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My name is Efren Martinez. I am part of the Urban Legend. The Urban Legend has many

things unknown to the reader. This article will tell you the history about the Urban Legend and what we have done this year. The Urban Legend has a very interesting his-tory. The first thing I would like to mention is that the Urban Legend was not always called the Urban Legend. It was called The Emerald Echo. The oldest Emerald Echo found was from 1961. I have proof of this Information. I got this proof in the library. I found one of the oldest papers in Urban Middle School.The Emerald Echo had a principal’s corner where the principal would write an article. Another interesting fact is that the font and the format of the paper changed over the years. There was a teacher I could contact that many years ago lead the Urban Legend. The teacher was Mr. Mueller, the social studies teacher for Team 6-1. The Urban Legend looked more like a newsletter then. The knight remained in the title. There were not many pictures. There was web art. Web art is all the logos and pictures you can find on the internet. For different issues the paper would be different.

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Want to do something with your family dur-ing the year this spring or may even sum-

mer? Here are some things you can do when you are at home. One of your favorite things you may like is watch a movie with your family, but make sure everyone gets a vote on what movie they like. Another family thing you might like to do is play on our wii like Family Night 3 or Wii Sports with everyone taking turns. One that most people enjoy is making crafts. You can make anything you want only if they have the right materials. I love window shopping (you look at clothes, but you don't buy anything) with family. You can go window shop-ping, so you can get things you want to buy in the future. This will get you some ideas for birthdays or any holiday you celebrate dealing with presents. Cooking is another thing you can do. You get to make special treats for anyone like brownies or cookies, make sure you have anything you need before you do that. Family time is always fun when everyone is smiling and having time. When you are on vacation with family or friends what are you going to do? Here are some things you can do when away from home that you will remember. One of your favorite places to go is museums because every museum is different. Go on a tour so you know the place more. It's also interesting because you learn a lot of history about the place. You can go camping with family. You can go hiking to see the beautiful sights. Also go fish-ing, just make sure you have a permit. Make a list of what you like to do there. It can be a long or short list and tell your family, they will probably grant your wish. Well these ideas can be used anywhere you are. Doing things with family at home or out of town can be one of your best memories.

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Now I am sure we have all heard of the rhinoc-eros. The horned mammals live in the African

and Asian grasslands and zoos around the world. These herbivores are generally solitary creatures. Rhinos can also be aggressive for what seems like no reason. They will charge at what they perceive to be a possible threat. Although most of the time rhinos are not charging at a potential threat, but instead stationary objects. So why, you ask, do they do that? The answer is simple, rhinoceros have bad vision and can not see well. Some humans have bad eyesight. We remedy that with an invention called glasses. So what I am proposing is we create a special type of glasses for rhinos (hence the title). To make sure the glasses

would stay on the rhinoceroses' eyes, the glasses would have to be some sort of strapped on sports goggle, specifically designed to fit the rhinoceroses' head. In order to get the goggles on the rhino, without putting people who are working with the rhinos in a lot of danger, you could tranquilize the rhino and then put on the goggles. These glasses could help get rid of unnecessary rhino aggression. Of course before anyone goes around Africa or Asia putting glasses on rhinos, there needs to be a series of tests done on more domesticated rhi-noceroses first. Although, in all reality if we would have to eye test the rhinos that are receiving the glasses, then it might not be worth the effort. But it could be a ‘spectacular’ idea if it was possible.

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Near St.Patrick Day, the paper would be green. On Easter it would be pink. There would always be a word search and a horoscope. The paper would, also, always be stapled. This is the information I got from Mr. Mueller, the former advisor of the newspaper. Now a days, with the Urban Legend we have

three steps to creating great articles. Step one, this is when we have to make one good "ready for the paper " (quoted from Ms.Wolfert) article. The second step is to have it edited and revised. The final step is to submit it and get it published. The first Urban legend was small. Not all dead-

lines where met so it was a smaller paper. The second paper one person joined so the paper got bigger. Since we had more experience we had a better paper. Our last paper was amazing in my opinion. We had two more people join. These are all the people in the Urban Legend

this year that are in 6th grade that have written an article: Ben Wierzbach, Donavin Keosay, Efren Martinez. These are all the 7th grade Urban Legend people: Anastasia Fontaine, James Zajkowski, Sophie Nguyen, Alexis Fredericks, Austin Stibes. We have no 8th grade writers this year. We all love to write these articles and we hope you love to read them.

