Table of Contents: Page 1: Mock Trial, Science Olympiad, & Parent/Teacher Conferences Page 2: Sports Teams Page 3: Featured Teachers & Students Page 4: Featured Electives/Staff & Students Page 5: Student Life & Clubs Page 6: Opinion Poll, Cheer-leaders, Thanksgiving Games & Trivia

Newsletter Staff: Graphic Designers: Edgar Garcia & Travis Reed Editor: Chase Salcido Sports Reporters: Meriah Guanajuato, Chase Salcido, Armando Pinon Featured Teacher/Student Reporters: Janiece Schilling, Sydne Wellington, Cassandra McCrory, Brendan Guerrero, and Zack Schlarb Headline Page: Lacey Olson Student Life: Virginia Smith & Christopher Mizner Puzzles & Trivia: Diana Bonilla & Michelle Baez Cactus Clubs: Grace Van Antwerp & Raymond Tafoya Opinion Poll: Nicholas Olivarez & Ernest Tunstall Photographers: Christopher Reyes & Marissa Garcia Teacher: Ms. Hendrickson

Rachelle Gay & Emma Hernandez cross examining a witness

Francisco Galaz, CassetyWellington, Kaden Dawson, Mireya Kuskie, Kortney Cortez & Caidy Riggs checking over their court notes.

Mock Trial is a class, taught by Mrs. Flores, which teaches critical thinking and analysis skills while learning about the law. Mrs. Flores enjoys Mock Trial because she likes to watch students take the skills they have learned and use them to win at the Pinal County Mock Trial Competition. We asked Mrs. Flores if she had any past recognitions and she said she has placed 1st every year she has coached. What she expects from her pupils in Mock Trial is hard work when they analyze a case and great performances when they compete. When her pupils are involved in a competition, they pick a case and take the roles of attorneys and witnesses. When they compete, they actually perform the case they choose as if it were a real trial. The activities Mrs. Flores teaches her students are analyzing cases, creating “T” charts, creating questions, and opening and closing arguments.

Caidy Riggs, Kaden Dawson, Francisco Galaz, Luis Mendina,

Kourtney Cortez & Dominique Browning preparing for their case.

Morgan Snow, Kim Chavez, Nick Snieth, Cassity

Sopha, Janelle Young, Olivia Carter & Lyn-

ette Butron

Mrs. Hale, 7th LA

Ms. Bottomley, Art teacher

8th Grade teachers Mr. Alexander MA & Mrs. Meier LA

Mrs.Calhoun, 8th Science

Mr. Wiebold, 6th Science, with Victoria Rodriguez & Family

6th Grade teachers, Mrs. Nilson LA & Mr. Coe MA

Mrs. Schmidlin, 6th MA

Book Fair Shopping

Dominique

Browning

& Gaby

Lopez

Olympiad Roster: Samantha Akkerman, Molly Black, Janessa Galvan, Austin Hagerman, Michael Kenny, Tristen Lairmore, Luis Medina, Juan Medina, Felicity Orozco, Esteran Otero, Jose Sanchez, & Janelle Young (Eddie Reyes not pictured)

Mr. Alexander’s expectation for his 7th & 8th grade soccer team is that they will win the championship. He has coached for a couple years and played when he was young. He en-joys watching football and perform-ing under water basket weaving. His favorite sea animal is a Logger Head Sea Turtle, because it looks cool, and it’s slow but powerful! Mr. Alexan-der’s favorite family tradition for Thanksgiving is to Eat, Eat, and Eat!

7th & 8th Grade Soccer Team: Jazzlynn Acevedo, Amanda Jimenez, Lanese Stewart, Evelyn Gonzales, Haley Curradi, Cambria Mitchell, Victoria Rivera, Tiara Hasbrouk, Destany Nieman, Mayra Ginez, Samantha Ray, Cheyanne Chavez, Ana Castro, Cassity Sopha, Victoria Davila, Cierra Juarez, Michala Vereen, Ana Badilla, Sydne Wellington, and Odaliz Mendoza. Managers: Meriah Guanajuato and Iliana Guerra.

