
Presidents’ Day ~ Washington & Lincoln
February is Black History Month
Young Abe reading. Pencil on paper by Kate Maier.
Washington crossing the Delaware. Watercolor pencils
on paper by Elizabeth Abrams.
Portrait of Lincoln. Pencil on paper by Kate Maier.
PAGE 6 THE CIRCLE GAZETTE FEBRUARY 2012
SARAH’S CINEMA
A Monthly Movie Reviewby Sarah Thompson, Age 13Boynton Beach, FL
Movie: The Adventures of TintinRated: PG
The plot:Georges Remi - a Belgian comic strip
creator - invented an adventurous boy reporter named Tintin to appear in The Little Twentieth, the children’s section of the newspaper he worked at, called The 20th Century. Tintin first appeared in a comic called Tintin in the Land of the Soviets on January 10, 1929, and continued to thrill young readers until the death of the creator, in 1983. Today, Tintin comes to the big screen to en-tertain a whole new generation, as the young journalist ventures to uncover the secrets behind an old pirate ship, The Unicorn.
The verdict:2011 was not a great year for movies.
Yes, there were some good ones, but the majority of movies that came out this year bombed both in ticket sales and in entertainment. It’s easy to see how this could happen, though, as 2010 was a BIG year for movies, with such blockbusters as James Cameron’s Avatar hitting the-atres. 2011 just couldn’t copy the success of movies in 2010! Which is why I can safely say that The Adventures of Tintin is the best film I’ve seen in 2011.
From the beginning credits to the end-ing ones, this movie is exciting and fast-paced, and perfectly timed with moments of humor and moments of heart. It is tru-ly like no other movie released in 2011. Everything from the lifelike animation, to the non-stop-action, sets this movie apart and makes it refreshingly original. I also loved the character of Tintin. I found it really cool that the main character is a
writer, like all of us at the Circle Gazette! While researching the film, I saw that
it received generally positive reviews from critics, but one critic’s review (which was not so positive) did bring up a good point I would like to cover. Manohla Dargis is one of the chief critics at the New York Times. She criticized the movie for all the excitement, saying it had hardly a moment of downtime to “catch your breath,” and thus, took away from other themes in the movie, such as the relationships between the characters.
I, for one, actually love movies as fast-paced as this one. I find nothing more frustrating in a movie than long boring moments where the writers seemingly ran out of ideas. So I respectfully dis-agree with Dargis, as I felt there was enough “downtime” and the movie was paced brilliantly.
Did You Know...
… that the Uno World Championship (UWC) is held annually in Moscow, Russia? Over 71 countries participate in the tournament, and it is often regarded as one of the fiercest competitions in the card-playing community. Players in the UWC are known especially for their high levels of endurance and concentration.
The Tale of DespereauxBook Reviewby Bryce Gunning, Age 7Boca Raton, FL
The Tale of Despereaux is about a brave mouse that is different from other mice. He is different because he likes to read, he has big ears and he falls in love with a human. There are many other characters. Some are selfish and some are nice. Despereaux is brave even though the other mice make fun of him. This book teaches readers that you should never tease anyone because you never know what they can do. It doesn’t matter what age you are, you should read this book because it is an exciting story. After you read it, you should tell someone else how great it is. Also, after you read the book, you can watch the movie and see the characters and events come to life. I think The Tale of Despereaux will be your next favorite book!
The Chinese Golden Dragon Acrobats
by Nicolas and Annaleisa Matzirakis, Ages 9 and 7Davie, FL
We sat in the dark audience with the music flowing around like a bird flying high in the sky. Bam! The music went loud and so did the show. There were 6 young ladies with really long golden shimmering nails all dancing on 1 small table. Suddenly, a lady in a purple suit came out of the sides of a curtain with 1 chandelier in her hand. Now I’m sure you’ve seen a normal chandelier, but the one that the lady in the purple suit was holding was filled with water! Then, more young men came out with even more chandeliers and the lady took them and started balancing them as she was doing tricks, and did I men-tion that she was balancing 7 at once! She even balanced her whole body by using just her chin.
As the show went one, we were even more impressed. The young men jumped, flipped and even spun through the hoops like dogs playing fetch. At one point, we thought they were going to sit down for dinner because they carried out a big table and placed it on a lady’s
feet. All of a sudden, she started flipping it and spinning it like crazy with just her feet. She even tossed a round, fat, flower pot on her feet. We were flipping out be-cause the performers continued to do all sorts of flips and tricks.
Towards the end of the show, one man came out with a bunch of chairs. He stacked and stacked all of the chairs until he reached the ceiling. The audience was on the edge of their seats and so was he! The very last trick he did, was balancing his whole body with one hand on the edge of the chair. Everyone was silenced, but then the audience went wild with excite-ment, exhilaration and applause!
This is a show that you will remember forever. If you get the chance, you defi-nitely want to see the Chinese Golden Dragon Acrobat performance. The Mi-ramar Cultural Center Arts Park has up-coming events that may inspire you and your family. They even have an art gal-lery there. Check out the website and see if you find something interesting. I bet you will! www.miramarculturalcenter.org
The Longest Uno Gameby Vienna Greenlee Brown, Age 8Hollywood, FL
It was Christmas time. I got Uno cards to play with from Mommom.
Four people decided to play. The first round was normal. The second round at the beginning was fun. After a while I got tired and quiet. I only said, “Uno.” Uno means
you have one card left. The game lasted one hour at least be-
cause people were so good at stopping other people from getting rid of their cards. Sam got the most cards at first, but later he won.
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FEBRUARY 2012 THE CIRCLE GAZETTE PAGE 7
ART WORLDA new columnby Alyssa Fantel and Daniela Gómez, Ages 15 and 11South Florida
Hello Circle Gazette readers and welcome to the Art World col-umn! This new column will help you keep in touch with the world of creativity and art. This month, we will list a number of plays and museum exhibits to help you start your art year. Hopefully, you will find a performance or exhibit that you would like to attend, so sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.
Most of the shows and exhibi-tions we’ll list will take place be-tween February and April 2012.The Coral Springs Center for the Arts
This cultural center offers pro-gramming for children and all au-diences year round.
