What if the 8.8 earthquakes struck here last Saturday?
In the aftermath of the Haiti and now the Chile earthquakes, April is Earthquake Preparedness Month but wait! What would we do? Where would we go? What if the earthquake happened here on Saturday instead of Chile? It’s now days later, but relief has not arrived yet!
I would challenge you to look closely at what is happening in Haiti and especially in Chile. In 1960, Chile experienced the largest earthquake on record. One-half a million homes were destroyed leaving families homeless. Make shift tent cities were showing up. Robbery was happening because people didn’t have supplies stored to take care of themselves and their families. Look closely at what those people are going through and think about whether you are prepared for that. I don’t mean to scare you but I DO mean to make you think.
If an earthquake struck here last Saturday, my family and me would hide under a table by ourselves; which protects us. Last year, there was an earthquake that shook our house. It felt like our house was swinging side to side very hard! That was the first earthquake that I had experienced. Although it was hard, no one was harmed, and nothing fell off the walls or tables. I guessed everything was secure. Not even the clock fell off. My heart was thumping the fastest than ever! My family and me wondered what happened. It was a relief when it finally stopped.
What would you do and are you prepared?
Does your family have a plan?
Have your parents secured your tall furniture to the wall?
Do you have supplies, food, and water stored?
Does your family have a first-aid kit?
Can parents provide some medical assistance to your family if they are injured?
The source of the above questions is from Santa Clara County Office of Emergency Services. Let's all get ready for an earthquake!
Did you watch any movie in 3D ?I watched Avatar with my Dad!It was a real awesome movie about humans taking over the alien planet Pandora in order to get a very precious jewel. In the process, they kill many aliens living there and destroy their natural habitat and also kill their animal pets that also flew the aliens from one place to the other.
The movie, Alice in Wonderland is also coming out soon. I hope I get to watch it.
I think it is about an evil queen taking over Wonderland and now only Alice can save Wonderland.Another movie that I saw a while back was G-Force. It was pretty cool because it was about ordinaryguinea pigs saving the world from the greedy, evil billionaire who wanted to take over the world using household appliances as weapons.
Well, which movies did you watch recently and why did you like it ?
Bring!!!!! Time to get up! No...... WELL WHAT DID YOU DO OVER THE BREAK????!!!!!! I first had many playdates! I had one playdate with me best friend. She came over to my house and we had loads of fun. At the same time, we did some learning like doing my speech. =( I also did kitchen science. That was the most fun along with the playdates! Every morning, I practiced for my speech. Now I'm kinda prepared! What did you do over the break? I AM DYING TO KNOW!!!!!!!
How is your neighbor? My neighbor is a really kind people. They are Richard and Via. Richard likes people calling him, "Rich". He is American born Mexican and Via is half Italian and half American. Rich and Via give us a lot of presents like homemade apricot jam, brownies, chocolate, and cookies during holiday seasons. The most remarkable present is we get five one dollar coins from them on Chinese New Year. On some Tuesdays he even helps us put our garbage cans back into our backyard. He is a 78 years old man. He gardens a lot for neighborhood and he maintains his garden very well. Once he invited us to visit his garden, it really impressed me by colored flowers blossom. Inside his house, he has a big grandfather clock. He also has a ginger cat that is really lazy and plays around in the neighborhood. Last time I saw him climb on the tree of our front yard but he stays on the fence most of time.
I also have another neighbor named Rich too. I think Rich is a unique name. He has a lot of remote control helicopter, truck, and cars. He gave us a lot of toys and money tree that decorated with round shells. He is also kind of like an inventor because I saw him building this flying chair thing and he finished the project by himself. I think it was so cool but he never tested the invention out so we don't know if it works. My next neighbor has two kids. Their family is really rich but dirty. Their garage has so much stuffs they use it to store their toys and their car is parked outside on the drive way and street. They also have a tree house, slide, punching bag, basketball hoop, swing, and a huge jump house. They are pretty good neighbors except they are noisy at 6:00 in the morning. They kick balls in our lawn, and they never mow their lawn because they rent the house not own it. They let us use their basketball hoop, punching bag all the time. Sometime I can hide in their lawn when Charles and I play hide and seek. They are my neighbors. I also gave my neighbors nicknames. For example, one of them is "Rich kid", another one is "Nice Dude, and the last one is the "Inventor". Do you like your neighbor? Are they nice to you?
By: Collette
Hi everyone! Do you have somewhere to go that is a lot of FUN? I sure do!
I like to go to the JUNGLE, Chuck E. Cheese’s, and Great America!
