January 26 Basketball Game

SDMS VS THOMASVILLE

4:30

January 27 Report Cards Issued

January 29 Basketball Game

SDMS @ BMS

4:30

January 30 Honor Roll Assembly 9:00

February 6 District Spelling Bee

February 12 Parent Conferences

PTO

February 13 Early Release 1:00

February 16 Student Holiday

February 20 PTO Dance 6:00-9:00

February 23 Progress Reports Issued

March 9 3rd Rotation Begins

March 26 Dance 6:00-9:00

March 26 3rd Quarter Ends

March 27 Student Holiday

March 30 4th Quarter Begins

Comments

from the

Principal

Loretta Fulbright

I invite you to read

this edition of “The

Growl,” which focuses

on student achievement.

Grade levels share the

topics and objectives

learned in each class.

Many of the articles are

written by students from

their unique

perspectives. It‟s

exciting to read their

descriptions of what

they are learning and

what interests them.

Report cards will be

issued on Tuesday,

January 27, and our

Honor Roll Assembly

will be held on Friday,

January 30 at 9:00 a.m.

in the gym. Those

students who are on the

Honor Roll will receive

an invitation for their

parents in their report

card envelopes. Please

remember that

Parent/Teacher

Conference Week is

February 9-13. You will

receive a letter inviting

you to choose a time to

conference with your

child‟s teachers.

As we begin the

second semester of the

school year, it is

imperative that we focus

on academic

achievement and

preparation for the EOG.

It is very important that

students attend school

for the entire school day

if at all possible. Many

of our students have

excessive absences and

tardies. Others have

numerous early

dismissals. When

students are absent, they

are missing valuable

instructional time. We

are conducting

intervention sessions for

students needing

academic assistance on

each Tuesday and

Thursday from 8-8:30

a.m., and many teachers

are offering additional

tutoring sessions before

and after school. When

students are tardy or

leave for early dismissal,

they miss these valuable

resources. We will

begin school-wide

before and after school

tutorial programs and

enrichment sessions next

month. More

information will be

forthcoming regarding

these opportunities.

Parents, please make

every effort to support

your child and our

school by encouraging

regular attendance. We

certainly want your

child to meet teacher

and local/state testing

standards. Thank you

for partnering with us to

make your child

successful.

Music Class

With Mrs. Hinson

The Middle School

Music Classes had a

wonderful nine weeks.

The 6th

, 7th

, and 8th

grade students worked

very hard to learn their

music.

On December 17th

,

the students traveled to

Mt. Vista Health Park to

perform for the

residents. The

combined students

performed “Joyful,

Joyful” and “Little St.

Nick” for the residents.

The 6th

graders

performed various

seasonal songs on their

recorders, the 7th

graders

on their tone chimes,

and the 8th

graders on

the ukuleles.

The show ended with

a line dance to “Run,

Run Rudolph” and

“We wish you a

Merry Christmas.”

The students worked

very hard and ended the

school session with

caroling around the

school. I am very proud

of all of the students.

EXPLORING

TECHNOLOGY

With Mr. Jones

The second nine

weeks is ending with a

CO2 car race and rocket

launching in the

Synergistics Lab.

Students have been

building model bridges,

programming robots and

CNC router, creating

house plans on a CADD

computerized program,

building rockets, and

model racecars, using

the sun to power electric

cars, building electronic

projects, flying

airplanes, exploring

inside the Briggs and

Stratton engine and

solving crimes using

forensic science. This

truly is an exciting class

for our students at South

Davidson Middle School

and I invite all parents to

come by and see this

great learning lab.

Please feel free to

contact me at

gjones@davidson.k12.n

c.us.

PE/Health

With Mr. Cherry, Mr.

Frizzell, & Mrs. Smith

Physical Education

Classes are off and

running!! Classes are

completing the Pacer

and the Presidential

Fitness Tests. Our New

Year‟s Resolution is to

be in better shape for

2009!!

The ordered PE

uniforms are here!! If

your student had placed

an order, he or she was

instructed to contact

Mrs. Smith to receive

your order. Sorry about

the delay!!

Health classes are

learning about nutrition,

self-esteem,

communicable and non-

communicable disease,

and CPR (8th

).

Remind your student

to dress out for PE and

get moving!! Yes, they

can wear a hoodie or

sweatpants over their PE

uniform when it is cold!!