Miss Dean is the head coach for our Cross Country team. Miss Dean has been running in Cross Country for 14 years. She started when she was in middle school, ran through high school, and competed in college. Miss Dean says that she enjoys watching competitive track and enjoys watching ASU football. She also enjoys watching NFL and NBA games. Miss Dean’s expectations for her Cross Country team this year are to run the races without stopping and to become consistent, solid runners. Miss Dean says that her athletes are performing very well. She says right now she is getting everyone to run their race distances without stopping. Students who can run without stopping are focusing on running the race faster. For our”Under the Sea” theme, Miss Dean says that she is partial to the Killer Whale because that is her team name. However, Miss Dean also says she really loves turtles since she was young. In fact, Miss Dean’s first pet was an aquatic red-eared slider turtle. Miss Dean’s family traditions for Thanksgiving are that all seven kids in her family, and now their children, get together with their parents and have tamales. Finally, Miss Dean would like to add that she is excited to be coaching and that she has some fantastic runners on her team.

6th/7th/8th Cross Country Roster: Kyle Davis, Samantha Armendariz, Casey Soto, Skyler Wilson, Angelina Reyes, Averi Pepper, Amaya Datsi, Antonio Morales, Zeandra Gipson, Gabriel Ledezma, Andrew Lloyd, Nathan Lloyd, Seyenne Correy, Savannah Leawitt, Elania Leawitt, Adriana Garcia, Charles Plumb, Estevan Ortero, Jason Gutierrez, Travis Reed, and Paul Grant.

Mr. Spooner has been coaching the flag football team for the past four seasons, win-ning the Signal Peak Championship three times. Mr. Spooner likes to watch college football, professional football and baseball. He is very excited to watch his favorite football team, The Chicago Bears, and wishes them luck to win the Super Bowl this year. Mr. Spooner is expecting a solid core of players from last year and sees some exciting new players. He expects them to improve throughout the season and with the talent that they have on the team, he expects to win the Signal Peak Championship. There are returning students from last year’s team including Brock Hall, Elonna Okuagu, and Jacob Williams. He says their leadership will be key to their success this year. Mr. Spooner wants all players to improve on their IQ and get them ready for high school. For Thanksgiving, Mr. Spooner plans to hangout with friends, eat a lot, and watch the Cowboys lose. For our school’s theme, Mr. Spooner’s favorite sea animal is Great White Shark!

7th & 8th grade Flag Football members: Mando Pinon, Rayce Travis, Nick Olivarez, Jacob Williams, Isai Cordova, Elonna Okuagu, Jared Walton, Pedro Calderas, Je-ovani Cruz, Tevin Sherman, Ryland Wilcox-Lewis, Brock Hall, Christopher Ortega, Tobi Salinas, Oscar Castro, Alex Soto, Tyler Bounds, and Cole Whisenhunt.

is a former professional baseball player and now teaches 6th grade math. He decided to become a teacher be-cause his love of working with students and help-ing them to become the best kids they can be. His favorite trait in a student is when they are respect-ful and willing to try anything. Mr. Coe grew up in Wisconsin and attended college for a semester at Central Arizona College. He graduated from Uni-versity of Wisconsin - Stevens Point. Mr. Coe’s mother and father are both retired police officers. He has two little brothers and one of them is on the baseball team for the Arizona Diamond-backs. His family’s Thanksgiving traditions in-clude: all of his family getting together for a deli-cious lunch, playing a family football game, watch-ing NFL games, and then eating delicious leftovers for dinner. Mr. Coe’s favorite sea animal is a whale because they are big and they can be trained to do fancy tricks. He also likes to play baseball in his free time.

is a 6th grade student. Shayne’s favorite sea animal

is the otter because she loves the way they look and act. Shayne spends her Thanksgiving with her family. In her free time, she turns into an artist and colors, or plays at the park. Shayne said that her mom and stepdad are her idols because they love her and she loves them. Shayne said she believes her

family is very nice and cool because they are supportive. Shayne’s best friends are Sydney, Maira, Zoie, Alyssa, Seyenne and Helen, because they are always there for her when she needs them. Shayne says she has no favorite teacher. She loves them all because they do so much for her.

Jordyn likes to spend her spare time reading and playing video games with her brother and sister. Her best friends are Brooklyn P., Courtney, Mi-chelle, Lauren, Christina, Dan-ielle, Jocee, Angalyn, Ryan, Eric, and Conner. She grew up in Safford, Arizona. Then, she went to Chino Valley, where she attended Heritage Middle School. Her tradition for Thanksgiving is that her family

usually gets together and they eat a big meal. Her favorite sea ani-mal is a dolphin, because they are smart and cute. Jordyn has two sisters and one brother. She is the youngest in the family. Some of her hobbies are reading and writing. Also, some of her role mod-els in life are her mom, dad, and her sister, Candace.

is a 7th grade math teacher who grew up in Mondamin, Iowa, a town of 500 people. He went to the University of Nebraska at Omaha and he is almost finish with his Master’s degree from Northern Arizona University. When he was in college, he worked as a waiter, a telemar-keter, and at a golf course. Mr. Spooner’s family lives in Iowa and he is very close to them. His dad is a farmer and his mom is a dance teacher. He has an older sister who lives in Mississippi. For Thanksgiving, Mr. Spooner will be spend it with his friends eating lots of food and watching football before going shopping on Black Friday. His favorite sea animal is the Great White Shark.

