December & January Calendar * Dec. 17-Choir Concert & Dinner * Dec. 21-Jan.6 No School-Winter Break. * Jan. 7 -Back to school * Jan. 18-First soccer game * Jan. 21-MKL Day-no school
			Adopting a pet is a very thorough process, but is also very worthwhile. A new friend takes time to arrange. During the holidays, many families consider adopting but never look into it. This website makes it easy; it only requires an application, interview, and a simple home check. Though it seems like a	lot, you will be satisfied you adopted a pet through a trustworthy company. Taking an animal in requires commitment, love, and understanding. You won't regret your adoption decision! Adopting a pet is a very thorough process, but is also very rewarding. During the holidays, many families consider	adopting but never research it. This site will save you time. Check out http://www.1-800-save-a-pet.com/adoption_rescue/69063.html before you commit to an animal. Pets need time and love, just like us. Enjoy the holidays. by Paige Scardova
		Scroll Highlights: Counselor 2 NJHS 3 Volleyball 4 Littering Essay 5 Book Reviews 5 Tax Credit Donations! 6

		Ask Our Counselor-Mrs. Norwood
					classes: English 4 years Math 4 years Lab Science 3 years SocialStudies 2 yrs Foreign Lang. 2yrs Fine Arts 1 year Some colleges may ask for more. Work hard and don’t give up. You can do it! By Ariana Sherman & Gaby Coronado
				the same with 470,671 students playing in high school, only 0.45% of those students make it to professionals. Now this was not written to put down your hopes, but to tell you that you need to focus on your school priorities. These are courses you must have for high school graduation. ASU, U of A, and NAU need you to have graduated and have taken the following
			We interviewed Mrs. Norwood and found out that it is not to early to think about college. Also, you should never give up on school. We learned that high school athletes in men’s basketball, for example, of 546,335 students only 0.03% become pro players. Baseball is
			S.M.S. National Junior Honor Society Angels
			Secrist Middle School has twenty-two members in NJHS. Ms. Dumes is in charge and they have created t-shirts for the school picture taken this past week. In November, they collected 628 pounds of food for the Community Food Bank through S.M.S. Home Base classes. After school they have been selling snacks. With the	proceeds they plan to shop for the Angel Tree charity. Many children have no one to give them presents this holiday season. Our NJHS will help these children out. These NJHS ‘angels” are: Bentley,Chelsea,       Bero, Samantha, Black, Lindsey,Blunk, Erin     Chapman, Kjersti      Colvin, Lyndsey Dulles, Victoria, Fatovich, Rachel, Frisinger,		Carissa,Huber, Erik, Kittrel, Niko Krantz, Jenna  Lamphier, Brittany Lyon, Chis, Mattus, Alyssa, Mattus, Callie Phininzy, Alissa    Reed, Nicole,Romero, Mackenzie,Smith, Miranda,Tigney, Shariel and Trester, Laura.  Thanks to all the students and parents who have helped NJHS with their goals so far this year.

The girls also made it up to the second round of playoffs after a great season, coming a long way from last years’ team. But, they eventually were defeated by Safford. Congrats players, for a great season!

*Don’t forget that boys’

and girls’ soccer tryouts are starting up soon. The first game is Jan. 18^th. Listen to announcements for complete details!

This years’ boys’ volleyball and girls’ basketball season has been one for the books. The boys made it all the way through the second round of playoffs to go up against Vail, just to have an upsetting loss, although speeding through wins in the rest of the season.

Secrist Fall Sports Update

	Free Rice Online

Free Rice is an online vocabulary game. For each word you correctly define, they donate ten grains of rice through the United Nations to help end world hunger. Though 100 grains is only half a teaspoon, it adds up. Since Free Rice started on October 7th 2007, people have donated over 1 billion grains of rice. That's enough to feed more than 1,250,000 starving people, and you can help too! Start today.     A question you may be
	asking is, "If they have 123,471 billion grains of rice right now, why don't they send it all over to the U.N. now?" The answer is because they don't have any rice. There are advertisements at the bottom of the page. They make the money for the rice through the ads. They guess that while you’re waiting, you will read them and buy from their store. Ten grains of rice at a time, you can help feed the hungry. Don’t delay. Visit this site	online to learn and help solve world hunger.     How does it work? Don't bother asking! Just play. That's how! This is such a cool website at www.Freerice.com. Any more questions, go there and have them answered. You will be glad you checked it out. (continued om page 6)

