By Alex

10/17/04

The I.H.M. after school bowling is at Northgate Lanes, which is across the street from the school. The bowling alley was recently modernized. It has been turned from a slightly run-down bowling alley to a new and modern one. It has new lanes and a computer system that tells you how many pins you have left to knock down and each player who is at that lane's score. There are 21 students in this program. The students get to the bowling alley by bus. They bowl there every Wednesday. I interviewed some of them. They told me how long they've been bowling, what they've learned from it, and why they like it. Tyler in fifth grade says that he likes after school bowling because "It's fun, and I get to be with my friends." He has been bowling for four years. Jay in sixth grade says that he likes bowling because it's fun, and he gets to be away from school. Jamie in first grade says that she likes bowling because "It's fun, and I like watching the ball roll." The owner of Northgate Lanes, Justin Phillips, says he loves having the kids from I.H.M. bowl there. He has been the owner of the bowling alley for two years. Everyone that I interviewed said that they had improved since they started bowling at the after school program. They also said it has helped them when we bowl in gym class at school. And, of course, everyone said it was a lot of fun!

These are the students who bowl after school:

Alex, Brandon, Tyler, Mary, Jay, Sean, Meaghan, Nancy, Ben, Connor, Nicole, Andrew, Dominic, Maria, Rocco, Derek, Dana, Gracey, Tiffany, Morgan, Mack, Jamie and David.

Bowling is done with ten pins at the end of a lane. The bowler gets to turns to knock down all of the pins. Every pin you knock down is worth one point, unless you knock down all the pins. If you knock down all the pins in one turn, you get ten points plus the total score of your next two bowls. If you knock down all the pins in two turns, you get ten points plus the score of your next turn. The player with the highest score wins. There are twenty lanes in a bowling alley. Ten of the lanes have bumpers, which are long tubes full of air that the ball can bounce off of, and ten do not. Usually the younger kids will be at the lanes with bumpers, and the older kids will be at the lanes without bumpers. I.H.M. bowling isn't competitive, though. They just bowl to have fun!

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