1

The Pawprint

Halloween

Halloween started a little over 2000 years ago with a very spooktacular story that started with

the Celtics Halloween also known as Samhain. It irrigated from what are now Ireland, North France, and

the U.K. and it was celebrated on November 1st. As we all know, Halloween is right around the corner,

from the candy lining the shelves of stores to the weather getting a slight chill to it. Soon, kids of all ages

are out roaming the streets and knocking on doors for some delicious candy and some spooky delights.

It is widely believed that many Halloween traditions originated from ancient Celtic harvest festivals,

particularly the Gaelic festival Samhain; such festivals may have had pagan roots; and that Samhain itself

was Christianized as Halloween by the early Church. As for the trick or treating, or “guising” (from

“disguising”), traditions beginning in the Middle-Ages, children, and sometimes poor adults would dress

up in the aforementioned costumes and go around door to door during Hallowmas begging for food or

money in exchange for songs and prayers, often said on behalf of the dead. There are many traditions

for Halloween around the world and in many different houses in America. At Porum Public Schools,

students may choose to dress in costume and pass out candy. The elementary even have classroom

parties which always include a lot of laughs and, of course, candy!

-Bailee Brady

2

Homecoming

Homecoming is the tradition of welcoming back former students and members and celebrating

an organization's existence. It is a tradition in many high schools, colleges, and churches in the United

States and Canada. Homecoming is an annual tradition in the United States. People, towns, high schools,

and colleges come together, usually in late September or early October, to welcome back new and

former residents. It is built around a central event, such as a banquet or dance and a game of American

football. Here at Porum, we all get excited for homecoming. We dress up for spirit week to make us all

more spirited for the game. We’re all excited to see who the homecoming king and queen is. The

football boys are hyped for getting the chance to get to the play offs. Porum hasn’t been to the play offs

in many years. The boys didn’t win but they did win the two games after. They are going to play offs and

now have a front seat.

Attendants

King and Queen- Clay Pryor and Jolei Henson

Prince and Princess- Luke Spradlin and Ashlynn Anderson

Crown Barriers and Flower Girls- Keegan Trip and Abigail Smith, Daniel Dobbs and Jeniah Wildcat

Freshmen- Kolby Brown and Zabre Pound

Sophomores- Colton Shell and Renea Morris

Juniors- David Hood and Jetta Briggs

Seniors- Kaynan Pulse and Season Briscoe

FFA- Michael Martin and Jolei Henson

FCCLA- Riley Kennedy and Hannah Tiger

FCA- Gavin Cowett and Kody Stewart

NHS- Lucas Lawless and Kayla Rogers

Academic- Jess Shrum and Elizabeth Peebles

4-H- Ethan Shoemake and Alaysia Barbee

Basketball- Clay Pryor and Danielle Barnes

Softball and Baseball- Lane Brown and Saebra McKee

Football and Cheer- Colton McMellon and Cambry Hokit

3

Stu-Co- Clayton Carter and Katie Joseph

Robotic- Daniel Rogers and Morgan Rosson

4

Panthers Got Game Every year, during the week of homecoming, the panthers show off their spirit by dressing up

every day. The high school cheerleaders come up with themes for spirit week. Students always have so

much fun dressing up for spirit week. This year’s spirit week theme is board games. Monday is Candy

Land: the students wear pajamas. Tuesday is Scrabble: the students wear the first letter of their name or

dress up as something that starts with the first letter of their name. Wednesday is Cranium: the students

dress up as a nerd. Thursday is Life: the students dress as their future career. Friday is Battleship: the

students wear maroon and gold.

-Madison Parsons

5

Porum’s BEST Robotics Competition on Saturday

The Porum Robotics Team competed at the River Valley BEST Robotics competition Saturday,

October 13, 2018. The team earned 1000 points during the seeding rounds to secure their place in the

semi-finals. They earned 3rd place for the BEST Award.

The BEST Award is presented to the team that best embodies the concept of Boosting

Engineering, Science, and Technology. This concept recognizes that inclusiveness, diversity of

participation, exposure to and use of the engineering process, sportsmanship, teamwork, creativity,

positive attitude and enthusiasm, and school and community involvement play significant roles in a

team’s competitive experience and contribute to student success in the competition beyond winning an

award.

