Movie Review: Alice in Wonderland

Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland is a movie about Alice falling down the rabbit hole, again! Alice, now a 17 year-old girl, who has already fallen down the rabbit hole, is in a dilemma. She is at a party, but she learns that it is really her engagement party. And she keeps seeing the white rabbit!

This movie was great movie and had an excellent plot. Tim Burton made this movie off two things: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. One cool part about this movie is the constant shrinking and growing of Alice and the computer-graphics are amazing. You should see this movie if you have a sense of adventure, if your creativity flows, or if you have no idea what’s going on sometimes.

By Daniel

Less than a Milion to Go

Get your books ready and start reading because the year is coming to an end with the Million Word Club celebration! Want to know how to get in? READ ONE MILLION WORDS AND TAKE A.R. TESTS ON THE BOOKS!!!!!!!! When you make it Melissa (the librarian)will tell you and you can get ready to "partay"! So far 96 people have made it. If you make it you will be invited to a movie and snack party! The only way to get into this "awesomeful" exclusive party is to read ONE MILLION WORDS! So get your read on!

By Amy and Olivia

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is a detailed and well written book by J.K. Rowling. It’s about a boy, Harry Potter, a famous wizard, but he doesn’t even know about the wizarding school Hogwarts! In this hilarious and mystery type book, Harry and his friends discover the secrets of Hogwarts. My favorite part is when Harry is fighting a giant troll. This book includes action, some jokes, adventure, and a lot of magic! If you like this book, you should try finishing this series (7 books in all) or read the Percy Jackson series.

By Joshua

Sizzling Summer

Grab your surfboards and sunscreen because summer is right around the corner! Here are some ideas for your summer vacation [unless you’re planning to spend it inside of course]. If you’re feeling kind of hot why not go surfing; or a pool party? Looking for some fun? Try going to a summer camp or the Santa Cruz Beach Board Walk! Another way to spend some of your summer time is going on a vacation; Lake Tahoe is an awesome place to be! Looking for some exercise? Try Junior Life Guards! It’s a fun and awesome way to get in the water and exercise. So let your summer be fun and outside [not playing video games, watching T.V. or playing on the computer [no offense to all of you that are]!

By Amy

Jogging for the Arts

On March 5, 2010 our entire school participated in a program called “jogging for the arts”. We were supposed to raise $10,000 for the school art program but we've raised $7,500 so far. Every student was asked to run for 15 min. There was a flat donation or a per lap donation. I personally ran 10 laps around the track, but I know some people did more than me. Jogging for the arts was not only a great cause but it encouraged kids to get outside and be healthy. Oh, and did I mention the popsicles? They were great! What a day! I’m already looking forward for next year. I want to run 11 laps.

By Amanda

Fifth Grade Play

The school doesn’t have many plays, but Mr. Sweet’s class is doing one and practicing right now. The play is about the 13 Colonies that formed the USA. The idea is that George Washington and his wife tell the audience about the formation of our country. There will be many notable people from history, such as Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Adams, and Sybil Ludington, as well as made-up characters such as a game show host. There will be all sorts of events done in the play, real and fake. For example, George Washington gets arrested by History Police for going “over the speed limit.” The cast will change with each time the play is performed, and there are two performances. Both will be on June 1st. The first show for K-3rd grade will be at 8:10 and the 4th -6th grade will be at 9:10. Parents may come and see the play either show. This is a great opportunity to learn more about the 13 colonies. Stop by. You won’t be disappointed!

By Evan

Book Review: The City of Ember

In a futuristic world, an underground city was built to protect the people in it from the danger and war around it. In the book The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau, you learn about the hundreds of citizens of Ember as well as shortages of their city such as of light bulbs, food, and rare, delicious fruits and vegetables. There are also shortages of light items, which is the main worry for the people of Ember, because they are at risk of being in permanent blackness. This is an issue because they only get light from three giant lights, which flicker very frequently, and they often go out for many minutes, which are called “blackouts”.

Lina, a twelve–year-old girl who lives in Ember finds mysterious instructions that contain valuable information about how to escape from and abandon their old, struggling city to a “new world”. She teams up with her smart, courageous friend, Doon, to attempt the long and dangerous journey out of The City of Ember.

The detailed information is in the book The City of Ember, so if this summary sounds interesting to you, read it! There are also 3 sequels (the 1st is The People of Sparks, the 2nd is The Prophet of Yonwood, and the 3rd is The Diamond of Darkhold), so if you liked The City of Ember, you could read them, too!

