This year has been full of exciting changes and challenges. Most of them good and others…not as ‎good or rewarding. It was a fun year, especially having the guidance of the teachers, staff (my ‎homeroom teacher) and principal. They’ve been very helpful and I hope that I can use the knowledge ‎I’ve gained to have success throughout high school at West Van. Here’s a little run through of the ‎year. At the beginning of the year I remember arriving into Grade 7, thinking it would be a long year ‎and it felt like I’d been there forever. But, as soon as the third term came around everything has ‎been flying by so fast. It felt stranger too, because my brother who is a year older than me was at high ‎school! I also felt as though I should put in my best effort to try and exceed in every aspect, and end ‎the year on a good note. So, I’ve tried very hard and I hope my work pays off so that it was ‎appreciated. As the year went on I grew a bit tired from all of the hectic work, but managed to keep ‎it all under control. Around November I was off school for a little while, which was unfortunate but I ‎tried to get back on track and catch up with all of my studies. When winter came around, I was ‎jumping with excitement because I when I lived in another house there was always so much snow and ‎every day at Christmas holiday we would run outside and play for hours because the snow was so ‎deep! However, this year we only had one snow day that didn’t last very long and was quite ‎disappointing. But, I still had fun with my family and friends especially making crafts with my ‎Kindergarten buddy, Brenaugh. When we came back to school in January I was unhappy, because all ‎of my holidays feel as if they wiz by. But, as I settled back into the new term 2 and continued to ‎concentrate and still enjoy myself, I felt fine. Then we had the occasions Mother’s Day, Easter, ‎Olympic Break, and Father’s day. