Fourth Of July Fun! by Eleanor

I am back again, again! I have read "Bo At Ballard Creek" for the second time. It was very fun. 

My favourite chapter is called "The Fourth Of July." The main character in the book is Bo. her family isn't a family like your regular old family, she has two Daddys who she calls Papa and Papa. They're not a gay family, Jack and Arvid are work partners who work together and decided to raise Bo together. Bo's mommy walked away, kind of like a turtle who walks away from her turtle babies or turtle eggs.

The book is set in Alaska after the gold rush, in the late 1920's. They always have bannock and donuts on the Fourth of July, because the 4th of July is America's birthday. Yay, America! The whole town used to make the celebration happen. There was no committee or anything that would bring the food, everybody brought their share. They brought their share, they got their share! Bo's Papa Jack was great cook and he used to make 400 donuts and bring them in a wheel barrow!

We made donuts and bannock with my Dad. it was great fun, but my Dad accidentally deleted all the pictures. Just imagine the pictures of me and my Mum and Dad and Sophia and Amy cooking bannock over a campfire. We made bannock like the picture above here. This is how you make bannock, first you make the dough and if you want to put in different flavours you add things. we made berry bannock, fancy cheese and rosemary bannock and regular bannock. The reason they had bannock is because there was a large Inuit community in Ballard Creek. 

We twisted it into ropes, and wrapped it around sticks like the picture above, and we cooked it over a fire.  I loved it! Then we also made donuts and it was really fun, but our house STANK from the smell of the hot fat (or lard) we cooked them in.

We made little circles with cups out of dough and poked our fingers through to make holes and then our Daddy plopped them in the hot lard. You had to get the oil at just the right temperature, so the outside didn't burn but the inside was still cooked. The first few donuts weren't perfect but they were edible, and delicious.  The amazing scientific thing that happened was that the dough was so flat at first, and all of a sudden, POOF! it was nice and thick. The donuts would also start to float when they were ready to turn over. After they were cooked we let them dry for a while and then we put them in a paper bag of powdered sugar and shook them up so they were covered in powdered sugar. (I honestly liked them better without the sugar.)

Thank you for listening, I suggest making donuts and bannock yourself, and reading this book. They are very good! Bye!

A "POWER"ful Field Trip by Sophia, Eleanor and Miranda

 Two weeks ago we (Sophia, Eleanor and Miranda) went to the Stave Lake Visitors Centre (SLVC). The SLVC is the place where we can learn about BC Hydro and the dam and the power that is made there. This power goes into our homes and powers our lives, like this computer we're writing this report on and like the computer you're probably reading this on!

We loved this field trip because of our time outdoors. We went to Hopcott's the best place ever, and we got stuff to have an amazing picnic with, including macaroons and pate and goat cheese. It was a beautiful day and we liked the field trip and the picnic.

At the SLVC, one of our favourite things was the Electrica room, a room with lots of exhibits about electricity and places it comes from. One exhibit we liked there taught us what NOT to do at downed power line. 

You have to keep your feet on the ground and shuffle if you ever are at a downed power line, and this is because if you take a full step the electrons go up one leg and travel through your whole body and make your whole body an electric circuit and you will be electrocuted!

Miranda: There were lots of exhibits about renewable resources. Renewable resources are resources that can used again, like wind power, solar power, geothermal power and hydro power. Hydro is using water, and that is the kind of dam we went to, where the movement of water creates energy which is turned into power.

One of my favourite exhibits was a machine that shows how energy sparks work. When you pull back two balls and let go of them, it shoots energy through a line of balls and the energy goes through to the last ball and the last ball hits a switch that turns on a light. This shows how potential energy turns into kinetic energy!

Sophia: I liked learning about Nikola Tesla and how he wanted to make free energy.  

The Story of Nikola Tesla

Once upon a time when light bulbs weren't very popular, there was a man named Nikola Tesla. He was trying to invent ways to use electricity. He had a couple of people who were giving money to help him do his experiments. They thought to themselves, "When he gets electricity, we'll make people pay for it AND GET A BUNCH OF MONEY!" Nikola believed he could harness energy from the earth and make free energy for everyone. When the people who were giving him money for experiments found out he wanted to give electricity away for free, they aid, "No way we're going give money for that, dude!" and they stopped giving money for experiments which is why we don't free electricity today.

The End

The picture above is a model of a Tesla coil we saw demonstrated when we were there. I think the tesla coil releases electrons though the air, and jumped on to the light bulbs, because the light bulbs lit up.

