Category Archives: newspaper

The Unlikely Orchard: Tenement Inspectors Trip by Grace

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By: Grace Anne MacGillivray

“People do not pay me rent,” says Mr. Goldfine. Mr. Goldfine is the landlord at 97 Orchard Street. He uses his own money to fix stuff in the building, which means that sometimes things don’t get fixed.

“I will pay you rent when you fix my sink,” says Rebecca Goldstein. Rebecca is a pregnant tenant at 97 Orchard street who has had no water for three weeks, having to climb upstairs every day to get water from her neighbors.
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When inspectors arrive on their surprise visit, Rebecca’s apartment is a mess. They see poo and pee in a chamber pot on the floor of the parlour near the bed. “I would have emptied the chamber pot if I knew you were coming,” Rebecca says. There are rags on the floor and leaks from the walls when it rains. Rebecca has three children and is expecting a fourth.

The inspectors tell Rebecca she is not allowed to have rags on the floor because they are a fire hazard. That is a problem since she is pregnant and cannot bend down to pick up the rags. There is no janitor in the building, Mr. Goldfine is the only one picking up, and he has not picked up the rags.

Rebecca’s red hair flares, “You can see your face in his shoes!” Rebecca declares. She feels he is spending money on himself and not doing enough to help her family. With no water, mice and rats and roaches scurrying across the floor, she is in no mood to give her landlord any breaks.

The stench from the hallway bathrooms is unbearable. On the ground floor of the tenement building, there is only one bathroom for two large families because the other one is out of order. There are no lights in the bathroom even though the law states there must be. There are many violations; the building is a mess!

Rebecca’s husband is a painter. Mr. Goldfine asks him to paint a mural on the wall of their hallway. Rebecca’s husband paints a scene of trees, grass, blue skies and sun, the way 97 Orchard Street might have looked before there were tenements there, in exchange for one month’s rent. This pretty landscape doesn’t do much to change the filthy conditions of the building. The inspectors will come again to be sure the laws are upheld and the problems are fixed.
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Rebecca’s husband’s pastoral mural improves the hallway somewhat, but living in a filthy, dangerous, rundown tenement isn’t what Rebecca and her neighbors dreamed of when they left their homeland and moved to Manhattan.

Winter Break News Article Mashup

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Welcome to the Winter Break News Article Mashup. Below you will find small moments from everyone’s news articles. The through-line according to their teachers, Deborah and Jacob? Spending time with family and loved ones is a gift.

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Alfredo: …Their friend, Max, gave them free tickets to the Blue Man Group show. While at the show, they sat in their seats and they put on their earplugs. The show was around one hour and thirty minutes. During the show, three blue men played music with things like pipes, cans, and paint on drums. At the end of the show, everyone got to throw toilet paper everywhere. It was hard to breath with so much paper.

Beckett: …”It should be snowing here, why isn’t it?” said Beckett Fox to his mom when they got to San Diego. At night Jemma and Beckett and their family went to see Star Wars the Force Awakens. They got there two hours early and one of Beckett’s cousins needed to return something from a mall close by. So they went to the mall to return it. Beckett said, “This is so cool I want to see it again and again BB-8 is so cute and round.”

Cassidy: …Then, to their surprise, out of the jungle surrounding them came many monkeys! They were shocked!…Cassidy and her family were looking at the different monkeys. There were howler monkeys, and there were capuchins. One of the capuchins climbed around to the front of the pool and came on to the pool deck. By that time Cassidy, Alexa, and Trevor were at the other end of the pool watching it all. They realized that the monkey was trying to steal their bag! While Cassidy and her siblings were watching from the other side of the pool, Jason had to scare the monkey away so it didn’t take all their stuff.

Dennis: …A couple of minutes later the kids went on the go karts. “The exhaust smelled like dirty laundry and despair,” said Dennis. Dennis and Jessie were the only kids who actually drove the go karts. Dylan sat in Jessie’s kart’s shotgun position (and puked 30 seconds later.) …”Hailey is always the strategic one when it comes to arcade games,” said Dennis. Later that day she came home with loads of candy and a 3 Ft stuffed dolphin, which Dennis predicted exactly.

Elijah: …”We need a new teapot!” declared Elijah Berman Floyd. On Sunday January 3rd 2016, tea lover Elijah Floyd was advocating for his parents to get him a new tea pot… (Later at the tea store) “What an impressive selection of tea sets, tea, and thermoses.” Elijah selected a thermos and then there was the issue of selecting the tea he would get with the thermos. The lady at the counter allowed Elijah to smell the tea and pick the one he wanted. He selected Cinnamon Rooibos Chai, which is a tea made from Rooibos, which is a type of spice.

Ella: …It was five o’clock and no guests were at the Lille Yerington house. “IT’S FIVE O’CLOCK AND THEY’RE NOT HERE YET!” screamed Jack and Ella Lille Yerington. They were almost in sync when they screamed those words. They instantly quieted when their dad, Johnny said, “Stop!”

