Issue Number 8 February 12, 2010

Simon Baruch PrideThe Official Student-Written Newspaper of MS 104

Available online at Simonbaruchpride.com

MS 104, U.S. and World Raise Money for Haiti

By Amelia Hallock

By now most of you know that a 7.0, one-minute earthquake hit Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. There were 16 aftershocks and many buildings that collapsed. Soon af-ter this the rest of the world began to raise money for Haiti. When the student council heard about this they kicked into action, all giving out ideas. The student coun-cil decided to organize Hope for Haiti, allowing students in homeroom classes to donate dollar bills and coins. This has raised over $1,000. Mayor Bloomberg, who banned bake sales dur-ing school hours earlier this year, said a bake sale for Haiti would be okay, and MS 104 decided to hold one. The bake sale raised $368. A lot of people decided to text “Haiti” to 90999 and donate $10 to the Red Cross. This money is buying food, water and medicine for the Haitian people. The Red Cross has made 21 million dollars. That is 2.1 million texts. Some people also texted “Haiti” to 20222 and donated $5. A lot of television stations and celebrities have joined in the efforts. NBC held a Hope for Haiti telethon where stars preformed acts and another 100 picked up phones. This raised $58 million. Amy Poehler and others donated their dresses to be auctioned off so that the pro-ceeds would go to Haiti.

Snow Day!By Ariana Sierzputowski

Right now, most New Yorkers in the five boroughs are digging them-selves out from the giant snow storm that hit this Wednesday all along the Eastern coast of America. Snowfall ranged from 10 to 16 inches around Long Island, New York City, to northeastern New Jersey. The strong winds came up to 40 miles an hour, and visibility dropped to a quarter of a mile at times. The storm lasted from Tuesday night until 6:00 Thursday morning. However, this storm was not considered to be a blizzard. 1.1 million public school students in New York City got the day off. Many wished for another snow day on Thursday, but unfortunately, Mayor Bloomberg sent stu-dents back. Here’s how some of the students at MS 104 spent their snow day: “I went snowboarding and had a snowball fight in Stuy Town,” said Jonathan Paragas of House 880. Miki Bakar from House 860 said, “I went outside with my brother. He made a snow angel and I made a gigan-tic snowman and pushed it on him.” “I stayed in at home drinking hot chocolate, while watching tv and just enjoying my day off,” said House 860 student Tiffany Ho. Either way, everyone enjoyed their snow day!

Sports. Page 2School Play, Page 2So Ko Music, Page 3

Chinese New Year, Page 4Folk Tales, Page 4

Word Search, Page 4

What’s Inside

*****Sixth Graders*****Not the Valentine’s Dance

Music Dancing Food Drink Wii Photos

Come Join the Fun!Friday, February 26, 3:30 to 5:30

Admission: $5.00

WrestlingJanuary 30: Mayor’s Cup/

NYCMS 104 took 5th out of

100

March 5-7: NY Middle School States

MS 104 Qualifiers: Kevin Zhang, Nasir Stafford, Nick Lopez, Noah Lopez, Matthew Quinones, Danny

Munoz Bejasa and David Johnson

Girls Basketball

Week after break: District Playoffs

February 27: Quarters

February 28: Semis

Boys Basketball

First week of March: First Round

March 6: Semis

March 7: Finals

Sports

Correction: The December issue misspelled Raymond Schindler Howel’s name. Apologies.

Olympics Set to BeginBy Irene Jung

The 2010 Winter Olympics will take place in Van-couver, Canada from February 12 through February 28. The opening ceremonies are tonight. Isn’t that exciting?!The Olympics (if you don’t know what they are, which you obviously should) are where people from different parts of the world come to a certain country and compete in different types of sports, such as skiing, snowboards, curling, and cross-country skiing. “It’s amazing that we have the Olympics this year! I can’t wait to see Sean White,” said Miki Bachar 0f 861. “It’s sporty and fun,” said Amy Yeung of the 70’s House. On a different note, Ayana Morah of Class 883 said, “I don’t like the Olympics.”

Drama Club Goes Dramatic!By Darci Siegel

This year’s school play is underway as rehearsals fire up. There will be a ton of dancing, singing, and turmoil in Baruch’s production of The Pajama Game. On Wednesday, February 9, there was a rehearsal for the song I’m Not At All In Love. I am in the play too, and I think that it is an inspir-ing experience. Mr. Ko, the Drama teacher, is really cool and knows how to make everyone laugh. Lily Mantel, another sixth grade factory worker, tells me, “Rehearsals are a ton of fun. First, Mr. Ko makes us do warm-ups, then we sing!” This year’s play is going to be absolutely dazzling! Rehearsals usually start at around 3:30, and we all hang out until everyone arrives. Then, the cast grabs their scripts and heads to the piano. We start with vocal warm-ups, as Lily mentioned, such as singing moo’s in different vowels (for example, Moo, mo, ma, mae, me mo moo.) Then he plays the song we are focusing on so we can hear the rhythm and notes. He demonstrates some measures, and tells us to try as hard as we can. We sing for a while with Mr. Ko directing us, and I have to say we sound pretty darn good! Rehearsals are always full of hysterics and laughing. Concerning rehearsals, Mr. Ko says, “They’re stressful. I try to make the songs sound as I imagined. I just want everyone to understand, and I try to help them as much as I can.” The cast this year is phenomenal and I really rec-ommend seeing it on May 20 and 21.

