• Did I state my opinion clearly?
• Did I use good reasons?
• Did I support each reason with facts and examples?
• Does my writing follow in good order.
• Did I use a good beginning and ending.

Chris P

I think we should be able to hunt for swans. They are could be killing people like if people are swimming at the beach, and a mom is swimming with her baby and a swan comes up and kills the baby. Now there is no reason for that.

There are too many swans. When your’e duck hunting you have to wait till the duck moves, out or the swans move, away. Then when you shoot the DNR might think that you are shooting at the swans. Now is that lame or what!

Swans are mean. When your trying to play with your dog they hiss and get all rowdy. They cut my dogs eye once. When people ride wave runners or jet skies they get chased. Or when your tubing they chase you. When your swimming they poop by you.

Now I’m not saying we should shoot them all the time. Just in Seasons. For example we should hunt them like ducks. Open for a month or two then let them live for the rest of the year. Then if they start going extinct let them live for a year. I think we should be able to shoot swans.

Brandon L

I believe I can get more allowance . I have been doing more work. I have been doing a lot of chores. So mabe I should have more money.

Joey

A controversy in the NBA lockout is whether the players should raise their money or lower their money. The fans think the players should just lower the money and get on with the basketball season. Others like the President of the NBA think, ((hey, wait a minute we’re paying you million’s of dollars and you want more money!)) Personally, I think the President of the NBA should not give the players any more money. They’re just playing a game of basketball. They’re getting paid for it! Two ways that the President of basketball could help solve this problem are by telling the players if they want more money then they just can not play. I think they would be smart enough to realize they have enough money and they should be proud to be able to play on a proffesional basketball team. Another reason is to raise the prices to see a basketball game. It may cost more but if you’re a real fan one dollar couldn’t hurt. In conclusion, I want people to support me, my ideas, and my letter by sending letters to the President of basketball suggesting ways to unlock the lockout. It would be a big help if you help support all my ideas and letters and stuff like that.

Mathew

We should make airplane safer. We should have two engine in case one of the other brakes down. We should make more airplanes so we don’t have to wait that long. We should make like a jet like so in case of a emergency we can get there a little faster.

How we gonna make more money? We can sell ticketss four a little bit more money. Well the air port can sell suitcases incase somebody’s suitcase is getting old. They can get around a lot better.

Let’s talk about those crashes. they were not your fault. It was not the pilot’s fault. And it wasn’t the builders fault. It was no bodys fault. That is why I was suggestesting to have two engines. Then people won’t be scared to go on a plane. There should be a bar and a swimming pool on the airplane. Where are we goingto make all this money. Tell the president to stop giving money to other country. We should make more room. There should be a person assigned to you. They would make you feel better.You push the button and the lady or man will come to you and you tell them you want a glass of water or it is dinner time and you want food. I think with these changes people won’t be so scared to go on an airplane.

Jeremy

Football is a fun sport most of the time, some times people make fouls it could be your team or t he other team. There our two cinds of football flag football & tackle football. My opion is tackle football is better then flag football because it is rogh. tackle f ootball is plaid all over the wourld by everbuty so is flag football, but tackle is plad perfensheley

Emily E

I think we need more play ground equipment. I would like stuff like tire swings, regular swings, a merry-go-round, and monkey bars. Also we need more basket balls, soccer balls, foot balls and for the winter we need more sleds. We really don’t have much of a play ground. Other schools that are smaller have bigger play grounds then us, and we have a big school but a little play ground. Before we made the new play ground the old one was bigger. We have 200 and something kids in the elementary at school and some kids have to play in the gym. I am not saying that I don’t like it, but we need more. The amount of kids that go to the playground at a time is about 40 kids. It is way too crowded! If we don’t get anymore equipment then at least give us some swings because almost all schools have swings but us. I know we have a cool playground now, but I really think it’s not enough! We have tons of kids so we should all be able to go outside at the same time. The Arcadia school has a bigger playground and they have a much smaller school. We have nice things already but like I said I think we need more! So that’s what I really want for around our school district.

