When I was young, my favorite thing to do on vacation was finding shells. One time when I was about 7 years old, my family went to Siesta Key, Florida. I found a ton of pretty shells on the shoreline and buried them. The next day, I came back to find my beautiful shells uncovered. I thought that someone had dug them up, but my dad explained that the waves had eroded the sand away. This is similar to what we are learning in science class. The waves pick up the sand from the shore and put it down somewhere in the ocean, or vise-verse. I was lucky that my shells were still there because the waves could have just as easily picked them up too. It is actually pretty cool to think that the sand that covered my shells could be part of a sandbar in Mexico just through erosion and deposition.

In 79 AD, Mt Vesuvius erupted violently over Pompeii. Several scientists have been studying Mt Vesuvius and compiled the information into a movie that we watched in class this week. While watching the movie, we noticed that the information matched the things we were learning in class. For example, Mt Vesuvius erupted in pyroclastic flows and lava. In class, we learned that these kinds of eruptions come from composite volcanoes. Composite volcanoes are very dangerous, which is why Vesuvius wiped out so many people during the famous eruption in 79 AD. Another thing that we talked about in class was the pumice that is created when lava cools in the air, forming holes in it. This makes it very light, giving it the ability to float. In the video, it was said that the first effects of the eruption was falling pumice. The pumice covered Pompeii within a few minutes, showing the quick effects of volcanoes that we also learned about in class. Even though it was devastating to see how defenseless the Romans were that long ago, I was glad to see that what we were learning actually had something to do with the real world.

I am usually not one to enjoy books and reading, but I enjoyed the book Max: A Maximum Ride Novel by James Patterson. In my opinion, it deserves a score of 10 out of 10 because it is exciting, suspenseful, and full of adventure. No matter which part of the book I was reading, it never failed to keep my attention. Most other books are only interesting during the climax of the story, but this was not the case. It is so far the best book in the series because the conflict wasn’t solved until the very end, so it was suspenseful the whole way through.

I also gave this book the highest possible rating because of the way it was written. James Patterson is one of my favorite authors because he uses several descriptive words that help bring the story to life. He gives readers the sense that they are right there with Max (the main character) taking on the world with her. I also enjoy his wide vocabulary range because he uses some of the same words that we are learning in Language Arts class, so I enjoy when I see a word that I wouldn’t have otherwise known. His writing is understandable and enjoyable to anyone of any age group.

I read Maximum Ride: The Final Warning by the author James Patterson for Reading Counts and I passed my test with a perfect score! I completed 288 pages, and I would give this book a rating of 10 out of 10!

I read Maximum Ride: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports by the author James Patterson for Reading Counts and I passed my test with a perfect score! I completed 416 pages, and I would give this book a rating of 10 out of 10.

“Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!”

-Marley

This quote is from the first stave of Charles Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol. This meaningful quote states that there is more to Marley’s life than what Scrooge has experienced of him. He is actually a man of many kindnesses, although his chain contains his burdens. If you have read the tale of Ebenezer Scrooge, you know that every ghost has a chain that they are attached to that represents all of their burdens. This quote shows that even though he had done things wrong, Jacob Marley really was a good man. This quote is useful in today’s world because it defines the importance of balancing one’s work with their duty to give back to the world. Most people have wrongly balanced these things, which is why the world has things like poverty and hunger in it today. If more people understand these few sentences above, I think that the world could come to be a better place.

A couple weeks ago, I read a fantastic book called I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You. Let’s just say that I am not the biggest fan of reading. The only way I would read a book is if I had to for a grade. However, this book was a different story.
This is one of those books that no matter how hard you try, you can’t walk away from it. I should know because I’ve read it at least four times! Every time I read it, I caught something about a character or crime that I hadn’t noticed before. This book is kind of a girly spin on the life of a secret agent. Camy is a teenage girls that goes to a secret school for spies. During her education there, she really has no connection to the outside world, until she finds a secret passage way.
If you like the kind of books that keep you guessing, then this book will be one of your best friends because, guess what? It’s a trilogy! Each book draws you in with a new mystery that will become one of your greatest adventures. I would suggest this book to girls and not boys because I don’t think that boys would enjoy the romantic aspect of the book. However, I think that almost every girl would find pleasure in this amazing trilogy that I couldn’t put down.