From the School Day Series:Skippyjon Jones – April 12Guess Who Signed the Consti-
tution – May 2American Journey: the story of
Sacagawea and the Lewis & Clark Expedition -- May 3
Clifford The Big Red Dog LIVE! – May 7
All audiences:Vienna-Budapest-Paris Op-
eretta Extravaganza—Febru-ary 26
Dallas Brass with Piano—March 25
The Music of ABBA—April 5The Fresh Beat Band—April
21Get Back! Cast of Beatlema-
nia – April 27The Coral Springs Museum of Art
Toulouse-Lautrec and His 19th Century Mentors -- on Exhibit through February 11.West Palm Beach Opera
There are two operas in this list: Romeo and Juliet, Febru-ary 24 through 26, and Lucia di Lammermoor, March 23 through
25. Both performances are at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts.Fort Lauderdale Children’s Theatre (FLCT)
The only play that is not a mu-sical in this FLCT season is Ham-let, a Shakespearean play. Ham-let, the first of the season, will be in March. There are two other plays in the season: In May, Pe-ter Pan, and in July, the summer show, Hairspray. The auditions for Peter Pan will be held on March 6 and 7 for kids ages 6-18.Mizner Park in Boca Raton
The Lynn Philharmonia will present a tribute to symphony and jazz on April 28 at 7:30 p.m. Miami Children’s Theatre
The two performances in this season, I Believe in Make Believe and the Light in the Piazza, are both in February and both on the same dates, from Feb. 17 to Feb. 26. The first one is at the Coral Gables Youth Center and the sec-ond is at the Russell Theater in Kendall.Broward Center for the Per-forming Arts
The Family Fun Series hosts
performances at a number of dif-ferent theatres around Broward. Try Jack and the Beanstalk at the Rose and Alfred Miniaci Theater on February 25 at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Are You My Mother? is a great choice on February 26 at 11 am and 1 pm at the Broward Center, as is The Wizard of Oz on March 11 at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. at Miramar Cultural Center and Arts Park. The highlight of the season is the great dance show, Billy Elliot, the musical coming to Broward straight from Broad-way. This will happen at the Bro-ward Center from February 29 to March 11. Playground Theater in Miami Shores
Alice’s Adventures in Wonder-land, February 1 to March 11. The classic English fairy tale comes alive for the whole family.
A Man with Enormous Wings, April 25 to May 25
This is a magical tale of faith and imagination for ages 8 and up.Lake Worth Playhouse
This great theater community in the north is worth checking out! Group tickets (10+) can be purchased by calling 561-586-6410. There are discounted preview performance tickets, available at $23 and $27. Com-ing up are The 25th Annual Put-nam County Spelling Bee, a Tony Award Winning Musical, Febru-ary 2 to 5 and The Music Man, a Tony Award Winning Musical, April 12 to 29.Sol Children Theatre Troupe in Boca Raton
Auditions for Little Women, The Musical, will happen on Sunday, February 12, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday February 19, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Auditions are by appointment only. Call 561-447-8829 or email [email protected] for an audition appoint-ment.
Little Women, The Musical opens in May!
In Pembroke PinesThere will be a free JAZZ
CONCERT on February 26 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the William B. Armstrong Park, 1700 N.W. 160th Ave (Dykes Road).The Art and Culture Center of Hollywood
In the heart of Hollywood, chil-dren have the opportunity to en-joy City Mouse, Country Mouse on Saturday February 18 at 2 p.m. Also don’t miss the Julian Toha: Infinite Potential Children’s Con-cert and Workshop on Saturday, March 17 at 2 p.m. Finally on April 21 at 6 p.m., enjoy HANDS by West Broward High School.
Actors’ Playhouse Theatre for Young Audiences, Coral Gables
Alexander, Who’s Not Not Not Not Not Going to Move! runs from January 12 to March 3.
Peter Rabbit and the Garden of Doom, a National Children’s The-atre Festival Winner runs from April 25 to May 26.
We hope you have enjoyed reading this column. Remember, it’s good to try new things and, who knows, you might just end up loving the arts as much as we do! Enjoy the arts, go to many performances and museum ex-hibits and we will see you next month….
Daniela Gómez has been part of the cast in more than a dozen musical theater shows in South Florida and abroad. She enjoys playing the piano and the violin and has been involved in musical and artis-tic activities all her life. Dani is currently a sixth-grader at Pine Crest School in Boca Raton and sings with the altos in the Chorus. Dani attends many performances through-out the year and likes to share her experiences with others. She now joins Alyssa Fantel to bring to life a wider array of cultural and artistic pro-gramming in South Florida in this new column. Besides her involvement with the arts, Daniela is a competitive swimmer and she volunteers at the Coral Springs Swim Club as a swim instructor as-sistant and as a timer.
Alyssa Fantel is a ninth-grader at American Heri-tage School. She has always had a passion for theatre and the performing arts, and has been involved in school and community mu-sic, dance and theatre pro-grams for as long as she can remember. As a Broward Center Teen Ambassador, Alyssa attends all types of performances to critique and share them with her peers, as she will do in this new column. Besides per-forming in and attending arts events, Alyssa’s favor-ite activity is volunteering at Tomorrow’s Rainbow, a farm in Coconut Creek, Florida, that uses minia-ture horses to help children cope with grief.
by Daniela Gómez, (written at age 10)Coral Springs, FL
I went to the Playground Theatre for the first time last spring to watch a play called A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings. It started with people in veils explaining that people lived in a town that was unknown to other human beings (or something like that). One day a brother and a sister, Fefe and Momo, find a ‘very old man with enormous wings’ fallen on the ground. He cannot speak through his mouth but Fefe and Momo can tell what he means to say by looking at his eyes! He tells them he has forgotten his name. The two children think he must have been an angel and they rename him “Afar.” People come from all over the town to pose their problems to the ‘Angel,’ hoping he will make a dream come true, Afar, however, doesn’t seem to have the power to grant all these grand wishes and they go away disappointed! But to Fefe and Momo, Afar is the one who needs help and they know he must go back to where he came from, but first they must help him put his “Enormous Wings” to good use.
This performance was stunning! I loved the creativity such as the use of puppets, people popping into pieces of fabric with holes cut out for them, actors and ac-tresses wearing fat headpieces and masks, and the interesting costumes. This show is a musical. I like the song (and open-ing number), “La la la la la la La Luna,” which is sung when La Luna, (The Moon in Spanish) rides her bike and sprinkles sparkly dust into the audience. Another favorite scene is the one in which Fefe and Momo show their family (mom, dad and baby) how they have been trying to teach Afar to fly! He throws paper airplanes into the air for us (the audience) to catch and play with and the family moves curtains of colorful pipes that make a rustling, gur-gling sound like rain “shshhhhhhhhhhhh-hhhhhhhhhhhshshshshssooooo, tltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltl.” At the end, the ‘Very Old Man with Enormous Wings’ disappears into the night sky!
A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings is based on a story by Gabriel García
Márquez, adapted by Nilo Cruz, di-rected by Stephanie Ansin, sound design by Luciano Stazzone, lights by S. Ryan Schmidt, choreography by Octavio Cam-pos, original music by Luciano Stazzone, Fernando Diez and Luciana De Oto. The costumes were done by Yana Glushanok and the sets and puppet designs were thanks to Emil Kapelush.
