Morgan Insider October 2024

Student Spotlight

Rheanee Beeson-Petty

Welcome to Student Spotlight! Student Spotlight is your chance to get to know some MMS students better.

First up is 6th grader, Blake Peek.

This is Blake’s first year at MMS, and her favorite class is P.E., " because, I have tons of energy.”

Blake plays softball and this is her fourth year! Since she is only in 6th grade, she isn't playing any sports at MMS yet.

When Blake is asked about her favorite holiday, she says, “Christmas because the tree decorated makes me happy!”

In the future, Blake hopes to travel to “Paris because of the Effiel Tower.” She also wants to become a horse vet when she grows up because she loves horses!

Next, is 7th grader Paisley Douthwaite.

Paisley plays soccer and runs on the MMS Cross Country team. She also used to play volleyball, but she isn’t playing this season.

Paisley was a student at MMS last year, and one piece of advice that she has for 6th graders is “don’t do things last minute, get it done!”

When asked about her favorite holiday, Paisley said, “Christmas because it's just so cozy and like, fun!”

In the future, Paisley hopes to travel to The Bahamas. She said, “I love tropical places and it just looks super pretty and fun!” She also hopes to become a veterinarian one day because she loves animals.

Next up is 7th grader Ellie Youngblood.

Ellie does ballet and cheerleading. While some people may not call competitive dancing a sport, Ellie sure does! She has been doing ballet for 9 years and cheerleading for 3!

Ellie, just like Paisley, was a student at MMS last year. One piece of advice she has for the new 6th graders is, to “treat everybody with respect and be kind because we're all humans and deserve to be respected.”

When asked about her favorite holiday, Ellie said, “my favorite holiday is Christmas because I love to celebrate with family and get new things!”

In the future, she would love to travel to Hawaii “because, it's tropical, I love to swim, and I love fruity drinks!” She also hopes to be a wedding planner in the future because she loves to travel.

Lastly, here we have 8th grader Ryann Bradeen!

Ryann does dance and has since she was 3 years old!

Ryann is in 8th grade, so she has experience at MMS. One piece of advice she'd like the 6th graders to know is to “focus on classes and not on boyfriends or girlfriends.”

When asked about her favorite holiday, Ryann said, “Halloween. I like dressing up and getting candy.”

In the future, Ryann hopes to travel to Hawaii. She said, “Hawaii because I feel like it.” Ryann also wishes to be a cop or an FBI agent in the future because she has always just been interested in that kind of stuff!

Thank you to all the students who agreed to be interviewed! I hope you enjoyed reading this and learned some things about some new people at Morgan!

Fastpitch

Chloie Biddle

The 2024-2025 Morgan Fastpitch is off to a great start. The fifteen girls on the team are super competitive but they keep it fun!

They have already won the first two out of four games of the season. If you are interested, come and watch the girls play today, 10/2 at 4:00 pm at EHS fields.

8th grader Harper Bononcini says, “This season is going okay, I definitely think we can improve and we will be a good team. Our first game went very well and I thought that we improved since the first practice. I hope we do well in the next game!”

8th grader Quinn Waterson said, ”My favorite part about gameday is winning.” A quote that inspires Quinn is “ If you get hit by a ball, the pain is only temporary.”

8th grader Bria Leonard says, “ This season is going good.”

Fastpitch schedule

• Wed 9/18 // West Valley 2 // 4:00 @Home
• Mon 9/23 // Selah // 4:00 // @Home
• Wed 9/25 // Toppenish // 4:00 // @Home
• Mon 9/30 // East Valley // 4:00 // 2:00 //@EV
• Wed 10/2 // West Valley // 4:00 // @Home
• Mon 10/7 // Grandview // 4:00 // @Grandview
• Mon 10/14 // Wapato // 4:00 // @Home
• Wed 10/16 // West Valley 2 // 4:00 // @WV
• Wed 10/23 // West Valley 1 // 4:00 // @WV

7th grader Mikayla Backman says, “ This season is so fun! All of the girls on the team are improving so much as the season goes by. We have practice everyday after school at the highschool fields!” The positions Mikayla normally plays are shortstop and pitcher and she really enjoys batting! “Something that makes the game so fun is being able to constantly communicate with your team, even if it's talking to your pitcher or cheering on your teammate while they are facing a pitcher at the plate, you can always feel free to chat with your friends. The game is so exciting and I cannot wait to play some games against other schools.”

