New Year’s Wishes, Please Come True
Each January, we ask area school students what they are wishing for in the new year. Here’s how two classroomsresponded. Some were edited for space.

Four Seasons A+  Grade 4 

Ms. Camille Simpson
 
Give to the Poor
In the New Year, I would like to clean my room and find stuff that I do not need or that I do not play with. I wouldgive the stuff that I do not need to the poor and the homeless. Every year lotsof people give money, clothes, food and toys and things that they don’t evenuse or need to the poor and the homeless. That way, nobody would have to livetheir lives in a poor or uncomfortable way. If everybody gave a little, itwould really help a lot. (Anna Graves)

Help Animals Find Homes
In 2010, I hope that animals that areon the streets get adopted and have a real family that loves them and takescare of them. And when they grow up, the owner can give one of the babies tosomeone who wants one so it can have a very nice home for the baby. And whenanimals are lost, people could bring them to an animal shelter or a place whereit’s not dangerous for them. And when animals are injured or hurt really badly,they could bring them to a vet instead of putting the animal to sleep. Andpeople could give donations to the animal shelter for food for the animals.(Alice Le)

Grow a Garden
I want to grow a garden. In my garden,I would plant flowers such as roses, daffodils and daisies. I would also liketo plant a vegetable garden. In this garden, I would grow carrots, beans,cucumbers and all sorts of healthy vegetables. These vegetables taste muchbetter than store bought because they are fresh from the earth!  (Tony Romero)

Use Less Energy
My New Year wish is to use less energy.To do that, turn off the lights when you are done using them. Also, when youare done with the TV, computer and video games, turn those off. You should onlywatch for an hour or less, probably less. When you watch a lot of TV or play alot of electronic games, your brain cells rot every time. So stop watching thatTV and play outside! Or maybe even pick up some garbage you see outside. (HelenHunter)

Sadly Homeless
My New Year’s Wish is to help the poor.Did you know half of the world — over three billion people — live on less than$2.50 a day? When I don’t eat all of my food, my mother tells me about all thekids in the world that are starving. So we need to think about those peoplethat are less fortunate and try to help them. So I would like to have a fooddrive and have all the cans of food donated to an area food shelf, and peoplethat are in need of food can come and get everything free! (Samantha R.Sanchez)

Be Nicer to My Brother
My New Year wish is to be nicer to mybrother. The one way I want to be nicer to him is when he asks me if he cancome into my room, I’ll say YES. And if he wants to play something with me,I’ll say YES. And if I have to share something, I’ll have a better attitude andnot yell at him. And if he bothers me, I’ll say please, stop, instead of yellingat him all the time. That’s what I want to happen in 2010. (Monchalet Anderson)

My New Year’s Wish Is to Save the Planet
I will pick up garbage and pop cansabout once a day. Sometimes I will even get my friends to do it, too. Betterthings will happen when less pollution happens, like: cleaner water, moreliving things, more fish, less dangerous chemicals. I could make a littlecompany with all my friends and neighbors. There would be contests. Whoever picks up or recycles the most gets a prize. We’d go to picnics and pick up after people that left behind garbage. We could eat a picnic there, too. It would help the world and it would be lots of fun. Plus, the air would be easierto breathe in. (Anna Howard)

Stop Eating Junk Food
To have better health, you can stopeating all that junk food and start eating healthier foods. Foods like carrots,cauliflower, broccoli, tomatoes and other delicious vegetables. If you keepeating junk food and don’t exercise, you will start gaining weight. But if you start eating healthier, you can start eating some chips and stuff, but not toomuch! (Jada Wells)

Pennies for Patients
I will give “Pennies for Patients”money so that kids with cancer can get fixed. (Patrick Rosengren)

Four Season A+  Grade 5 

Ms. Elizabeth Mena-Larson
 
NewYear 2010
New life

hope

joy

five four three two one

now

it is here

starting

over

again

and again

2010 comes 2010 goes

lovely

New Year comes back to me again

midnight comes New Year’s Eve

2009 is almost done

so

2010 can come

(Eleanor Strong)

So Much to Hope For
I want everyone to be grateful for what they have.

I hope me and my family stay safe from burglars, tornadoes, hurricanes, and so much more.