Language Arts

With Mrs. Salley

Time really flies by if

one is having fun in

language arts class in the

6th

grade. This past nine

weeks we have

completed our study of

folk tales, tall tales, fairy

tales, myths, and

legends. Two of my

classes used eInstruction

as a review for the first

part of the year.

Students really enjoyed

clicking those answers.

We also used Inspiration

to make a graphic aid

involving

characterization in

reading stories. Also

with the computers,

students made Trading

Cards based on a book

character.

In the near future,

we will progress to a

unit on poetry, including

writing some poems of

our own. People usually

cringe at the thought of

writing poetry, but there

are so many easy and

different ways to write

it. Perhaps these styles

ring a bell: Haiku,

cinquain, free verse,

concrete, found,

couplets, acrostic,

limericks, or narrative.

Don‟t worry. We CAN

do this. Honest!

In grammar class, we

will be studying verbs

and prepositions. Do

you remember that a

verb has 3 tenses, along

with 3 principal parts?

Remember to read

something every day. To

become a better reader,

one has only to read a

lot. (And don‟t say

ain‟t!)

Math

With Mr. Chapman

In Mr. Chapman‟s

6th

grade math classes,

we have been working

on fractions. We have

simplified, compared,

added, and subtracted

fractions. We are

finishing up by

multiplying and dividing

fractions.

Understanding fractions

is important in solving

real life problems and

for our success on the

EOG.

Next, we will study

algebra, including

integers (positive and

negatives) and solving

one- and two-step

equations. Then, we

will work on ratios,

proportions and

percents.

Most of our 6th

graders are working

hard, listening and

participating in class and

doing their homework.

All of this is important

to help us understand

and do well on the EOG.

Mr. Chapman is still

offering extra math help

Tuesday after school,

from 3:05 until 4:00,

and Thursday before

school, from 7:15 until

7:50, in room 109.

Social Studies

With Ms. Reid

In Social Studies, we

are winding up our study

of South America. We

have looked at all areas

of this continent. We

worked with the

geography, seasons,

climate, government,

resources, culture, and

much more. The

students also looked at

each of the countries

individually. They were

able to use technology

and research to complete

several projects

throughout their study.

We will be moving

on to the continent of

Europe. This continent

is completely different

in so many ways…and

there are so many more

countries located here.

While learning about

Europe, the students will

be able to create a power

point presentation, a

newsletter, and other various projects. When

we are finished, the

students will be able to

compare South America

and Europe. They will

be able to recognize

differences between the

two, but still see that

there are some

similarities.

Language Arts &

Science

With Mrs. C. Jackson

Written by

Logan Berg

We have learned a

lot since the beginning

of this school year. In

Science, we recently

began doing a project

about volcanoes,

earthquakes, and

tsunamis. We could

choose any of those

natural disasters and

work in groups to do

research and write a

story about what we

chose. The class has

been using the computer

lab and media center to

do research. We must

have at least three

different sources for our

information. Using the

information we find,

each group will produce

a final product which

will be a picture book.

In Language Arts, we

have been reading

various genres of

literature. Our latest

was a biography about

Matthew Henson.

Matthew Henson was an

African American who

helped Robert Peary

discover the North Pole.

The story told of

Matthew‟s hardships as

he was growing up, but

how his luck changed as

he got older. After

helping discover the

North Pole, Matthew

was denied the honor of

receiving recognition

because of his race.

This was another

example of how being

prejudice can hurt

people. Number The

Stars, a historical

fiction, is a novel our

class read that dealt with

the theme of prejudice.

Math & Social Studies

By

Mrs. F. Jackson

Written by

Logan Berg

In Social Studies we

have been finishing up

on South America with

Colombia, Suriname,

Guyana, and French

Guiana. In class we are

picking a country in

South America to write

questions about on a

wheel. Other classmates

must try to answer the

questions, and when

they get to the next

question, the answer to

the last question will be

there. We may pick any

of the thirteen countries.

In Math, we have

been learning about

integers like zero, one,

two, and negative one,

negative two also. We

just started a project in

which we make an

integer number line and

label where certain fish

live. In the book are

three fish, like the Blue

Marlin, Lantern fish and

Ribbon fish. Then, we

pick two fish of our

own. After that, we draw

a picture of them where

they live. At the end, we

draw Denton, NC where

it is at sea level and a

picture of yourself doing

what you like to do.

