1. education
2. school

PLAZA VISTA K-8
SCHOOL
IRVINE UNIFIED
SCHOOL
DISTRICT
Special points of
interest:
 Welcome to the Stargazer Gazette! (pg. 1)
STARGAZER
GAZETTE
Volume 1, Issue 1
Plaza Vista Introduces Student Newspaper
By: Rohan Gorajia
 Harvest Cup (pg. 2)
 An Interview with Mrs.
Smith (pg. 2)
 Red Ribbon Week (pg.
3)
 Magic Show (pg. 3)
 Comics & Recipes
(pgs. 4-8)
Upcoming Events:
 Sock Wars! - Tuesday,
November 1st
 PTA Bake Sale—
Wednesday, November 2nd
 End of First Trimester
(Report Cards) Thursday, November
10th
 PTA Family Night/
Magic Show—
Thursday, November
10th
 Veteran’s Day Holiday
(No School) - Friday,
November 11th
 PTA Meeting—
Wednesday, November 16th
 Thanksgiving Holiday—Thursday &
Friday, November
24th & 25th
 Last Day of 2nd Quarter (Minimum Day)—
Friday, December
16th
Fall 2011
Welcome to the Stargazer Gazette! This is
the first edition of
the school newspaper.
The Stargazer Gazette will be published
once each quarter. The
newspaper committee
is very excited to do
this and I hope you
(the reader) are also.
We hope you find it
entertaining and fun to
read. We’re going to
make it as enjoyable
for you as possible.
The Stargazer Ga-
zette will have inter-
views with teachers
and students, recipes,
jokes, comics, and
much more! This is an
exciting chance for us
to shine and show our
skills to all of you who
are reading this newspaper and will read all
the others. This newspaper is an event that
all of us can share and
enjoy together.
The newspaper
four fifth grade students on the committee. There are also
middle school students
writing for the paper.
We would like to thank
Mrs. Phillips for being
our leader. We would
also like to thank all of
you, our readers, for
reading this.
staff is made up of 4th
and 5th grade students.
There are five fourth
grade students and
Favorites About Our Teachers
By: Maddie Knutson
I asked a few students,
"What is your favorite thing
about your teacher?" This
is what they said:
Sunita (4th grade) said, "My
teacher is funny." "My
teacher is kind and funny"
was Laura's (4th grade)
reply. Andrew's (4th
grade) comment was the
most funny when he said,
"He skips problems that he
thinks aren't worth doing."
Melissa (5th grade) remembered, "My teacher from
last year was awesome."
Finally, Kyle (5th grade)
said, "She is fun." It seems
everyone has a lot of good
things to say about their
teachers!
Page 2
STARGAZER GAZETTE
An Interview with Mrs. Christy Smith—2nd Grade Teacher
Mrs. Smith loves
to teach reading
to her second
grade students.
By: Amelie Phua
ing is reading.
Q: What inspired you to teach?
A: My dad was an educator, I
watched him work with kids. I
loved children so much, I wanted to work with them every
day.
Q: Who is your favorite author?
A: My favorite author is E. B.
White.
Q: How long have you been a
teacher?
A: This has been my 14th year
here at Plaza Vista.
Q: Do you have a favorite subject in teaching?
A: My favorite subject in teach-
Q: Is there any famous person
you admire?
A: I really admire Abraham
Lincoln.
Q: If you had the power to
change one thing to help the
school, what would it be?
A: If I had the power to change
one thing to help the school, I
would try to give every student
their own laptop.
Q: Do you have any hobbies?
A: My hobbies are running,
stamping cards, football, spending time with my family, playing
with my dogs, and shopping.
Q: Please tell us something silly
about yourself that we do not
know about.
A: I am going to be dressing up
as Tinkerbell for Halloween.
Plaza Vista’s Students Play in Harvest Cup Soccer Tournament
By: Lynna Sato &
Congratulations
to the Plaza
Vista students
who competed
in Harvest Cup!
Harvest Cup takes
place each October
Marissa Fukunaga
Hi! This is Lynna &
Marissa from the elementary
school newspaper, the Stargazer Gazette, and we are
going to tell you about a soccer tournament that recently
happened.
The tournament is called
Harvest Cup. It is a fun soccer
competition for girls and
boys. This year it was held on
October 16, 2011. The four
categories are girls 5th/6th;
boys 5th/6th; girls 7th/8th; and
boys 7th/8th grade teams. For
more than 30 years, Harvest
Cup has been offered by the
City of Irvine, AYSO Soccer
and Irvine Schools.
The athletes who participated this year were very
satisfied with Harvest Cup.
Zara, a 5th grade girl, and Milind, a 5th grade boy, have said,
“I would really recommend
it,” or “I think we really
worked well as a team.” Alee,
a 5th grade girl, said, “If you
like soccer and sports, I will
recommend it to you.” Zara
has even said, “I think more
people would join if there
were other sports, too!”