	Home Base Hullabaloo
						class.” Right on, Mr. Christ! Some Home Bases have even participated in community service fundraisers such as food, diaper, book, and clothes drives for the needy. Breakfast is even being served with Home Base help. Five words for Home Bases……. Keep up the AWESOME work!
			This school year has been full of new changes with new teachers, activities, and the new home base classes in every first period. Home Base teachers range from Ryan, to Regole and Wingate to Wiggins!	But one thing that everyone can agree on is the uprising success on this new idea. Mr. Christ raves, “With this new and improved first period, the school is more organized, with more opportunities to do things together as a
		Language Arts Honors Class Publishes Scroll
			The seventh grade honors language arts class is doing a fab job interviewing and writing articles for the “Scroll”. These amazing journalists are: Brianna Bain, Franklin Baker-Ford, Cheyanne Brady, Kaytlyn Christensen, Nadia Collaco,Gaby Coronado, Kailee Economidis, Richie	Foitik, Matt Fridley, Brianna Frolik, Nick Fuentes, Stephen Jobe, Alex Gonzales, Danielle Lawrence, Bria Lee, William Lee, David Minch,Sheridan Noirot, Michael Parra, Kayleigh Payne, Victoria Russell, Paige Scadova, Ariana Sherman, Sarah Sterns, Sophie Stewart, Nancy Watson, Lee Ann	Wilcox. Initially the newsletter was published in Microsoft Publisher but the format has been changed to Microsoft Word for ease of use. Students are learning the importance of editing, meeting deadlines, and team work. They are stellar, hard- working students. by Mrs. Marcello

learn how to pick up after themselves. Students would learn to be responsible.

If we stop littering, the janitors would have more time to themselves. There will be no litter on campus. Last, the students would learn to pick up after themselves. I hope you agree with me. By Kianinator

They may appreciate the help. They might need to do something personal, instead of picking up our mess. There would be no litter on campus. The environment would be cleaner. Without litter, plants would grow better which means more oxygen for us! The students would not feel they are going to school in a dump. They will

If you don’t have a trash can, where do you dispose of your trash? On the ground! Am I right? Most of the kids at school litter on school campus. It is everywhere! Kids these days. Here are my reasons why you should listen to me and stop the litter problem.

We would help out the janitors so they have time to do other stuff.

Stop Littering On Campus! 6^th grade essay

	Now you may ask "Do I get anything from this?" YES, YOU DO! There are 50 levels of vocabulary, and it's hard to get that high. On your trial, you can learn many new y words. Learning new vocabulary can help you formulate your ideas better, get better grades in high school, college, and graduate school, comprehend more of what you read, read faster because you	comprehend better, speak more precisely and persuasively, plus score higher on tests. "After you have done Free Rice for a couple of days, you may notice an odd phenomenon. Words that you have never consciously used before will begin to pop into your head while you are writing or speaking. You will feel yourself using and knowing more words."-from Free Rice FAQ's	If it appears that your computer is losing power, it's already donated. That is good to know, so that you trying to find a donate button. Lastly, the website is at Freerice.com. by David Minch & William Lee

Free Rice (continued from page 3)

					Book Reviews (continued from page 5)
	Secrist Middle School Home of the Scorpion .
				A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly   I just couldn’t put this book down. The story is remarkably written by an imaginative writer with marvelous skill. I would recommend this book to people who like to read about the past as		if they where there. The history of A Northern Light is very accurate. The astounding book amazed me by how interesting a book can be. Cirque Du Freak: A Living Nightmare    The Cirque Du Freak series is one	of the best books I’ve ever read. It starts with book one titled A Living Nightmare. It’s about two boys who happen to stumble across an underground circus. They end up seeing the show, but that sets off a horrible chain of events that sadly ends in tragedy. By Alex Gonzales
		3400 S. Houghton Rd. Tucson, Arizona 85730 Phone: (520) 731-5300 Fax: (520) 731-5301 E-Mail: www. tusd1.org Hours: M-Thrs. 7-4 p.m. Wednesdays 7-3 p.m.
				Please Donate Tax Credits-Last Chance to Help Our School
		We’re on the Web! http://ed.web.tusd.k12.az.us/Secrist/
Tucson Unified School District Secrist Middle School 3400 S. Houghton Rd. Tucson, Az. 85730