The students were judged in the following categories:

1. Engineering Notebook

2. Team Exhibit and Interview

3. Spirit and Sportsmanship

4. Robot Performance

The team will compete in the Regional competition on November 30th and December 1st in Fort Smith.

-Angela Hood

6

Red Ribbon Week

The Red Ribbon Campaign is the oldest and largest drug prevention program in the nation

reaching millions of young people during Red Ribbon Week, October 22– 25 each year. During Red

Ribbon Week, the students dress up to show that they are proud to be drug free.

Monday- Wear red

Tuesday- Wear sunglasses (cool to be drug free)

Wednesday- Wear camo (be all you can be)

Thursday- Wear pajamas (follow your dreams)

Friday- Wear school colors (anything is possible when your drug free)

-Madison Parsons

Another year, another book fair

We have had many events this year, but some of the students’ favorite is just around

the corner. November 8-16 from 8-3:30, Porum Public schools are having their annual Book

Fair. When most students think of a book fair they think of books but ours’ consist of much

more such as pencils, erasers, bookmarks, highlighters, posters, and much more. Book Fairs

have been around for over 30 years. Our librarian Mrs. April has worked here for 19 years, and

7

in that time there has been many book fairs. There are new books for new series each book fair,

depending on what books the students are into. This year some of the series are Dog Man, I

Survived, Fly Guy, the Bad Guys, and the newest Dairy of a Wimpy Kid. Each book fair, Mrs. April

puts together a guessing game this year’s is going to “be guess how many enchanted beans are

in the jar”. We asked Mrs. April how many book fairs she has done while working at Porum

School.

Her response was “I don’t know how many I’ve done. I love to decorate and get the kids

pumped up.”

As you can see book fairs are more than just books. There are many things that make up a book

fair with the games, books, high lighters, posters, and much more that make a book fair a book

fair.

-Hanna Tallon

8

STUCO Dance

Friday, October 26, the student council threw a fall dance for fourth, fifth, and sixth

grade. It was a fun way to bond with friends and, sort of, step out of their comfort zone. They

held this event in the school cafeteria with a five dollar charge to get in. They also had snacks

and drinks for sell. That money benefited the student council. During the dance, you could see

the excitement in all of their faces. This gave the students a good reason to get dressed up and

feel special in their own way. I asked Diezel Purdom what his favorite song that was played at

the dance was and he said, “Probably shake it off.”I also asked Lilly Johnson what her favorite

part of her first dance was and she said, “Having fun.”

-Sara Parsons

High School Girls Basketball

It’s that time of the month. Panther fans’ basketball season is around the corner. On

November 16, the girls basketball team will be playing Gans in their season opener. This year

team leaders are Jolei Henson, Danielle Barnes, Savannah Macom, and Cambry Hokit. This

year’s team is going to be young said Coach Wheat but she knows they will get better as the

games and practices go on and by the end of the year they are going to be a hard team to beat.

“The freshmen are going to need to step up this year.” said Coach Wheat. However, she knows

that the freshman are going to help the team in a big way this year. We are all supporting them

to win and continue their winning streak.

-Jacob Lakeman

9

Elementary Pumpkin Decoration Contest

Porum elementary had a pumpkin contest; each classroom painted and/or decorated a

pumpkin. There were three winners. For 1st place was Mrs. Hokit with a candy corn pufferfish,

2nd was Mrs. Macom with the unicorn, and 3rd was Mrs. Crase with a gumball machine.

1st

2nd

10

3rd

-Hanna Tallon

Porum’s FCCLA

This year is off to a great start with Porum’s FCCLA. The 26th of September FCCLA

traveled to Fort Smith Arkansas’s state fair, for consumer judging. FCCLA had a meeting on

September 25th in the home economics class, where the visor, Mrs. Tappaitha Bush, taught her

FCCLA members what judging is and how to do it. This is Mrs. Bush’s first year as an FCCLA

representative. When FCCLA was at the fair, they judged and rode many rides. We asked Mrs.

Bush how she though the fair went. Her response was, “I feel like it went well, I now know how

11

to better prepare my students for next years’ consumer judging.”

.”

FCCLA members at cosumer jugding.

While FCCLA has done many things already they still have many events still to come.

-Hanna Tallon