Our girls 5th/6th grade
group beat the team that was
the winner last year (Stone
Creek) and went to the semifinals, but lost to Brywood!
Zara said, “This last team was
hard [to beat] because they
were bigger, faster, and they
kicked further.” Our Plaza
Vista girls showed respect
and determination while they
played. For girls who are
young, teamwork is very important. To work as one and
to have good sportsmanship
is what makes a good team.
“The 6th graders were role
models for us,” said Zara.
Most pople know the
saying, “Practice makes perfect.” Zara said, “I think practice helped because some of
the girls were first timers.”
She also said, “I think our
team did well, even though
we had some flaws in the
game.”
Zara said her favorite
part was the game before the
semi-finals at Bill Barber.
She said, “I did the Harvest
Cup because it is an extra
activity and it makes you
healthy.” During a corner
kick, a 6th grader named
Asuka scored a winning run.
She has said the three reasons
she likes Harvest Cup is because she loves it when she
really tries to score and then
she gets to score, she likes to
watch her other teammates
play and learn a little, and she
likes how she gets to make
new friends from the other
schools.
Harvest Cup is important
for many reasons. It makes
you show good sportsmanship and determination. This
tournament is one of the first
opportunities most kids can
compete for our school. Hopefully more kids can join and
show Plaza Vista spirit next
year!
Volume 1, Issue 1
Page 3
PTA Sponsors Magic Show for Family Night
By: Lynna Sato and Rachel
Oleski
Hello, fellow students
and their parents! We’re going
to tell you about Magic Night,
this November 11, 2011 at
6:30pm. We’re also going to
tell you a couple of secrets
about what’s going to happen
at the magic show. We’re even
going to tell you a little about
Brock Edwards, the magician
who is going to perform. Brock
Edwards is from Los Angeles,
and has been performing for
crowds for many years.
At the show, you will
get to see our principal disappear! It will blow your mind!
You might even get to be on
stage as a magician with Brock,
and he might make you float
five feet in the air, so if you’re
afraid of heights, don’t raise
your hand! Bring as many of
your friends and family as you
like, but get your tickets early.
The tickets will be seven dollars if you order them before
the show, but if you get them
that night, they will be nine
dollars.
On October 21,
2011, we got to see an assembly with Brock. He used magic
to teach us about being bullyfree and made us laugh. So, we
think the upcoming magic show
should be just as entertaining
and we are sure he will stun
and amaze the audience.
We hope you learned
a little bit about the upcoming
magic show and we hope to
see you there! Thanks for reading.
Tickets can be purchased in advance for
$7 each or can be purchased the evening of
the event for $9 each!
A Note of Thanks from PTA for Red Ribbon Week Pennies
To All the Wonderful
Students, Teachers, and
Staff of Plaza Vista:
We wish to extend a heartfelt “thank
you” to everyone for
showing their spirit,
support, and dedication
towards healthy living. Last week’s Red
Ribbon Week was a
huge success, with a
collection of 1011
pounds of pennies!! (We exceeded
last year’s collection by
13 pounds!)
To show our
appreciation, the class
with the most pennies
(calculated per number
of students in the class)
will receive a pizza party. The grand prize
winner of the pizza
party for this year is
Mr. Bedley’s class,
who brought in an
amazing 263 lbs of
pennies!
The PTA would
also like to award the
top class in each grade
level. These classes
will have a choice of
either a popsicle or ice
cream float party. This
year’s winners are:
Kindergarten – Mrs.
Lew / Mylar
1st grade – Mrs. Kuno
2nd grade – Mrs.Sagud
3rd grade – Ms. Silva
4th grade – Mrs. Benzie
5th grade – Mrs. Waterman
6th grade – Ms. Harvey
7th grade – Mrs. Salverson
8th grade – Mr. Hammeras
Thank you to
all the Plaza
Once again,
thank you all for making Red Ribbon Week
a great success.
Sincerely,
Mary Wong,
Denise Wallace, and
Parisa Shahabi
Plaza Vista PTA
Vista students
who donated to
“Pennies for
Prevention”!
Page 4
After School Snacks
By: Maddie Knutson
Pudding
Comic
Strip
Here is a tasty treat any kid can make to eat
with your favorite fruits.
by: Chiharu Matsuoka
Fruit Dip
3 oz. cream cheese at room temperature
1/4 cup powdered confectioner's sugar
1/4 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons marshmallow creme
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract (optional)
Directions: (1) Cream all of these ingredients together in a small bowl. An electric
mixer works best, but you can also use a big
spoon. (2) Cover and chill. (3) Serve!
Recipe from Paula Deen's Cookbook for the
Lunch-Box Set, with slight changes by Maddie
Knutson
Spotlight on Art
Would you like your artwork to be featured in our
next student newspaper? If so, send a scanned copy
of your art to Mrs. Phillips at [email protected].