Mr. Alexander’s favorite thing to see in a student is to have them get better and to keep pushing through things. His favorite things to teach in math are the number signs. He grew up in Tucson and has at-tended Myers Ganoung Elementary, Nay-lor Middle, Rincon High, Pima Commu-nity College, Prescott College, University Of Phoenix, Central Arizona College, and Rio Salado College. His family traditions for Thanksgiving are to eat and watch football. His favorite sea animal is the Marrus Orthocanna, because it looks cool and it looks like a rocket ship. Mr. Alexander has four kids. He has a daughter that is five, twin boys that are two, and a six month old baby. His hobby is to find cool new ways to incorporate technology into his math class. Also, his role model in life is Mr. Gerads.

Angel’s favorite class is Advanced Math with his favorite teacher, Mr. Spooner. Outside of school, he likes to practice soccer and go to the mall. He has a loving, car-ing, and supportive family. For Thanksgiving, his family tradition is to have a huge feast. His favor-ite vacation was going to the beach in California. Angel’s fa-vorite sea animal is a shark be-cause they are mean and fierce.

Mrs. Hale’s 7th grade Language Arts classes just finished reading the novel, The Outsiders. Her class celebrated by watching the movie. Students could have earned extra credit by dressing as a Greaser or a Soc as described in the book. Almost 20 kids participated in getting extra credit.

(From Left to Right): Savannah, Bridgette, Haley, Jackline, Amanda, Mrs. Hale, Johnny, Isaac and Jett are dressed up.

Mrs. Watts grew up here in Casa Grande and attended several colleges including

CAC, Rio Salado, and Prescott College. Mrs. Watts' favorite sea animal is a Great White Shark because they are majestic predators. She has a husband named Donald and they have two kids. Her daughter, Danielle, is a second grade teacher at Desert Willow and her son, Judah, is a sophomore at CGHUS. Mrs. Watts' plans for Thanksgiving usually consist of lots of cooking and fun times with her friends and family. Mrs. Watts says she loves to travel to foreign countries and her favorite places to vacation are Costa Rica and Spain. She also likes going to the movies (especially scary movies), shopping, practicing yoga, and high intensity interval training (HIIT). She loves to teach circuit weight training and yoga because it’s a wonderful change from the normal things she teaches.

Leslie Alvarez’s favorite class is P.E. and her favorite teacher is Mrs. Watts. Her favorite sea animal is a shark because they are fascinating and cute. Her best friends are Alexis Reggio, Deana Mejia and Karissa Catani. Her plans for Thanksgiving will be going to Las Vegas to see her family and to see her dad’s girlfriend, Aimee. Leslie’s hobbies include

singing and spending time with her mom. Leslie adores her mom.

Mrs. Urias grew up in Casa Grande and she went to Casa Grande Union High School. She enjoys working with people and

students. She is married to a wonderful husband that spoils her rotten “At

least everyone says so”. She has three wonderful kids, a 20 year old named Anthony, a 20 year old named Ariel, and a 13 year old named Alonzo. Her favorite sea animal is a dolphin. Her family tradition for Thanksgiving is to all get together at her grandmother’s house. Her last vacation was during Fall Break and she went to California to visit her family. Mrs. Urias enjoys coming to work everyday.

Iliana Guerra’s favorite teachers are Mrs. Urias and Mr. Alexander. Her favorite class is Advanced Math. Iliana stays after school because she is the soccer manager. She enjoys playing softball on the Casa Grande Diablas. Iliana says her family is always on the go because she always has tournaments and practice, but her family is always together. Iliana’s family tradition for Thanksgiving is to get together and spend time with her family. Iliana’s favorite sea animal is a dolphin because they can swim fast and do tricks.

Ms. Hendrickson’s Chess Club will be learning the game during the next two months. Chess Club has a total of 48 members with new mem-bers joining each week. Club members enjoy checking out boards before school and at lunch to get in extra practice. The goal this year is to have fun playing the game, build a strong and knowledgeable team, and to win the district tournament.

The yearbook staff is excited about this year’s yearbook!

