The Panther Prints

Ode to Jicama* Jicama, oh jicama I love you so, Jicama, oh jicama you're white like snow. Are you a vegetable or are you a root? I'm falling for you, I need a parachute. Jicama, oh jicama you are so juicy,  Jicama, oh jicama you make me loosey-goosey. How did you get to be so good? And yet, you are still so misunderstood. Jicama, oh jicama you are so healthy, Jicama, oh jicama you snuck up on me, you're stealthy. Jicama, oh jicama you give me vitamin C, Jicama, oh Jicama you hold the key.  Jicama, oh jicama you make a great meal, for jicama, oh jicama you are quite ideal. Juliette *pronounced hick-uh-muh

The day after the day for giving thanks and appreciation we have the retail phenomenon known as “Black Friday”. Black Friday is notorious and I wanted to take a closer look on how it make a national day in America. The term “Black Friday” was first used in a financial crisis 1869 with the unraveling of gold conspiracy. People have also said that Black Friday is called what it is and when it is, because retail companies used to record their profit in red and black. The whole year would be in a loss, until the day after thanksgiving where it would go black, because of the splurges on discounted items, but this is proved to be untrue. Another untrue story is that in the 1800s, the plantation owners could buy discounted slaves the day after Thanksgiving. This makes the holiday rather messy and repelling, however this was not proved either. It began in Philadelphia in the 50’s, the police described the hordes of people that flowed in the city for the big football game, because

The Journalism Team is very proud to present our first writing submission from Amelia: The Dragon My cabin glimmered white with frost. Winter had closed in like a fox to a mouse. Slowly, carefully at first, then pouncing when you least expect it. Outside, the air was gently blowing the leafless branches of the willow forest, snowdrifts slowly covered the ground in a blanket of white. Inside, however, it was like a heater in the frozen landscape. The fireplace burned in the corner eating away at the wood. I was sitting at my birch desk on an ivory chair, staring out my window. I wiped at the glass and stared at a large white bird, which stared back at me with an emotionless gaze. Suddenly, I saw a black shape run through the woods. It couldn’t have been a panther, it was about the size of a bus. The thing galloped impetuously towards my friend’s house. I quickly gathered my things on a sudden impulse to make sure my friend was going to be okay. I hurriedly gathered my copper sword,

Welcome to the Panther Prints Art & Music page, managed by me, Zidane! Featured Artists This month, Mr. DiPierro has given us featured artists for seventh grade. Here is why he picked said artists. Mr. D: We need a featured artist for each grade. We need someone who is creative and artistic and original. Take chances and explore and try new things. Not someone who's tries to copy thing perfectly. Allow yourself to make mistakes which is what creativity. Right is not trying to make everything perfect. They stand out The featured artists for this month are: Yima Wang Hailey Groff Fiona McDermott Thanks for being great artsis! ✍️️✍️️✍️️✍️️ As well as art, this page covers music. I interviewed some people and asked them what they think about music this year at MVMS. Ian Macintosh (Chorus): In chorus, we sing songs; our newest one is a Jewish. I am a tenner; a tenner is one of the low voices. Owen Ching (Chamber Orches

The Review Corner By Ella ✍✍📚🎥📺📝📝 Hello! I’m Ella, and this is the review corner of the school newspaper, where I review both a movie or a book. Since it’s October and Halloween is a few days away, I chose a very popular book I've heard good things about… Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs! My Review: 5 OUT OF 5 PANTHER PAWS! 😻 I liked this book a lot! It was really cool and creepy, and one of the things I admired was the use of the vintage photography, which really helped the book get its creepy Victorian vibe. Another thing I liked was the variety of the characters. There was a lot of adventure and fantasy. It was a very cool book, and I recommend it to both 7th and 8th graders.

Many people in America have health insurance and if your hurt you´re well taken care of. But what if when you got hurt or lost a limb you didn´t get help and you´re all alone. In developing countries, this is the case. In a developing country if you lose a limb: you lose everything, your job, family, house, everything.  But now a new hope has shined on these people: Limbs international is raising money to help. Every 500 dollars raised is a life changed and a limb gained. How? We are selling all sorts of socks at room 27 (Ms. Miller's room.) so come and stop by!

The first presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump . Monday, September 26, 2016. The topics discussed were America’s direction, achieving prosperity and securing America. The moderator for the evening was Lester Holt. Lester Holt is an American journalist anchors the weekday edition of NBC Nightly News. He was actually born in Marin County California.     There didn’t seem to be a clear winner of the debate, but as many people noted this debate was mainly about strengthening the connection between the candidate and the voter who was already going to vote for the candidate, because there are few undecided voters.     The debate was beyond anything that you’d suspect, but this election has been anything, but generic. Between the sniffing, interrupting and boos from the audience it was a lively event that was definitely entertaining or worrying.     There are two more presidential debates following this first debate: October 9th and October 19th. I highly recommend

