Roskamp – Jake

My Mystery Story

Jake Leenstra

Mrs. Roskamp

L.A.

February 16, 2016

The Case of The Missing Dog

It was a Saturday afternoon and Joe was just arriving home from his vacation out in Michigan, which is very cold. Joe was excited to be home in the warm weather in Queen Creek, Arizona. Joe lived in a nice and rich neighborhood just across the street from a nice middle school. He lived in a 2 story house about 3-4 houses in. He had a nice pool with a waterfall and a basketball hoop outside. Joe had been gone for a week and was ready to defrost and then jump in the pool. But when Joe walked inside, he was in for a big surprise. His house had been ransacked! His 54” inch TV was gone on the main floor, and so was his 56” TV upstairs! His pool was trashed and colored pink with food coloring! They even dared to steal his dog, Kitten! Joe had typed 91 into his phone and was about to call the police, but decided against it. He would start by investigating his neighbors.

The first neighbor Joe would talk to would be Policeman Franco. Policeman Franco was part of a K9 unit and had a huge German Shepherd named Ares to prove it. Joe wondered if Franco would steal Kitten so that Ares could have a friend, or, even worse, a dog to practice his police dog techniques on. Just a Joe was about to knock on Policeman Franco’s door, he decided that the law enforcer wouldn’t do that. He was too nice and was a high ranking officer in Tempe, Arizona. As Joe was walking away, he realized that Franco had a DJI Phantom drone and that he might of caught an aerial view of the robber/kidnapper. Joe went back and knocked on Franco’s door, and the policeman let him look at his recordings. Sure enough, there was a person in a brown hooded sweatshirt holding a huge pink plastic dog bone in their hand and going into his house. The video was even taken that morning! Joe became excited and continued to watch but the video cut short a couple minutes later because the drone had run out of battery. Joe said thanks to Policeman Franco and ran out the door to interview some other neighbors.

The first neighbor that Joe interviewed was a middle aged man wearing a seemingly familiar brown sweatshirt. Joe wanted to drag the guy to jail right then and there, but decided to talk to the man. Joe introduced himself and the man told him that his name was Matthew. Then Matthew proceed to sneeze, then sneeze again, then sneeze again. Matthew seemed surprised at all his own sneezing and said he didn’t know why he was sneezing. Joe decided it was his chance to take Matthew off guard and asked him if he was allergic to fur, like a cat or dog’s fur for example. Matthew said yes, but then proceeded to say that he did sell purebreds while taking a special pill to combat his allergy. Joe said thank you to Matthew for his time and said and that it was nice to meet him and left.

The next neighbor that Joe visited was a scowling lady that seemed angry at everything. He introduced himself to her and she said her name was Vanessa and that she had a pedicure in 25 minutes so he had to make it quick. Joe started by asking her if she had any dogs and she said no. Then he asked her if she owned any old sweatshirts that she could donate to the animal shelter, and she said she would be right back and she gave him a brown hooded sweatshirt to donate. Joe said thanks and left. Then he went straight to Policeman Franco’s house and told him who it was that stole his dog and TV’s.

SOLUTION:

Joe knew that Matthew wouldn’t have stolen Kitten because he was allergic to dogs, and also because Kitten was a mutt and not a purebred. He also knew Matthew didn’t steal the TVs because he saw into Matthew’s house and saw he didn’t even have a TV, just a bunch of cords sticking out of the wall. Joe knew that Vanessa had stolen his beloved dog and TVs because she said that she didn’t have any dogs, yet there were fresh scratches on her hardwood floors from claws and he had seen the end of a pink dog bone sticking out from behind a corner. Vanessa was trying to get rid of the sweatshirt so that no one would know she had had one. She was arrested that night by Policeman Franco and Ares and the beloved Kitten was returned to Joe along with his TVs.

Thematic writing

This book is teaching the lesson that you have to love your family and help them out.

The book that I read was called Riptide. It was written by Kat Falls. In this book lots of people including the main character live underwater and had seaweed farms. The main character’s name is Ty and his parents are kidnapped in the beginning of the book. Throughout the book, Ty is trying to rescue his parents but he gets sidetracked a lot to help others while trying to find his parents. This book is teaching the lesson that you have to love your family and friends and help them out.

One place I learned this lesson was when Ty helped out his friend Gemma. She lived with his family for a while because her parents were dead and her brother was the leader of a gang. In Riptide, Gemma wants to see her brother so Ty goes with her to help her find him. They find out where her brother, whose name is Shade, is at from a man who likes Gemma. Shade is going to be fighting a match at an old oil drilling platform that people live on. Shade is captured during the match by the Seaguard, whom are like police.