Volume 1, Issue 1
Page 5
Bacon Cheddar Sliders
From: The Food Channel
Here's the traditional indulgent American cheeseburger, slider-sized and topped with
smoky bacon. Indulgent, yes, but it's just a mini burger with about 2 ounces of meat!
Of course, you're going to want to eat more than one, but who's counting?
Recipes on pages
7 & 8 contributed
by Alyssa
Sanjongco
Servings: 12 servings
Prep: 10 mins
Total: 16 mins
Ingredients
3 pounds 80/20 ground chuck
1/4 cup Heinz 57 Sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
Bacon, cooked, as needed
Cheddar cheese slices, as needed
Ketchup, as needed
24 3-inch butter and egg dinner rolls
Directions
1. Build a charcoal fire or heat a gas grill.
2. Place the ground chuck in a large bowl and add the Heinz 57
Sauce and salt, and pepper. Mix well. Shape the meat into 24 (2ounce) patties.
3. When the grill is medium-hot, brush the grill grate with oil. Place
the burgers on the grill and cook for 4-6 minutes each side or longer if you prefer the burgers more well done.
4. Slice the buns in half and toast cut side down on the grill.
5. To serve, place 1 mini burger on the bottom half of each of the rolls. Place cheese
on top of the burgers. Place the bacon on top of the cheese, add ketchup and cover with the top half. Serve.
Oreo Truffles
From: Better Homes and Gardens
Ingredients
1 18-oz. pkg. chocolate sandwich cookies with white filling, finely crushed
1 8-oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened
1 lb. white baking chocolate, melted
Directions
1. In large bowl combine crushed cookies and cream cheese. Beat with mixer
on low speed until well blended. Form 1-inch balls by hand. Dip balls in white chocolate; place on baking
sheet covered with waxed paper. Refrigerate 1 hour or until firm. To store, cover and refrigerate. Makes 5o
truffles. You only need three ingredients to make these white chocolate treats. They're great for parties or to
give as gifts.
Servings: Makes 50 truffles.
Prep: 30 mins
Total: 1 hr 30 mins
Recipe from Old El Paso
PLAZA VISTA K-8
SCHOOL
IRVINE UNIFIED
SCHOOL DISTRICT
Grilled Taco Nachos
What's a great party without nachos? Create a really great party with these really
great nachos!
Prep Time: 25 mins
Total Time: 35 mins
Servings: 8
670 Paseo Westpark
Irvine, CA 92602
Phone: 949-936-6950
Fax: 949-936-6959
www.iusd.org/pv
Ingredients
10 cups tortilla chips
2 pounds bulk pork sausage, cooked and drained
2 cans (4.5 ounces each) Old El Paso® chopped green chiles, drained
4 teaspoons Old El Paso® taco seasoning mix (from 1 ounce package)
4 roma (plum) tomatoes, chopped (1 1/3 cups)
4 medium green onions, sliced (1/4 cup)
4 cups finely shredded Colby-Monterey Jack cheese (1 pound)
Directions
Visit the Plaza Vista Website @
Www.iusd.org/pv
1. Heat coals or gas grill for direct heat. Spray two 30x18-inch pieces of heavy-duty
aluminum foil with cooking spray. Spread tortilla chips on centers of foil pieces.
Mix sausage, chilies, and seasoning mix; spoon over tortilla chips. Top with tomatoes and onions. Sprinkle with cheese.
2. Wrap foil securely around tortilla chips. Cover and grill foil packets, seam sides up, 4
to 6 inches from medium heat 8 to 10 minutes or until cheese is melted.
TIPS:
Pump up the flavor of these colorful nachos by using bulk chorizo sausage instead of
the bulk pork sausage. Or try Monterey Jack cheese with jalapeno peppers instead of
the Co-Jack. Serve these nifty nachos with sour cream and your favorite salsa.
Newspaper Nails
By: Jessica Pineda
Plaza Vista
Newspaper
nails look awesome and
are easy to do. The
items you will need is a
base coat, gray nail
polish {I love O.P.I. },
rubbing alcohol, newspaper, nail polish remover a cotton bud
{ tip of Q-tip }, and a
top coat. First, you
gently paint on your
nail with a base coat.
Next, you add a gray
nail polish on your nail
when it is dry. Double
check to make sure it is
completely dry before
you go on to the next
stage. Get rubbing alcohol and pour it in a
container, the cap of
the rubbing alcohol is
perfect for this. Dip
your finger in the rubbing alcohol container
for five seconds then
get a piece of newspaper and press it on
your fingers for at least
fifteen seconds. Peel off
the newspaper slowly
to make sure it’s good.
Put nail polish remover
on cotton bud and gently wipe the sides of
your nail so that remaining parts of the
newspaper comes off.
Last, do the same with
your other fingers.