Denton is 698 feet above

sea level.

Graphs are also in

our current chapter. We

read a list of coordinates

that we place on a map.

After every dot we

connect it to the last by a

straight line into which

we read „line ends”. At

the end it will form a

picture. Our first one

was two people

celebrating New Year‟s

Day. The next was a

steaming drink in a

teacup. The last one, for

homework, looks like a

snowman being built by

a child.

All classes have been

working extremely hard

all year, and these are

just a few examples of

what we have done

recently. There will be

even more work to write

about in the upcoming

days, weeks, and

months. Every class will

be working hard the rest

of the school year,

hopefully.

A big

to Logan Berg who

wrote the article for

the Jackson team in

the November growl.

Science

With Mrs. L. Smith

Written by

Haylie Moore

Hi my name is

Haylie Moore. I‟m in

Mrs. Smith‟s sixth grade

Science class. In our

class, we have learned

what the earth is made

of: the crust, mantle,

outer core, and inner

core. We have learned

that mountains are

formed on convergent

boundaries where two

plates come together and

collide. We also found

that the closer you get to

the Earth‟s center, the

hotter it gets, and there

is more pressure. This is

actually known as the

inner core. Did you

know, the Earth‟s

surface can change

under the ocean? The

surface, or plates can

collide, slide, or move.

When one plate goes

under another, this is

called subduction. We

have also learned that

volcanoes can be found

under the ocean! We

look forward to studying

more about earthquakes

and volcanoes.

Math

With Mrs. Thompson

By Chase Davis

In the last nine weeks

of math, we have

learned that compatible

numbers are numbers

that you divide.

Fractions have formulas

you have to divide,

subtract, multiply, and

add. The GCF (greatest

common factor) is the

two biggest multiples

that go together. Ratios

are the comparisons of

two numbers. Mixed

numbers are numbers

with a whole number

and a fraction. You have

to define all of the

mixed numbers. Also,

you have to change from

fractions to mixed

numbers. There are

many different kinds of

rules and formulas.

At the beginning of

class, we do an essential

question. We also do

questions called warm-

ups. An essential

question is a question

that will most likely

occur on the EOG. A

warm-up is a page with

about six different types

of questions. Some of

the questions that we do

on our warm-ups are

very hard compared to

the essential question. A

lot of people in my class

have a hard time with

the essential question. I

usually have a hard time

with the word problems!

Pre-Algebra

With

Mrs. Thompson

By Sydney Parks

Math is a subject that

will help you a lot in the

future. My favorite part

of it is the projects. The

most recent project was

our dream houses, which

was cool because we

could make it however

we wanted. We had to

find the perimeter and

area of each room.

Another project was to

graph your

neighborhood. We were

learning about

coordinate graphs, and

we plotted our

neighborhood on a

graph and colored it. We

are working on a project

now that is called the

scale model of your

room. We can either

make it 3D in a shoe box

or draw it.

Right now, we are

learning about scale

drawings. You make a

scale drawing by

looking at a scale. A

scale is something that

tells you how many

inches equals how many

feet, for example 1 inch

= 9 feet. So, if you

wanted to draw a tennis

court with a length of 36

ft. and a width of 18 ft.,

your scale would be

three inches in length

and two inches in width.

We have also learned

about ratios. Ratios are

numbers that can be

written as a fraction.

Our assessments

aren‟t like regular

assessments. The last

one we had was with our

vocabulary words. We

did this in our groups.

We had to write the

definition of each word

on the word wall and

write an example of

each one. We also write

stories. The two most

recent ones are the

scientific notation story

and our fraction story.

For the scientific

notation story, we had to

write an original short

story that contained ten

scientific notations. The

fraction story had to

have at least ten

fractions in it.

Every week we have

daily essential questions.

We also have warm-ups.

Warm-ups are questions

that we have to answer

to start the day‟s math

lesson. Essential

questions are questions

that give us an idea of

what we will be learning

that day. We also have

mental math, which is

something we do once a

week. All of these

activities and lessons

help prepare us for

whatever our futures

will bring.

Science

With Mrs. Louya

By Lindsay Miller

In science class,

we‟ve been learning

quite a few fun and

exciting new things!

From the beginning of

the year, we have been

learning so many

interesting facts. In the

past nine weeks, our

class has been studying

all about weather.

Weather has

numerous parts. Some

include precipitation,

cloud types, and severe

weather. We recently

have been working with

partners on a project

about weather around

the world. One way that

we learn more facts is

when we read Time

magazine. We also

enjoy researching in the

computer lab to find

accurate information on

weather. To help us

understand maps better,

we‟ve been using

symbols to show what

the climate will be

during the week.

While studying

severe weather, our

science class has learned

all about thunderstorms,

tornadoes, and

hurricanes. We all

learned many important

ways to stay safe during

severe weather. Science

has been a learning

success so far, and I am

prepared to learn so

much more as the school

year continues!

Social Studies

With Mrs. Marshall

By Breana Smith

In Mrs. Marshall‟s

social studies class, her

students have been

learning tons of

information throughout

the year. “Yes, it is true

that we have been

learning a bunch of

information this year,

but the last three months

have been the most

exciting,” says one of

Mrs. Marshall‟s

students, Callan Loflin.

Mrs. Marshall‟s students

have been learning

about the main three

religions, the Middle

East countries, and West

Africa during the past

three months. The three

main religions include

Judaism, Christianity,

and Islam. Judaism is

the oldest of the three

religions, and its

followers are called

Jews or Hebrews.

Christianity is the next

oldest of the three and

its followers are known

as Christians. Islam is

the newest of the three

religions, and its

followers are called

Muslims. All three

religions have the same

belief that there is only

one God, known as

monotheism. However,

when it comes to the

prophet of God, the

three religions differ

quite a bit. Judaism

holds the belief that the

prophet has not yet

come. Christianity

believes Jesus is the

prophet of God. Islam

has the belief that the

prophet of God is

Muhammad. So after the

class finished reading

about the three religions

in their textbook, they

made a foldable with ten

facts about each

religion. The class also

did other activities with

the religions, such as

making up their own

Ten Commandments

and making posters of

the life of Moses. After

they finished their

activities, the whole

class took a quiz on

Judaism and a test on all

three religions. This

wrapped up the

introduction to the three

main world religions,

and the class moved on

to study countries of the

Middle East.

To introduce the

Middle East, the

students read from their

textbook and viewed a

movie called “Arabian

Nights.” The video is

about a king who is

lonely and filled with

anger and hatred. The

king‟s wife had cheated

on him with his own

brother, and when the

king threw his knife at

his brother, he missed

and accidentally killed

his wife instead. The

king wants to marry a

new wife, but he plans

to kill her the night of

their marriage. The girl

who marries the king is

the daughter of the

king‟s assistant, so she

is aware that he is trying

to kill her, but she

distracts him with

marvelous stories.

Eventually, the king

grows to love her. So

now the hangman is

furious because the king

fell in love with the girl,

so he doesn‟t get to kill

her! So the hangman

makes a visit with the

king‟s brother. They

make plans to go to war

with the king‟s army,

kill the king, then let his

brother take the king‟s

place, so he can give the

girl to the hangman and

let her die. But the king

goes to war with his

brother and wins, killing

his brother in the

process. “I thought the

movie was entertaining,

and I really like the

story that the wife told

about the three

brothers,” said one of

Mrs. Marshall‟s

students, Katelyn

Shelton.

After the movie, the

class began working on

a project called Magic

Carpets. To begin this

project, the class got

information from

www.culturegrams.com

about their assigned

countries and put it on a

culture gram sheet.

Next, the class cut open

paper bags, on which

they put their

information. Finally, the

students decorated the

paper bags to make them

look like magic carpets.

“On my magic carpet, I

did the Middle East

country, Jordan. In the

process of making the

magic carpet, I learned a

great deal about my

country as well as other

Middle Eastern

countries,” said Lindsay

Miller.

The latest thing Mrs.

Marshall‟s class has

been studying is West

Africa. The class read

several pages about

West Africa in their

textbook and answered

questions about their

reading. Then they were

able to make Kente

cloths, which they

finished a few days ago.

Kente cloths are colorful

pieces of fabric put

together to make

clothing. The students

also completed other

activities about West

Africa and watched a

video of the many

animals in that country.

That is the latest

news from Mrs.

Marshall‟s social studies

extravaganza. Look for

more news as our

international adventures

in learning continue.

Language Arts: I’m

Loving It!

