Cartoon: The Scream

 by Aria H. 

Holiday Survey!

Videography by Aaliyah S. 

Interviews by Jerry L. and Kerianne P.

Survey created by Aria H. and Emery L. 

Take the survey yourself by clicking on this link. We will publish the survey results for the whole school at the end of next week!

News: Veterans Day Assembly

by Jerry L.

Veterans Day is the day when we have to honor the people who help protect and serve our country. Each grade was given a color. 6th grade - white, 7th grade - blue, 8th Grade - Red. The Veteran's Day program was hosted on Friday, November 8th, at 9:00 A.M in the south gym. The public was allowed to attend the program. Once all the grades were in the gym the color guards began putting up the flags. The YMS bands began playing; they did a wonderful job and so did the choir and Orchestra. Then finally YMS special guest gave her speech about how Veterans day is important because people served for our country and how many lives were lost. After that YMS students and staff saw people's family members that served for our country. The YMS thanks everyone for participating in the wonderful 19th Annual Veteran’s Day Program and honoring all who served for us and all who are serving.

Photo Story: Veterans Day Assembly

 photos by Aaliyah S. 

Cartoon - Bread Cat

 by Sofia F. 

Teachers and their Favorite Places

photos and captions by Max A.



Mr. Huber by his very tall cactus



Ms. Savey and her homeroom

Ms. Zimmerman by her fish tank

News: Indoor Marching Show

story by Max A.
photos by Kira K. 

On Monday, November 4, YMS and YHS participated in an indoor marching show for the community of Yankton. This year's theme was 100 years of the Meridian Bridge. Mrs. Belgum told me what she thought about the 7th and 8th graders' performance. "They had an excellent performance. There was some struggle at first, but they made a recovery. They have been working on this piece since August and have been memorizing it since October. "

Even though they struggled with their pieces, the YMS Marching band did a fantastic job. The YHS band did skits after their performance. Next year, today's sixth graders will become seventh graders and be able to perform with the theme of video games, as seen in their trailer for their 2025 performance.

The flag guard and the marching band recreated the Missouri River and the Meridian Bridge, with the flag guard recreating the river and the bridge. In contrast, the marching band recreated the land around the river. They had a fantastic performance, and hopefully, next year's performance will be as good as this one. Maybe next year you will go to the indoor show.

Feature: Thanksgiving Traditions

by Peyton K. 

Mr. Mickelson said that his favorite thing about Thanksgiving is that it marks the beginning of Christmas. Now that's kind of sad because it's Thanksgiving, and all he thinks about is Christmas, but we don’t judge.

We also asked for his favorite food and or drink, which he replied with Cranberry Sprite and Cheesy potatoes. His favorite relative is his cousin Tava. 

Since some of the other interviewees don't celebrate the day of we felt the need to ask when they do, Mr. Mickelson celebrates the day of Thanksgiving. His favorite tradition is watching Christmas movies on Thanksgiving with family. After the second answer about Christmas I asked him if he even celebrates Thanksgiving, which yes he does. 

Mr. Mickelson's favorite thing about Thanksgiving is missing school over break/ teaching. Then we asked if he thought his family did anything specific and he said not really but I have never met someone who celebrates Thanksgiving by doing Christmas things. His advice was to, and I quote “Stay rizzy” Mrs. Anderws said not to put it in, but I have to write what he says. [allowed by Mrs. Andrews :)]

Special Someones

By: Josie A.

Have you ever wondered what a special someone is? Or, what do you have to do to earn it? Maybe you’ve wondered, why do these even exist? I asked Mrs. Todd a few questions about special someones, because she is the one who announces the special someones, and you might get some answers.

What exactly is a special someone? I asked Mrs. Todd that and she told me, “A special someone is someone who does something special for someone else or shows good character traits.” For example, someone falls in the hall and all their stuff goes everywhere, you help them and a teacher sees you, then they might give you a special someone. There are many ways you can get a special someone and you never know when you can get one.

Next, I asked Mrs. Todd, how does she choose the students and teachers? She said, “I pick a name out of the box from each grade and the kids can’t have missing assignments or bad behavior. And the teachers I just randomly pick, but the students can make suggestions on what teacher they want picked.” So, if you get a special someone, bring it down to your box, sixth and eighth graders bring it down to the sixth/eighth grade office and seventh graders bring it to the seventh grade office.

The final question I asked Mrs. Todd was, what prizes do you give out? “The students get a free coupon for a concrete mixer at Culvers and the teachers get to wear sweats or jeans for the day.” says Mrs. Todd. Now that you know what a special someone is you can work on getting one.

Opinion: Fall Weather

by Emery L. 

Personally I love the fall weather. It's not too cold or too hot, it's nice and warm. You can go outside with just a sweatshirt on and not have to wear a coat. You can watch the leaves fall inside or watch a movie. I know some people that do not like fall at all and just stay inside the entire time but that's ok, my opinion is I love fall but some peoples opinions are different, and that’s ok.

