This year was has been full of great memories and fun times. We have had many amazing field trips, like the ropes course at UBC, the aquarium, going to Paralympic sledge hockey and wheel chair curling, learning to curl, going kayaking and hiking on Bowen Island, and going hiking at the Cleveland Dam. I have really liked having Kindergarten buddies and love we I get to see her! Me to We was a lot of fun and I can’t believe that I was lucky enough to go to the rally. Silent day, was hard but definitely very fun  and I learned that being silent was a lot harder then it looks. I really liked being able to help in the library helping organize the costumes backstage. Greek mythology was a lot of fun and I really liked that I got to act on stage and learn about Greek mythology at the same time. Yesterday we went to Playland and that was super fun! I went on lots of rides with Libby and we even got Naomi onto the swing ride. Now that the year is coming to an end and summer is drawing near, I realise just how much I’m going to miss this school, from sports day to the teachers and just the happiness in it. And so, my 8th year at Ridgeview draws to and end, and I welcome summer and all its sunshine and fun!

This week at school went by quickly. On Monday, the library got a huge flat screen TV, and during lunch time, it some times goes on. So far, we have only watch curling. Tuesday was a normal day but on Wednesday, we went down to see our buddies and we helped them decorate their Valentines Day card holders. Sophie’s was so cute! We also went for our last curling session. We had a competition and the team that had the most points was the winner. Unfortunately, that wasn’t us. When we got back, we had a normal Wednesday. Thursday was a normal Thursday. In science we tied water bottles to a piece of string that was attached to the roof. We had to see how many times it would swing when dropped from a set height. We tried it with the bottle full and half full and on a short string and a long string. The short string with full bottle swung the most. This morning, we worked on our `Super Athlete`, which is a drawing of a person that has ten different sports some how worked into it. Mine plays basketball, volleyball, tennis, hockey, and another sport that I`ve forgotten about, and it does gymnastics, skating, swimming, skiing and something else that I can`t remember. Later in the day, we had gym, in which we did volleyball, and we had French, which we had to answer question about Quatchi, one of the 2010 Winter Olympic mascots. Now I have to go babysit Will and Jamie. This has been a good week!

Today, the grade sevens at our school took a pledge to be silent for today. We are raising awareness of kids in other countries who have no say in their lives. We had people sponsor us for every block that we were silent. (We split the day up into seven blocks.) Everyone’s money is going towards buying two water pumps for two villages in Africa. I’m surprised that I’m feeling so tired, I thought that not talking would take LESS energy than I usually use, but I guess I was wrong. I’ve really enjoyed today though because it was challenging and different. To communicate with others we had to use hand signals, write it on paper, or write it on a little white board if you brought one. In French today we read a story and answered questions, which is not as easy as it sounds because every thing was in French and since we couldn’t talk, we couldn’t ask questions easily. After French we played 2 rounds of 7-up. In P.E. we played skittles, a game where you try and defend a wooden pin that is by you and try and knock down other players. I wasn’t very good at that, but it was fun. In math, we worked on math casts, like the one on the math page of my blog, except today we weren’t allowed to talk so we typed out the instructions instead. When I get home, I’m still not going to talk. I can’t wait until next year when I get to do this again.

Toady at school our we made Christmas crackers with our little kindergarten buddies. They are SO cute. To make Christmas crackers you need some toilet paper tubes, candy, wrapping paper, ribbon and glue or tape. First you stuff the tube with as much candy as you can. Then you put glue on the top of the tube and roll it up in wrapping paper. After that you scrunch up the ends and tie them up with ribbon and that is a Christmas cracker. My buddy and I made four. I always feel good after I make Christmas crackers because we donate them to our sister school, Grandview, because they have a big Christmas dinner at the school and each person there gets one cracker. For many of them, that one small cracker is all they get for Christmas. Luckily, we always make more then they need, so we can donate the extras to other places like Queen Mary school, the Harvest project, the Covenant House and the Union Gospel Mission. We all so donate any extra candy that we had. 

  Earlier this week, the grade seven basketball teams went to a jamboree  and we played against other schools in the district. There were four games and then the finals. First game I was on last shift and I fell and sprained my ankle. That was Tuesday and my ankle still hurts today, friday. After that game I didn’t play anymore but everyone else did. Out of the  four games, we lost only one, which was against Caufield. Because of that, we didn’t make it to the finals, but Caufield and Paulen Johnson did. I was glad that P.J. won. The next day we found out the total amount of money we raised on silent day. We raised OVER three thousand dollars. I’m so glad to be helping those less fortunate then us! Over all, I’ve had a pretty good week!

