Vikan News | The Student Edition
Vikan Knights, ARMOR Up!
In November, students were given the following prompt to help them write a short story. Here are a few examples from the 7th and 8th grade creative writing classes that they would like to share with our school community. We hope you enjoy them!
Ms. Vander Ploeg, Sponsor
PROMPT:
After Thanksgiving dinner, you and your cousin, best friend, or sibling decide to explore the neighborhood. At the end of the street, you notice a giant pile of leaves. Together, you make a running start and leap right into the middle of the pile! Suddenly, the ground opens up beneath you, and you find yourselves sliding down a steep slide. Write a story about what happens when you land at the bottom of the slide. Where are you? Include three different things that happen on your adventure, and conclude your story by telling how you and your cousin, best friend, or sibling get back home.Student Stories
Christopher Abbriano | 7th Grade
It was a cold gloomy night when we were celebrating Thanksgiving. There was snow on the ground and you could see your breath when you went outside. The food was flavorful and it was all hot and fresh out of the oven or off the stove. Most of the adults start watching football after they eat all the food and dessert their hearts could desire. But my brother and I always like to go outside after Thanksgiving. So my brother and I go outside and see a massive pile of leaves under some snow and we decide to jump into it.
When we jump into it, we realize very quickly that this is not a regular pile of leaves. After we fall for about two seconds we land in a very deep water hole. Since my brother and I both know how to swim, we just get out of the water and try wringing out some of our clothes, like our socks and our gloves. We see that we are in a massive cave and there is an opening that seems endless just to our left. We see no other clear way out as the hole that we fell from is about 40 feet up from where we were.
We go into the opening and we hear lots of water start dripping down and suddenly a bunch of rocks fall down behind, closing the entrance of the opening. My brother and I see this and we realize that going forward is our only hope now. We continue walking for what seemed like hours and we finally find a fork in the path and we both decide to go right; when we go right, we see a massive lake of water that seems to go down for hundreds of feet. So then we turn around and try going left and we see a section that leads up, but it is a narrow path. My brother and I decide it's our only way out, so we start walking as we hear some pebbles fall. An opening appears and dirt starts caving in from above and then my brother and I see a tree root dangling down from the new opening. My brother makes a jump for it and makes it, and since he weighs more than me, I knew that I would be safe if I jumped.
After that my brother and I were in a forest that seemed very far from society. But then we see a light, then more lights and we realize that we’re in a neighborhood. Then after all the walking we thought we did in the cave, we see that we are just down the street from our house. After all that, we finally get home and we see that it has only been five minutes. My brother and I ask some people what time it is, and then it had somehow only been five minutes for what seemed like hours. We try to explain to people what happened, but everybody thought it was crazy. So after nobody believed us, we realized that nobody was going to believe us, so we just had to live this experience which made no sense.
Max Duensing | 7th Grade
For Thanksgiving my family and I went to my uncle’s house as a family reunion kind of thing. I starved myself for dinner because his food is always amazing and I need as much as possible. My uncle had ham, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, white or brown gravy, turkey, bread rolls, salad, mac’n’cheese, brownies, pumpkin pie, ice cream, and cupcakes. I had three plates of food and was very happy with how it tasted.
After dinner, my younger brother Merrick and I went on a walk together to work off some of the food we just ate. And as we were walking, I noticed a pile of something at the end of the block. I couldn’t see it that well, I didn't have my glasses with me. Merrick noticed it too.
“What is that?” he said
“I don’t know, I can’t really tell,” I said
“Well, let's go see!”
“Okay! I’m curious anyway,” I said
We both started running towards the pile, curious to see what it was. As we got closer we realized that it was a huge pile of leaves! Bigger than both of us have ever seen!
“You thinking what I’m thinking?” I said to Merrick
“If you’re thinking of jumping into it, yes!”
We both went back like 15 feet and ran as fast as we could towards the pile. Then we both jumped, AND FELL THROUGH! Instead of landing on a ton of leaves, we landed on a wide blue plastic slide. I instantly grabbed Merrick’s arm and held on tight.
“What is going on?! Why are we falling?!” Merrick shouted
“I don’t know! But are you hurt?!” I yelled
“No, I'm fine! This is scary but kind of fun!”
