Bring Putty Back! Do you like to play with putty, does it help you relax, do you focus with it? Well, if it does all those things, you will love my essay. If it doesn’t, I will change your mind! Some studies show that ​fidgeting will let you l​ ive longer​.1 ​ Also, without fidgeting, you will have so much nervous energy that you won’t be able to handle the pressure of the extra energy in your body. This is why I think you should B ​ ring Putty Back​! Putty relieves stress/helps focus For instance, one way putty helps me is that when I get frustrated with a math problem, I can squeeze the putty. Also, in a study I’ve heard about from Mr. Salsich, fidgeting with something can circulate blood through your hand and your fingers. When you fiddle with something, it can help people create or make fantastic ideas! This is because when you have something in your hand, you start thinking about random stuff. Some of this random stuff could be extremely useful. Keepin’ it Clean! Most instances, people say that putty is very messy and it will get all over the classroom. If you just play with it in the container, it will be hard to get the putty on the carpet or in the precious books! Stress balls, made with flour or cornmeal and wrapped in a material, will get everywhere if they popped. Thankfully, putty can not pop and cause a disaster. Some people stretch their putty, which then can spread all over the place. If you just simply squeeze it, it will keep it contained to your hand. Share with Friends/Collect Lastly, I want to talk about being able to share putty with friends. When you share putty with friends, you can split it up among your friends and yourself. The problem with stress balls, is when you share it, you don’t 1

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2015/09/23/start-fidgeting-at-work-it-might-b e-really-good-for-you/?utm_term=.0fb115be8771

get any for yourself! Unless you split it in half, which wouldn’t be good at all! Having putty you can collect different types, textures, and colors. This is fun to trade with friends who also have a variety of putties. With stress balls, you can’t really collect different types and there is really no point of trading it with friends. Conclusion As you can see, putty should be able to come back into our classroom. It will relax students and help us focus. We can share it with friends, and keeping fun clean. This is why I want you to take action, and get Mr.Salsich to bring putty back to our classroom!

* We Should Have Normal ICE Back! When my teacher, Mr. Salsich, said that we weren’t having ICE gym or innovation lab in his class anymore, I was crushed, so I’m going to try to get it back! I have endless reasons why we should have normal ICE back and I’m going to tell many of them! First of all, no students like this new ICE. In the hall, I can hear many students arguing against it. Also when my teacher told us about it, I could hear many groans and complaints. Second, gym / innovation lab can give you something to look forward to in your school day. No one has gym everyday, therefore ICE gym can give us a chance to play. We play lots of fun games such as dodgeball. The innovation lab helps us create incredible things, such as making a scarf, or even 3D printing something!

Last but not least, having ICE back will help get rid of energy. After gym, many students are out of breath, and don’t talk a lot. Also, exercise is proven to increase focus and brain functioning. In conclusion, normal ICE is way better than the ICE we have now. No one liking it, gym and innovation lab are amazing, and getting rid of energy, are some reasons why we should have normal ICE back, and I hope you now realize how important it is to all of us!

* Help Save The Chickens Chickens, great to eat right? Well you might change your opinion after you hear this. Some people say it doesn’t matter how you treat them as long as they taste good. On the other hand, the way chickens are treated is absolutely terrible. No animal should go through that much, especially if they are just going to die. In my opinion, the way they treat chickens is terrible and we should help them. The first reason I think we should help the chickens is, they are kept in horrible conditions. The egg-laying chickens are forced to sit in an egg box all day. Therefore, none of the chickens are getting enough exercise. That means that you are getting eggs from unhealthy chickens. In addition, chicken sheds are cleaned out fully only every two to four years As a result, there is an overwhelming smell of ammonia and feces. This causes lots of respiratory illnesses in chickens. To add to this horror, there are no laws affecting what you can and can’t do, so it really doesn’t matter what you are doing to the chickens. The second reason I think we should help the chickens is, chickens are not killed humanely. They are kept in such tight quarters, and chickens