I like this show not only because of the strange-but-beautiful setting and cos-tumes, but because the acting was superb and believable. A show can have a love-ly set and bad actors, and they don’t get away with it. You could believe that Fefe and Momo really wanted to help Afar with all their heart, you could feel sorry for the townspeople’s different reasons of grief -- the mother whose baby was sick, the parents whose daughter cried forever, and so on and so forth… I think the play is about dreams coming true and the belief in what seems impossible. Do very old men with enormous wings land in a poor village every day? No. It is what most consider ‘impossible’ but in this play, in this story, it happened! Afar fell into this village and into their care. To believe that everything is possible is a VERY good moral to both children and adults.
The PlayGround Theatre might present this performance again. If they do, I rec-ommend it! Go to: www.theplayground-theatre.com for more information
The Playground Theater is located at 9806 NE 2nd Avenue, Miami Shores, FL 33138. Register at the Enrichment Circle webpage: (http://www.enrichmentcircle.com) to get a group discount for some of the performances. Go and enjoy The Play-ground Theatre’s new season of shows and come with me as the lights go out.
Theatre World A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
Coming soon at the Lake Worth Playhouse
“… to Fefe and Momo, Afar is the one who needs help and they know he must go back to where he came from, but first they must help him put his
Enormous Wings to good use.”
PAGE 8 THE CIRCLE GAZETTE FEBRUARY 2012
O n t h e R a d i oby Reagan Olenick, Age 11Weston, FL
I was sitting at my desk, try-ing to figure out a math problem when the phone started to ring. Seeing it was Patty Gómez, I yelled, “Daddy! It’s for you!” and my dad rushed in and grabbed the phone. “Hi Patty!” he answered. Why was Ms. Gómez calling? I knew I had recently submitted an article, but the next issue of The Circle Gazette didn’t come out until next month. “OK, I’ll tell her,” my dad responded to what-ever Ms. Gómez was saying.
”Reagan, Patty Gómez wants you to do a radio interview.” A radio interview? Me? My voice, being broadcast on the RADIO?! Who knew how many people would hear it? “Well?” My dad brought me back to reality. “Yes, yes, yes! Of course! Who wouldn’t want a bunch of people to hear them on the radio! Thank her for me, OK?” I shouted with tons of excitement.
A few days later, my dad told me that Ms. Gómez sent him an email. She had scheduled me on a radio show called “Forum for Nonprofits.” I was going to share a microphone with Ismail Ercan, another writer for The Circle Gazette. He and I were to tell about our wonderful experiences writing for The Circle Gazette. However, participating in the in-terview meant I was going to miss
the final rehearsal for my school play, “Toyland: A Holiday Ad-venture.” The next day, I walked over to my music/drama teacher, Mrs. Berry. “Mrs. Berry, I won’t be able to come to rehearsal to-morrow,” I told her. I was really worried. Even though I had an excused absence from my teach-ers and principal, Mrs. Berry was another story. She got super anxious at show time, so I was ner-vous that she would not be happy to hear I was missing rehearsal. Instead, she was thrilled for me. “You’re going to do a radio inter-view! How exciting! Don’t worry, I know you know your lines!” she exclaimed, accompanied by some cheek pinching and face squeezing. One excused absence and two days later, the show went off without a hitch and I was singing, dancing, and speaking all on cue.
To prepare for the radio inter-view, my dad and I role played some practice questions and then the big day finally arrived. We ar-rived at the building and met Mr. Ezra Krieg, one of the hosts for the show. He showed us into the actual studio, which was basically the size of a small office. There was a desk that extended out from the wall with a rack mounted with brightly lit equipment on one side and stools around the other end. Dominating the room was a spider like contraption onto which were attached several mi-crophones that could be moved
around and adjusted to accommo-date the heights and positions of the participants.
As we all assembled in the stu-dio, Mr. Krieg began to brief us as to how the interview would be conducted. Ezra Krieg is a nice, smiley man who can put anyone at ease. I didn’t flinch when he informed us that we were going to go “live to tape.” The inter-view would be divided into three eight-minute segments with the commercials inserted as we did the interview. What that meant was that there wasn’t going to be the opportunity to redo some-thing if we made a mistake. I didn’t worry. I’ve been in many plays over the years and I’m re-ally quite at ease under pressure with hundreds of watchful eyes looking at me. In this setting there were only four eyes look-ing at me; two belonging to Mr. Krieg and two belonging to Ms. Ellen Schulman, the other host of the show. I tuned out the idea of hundreds, or perhaps thousands of ears which might eventually listen to this interview and fo-cused only on my hosts.
I amazed myself at how com-fortable I felt speaking into the microphone and how at ease I was with the interviewers. I felt like a real professional! The ra-dio interview was a wonderful experience, and I would like to personally thank everyone who made it possible. I am especially
grateful to the hosts, Mr. Krieg and Ms. Schulman, and of course, to Ms. Gómez for the wonderful
opportunities she has given me to write for the Circle Gazette and to participate in the radio interview.
The Circle Gazette goes Radio!by Ismail Ercan, Age 14Coral Springs, FL
The Forum for Non Profits is a weekend broadcast focused “to enhance the success of the non-profit community.” The show, which is broadcast “as a public service of Beasley radio sta-tions WSBR AM 740, Sundays at 6:20 a.m., and WWNN AM 1470, Sundays at 7:30 a.m.,” spotlights local non-profit orga-nizations to inform the public about their good and to encour-age their listeners “to jump on their bandwagon.” The Forum’s recent and past shows are also available 24/7 on their website, www.forumfornonprofits.com.
Recently on Tuesday, Decem-ber 13, 2011, members of the Circle Gazette (CG) were invit-ed to be on the Forum for Non-profits Radio Show at the Bea-sley Broadcast Group station in Boca Raton. The group included founder and editor in chief of the Circle Gazette, Patty Gómez, graphic designer and marketer of the CG, Christie Voss, and monthly writers Ismail Ercan and Reagan Olenick.
The four were graciously wel-comed into the Beasley studio by the hosts of the show, Mr. Ezra Krieg and Ms. Ellen Schulman. The two have over three decades of helping and volunteering for non-profit organizations state-wide. Once inside the recording room, they met the “legendary” Duff Lindsey (as described by Mr. Krieg), the director of the show, who gave them instructions and guide lines. Then Ismail and Rea-gan’s parents were ushered out and the recording began.
The show was broken into three, roughly seven minute-segments; the first included the introduction to the CG with Mr. Krieg and Ms. Schul-man interviewing Mrs. Gómez. Mrs. Gómez did a wonderful job introducing the children’s newspaper to the public which included the birth of the news-paper, its growth, and its cur-rent position.