“That is how I’m feeling!”
“How long have we been sliding for?” Merrick said
“It feels like we’ve been sliding for a little too long,” I replied
The slide seemed like it lasted forever. I was still holding on to Merrick’s hand, when the world around us became much brighter. It was kind of blinding because of the reflection coming off of the slide.
“Wow! This is so cool!” Merrick said, looking at me.
“It’s awesome! I wonder how much longer we have until the slide comes to an end?”
And just like that, the slide ended and my brother and I were in Minecraft! Merrick’s eyes just lit up from excitement and joy. I was excited and amazed, but I also started thinking about what would happen if we died. Would we actually die? Would we respawn? Would we be teleported back outside of the leaf pile? Merrick interrupted my overthinking moment.
“Sis! We’re in Minecraft! We need to get supplies and build a house!” he said.
“Okay! We are living together, right?”
“Of course. This is real life, not a video game…” Merrick said.
I grabbed his hand and we walked into the forest to get wood. I realized that we were going to have to repetitively hit the trunk with our bare hands.
“Let me get the wood for us,” I said, “I want to make sure it doesn't hurt before you try.”
“Okay, if it hurts, we can try to find something else to hit the trunk with,” Merrick said
“Sounds good!” I said with a smile on my face.
I punched the tree, but it didn’t hurt.. There were no scrapes on my knuckles, nothing! I hit the tree again, there was no blood.
“It doesn't hurt! It doesn’t hurt, Merrick! Go get some wood!” I said.
“Oh, thank god! I was a little worried.”
As the day got dark, Merrick and I collected wood, built a house, and made tools for food and mining. We built beds and furnaces, crafting tables and cooked food, we planted crops and collected chickens for farming. And went to sleep. The next morning I woke up to check on the crops and get some chicken for me and my brother. Merrick came with me to get some cows to collect for farming. But there were 2 zombies with chain helmets on and 3 creepers outside our house. We didn't have our axes with us and the creepers blew up! And Merrick and I died. But we didn't respawn, we were teleported back outside in front of the leaf pile. It was still the same day, but only 30 minutes later from when we were first there.
“We were only gone for thirty minutes?! It felt like 2 weeks!” Merrick said
“Let’s go back home before people start to worry!” I said excitedly.
Jesus Reyes | 7th Grade
My family and I were having Thanksgiving dinner and while we were eating, my phone started ringing and ringing.
“Turn off the phone!” my mom said. I turned off my phone so I didn’t ruin the mood for my mom and I just kept eating my food. I was eating my mash potatoes when my brother accidentally (ON PURPOSE) pushed me and put a whip cream pie under my face.
“Why did you do that?!?”
“Oooooppps, sorry, didn’t see you there.”
“Mom, tell him something!”
“Why did you do that to your brother? Give me your phone!”
I went to clean my face and change my clothes. Finally my brother gets punished, he always gets away with everything, but not today. When I went to the dinner table everyone was done eating. They were just watching a movie in the living room. When I was done eating, I went to watch the movie too. A couple moments later I got really bored, so I asked my mom if me and my brother could go and explore the neighborhood. She said “yes” but not to go anywhere else.
While my brother and I were leaving the house, we saw a giant pile of leaves. We make a running start and leap right into the middle of the pile! Suddenly, the ground opens up beneath us, and we find ourselves sliding down a steep slide.
When we arrived at the bottom, we saw the most amazing thing we’ve ever seen, we saw three portals. We decided to go to the second portal, and when we jumped into the portal we saw candy everywhere.
“Are we in Willy Wonka’s factory?”
“I don’t know, but this is amazing!”
We started running towards the candy and when we tasted it, it tasted amazing! When we were finally tired of eating candy, we walked to see where there was an exit or a way out. We walked and walked until we finally found a door.
When we were on the other side of that door, we were in another room. This room had talking animals that could do magic.
“Hello, strangers, and welcome to our home,” a donkey said.
“Hhhhelo,” I said, being all weirded out.
They gave us a weird drink.
“What is this for?” my brother asks.
“This is for you guys to have fun with us,” a giraffe said.