Three Cups of Tea is a non-fiction story about a man named Greg Mortenson.  He is a mountain climber attempting to climb K2, the 2nd largest mountain in the world, located in Pakistan.  On his way down the mountain, Greg take a wrong turn and is lead into the village of Korphe.  He finds children sitting on the ground writing out multiplication tables in the sand.  The chief tells Greg that this was their school.  The teacher only came three days a week, but the children continued their studies.  The thought of children not having a school or an education hit Greg like a ton of bricks.  It made him realize that not everyone is as fortunate as those of us in the United States.  He made a promise to the chief that he would come back and build the children of Korphe a school.

Greg went back to America and sold everything he had to get enough money to build the school.  He even sold his house and lived out of his car.  The rest of the money he needed was donated to him by a scientist.  He returned to Pakistan and found out that he couldn’t build the school yet.  What they really needed was a bridge.  Greg was devastated.  He had already bought the materials for his school, so he would have to get more money for the bridge.  His heart fell down a few inches in his body that day.  He felt like he would never be able to help those people.  However, he went back to America to get the money for the bridge.  He returned a while later, and a bridge was built.  He felt like he hadn’t done enough for the people though.  After a few days, he realized that the bridge to get across the river liberated the women.  They were able to finally leave Korphe more than once a year.  He was amazed at how one simple thing can mean so much to the people with so little.  However, he still wanted the school to be built.  Eventually, the school was finished and a teacher was hired, but it took a lot of hard work along the way.

Everyone has been in a situation where we got impatient with ourselves.  I am able to connect to the way Greg feels with my most recent community service project.  My friend Annie and I raised money for a place called Friends of Ferdinand that saves racehorses from slaughterhouses.  We were all set to give them to money to pay for a lifesaving surgery for one of their racehorses, and then we stopped hearing from them.  Even after e-mailing and calling them several times, we were never able to get a hold of them again.  They are a very worthy cause, it is just frustrating that it still hasn’t gotten worked out.  However, that is no reason not to do community service because I also know the feeling of being successful in helping people.  There are no words to describe how amazing it is to know that you have made a true difference in someone’s life.  You know that someone somewhere will sleep better at night and smile twice as much just because they know that we care.

In science class, we had to take care of a secondary consumer (omnivore) as if it were in the wild.  My animal was an African aquatic side-neck turtle.  It eats fish and plants.  They are very easy to take care of.  All it required was food, a clean tank, and rocks to climb on.

This year was awesome. I loved my homeroom teacher, Mrs. Plantan (she has an edublog too.  Please visit it HERE). She was always able to explain things and make me understand what she was teaching. No question was a bad one; she always answered it. She is also a lot of fun. I have great memories of students blasting Geico ring tones, Keisha, Lady Gaga, and other music in the middle of class. She thought it was funny.

I also made several achievements. This year, I could see the inside of my locker. Last year, it was a struggle to find my backpack. Not only could I find things, but it was relatively clean. I made some new friends, too. Also, I was able to uphold my straight A’s and I made the 7^th grade cheerleading squad.

One of my favorite memories from this year was Field Day on Friday. Field day is when you wear your team colors and spent all day outside competing in various events. I competed in tug of war, the 50 meter dash, football toss, Frisbee toss, basketball shooting, basketball dribbling, soccer ball dribbling, dodge ball relay (one dodge ball is between 2 people’s backs, you have to walk with it between your backs without it falling out), the sack race, and the sponge pass (dip a sponge in water, pass it down the line of people, squeeze it in a bucket, first team to fill the bucket higher than the golf ball wins). We were the blue team. We put up a good fight, but we got beat.

We only went on one field trip this year, but it was better than any other field trip I’ve ever been on in middle school. We went to Starkey Park and tested the water in Eagle Creek. The shallowest part of the water went up past my knees. At one point, I tripped over a stick in the creek and fell in. I was soaking wet! After that, it didn’t matter how wet I got, but I still tried to be reasonable and only went in deep if I had to (or if I took a step over the drop off on accident). It was a very fun day.