You Can't Putt With Fire Balls

This is the fire that happened right by my house today.

There was a fire at the old abandoned golf course on Hastings St near my house today, right by the shops. There was a gas station right beside where the fire was and if you had looked out my living room window at the time of the fire, we could have seen the flames from our house.  CBC News reported that the flames were thirty meters high. That's about four of my houses stacked on top of each other.

When you look out our window you can see the nets from the golf course, and you could have probably seen the flames. This map shows you how close my house is to the fire. 

This shot below from Google earth shows some interesting and KIND OF SCARY things! The blue dot on the picture is my house. The red marker shows where the fire was. You can see that just north of where the fire is a bunch of round tanks and that is where oil is stored, and right on the bottom left corner by the golf ctr is a gas station. If that fire spread any more the fire could have gone to the gas station or to the oil and if it went to the gas station and the oil there would have been a big explosion (WHICH WOULD BE COOL ON A VIDEO BUT NOT IN REAL LIFE.)

This is a picture below we took this morning and you can see here there is a fire truck and if you look at the white van and just look up a little bit you can see a man on the ladder thingy of a fire truck spraying with a giant hose. We learned they had to keep doing that even after the flames were out to make sure all of the hot spots were not hot.

This is me climbing a cherry tree outside the golf course and winning the cutest person ever award, my 5,788,888,621st one.  

So far, I, Eleanor have been talking and now I will pass the beautiful talking sceptre to Sophia, which I am very sad about doing.

Thank you, Eleanor. After we got told off for climbing the cherry blossom tree, some police women came outside the gate to find out why the security guard at the oil storage place was yelling at us. After we explained that we are NT criminals, we interviewed the officers with some questions about the fire. *Please note that the Q&A below is based on my memory of the interview. This is not the actual conversation.

Q: What is your job as policewomen?

A: We work for the RCMP in a department that investigates frauds. Frauds are when someone lies or makes up something fake to get money that is not theirs. We also investigate arson. Arson is when someone sets a fire on purpose, probably to get money out of insurance.

Q:What do you look for in a scene like this?

A: In cases like this one, we might start by looking for where the fire started, like the origin of the fire. We might look to see if the fire started in the middle of the room, and if there were any accelerants, like gas. We might also look for a gas can. We also have a machine that could search for traces of gas.

Q: What do you know from the investigation so far?

A: Since the fire was so hot, it looks like a suspicious fire, possibly arson. Unfortunately, it's not safe for us to go inside the actual building yet.

Q: I noticed the gas station back there, I was wondering if someone could have bought a lighter from there to start the fire.

A: Yes, it's highly probable, they might has also filled a jerry can with gas there to act as an accelerant, so we'll be looking  at the closed circuit TV from the gas station to see if we can find any possible suspects.

Sophia's moral of the story: "Don't play with matches around abandoned, wood framed golf courses".

Eleanor's moral of the story (after meeting the RCMP fraud investigators): "Women can do anything!"

Tasty Treats Girl Guide Badge by Sophia

This term I have working on my tasty treats Badge for Girl Guides.

I had to 1) bake two loaves of bread.

I got a book on bread making from my school library and made some delicious white bread it was so yummy it got devoured in a period of two days. Then i baked a second batch and brought some to my Girl Guide meeting so all my friends could have a taste too

2) find a no-cook dessert recipe and try it

A little while ago, I found a good recipe for a fruit smoothie in a cookbook my sister had gotten from the library. I tried this recipe out with my family and it turned out to be very delicious.

3) choose a traditional holiday treat that is meaningful to me and make it for my family.

My sister, my Granny and I made English trifle at Christmastime for my family. There is a recipe for it in the brochure below.

4) discover treats from around the world and develop a recipe book (or in this case, a pamphlet) to share these treats.

Below is the brochure I made of recipes from around the world, including my Granny's English trifle. try some for yourself.

5) Find a recipe for a frozen dessert and try it out with your friends or family.

My brother and my sister and I, made frozen yogurt. It looked a lot like ice cream and tasted like ice cream, but it melted way faster than ice cream. However it was still fun to make.

6) Explore the presentations of desserts in magazines or at restaurants, and try your hand at presenting one yourself.

 I've seen several good food presentations in magazines, cookbooks and cooking shows. One of my favourites was one I saw for vegetable sushi. They used some of the ingredients from inside the sushi on the plate to make the sushi appear more appealing. On another cooking show, I saw an ice cream dessert being presented with crushed cookie crumbs around the edges to "frame" the dish. My friend Miranda, my sister and I made a chocolate peanut-butter banana. For our dessert, we took a banana, cut it up, presented sitting in the peel, prepared two sauces, one chocolate and one peanut butter, then drizzled both slices over the sliced banana and added some to the plate to garnish. Viola! One perfectly presented banana!