Tragedy is the perfect word for this event. The Great Potato Famine of 1845 killed millions of

Irish people. For people who do not know, a famine means the lack of food. So the Irish had a lack of potatoes. Back in 1845, in Ireland, there were people named Protestants or middlemen. They rented large plots of land from poor catholic farmers. These middlemen separated the large land into smaller sections. With that, they leased the sections back to these poor farmers. This was a major source of misery. These Landlords randomly kicked the farm-ers off their land for what seemed, no real apparent reason. The farmers on these lands are also allowed

employees called Cottiers or Landless Laborers. These people helped perform daily tasks and helped bring annual har-vest as payment. They could also build them-selves a small wooden

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If you own a Wii U here are the top four games I think you should have for it. They are listed in

order of least to most recommended. 4. Hyrule Warriors: Based on The Legend of Zelda and Dynasty Warriors, this game is addic-tive. The name “Hyrule Warriors” comes from the world of The Legend of Zelda, Hyrule, and the name “Dynasty Warriors.” The game plays like a Dynasty Warriors game, but with enemies and characters from The Legend of Zelda. You get to play as Link, but you get to unlock more characters. Remember how I said this game is addictive? There are so many unlockable items and collectibles that you will take many, many hours to unlock them all. The only reason this is not recommended higher by me on this list is because it gets a little stale, and col-lecting the unlockables and collectibles isn’t easy, takes a very long and gets boring to even complete one level. Buy this game if you like The Legend of Zelda or Dynasty Warriors, or enjoy playing action-adventure games. 3. Child of Light: Developed by Ubisoft and not Nintendo, unlike numbers two and one, this game is very original. You play as Aurora, who is put into a sort of coma and you play in her dream. Saying anything about why she is in the coma would com-pletely spoil the plot, so I won't tell you. This game is a turn-based role-playing game with interesting characters. Igniculus is a made up creature who radiates light and helps you light up dark places. The art, style and music of this game are amazing, and keep you entertained and intrigued throughout the whole game. If you like role-playing games, this is very likely the best of the bunch on the Wii U and is

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one you need to check out. 2. Super Mario Brothers: 3D World: Just barely missing being number one, Super Mario Brothers: 3D World is a game that needs to be played. The reason this is not number one is because in some versions of the Wii U, this game is included. Normally in a Super Mario Brothers game you play as Mario or Luigi trying to save Princess Peach from Bowser. Now you get to play as Mario, Luigi, Toad or Princess Peach because Bowser is not after Peach this time. I won't spoil who he is after because that would spoil the plot, but not playing just as Mario can be fun and refreshing. If you don't already have this game, you should definitely buy it. 1. Super Smash Bros: The number one pick in my opinion that you should play if you have a Wii U is the newest Super Smash Brothers game. There are so many Nintendo and other video game characters in this game, the list of characters would be incred-ibly long. My favorite character is Captain Falcon, because he can absorb any opponent and use his/her abilities and powers. If you have multiple friends at your house, this game is perfect for you because you can have up to eight characters playing in one screen. Although I've never tried 8-Player Smash, it seems pretty hectic to me. If you own a Wii U and don't own this game, you definitely need to at least try it. Now that you know about these games, you should buy them if you don’t have them. You might regret not buying these games if you own a Wii U, especially if one is on sale because these are the some of the most fun Wii U games in my opinion.