Next came the CG writers Ismail and Reagan with their perspective and experiences as writers and reporters for the newspaper. Mr. Krieg and Ms. Schulman curiously asked the reporters about their involve-ments and the benefits of writ-ing in the newspaper. “I write about my vacations and places I’ve been,” said Reagan. “It greatly helped my writing pro-cess…my writing now flows,” said Ismail.
To conclude the show, Ms. Voss further promoted the news-paper and encouraged listeners to support this amazing news-paper for children. “We’ve ex-panded tremendously over the past year and we need money to continue growing,” she said.
Mr. Krieg and Ms. Schul-man were so impressed by the Circle Gazette that they both subscribed to the newspaper following the conclusion of the recording. They congrat-ulated everyone on a great show, saying that this was one of the best they’ve had in the last few months.
It was a wonderful experi-ence for Mrs. Gómez, Ms. Voss, Ismail, and Reagan to be on the Forum for Non-Profits radio show and they would like to thank Mr. Krieg, Ms. Schulman, and Mr. Lindsey for their time and efforts.
First Event of the Year in Deerfield Beach,
Mayor’s Youth Advisory Committee
Bilal Amodu, Age 14Deerfield Beach, FL
The Youth Advisory Com-
mittee (YAC) is a program of the City of Deerfield Beach introduced by the Mayor Peg-gy Noland, who believes that the youth of the community should possess a say in what they want to see in their city. The program consists of youth from high schools and middle schools within the city and aims to organize community services to help uplift the image of the neighborhood. Clean-up of the Westside Park in Deerfield Beach on January 7, 2012 was the first event of the year spon-sored by the Mayor and the Park & Recreation Management.
On the morning of Saturday January 7, the youth of Deer-field Beach were hard at work. Rather than sleeping or watch-ing television, the children eagerly volunteered to clean as well as repair the park. The cleaning campaign was person-ally led by the mayor. Altogeth-er 251.8 lbs of trash were col-lected. It was a 3 hour activity where youth collected debris,
branches and painted the park premises. The youth were even given incentives to pick up trash and the teams that picked up the most trash were rewarded. Not to forget the breakfast treats of donuts, coffee and juice.
This was an enticing way to work for the community and it gave an opportunity to the youth to give back. Such ac-tivities are not only fun, but is also a learning process whereby young people learn the skill of teamwork and leadership. Getting involved is the right approach to work for the com-munity and to know where and how one can make a difference. Mayor Noland is trying to do just that -- giving the right di-rection to the younger residents. By involving the kids in the community work, she is giving them a voice, for she knows that with them lays the future and, if well nurtured, they can make a positive impact tomorrow. Hats off to Mayor Peggy Noland for her brilliant concept!
From left to right: Chris Casale (Coordinator YAC), Bilal Amodu (member YAC) and Eric Westside
(Park & Recreation Management)
Writers Ismail Ercan and Reagan Olenick (front row) with radio hosts, Ms. Schulman and Mr. Krieg (back row)
“I amazed myself at how comfortable I felt speaking into the microphone and how at ease I was with the interviewers.”
FEBRUARY 2012 THE CIRCLE GAZETTE PAGE 9
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Waiting My Turn at a Swim Meet
Simple Ways to Have Fun
by Lydia Szakacs, Age 9Coral Springs
There were some good things that happened on my last swim meet. I went to the Broward County Champs Swim last December. I did well at the swim meet. I swam 100 Breaststroke and dropped .03 seconds. I also got to sit next to my friend Emma and her younger sister, Ellie.
When it started to pour down rain Ellie and I were under a tent while Emma was swimming. Ellie and I sat on one of those blue benches with little holes and I had a pen and a heat sheet.* I was crossing off each “heat” (race), when then the pen dropped through one of the holes on the bench. I couldn’t find the pen. I asked Ellie if she saw it and she did. The pen was on the floor in a corner of a chair and someone’s feet. My mom thought it was funny that we actually saw the pen. I picked it up and started laughing.
When Emma came back it was done raining and we were out of the tent. Emma and I sat in my chair to-gether and got a red pen from Em-ma’s Mom. On the heat sheet Emma and I used my mom’s blue pen and Emma’s mom’s red pen to draw lines that looked like an American flag.
I had fun that day.*Heat sheet: Listing of races on a swim meet indicating swimmer’s turns.
Middle School’s Fun Field Tripsby Sarah Jaffe, Age 13Weston, FL
When you first step into middle school it’s a whole new world. People packed into the halls pushing and shoving to get to class, it’s honestly like a zoo. And when you first sit into that ice cold orange seat, chills rush up
your back and the only thought that hits your mind is three years of this... Great.
Luckily, there is an upside of this, when you finally hit the top of the chain, eighth grade. Your mind is set on one thing…the eighth grade field trip to Wash-ington DC and New York. The good thing is: it comes in a blink of an eye. The experience I had
was a one-in-a-lifetime kind.Washington DC is filled with
historical landmarks, I honestly felt as if I went back in time from visiting Ford’s Theater, seeing Nastia Lukin’s leotard, to the first Muppet, and so much more. Also the capital was amazing too; ev-ery corner you turned you either saw a Senator or Congressperson. I wouldn’t have been surprised
if I had seen President Barack Obama. And sleeping in the ho-tels was amazing. From pranks to heart to heart conversations that I will never forget, and the times I spent with my best friends.
Another majestic part of the trip was Times Square. The lights practically blind you. You feel like you’re on another plan-et. When I stepped in the middle
my heart sank and I fell in love with NYC. I want to live there now. NYC/DC was a trip I’ll never forget.
So everyone in middle school listen up! There is always a bright side to the long tests and hours of homework. Just keep looking forward to your big field trip and your middle school years will fly by just as you know it.
“Waiting for my turn at the meet”
Did You Know...
… that Times Square is not actually a square? It’s more of a district, bordered by 6th and 9th Avenues and by 39th and 52nd Streets in New York City. Formerly named Longacre Square, Times Square was renamed in April 1904 after The New York Times moved its headquarters to the newly erected Times Building, which is now called One Times Square and is the site of the annual ball drop on New Year›s Eve.
Did You Know...
… that the White House was originally called the President’s Palace or the President’s House? A Baltimore reporter once called it the “White House,” in a newspaper article and the name caught on. Theodore Roosevelt made this the official name in 1901.