Brenen

They should stop killing the animals, because they will go to be extinct. If they might stop cutting down the rain forest maybe the won’t go extinct It will save their food. Stop the poachers from killing them too. They are killing them for their skin so they can get money. They should put up a really high fine. They are making them endangered, that means there are very few left. I think we should all sign a petition to make the animals protected. Some animals have all ready became extinct. For example the Dodo bird went extinct because we ate them all for dinner. The passenger pidgin went extinct because everybody shot them for a sport. That’s not fair because now we don’t get to see them anymore. I think they should stop killing the animals because I really like them.

Amber

I don’t think people should be left out on streets with nothing to eat and no home. I mean its like hello people there are many ways that we can help the like food pantry. Just think for two minutes and ask your self how many people in the USA that are poor and have no house, holey pants and shirts some don’t even have shoes. So right now there are people walking on dirt, snow (in the winter)sticks, leafs and hot cement (in the summer).Think how many poor people are digging in trash cans just for something to eat, and how many people are trying to live in peoples old barns. See now what I am trying to get to you. If you don’t heres what I am trying to get to you. That there are so many people out there starving trying to get a home and something to eat, toys for there children. They are out there right now hoping that you will be there hero and save them I bet you each night they are praying for you to save them. So now people our job is to save the poor. So now go and help them.

Tara

I think that no one should be able to pollute. It is hurting our environment. We should recycle more and not just put things in the trash. We should also make compost piles. Kids and adults should take more notice of the pollution and help clean it up. Because we don’t want us or our future children to live in a trashed up environment. When I get off the bus there is a lot of trash like candy papers and other things. When people litter it is hurting mother nature and the land that we live on. This is not only the land that we live on, it’s the air that we breath in. I think that we should pick up all of the trash so that we can live in a better world. We need to encourage more people to recycle and not put paper and pop bottles in the trash. If people would take their pop bottles to the nearest food market they might take the pop bottles. They will give you money instead of putting them in the trash. The Onekama school has a big trailer to put their paper in. When it is full, people come to pick it up. But if you don’t want to take your paper to Onekama school I think that you should try and find the closes place to you.

Kelsey

At our school we have a program called peace makers. Peace makers means that we go outside with the little kids on one of their recesses . I think we should go outside with them on all their recesses. Some examples why we go outside with them is so they don’t get in fights and start punching and kicking. Another reason is so they will use our new playground equipment right. Sometimes it’s hard because a lot of kids don’t listen but I try to nice and a good role model. I go out on Thursday and I really look forward to it. When I go out I mostly play with the good kids because I don’t like getting kids in trouble. If something goes wrong though I try to do the best I can. When I go out I really look forward to the fun and lots of hugs. Some of the games we play when I go out are frozen tag, and a game where you have to get bad people and put them in jail. Another one is boys chase girls or girls chase boys. I’m glad that Ms. Chris made peace makers because I get to skip a little bit of school. I thinks it’s good to have peace makers so we can help kids be kind.

John

I ,John ,believe that the world should take more showers. Maybe we would feel better. Maybe then the world would be a happier place, because it makes me happy when I take a shower. Maybe it would work for others of the world. We would be cleaner. Then we would also not have to worry about so many diseases. You should take at least Two showers a day, one in the morning and one in the night. That way we would not have to wash the sheets on our beds so many times. Before you go out for dinner at a fancy restaurant, take a shower. If you use soap (antibacterial) and shampoo you will usually smell better. Then you won’t get embarrassed if someone says,” Hey what smells so bad?” If you don’t take at least one shower a day not only will you smell bad but you might have to worry about a common disease. For example the flu, the mumps, and the chicken pox. If you would, please take more showers.