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cabin, to hold their family. Landless laborers also have a small plot of potatoes that they farmed to feed themselves and their family. A portion of their potato harvest was also used as payment for their stay. The whole Irish community was dependent on potatoes. The Great Potato Famine really affected them when the fungus spread. Phytophthora Ifestang is the fungus I am talking about. This caused the potato plants to die. The plants blackened and withered along with the potatoes on the plants. The fungus was airborne and infected more and more plants. The farmers decided to pick the potatoes before they became infected. It worked... For a few days. The potatoes soon blackened and withered like the others. This fungus also spread to London. This affected the entire country. The British government organized employment and began distributing food to the poor. Although that didn't last, when a man by the name Trevelyan took full control of the famine policy liberal government. His order was to close the exports of food to Ireland and ruled out providing any food to the Irish. His reasoning was he didn't want the Irish to become "habitually dependant" on the British government.The British didn't help the Irish at all the next year. This was led to starvation. The summer of 1946 was cool and moist so the fungus just kept spreading. Unbeknown to the farmers when they planted the next year, the plants appeared healthy at first and they were hopeful. Though, by harvest the plants were dead. At this point, the farmers only had enough potatoes for a single month. The fungus spread fifty miles a day. Those entirely dependent on potatoes got hit with starvation by September. It wasn't completely hope-less yet. The Prime Minister went against his own Conservative government and ordered shipments of Indian corn from America. The only problem was this corn had to be ground up into cornmeal, but there were no open mills available to ground it up. They decided to ground little bits at a time. Once they had enough, they began to sell it. A penny for a pound. But the farmers soon ran out of money to buy the cornmeal and the landlords failed to contribute any money to this relief effort. There was another problem with the cornmeal. An aver-age Irish workman ate about 14 pounds of boiled potatoes a day. They found the cornmeal rather unsatisfying. It was difficult to cook, it was very hard to digest and caused cases of diarrhea. It also lacked the bulk that the potatoes have filled and also lacked vitamin C. The lack of this vitamin caused scurvy and another condition unknown to the Irish at the time. They grew accustomed to this type of food but only out of the necessity to live. By June 1846, the supplies were exhausted along with their money and Trevelyan made no effort to replenish their food. The British decide to not get involved any longer. They let it be and let it be solved through "natural means". By September, starvation hit the west and south-west of Ireland. These were the places where people were entirely dependent on potatoes. The Irish started riots once they saw the boatloads of oats and other types of food being ported to England and no relief for Ireland. They made failed attempts to con-fiscate a boatload of oats. British troops threw stones and fired 26 shots into the crowd. They killed two peasants and wounded several others. The British just kept sending soldiers instead of food. The coun-tryside began living off blackberries and anything else they could find that was edible. Parents sold

livestock and even clothes to pay the rent. They were forced to listen to the cries of their malnourished children. The winter of 1846-47 was brutal with bliz-zards after blizzards burying home after home. After the bleak winter, people hunted for jobs. Over 0,000 men, women, and children were work-ing on stone roads. These roads were built to nowhere and had no purpose. Many workers with poor clothes and bad nutrition, weakened by fever, fainted and sometimes dropped dead on the spot. Men struggled to get enough money for food. Sometimes, so that the men could keep working, the men ate while the children went hungry. People were sometime mistaken as dead because of skeletal features they developed from hunger. The ones who were actually dead were buried without coffins and some remained with the living if they were too weak to move them outside. Most died by the famine’s doing and others by disease. Black fever was one of the most contagious, spread by body lice. Doctors couldn't find a cure in time. Though this was a tragedy, The Potato Famine helped in a way. Many Irish people migrated to other places for salvation. They sailed over to America and settled down to make a new life. Their children passed on the traditions to their children and the Irish relocated throughout the world. This was a very tragic event in history but it was a crustal part of his-tory. Now in America, we celebrate St. Patrick's Day by wearing green along with other traditions. Don't forget about the struggles the Irish had getting here. Next time you eat a potato, be grateful. So Happy Belated St. Patrick's Day!

Did you ever wonder about why Easter is called Easter? Easter, the celebration of Jesus

Christ’s resurrection from the dead, is a Christian holiday. In earlier years, it was a festival to worship the Goddess of Spring. The week before Easter is called Holy Week. For Catholics, Easter marks the end of Lent, a 40 day period of fast-ing, repentance, and spiritual discipline. Did you know Easter baskets, Easter eggs, Easter candles, Easter bonnets, and the Easter bunny have nothing to do with Easter at all? This is more the commercial side of Easter. Giving the colorful easter eggs was a custom in the middle east during spring. Also in many cultures the Easter egg symbolized rebirth or renewal. In conclusion Easter has different meanings to different people. There is a very religious connec-tion, and there is a very commercial connection that includes lots of eggs and candy.

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8UEDQ�/HJHQGSpecial(Enclosure(!

Spring(2015(!

The Bullying Project

Written By: Noel Nytes and Mrs. Pilz

In Language Arts on Team 7-1, the students did some research on four different social injustices. The topics were immigration, child labor, homelessness and bullying. As they were researching, the students had to gather information on the definition, the history, current situation, and organizations formed to make a difference regarding their topic. With this information they created a webpage.

Some students were so passionate about their topic, they wanted to take additional action. One student in particular, Noel Nytes, in Mrs. Pilz's 5th hour started the ball rolling with her topic, bullying. She had the idea to involve every student at Urban Middle School in making an anti-bullying poster. She wanted to make more people aware of the bullying going on at Urban and encourage it to stop.