PAGE 10 THE CIRCLE GAZETTE FEBRUARY 2012
by Bilal Amodu, Age 14Deerfield Beach, FL
Iowa Contest: Caucus Date: January 3, 2012Amount of Delegates: 28
The election patterns in Iowa have not been much different from the remainder of the na-tion. Despite its minute size, it is one of the most discussed states in the nation. There have been three debates in the state, and news corporations such as CNN do not permit a day to pass without mentioning it. In Iowa, Michelle Bachman had been the front runner in Iowa for most of the summer. Rick Perry, Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich also emerged and collapsed. They all briefly served as front runners in Iowa. Three candidates who were favored on the dates close to the Iowa caucuses were Rick Santo-rum, Mitt Romney and congress-man Ron Paul of Texas. However, Ron Paul has not received the same amount of national attention like his other contestants, which is the main goal of his campaign. My readers would ponder why a presidential candidate would evade national media attention, especially if it could accumulate votes and support. Well, the Tea Party that supported him obtained its strength from local organiza-tions, known as grassroots move-ments which do not require or desire national media attention. Similarly, Paul focused his at-tention on local campaign meth-ods for the Iowa caucus, and has formed a large rivalry with Newt Gingrich, arguing with the former Speaker on foreign affairs. I pre-dicted that the winner of Iowa’s caucus would be Mitt Romney.
He was considered a winner with a 24.5percent until recounting of some lost ballots awarded Rick Sanctorum the victory in Iowa for a small margin. In my opinion, Gingrich’s dismal fundraising and financial limitaions lead to his downfall.
New Hampshire Contest: Primary Date: January 10, 2012Amount of delegates: 12
Though it does not possess as many delegates as the Iowa cau-cus, the New Hampshire primary is probably the most vital primary in the election, since a strong per-formance in New Hampshire can secure a candidate with the nomi-nation. Allow me to provide a few historical examples. In 1976, pea-nut farmer Jimmy Carter won the New Hampshire primary. Before that, he was barely known and victory for him seemed highly impossible. Subsequent to the pri-mary, Carter obtained the Demo-cratic nomination in the summer of 1976, and the Presidency in the fall. In 1980, Republican Ron-ald Reagan won the Republican nomination. Before that Reagan,
a sixty nine year old former actor was not taken seriously as a con-tender. After his victory in New Hampshire, Reagan had termi-nated the momentum of his oppo-nent, George Bush, and claimed the Republican nomination and the presidency. In 1992, Arkansas governor Bill Clinton had entered the New Hamshire presidential primary. Though Clinton was an experienced politician, he lacked national name recognition and had a history plagued with scan-dal. That was altered after he came in second place in the New Hampshire primary. Though he did not win, he had gained the national support to win the elec-tion, nomination and all. More re-cently, in 2008, Arizona Senator John McCain who had performed pitifully in the Iowa Caucus, had defeated the then favored con-tender of the New Hampshire pri-mary, Mitt Romney, winning the primary which guided him to win the nomination (though not the presidency). Similar to the previ-ous election, this year Mitt Rom-ney was favored to win the New Hampshire primary. His lead was slightly weakened by the popu-larity of Newt Gingrich. Ron Paul was not as probable to win New Hampshire. He had better chances in Iowa. Jon Huntsman centered his campaign in New Hampshire therefore he performed adequate-ly in the polls. I did not believe that Huntsman had the resources to perform well enough in New
Hampshire to obtain the nomina-tion. My take was that Mitt Rom-ney had the more chances to win the New Hampshire primary. And so he did with a 39.3percent.
South CarolinaContest: Primary Date: January 21, 2012Amount of delegates: 25
Another vital primary for the Republican Party is the South Carolina primary. For three de-cades, this primary has deter-mined the winners of the party nomination, stifling the momen-tum of any candidate that it is not favored there. To this date, no Republican who has won the South Carolina primary has lost the nomination. South Carolina is a highly conservative state which means that the Tea Party possesses a plethora of strength in that state. In fact, when Rick Perry declared his candidacy for president, he did it in South Car-olina of all locations in order to gain conservative support. Two days before the South Carolina primary, Rick Perry withdrew from the race, endorsing Newt Gingrich. Until his withdrawal, Herman Cain counted with great support in South Carolina. Once Cain was out, Mitt Romney’s
position as front runner in South Carolina vanished since Cain’s support had transferred toward Newt Gingrich. In my opinion, the Republican race is so unstable this year that I do not believe that the winner of South Carolina pri-mary will enjoy the historical im-munity other candidates have re-ceived in the past, that was unless the winner was Romney. Romney remains the Republican’s greatest threat to President Obama. Newt Gingrich won this, the first prima-ry in the South, by 40.4 percent.
FloridaContest: Primary Date: January 31, 2012Amount of delegates: 50
Within recent history, Florida has caused great electoral chaos. In 2000, our home state extended the presidential election results for thirty six days due to voting irregularities. In 2008, Florida caused a major crisis when it had disobeyed the rules of both par-ties and moved the date of its pri-mary to an earlier date, an action of enough temerity to confiscate the state of a significant portion of its delegates. Thanks to Florida, I am writing the article now instead of in March. Florida moved its primary to January 31. This ac-tion threatened the other states, forcing them to alter the date of their primaries as well. I thought that just like in South Carolina, Newt Gingrich would be highly preferred to win the Florida pri-mary, however the Reuters/Ipsos Poll on January 28 gave Romney a 41 percent of support over a Gingrich with 33 percent.
Did You Know...… that Obamacare is an unofficial nickname for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)? This nickname has been characterized as pejorative but continues to be widely used to refer to the legislation, largely by its opponents.The PPACA is a United States federal statute signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. PPACA seeks to obtain near universal health coverage by 2020 in the United States through increased coverage to those with pre-existing conditions, reforms of certain aspects of the private health insurance industry, and expanded access to insurance to over 30 million Americans.
Adventures of a Police Explorerby Ryan Smith, Age 15Coconut Creek, FL
The winter months are when the Coconut Creek Police Ex-plorers are most productive. We have a multitude of events we participate in, ranging from various 5k runs to city hosted festivals. During those events, we assist in parking guests and patrolling the area and report-ing any issues that may arise. At one point during an event, a lady decided to park in the handicap ramp area, which is illegal. She was reported to the lead advisor, along with a description. He lat-er apprehended her and ordered her to move her vehicle. Our
work prohibited a potential issue for any disabled patron that may have attended the event.
Other times, we just have to sit at a table and hand out give-away items. During these times, there are generally two explorers manning the table, while others are walking through the crowds. Sometimes, we are in charge of the parking detail. Many explor-ers have the most fun doing this. We use the radios to communi-cate across large parking lots. We coordinate our efforts to di-rect the cars along the line to the last explorer, who directs drivers
into the parking spot.We are a very versatile group
of kids who handle a variety of situations quickly and efficient-ly. If you want to be part of our team, you can email our lead advisor at [email protected].
Coconut Creek Police Explorers
Write Right by Ari Swift, Age 14Boca Raton, FL
Q: Is President Obama’s Health Care Reform Mandate a good idea?
From A.C. in Boca Raton:A: I say no, for a few reasons.
(1) I think medical options will be reduced. Let’s imagine: Mrs. Jones goes to the doctor with hip pain. The doctor says: “Mrs. Jones, you have a bad hip. There are a few options:
1. for $30,000 I can give you a hip replacement.