They said that they have already begun to take pictures for the yearbook. Also, they have been spending time to find out what theme and pages they want to include.

Sponsor: Mrs. Hale

Members: Mariah Lara, Ali Belloc, Savannah McMahon, Staci Ortega, Olivia Carter, Caidy Riggs, Ayliny Patino, Janelle Young, and Mireya Kuskie.

NJHS is doing a food drive from 11/5—11/16. The CT class with the most cans will win a pizza party. Also, they will be doing a toy drive from 12/3—12/14. They are asking for donations of toys for needy students. Another thing they are doing is adopting two families at Christmas. They are asking for donations of food, clothing, and toys. (Mrs. Batina at right rolling a student in bubble wrap used around the cookie dough)

In Ms. Hendrickson’s third hour Advance Computers class, stu-dents are working on the November Student Newsletter. They produce a newsletter every month. Each student has a different job for the newsletter. Her class is also working on a 12 month calendar as their independent project with any theme they want. They are monitoring a stock market investment project where they have a $1000 budget to invest in buying

stocks from five companies of their choice. They monitor it daily and hope it grows. They are getting ready to start an “All About Me” brochure.

Mrs. Meier’s 2nd Hour Language Arts class is working on Cinco De Mayo skeletons.

Paul Grant, Destay Nieman, Josh Nagel

Branden Montiel, Nick Olivarez

Jocee Wilson, Sydne Wellington, Rayce Travis

This year for Drama, they are going to be performing “Seussical Jr.” The Drama Club is very excited about performing this musical. This musical will have the fun characters from the Dr. Seuss books. The only difference is that the characters will be singing and dancing together.

Mr. Sanchez’s Spanish Club is planning on going on field trips. They want to take field trips be-cause they want to enhance the experience of speaking Spanish outside the classroom.

Rayce Travis, Sydne Wellington

S H N G K H V A Y S Z T H D D K T S I S F P D E E P Y J H I F H U A K P V T K O I A V O N T E U F L P A V R T L M Z Q N X Q A E F R M L U A G S B S E S V P S B I K U T T R B Z N R D I S E T U N L P O I E P A R E I L J A K D G K P M O A E O X E N O B H S I W D S T Z B L C J Y H P H K U T E D D Q N L T R A D I T I O N H D K H E S C R A N B E R R Y S A U C E P G R A V Y J W V U A R I K R G Y U E I P N I K P M U P P G I

APPLEPIE CELEBRATE CRANBERRYSAUCE DINNERROLLS FEAST GRAVY GREENBEANS MASHEDPOTATOES

PILGRIMS PUMPKIN PUMPKINPIE SQUASH STUFFING TRADITION TURKEY WISHBONE

71 44 80

153 110 146

Who is your president of choice?

A. Mitt Romney

B. Barack Obama

94 39 92

64 77 62

15 26 32

12 12 31

What is your favorite dish

to eat on Thanksgiving?

A. Turkey or Ham

B. Mashed Potatoes or Sweet potato

C. Stuffing and Gravy

D. Rolls melting in butter

A. Pumpkin Pie

B. Apple Pie

C. Fruit cobbler with ice cream

D. Pecan Pie

What is your favorite dessert?

159 85 126

28 27 45

17 20 24

13 14 20

What is your favorite part about

Thanksgiving?

A. Spending time with family and traditions

B. Watching the football games

C. Getting to eat a ton of food

D. Black Friday shopping

100 34 53

73 47 52

38 33 64

49 66 53 · In the US, about 280 million turkeys are sold for the Thanksgiving celebrations.

· Each year, the average American eats somewhere between 16 - 18 pounds of turkey.

· Thanksgiving Day is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November in the United States.

· Black Friday is the Friday after Thanksgiving in the United States, where it is the beginning of the tradi-tional Christmas shopping season.

· The heaviest turkey ever raised was 86 pounds, about the size of a large dog.

· Turkey has more protein than chicken or beef.

· Turkeys will have 3,500 feathers at maturity.

· Male turkeys gobble. Hens do not. They make a clucking noise.

Eight presidents never attended college: Washing-ton, Jackson, Van Buren, Taylor, Fillmore, Lincoln, A. Johnson, and Cleveland. The college that has the most presidents as alumni (seven in total) is Harvard: J. Adams, J. Q. Adams, T. Roosevelt, F. Roosevelt, Rutherford B. Hayes, J. F. Kennedy, and George W. Bush.

Barack Obama does not like ice cream, because he worked in an ice cream shop as a teenager.