Fall is when the pumpkins are ready for harvest and can be decorated with. Pumpkins can be used for pie, and pie is extremely popular in fall. I love my grandmother's pumpkin pie, but she only makes it in the fall.

Fall is also when so many people can earn money from raking leaves. There are so many ways you can earn money in the fall, like bake sales.

This is all why I love the fall.

Color Mixing Contest

by Aria H.

On Tuesday October 22 I asked Mrs. Lincoln here at the middle school about the seventh grade mixing color competition. Basically the rules were:

You can only work with the primary colors which are; red, yellow, and blue and she allowed black and white.

They only got four minutes to mix their paint and could not work over that

They could not help each other with mixing the colors

If the students didn’t help clean the room and their area they would be kicked out

The students had to brush enough paint onto the paint chip/paint sample for Mrs. Lincon to see

There were six winners, one from each class. Their names are: Harper, Aubrey, Nora, Miley, Bella, and Anna. They all won a prize of two extra credit points on whatever assignment they also got to chose their choice of drink that Mrs. Lincoln would buy them. Great job seventh graders!

Gymnastics!

by Emery L. 

The gymnastics team starts in early November, The meeting to get information was October 10th 2024.

Grades 6th—8th can join gymnastics, the gymnastics team has two separate groups depending on your skill level; if you are a complete beginner you would be in the tumble group but if you are semi-advanced you would be in the flip group. The first two weeks everyone goes to the same practice to decide what group you will be in. The first practice is November 4th. This happens every year so if you want to sign up you still can. The practices are two days a week. There are different days for each group. The practices are at the New River City Gymnastics gym near the old JC penny. There are four home meets, and at the end of the year there is a showcase to show what you learned that year. The season lasts till January so it is about three months long. The gymnastics team also has travel meets.

Cross Country Interviews

 

Science Olympiad

by Saige N.

Science Olympiad starts soon!

Science Olympiad is starting up again! The tryouts are in November.

Everyone coming back already knows what it's about but I'm going to tell you anyway.

Science Olympiad is taught by Mrs. Schaeffer (7th grade science teacher) and Mrs. Mehlhaff (6th grade science teacher).

Science Olympiad is where you pick some events and you study for them. There are events from health to getting peoples pingerprints. You compete in a couple places. There are regionals and if you are lucky you could go to nationals. You compete with other middle schools. There is practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

This is great news for everyone else though. To raise money for the program the science olympiad team sells chocolate. It is sold before school, after school, and in homeroom. It is delicious. The crunch one is the best in my opinion. It is only $1 per chocolate bar and for a whole box it is $64 I want to say. You should totally get some.

That’s all I know. But it is really fun. They always want more teammates, so if you like science a lot it’s totally for you and you should check it out.

Homecoming Parade - reaction

story by Peyton K.

photos by Mrs. Andrews

Mrs. Adrews did attend the Yankton Homecoming Parade. Mrs. Adrewes said that she enjoyed the homecoming parade. Her favorite Yankton entry was with both the HS and MS bands. Mrs. Andrews favorite overall homecoming entry was the High School band. She stayed till the end of the parade. Mrs. Andrews likes the band students playing and songs. We asked what her favorite color guard was; it was, again, the High school. Mrs. Andrews's favorite homecoming float was the class reunion of 60 and 50 years. Her favorite song of the two bands was Middle School "Dude Looks Like A Lady." Go Bucks and Gazelles. Mrs. Andrews also took pictures of the homecoming parade.

Feature: Student Teachers

by Dustin S. 

YMS is lucky to have three student teachers this semester. We have Mr. Mickelson who is student teaching with Mrs. Andrews, Mr. Feit who is student teaching in Mrs. Mehlhaff's room, and Ms. Weisenburger who is student teaching with Mrs. Belgum.

When I asked them where they go to school Mr. Feit said USD, Mr. Mickelson said that he goes to Mount Marty, Ms. Weisenburger said she goes USD.

When I asked Why do you want to be a teacher Mr. Feit said that he likes helping kids, Mr. Mickelson said that he wanted to serve others and that he enjoys being in school he also said that he has passion for learning, Ms. Weisenburger said that a lot of teachers made an impact on her and that she thinks education is important and she wants kids to have someone they can look up to.

Mr Feit said that he wants to teach science or anything else and he wants to teach middle school. Mr. Mickelson said he wants to teach English but specifically creative writing or poetry and he wants to teach 7th and 8th grade or college classes because they would be fun to teach. Ms. Weisenburger wants to teach band or orchestra and she wants to teach middle or high school.

When I asked Mr Feit if he had any teachers that really influenced him he said his 6th grade math and science teacher. When I asked Mr. Mickelson he said his 7th grade math teacher Mrs Purdey and one of his college professors. When I asked Ms. Weisenburger, she said Kiley Coyne her band teacher and Karla Chiarello her orchestra teacher.

Homecoming Days Dress-Up Results