I tried to imagine human extinction: Tonight I weep for the world, not the Earth, but the world, a planet teeming with cultured civilizations, people who talk in elegant tongues and issue bright forms of self expression, the world: torn and run over by our greed for paper rectangles and electronic numbers. I weep for the world: with our civilizations now paved with cement and skyscrapers, for our libraries containing the berth of human intelligence, how we strived to understand our world, categorize it, normalize it, and how it would all be weathered by storm and sea when we’re gone, the Earth re shining its surface of humans, that moment when the last book gets teared in half by the wind and the last building smashed by nature’s fist, animals growing over urban landscapes as avenues turn into savannas with caged animals now freed. That when the last human took the last breath in the last human body and there would no one would be left to record it.  A Earth without humans, no longer

I was perusing a peopleless pier when I saw the old man. He had grizzly hair, sunken eyes and a crooked nose, his grace humbled by his age. My feet chose on their own accord as I wandered over there. Silence gripped our shoulders like an overbearing parent. My breaths were as loud as the waves caressing the shore. “Hello,” I said and then words poured out of the crevices of our souls in a sweeping waterfall. Pleasantries were deleted like the dinosaurs and our words embraced like long lost friends. Our ages blown away with the fleeting tide. And our minds danced beneath the stars. He gifted me a necklace of pearls: wisdom, kindness and offered to wrap it around my heart. I traded him a cufflink of endless imagination to wear with his heart on his sleeve. We were trading our words in between the spaces of the world and we traded the world in between the spaces of our words. He told me that a single person could be wrapped up in a few words, that 10 or 11 letters could categorize someo

MVMS School’s Official Art Show is here! May 9 - 31st That’s right, the official art show is opening up May 9, right here at MVMS. Until June, art from 6th-8th grade art classes will be hung up all over the walls in the main hallway. “We always want to celebrate the creative work that happens in the Art Classes, just like we celebrate the Music and Drama,” says Mr. DiPierro, 7th grade Art Teacher. “ Having an Art Show is our opportunity to show everyone the wide variety [and] beautiful work that our students create, and it is also a great way to share our thanks with Kiddo for providing these great things (and many other things as well) here at our school.” How does this all go down? First, each kid [taking an art class] chooses one work they have done so far this year which they want to be chosen for the showing. Then, teams of parents [PTA] work together to label and add thick cardboard backgrounds to each piece. Finally they hang up the fini

Spring Allergies       Basic and simple Information that could help you feel a bit better this Allergy Season. By Elie    Spring Pollen Allergies. Sneezing. Coughing. Wheezing. Watery itchy eyes. Oh yeah, don’t forget the stuffy and runny nose. From 35 - 67 million Americans suffer these symptoms every spring, and then some. That’s as much as one-out-of-five people. Well, if you suffer from allergies, like I do, or you know someone who does, the following information may help you.    Pollen       Pollen, a fine powdery substance, consists of certain male parts of a plant (Aka, “The Fertilizers”).  You usually see it as a yellow powder that floats down from trees, or that covers your furniture if you leave the window open on a windy Spring day.  The average pollen particle is smaller than the width of one of your hairs! Oh, one more thing: Once it touches an allergic person’s throat, it triggers an allergic reaction. Pollen Counts To avoid pollen, KNOW YOUR POL

What do you think of when you hear the word April? Do you think of spring and newly blooming flowers or do you think about April Fool's Day and the pranks? April originally used to be the second month of the year, still following March, of the Roman calendar year. But it became the fourth month around 450 BCE with only 29 days. But when Pope Gregory created the Gregorian calendar in 1582, he changed it to 30 days of April. There are several theories about the etymology of April, the first is that April, came from aperire which means ‘to open’ in Latin. A second theory is that April was named after the Greek goddess of love and beauty, “Aphrodite”. Or another theory that Jacob Grimm, a famous linguist, though was that there was a god or hero named Aper or Aprus April is actually National Humor Month as well as Mathematics Awareness Month and National Poetry Month. April is a wonderful month, we get the chance to fully appreciate spring.

The History of Spring Cleaning When I hear those words butterflies of excitement rise in my stomach. It time for “Spring Cleaning.” Spring cleaning has been a tradition in my house for as long as I can remember. Going through my desks and all the random boxes in my house feels as though I’m starting from scratch. It gives me the ability to reorganize my room and make space for brand new things. Spring cleaning is one of my favorite times of the year and going through it this year I started to wonder about the history of the tradition.  It all started as a Jewish tradition in which families would go through their home and perform a “deep cleaning” in preparation for Passover. Jewish families were supposed to rid their houses of any remnants of chametz for the duration of the holiday. This resulted in a complete cleaning of their homes. Since Passover is in spring the tradition of hunting for chametz took place the week before, hence the name “Spring Cleaning.” As time went on spring