Eleanor: When I was at the SLVC I was focussing on STRUCTURES. One of my favourite structures there was a big, big, structure that looked like a waterslide. If you stacked three men on top of each other, that would be how tall and wide it is. They are called comstocks, they were used for taking the water from the lake and putting into the power station. 

Sophia: The water would come into the turbines, which look like huge water wheels, and they would send the turbines around, and the outer wall of the turbine would have magnetic lining and because of the magnetic lining, the electrons would jump around all thingy wingy all over the place and make ELECTRICITY! This is an awesome example of how potential energy turns into kinetic energy.

We learned about the history of building the dam, and that there was a whole town that was built when they built the dam. Only men would work on building the dam, but because the dam was being built in the middle of nowhere, they made a whole town for the men and their families, and they tried to make it as friendly as possible. There was no alcohol allowed, they made a bank, a church and a school, there were shops, and the world's shortest railroad - like a skytrain - between the dam and the town.

People thought electricity was scary when it was first invented - like witchcraft! We love how on this old ad it says "Safe! Children can turn the switch!"

It was really cool getting to go to the SLVC. We sure gained some "POWERful" knowledge! 

Thanks for reading, and see you on Tuesday for bowling. Cara, bring me my mangoes!

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!"

Universal Outtakes by $ophia

This is me at Science World. I am experimenting with w thermal camera, seeing what happens when I stick my tongue out, or lick my hat etc, etc!

This is my sister, brother and I playing "Ground Control To Major Tom" one of our new favourite games. I am learning about exploring extreme environments, and one extreme environment is SPAAACE.

This me on the tram at the Burnaby Village Museum. It's a great place to learn about early settlement, because it was one of the first settlements in Burnaby. Sitting in the tram reminded me of the Hogwarts Express, and how I have read the first two Harry Potter books this term.

This is Eleanor and I attempting to make maple candy. It didn't turn our very well, but it did taste good. We were inspired by the Little House on The Prairie books, which we are still working our way through.

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!

Brownie Badge: Be A Chef by Eleanor

The simple meal I have cooked is spaghetti it is vey yummy. You eat it with tomato sauce and with the tomato sauce, you eat meatballs with it it's tastes amazing with the meat balls, we usually have salad with it too.

I made a list of ingredients for my Mum and I have gone shopping with her at the store. I am planning my birthday breakfast!

I have made stuff from my kids cookbook. Eggs in Frames, and Juicy Orange Rounds and Happle Bagel Sandwiches.

Here I am making Eggs In Frames.

Before you cook, you have to wash your hands because you might spread your germs you have on your hands, you might have picked your nose or spat on them or touched a hedgehog. You wipe kitchen counters and if you have to cut something you cut it on a cutting board or a plate, and when you're all done your food you have put it in the fridge and wrap it in tin foil or store it in a tupperware, or else it will go rotten.

The names of my favourite utensils are spatula, tongs, shish-ka-bob, macaroni spoon (ha ha) garlic presser and beater.

I use the stove for making soup, frying eggs, boiling water, and I use the microwave to heat up things or just a bit warm to make them hot, like milk.

I help make a lot of our meals, I make pizza from scratch every Friday and I design pizzas awesomely and I have to help with clean up every night except Friday.

Girl Scouts by Sophia

Because me and my sister and my cousin Sarah can't go to Girl Scouts in our family's busy lives, and we all really wanted to go to Girl Scouts, we made our own Girl Scouts. We do lots of activities, like hiking in the woods, tree identification, bird watching, photography, art, swimming, history, movie watching (but that's not a badge), and letter writing.

We made our own sashes, badges and an officiation ceremony. 

This is when we went hiking with Keon, Levi and my cousin's big brother Caleb. We earned our hiking badges and our tree identification badges, and it is super cool!

First Nations Fun Stuff by Eleanor and Sophia

We have been studying First Nations stuff this year. We're doing a whole book study called: Canada's Natives Long Ago.

We really liked studying the Natives of the Plateau because we actually went there - see my other blog post called "The Land of the N'kmip". When we finished study the Coast Salish people who live here in this right very place, I (Eleanor) wanted to make a totem pole, but Sophia made a tiny pot with her pottery wheel.

 This is my totem pole and it shows the story of me feeding my old dead cat Picasso goldfish crackers. I thought that when I fed him the crackers I killed him, but after I made the totem pole, my Mum heard me tell that story and she told me he died because he was so old and wrinkly and I didn't really kill him with the crackers. But that was the story of the totem pole I made.

We watched a really good video too you can see it here: http://fw.to/ESoBcNT and it shows you, cool stuff like, Pacific Coast Natives woven hats, the traditional canoes that they rode in, and traditional totem pole raising. (They also used simple machines to raise them!)