With the help of some other students who have the same topic, this poster activity now will be turned into an anti-bullying poster contest. So far, each advisory will have a short presentation on the definition, the types of bullying and a short video. In addition, to help promote awareness, the Acting Club, with Mrs. Preder as advisor, has put together an anti-bullying play that will be videotaped and shared through Cool Tools. Students will then be asked to participate in making an anti-bullying poster as a group or individually. These posters will be judged, by a panel of 7-1 students, on how informative and persuasive they are, along with neatness and clarity. The winning posters at each grade level will be enlarged and displayed at the entrance of the building. All posters will be displayed around the school to help promote awareness.

Laz in Alcatraz

Written By: Sophie Nguyen

Laz was a prisoner in Alcatraz, a maximum security prison on an island off the coast of the San Francisco Bay. He has been in Alcatraz for 30 years. He sat in his cell bored out of his mind. Then he said, to no one in particular, ”Man I am so bored. Especially since the guards confiscated my stuff.” Laz sighs loud and long. Then he says, “I don’t even know why. I mean, what is wrong with my favorite movie, Escape from Alcatraz?” Written & Illustrated By: Sophie Nguyen

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Continued on Special Enclosure Page 2 !

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8UEDQ�/HJHQGSpecial(Enclosure(!

Spring(2015(!

Funnies for You Written By: James Zajkowski

Do you get bored during the summer? If you want something to keep you entertained for those three months, here is a list of jokes that I found on the internet and some I created. -Two co-workers are in a large predicament. First Co-worker says that it is time to fight fire with fire. Second Co-worker reminds him that the Fire Department recommends the use of water. -Two guys reading random statistics. First guy says, ”Wow! 4,153,237 people got married last year!” Second Guy says, ”Ummm… Not to be a bother, but shouldn’t that be an even number?" -Two couch potatoes are chatting. First Couch Potato says he named his TV remote Waldo. Second Couch Potato asks why. First Couch Potato, completely ignoring him, says, “Have you seen Waldo? Tell me where he is!" -There is a bowl of Cheerios with a sign next to it. The sign says, 'DONUT SEEDS: $1 PER OZ.', -Three criminals are running from the police and run into a store to hide. The first one hides in a cat’s house, the second in a dog’s house, and the third hides under a pile of potato sacks. The cops then come inside the store and start kicking the items in the store to find the criminals. The first cop kicks the cat’s house, so the first criminal says 'Meow, Meow', and the cop thinks it's a cat. The second cop kicks the dog’s house and the second criminal says 'Woof, Woof', and the cop thinks it's a dog. The third cop kicks the pile of potato sacks and the third criminal says 'Potato, Potato', and is immediately arrested. -Lazy Fact #153,485,698,156,284,123,785,965,412,369,874,521,159,788... You were too lazy to read that number! -A teacher says to her students that the first person to answer her question gets to leave class. A student then chooses that moment to throw his bag out the window. The teacher then yells, “WHO DID THAT?!?!?!?!?!?” The student replies, “Me. I’m leaving now.” That’s all I am sharing in this article, but you might find some others out there! Have a fun summer and don’t forget to laugh a little. Credits: Wattpad

Spring Blooms in Wisconsin

Written By: Matthew Haefke

There are many flowers that bloom in Wisconsin in Spring. Be on the lookout for a small but beautiful flower called the Crocus. Crocus’ usually flower in different shades of purple or yellow. Daffodils appear in mid-Spring, and some are known as the King Alfred or the Mount Hood variety. Daffodils bloom in a rich yellow color. Everyone that thinks of spring flowers will put tulips on their list. Tulips come in almost every color. Late spring flowers include the lily of the Valley, the primrose and hyacinths that will add a beautiful scent and color to anyone's Spring garden. The saying goes, that you should stop and smell the roses, but what we should really do is take a minute to stop and enjoy the first colors of spring.

The winners in each grade level will receive a prize and an overall winner will be chosen. In addition to this, the plan is to transfer the overall winning poster design onto t-shirts and sell them. The proceeds would go to the PBIS store to purchase additional items to sell to students who have earned shields.

Noel and friends, along with the after school Acting Club, just wanted to bring an awareness to the students of Urban Middle School and make a difference. This avenue is just one way to make our student body aware of the bullying that is taking place here at Urban and promote a change. The quest is to stop bullying of all types.

Bully Project - Continued !