Grace: …When Grace walked into Elk Camp restaurant for lunch with Kendall and Graydon, she saw her parents who asked her how she was doing. “I just got off The Magic Carpet,” said Grace. “What in the world were you doing on The Magic Carpet!” cried Grace’s mom. “Magic Carpet!” exclaimed Grace’s dad, “That’s not right!”

Jett: “…The next morning Jett’s family got up bright and early, so his family can ski, of course, because Jett would never get up bright and early by choice. Jett and his family finally got to the mountain which was very quiet.”

Kate: …Your instructor will give you a quick fondant lesson before you start. Then you start to sculpt, shape, create, and eat your creation. Why would anyone want to do this you ask? Well maybe a customer can answer that. “I loved decorating a cake at Duff’s Cake Mix! I went will all my friends so we helped one another through the process. And it was really yummy at the end.” said Kate a customer.

Madiba: …Madiba woke up with no sun in his eyes. “I woke up so early that I was still half asleep and I found myself back in our house because I was dreaming about ice-cream land. By that time it was probably 5:00 in the morning but I realized that it was Christmas morning and that I was too excited to notice that.” he said.

Myles: …Who are the Harlem Globetrotters? Myles’ dad got tickets for the Harlem Globetrotters game. It was their 90th anniversary. They played the team called the All Stars “They were a good team,” said Myles. The game was at the Barclay Center in Brooklyn in the Downtown part of Brooklyn. “Both of the teams were good but the better team was the Harlem Globetrotters,” said Myles.

Ren: …When we got there the room was bright and filled with Christmas decorations. The tree was the first thing I noticed when I stepped out of the elevator. It was tall and covered with lights. There were two gifts still there. “This is for you,” Sylvie said giving me a gift. Charlie her brother gave a gift to Ren’s brother Graydon.

Rubie: …”What did you do on New Year’s Eve 2015 going into 2016? Well, I can tell you what I did,” said Rubie. On New Year’s Eve 2015 going into 2016, Rubie Goldner and her mom, dad, and brother, Chase, drove a minivan to watch her sister, Sylvie, swim. For Jacksonville, Florida in December, it was a really warm night. Sylvie’s friend’s little brother was there (who is Rubie’s age). Rubie’s mom brought POP ITS! POP ITS are these little rocks wrapped in tissue paper that when you throw them on the ground they POP open and make a really loud banging sound. Sylvie’s friend’s little brother’s name is Nate. So Rubie, Chase and Nate threw the POP ITS until they ran out. When they ran out, they had made a huge mess.

Shoshi: …After all of the fun and joy that had happened at the end of the night the Fines had to say good-bye. Susan started crying, because she wouldn’t be seeing Jonathan, Emma, Freddie and Shoshi for a long time and she was Freddie and Shoshi’s grandma and she normally cried at things like this. “Goodbye, goodbye,” everyone said at once. The night had ended but everyone had a wonderful time and couldn’t wait until next time!

Sofia: …As the week went on it was a day before new year’s and Sofia and her cousins named Cammie and Taryn and their friends went to Universal Studios. The guide said the first ride they recommended for their group of 13 is the Spider Man ride. “It’s one of those simulator rides when you might think you’re going 400 feet high in the air but you’re not really moving,” said Victoria, one of the guides. “This is my favorite ride,” said Alejandro, Sofia’s brother. They got in, the ride was started. Sofia’s friend Chloe was shaking with fear and joy. “That ride was awesome!” said Sofia’s other friend Jordan. Sofia and Chloe were begging to go on the Simpson ride, it was another simulator ride. They hopped inside the ride, it started. “Aaaaa! Woooo! It smells like baby powder!” the crowd shouted.

Tess: …”Tess wake up,” whispered Max, her older brother, trying not to wake up anyone but Tess. Tess’s eyes slowly opened and she stood up and walked out of the room, trying not to wake up her older sister, Katie. When she was finally out of the dark room she saw Toby, her 12 year old cousin, waiting for her. It was 8:30 am and they had to wait 15 more minutes until they could wake up anyone else.

Verity: …Then after all the family is up they open their stockings. The two girls took the stockings off from their places on the fireplace and handed the stockings out. Out of excitement it looked like the girls ripped open the fabric to see what was inside. Verity Berthelsen, being an artist, got painters palette earrings from her sister Zoe Karp. Zoe got the pencils she wanted from Verity.

Violet: …The beach had lots of seaweed in the ocean so nobody swam but there was a porch right above the water and the Zimwexs saw a crab. “Mommy, Mommy look! There is a crab! It is so cute!” remarked Violet Z. Wexler. Jerry Z. Wexler was doing parkour on the porch and a lot of people were watching and were amazed, but the Zimwexs were used to Jerry doing parkour.

Zach: …When they got to the top of that chairlift they took another chairlift, which was a black diamond! Nobody knew it was a black diamond! …When they got to the top they noticed it was steep and had moguls. Zach, and Will were worried…(later at the bottom of the mountain) Then they saw Zach’s little brother, Will, snowplowing down the mountain and he was really mad and he said that he hated skiing. …they said, “No more skiing today.”