SLA Media

SLAMedia is a publication of the news for the Science Leadership Academy community. Writers come from the student body in 10th, 11th, and 12th grades. We work in unison to create a functioning paper with biweekly postings on a variety of events.

Features

SLA’s 25 Days of Christmas: Day 19

by Leave a Comment

Indee Phillpotts
SLA Student

All Wrapped Up In Christmas Spirit

I have always loved Christmas time. But one of my favorite things about Christmas is wrapping presents. Before I can wrap the gifts though, I have to purchase them. I’m one of those people who gets a rush out of finding the perfect gift that I know will give its recipient the biggest smile. Thinking of my families happiness makes it a little easier to empty out my wallet. Each year I bring all of the gifts to my family and friends into my room and cover each with red and green paper and top it off with a ribbon and name tag. I love to put on Christmas music while I wrap the gifts as well. It gets me in the Christmas spirit and I always sing along. Something about covering things in pretty paper makes me so relaxed. Sometimes one of my friends comes over and we both wrap Christmas gifts together. Since Christmas is all about being with family and friends, getting together to wrap presents is one of my favorite ways to do that. Once each present is wrapped to perfection and the ribbon is curled, I place them back in their hiding spot. There they sit until Christmas eve when they are finally brought down and no longer need to be hidden.

The Guide For Perfect Gifts For Friends

by Leave a Comment

Darius Purnell

Staff Writer

Who likes the stress of picking out holiday gifts? And who likes getting a bad gift? This guide is here to make sure you get perfect gifts to those close to you.

One of the first things you should do is to come up with a list of those people you are buying gifts for.  so you can stay organized and not forget anyone. Usually the best people for this list are close friends and best friends. Next, you need to set a price limit for everyone. I personally tell myself no more than $15, that way my total wouldn’t be so high, if you believe in a higher price you can go right ahead. If you wish you can ask your friends what they want . That would be easier for you but that might take away the fun of surprising your friends and seeing their faces light up when they remove the wrapping paper.

If you wish to surprise your friends, you will have to become each and every person on that list you previously made. You need to think like them and know exactly what they like, which is the main reason why you should limit your list to only best and close friends. For example, if your friend likes ultimate frisbee or looking at cute puppies on the internet; you would search for a gift along the lines of a custom frisbee with their name on it or a phone case with a dog on it.

When it comes next after finding what category and item you have chosen, you then have to look at the quality of the gift.  No matter the maximum amount you set you can still find amazing things that will last a beating.

If you are getting the item online, look at the reviews. The the score of stars for the item should be no less than  4.5/5 and the written reviews should be all positive. All of what I said may sound impossible, but its not . I have always been able to fine low priced gifts that have excellent quality and not a single bad review on Amazon.  If you are going to a store, you can judge for yourself if the item is good or not. (If you don’t know good places to go to buy gifts, read up on the article by Angelica Owens called SLA Gift Guide.)

Once you have gathered all of the gifts, and what is a fun thing that adds more meaning to the gifts is adding a cute little card or note inside each gift letting the person know how important they are to you. Make sure the tag on the wrapping paper with the person’s name and the name on the card match, so there will be no confusion.

If you use these little tips and add your own creative spin on  gift trading with friends you can guarantee a happy holiday.

Angelica Owens Article: https://www.slamedia.org/topmenu/easy-holiday-shopping/

Easy Holiday shopping

by Leave a Comment

Angelica Owens

Staff Writer 

 

Christmas is always a hectic time of year. You want to budget your money to get gifts for people but have the gifts still be nice and you always have trouble finding good presents for people. While doing my own christmas shopping, I have found out some good websites and stores to buy things from.

1. Five Below

If you are looking for a really cheap store to buy quality things from this is the place. They have extremely good sales and nice things so do your shopping there.

2. Fire Mountain Gems

Website: http://www.firemountaingems.com

This is the perfect place to shop online if you want to buy people jewelry for cheap and that is quality. You can rack up and buy like 10 pieces for about $10-$20 and that is really good. Plus their jewelry is for people of all ages.

3. Amazon

Website: www.amazon.com

Amazon is one of those websites you can never get rid of. They have everything on there from electronic things, jewelry, phone cases, handbags and even clothes. They aren’t that expensive either which makes Amazon the perfect place to shop for people christmas gifts.

4. Walmart

You can never go wrong at walmart. They always have sales for everyone. They have everything you could think of as well.

5. Etsy

Website: www.Etsy.com

If you want home made stuff, go to the link above. This website has all homemade things so if you love crafty and artsy things go here.

 

If you need help with making choices like where to start your shopping, I hope this short list helps you narrow down your choices to shop.

 

SLA’s 25 Day’s of Christmas: Day 12

by Leave a Comment

Zoe Andersson
SLA Student

A train track in the winter

Blurred with snow, the station
waits for arrival.
A sparkling coat of dust,
the steel train tracks glistening with frost

Numb hands digging into coat pockets,
grasping a lonely button.
A snowfall clumsily falling down onto tracks and leftover leaves
and boots.

The streetlight glows brighter on a white space,
the orange hue.
The station roof’s icicles loom, waiting for a moment,
for a train.

The train racing forward, heard from a distance.
A hat is pulled up, and a scarf pulled down.
The glow of the train,
is blurred.

SLA’s 25 Days of Christmas: Day 11

by Leave a Comment

Michaela Peterson
SLA Student

Christmas mornings are always the same. Every year, the same thing happens. My sister always wakes up earlier than everyone else in the house. She then proceeds to walk over to my bed. She will poke me awake and bounce up and down say “It’s Christmas. It’s Christmas,” over and over and over again. She knows better than to try and wake up my parents at 7 o’clock on Christmas morning. So, we will talk and guess about what are presents are until 8:30, when our parents wake up and walk into our room.They always tell us that we have to wait to come down until they are ready. We were never sure what they were doing. It was a mystery to us both. All we knew was that when we came down, there were cinnamon buns on the table, and hot chocolate ready for the two of us. We would then open the stockings that were hanging on the piano, and careful take out the little presents and put the candy back in. We would then take turns opening our presents, and smiling for the picture our mom always took. After all the presents were opened and wrapping paper thrown away. We would go upstair and play with our new toys and read the new books we got. After a while, we would get dressed in the dresses we bought and we would go downstairs to set the table and wait for the guests to arrive.

Christmas mornings are still the same, despite the changes that happened over the years. Stella still pokes me awake, even though we now sleep in different rooms. We still have to wait for our parents permission to come downstairs, even though we know that they are drinking their coffee and making the cinnamon buns. We still open the stockings first and take turns opening presents. We still go upstairs to put out gifts away, but now we come down stairs to help our mom cook. We still go up stairs to get dressed, and we still have Christmas dresses, but now mine are a lot more serious and a lot less puffy. We still set the table and wait for the guests. Even though the years have changed us, Christmas mornings are always the same.