By Megan

ZSNES

Ever wanted to play some old Nintendo video games? With ZSNES, you can. Using ROMs (files with games in them) you download from the Internet, you can play games from the old SNES (Super Nintendo Entertainment System). ZSNES also comes with extra tools to make game play easier. For example, there are things you would usually do while watching a DVD like rewind and fast-forward. There is also slowdown and save state options. When you "save state" you basically save right where you are and when you load that state later you return to the point in the game where you left off. The controls are easy to remember too. There are all sorts of games you can play like Earthbound, Super Mario All-Stars, various Legend of Zelda games and more! Overall, ZSNES is great to have when you're bored.

By Evan

Movie Review Times Two

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

Lights! Camera! Action! Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief has good graphics, realistic fire, humor, exciting music, and great animatronics. The special effects were awesome and scary, especially scenes in the Underworld. The sound effects in Medusa’s garden made me want to jump out of my seat. Overall, “Percy Jackson And The Olympians” is a great movie but you should read the book if you haven’t already!

By Ethan (he saw the movie before reading the book)


Greek mythology is the best of all mythology (in my opinion), and is the base of the Percy Jackson movie. This is a great movie to see with your family, although there are some minor disturbing parts so it is probably for ages 11+. The movie was pretty good except for a few key elements. It did not show a lot of important parts from the book. For example, one of the major fight scenes was left out of the movie. It also bugged me that one of main characters had a different hair color than she did in the book. They made up for it in the graphics and the characters were really funny. If you have not read the books it is a great movie. If you have read the books you might not like it as much, but I would still recommend seeing it.

By Graham (he read the book before seeing the movie)

Online Game Review

Bloons Tower Defense 3

Bloons tower defense 3 is a fun and addicting game where you pop balloons with all kinds of monkey mechanics. In this game you can buy items and upgrade them in different ways. The goal of the game is to pop all the balloons without losing your 100 lives. There is lots of "stuff" you can buy, like a super monkey (shoots hundreds of darts per second) and a spike catapult (shoots giant spike balls at balloons) and lots more! There are many balloons too, including a red balloon and a lead balloon. From buying your first stuff, to defeating the last few balloons, to upgrading your super monkey to the fullest, this game is the ultimate game for fun!

By Joshua

Nisene Marks State Park

The land that is now Nisene Marks State Park was clear cut for lumber between 1883 and 1923. Logging was finished by 1925. At that time the lumber company offered to sell the land. The property was finally bought by Nisene Marks.

Now the forest is a State Park. You can hike and go for bike rides on many miles of trails under the canopy of redwood trees. You might see rabbits, squirrels, birds, deer or other animals. The Park will entertain you for a very fun day.

I like going to Nisene Marks State Park because it seems like a different world in the dense forest of redwoods. Sometimes I imagine loggers by my side with an axe on their shoulders on their way to cut a tree. Nisene Marks has been a wonderful experience for my family, my friends and me!I hope that you have an opportunity to see the park, enjoy its history, hike, ride bikes or have a picnic. Don't get ants in your pants!

By Maya
Photos by Johnna

Mrs. Clouse: The Fabulous First Grade Teacher!

How much do you know about 1st grade teacher Mrs. Clouse? She was a teacher’s aid for 6 years and has been teaching for 11. Mrs. Clouse has been a 1st grade teacher every year except for 5 years ago when she had a 1st/2nd combo class. She decided to teach because she wanted to make learning fun. Mrs. Clouse has not only taught at Rio Del Mar but at a Japanese Cultural School, summer school for 6th – 8th grade students.

Mrs. Clouse’s favorite food is sushi. She loves sushi because she says it’s, “scrumpdidilyumptious”! Her favorite book is Heidi. It is about a little girl who goes to live with her grandpa. Mrs. Clouse’s favorite movie is ‘’ Lady Sings the Blues’’ because she loves the music. Also, her favorite color is red.

She believes the biggest problem in our world is the lack of tolerance of differences. Mrs. Clouse thinks that is the biggest problem because people not understanding each other could lead to violence.

She has not only lived in Aptos but was born in San Jose and went to school at San Luis Obispo. She went to high school in San Jose at Del Mar and went to college at Cal Poly. The farthest places she has traveled are New Zealand and Australia for vacation.

As you can see, Mrs. Clouse has a lot of fun teaching!


By Maggie

SAVE UP YOUR LOOSE CHANGE!

Save up your loose change for the Kabul School used book sale! The Kabul School needs more books for their library. All the money from the sale is going to buy them new books. This event will be Wednesday, March 31 from 8:30-2:30 in the library. There will be all kinds of books, from science to fiction. So save up your change!

By Amy

Hello Rio del Mar school community! This is the first ever post of our brand new online school newspaper blog, The Seahawk Sentinel. Our new librarian, Melissa Ramos, created an afterschool program so that some of our 4th – 6th graders could have an opportunity to experience writing, photography, and editing for a newspaper. We will be publishing stories ranging from school and community to world news. There will be something for everyone: polls, reviews, comics, and more! Check back often to find out what’s going on!

By Kate