I enjoy going to the Jungle because you can play games, go in a play structure that looks like a maze, and even have Pizza!!. Chuck E. Cheese’s is nearly the same because you play games with your friends and earn tickets then when you have enough... you can exchange your tickets for a prize. The best one is Great America, which is all fast roller coaster rides and entertaining shows, but you really need to go for the whole day to enjoy it all.
Sometimes if I only have the afternoon free, I like to go bowling at Strikes in Cupertino. I get to bowl against my brother and beat him, haha! Also, another of my favorite places is Golfland in Sunnyvale, where you play Crazy Golf. This is a lot of fun trying to putt the ball with all the things that move and try to stop you winning, only I can score the hole-in-one’s and also win free games by hitting the bell at the end!!
Do you like these and other fun places? PLEASE SHARE! =)
Happy Chinese New Years! Chinese New Year is the start of a new year based on the lunar calendar. Normally, it lasts seven days. During those seven days, people exchange good wishes with each other and elders give children red pockets. Inside a red pocket contains the lucky money for children. I usually get about seven or eight red pockets (one from each family member). For new years, my parents are busy sending letters for our relatives, while my sister and I are busy comparing our money. On Chinese New Year, we don’t just eat regular food because we have special holiday food. These special foods are supposed to bring good luck and good wishes. Some example, one of these special foods is Duncon cake for good health. Another one is a whole fish for saving a lot for the new year. As you can see, Chinese New Year is an exiting event. Do you and your parents celebrate any events of your own culture festivals? And how do you celebrate it?
Have you ever wondered why Percy Jackson books are so popular? I will give you a review of the series today. If you never read the series before, I highly encourage you to read one. Here is my review: Percy Jackson’s end of the life started in the first book, The Lightning Thief. He was in a field trip with his school(Yancy Academy), to the Greek Legend Museum. Is Percy a bad kid? You could say that. He has been kicked out of every school that he went to. For example, in his previous school, they went on a field trip to the Revolutionary War Battlefield. Percy was curious of the cannons and he went to them. He then got so curious that he fired one. Percy wasn’t aiming for the school bus but he still got fired anyway. So anyway, Percy was going to the Greek Legend Museum with his school and he thought this field trip might be good because of the teacher that was guiding him. There was Mr. Brunner, a very nice history teacher, Ms. Greyhol, a very nice science teacher, and Mr. Doju, a very nice social studies teacher. Unfortunately, there was Mrs. Dodds, a mean math teacher. Ms. Dodds didn’t like Percy and his best friend Grover and instead, she preferred Nancy Bobofit, a total kleptomaniac and Percy’s worst enemy. At the museum, Percy and Grover started braking out a conversation and Mr. Brunner was guiding people through the museum. They saw statues of Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, and more gods and godesses. Soon, it was lunchtime. Percy and Nancy started fighting and then Percy spanked Nancy so hard that Nancy told Mrs. Dodds. Percy had to go to a room with Mrs. Dodds and when Percy was there, Mrs. Dodds roared then she turned into a Furie monster! That means Mrs. Dodds wasn’t a regular person, she was a monster. Right when the Furie lunged, Mr. Brunner threw a ballpoint pen at Percy and told him to uncap it. Percy obeyed and the pen turned into a sword! Percy quickly killed the Furie. Percy then learned he was a half-blood, which means half human half Greek God. He found out that he was the son of Poseidon(sea god). He went to Camp Half-Blood where he learned to fight like a half-blood. He met new people like Annabeth Chase, daughter of the godess Athena, Charles Beckendorf, son of the god Hephaestus, and Luke Castellan, son of the god Hermes. He also found out Mr. Brunner was a centaur named Chiron(activities director of Camp Half-Blood) and Grover who is a satyr. One day, Chiron wanted to talk to Percy. This is what he said “ Zeus’s lightning bolt is the strongest weapon on Earth…… It has been stolen.” Percy got sent on a quest to find the master bolt with Grover and Annabeth. He also found out that his mom had been turned into a pile of gold. On the way, he battles a Minotaur monster and gets a new weapon, the Minotaur horn. He also got the ballpoint pen weapon, named Riptide. To learn who steals the master bolt, read The Lightning Thief. In the second book, The Sea of Monsters, Grover gets kidnapped by a Cyclops. The thing is that Cyclops’ like to eat satyrs and this Cyclops thinks Grover is a lady Cyclops so he wants to marry Grover. On the day of the wedding, the Cyclops will sniff around for a satyr to eat which means he will eat GROVER! Meanwhile, a daughter of Zeus named Thalia got turned into a tree before. Now the tree is poisoned. Zeus thinks Chiron poisoned the tree so Zeus fired Chiron. The new activities director is a careless man named Tantalaus so he sends Clarisse La Rue, son of Ares to free