Too much pollution

Jessica

There is too much pollution on this earth. There are a lot of ways people could make less pollution. Like people could make shinny boards to write on instead of paper and that would solve their problem. Waste is also a big problem. Like the Grand Rapids river for instance. The river is brown from unwanted waste. Why don’t people bury it like they could? Killing trees is one more huge problem. The trees clean up the air for us to breath. Two weeks ago I planted about 100 pine trees for our yard. I really enjoyed it. It would take those people a week to plant 10,000 trees. I don’t think it would hurt them. Cars pollute so much today it is unthinkable. There’s about eight billion people in the world. Do you know how many cars that is. Some people have two or three cars to a family! They could come up with something. Like sun cars or go back to horse and wagon. Garbage is big. people need to recycle. With out recycle the world would be lost. I think people could work harder to save our planet.

Nichole

I don’t think it’s right that animals are disappearing day after day. If all the animals disappear there would be no food chain. Animals are dying every day. We can’t afford all our animals dying. Most of the animals are getting a disease. We can still hunt but we should have a law that you can shoot a animal 1 time a year , then you can go hunting again next year. Our world has already lost more than 10,000 wolves and tigers. I don’t want them to disappear because my furture children could not be able to see the animals . For example you probably want your children and grandchildren to see the animals to. I think that is not fair to the animals. Think of it this way what if people came extinct. I think that factories should stop polluting the air and the lakes. . I think every body should do there share of cleaning the earth .The animals deserve a clean home. For example every body probably has an animal. What if they can extinct . You would probably be really sad. I think every body should volunteer to help save the animals.

Luke

I believe I should get more allowance because I work and do my chores all the time. I clean my room all the time and I do my chores with out my mom asking.

Katie

Poor people need help! I know lots of people are helping them now, but its not enough! We need to donate money to the poor. Just think if you were them. You would have no school, no money, no shoes, bad diseases( some that you can die from, or even suffer!) no houses, and very little food and water. The water they have isn’t very clean. There’s nails everywhere! If somebody steps on one there are very few doctors that will help! But it is in only certain states. People say,” It doesn’t matter if its not in our state.” But it does matter! They care, I care, you should care! It has to be changed! Something has to happen. Something has to be changed. Someday I’m going to change it. Now just think if you were them in the future you would wear shoes, go to school to get a good education, have a good working job, get money to make sure that your child will survive, clean water, nice houses, big buildings, lots of food, good clothes, and no suffering. When I can change this, that’s how I wont to change it. I might not get it that good, but I’ll try! Hey, nobody is perfect! I would not like anybody in the world poor. Even if I have to send a letter to Washington or go to China or even Japan. I will try my hardest to change what’s going on. It will take years or maybe even weeks but I willTRY. But in my world, there’s lots or poor people, but I will treat them all the same.

Erin

At our school we have a program called peacemakers . That is where we go outside and help the younger kids . We play with them, it is so fun . They also have problems with sharing. If they won’t then I will just ask if I can have the thing that the kid is playing with and let some other kids use it that will share it. Sometimes it is hard and most of the times they just play nice. I try to be a really good role models for the little kids by not fighting myself I really like peacemakers. it is very fun to go outside and play with the kids and we also get lots of hugs and friends. Some examples are when the little kids don’t use the equipment right and I help them with using it right. We can also teach them how to play basketball and that will help them when they get older so they can be really good at it when they get older. I play games with each other and I make sure the game is all right what they are playing and if it is a really fun game I will play it too some of the games that we do play are hide and go seek and also girls chase boys and boys chase girls. That is very fun . Everybody has a good time and we all play nice together . Some people think they are astronauts and they also think the playground equipment is there spaceship. I play that game sometimes it is very fun. Sometimes we go into the gym and play. Not very many kids can make it into the really high hoop , but they keep trying until they make it. I see only a couple kids that can make it but most of the kids don’t care . I have tons of fun and friends when we play it feels so good the kids really love it. Peace makers is very fun I hope some other people will join us in helping the little kids.

Cody

People should make the world nicer. They should clean up and plant trees. People should help kids not to fight, make friends and help the homeless and the wildlife.

I would plant trees because people are cutting down all the trees. If they did, then we would die of no oxygen. If they did, the animals won’t have a home. Without the trees the birds don’t have a place to build a nest.

I try to make the world nicer with PeaceMakers. I am in PeaceMakers. I help little kids at recess.