I hope that I have a litter free school— like no pencils and little scraps of paper on the floor in my classroom, andcans, wrappers and Cheeto bags on my school playground.

I want to clean my neighborhood andmake it a good healthy litter-free place. (Alice O’Brien)

My New Year’s Wish is that the worldwill prove it will not end in 2012 because I believe it won’t.(Sierra Winge)

Make a Wish, Grape by Grape
On New Year’s Eve my whole family comes over and at midnight we all grab a cup of grapes and every grape we eat is awish. If you want your wish to come true, you can’t tell anyone. Last year I didn’t tell anyone what I wished for and it came true. So, I trust you. I willtell you.

What I wished for is for my family to be happy and loving. So far theycame true. Hopefully, they will come true this year and if they do, I will tellyou later. For now, bye! (Veronica Villeda)

Good Health for Everyone
I wish I could stay healthy all of thetime. A lot of people in my family have been getting sick or in car accidents.I get very scared and worried.

I also wish for my mom to be safe too. She’sbeen having a lot of problems. She has been going in and out of the hospital. I hope she has the best Christmas ever. (Mar’Nycia Heags)

Stop war

Stop fighting

Stop destroying people’s homes

Stop destroying lives

World Peace!

(Christian Stewart)

Everyone Deserves a Good Christmas

I think everyone deserves a goodChristmas, even the homeless. They deserve it the most because they are themost bravest people I can think of. When they have nowhere to go or no food andeveryone turns their back on them, it isn’t fair. But they keep their headsheld high when bad things happen to them.

I just hope that one day someone willcare enough to help and not to let the homeless people go to an old rundownshelter where people tell them stuff that they know already. But really helpthem. They are no different.

Especially help the kids, because thereare a lot of kids that are homeless. So let’s not just make ourselves feel goodbecause we helped someone, let them be happy, too. (Makkah Adbur-Salaam)

My Wish
Be nice to other people

Every day

Even when I’m tired, grumpy, mad or sad

I’ll be silly and happy and glad

Wishes can come true

I believe it

So should you

(Olivia “Via” Logan)

NewYear’s Is Here
We’re all happy.

Wishes fly around in songs and talk.

Even delight.

Like — Have a better New Year or

Spend time with family.

It’s fun to have a New Year’s wish ortwo.

Have one and they might

Come to you. (Tony Farmer)

My New Year’s Wish List
I wish everybody could get a goodeducation because people have big dreams and wishes and hopes, and I think theyshould come true.

Wash your hands because people around you can get sick.

I think taking care of my family is important because my family is very sick.

I wish everybody would be grateful, because people are getting cut off on money and they don’t have enough to pay rent. (Arieona Burrell)

“Whoooo!”— New Year’s Is Coming
“Whoooo!” I screamed, “It’s almost New Year’s! Whoooo.” The dog started barking, like there was a tornado happening.

“Pipe down, twerp,” my older sister,Shyanne, said.

“I can’t, it’s almost New Year’s!” I plopped down on our old, smelly, dirty, beige couch. I could barely ever gonear it.

“Shyanne, where’s Mom?” I asked.

“She’s getting stuff for the New Year’sparty.”

We heard crying. It was my babybrother, Wyatt. “Great, you woke up the baby. Thanks,” Shyanne said, as she ranupstairs with the phone pressed to her ear. She came back down cradling thebaby in one arm, still talking on the phone.

“Hey, like, why don’t you put down thephone!” I said in a sarcastic voice. Shyanne said good bye and hung up thephone. At that moment Mom came through the door.

“0kay, girls, let’s get cooking.Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve,” We made coleslaw, barbecued chicken wings. We madetoo much food. We made food from every place in the world. We made food Icouldn’t even pronounce. We had wine and fizzy apple-grape juice, too.

I couldn’t sleep that night, I was too excited. It was now finally New Year’s. Twelve hours, forty-five minutes,thirty-two seconds and counting — until January 1, 2010. We started getting everything ready for tonight.

We always stayed up until the next day, and wewatched VH1 to get ready for the countdown. It finally came. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5,4, 3, 2, 1. Then we screamed, instead of saying zero. We heard the neighbors scream too. Then I finally fell asleep knowing that I missed nothing andknowing that it was now finally January 1, 2010. (Winter Bertrand)