2. For $10,000 I can give you Prolotherapy, or
3. for $500 I can give you pain pills.”
Mrs. Jones has three choices of treatment. She can look at the risks and benefits of each and choose. The insurance company comes along and says “We do not cover Prolotherapy.” Mrs. Jones options have been reduced by 33%. Mrs. Jones can pay for it herself but then she is paying the insurance company and for treat-ment. Most insurance companies will not cover “alternative” op-tions. (2) Since the main reason of the Health Care Bill is to reduce
healthcare costs, doctors will be paid less. If doctors are paid less, fewer people will want to be-come doctors. In addition, more patients will be seeking care as it is “free.” The inevitable result is fewer doctors treating more people leading to longer wait times and poorer healthcare qual-ity. This can be seen in many, if not all, countries with socialized medicine. (3) I have read the con-stitution and did not see anywhere that the federal government can create these laws. The Ninth and Tenth Amendments state that all the rights not granted to the feder-al government are reserved by the states and the people. The states individually can pass these laws, but not the federal government. Some say that this authority is granted to the government by the Interstate Commerce clause and/or the General Welfare clause. The Supreme Court is scheduled to judge that issue this year.
Opinions mentioned in this arti-cle are strictly those of the author and do not reflect the opinions of the paper, editor or anyone affili-ated with this paper.
DID YOU KNOW Results for Iowa Republican Caucus (U.S. Presidential Primary) Jan 03, 2012 (>99% of precincts reporting)
Rick Santorum 29,839 24.6%
Mitt Romney 29,805 24.5%
Ron Paul 26,036 21.4%
Newt Gingrich 16,163 13.3%
Rick Perry 12,557 10.3%
Michele Bachmann 6,046 5%
Jon Huntsman 739 0.6%
Other 316 0.3%
Results for New Hampshire Republican Primary (U.S. Presidential Primary) Jan 10, 2012 (100% of precincts reporting)
Mitt Romney 97,532 39.3%
Ron Paul 56,848 22.9%
Jon Huntsman 41,945 16.9%
Newt Gingrich 23,411 9.4%
Rick Santorum 23,362 9.4%
Rick Perry 1,766 0.7%
Other 3,621 1.5%
Results for South Carolina Republican Primary (U.S. Presidential Primary) Jan 21, 2012 (100% of precincts reporting)
Newt Gingrich 243,153 40.4%
Mitt Romney 167,279 27.8%
Rick Santorum 102,055 17%
Ron Paul 77,993 13%
Other 10,686 1.8%
FEBRUARY 2012 THE CIRCLE GAZETTE PAGE 11
Living HealthyKeep your smile beautiful with good dental care!
by Sara Cross and Daniela Gómez, Ages 11South Florida
Hi kids! And welcome to Liv-ing Healthy, a column about how to keep your body healthy and energized. Each February, the American Dental Associa-tion (ADA) sponsors National Children’s Dental Health Month (NCDHM) to raise awareness about the importance of oral health. NCDHM goes from Feb-ruary 1 to 28.
Brushing your teeth is the easiest way to take care of your mouth. Brushing in the morn-ing when you wake up is very important. When you sleep your saliva production decreases, be-cause saliva is primarily used to break down food particles while you eat. During the day, the sa-liva in your mouth continuously rinses your teeth, stopping bac-teria from building up; but the
bacteria can build up when you are asleep. Brushing in the morn-ing defeats that problem, and makes your breath fresh. You should also brush your teeth af-ter every time you eat, from a big dinner to a little snack. You should brush more vigorously after you eat something like des-sert that is high in sugar. Sugar can eat away at your teeth and form weak spots. Those weak spots are like doorways into your teeth for bacteria. The bacteria can then tunnel into your teeth and form cavities.
Taking care of your teeth is a rather simple thing to do. Den-tist Dr. Steven R. Alman says you should go see the dentist twice a year unless you are wear-ing braces and need to get your teeth cleaned more often. He also said about once a year they take X-ray pictures to make sure ev-erything is okay and there is no decaying in between the teeth. In between the teeth is the most vulnerable spot in your mouth because it is where bacteria like to grow the most. Also, the stuff that can clean your teeth, like drinking and salivating, cannot get to the small enclosed spaces. Brushing can get some bacteria off because the bristles can get in between the teeth, but it does not get all of it. This makes it very important to floss every day, and it is very important to brush be-fore you do so.
Dr. Alman also mentioned the genetic side of dentistry. He says if your genes are more re-sistant to tooth decay, you might be “lucky” and not have to brush
your teeth after every single meal. He does not mean that if you have ‘good genes’ that you do not have to take care of your teeth at all. It just means that maybe you do not have to brush after every meal, but at least twice a day. “But most people are not as lucky, and if you don’t have those great genes, then you need to be brushing first thing in the morning, after meals, and then definitely before you go to bed at night. If you leave par-ticles of food then the bacteria in your mouth are going to turn it into acid, and that is what’s going to break the tooth down. That is how you get cavities, and then you need to come in and get those filled.”
The parents need to be check-ing their child’s teeth when they’re really young. Dr. Alman recommends from birth to about two years of age. After that they should be brought into the office when the parents have a clean-ing so that they can get used to being there. This should be done so that the young child does not freak out when it is their turn to get dental work done. Generally speaking, by age four or five the child should be brought in to get their teeth polished and cleaned.
There are a wide range of opin-ions on fluoride treatments. Dr. Alman says: “I think that fluoride is an important additive for chil-dren and adults. The ADA has done many studies over the years for kids and adolescents, for when they have had fluoride and when they have not had fluoride. They have found that the little bit of additional fluoride that you can get will help strengthen the teeth and stop decay.” Research has also shown that fluoridated water can change the appearance of children’s teeth if they use it while their teeth are still devel-oping. Fluoride is a very contro-versial topic, and we suggest for
parents to do their own research and make their own decisions regarding fluoride. You can find Dr. Alman at www.almanand-katzdmd.com.
Poor dental health is a bigger problem than most people think. In fact, the ADA is linking poor dental health with heart problems for some people. The cavities you get can get out of control and give you a bad toothache, and the tooth may have to be pulled. So it’s very important to keep the bacteria count down by brushing, flossing, and generally taking good care of your teeth. So stay on top of cleaning your teeth and we will see you in March!
NBA LOCK-OUTby Ismail Ercan, Age 14Coral Springs, FL
National Basketball Asso-ciation (NBA) fans, players, and team owners got a great Christ-mas present this year….a sea-son. NBA fans, players, and team owners were all shocked (and a little frightened) when the NBA’s fourth ever lockout commenced on July 1st, 2011, just 18 days after the Dallas Mavericks were crowned champions of the 2010-11 season on June 12th.