Return to the fifth grade page

Curtiss

I, Curtiss, believe the elementary students of Onekama should be able to have a second recess. It would be less hard on the teacher. Such as there are some people that can’t get enough energy out so they get in trouble. We would be less restless and more apt to pay attention if we let out all our excess energy, during an extra recess. We would not get bad grades on our work, and do better in class. We would be paying more attention so we would be getting better grades.

Sometimes when we’re good, Mrs. Eldridge will take us out for a second recess and then we have to sneak out. We play tag, basketball and use lots of energy. We love our recess and need more.

Kayla B

What’s going on with the world today? Look around, what do you see outside? The reason I ask those questions is because I think more people should start recycling now! If we start recycling now by the year 2,000 we could have the best earth ever, and it could be better for our children and not just our grandchildren. Recycling goes for a good cause, like we can have recycled pencils instead of chopping down trees. If we start recycling now we’ll have better water and crops. One other reason we should start recycling now is if we do the plants and animals we depend on will live longer. We can have recycled materials for clothes for the poor. We can have recycled milk jugs and materials for shoes and jeans.

I know things like recycled toilet paper sound gross but really it’s pretty cool. Theres nothing like trash on recycled things like toilet paper, the people who work at the recycling centers make sure things like toilet paper are clean. You can probaly find out more about recycling on the web at this address : http://www.obviously.com/recycle. Thanks for reading my article.

Kris

They should stop crushing old cars, because people can make a lot of money selling them. Plus it destroys the Earth, and a special the Ozone layer, and from the tractor smoke. Even the dust particles will get into the air. Plus all lot of memories will be lost. Don’t forget about the trees they have to cut down and with out the trees the O zone layer will be lost so will we.

What I mean is why can’t they clean up the cars and sell them? Because it takes up to much of our mother earth, I would have to say about 20% of our earth is being took up by Junkyards. The classical cars magazines, the classical cars TV shows.

I like to help my dad work on his cars, His got a 71 Charger 73 Challenger and the Galaxies.

Isabel

I think that we could help the animals that need help like the ones that are in big trouble. Deer and dolphins are two I would like to help. Dolphin are really in danger and people catch them and

people kill them .Some time people catch them because the people want to win money and the people do get the money. People kill dolphins to make tuna read about a book that is about dolphins and it said that people kill them and they make them tuna.I think that deers need heip of us because people kill theme and i dont tnik thats fair. people kill the deer to eat,make sweaters and some stuff.

Andrea

In our grades 4-5 we get a short period of time to eat lunch. Usually our lunch line is very long and if you’re in the line you have to wait for about 6 or 7 minutes in line.If you have a packed lunch from home it’s not that bad, but you still don’t have a lot of time to eat. I mean our principal says you have only so much time to eat your lunch. You have about half a lunch left and then he yells at you for not eating your lunch. The high school has about a half an hour to eat and we don’t.I think we should have a half an hour too or even longer.Then when we go back to the class room .I’m still hungry because I didn’t eat all my lunch. So I think we should have longer lunch.

Also I think we should have longer recess too. Because its part of our lunch time. We should at least get 20 minutes of recess or if we don’t we should get 2 recess a day. We need our exercise and fresh air. Also I think we have lunch before recess because we build up energy from our lunch and then we would go to the playground to have recess, then we would have lots of energy to run around and play tag.So I hope you change the lunch and recess.

Timmy

I think that playstation magazine should have more codes on the back. One time I was playing Bloody Roar and I looked at the back. Guess what? It was not there. Instead of 1 game for each letter I think they should put 10 for each letter. Common if more than100 people lose at video games then put more in it. I know that lot of people think that using codes is a rip off, but some people like them.

Take this for example if I was playing Turbo Prop Racing and I wanted Duck Boats. I couldn’t get it because it wasn’t in there. The codes should be easier to do. For example, For Final Fantasy Seven, you have to put in so many codes in I don’t even bother putting it in.

I think that the codes should be easier to put in because if nobody can put them in then why do you put them in there?Thats why I think you should put more codes in.