          Today at school, everyone dressed up in their costumes. We had a big assembly in the gym. There were safety skits, songs and awards being handed out. I was a witch with a black wig, long robes and a hat. Tonight my family and I are going to carve our pumpkins and watch a few Halloween movies. My sisters and I are learning the Thriller dance and might show our parents tonight. Tomorrow is Halloween, and I’m going to be a vampire. For trick or treating I’m going with Andrea and Alanah.  We plan to stay out quite late and get a ton of candy. I hope I get a lot of chocolate! My dad doesn’t have to work tomorrow so he might be the adult that comes with us. When we get home we are going to be TIRED!! We might eat a few pieces of candy, drink some hot chocolate and read a Halloween story. It is going to be a great night.

Last weekend was Thanksgiving, so we had Monday off school. On Friday after school, my family, except my dad, went up to Andrea’s cabin in Whistler. Her cabin can hold three families easily. That’s how many families were up there. Our neighbours were the third family up there. They brought their youngest ‘kid’, Mariella, who is thirteen while there oldest ‘kids’,  both graduated, stayed home. In there were five adults, six kids and three dogs all in one cabin. Over the weekend Andrea and I biked to the village for th Turkey Sale which was a let down. When we got home Mariella, Sarah and I did homework, Andrea and Kath went swimming and Peter ad Jim watched Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Alanah just play with the dogs. After our homework was done the older kids, Mariella, Keira, and I , Andrea was asleep, watched a movie. In the morning my family had to leave because wehad a family dinner that night and I still had to bake two pumpkin pies. So, after a weekend in Whistler, my dad and I worked in a frenzy of flour, bowls, and pie pans to get the pies finished. They baked for what felt like forever making us late for dinner by about half and hour. When we arrived, all my aunts, uncles and cousins on my dad’s side were already there. We where greeted with lots of hugs and kisses. The kids stayed downstairs playing board games and watching James Bond, while the adults talked. When dinner was served, we grabbed as much food as possible and ate it all up in seconds. It was the best meal I’ve had in a for quite a while. When we finished dinner the kids went down stairs again and we played camouflage. Finally it was time for dessert. There was were my two pumpkin pies, a pumpkin loaf, some other kind of pie with alcohol in it and cookies. All I had was my pumpkin pie and it was still warm. It was the best way to spend my weekend.

October 2 2009

This is Julia and my Math ScreenCast

Our school is raising money for cancer research. We call it Toonies for Terry. If we donate 5 dollars or more we get entered into draw to win a Terry Fox tee shirt. I’ve entered and I might win. This morning we meet our little buddies. Mine is a little girl and is very sweet. We ran with them around the gravel field twice and then we played on the playground. My buddy played on the Space-net the whole time. Since we have the Terry Fox Run later today, we are working on our blogs now. For the run, all the bigger kids, grades one to seven, run from our school to the high school up the road. Then the intermediate students, grade 4 to 7 run one around the track, the smaller kids just run by it. From there we run back to the school. Then the grade sixes announce the winner of the Terry Fox tee shirt. I hope I win.

These first few weeks have been very fun. In Math we have already had two outings, the first just up the road to count different kinds of cars and the second we walked down to the beach to count different species, both outings were so we could get information to put on a graph. We started to do Mandalas in Art, which have been really fun to do, even though they take a lot of concentration.We have just finished a big timeline in Socials which was very time consuming but worth it because they look great at the back of our classroom. In French we are learning about verbs mostly. Today we started our blogs which have been really cool to work with. Our homework hasn’t been to hard and we haven’t had to much of it …. yet. Last week we went to the Ropes Course which was very fun. It took the whole day but it was worth it. We did a few low ropes things and we did two high ropes. My favourite low ropes was the one where we had to pretend that we were stuck in a gondola on Grouse Mountain and we had to get to the top of the mountain. All we had was a rope and a few wooden blocks and we weren’t aloud to touch the ground. My favourite high ropes was the big swing. I was attached to a big rope and was pulled up to the top of a wire where I let go of another rope and suddenly dropped but then I started to swing. It felt like I was flying. I didn’t want to stop but I had to. That was a great day. One more thing that is really cool is that we get to change classes this year. French, Homeroom, Art, Socials and LA are held in Ms. Wilson’s room and Math, Science, and CAPP are in Mr. Beck’s room. PE is taught by Mr. Beck in the gym. That is all we really have done these last few weeks. It has been great.