P.E., more Math, More Science, More Art & Fine Arts & More Fun!

Hello, I am Princess Eleanor and this is the random column of quite a few of the subjects I have done this term.

Here I am doing math, mathy, mathy, math. Thank you, Jenkins. See my workbook and my million dollars video for other details, thank you very much, Jenkins.






This is me taking a nice old walk.  And this is me coming back from the swimming pool with my best friend Saoirse and I have not eaten yet so I am grumpy. Below on the left, is a picture of us walking in Gastown, and on the right is me, my friend Judah and my little brother Pax playing on the snow on mount Seymour. We hiked on My. Seymour too, and we love to dance for exercise. This is us have a dance-off with our family at New Year's too. Sophia and I do all this exercise together.

 

This is me, Eleanor, at Science World. When I was studying structures this term I learned about forces on structures. This is electrostatic force acting on my hair and I look ridiculous!

This term Sophia (everyone must who Sophia is, my most cherished/weirdest and only sister in the world) and I did some art lessons with my Moaike. She taught Sophia and I about lights and angles in drawing and sketching. I also did some sculpting with plasticene in Sunday school.

I also am still doing piano lessons and Sophia is doing drums.

This is me dancing with one of the displays at the Burnaby Village Museum. It's a great place to learn more about the settlement stuff I have been studying with Ms. Hannah for Social Studies. I did a scavenger hunt there too!




I also received a subscription to a cooking magazine called Chop! Chop! which is all about inspiring kids to cook healthy food and eat with their families. This is me making and eating a French stew called Cassoulet. It was AWESOME!

Street Smarts (Girl Guide Badge) by $ophia

This term Eleanor and I started taking the sky train to school.

We decided this would be a great opportunity for me to earn my street wise girl guide badge!

This is us embarking on our first quest on transit.

For my girl guide badge requirements I have to:

1. draw a map of my route to school
2. be able to read a street map and give directions
3. brainstorm the top 10 safety tips every kid should know
4. design a colouring book for kids about safety
5. brainstorm ways to increase my own personal safety
6. create a puppet show for kids about safety.

It's still a work in progress but I'm working on it.

So far I've done numbers 1, 2, & 5. I'm half way through 3 too.

Until next time I'm $ophia Pallister, signing off.

GOOD NIGHT!!!!

Smile Girl Badge (Brownies) and Health and Career by Eleanor

Hello people of the galaxy! You are now in the presence of the awesome Eleanor/ Bubbles!

I have come to give you many awesome yum-yums of health, awesomeness and learning. So listen carefully!

Now, I shall start. In the past few months I have been working on Brownie Badges. I am having a splendiferous time doing it. I have been working on my "Smile Girl" badge. At brownies what I had to do was make a collage of people smiling, smiling, smiling and smiling M&MS! We also had to talk about good dental habits and healthy things that we could do and we had to make a chart which we had to do for as long as we needed to - well, not until I was 12, but anyway, we needed to do it to show all the things that are good for our body, like washing our hands before eating, bathing every once in a while, or cleaning our bodies and good work habits like do chores around the house, do homework, water plants, eat pancakes, kidding about the pancakes.

I set a goal that I wanted to finish the chart, and it took me about two and half eons/weeks. I needed people to help me sometimes with reaching high places while dusting, or reminding me to wash my hands before I ate, or I needed my family chart to tell me if it was my bath night. It's a good idea to learn these habits so I can be healthier and cleaner and that it can be a habit of yours to do these things every day, to be healthy, strong and keep the doc away... actually you may want the doctor to come to make sure you ARE healthy, so don't keep the doctor away!

Speaking of doctors, I had to interview my dentist and I had to come up with my own questions. I asked her: what are good dental habits, how long should you brush your teeth for, and should you brush your teeth every day and night? She said you should floss your teeth every time you brush and brush your teeth every night and day (q 1&3) and should should brush your teeth for 2 whole minutes and most people only brush their teeth for 15-20 seconds! Isn't that crazy, man?(q2)

The other things I have worked on this term is I have been learning to take the Skytrain with my sister home from school by ourselves. For safety we have an emergency phone which we call our Mum on and we have a list of safe people on our phone. We have 911 and the kids help hotline which is 310-1234. That is the kids help hotline phone number. That number is for kids to call if they are in danger, or if there is something wrong for you or for another kid you know, that's the number you call. And what kids should know is you should always tell a safe grownup because its not their fault they're getting hurt.