Gini

Hello,my name is Gini and I am requesting longer lunch time. I sometimes don’t have enough time to eat my own lunch. I am rushed out of the cafeteria at 11:00 because the high schoolers come in. We only have 15 to 20 minutes to eat our lunch. The people that have school lunches have less time than everybody else. And then the cooks get mad because they don’t finish their lunch.

I also think we should eat later than 10:45,because by the time we get home we are asking for a snack. A better time to eat lunch is around 11:45 because we won’t be hungry till later on that evening. We should all be able to finish our lunch.That is my opinion on the lunch time.

Clinton

How many times do you go out side every day? Well here in Onekama we only get to go outside once every day. Except for when we have Peacemakers. Peacemakers is when we go out with the little kids.

We only get to go out 6 or ,7 times a week. I think we should go out 2 times a day. If we went out 2 times a day we would not have as much energy, it would give us more time to stretch are legs , and it would give the teachers more time to rest. If we did not have as much energy we would not talk as much as we do. Our teacher takes us out 2 times a week. We have just got a new playground for the school. It is made for kids a little smaller than us. It also would be nice if we had swings. We have our recess right after lunch. We have recess at 10:25. We eat lunch at Quarter to 11:00. I wish we could have another recess.

Chelsea

Basketball is a fun sport- but only when played fair, safely, and when you have the right equipment. Most people that we play in the basketball games think that we have a nice school, but we’re not representing it as well as we could. But at the same time, some people think that we don’t need, or shouldn’t spend school money on new uniforms.

I think that our school tries to play fair, and our referees don’t favor the Onekama team, or any of the other teams. But our uniforms however, aren’t all that great. I don’t see why they still leave the size tags on them because people are allowed to sew the straps, and the bottom. I agree with the people who think we are not representing the school as well as we could because our numbers on our jerseys are faded and tore, and some of them have a number on the front and back. (most don’t, that’s why it looks different)

We could fix this small problem by having the school pay for them, or the team could earn their own money for them by having a sale or some sort of fund-raiser. It would take a while, but it would be well worth it. After all, it is my school too, and I think we should be able to represent it while playing. I hope you will consider my thoughts and ideas.

Colin

The school’s lunch should be from 11:00 to 11:45 and we should get out of the gym at 11:15 so we can have about 30 minutes to eat lunch. In 4th and 5th grade we have to RUSH to finish our food the way it is now. Now I don’t get to eat hot lunch because the lines are too long. By the time we get out of the line there is not enough time to eat. WE can not eat our lunch! We have half of a tray of food and the cooks yell at us because they think we are not eating, just throwing it away. We need faster lines. All I’m saying is we need more lunch time.

Nate

I think that you should be able to hunt when you are eleven-years-old. I think most eleven-year-olds are smart enough to hunt. We need more hunter’s safety courses in Manistee County so we don’t have to go to Detroit. You should take hunters safety when you are ten so you can hunt when you are eleven.

I think that it is good to hunt so the deer population will stay in the correct order. The hunting season should be longer in the fall because it is harder to find the deer. Unless we hunt them now they will die off later of starvation. About 50% of the deer will die in the winter, so you should hunt them so they won’t starve.

Emily B

I do not think that people should live on the streets. They should be able to have nice houses, good food, have good jobs, nice clothes, nice stuff, and they should have at least a little bit of money. They’re kids wouldn’t be able to go to school and get friends and education like the world does, and their whole family wouldn’t have clothes to keep them warm like the world does. They don’t even have enough money to buy the groceries for their family. Usually the way they keep warm is to put newspapers on them at night.

But there are some places that help the homeless like the Salvation Army, Good Will, The Food Pantry, Choices, and some people do things like the food basket, the Christmas boxes for kids so they’ll get some toys, charity, the shelter homes, and the money bag. You should give money for the money bag so then the homeless will have enough money to buy things. These people have to live outside in storms, snow, rain, whatever kind of thing, you name it. I think that we should take better care of these people. You can find more about homeless people on the web at this address: http://nch.ari.net/ . I do not think that people should live on the streets.