are coming in and leaving so often that they have a very tough time establishing a pecking order. As a result, chickens are pecking each other, sometimes even to death. Also, chickens are killed with machines, and many times in extreme amounts. Consequently, if anything goes wrong and the chickens are missed getting slit in the neck they are boiled alive. For example, if the chickens squirmed and it’s neck was missed. Yes it missed death, but now it will only endure a more painful and cruel death. The third reason I think we should help the chickens is, they are not being fed right and nurtured. Chickens are fed little to no antibiotics, so they have no help fighting diseases, which means they are more prone to diseases and they can be spread very quickly. Instead, they are fed growth hormones which makes chickens bodies grow too quick. As a result, this often cripples many chickens because their legs are too weak to support their own body. In addition, baby chickens are being overlooked and many die because no one cares to feed and nurture them. In conclusion, I think the way chickens are treated overall is cruel. They are kept in horrible conditions, they are killed inhumanely, and they aren’t being fed right and nurtured. We should really help them, be their voice that they don’t have, we can be the Lorax to the chickens! Just because they can’t speak doesn’t give us the right to take advantage of them. I think we should try to stop some of it. In fact, according to Freefromharm.org ​turkeys and chickens make of 99% of land animals slaughtered for food in the United States. Help us save the chickens! I got most of my information from http://freefromharm.org/animalagriculture/chicken-facts-industry-doesnt-want-know/ I also got information from http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/factory-farming/chickens/chicken-industry/

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More Homework This blog post is going to be a persuasive/opinion post. I am going to ask you this question: should we have more homework? It is my belief that we should have more homework because I love homework and it keeps me busy. Therefore, we should have more homework and there are reasons why. I will show you and possibly convince you that we should have more homework. First, homework gives kids a great chance to do something. For example, at home, if you are bored, you do homework and it will keep you busy until dinner time. Another detail is, instead of watching TV or playing on a electronic, you can do homework and it will activate your brain. Finally, the last detail is, electronics are bad for the brain and outside might be too cold or too dark. That is why we should have more homework, because it keeps our mind thinking. In addition, homework will increase a kid’s learning skills. One detail that backs up my reason is you won’t be stuck on a problem if you have pre-learning the night before. Next, homework can be included in report cards and will increase your grade if you get the homework correct. Finally, homework will raise a majority of hands. That is one other reason why there should be more homework because it helps us increase our learning. Finally, this amount of homework will prepare us for 6th grade. One detail that supports this reason is 6th grade is filled with lots of homework. Second detail is homework is a big part of the 6th grade. Finally, any homework you are not prepared for in 6th grade, will end you with a bad grade. This reason supports my opinion because a lot of homework will prepare us for 6th grade. In conclusion, more homework will be great for 5th grade. The homework will keep us activated, increase our learning, and prepare us for 6th grade. Finally, I believe that we can increase the amount of homework to prepare us for 6th grade.

* A Bigger Gym In our small town called Stonington, there are many great things to see and do. You can visit the Stonington Borough, and poke your head into the overly crowded (but charming) coffee shops, or buy extremely cute glass animals at the shop called LaGrua’s. But for some reason, they don’t invest much money into the Mystic Y. Our citizens deserve a bigger place to work out and participate in sports such as basketball or swimming. This is why we need to take action. First, you might be thinking, doesn’t it just take too much time and effort and money? However, wouldn’t you rather spend a little bit more money for a place to work out? Are you still not convinced? Here are some key details to convince you. First off, our gym is like a dollhouse! There isn’t much room, and you don’t have much privacy. I once took swimming lessons there, and children and adults were using the pool at the same time! Kids deserve to have one pool just for swimming lessons, and adults should have another pool for swimming laps or just hanging out. Also, there is only one miniature gym. Gymnastics and basketball take place at the same time and sometimes basketballs roll onto the side where the gymnasts practice causing it to be a distraction. Another detail is that, there really isn’t any room to stretch or warm up. The Mystic Y has no free space to stretch or get ready for the activity you’re about to participate in. One of the other disappointing things about the Mystic Y is that the utilities are awful! In the pool, kickboards and diving boards are falling apart, and water always splashes onto them, making them a slippery harmful surface, causing many people to slip, trip, and fall. Also, the basketballs they use on the courts are old and deflated. In addition, we can’t play basketball, if we don’t have the proper materials for basketball. Another main problem we have at the Mystic Y, is the gymnastics program.

For example, the balance beams are hard, unsteady, rusty, and old. The mats are falling apart, and the climbing rope is unstable. Wouldn’t you like a gym with proper materials? My last main argument is that from the outside, our Mystic Y looks worn down and choppy looking. If we redid the Mystic Y, we could make it look beautiful on the inside and outside too! We shouldn’t have to walk into a gloomy looking gym, we should make it look nice and inviting. In conclusion, we need a bigger gym for our citizens. We should redo our gym so it has better working utilities, bigger spaces and more room for activities, and finally, a more welcoming look on the outside to make our gym seem more inviting and friendly. Help make our gym great!

* Now that you’ve read the 5 finalists, please take a minute and vote for your favorite essay at this link​. Thank you!