With Ms. Pierce

By Katelyn Shelton

Recently in language

arts, one of the major

things we have been

learning is stems. Stems

are the roots of words,

which all have special

meanings, that help us

figure out the meanings

of bigger words when

we know them. We also

learn specific

vocabulary words that

contain the stems. We

have just finished taking

a cumulative test of all

the stems we‟ve learned

so far.

Another main thing

we have been doing in

language arts is

Daybooks. Our

Daybooks are stitch-

bound composition

books. We write in our

Daybooks nearly

everyday. We use them

to store information and

practice our language

arts skills. Some of the

things we write in our

Daybooks include notes

about the four levels of

grammar, which are 1)

parts of speech, 2) parts

of sentences, 3) phrases,

and 4) clauses). We also

use the Daybooks for

quotes, dialogue, four-

column notes and other

reading responses,

information about

Marzano‟s Thinking

Skills, essential

questions, thinking

maps, and various

writing strategies, such

as F-PAC, RAFT, and

writing good beginnings

to “hook” our readers.

The very BIG thing

included in Ms. Pierce‟s

class is Everyday Pages.

These are papers that we

write Monday through

Thursday. Each Friday

we turn in four pages.

The best thing about

Everyday Pages is that

we can pick the topic we

wish to write about. I

really do enjoy

Everyday Pages. They

give me a good way to

express my emotions

and feelings and help me

practice my writing.

About a month ago,

Ms. Pierce started

reading a book to us

called The Tale of

Despereaux, by Kate

DiCamillo. This book is

about a tiny mouse with

giant ears that has to do

courageous things for

the princess he loves.

Ms. Pierce is using this

book as a read-aloud. I

enjoy this book so

much! It is very

interesting.

We have also been

using the writing

process and editing tools

to write tons of papers.

Sometimes we write

letters, which is my

favorite type of writing.

I think they are the

easiest!

We have done these

things and so much

more. I think that

language arts has to be

my favorite subject. I

really love language

arts! I have so much fun

learning reading, writing

and thinking skills in

Ms. Pierce‟s language

arts class.

Science

With Mrs. Ridge

By Cody Grubb

This nine weeks in

Mrs. Ridge‟s science

classes, we have been

learning a lot about the

weather and

meteorology. We

created a station model,

which is a thing that you

use to measure weather.

We have studied how to

track and categorize

hurricanes, as well as

what kind of houses are

most hurricane proof.

We‟ve also learned the

differences in cyclones,

typhoons, and

hurricanes... there is no

difference in the type of

storm, only the location!

In our study of

meteorology, we have

learned all about clouds,

rain, sleet, snow, fog,

fronts, and isotherms.

There are three main

types of clouds: cirrus,

cumulus, and stratus.

Rain falls when the

clouds get full of water.

When rain falls and the

temperature is below

freezing, the rain turns

into sleet. Water vapor

in a cloud is converted

directly into ice crystals,

which fall as snow. Fog

is a low cloud that

covers the ground.

During a warm front, a

fast moving warm air

mass overtakes a slow

moving cold air mass. A

cold front is the opposite

of this. Isotherms are

lines joining places that

have the same

temperatures.

As you can see, there

is a lot to learn about the

weather! We have used

some of what we learned

in science class to

complete a weather

component for our

social studies research

projects on the Middle

East. It is interesting to

see how things we learn

in different subjects fit

together.

Social Studies

With Mrs. Ridge

By Brandi Smith

In Mrs. Ridge‟s

social studies class, we

have been working on a

project about Middle

Eastern countries. My

partner, Faith Hughes,

and I are learning about

a country called

Afghanistan.

For our project, we

have to create two

posters. One poster

contains the map and

flag of our country. The

flag‟s colors are black,

red and green. These

colors are symbolic to

the Afghan people.

Black stands for

independence. Red

stands for the blood shed

in war. And last, but not

least, green represents

their Islamic faith. Our

second poster is a three-

day forecast of the

weather in Afghanistan.

Today, it is 28 degrees

Fahrenheit outside, with

scattered clouds and

wind coming from the

south-southeast.

In addition to these

posters, we are learning

other kinds of

information about our

assigned countries, such

as major sports, facts

about the capitol city

and other major cities,

and meteorological

patterns. We discovered

that in Afghanistan, the

most popular sports are

wrestling and soccer.

The capitol of

Afghanistan is Kabul.

There are two other

major cities in

Afghanistan, Kandahar

and Herat. We created

three isotherms in

Afghanistan. They are

10 degrees, 20 degrees,

and 30 degrees.