The lockout was mainly about the division of income between the players and team owners, and the structure of luxury tax and the salary cap. Both luxury tax and the salary cap limit NBA teams from outspending each other to the star players by implementing fines upon “overspenders” and is a major issue in the NBA.
The lockout began when the 2005 collective bargaining agree-ment (CBA) expired on July 1st. During a lockout, teams cannot trade, sign, or contact their play-ers. Players are also not paid, and cannot access their facilities, trainers, or coaches. This lockout, over 90 NBA players decided to sign and play for other basketball club teams overseas in Europe and Asia and return when the lockout ended. The rest stayed in
the country to try and collaborate with NBA Commissioner David Stern (who had dealt with 3 lock-outs in the past) and team owners about a new CBA.
Meetings between the player’s union and the team owners had actually begun in early 2011, but had reached no compromise at all. The team owners were complain-ing about losing massive amounts of money each year and wanted to greatly reduce player profits in the new deal, while the player’s union offered to cut their income by only small margins. There was a final, frantic effort to compro-mise between the two sides on June 30, but to no avail -- there still was no agreement and the lockout began.
After more argument between the two sides, they attempted to finally resolve the conflict in early September, when it became evident that something needed to be done to keep the season alive. But once again, the two sides couldn’t agree with the team owners wanting a hard salary cap and the players wanted to keep it the same, as a soft salary cap. The owners argued that by having a hard salary cap the league would be more competitive with the su-perstars spread out with differ-ent teams and the smaller market teams would make more money.
The players countered with the argument that small market teams in the past had won multiple NBA championships (such as the San Antonio Spurs) and that the own-ers were making sufficient money the way things were.
It seemed as if the NBA’s season would not be able to pull off what the National Football League (NFL) had done earlier… signing a CBA before jeopardizing any parts of the season including the pre-season, free agency, training camps, and regular season games. This horror became a fact when in the fall, training camps, the entire pre-season, and regular season games until December 15th, were called off by the league.
Finally on November 26th, after a day and a half worth of talking and months of arguing, a tenta-tive deal was reached to end the 149 day lockout. Signature cards were sent out for approval to the approximately 450 players in the league and 86% of the players as-sented on the new deal. 25 of the 30 owners also approved of the CBA. The deal was ratified!
The players would receive 51.2% of basketball related in-come while the owners received the other 48.1%. Also, one player from every team was now ex-empted from the team’s sal-ary cap. This allowed teams to be able to keep their stars while not having to pay luxury tax for exceeding the spending limit. An-other rule stated that a player fin-
ishing his rookie contract could be resigned for up to 30% of his team’s salary cap if he was ei-ther a two-time All-Star starter, twice voted All-NBA or had won an Most Valuable Player (MVP) award. The season meanwhile was to be shortened to 66 games, with free-agency starting on De-cember 5th and the season official-ly kicking-off on Christmas Day.
It’s not just the NBA fans, play-ers, and owners who are grateful for the season surviving…it’s the economy too. The TV networks ESPN, ABC, and NBA TV would be dealt large blows, projected to total a billion dollars if the season was to be called off. The shoe business, in which a quarter of sales come from basketball shoes, would lose boatloads of money as well. Of course there were many jobs lost during the short lockout. An estimated 400 jobs were lost, 200 in the league office and 200 among the 30 teams. Also many arena workers throughout the nation were forced to work part-time or accept lower income due to the cancelled games.
There were five games sched-uled for the Christmas day season opener:
The Boston Celtics vs. the New York Knicks,
The Miami Heat vs. the Dallas Mavericks (in a rematch of the fi-nals last year),
The Chicago Bulls vs. the L.A. Lakers,
The Orlando Magic vs. the
Oklahoma City Thunder, and The Golden State Warriors vs.
the L.A. Clippers The fans showed their appreci-
ation and excitement for the new season with large TV audiences throughout Christmas Day on three different TV networks. The Bulls-Lakers game beat the rest of the pack with the most views and proved to be an entertaining game with Chicago edging out L.A. 88-87. Meanwhile Dallas fell to Miami 105-94 in a one sid-ed affair, the Knicks pulled off the upset over the Celtics 106-104, the Thunder dazzled the Magic 97-89, and the new-look Clippers beat the Warriors 105-86. This year’s Christmas was a memora-ble one for NBA players, owners, and fans. And there is certainly much to be grateful for.
“You should brush more vig-orously after you eat some-
thing like dessert that is high in sugar.”
“It’s very important to floss every day”
Oral hygiene: A good habit built from early age.
Did You Know..... that baby teeth usually fall out in the same order that they appeared? The two bottom front teeth typically fall out first, followed by the two top front teeth. Once the mature teeth begin to come through the gum, a signal is sent to the body that dissolves the root of the baby teeth. As the root begins to dissolve, the baby tooth becomes loose. The mature tooth then pushes up against the gum, further loosening the baby tooth. Eventually, the baby tooth will either fall out on its own or will come out by frequent wiggling.
PAGE 12 THE CIRCLE GAZETTE FEBRUARY 2012
Bioby Shadya Amodu, Age 12Deerfield Beach, FL
The Girl with the Braids AKA Smiley ShadyaLover of: Family, happiness, booksGiver of: Hope, love, smilesNeeds: Inspiration, courage, guidanceWants: World peace, wisdom, prosperityIs good at: Imagining, reasoning (sometimes), creativityShould work on: Patience, spellings, organizationIs similar to: Mother Theresa, Shakespeare, Abigail AdamsSurvivor of: Elementary School, fear, nervousness
Friendsby Emma Gómez, Age 8Margate, FL
Playing sweetly, rolling softlyHolding hands so tightly.Never letting go.Singing wavesGo! Bouncing!Bonded together as if the world needed them soWhat would they do if they were separated?FRIENDSHow could they live without each other?
To my friends Molly, Olivia, Julie, Connor, Fenella, Jack,
Lizzie, Abby & Ashley
Harsh Weatherby Daniela Gómez, Age 11
Margate, FL
It is 5:51It is cold and full of rainAs I sprint to the pool deckI slip on the floor
I stand, it is wet and I’m lateThe darkness is overwhelmingA shiver runs up my spineI reach for my towel and cover my freezing skin…
CRAAACK!GROWWWLLL!
The static cold air is split by the stroke of lightning!The low growl of thunder follows,A lion about to pounce on its prey!I shiver again as the swimmers begin to run from the deck…
Lionsby Abigail Abrams, Age 5Fort Lauderdale, FL
Lions go and lions come,More lions and more lions.But one thing is importantOnly wish for another lion to come and play.I’m all alone.But I am not alone any more.