Ryan

I think we need more recess because we do not get enough. When I get back from lunch and we have science right away. Sometimes it feels like I’m cooped up. And one of the worse things is we are too rowdy!

When we were in Arcadia we had two recess. When we came to Onekama for fourth grade --BOOM! Now only one recess!! I mean we have a new play ground, and we hardly use it.

The play ground has those walls down by the basketball courts. When we play lighting sometimes the ball gets stuck up there, and then somebody might climb the wall to get it. The wall has little blocks on it so it has grips to hang on to. But it is dangerous to climb. The play ground is also for little kids, am I right? But with those walls, they’re probably going to get somebody hurt. Every play ground needs to have swings. I still play on swings. Even though I play basketball at recess, I still like to swing once in a while. All I’m saying is that the playground is kind of dangerous for little kids. I’m a peace maker and I see kids playing by the wall with little cars and they might get them stuck on the ledge. Then they might go up there.

Joleen

They have killed over 100 dolphins a year by tuna nets. I think it should be a law about killing dolphins. Though the ones you see at Sea World are dolphins from the wild. They are using dolphin meat in the tuna cans.

In my opinion, dolphins are almost on the endangered species list because of the tuna nets. I think dolphins should be saved. They should make a special kind of net to catch tuna and only tuna. There are 9,000 dolphins left in the world. There could be more. All of this is true about dolphins being killed by tuna nets.

Eric

When animals are being hunted or trapped ,animals are becoming extinct. I think that only certain animals should be hunted. If there are too many of the species that species would eat most of the food and other species would die and that species would start to become extinct. If there were more of the carnivores they would eat a lot of the herbovors and our future children will only be able to see them in pictures and books. If there are more herbovors then carnivors peaple would start to hunt the herbovors and the species they hunt and that spieces would stay down. If one animal is almost extinct and someone is hunting for that animal he would get arested and go to jail. If that pearson killed the animal for a reward to mount the head he just wasted a lot of meat and he will be arrested for hunting the endangered species.The endangered species are mostly kept in a zoo so other animals that eat them. When a person that loves animals sees a baby that is hurt that person should either leave the animal alone or call a nature center to come pick the animal up to take back to the nature center and treat it for it to heal.

Dust

I think we should help the homeless. Couldn’t we just build sheds at least. Jobs, what about jobs ?Can’t we just give them a sweeping job? Another thing we should lower the bills. These people don’t have that much money. Like I have two houses on my property. So we are going to loan it to some one else. If people could take the homeless in it would be a big help.

Cheyenne

I ‘d like to plant more trees where we need them . That way we will have more air and food . That also makes more air in the winter. That way we won’t die due to lack of oxygen. What would we do with out trees or plants. If there were no plants we would not exist. That is why I think we need more trees. they make more food,air,and shelter.They also are very good to climb in when a flood comes you can climb up and wait for some one to rescue you.Trees are very helpful.

Joel

I think you should help dogs because they are man’s best friends and are playful. You could help them by giving them a house to sleep in. You just set food outside so they can eat it. There should be a law at pounds they cannot put dogs to sleep if no one gets a dog at the time. There should be no pounds because every one should try to have a dog for a pet. But if the dog is hurt they can put the dog to sleep. It is not hard to take care of a dog. They are good for some stuff to. They are good for hunting, and gaurd dogs. Also they are good for other things. Sometimes when they bark it tells you that some one is there. I wrote this because I had to put my dog to sleep. I think dogs are a good pets so you should get one.

Jason

I think we should help the poor more always. These people are poor because they have NO money! They can not buy the stuff they need for life. If we don’t take care of these people they will die. I think we should make a place where they can come and get the food they need. If we did this these poor poor people would be happy. Just look at the little kids starving for food. If we don’t help those little kids some day then that will brake are hearts. Just look at those kid and parents they have no homes!!! They are so poor they have to use rags for clothes. I’m sure we can give these poor poor people food and water!!! Would you like to be poor and not to be able to bye your own food!!! I think we should help the poor and help them get the food and all the other stuff they need!!!!!