8th grader Addi Oerlich said, “ This season is solid so far with two wins so far.” Addi’s favorite positions to play are first and catcher.

7th grader Lilly Weaver says, “ The season is going great so far, our team is growing so much every day!”

Local Autumn Events

Emily Malella

The summer season came to an end just a couple of weeks ago, which means now is a perfect time to get into the Autumn spirit!

Here’s a list of small businesses, farmers markets, and local activities I have collected for you that are sure to keep your interest all throughout fall and even a bit into winter.

Ellensburg Farmer's Market

The downtown farmers market is always a good choice no matter what you’re going for. Sellers have products from vegetables, to syrups, to handcrafted woodwork that is all up and ready to go every Saturday from 9 am to 1 pm until the last Saturday of October.

It is located in Downtown Ellensburg on 4th Avenue between Ruby and Pearl Street. Make sure to check them out sometime this month to support local businesses and farmers!

Dusty's Nursery, in Ellensburg

Dusty’s Nursery, located at 1116 E Mountain View Ave, is a local small business that houses a corn maze, a pumpkin patch, Christmas trees, and so much more. Dusty’s is open from 9:30 am to 5 pm, Tuesday through Sunday every week until December 23.

Starting November 1, Dusty’s will have open houses for chocolate and cider samples, and a wide variety of holiday seasonal events. Bring friends and family for a fun time exploring the expansion of activity and crops that make up this wonderful environment!

Holiday Events in Kittitas & Ellensburg

Since October is also known as ‘Spooky Season’, that means that Halloween and trick or treating is also on the list of activities. Kittitas hosts its annual ‘Trunk or Treat’ on Main Street involving tons of cars and trunks decorated with creative designs to catch your eye. The event is only scheduled for October 26 this year from 3 pm to 5 pm.

Aside from the trick or treating, there will also be a haunted house in addition to New Life Church hosting a harvest carnival with a variety of games and amusement.

North Pearl Street in downtown Ellensburg has tons of events going on this Halloween season including a trick-or-treating harvest fest, Moments to Remember, and Downtown Fall Cleanup.

The trick-or-treating harvest fest is an event that runs from 4pm to 6:30 pm. It is open to the public, and everyone is welcome to join whenever they want to walk around and fill their buckets with candy.

The ‘Moments to Remember’ event, a time where you get to take pictures with the beloved Santa and Mrs. Claus, will be held November 29, from 4 pm to 7 pm. Take a friend or family member and smile big for a memory of meeting the legends Santa and Mrs. Claus.

Finally, the Downtown Fall Cleanup is a very important event that is dedicated to cleaning the streets of Ellensburg free of litter and junk that may be harmful to the environment. It will run from 7 pm to 11 pm in the general area of Unity Park.

Holiday Events in Roslyn & Suncadia

And finally, if you’re looking for a mini road trip with the family, or whoever you’d want to go with, Roslyn and Suncadia have many things to offer.

Suncadia will have a 2-week celebration: The first weekend from October 5-6, and the second weekend from October 12-13. I’ve been to this area several times, and it’s one of my favorites. It has vendors, live music, a harvest maze and hay pyramid, and acres of space to walk around and enjoy the Suncadia air.

Roslyn has a long list of events that go from Friday, September 27, to Christmas Eve. They have occasions from cooking classes to movie nights to the Winter Solstice event on December 21.

If you would like to learn more about what all of the activities are and when they happen, be sure to check them out here.

Have fun!

Horror Movies

Natalia Garcia

Do you not have anything planned for this Halloween? If not you should watch one of these amazing horror movies with friends and family this Halloween that you won’t get bored of!!

Insidious

Insidious takes place in a family’s new home that they just bought. Little did they know, their new house is haunted. Their son is soon possessed by an evil entity, and the family has to try to save hime.

*Fun fact- the word "insidious" means something unpleasant or dangerous that develops gradually without being noticed.

The Conjuring

In The Conjuring, paranormal investigators Lorraine and Ed Warren are summoned to the home of a family in distress. The family, which includes five kids, recently moved into a farmhouse where a supernatural presence is terrorizing them. The Warrens have to uncover the history of the house and save the family, before it's too late.

