Tuesday, May 17, 2011


Student Writes About a “Blank Puppy,” New Seven Golden Secrets to Writing Workshop Begins Wednesday as Well As An Important Dana Middle School  Fundraiser to Help Students Who Were Evacuated Out of Yosemite to a Replacement Trip This Summer

------------Student Writes About Blank Puppy----

Dear Readers: This student is most enjoyable in my class and comes up with some unique ideas that always makes her writing interesting and just a bit different than others. Enjoy her story! Diana

The Blank Puppy
By Alaina Bucy, 9

Once upon a puppy litter, there was a puppy. It was the smallest of all the dogs and it was white.

So the other puppies called her the “Blank Puppy.”

After the puppy turned one, she was up for adoption. But nobody wanted to adopt the dog because she was blank. One day, a little girl came up to the box that the Blank Puppy was in and picked her up. The girl started thinking about taking her home.

Then the girl said: “This is the puppy I want. It’s perfect. It’s dull, blank and boring just like what I want.”

The girl named the dog, Blank. The dog didn’t really like the name, but she stuck with it. One day, the girl got tired of the color of her dog and painted the dog blue. Blank loved her new color a lot!

The owner renamed Blank, Skyler. Skyler was now the envy of every dog and that’s when the little girl decided to enter her in a dog show. In the contest, the judges remarked repeatedly on Skyler’s color and she won the show!

Skyler would never be called a “Blank puppy” again.

-----Seven Golden Secrets Writing Shop Begins Wednesday at the Corner Store: The Six Week Session Teachers Students to Love Writing While Enjoying the Craft

A new Seven Golden Secrets to Writing workshop will begin at the Corner Store on Wednesday at 4:30 p.m.

Students may enroll that day from ages 6 to 12. The six-week workshop teaches children to become more comfortable with writing and to enjoy the skill so they are no longer inhibited in the classroom.

Costs are $60 for the entire session. For further information, email Diana at hartchap@cox.net or sign up on Wednesday before the class at 1118 37th Street.

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Dana Middle Schoolers Spent Hours on School Bus and Due to a Powerful Storm Returned Empty Handed Without A Scientific Trip; Teachers Plan Fundraiser at Acapulco Restaurant Wednesday for a Replacement Trip to the Santa Monica Institute

Spending 26 hours on a bus ride and only 23 in Yosemite, scores of Dana Middle School students were evacuated when the valley flooded, roads were closed and the power went out this school season.  Teachers are urging residents to help replace their trip at a fundraiser Wednesday.

The Port's O Call Acapulco has agreed to give 10 percent toward the fundraiser from those having dinner from 5 to 9 p.m.  The money will be for a replacement trip this summer to take students to the Santa Monica Institute. The restaurant needs a Dana flier to include any dinners toward  the fundraising efforts.

Teacher Michelle Fortune, one of the Yosemite lead teacher’s, said the Yosemite evacuation was the first since 1997.

“We had to be convoyed out, so it was quite a bus trip,” Fortune said. “The kids kept their spirits up and we were really proud how well they took it so we want to reschedule for a summer replacement trip.”

To go on the Yosemite trip, students had raised $200 a piece and received some money back.  For the new journey, however, the students are short $5,000 and need  your help.

Fliers can be picked up at Dana Middle School and some students will pass out fliers outside the restaurant.

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