“This gives you special powers,” the donkey said.
We drank the drink, and a few seconds later we felt different and powerful. We had all kinds of powers like telekinesis. I started moving things with my mind and we could even have the power to turn big or small.
“You have to leave, our king is coming and he doesn’t really like guests.”
We ran into the other door and in that door there were giant phones and video games. We were comparing ourselves to the giant phone and the phone was twice as big as us. We tried to see if we could play a game on this giant phone, but it was really hard.
“Hey, Jonathan, don't we have telekinesis?” my brother asked.
“Ohh, yeah, we do!”
We tried to use our telekinesis and it worked; we could play on the phones. It was time to go home, but on the way out we found my friend.
“What are you doing here, Daniel?” I asked.
“I was going to your house and I saw a pile of leaves, and of course I made a running start and jumped in the pile of leaves, and I ended up here.”
At last we had to go home. We found a way up the hole, a hidden ladder, and when we were up, we went home and didn’t tell anyone about our experience.
Jennifer Lopez Perez | 8th Grade
It’s Thanksgiving and my family came to eat dinner. I love Thanksgiving because of my cousin Andrea. On Thanksgiving, we always eat dinner and play games all together. This Thanksgiving, after finishing dinner, My cousin and I were planning on going to explore the neighborhood. We finished drinking our delicious hot chocolate and eating some turkey; the dessert was a cake, but we didn’t want to be so full for the exploration. My cousin Andrea and I started walking on the road with a stick in our hands.
“Jenny, what do you think of today's Thanksgiving?” Andrea asked me.
“I think it was kinda boring, that’s why I wanted to come to explore the neighborhood,” I told her.
“Yeah, it was kinda boring, this is better than being there,” Andrea said.
“We are almost in my favorite place when it’s Thanksgiving,” I told her happily.
“Okay, let’s see how fun your favorite place is,” Andrea said.
We got to the end of the street where there was a big pile of leaves. I always liked to come here and jump on them by myself, but this time I wanted to bring my cousin Andrea and have some fun.
“Andrea, you see that pile of leaves over there?” I told her pointing at the pile.
“Yeah, why?” She asked.
“Let’s make a race, whoever gets there first wins 10 dollars,” I told her excitedly.
“Okay, I’m gonna win,” she said competitively.
We both ran into the pile, PUM! The ground opened!
“Ahhh!” Andrea yelled.
“This never happened!” I said, scared.
We fell into a slide, it was a blue slide and very long. We got to a white room with 3 black doors, we didn’t know what to do, they didn’t even have names on them, everything was black.
“This is part of all of this?” Andrea asked, looking at me.
“No… this has never happened before,” I said looking around.
“What do we do now then?” Andrea asked.
“Not sure, maybe let’s go into one of the doors,” I said looking at her.
“Doesn’t sound like a good idea,” Andrea said, scared.
“Let’s try to have fun, this doesn’t look like a bad place,” I said, choosing a door.
“Let’s go in order, first let’s go into this black door,” I said.
“Okay, I will trust you,” Andrea said calmly.
We went into the first door, everything turned out as if we were in a video game, we didn’t know what game exactly, but everything looked like a pixel. We saw arrows that pointed to a big maze, we looked at each other and followed the arrows. We entered the maze and tried to complete it. We looked up and saw a timer, it only gave us 10 minutes, and we needed to complete the maze before the time ended.
“Jenny, why does this maze give us only 10 minutes, how is that even possible?” Andrea said, looking at the timer.
“I’m not sure, but we must hurry up before this timer ends,” I said, trying to figure out where to go.
I started walking to the right, then to the left, and finally to the middle. Andrea was following me behind quietly. Finally, we found the exit.
“Finally,” said Andrea.
“You only followed me and that's it,” I told her, making a mad face.
“I know, but I got tired of following you,” Andrea said.
We got to the end of the maze and entered a door. We went back to the 3 black doors, now we would choose the middle.
“Let’s go to the middle one now,” I told Andrea.
“Okay,” she said.
We entered the middle one and there was a road. It didn't look that big. We had to grab a scooter and go all the way to the door in the end.
