Volume I No. 18

See All the News We Have!!!
Again, GWN has a lot of news this week! Here is the list:

• Interview
• GWN Update Notice
• Ice Skating Competition
• Event List
• Interesting Hike
• Another Test Result...
• Happy Saint Patrick's Day

Table of Contents
New News
Interview
Debate Time
Mail Pail

Debate Time

Teach About Holidays

Should schools teach about religious holidays and how holidays came to be?

Do you think teachers should teach students about how holidays came to be? Send you answers to: GingerbreadWklyNews@gmail.com

Other Debate Topics:
(Please reply to these debate topics too!)

• Do you think it was worth being tired while getting to the peak of Mission Peak?
  
• How do you like GWN's new and improved website?

Interview

(Interview from “Interesting Hike”, page 6 to 7)

GWN: May we interview you about your tumble, Alex Zhou?
Alex: Yes.
GWN: From a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being scariest, how scared were you?
Alex: Probably 8.
GWN: Do you think it was mostly fun, scary, embarrassing, or what?
Alex: Scary.
GWN: Did it hurt?
Alex: No.
GWN: Was it embarrassing at all?
Alex: Not really.
GWN: Do you think the fall made you unhappy?
Alex: Yes, because the fall made my pants dirty and I like those pants.
GWN: Thank you for taking our interview, Alex.

Dear GWN Readers,
GWN has a new (and improved like crazy) website! Check it out at: http://www.freewebs.com/gingerbreadwklynews
Please send your comments about this new website. Email GWN if you would like to stop receiving paper copies and just read online or if you would like to receive paper copies for safekeeping. Also tell GWN if you would like to subscribe to our site.
Thanks!
GWN

New News

Ice Skating Competition

Diane Zhou had her first competition of the 2008 season! The name of the competition was Crystalline, held at Santa Rosa on March 29th. Congratulations for placing 4th out of 9, Diane! Diane competed in Pre-Juvenile artistic and fell on a jump. “My mom went crazy, but I still placed 4th. I hope I do better later, but I think this was a decent finish,” Diane told GWN.

Events:

• Happy “Belated” Easter: It was Easter on March 23rd. Who found eggs and celebrated? Hope you had fun!
• 2nd and 3rd Grade Writing Test: Write, write, write, 2nd and 3rd graders! Your writing tests are on April 15th and 16th. Good luck!
• Young Author's Contest: Did you have a Young Author's Contest? GWN hopes you did well! Send your outstanding story to our email address. Ardenwood Elementary's Young Author's celebration is on April 18th.
• Green Grass Contest Results: Our editors' and their brothers' Green Grass Contest results will be out on April 18th. That day is also Green Grass's Open House date. If you would like to go to an afterschool everyday after school and have Chinese lessons, be sure to visit! It is located at Kid's Castle in Newark.
  
• Spelling Bee: Ardenwood Elementary's Spelling Bee is on April 23rd. Good luck, GWN readers in Ardenwood (including our editor, Diane)!
• STAR Testing: Be sure to study! STAR Testing for 2nd to 6th graders begin on April 28th. Study, study, study!
• April Fool's Day: Hope you don't get tricked on April Fool's Day!

Interesting Hike

“Pant, pant, pant!” Diane and Alex Zhou's family, Andy and Emily Wang along with their dad, and Vicky and Nicole Sun's family were hiking up Mission Hill. It was a beautiful afternoon on March 22nd when all but two moms made it to the very top, the summit!
In the beginning of the long hike up, everyone was fresh, talking, laughing, energetic. As everyone emerged the benchmark of one-third of the way up, they were all breathing hard. The girls, Alex, and Vicky's dad were there first. They waited for the rest of the panting hikers of the group. “They will be so depressed that it's only a third of the way up,” Diane said. When they finally arrived minutes later, there was water drinking, snack eating, and rest for 20 minutes. Then the moms went down the hill (already!) while the rest continued the challenge.
On group gradually became four. Party 1: Alex and his dad, at the head; Party 2: Diane, Emily, Vicky, Nicole, and Vicky's dad; Party 3: Andy; Party 4: Andy's dad, at the tail. Parties 1 and 2 took many steep and challenging shortcuts. Andy and his dad took as many as they could to catch up. Diane (as you know, is an athlete, an ice skater) was very competitive and caught up with her brother and dad. Diane's dad couldn't keep up with Party 1 any longer, so lagged behind to Party 3 with Andy. Diane and Alex were the only ones in Party 1 now, about a hundred paces ahead of Party 2. Alex moved back with Party 2 and Diane arrived first at the summit!
Party 2 came seconds later, and since most of the people arrived, they took pictures. In about 10 minutes, everyone was up, there was rest, drinks, and snacks, and the descent started. Everyone then underestimated the difficulty of going down. It still took 2 hours!
There were no rests since it wasn't very tiring, but Alex “tumbled” down a steep shortcut. He was running down in wild control, yelling, “Aaaaah!” and THUD, fell down, sliding. Trying to get up, he literally tumbled on his side and continued slipping and sliding. His dad finally got Alex up. GWN interviewed Alex about his “tumble”: (See the Interview section.)
Then, Diane's friends shouted, “Look! Disgusting!” A cow was peeing! Yuck! Yes, it's disgusting, but funny too! What an interesting hike and a funny one too!

Do you think it was worth being tired while getting to the peak of Mission Peak? (Debate #3) Send your answers to GWN!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

It was just Saint Patrick's Day on March 17th. GWN hopes you wore green! If not, did you get pinched? Diane totally forgot about it, but luckily, she wore a little green on accident so didn't get pinched at the ice rink where her skating coaches and friends asked everyone if they wore green.
Alex Zhou also luckily wore green, but his parents didn't. Diane got to pinch them! “Saint Patrick's Day wasn't really emphasized this year, but I guess it was fun seeing how many of my friends accidentally wore green.”

Another Test Result...

Now we know Diane Zhou's piano test results! She passed! Diane, as you know from last week's GWN, got 98% for theory. The results for her technique and sight reading are here too! Good for sight reading and excellent for technique! Hip hip hooray for passing Level VII (7), Diane! Please send congratulation notes!

Mail Pail

Here's all the mail GWN received this week:

Debate Time (Debate with Adults?):

• “I like debating with my parents and teachers. You can share your answers to each other. You can also see how adults think differently!” Chloris Li, 5th grade
  

• “It all depends. If it's my parents, then I would feel more agreeable, but if I think I'm right then I would try to show my opinion. If it's my teachers, then I would definitely agree with them. If you do, matters would become worse and you might get in trouble.” Tiffany Chen, 7th grade

Debate Time (Presidential Election):

• “I like Barack Obama.” Emily Wang, 4th grade
• “I choose Hilary Clinton because she has the talent and experience. Her husband, Bill Clinton will be able to help her. She will also be the first woman president in the United States! It won't be fair to always have a man for president.” Chloris Li, 5th grade
• “Hillary Clinton, of course! I want the president to be the first woman, not the first black.” Cynthia Yao, 5th grade
• “I would want Hilary Clinton to win because it's nice having a woman as a president for change. Women should be respected more and "noticed." In my opinion, Hilary Clinton is also a bit more experienced than Obama and McCain because she served in the congress or something like that. :]”Tiffany Chen, 7th grade