We were singing about Superintendant Sid Sorokin, and Mr. Ko was pretending he was that character, and then

everyone laughed. When students are tense, Mr. Ko does weird things and then we’re not tense anymore.

LeisureTournament Time Fast Approaching

Big Bang by Zhiyan Yang Big Bang is a South Korean band that has five mem-bers: Daesung, SeungRi, T.O.P, Taeyang, and G-Dragon. Big Bang’s music is mostly popping and rapping songs. The members’ names are being heard around Asia. Some of their most popular songs are Lies, Last Farewell, Let Me Hear Your Voice, and Ola Yeah! Daesung’s stage name is the same thing as his real name, which is Kang Daesung. His birthday is April 26, 1989, and he will be 21 this year. His specialty is singing. That’s why his position in the group is the vocalist, and he is always in charge of the high pitch and solo parts. His person-ality always keeps him doing his best in everything. When he is around, he lightens people’s mood. He loves goofing off and eating, and doesn’t like showing his sadness. He says, “I’ll work my hardest and become the best.” Lee Seung Hyun, the newest and youngest member in Big Bang, is known as Seung Ri or V. He’s the vocal-ist and the choreographer in the group. His birthday is on December 12, 1990 and he will be 20 this year. He likes to collect famous celebrities’ contacts. He’s good at singing, dancing, and choreographing. Very strong for the youngest member of the group, he is pretty mature. He is very shy and keeps a lot of things to himself. Choi Seung Hyun, the rapper/beat boxer in Big Bang, is known as T.O.P. His birthday is on November 4, 1987 and will be 23 this year. He likes reading, swimming, and being the leader of things. He speaks his mind. He is good at rap-ping, beat boxing, and composing. He speaks well and is extremely stubborn and shy. He’s also conceited—he thinks he’s cute himself. Unlike the rest of Big Bang, TOP hasn’t trained to be a singer. His only singing part so far is at the beginning of She Can’t Get Enough. He often gets sent on TV shows alone, either as a guest or MC. In August 2007, he started acting in the drama I Am Sam; he was also featured as an actor in Red Roc’s Hello MV. Dong Young Bae, the vocalist and choreographer in Big Bang, goes by Taeyang. His birthday is on May 18, 1988, and he will be 22 this year. He likes gardening, listen-ing to music, watching TV, playing basketball, and going to church. He’s also into summer, clothes, games, and Mangas. His talents include rapping, dancing, beat boxing, singing, and learning foreign languages (Japanese & Chinese). He likes to do his best in everything, and he is an over-achiever. He doesn’t like to fight. Instead, he talks about his problems with his opponents. He listens to you well and thinks about what he is going to say before he says anything.

Kwon Ji-Yong, the leader and rapper in Big Bang, is known as G-Dragon or GD. His birthday is on August 18, 1988, and he will also be 22 this year. He likes to draw, compose, listen to music, sing, rap, and make funny expres-sions. He’s into fashion, crispy donuts, dogs, books (poems, mangas, and magazines), watching cartoons, and himself; He’s good at rapping, singing, composing, dancing, model-ing, beat boxing & learning languages (Korean & English). He can be as loud or as quiet as he wants, depending on his mood. He is extraordinarily bright and can lighten the mood easily. He has high self-esteem, an outgoing personality, and strong leadership skills. He is dependable and lovable.

Leisure Korean Bands Drive Fans Crazy

SNSD Members InfoTaeyeon (Main Vocalist) Kid Leader. She is dorky and cute. She

looks like the youngest but is actually the oldest among them.

Jessica (Main Vocalist) Ice Princess.Sunny (Lead Vocalist) Very cute.

Tiffany (Lead Vocalist) She came from America.

Hyo Yeon (Supporting Vocalist/Main Dancer)

Known as the dance queen.

Yuri (Supporting Vocal-ist/Lead Dancer)

Known as the black pearl for her tan skin. And also known as the Prankster; she likes

to pull pranks and is very playful.SooYoung (Supporting Vocalist/ Lead Dancer)

Bubbly and cute.

Yoona (Supporting Vo-calist/Lead Dancer)

She acts. Was the main character in You’re my Destiny and Cinderella Man

SeoHyun (Lead Vocal-ist)

The maknae (youngest) of the group.