We talked about safety tips, like:

• having safe people to talk to at the stations, safe places to stop and ask for help (librarian, Tony a security guard, Mc Donalds if I got sick - a McD's worker, a parent with young ids, cause they know kids stuff)
• not to go anywhere with strangers
• trusting your own gut, like if a person gives an "uh-oh" feeling, get away
• if anybody tries to do something you don't like or grab you, say "NOOOOOO" "stop! I don't like this! I don't know you!!!!"
• never try to make online friends with people and reveal your identity to someone you don't know in online, in public or anywhere
• do not give your identity where you live live or anything about you to people you don't know
• let's say if I'm supposed to meet my Mum at the station, I'm not allowed to go off to the soda fountain with all the money I have, I'm not allowed to go off and stay there forever because that would be wrong - what I'm trying to say is if you make a plan with a safe grownup, stick to the plan and never go off it! Unless they know about it. And if something goes wrong, call the grown-up and let them know.
• do not touch things that you do not know what they are, and do not touch garbage, needles or, condoms (which are dirty penis balloons) or homeless people, or aliens, or poison dart frogs.

I have learned a lot about being healthy and safe, so thanks for listening to this TED talk. peace, man! peace out!

A1 apply a goal‐setting model to a short‐term goal
A2 identify sources of support for children in a variety of situations
B2 demonstrate an understanding of the benefits of developing effective work & health habits
Healthy Living C1 describe practices that contribute to physical and emotional health
C3 describe practices that help to prevent the spread of communicable diseases
 Safety and Injury Prevention C6 demonstrate avoidance and assertiveness skills that may be used in abusive or potentially abusive situations

Pioneers, trains, wars, masks, e-books and more!

We love our H.L.G.C. Home Learners Girls Congregation!

One day we made up a "pioneer girls" game. We grew our own food, carried our own water and made our own "campfire".

We made our own face and hair masks out of natural ingredients!

We visited the World War I battle exhibit at the Port Moody Museum and learned about our our great-grandfather fought in the war and was saved by a bible (or a prayer book) in his pocket!

We visited the railway museum and learned about the first trains that came to Vancouver.

We kept cooking and planing healthy meals for our family.

We made chicks and narwhals out of marzipan for Shakespeare's birthday.

Eleanor has been learning about air, water and soil, learning to plant her own plants and start her own garden.

Eleanor has been learning about toxins in detergents, and how they affect the water systems in our province. We compared laundry soaps and chose one that wasn't poison!

We did some math to learn about comparison shopping, and how to compare prices based on weights and measures (cost per 100g).

And of course, Eleanor wrote an e-book called "Tips On How To Bend A Bully." She learned how to use the e-book software, cut and paste and publish her own entries.

And.... here's some photos for the end of the year slide show!

P.E., Fine Arts, (and lots of other related awesomeness) Term 3

If our activities in Term 3 had a theme this year, it would be: variety! We both have been swimming, doing inline skating classes (sorry no pictures)

hiking and beach combing

we also practised our engineering skills by building beach forts

...got to try kayaking for the first time!

Sophia is already signed up for another kayaking course this summer!

hone those Grade 5 science skills about "force" with some extreme high wind kite flying (ask Sophia to tell you about lift and gravity:)

monkey around, run, climb and play,

Skateboard,

this term we all got new bikes, and have been able to go riding together! Sophia and her Dad even did a tandem bike ride around Stanley Park!

Eleanor and Ittle went bowling, and we've signed up for the Kids Bowl Free program this summer!

Eleanor rocks some fine arts skills with paper jewellery for Ittle.

She's also done fabric painting and collage, designing and sewing a skirt, and drawing this term, Sophia has done with water colours, model building, sketching and drawing.

Sophia and Eleanor both spent a day at the art gallery with their godmother, who is an artist, studying works and sketching. Sophia has been particularly interested in studying the work of M.C. Escher this term.

Sophia and Eleanor both went to camp this term, and spent time hiking and studying nature, learning about mapping and orienteering, outdoor cooking and fire safety, and new songs and games,

These are the worksheets from Eleanor's "which way" badge, learning about reading maps, compass and directions.

Eleanor has over 20 badges now!

Sophia has obtained her "B active" card from the City Of Burnaby. It gives her free swimming and skating and access to many other free activities for her grade 5 year. She very much wanted to go swimming alone, so we planned her route and did the research on which bus stops she needed to take, and what she would do in an emergency.

She not only had a great time swimming, but navigated her way home beautifully, asking for help from staff at the pool and from local business people when she needed help to call home or figure out what to do. Way to go, Sophia!