Designer babies, perfect genetics, no genetic diseases, doesn’t this sound like some utopian turned dystopian novel. Can you imagine being designed by scientists? But CRISPR could transform the way we face genetic diseases. This lifesaving technique was developed at UC Berkeley in 2012 just 45 minutes from Mill Valley by Jennifer Doudna. Doudna is a professor of chemistry and of molecular and cell biology at Berkeley “CRISPER?” you’re probably thinking. Well, I’ll break it down for you. CRISPR which is Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats is a technique that edits DNA inexpensively, efficiently and accurately. DNA or Deoxyribonucleic is a nucleic acid that carries your genetic information. It is found in the nucleus of nearly all cells. CRISPR uses an enzyme called Cas9, the bacteria edits the main genes of viruses and then stores them. The immune system then sees the virus and battles it off. CRISPR does this and can also reinstate another gene and then stitc

  You are sitting in the backseat of your car as your mom drives you to school on a foggy morning. You peer out the car window and you see a sign, “Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary.” You ask, “Hey mom, do you know what that sign is for?” She replies, “Oh, just a sign for the seminary. That is it’s full name.” “Ew, cemetery, creepy,” you reply. “Not cemetery dear, Sss-em-i- nar -y--like for Seminary Drive.” As the sign disappears behind you, you might wonder what goes on at the seminary on the hill above Strawberry Point.                                         What is GGBTS?    Since 1959, Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary (GGBTS) has sat in the middle of Strawberry in Marin County, CA. Most of the residents on the other side of the freeway from MVMS know of this peaceful neighbor community, who resides along Seminary Drive. Did you ever know there was actually a Seminary there?     GGBTS is a Southern Baptist residential graduate school training ministers an

SweetHearts - Candy Hearts Most Americans have heard of NECCO Wafers, the first candy in America. In 1847, NECCO wafers were created by Oliver Chase, also known as the starter of the American Candy industry. Oliver Chase is pretty famous, but did you know that he had a brother?  Daniel Chase Created the first SweetHearts ® candy hearts in 1866. To make them he used a new machine of his that could press food dye letters onto heart shaped NECCO wafers. Thanks to him, every year around and on Feb 14, we get to read and taste the little colorful candy hearts, one of the idols of modern Valentine’s Day.

Valentine’s day is a bit of mystery you could say. A holiday with hints of ancient Christian and Roman tradition mixed with the commercial cards, chocolate and flowers. Why do we celebrate this holiday of love in the middle of February? Well, there are a two stories about different saints named Valentine, they both became martyrs according to the Catholic Church. The first story is about a priest during Claudius II’s rule of Rome in the 3rd century. Claudius decreed that single men made better soldiers, so no soldier was allowed to marry. Priest Valentine thought this law unjust and went against Claudius and married young couples in secret. Valentine was put to death when Claudius found out. The second story is that Valentine was killed for attempting to help Christians break out of the cruel Roman prisons. There is a legend that when Valentine was imprisoned, he fell in love with the jailer's daughter. On death row he sent her a letter signed, “From your Valentine.” Doesn’t t

* * * * * I loved reading this murder mystery by Agatha Christie. She is personally one of my favorite authors, she always keeps you on your tippy toes. Murder on the Orient Express is about a detective named Hercule Poirot. M. Poirot is taking the orient express from Istanbul back to England. During the night the train is stopped in a snowdrift, and in the morning Mr. Ratchet (one of the passengers) is found dead. The ending of the novel is so unexpected that you should seen it all along. I absolutely recommend this fabulously written book.  

Hey 6th graders who turned or are turning 12 past February 8th, this is your year. The last time it was the Year of the Monkey was in 2004. People born in this year are represented as clever, intelligent, quick witted and versatile. They are enthusiastic, confident and honest. It is the ninth year in the twelve year cycle of Chinese zodiacs. The Chinese New Year occurred on February 8th. The Year of the Monkey will end on January 27, 2017. The date of the Chinese New Year changes because it is based off of the Chinese lunar calendar. There are several legends involving why the Chinese New Year or Guo Nian (过年) is celebrated. The one I heard in my Chinese class begins with monster called Nian or 年. This was a vicious monster that showed up every year on New Year’s Eve to eat the people and the livestock in the villages. All the people would flee and hide in the mountains, but one year an old woman, who had lost her son to the monster the year before, decided to stay in village. An e

Second trimester ends in : March 2016 Winter Break : 12/19/15 - 1/4/15 Concerts:    At Throckmorton Theatre: When:  Class runs WED & FRI  4pm to 6pm from January 6 – February 12th. Performance:   Friday, February 12 at 7pm Instructors:  Steven Hess and Grace Renaud Class Fee:  $450  To register please print and return our 2016 WINTER Enrollment

Plop, plop, plop, Students eat lunch with umbrellas over their heads but it is not raining. Plop, plop, plop people duck under awnings, weary of airborne assailants. Plop, plop, plop You know when you’ve been hit, a thud, then the walk, everyone evades your step, Plop, plop, plop Settled by the white sink with a damp paper towel Cursing those smug, soaring birds, overhead.