*Fun fact- this movie is based on events that happened in 1970.

The Exorcist

In The Exorcist, a young girl is possessed by an evil spirit. In order to save her daughter, the girl's mother seeks help from the church.

*Fun Fact- this movie is based on events that took place in 1984. The case involved a girl who started acting "off" (levitating, and speaking in tongues) and was thought to have been possessed by an evil spirit.

Annabelle

In the movie Annabelle, a husband thinks he has found an amazing gift for his wife; a vintage doll. But the couple's delight does not last long. When the couple is unexpectedly attacked by cultists, the vintage doll, once a thing of beauty, is turned into an object of pure evil.

*Fun Fact- this movie is based on reports of a haunted doll.

Things to Do in The Fall!

Paisley Douthwaite

If you are bored and have nothing to do, here are some fun fall activities!

Places to go

• Visit some of the pumpkin patches
• Go to some of the local shops
• Go to a corn maze
• Haunted House
• Go to local events

Activities

• Carve pumpkins with friends
• Get fall drinks with your friends
• Host a Halloween party
• Watch Fall/Halloween shows
• Do fall crafts
• Apple Bobbing

Baking

• Pumpkin Muffins Recipe
• Pumpkin Pancakes Recipe
• Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Recipe
• Pumpkin Spice Latte Recipe

Those are some fun things to do in the fall. Hope you enjoy my recommendations!

My Top ten Halloween movies!

Evalynn Andal

Wondering what to watch for Halloween night? Well, look no further. Here are my Top Ten Halloween movies to get you into the spooky season!

1. Corpse Bride

Corpse Bride is a spooky tale about a shy groom who is practicing proposing and ends up placing a ring on a corpse’s ring finger. The corpse bride, Emily, awakes from the grave assuming that the groom has married her.

2. Frankenweenie

Frakenweenie is a story about a boy whose dog gets hit by a car and is brought back to life, the Frankenstein way!

3. Coraline

In this tale, a lonely 11-year-old finds a door to another world while exploring her new house. She travels to a home that belongs to doppelganger parents with button eyes. Later, Coraline has to play a game with her doppelganger mother to find her real parents.

4. The Last Unicorn

This tale follows a unicorn who is the last of her kind because the other unicorns were hunted. She goes on a quest to find out what happened to the other unicorns.

5. Beetlejuice

Beetlejuice is about a young couple who are recently deceased and hire a “bio-exorcist” to scare away the house’s new inhabitants. Beetlejuice, feeling lonely, tricks the inhabitants' daughter into marrying him, but fails.

6. Casper

An afterlife therapist and his daughter meet a friendly young ghost when they move into a crumbling mansion. Casper falls in love with the therapist's daughter, but the relationship is hard because of his wicked ghost uncles and their tricks.

7. Edward Scissorhands

Edward Scissorhands is a movie about a humanoid who has scissor blades instead of hands. Edward is adopted by a suburban family and falls in love with their teenage daughter.

8. Halloweentown

Marine and her family follow their grandma home to Halloweentown and find out they have a family of witches. The town is the only place where supernatural beings can have a “Normal life” but trouble is looming on her 13th birthday.

9. Hocus Pocus

A teenager named Max and his little sister move to Salem. Max is unable to fit in before waking three children-eating witches that were executed in the 17th century.

1.0 Hocus Pocus 2

Hocus Pocus 2 is about three young women who accidentally bring back the Sanderson sisters to modern-day Salem. The three must find out how to stop the child-hungry witches before they cause havoc all over the world.

Keeping a clean room

Quinn Fleming

Has your mom been pestering you to clean your room? Or are you just tired of coming home and not being able to move around?

Have you been searching for days for good tips to clean that messy abyss that is your living space? Then this is the place for you!

In this article, I will be walking you through multiple steps to help you efficiently clean your space and some bonuses of how to ensure it stays that way. Having a clean room helps me, personally, to procrastinate less, because it becomes a much more welcoming area.

First, you’ll want to step into your room and look around. This place has potential. Start looking at it that way! I like to turn on an audiobook or some music before beginning to clean, just to have something to listen to.