Snifflesby Sara I. Cross, Age 11Boca Raton, FL
Sniffles the opossum,When she gets up and sighs,Looks out at the world,Through her one, only eye.
She walks into her igloo,Tucks herself into bed,She closes her eye,And lays down her head.
She sniffles and she snores,Lets dreams engulf her mind,Of a wonderful world,Leaving troubles behind.
In this world she’s a queen,Comes and goes as she pleases,Gets served every day,Some bananas and cheeses.
And then Sniffles wakes up,She stretches out and yawnsEats bananas and cheese,Takes a walk on the lawn.
In memory of Sniffles the opossum, who passed away on July 21, 2011
What can I do?by Emma Gómez, Age 8Margate, FL
What can I do?If the world stopped.What can I do?If the day stopped coming.What can I do?If the time stopped running.What can I do?
Why? by Ramisha Maruf, Age 13Coral Springs, FL
Why it is our lives are so unfair? So easy to make mistakes, yet so hard to repair
Why must we annihilate the earth, leave it dying? While I am drowning in an ocean of pain for it, others are way above it, flying!
Why are there people in the streets wandering astray? Do they have food to fill their stomachs, or a place to stay?
Why won’t our nations come together, make amends? Will the violence ever end?
Why won’t more compassionate people transcend? Diminish the evil, and kindness spread.
With some perseverance we can reverse the mistakes we’ve made And then our message will spread.
FEBRUARY 2012 THE CIRCLE GAZETTE PAGE 13
Mii Toons P r o j e c tby Arion Rashad, Age 13Pembroke Pines, FL
My Mii Toons Action comics can best be described as a childs fantasy! All the characters are based on people I know, family members, classmates, teachers, even bullies. Most of them asked to be a part of the books which is what makes my comics so differ-ent. The term “Mii” comes from the Nintendo Wii game console which allows you to create an avatar called a Mii and partici-pate in the games. The “Toons” part just fits with the child like images which make up the theme of the stories.
I really hope to inspire other kids like me to create comic books. I also hope kids my age
will want to read comic books and not just go see the movies about comic book heroes. I love going to comic book stores, but I usually only see adults there. So if you’re a parent, perhaps picking up one of my comics will inspire your kids to read and write more once they know the books are cre-ated entirely by another kid!
I started creating these draw-ings six years ago.
Arion Rashad’s comic books can be found at www.miitoons.com. Marty vs. School is a comic strip exclusively designed by Arion for the Circle Gazette.
PAGE 14 THE CIRCLE GAZETTE FEBRUARY 2012
Great Job!
This issue of the Circle Gazette is printed thanks to the
generosity of Rhea & Daniel Cross
In honor of Sara and Aaron
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Fairytale GossipYour Invitation for Valentine’s DayMark your calendar!by Shadya Amodu, Age 12Deerfield Beach, FL
Dear Magical Reader, You are cordially invited
to the annual Cupid Shuffle (the dance held every year by various Fairytale char-acters). This year the theme is pink and red. Princes, I am pretty sure the top fash-ion shop “Fairly Magical” (Cinderella’s Fairy God-mother’s clothing store) has
pink and red suits and ties. I hope all of you can make it because it will be grand and festive.
Yours Truly,Snow White P.S. Note to all beasts,
ogres, pests, and frogs – all creatures will be kicked out if they misbehave!
Go, Alex Go!by Isabella Silva, Age 8Coconut Creek, FL
Once upon a time there was a happy bunny. His name was Alex. He lived in a big forest. He smelled stinky because he nev-er took a bath. He was brown and white. He liked to eat sour carrots. Every day he bumped into hard trees because he was not careful enough. He was very loud when he sang.
One day a pack of wolves came to the forest. All of the animals ran away. Only the bunny stayed be-
cause he was too busy eating carrots to notice the wolves. When he was done eating the carrots he went back home, but when he was about to open the door he saw a big shadow behind him and it was a scary wolf!
The bunny was surprised so he ran in circles and the wolf chased the bunny. Soon the wolf got tired and gave up. And the bunny lived happily ever after.
The Mystery of the Missing Necklaceby Leilani Thuraisingham, Age 8Coral Springs, FL
One sunny day, outside of the hot sandy pyramid, there was a king named John and his female maid Sarah, who were building, for days and nights, a lion out of gold. Finally, after seven years of carving non-stop, the golden shiny lion statute, laced with pearls on his head and with gold-en coins for eyes, was finished. The King sat back and admired the statue. He was happy. The next day, the king brought some-thing special. It was the golden magic necklace that belonged to his grandfather who died years ago of a wound caused by the pirates. The necklace was so spe-cial to the king that he decided to place it on the golden statue.
Everything was fine until one day the necklace went missing. The King found out when he woke up from his royal bed. A guard alarmed him of the missing necklace. The King said, “Oh no, my necklace is missing.” Then, he thought and remembered all his memories from when his grandfather died.
“It was them, the pirates, who took the necklace.” He remem-bered his grandfather giving him a box and saying, “hide the necklace.” He also remembered hearing a pirate say, “We will be back.” All that meant was the pi-rates were after the necklace. Ev-erything seemed clear to the King now. Suddenly, a guard came to him and said, “Your majesty, someone stole the necklace, but while stealing the necklace they dropped this.”
When the guard opened his hand it was the necklace charm. The charm had the shape of a book with hieroglyphics on it and like the necklace it was made out of a pure gold. Once the King heard this he smiled and said: “They will be back and so will my golden necklace.” The King told the maid to tell the guards to keep an eye out for the pirates. The guards waited patiently for the pirates to come. The King and the maid also came with a plan to place a replica of the golden charm to trick the pirates.
On the other side, the pirates were sneaking into the pyramid. Once inside there, they saw the
golden charm. Fast, they grabbed the charm and tried to escape. A guard saw them and rang the bell, waking the King. The King and the maid both brought out their swords. The pirates also brought out their swords.
When they both saw each other the King and the captain both said in a sneaky voice: “You again.” But then the pirate captain said: “Who ever gets hurt with the sword does not get the necklace.” So they began to fight. “Ouch!” said the cap-tain with the black patch on his eye. “I won!” said the King in a happy voice. So the King put the necklace back on the lion.
When they both saw each other the King and the captain both said in a sneaky voice: “You again.”
Colored pencil on paper, illustrated by author.
to the Newsroom Meeting with the Circle Gazette
SAVE THE DATES: Sunday February 5 at 12:30 p.m. Sunday March 11 at 12:30 p.m.
At this monthly meeting, Staff Writers and Illustrators meet with the editorial team of the Circle Gazette to:
· share ideas · get one-on-one feedback · get assignments · plan ahead · discuss current work & story angles
· join cooperative projects · socialize
Only staff writers and regular contributors are invited and you are one of them!
If you have any questions or can’t come to this meeting but would like to join the next one,