“This will only take us like 6 minutes,” I said.
“Yeah, let’s grab the scooter over there and go, I want to go home now,” Andrea said.
“Why? Is this not fun?” I asked her.
“It is, but I’m thirsty,” Andrea said.
We laughed and drove out on the scooters. In the middle of the road, there was a bright yellow key, we grabbed it and didn’t know what to do with it; we continued to drive the scooters and got to the end. Finally, we got to the last black door. We entered the last black door and saw that it was an escape room.
“I love escape rooms!” Andrea said.
“Then you must be good at them, right?” I told her.
“Yeah, I'm very good at them!” she said.
Andrea started to figure out all of the puzzles there were in the escape game. I only did some of them because they were easy and the hard ones were for Andrea. Andrea was almost done with the last puzzle, but she needed my help.
“What color is next, Jenny?”Andre asked.
“Blue!” I yelled.
“Next one!” she yelled back.
“Red!” I yelled.
We needed to yell because we were far apart. Finally the door opened, we walked to it, but there was a big yellow door.
“You gotta be kidding me,” Andrea said.
“We need a key? From where?” I said.
“I never saw a key!”
“Oh, wait!” I searched my pant legs.
“It will not magically appear, Jenny,” Andrea said, rolling her eyes.
“Found it!” I said.
“Wow, where did you find that?” Andrea asked.
“Remember, in the middle door?” I told her.
“Yeah,” she said.
“I found this key, maybe it’s for this door!” I told her.
I opened the door and when we entered it took us to the neighborhood.
“Finally, I was so thirsty,” Andrea said, pulling my arm.
“Finally home,” I said.
We got home and ignored what happened and played games with our family.
Mathias Mascarenas | 8th Grade
After Thanksgiving dinner, my brother and I decided to go outside for a little bit. So while we were outside, we saw a big pile of leaves and we decided to jump into the pile. We walked over to it, then we counted 3 seconds, then jumped in. Out of nowhere we were sliding down a gigantic dark tube then my brother and I landed in a big blue room.
Then all I hear is an announcement saying, “Hello, boys, you are in an escape room and you have 3 hours to escape; have fun!”
So then my brother and I are scared to see what happens if we aren't able to escape. It looked like we were in a clown room and it looked like we were clowns too, so we were kinda weirded out. But then my brother and I started to try to escape. We started looking for information around the room or clues to escape. Then I found a clue, it was a red nose on a clown and then my brother found a clue and it was a paper inside a clown's hair. Then we figured out a puzzle that the clues were for, so then that opened a keypad. So then we were looking for a clue and then I found a clue and that clue led us to the puzzle that had the numbers for the keypad. When we put the number in, it opened the door. And when it opened, my brother and I walked through.
Then the speaker came on again and it said, “Congrats, you finished the first one. You have 1 hour and 58 minutes left, so get to it!”
But when we stepped in, it was a game room. My brother and I got excited because we are really good at games, so we knew what every game was. So we got to it and started flipping games and checking the discs, but one of the discs had a clue. We followed that clue to a painting of game characters and the characters had a code, but we couldn't find what the code was for. But then we realized we were standing on buttons that had numbers, so we put the numbers in. And then the door opened and we walked into the next room, which was a cooking room where the food was alive.
But before all that, the speaker came up again and said, “Great job, guys, for finishing the room, now you're in a new one, so good luck!”
Then right after that the food started attacking us, so then my brother and I looked at each other. Then we grabbed weapons and started breaking the food to get to the door that was opened.
And when we got closer all we heard was, “You guys have 30 seconds, so hurry it up!”
So my brother and I smashed the last 4 and ran to the door as fast as we could go because it was closing. It was almost closed, so we had to jump and we barely made it.
But we made it through the door and all we heard was, “Congrats, you finished. Thank you for playing!”
Then we got launched back up to our house by a giant marshmallow man and my brother and I went inside and no one was there, so we went to my room and played games to end the night. And ever since we never talked about it.
Giovanni Mujica | 8th Grade
I had just finished eating Thanksgiving dinner with my family. We made the traditional dinner and also added some tamales and enchiladas.