STEP ONE PART A

Floor space is the most desired thing in a room. It leaves space for extra furniture and just lounging around. If you’re like me, then clothes usually pile up here, making it difficult to move, so you’ll want to begin picking up your dirty clothes and depositing them in a designated dirty-laundry basket or hamper.

STEP ONE PART B

Even without your clothes on the ground, random things may still obscure your carpet. This could be anything from pencils to larger things, like backpacks and sports gear. Tip: It helps to have coat hooks on your wall, maybe by the door, to hang favorite sweaters or school bags. I have coat hooks and it’s amazing. Organizing the random pens and pencils isn’t too hard, and I have a few little boxes on my desk to put them in. For a more aesthetic look, then using empty tea tins adds a pop of color and has plenty of space for extra pens.

STEP TWO

Fold your clean laundry. Everyone puts off this chore, and I get it. I take forever to fold my clothes. But it feels like such a big victory in the end! Just zone out on your favorite show and get into a rhythm. And I don’t mean shove the balled up clothes in your dresser or closet. I mean fold them. I know it doesn’t sound that appealing at the moment, but you will thank yourself later when you don’t have to turn your shirt right side out after putting it on inside out. It really does feel good not having to dig through your laundry pile every morning to find your favorite shirt. Which leads to another point: do weekly laundry loads. When your dirty laundry basket is full and you are running out of things to wear, start the washing machine and wash those clothes!

STEP THREE

Attack your desk (if you have one. If not, skip to step four). Desks become less of a workspace and more of a junk drawer during the school year, and it sucks when there isn’t a place to do your homework. Papers, old plates of food, and random notes accumulate here usually, making it difficult to sit down and do some work. I suggest making a mess before making it clean. Take everything off the desk and sit on the floor. This is how I do it, and you can totally do it differently, I just find there’s more space to see everything laid out on the floor. Next, organize. Take old dishes to the sink, and maybe make your parents happy and load it into the dishwasher. After those have been taken care of, I would suggest working on your papers and notes. The papers range from old school work to random notes you took in science class. Some of these will be things you’ve been looking for for a while, and could never find.

STEP FOUR

Make your bed. I think a lot of people (including myself) roll out of bed in the morning and ignore the mess of sheets. It’s kind of surprising how clean a room looks when it has a made bed with straight blankets.

STEP FIVE

Declutter. Get rid of things you don’t need or haven’t used in a while. Not having to clean up extra stuff that really just takes up space is wonderful, considering how much time we spend in our rooms. Toss extra papers, trash and napkins, old Starbucks drinks, anything that takes up what can be well used space.

STEP SIX

Look around and admire your hard work! Keeping this space clean will boost your energy and make it an enjoyable place. You might find that your stress levels go down after your room is cleaned.

Thanks for reading, and enjoy having a clean room!

Protein Cookie Dough Bark

Ashley Hill

Your new favorite healthy dessert! A super easy (and super delicious) dessert. I love having a healthier option prepared to grab when I'm craving something sweet!

Ingredients

Cookie Dough

• ½ cup vanilla protein powder (I used Clean Simple brand)
• ½ cup almond flour
• ¼ cup melted coconut oil
• ¼ cup raw honey
• Handful of milk or dark chocolate

Topping

• Pinch of sea salt
• ½ cup milk or dark chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate in my batch)

Instructions

Mix cookie dough ingredients and press onto a baking tray.

Melt the chocolate and pour over the top. Sprinkle salt over the chocolate.

Place in the freezer for 2-4 hours!

Enjoy!!

Chocolate chip pumpkin bread

Harper Bononcini

This is just great for the fall season. They have melt in your mouth chocolate chip in every bite and have that pumpkin taste to go along with fall. It's sweet, festive, and delicious.

Ingredients

• milk chocolate chips
• spice cake mix (I prefer Duncan Hines)
• 100% pure pumpkin
• olive oil

Directions

Set the oven to 350.

Spread a light layer of olive oil all around a glass baking dish. Use just enough so it does not stick.

In a bowl, add the spiced cake mix, pumpkin puree, and half of the bag of chocolate chips.

Then mix it all together.

Spread the mixture evenly in the glass baking dish and sprinkle the rest of the chocolate chips on top.

Bake for an hour at 350.

