By Tiffany Williams
Editor
The Ponoka winners of the Alberta Weekly Newspaper Association Mary Readman 2008 Write On Contest are; Mikaela Ackermann and Caitlin Kreil, with an honourable mention to Tiana Roesler.
The winners stories were sent to AWNA for provincial judging and although they were not winners at the provincial level they did a great job and are the Ponoka winners.
The contest consisted of three different categories; Creative Classifieds (Grades 1 to 3), Junior Reporter (Grades 4 to 6) and Write An Opinion (Grades 7 to 12). The contest is an annual event so watch the Ponoka News or the AWNA website for more information www.awna.com.
The following are the winners’ entries. The contest deadline was April 28. The entries were sent away and the Ponoka News was recently notified that the provincial winners were selected and AWNA sent prizes for the local winners.
The Heart of Music Comes out in Students
By Mikaela Ackermann, Grade 4
On Monday, May 5, 2008 Ponoka Elementary School choir will be participating in Music Monday concert. Music Monday is a way to celebrate the importance and value of music education to Canadians. The school choir will be going to the Collicutt Centre in Red Deer. The idea of Music Monday is that everyone will be singing the theme song at the same time, on the same day, right across the country. The excitement for the choir is to sing accompanied by the Red Deer Symphony Orchestra (RDSO). The choir will also get the privilege of being conducted by RDSO’s maestro, Claude Lapalme. It really will be a thrill!
Mrs. Lewis, the PES choir conductor, believes that music is a very important part of everyone’s education.
“Music Monday will give everyone a chance to share music,” she said. “This will be a wonderful experience for the kids as they will have the chance to sing in a 500 voice choir.”
Mrs. Lewis is convinced that children who have the opportunity to experience music in school will help them to succeed in many different academic careers, for example, math. She looks forward to more Music Mondays in the future.
A Day with the Skaters
By Caitlin Kreil, Grade 6
Have you ever wondered what the Ponoka Skating Club has accomplished all year long? On March 15, 2008, myself, along with about 90 other skaters, put on two performances for our small town. The day before the carnival, many volunteers offered to help set up shiny bright lights and glittery signs at the aging arena. Later that afternoon we had a dress rehearsal to remind us of what we were to do the next day. This was also a time to check lights and music to make sure they were working. Our two performances were at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. the following day.
During the show, the skaters are doing hair and make up and the little ones are getting their moms to help them tie their skates up. If you were to walk through the arena, you probably would have found lots of different emotions. Some kids would be nervous, others might be wild and you may also discover the odd one that can’t wait until it’s over! But we couldn’t have done this without our coaches because they are the ones who taught us how to skate and our parents are also a big part of this because they drove us to practices and paid our way into skating. So the reason we did this ice carnival was to show family and friends what we did all year.
Daisy’s Adventure
By Tiana Roesler, Grade 2 (based on a classified for ‘Puppies for Sale’)
Once there lived a family a family of labs. The mom was named Jordan and the dad Scooter. They lived with two people and their six pups; Lazy, Hazy, Mazy, Busy, Dizzy and Daisy. One day Daisy was reading the newspaper.
“Oh no!” she cried. “The newspaper said six lab pups for sale.” She decided to be a good dog and maybe her owners would change their minds. Late that night she took her owners’ favourite breakfast, pancakes and hid them under her dog pillow. In the morning she heard the people trying to find the pancakes. She waited for 10 seconds flat then handed them the pancakes. The pancakes weren’t wrapped and the people didn’t want dog slobber. They threw the pancakes away and now Daisy was panicking. She needed another plan. Just then the phone rang, “Here’s my chance!” she barked.
Daisy pressed talk “Hello,” a lady’s voice said, “I would like on of your puppies!” Daisy pressed the hang-up button, but the lady called back!
“You can have Daisy,” the owner said.
Daisy went to live in a cream coloured house. She liked her new owners ever better than her old owners! A few weeks later she wrote it all down in her notebook and you’ve just finished reading what she wrote!