One different place I learned this lesson is when there are people from townships that risk their live to provide for their family’s and friends. They risk their lives in an arena in which there are giant crocodiles that they try to kill. This takes place when their foods supplies are out for that time period but they still have a while till their next supply of food. Lots of people are hurt and some may die when they try to get the crocodiles. The rules for this are strict and there are spectators. Only one crocodile can be killed each time and it supplies 1 ton of meat and expensive skin. In the book, Ty saves a girl from being eaten by one of these crocodiles while she is in the water.

The last place I saw people helping their friends was at the end of the book. In the end of the book, Ty, Gemma, and the Seaguard are trying to find a township (a giant skyscraper-like submarine/boat) named Drift that has been chained to the ocean floor to kill its inhabitants. Ty and Gemma find the township and are able to help the people out and find that Ty’s parents are stuck on the township. The people are all swimming in the freezing water while the Seaguard are far away when suddenly all of Ty’s neighbors appear with their submarines and save everybody. Ty had called one of his neighbors and asked him to get the other neighbors to help them a while ago and they all came to help even though it was night out. This shows me that Ty lives in a loving community of neighbors.

This book is teaching the lesson that you have to love your family and friends and help them out. In conclusion, I think this is a great book that I think that everyone should read and I really like its lesson. Read the book.

Descriptive Writing

Jake Leenstra

Mrs. Roskamp

LA, 8A

10 September 2015

I chose the fireworks card because I went to an awesome fireworks show this fourth of July. We arrived in overisel on a smooth night, perfect for fireworks. Right away we searched for seats and left the parents to chatter like birds to their friends. I found a friend right away. It was Noah VB. from school. Some of the activities included were launching water balloons and trying to catch them with beach towels and the providers of the fireworks handing out glowing plastic lightsabers to swing around at each other. The fireworks were an unending volley of nearly one hour of lights and sounds.

I chose the anchor because I went up north to a family camp and was in a sunfish sailboat regatta. We went up north this summer and I rode in my uncle’s giant motorhome. When we arrived, I saw a game called carpetball and anticipation built up in me and my stomach leaped for joy. Turns out carpet ball is really fun. It’s too complicated to describe but basically you hit the other person’s pool balls into a pit while rolling the cue ball. Back to sailing, when I got there I had heard about the little sailboats and thought that it would be fun. The thing was, I had to take a swim test if I wanted to go sailing and the swim test was huge. Eventually I did the swim test in 64 degree water Fahrenheit and went sailing as you know, but we lost.

I chose the suitcase card because I went camping at Holland State Park. I always love going to Holland State Park because I know it means I get to go crazy with my cousins for a week. My cousins are fun to hang out with. We do a ton of stuff together like play cops and robbers on our bikes with the cops using walkie talkies and having to get within 5 feet of you to catch you. We also play capture the flag with tissues and tag on the playground, at night we sometimes play ghost in the graveyard, a game that could almost scare me to death. Other stuff we do ranges from going to the General Store and going up Mt. Pisgah by ourselves to riding our bikes to Tunnel Park with our families. Sometimes we go to the beach with our families and fly kites and swim in the water.

8th Grade Theme Writing

Jake Leenstra

Mrs. Roskamp

LA, 8A

16 September 2015

MATTHEW 7:24-25

24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.

Every year ZCS gets a new theme. It is chosen by the ZCS 7th graders at the end of the year. This is a special occasion because a lot of stuff we do the next year revolves around the theme that we choose. The theme that my grade chose this year is “Built on the Rock.” This theme goes great with our new addition project. Our theme this year, “Built on the Rock”, means a lot to me as both an 8th grader at ZCS and as a Christian in the world.

To me as an 8th grader in school, this verse means a lot of things. One thing it means to me is that we should build our foundation on The Rock, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour. Another good thing that I think that we should remember is that we are the leaders of the school and others look up to us. If we aren’t good role models built on a firm foundation, they might follow our example and be bad examples for the grades under them. If we are a bad example to younger grades, when they are 8th graders they might be bad examples to the kids younger than them. The same thing could happen when we are good role models. Our good or bad examples to younger kids can change our school’s future.

To me as a Christian in the world, this verse means a lot of the same things as me being an 8th grader in school. One major difference is that at school almost everyone there is a Christian but out in the world, almost everyone is trying to see you fail and they’re trying find mistakes in you to somehow try to prove that God isn’t real. When that happens, we need to stand tall and strong on our firm foundation, Jesus Christ. We need to share God’s love to those people and use The Golden Rule to treat them how we would want to be treated. We also need to remember that there are Christian all over the world that have died defending our religion and truth. Don’t you think we should give a part of our life to helping others so we can share the gospel.

Our theme this year, “Built on the Rock”, means a lot to me as both an 8th grader at ZCS and as a Christian in the world. In conclusion, I think we should stand on God our Rock and and be a good role model to others in the world.