Take the pumpkin bread out and let it cool for at least 5 minutes before cutting.

Once cool, cut a slice and enjoy!

Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies

Evelyn Self

This home-invented cookie recipe is great to make if you’re bored or want something to add to those old basic chocolate chip cookies. It takes about 30-60 minutes to make so it is great to do if you want to find something to do for the next hour or so.

Ingredients

• Five and one-half cups of flour
• Two tsp salt
• One package of chocolate chips
• Three cups of brown sugar
• Two tsp baking soda
• One cup coconut oil
• One cup butter
• Four eggs
• Two tsp vanilla
• One-fourth cup of sour cream

Directions

Grab two bowls. Put the wet ingredients in a smaller bowl than the dry ingredients.

Mix the wet ingredients together.

Mix the dry ingredients together

After mixing both bowls, mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients bowl.

Once all the ingredients are mixed together, put blobs of the dough on a cookie tray.

Preheat at 370 degrees until the oven is hot enough.

Bake at 370 degrees for 10 min.

Optional: drizzle with melted chocolate and put on coconut shavings as sprinkles.

Cute Paper Pumpkin Decoration

Evelyn Self

If you like halloween and you're running out of ideas for decorations you should check out this DIY project that can help spruce up your home for the upcoming spooky season.

First grab 16 sheets of orange construction paper.

After that, make 4 stacks of 4 sheets and fold the stacks in half and staple the backs together.

Then take the two sheets on the outside and bend them in.

Bend each of the papers in until you get to the middle.

Then put them together in a round-ish shape

When making the stem, fold up a brown or green construction paper and cut off a small section in the front.

Then slide the stem on to the back of the part of the pumpkin you want in the front.

Now finally you put it all together and you're finished!

If you want you can draw a jack-o-lantern face.

Need Advice?

Ask Rocky the Bulldog anything!

Being a middle schooler can be difficult! You can be balancing everything from assignments and classes, life at home, to friendships, maybe newfound crushes and relationships, to extracurricular activities and sports, and everything in between!

I get it. I am a Morgan student too! That is why I am here to help you with all of the many questions you may have! ANONYMOUSLY share your problems, wonderings, and issues going on, and I will do what I can to help you!

Dear Rocky,

I need help completing my work on time for my classes. I have multiple missing assignments and if I can’t stay in Good Standing, I will not be able to keep participating in Football. I really would like to keep playing on the team, but I just can’t seem to stay organized. What should I do?

-Anonymous

Dear Anonymous,

Oh no! I know many people can relate to the feeling of not being able to complete all of their homework and assignments in class. The first thing I would recommend doing is to assess the problem. Would you say that you have difficulty completing assignments because you lose the assignment, or you tend to forget they need to be completed in the first place? If you know what needs to be done, you can better complete the tasks. One way I would recommend staying more organized is by making a list of all the assignments you need to complete for all of your classes. If you make a reminder for yourself (Maybe write it on a sticky note or put it on your phone) you can take the time when you have free time at home or during a class to complete the assignment. Also, organizing your binder by including sections for assignments that you need to complete, and turn in, as well as having different sections for every class can help you to stay on top of your assignments.

Dear Rocky,

There is this girl that I like a lot in my grade. She is nice and funny, but my friends have told me she doesn’t like me back. I want to find out if she likes me, but I am worried she will say no. What should I do?

-Anonymous

Dear Anonymous,

This can be confusing! You should be honest with her and let her know how you feel. Tell her kindly how you feel about her, and let her know the traits that you admire about her. If you are too nervous to say it straight to her, you could always tell a friend what to say, or send her an email or text. Maybe she will like you back, but you will never know unless you tell her! If she doesn’t feel the same way about you, you can still build a great friendship with her. Sometimes, though they may not feel the same way about you, remember you don’t need acceptance from this girl to prove that you are loved and valued. It is just middle school!

Dear Rocky,

I enjoy spending time with my group of friends, but there's another person in the group who often talks negatively about me and calls me mean names behind my back. I want to remain part of the group, but I don't want to continue the toxic relationship with this person. I feel self-conscious when I'm with them because of how she treats me. Should I continue hanging out with the entire group, including this person, or should I leave the group and give up the friendship with the others?