Temperatures run

mainly in the 40s and

50s, which is pretty

chilly.

To conclude our

project, we must present

a news broadcast about

our assigned country.

Our presentations are

videotaped and everyone

gets to watch them. It is

so much fun to be an

Afghani weather person,

even if it is only make

believe!

Eight Grade Field

Study Articles

U.S.S. North Carolina

By Wyatt Beck

The U.S.S. North

Carolina was a WWII

battleship that fought in

the Pacific War against

the Japanese. The date

the North Carolina was

commissioned on was

April 9, 1941. It earned

15 battle stars and

fought in every major

battle of the Pacific.

From Iwo Jima to the

homeland of Japan. The

guns it has on it are 16

inches, five inches, 20

millimeters, 40

millimeters. The

battleship has four

propellers turned by

turbines located in four

engine rooms. What

powered the turbines

was steam. Her Crew

was a total of 2,339. two

to three Marine officers,

121-144 officers, 2,134-

2180 enlisted men, and

83-85 Marines. The

plane that was on the

ship was a Kingfisher

airplane. Two of the

missions it performed

where search and rescue

missions and recon. The

name of the flag on the

bow was the Union

Jack. Two of the repair

rooms on the ship where

the Tailor and the

Cobble Shop. The place

were the sick and

injured stayed was the

Sick Bay. It was

torpedoed by a Japanese

submarine on September

15, 1942. Five of the

ship's men died from it.

The U.S.S. North

Carolina has some of

the same things a city

has. Such as a barber

shop, dentist, fire

station, hospital, ice

cream shop, and a sports

room. She was

decommissioned on

June 27, 1947. It arrived

in Wilmington on

October 2, 1961. The

memorial dedication

was on April 29, 1962.

The length of the ship is

728 feet, eight and seven

eighths inches. Its beam

is 108 feet, three and

seven eighths. Her

maximum speed is 28

knots (32.3 miles per

hour). It was built in the

New York Naval Yard,

New York. The Keel

was laid on October 27,

1937.

2009 Avalanche

By Brook Miller

Our Wilmington trip

that we went on was not

all about having fun. We

had to do work while

visiting each place. We

also had to do math such

as finding the weight of

a vehicle of our choice

and trying to find how

many of those it would

take to be equivalent to

the Battleship unloaded

and loaded. The U.S.S

North Carolina weighs

36,600 tons unloaded so

that would be 13,362.5

avalanches. The ship

loaded is 44,800 tons,

and that would be

16,356.3 avalanches.

Now if you wanted to

know how many of your

cars that would be, all

you have to do is take

the ship‟s weight

unloaded(36,600) and

multiply it by how many

pounds are in a ton

(2000) then divide it by

how many pounds your

car is and that is how

many cars it is. You can

do this for the ship

loaded too. The ship

loaded is 44,800 tons.

So take this information

and do the same process

you did for the ship

unloaded.

The Fort Fisher

Hermit

By Kagan Hill

The life story of Robert

Harrill, the Ft. Fisher

Hermit is one of

happiness, sadness, and

intrigue. Robert Harrill

was born on Groundhog

Day, 1893, to what

appeared to be a normal

family. However, his

family life was soon to

make a dramatic turn.

As a young boy, Robert

loved to explore and

play in the woods. He

was a true outdoorsman

who appreciated nature.

In addition, school was

easy for him, and he

proved himself to be a

gifted student. While

these parts of his life

were wonderful, great

sadness came about.

Robert‟s mother died

and eventually, his

father remarried.

According to Robert, his

stepmother was a tyrant

who screamed at him

and brutally beat him.

He escaped to nature,

books, and school. Life

at home became so

difficult that it was

almost unbearable.

Since he was

stimulated by learning,

he went to college to

further pursue his

education. There, he

met Katie McCormick, a

ravishing young lady

whom he eventually

married. The couple

had a family, and Robert

made a living by being a

peddler, of sorts. Katie‟s

family did not approve

of Robert and the hard

life that the family lived.

Robert was committed

involuntarily to

Broughton Mental

Hospital by Katie‟s

parents. He simply left

one day, and the

marriage worsened to

the point that Katie went

to Pennsylvania to take a

housekeeping job. Not

long after the move to

Pennsylvania, Katie

divorced Robert and

married her employer.