SNSD by Kenne Yang SNSD, which stands for So Nyuh Shi Dae, are pret-ty popular with teen boys and girls all around the world. They’re good at singing & dancing. SNSD debuted in 2007 with their first single, Into the New World. They were an 11 member group. But two members quit due to harsh training. They later became actresses. SNSD usually sings cute songs like Kissing You and Honey. But recently, they came out with a song called Tell Me Your Wish. It is more of a smoothly styled song. It reached number one on many charts in South Korea. When they first debuted, they weren’t very popular. The song that got them really popular was Gee. It’s catchy and fun! They recently came out with a new song on Janu-ary 27 called Oh. It’s as catchy as Gee. They have sold 200,000 copies of their albums.

Global InterestTwo Folk Tales

Retold by Oguljennet Kurbandurdiyeva

THE LEGEND OF THE LONGHEAD BIRD A stepmother sent an orphan girl to the neigh-bors to bring home some milk. While she was carrying the milk, she dropped the jar by accident. The jar was broken. The orphan girl didn’t know what to do. If she went home, her stepmother would hit her. She started crying, “Milk has spilled, milk has spilled,” over and over again. With her face and head covered, the girl couldn’t stop crying “ Milk has spilled!” Then suddenly the top of her head turned out into a bird’s head and she flew into the sky. Since this time, the Longhead birds have existed. If you look at them, they’re look as though they feel sorry for having spilled milk.

HOW SILK WAS DISCOVERED When the Chinese princess Si was drinking tea un-der the tree, something wrapped fell into her cup. When she tried to take it out of cup, she felt that the soft mass had turned into thread. Si discovered, among the branches of the tree, yellow thread-making wraps which caught her eyes. The girl started to take all of them, put them into hot water and then rolled them out. She took worms out of them and started to feed the worms with the leaves from a young tree. After the wraps had matured, she harvested silk. A year later, she produced different kinds of fabrics. Silk became expensive, because everyone wanted this beautiful fabric. Only rich people could afford the high price of silk. That’s how the famous silk road, from China, began. Later, silk production was established in different corners of the world.

Chinese New Year Comes on Valentine’s Day

By Kevin Zhong

Chinese New Year is on February 14. This is the most important holiday for Chinese People. This holiday is known as the Lunar New Year Festival because it is the day of the new year according to the lunar calendar and is also known as the Spring Festival because it’s on the day when spring starts. The origin of Chinese New Year started thousands of years ago and kept evolving. One of the most famous leg-ends is about Nien, an extremely cruel and ferocious beast. People believed that on Chinese New Year’s Eve, Nien would eat people. To keep this beast away, people put red paper around the house and set off fire crackers to scare it. On Chinese New Year people decorate their house with flowers and plants. For instance, there will be live, blooming plants which symbolize rebirth and new growth. Plum blossoms are decorated with bamboo and pine sprigs. This grouping represents friendship. In addition, people give red envelopes to each other. The money in these enve-lopes is considered “lucky money.” “I think that it is good for your culture because you get so much money,” said Hector Andujar of House 870. “I think Chinese New Year is a great way for people to ex-press and share their culture with their family and friends,” said eighth-grader Vincent Lee. Each year is represented by an animal in the Chi-nese Zodiac, which is also known as Chinese astrology. There are 12 different signs (rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig) which go in a cycle every 12 years. The most popular legend surrounding the origin of Chinese Zodiac goes that Jade Emperor decided to hold a swimming race in order to select the animals that were to be taken in the zodiac. Right now it is the year of the ox and on February 14, it will be the year of the tiger. The tiger came in third in the race because the currents were pushing him down-stream. The tiger is the symbol that represents power and strength. The color that represents the tiger is green. On Sunday, you can see dancers around Chinatown doing the lion dance. There will also be fireworks. People will be eating a big dinner. People will also go around the streets saying, “Gong Hay Fat Choy” to each other. This means congratulations and make a fortune.

Chinese Zodiac Word FindCompiled by Darci Siegel

Mouse Sheep Ox Dragon Tiger Dog CheerRabbit Snake Monkey Horse Rooster

Chinese Zodiacs Holiday Pig New Year

A G G H H N L O J U G D J H U O X G K I T H O R S S E R A B B I T S H E E E P M O N E Y D O G H L G H E J D J P I G J J H G H D R A G O N J G D K Y M O N K E Y O O L F O T S N A K M O U S E O K I T K A T C G RG H I H M O N K E E H N C H I N E S E J A H F L G O O J A E S B K Z O D I A C S G A U K G K E R N H A R E E H O L I D A Y G DJ U G F A R S K I D A Y C H E E R L G W WS N A K E K H E E N E W Y E A R D G G A R