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!

Eleanor's Grow Your Garden Brownie Badge and Earth Science!

Helllo, it is I, and I am back again, and again, and I am sure I will be back again - good thing you guys like me, and if you don't like me , then stinky that!

Well, now time to get on to my Brownie badge. I had to identify 3 gardening tools and learn how to use them. 

This is the first tool, a small shovel called a trowel. You use it for hand digging, in a garden when you are planting small flowers, peas, seeds or bulbs - stuff like that. Or if you want to, you can pretend to do something dangerous, like I am pretending to do here, to Amy. Oh, this is my neighbour Amy. SHE IS SO CUTE!

This is a gardening fork. You use it to poke little holes in the ground when you are planting seeds. Like tomato seeds , oregano seeds, maybe some basil or bell pepper seeds. (That would be a good Greek salad!)

That is a bush snipper. You may use it to snip a rose bush, or a tree - if you wanted to trim a really baby tree and you didn't want to be growing somewhere you can take the bush snipper and go SNIP!

This is a rake. You rake with it.

This is a bulb which we planted, the bulbs have already bloomed into flowers before we got a picture, and now, they're sort of dead. But we had daff-a-down-dillys (that's what they call daffodils in The Secret Garden) and tulips this year, which grow from bulbs.

And now I'm re-planting the bulbs so they can grow again next year and my mother can exclaim, "oh, they are so beautiful!"

Now we are planting little wildflower seeds. I hope they grow. We planted them all over.

Here I am learning how to do safety clipper things. You have to close the clippers so someone doesn't get hurt accidentally. 

This is us watering the plants after we planted the seeds.

This is me showing rake safety. This is a yes-yes.

This is a no-no.

And this is why.

It would very muchly hurt!

This is Amy showing rake safety.

This is terrarium that I built and I planted seeds in it.

These are the holes that I punched in the bottom so then if I put in too much water, it could go out.

In Grade 3, I am also learning abut erosion, plants, rocks, soil and all that good stuff. Erosion is when either sand, or water, or wind, rub or blow on something and change it's shape by rubbing off the rock over time. For example, Let's say you have a big rock in the middle of the Gobe desert. And then, a big windstorm comes up and blows a whole bunch of sand against the rock. Let's say it was a 5-year-long windstorm (which is unrealistic) but, this is an example, so anything can happen. And then a camel, riding in the windstorm, pulls out a popsicle and gives it to a tiny baby who was suffering in the windstorm - look I told you anything could happen! But seriously, things can really, really wear down over time.

This is my Granny, the best Granny in the world, teaching me all about it.

This is a huge wood sort of waterfall. It is in Goldstream Provincial park in Victoria, BC. It is called Goldstream Park because during the gold rush in BC miners first found there. And BINGO! they got gold. But not a lot.

My Mum thought it was a rock, but I knew it was wood. We were trying to debate if it was a rock, wood, an old tree fallen over or someone suggested maybe it was an old bridge fallen down. I saw this, and I was thinking, "Oh, this has to be erosion!" because the water moving against it for so long had worn it down.

This is the end. Thank you for listening. And I'll be BACK.

Making Beautiful Things Out Of Dust

Two weeks ago when we met, we learned about Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Holocaust Remembrance Day is a day where we remember what Adoph Hitler did and all of the jews and all of the people who were in concentration camps, and many people died. 6 million Jewish people died, and over 5 million other people who were gay and lesbian, gypsies, people who had dark skin and people who opposed Hitler were all taken from their homes and put into concentration camps and many of them died.

It was bad. It was sorrowful time when many lives came to an end. Thankfully we can learn about this so that we can learn about this so we can recognize not to do things like this again.

One of the things we learned was that at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC there are thousands of ceramic tiles made by children who wanted to remember the Holocaust. We made our own memorial tiles out of salt dough.

Insert pictures of tiles here.


Today, when we met, we were studying different kinds of poetry. We listened and looked at poems by e e cummings, W.H. Auden and Rudyard Kipling, Shel Silverstein and A.A. Milne. We each took a favourite book of poetry and chose poems to read aloud.

Eleanor reads from A Light In The Attic by Shel Silverstein

Miranda reads from Where The Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein

Sophia reads from Now We Are Six by A.A. Milne

We also talked about different forms of poetry. Sophia shared some haiku she had written when she was reflecting on a poster for some summer soccer, music and arts camps she had seen:

Music

Notes slur together
Kickdrums and snares keep the time.
This is our music. 

Soccer
Feet pounding in hope.
We know this is our game now.
Victory in view. 

Art
A dip in the pot.
Two strokes on a canvas page.
A new masterpiece. 

We spent some time learning about the poetry form of the cinquain. A cinquain is a five-line poem and it starts with a noun, then 2 adjectives, then three words ending with -ING, then a four word phrase and then a synonym for the first word (your topic). We then spent some time together on how we felt when we learned about the Holocaust two weeks before. We had been reflecting during the morning on how a poem can paint a picture in our minds with just a few words, or how poetry can convey sadness, anger or humour and fun. We spent some time brainstorming ideas from our recollections.  These are the cinquains that the three of us (Miranda, Sophia and Eleanor) wrote together.

Soldier
Brave, courageous
Hoping, caring, wanting
Fighting for their rights
Warrior.

Holocaust
Horrible devastation
Killing, stopping, hating
Lives frozen in time
Lost

Remembrance
Vivid nightmare
Learning, weeping, staying
We say never again
Recollection

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!

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.

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!