As if this blow was

not devastating enough,

Alvin (their son) jumped

off of a railroad bridge

and died in the hospital.

After Alvin‟s death,

Robert became more

depressed and

withdrawn. He packed a

few belongings and ran

away from Shelby,

never to look back.

Robert wound up at Ft.

Fisher, North Carolina

on a very deserted,

sandy, barren, piece of

land. He found a WWII

bunker to use as shelter.

Life was cruel and the

elements were

excruciatingly raw.

Physically, Robert

suffered through cold

and heat, mosquitoes

and salt, hurricanes and

violent winds.

Nevertheless, the hermit

found peace and fame in

that desolate place. He

had many visitors and

many gracious friends.

Managing his life

became easier for him in

this harsh environment.

While some people

would be very distressed

by the living conditions

of his life, he seemed to

be genuinely happy.

However, some people

that Robert called

“hooligans” started to

harass him occasionally.

They would steal his

money, physically

assault him, and

vandalize his property.

Ultimately, some of

these “hooligans” cost

Robert Harrill his life.

In conclusion, Robert

Harrill‟s life was one of

much happiness,

wrenching tragedy, and

unanswered questions.

Until this day, no one

knows who was

responsible for Robert

Harrill‟s brutal death.

The answer to that

question lies in the

shifting sands of Ft.

Fisher.

The Jellyfish

By Tyler Coe

The Jellyfish is one

of the most unique

animals in the world.

For one, it can be found

in nearly any body of

saltwater. Many

scientists believe that

they are made of up to

98% water. There is also

a huge variety of

jellyfish. They can be

purple, brown, red,

black, or a clear-like

color. Jellyfish can be

microscopic in size or

they can get as big as

seven feet, 2.1 meters,

wide. There have even

been jellyfish with

tentacles more then one

hundred feet, thirty

meters, long.

Jellyfish are boneless, so

they have to be

supported by a thick

layer of a jelly like

substance called

Mesogloea.

In my opinion, the most

unique thing about the

jellyfish is that it has no

respiratory, circulatory,

excretionary, or even

nervous systems!

All of these facts

support my reasoning

that jellyfish are very

cool and interesting

animals.

The Moray Eel

By Tyler Coe

When most people

think about the Moray

Eel, they think of a

green snake-like

creature lurking in the

bottom of the ocean. Is

that a fair stereotype

though? How much do

we really know about

the Moray Eel?

Well, we know that

although it spends most

of it‟s time in caves

waiting for prey, it does

not have to be green.

Many are a brownish

color.

The Moray Eel has over

one hundred vertebrae!

It also has a great

variety within it‟s two

hundred species.

Scientists know that

they are nocturnal

predators. Some of the

things they catch are

small reef fish, octopi,

shrimp, crabs, lobster,

and sea urchins.

I think there is a lot

more to the Moray Eel

then most people think.

Fort Fisher

Historical Site

By April Marsh

Fort Fisher is a neck of

land in southern North

Carolina near the mouth

of the Cape Fear River.

It is located in

Wilmington, North

Carolina and protects

the new inlet at the Cape

Fear River. Fort Fisher

is the largest and one of

the most important

earth-work fortifications

in the south. There were

two major battles fought

at Fort Fisher.

The first major attack

or battle was on

December 24th, 1864.

The U.S.S. Louisiana

planned to destroy Fort

Fisher. Well the U.S.S.

Louisiana drifted off

course and was in the

middle of the sea. It was

a powder boat; they had

loaded it with

ammunition. With all

that ammunition and

powder for guns, the

ship blew up. It only

shook the fort, but did

no damage.

The second major

attack or battle was on

January 12th - 15th,

1865. Almost a year

after the first. This

attack was when the

union came in and tried

to take control of

Wilmington.

Confederate soldiers

could not do it all by

themselves, so they

called for backup, the

colored troops. It was

not enough because the

union got full control of

Wilmington, NC.

Everyday life at the

fort was not always

easy. People were away

from their families.

They had a telegraph

office to contact family

and friends. Also, they

had a bombproof

hospital if you were

injured or needed care.

They had interior rooms;

they were connected by

underground

passageways. The fort

had 15 mounds.

Today Fort Fisher is

an historical tourist site.

Only 10% of it remains.

It has been eroded by

the ocean. People have

built roads, houses,

beaches, and much more

near it.