“Thanks, mom, that was absolutely delicious,” I said in a smooth tone.
“Of course, honey,” said my mom, “that’s what thanksgiving is about. Family is the most important thing in the world and we need to make the most of it!”
“Can Mario and I go outside to play for a bit?” I asked my mom.
“ Of course, just be careful, okay,” said my mom.
My friend and I went outside and we started kicking the ball around. We got it stuck under a couple of cars but we were able to get it out fairly quickly, so it was not a big deal. Suddenly, we turned around and saw a huge pile of leaves! I mean this thing was over 5 feet tall! We obviously wanted to go jump on it, so we both face planted on it. Suddenly, a huge hole opened in the ground and it felt like I was falling a thousand feet.
I blacked out…..
Then, out of nowhere, I opened my eyes, I was standing in a room, completely yellow, seemed endless.
“MARIO!” I yelled, “MARIO!” I kept yelling, no response. 5 minutes go by. I start walking, but then stop. Suddenly, I felt a hot breath on my neck, it felt as if you were entering a sauna. I turned around and saw a big 8 foot tall faceless black creature facing me. I screamed and started running. I was running as fast as I could. I was cutting every possible corner there was and taking multiple consecutive turns, but every time I looked back it was still there. I kept running and running. Then, I hit a dead end. The creature was running full speed. I prayed and closed my eyes. As soon as the creature touched me…..
I woke up on my couch Thanksgiving night screaming. My parents rushed over immediately asking what happened. I told them about my dream. They assured me I was fine and that I should be asleep in my room. I went to my room and jumped on my bed. Another hole opened up, and I was in the back rooms again…
School News
Spirit Week Dec. 20 - 23, 2022
Wednesday: Winter Wonderland - Dress in Silver, Blue, White
Thursday: Ugly Sweater Contest
Friday: Holiday Character outfit, onesie or PJs
Girls Basketball and Wrestling Informational Meeting
Girls Basketball and Wrestling Announcement (To be read on announcements starting December 6th through December 20th)
Attention all 7th and 8th grade Girls interested in playing Basketball this year and 6th/7th/8th Grade Boys and Girls interested in Wrestling this year! There will be an informational parent meeting on Tuesday, December 20th at 5:00pm in the cafeteria. Please have at least one parent attend this meeting with you, if you are interested in playing basketball or wrestling this year.
Vikan Athletics Registration 2022-23
These are the requirements for participation in athletics this year at Vikan Middle School:
1. Current Athletic Physical (normally they are good for up to 1 year)
2. Athletic Fee of $150 ($25 for Free and Reduced). Fees need to be paid by the start of the first practice on Tuesday, October 18th in order to participate.
3. Register on 27J Vikan Athletics Google Form: Vikan Athletics 2022-23 Registration
Music Concert
Dec. 21st at 7:00 PM is our first Music Concert of the year. Students have been working really hard to put on this performance. Please come and show your support for their hard work and enjoy great music.
Lost and Found
Update Student Information
If you do not have an Infinite Campus log in please contact our office and request your GUID access code to create your account.
If you have any questions please feel free to contact our office at 303-655-4050
Riverdale Ridge Save the Date
BHS Save the Date
8th students and parent please plan on attending this informational meeting. During this time you will be able to:
- Get to know BHS - Values & Beliefs, Academics, Athletics, Clubs & Activities
- Learn about the Graduation Requirements
- Get your course selection materials and know what to do with them.
- Ask questions of teachers, counselors, administrators, coaches & BHS students
STEAD Now Enrolling
Upcoming Events
Girls Basketball and Wrestling Parent Information Meeting | Dec. 20 @ 5:00 PM
Music Concert | Dec. 21 @ 7:00 PM
Students Return after Winter Break | Dec. 10
Riverdale Ridge HS 8th Grade Check It Out Nigh | Jan. 18 @ 5:30 PM
BHS 8th Grade Check It Out Night | Feb. 2 @ 5:30 - 7:00 PM
Vikan Middle School
Website: https://www.sd27j.org/vikan
Location: 879 Jessup Street, Brighton, CO, USA
Phone: (303) 655-4050
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VikanMiddleSchool/?ref=pages_you_manage