Grover. Percy thinks Clarisse won’t try her best because she is a bully so Percy and Annabeth sneak off to free Grover. They arrive right at the wedding and the Cyclops has catched Grover. Grover somehow convinces the Cyclops that he tastes better with mango slices and the Cyclops says that the wedding is postponed until tomorrow. That means that the Cyclops is going to marry Clarisse and eat Grover!!! How is Percy going to free Grover and Clarisse and how is Percy going to convince Zeus that Chiron didn’t poison Thalia’s tree? Read The Sea of Monsters to find out. The third book is called The Titan’s Curse. The Titan’s are bad guys and now they have trapped down Annabeth and Artemis. Artemis is a goddess of archery and maidens. The Hunters(Artemis’ workers) want to free Artemis and Percy and Grover want to free Annabeth. The Hunter in charge named Zoe Nightshade goes with Percy, Grover, and Thalia(who is no longer a tree) on a quest along with another Hunter named Bianca de Angelo to save Annabeth and Artemis. In the middle of the quest they all face a Titan general and a manticore monster named Dr. Thorn and some skeleton monsters which they had some struggles against and Bianca de Angelo dies. When they get to Mount Tam(the Titan base where Annabeth and Artemis are trapped), they face a strong Titan named Atlas who is also Zoe’s dad. Will Annabeth and Artemis be saved? Will anyone else die? Read the book The Titan’s Curse to find out. The fourth book is called Battle of the Labyrinth and the Titan’s and their monsters are getting ready to attach Camp Half-Blood. They are using the Labyrinth to get in the camp because there are magic borders around the camp so they can’t charge in. Annabeth leads a quest to the Labyrinth with Percy, Grover, and Percy’s half- brother Tyson. They try to find Daedulus(the creater of the maze) to stop the Titan’s from going through the maze. Since the maze goes around the world, they start like in New York and in one hour, they are in San Francisco. They land on the Hoover Dam where they meet Briares, who is a Hundred-Handed One good guy monster. In the Hoover Dam, they meet Kampe, a poison monster. They finally get in an entrance of the Labyrinth and Kampe is left outside. When they finally get help by a regular person named Rachel Elizabeth Dare, they make it to the Labyrinth where they meet Daedulus. He says he has given the answer of the maze to Camp Half-Blood to Luke(who has turned bad) and they are preparing an attack. Percy becomes angry and he tells Chiron and the whole camp prepares for battle. Will Camp-Half Blood fall to pieces or will they win this attack? Read Battle of the Labyrinth to find out. The last book is called The Last Olympian. The Great Prophecy has been finally read and Percy has to find a way to defeat Kronos(the Titan King). If Percy wins, Kronos dies, if Kronos wins, Percy dies. Percy and his friends fight all the monsters on Earth. He gets help from the owner of the Hudson river and the East river because he gave both of them a sand dollar. Many good ones die and the final battle is held. Will Percy die painfully? Or will Kronos die for good? Read the Last Olympian to find out. I hope you haven’t fallen asleep reading my post. What is your favorite book series? If you have read these book, who is your favorite character? If you haven’t, would you like to read one of the Percy Jackson books?
By:Aaron The Winter Olympics have always excited me. I can't wait to watch those pro athletes fight for the medals. It has been very exciting these past few years. I want to see the luges the most because it is a sport that I have never heard of. I also want to watch the skiing contests because I have never seen that either. Have any of you watched the Summer Olympics? My favorite sport from the Summer Olympics was the swimming contests because I saw that it was a very close call to Michael Phelps. My mom's favorite sport is badminton and volleyball.If you guys would like to share your experience of watching the Olympics or doing Olympics like the children Olympics, please write to this blog because many of us would like to hear about it.
One of my favorite sports is horse-back riding in so many ways. If you've never been on a horse yet, you really should try it. It might be scary at first, but after a while it will really be fun, especially if the horse is friendly. There are several different gaits for a horse, like walk, slow trot, fast trot, canter, and gallop. My favorite is slow trot. In both slow and fast trot, you can either do posting trot or sitting trot. Posting trot is when you stand up in your stirrups and sit down to the steps of the horse; in sitting trot you just sit in the saddle and bounce naturally. I like to post trot the most because it's so fun and plus it's easy. When you canter, you would have to remember not to lean forward or lean back or else you might fall off. Another thing to remember is that if you're scared of the horse, it can sense it and it might be mean to you, so don't be afraid. There are many different places that you could take riding lessons. So far I have ridden at the Almaden Equestrian Center (AEC) and Cevalo Ranch. The first time I rode a horse was in summer vacation in Maine. Have you ever ridden a horse before? If so, was it fun? If not, do you think it would be fun to ride a horse?
By: Vincent 