-Anonymous

Dear Anonymous,

That sounds like a toxic situation! It can be difficult to know what to do when the people around you have different ideas about who to hang out with. Remember to be the best person you can be around those people, including their friend. If you are always nice to her there won’t be anything for her to talk negatively about! Invite them to things, initiate conversation and hang out, and try to build a relationship with all of them! If that does not work and she still acts toxic, you could politely refuse to hang out and separate yourself while still being friendly. Try to stay on good terms! Find times to hang out with your other friends and try to build up your friendship with them. Remember, you want to hang out with people who only build you up and help you be the best person you can be, and they are not the only people who value you!

Black Holes

Part 1

Bridger Thompson

You can never see anybody enter a black hole. Imagine you send a spaceship on a collision course with a black hole. Something strange happens when the tip of the spaceship reaches the rim of the black hole (the event horizon.) It stops, but the rest of the ship keeps going. Eventually, it looks like a compressed 2D pancake resting along the horizon.

How could an industrial spacecraft appear to be turned into a pancake? (Source: Veritasium)

To understand the optical illusions of a black hole, we need to understand what makes this hole, black. The reason a black hole is black has to do with its immense density. According to the law of gravitational attraction, any object with density attracts all other objects with density. So how dense is a black hole?

A black hole is so dense that at the event horizon (the area where the “blackness” begins) not even light can escape. Since nothing can travel faster than light, once you cross the event horizon, you can't escape, at all.

So what does this mean? Since light can’t escape the event horizon, that means objects just outside the horizon will be the last emitters of light.

So back to our spaceship. The tip of the spaceship is the last emitter of light. Now this doesn't necessarily mean that the spacecraft doesn't go into the black hole, it just means that you can't see it.

To understand the pancake we have to remember that the rest of the spaceship is still outside the horizon, it's still emitting light, and it doesn't stop until it reaches the horizon. So, it looks like the spaceship gets compressed indefinitely along the edge of the horizon.

Another illusion is that as the ship gets closer to the horizon it looks to slow down. However, it actually speeds up.

Let’s take a look at our planet. On Earth we don’t constantly fall at the same speed, we accelerate, and our acceleration is about 10 meters per second. A black hole's gravitational acceleration is 1.6 trillion times that.

Imagine falling the width of the solar system in 1 second- that's fast.

But it looks to slow down instead of speed up. In fact, 1 minute for the spaceship just outside the horizon is 700 years outside the main gravitational pull (Source: Thinkly.)

The limit is that when you're at the event horizon, light can't escape. So, the light has to work hard to get out of the gravitational field just outside the horizon. This means that when the spaceship gets near the horizon the light that reaches you takes longer than normal. So when you look at the ship, chances are it's long gone from where you're looking, so it seems to slow down but actually speeds up.

But what if you weren't watching the spaceship? What if you were in the spaceship and you were hurling towards the black hole? Then things would be very different.

For starters let's look at a measurement of gravity called G’s. G’s is the term used to describe the magnitude of Earth's gravity, so 2 G’s is equal to 2 times the gravity of Earth or about 20 meters per second.

As we discussed earlier, the gravity of a black hole near the event horizon is 1.6 trillion times the gravity of Earth (Source: Physics Stack Exchange), or 1600000000000 G’s. Just for reference, a professional fighter jet pilot with modern suit equipment can only withstand 9 G’s for about 5-10 seconds, so even if you were standing a solar system away from the black hole, it would still prove fatal.

Let’s do an extreme hypothetical. Let's say you have extremely futuristic equipment and can survive any amount of G’s- what would happen next?

When you get about 1 mile away from the event horizon your speed would be close to 1-tenth the speed of light, or about 17,500 miles per second. When you get close to the hole, it would take less than a second to go the distance of two Earths, and then you would get sucked in.

In extreme slow-mo from your perspective, when you reach the horizon it looks like you're being stretched from head to toe as the gravity is a couple thousand G’s different per foot at the event horizon. The parts of your body that enter the horizon seem to disappear as you are sucked into the horizon. But then you get spewed out of the hole and you find yourself outside of the event horizon.

But something feels strange. One thing is for sure- this is not your universe.

To be continued...

Look for Part 2 in the next issue of the Morgan Insider.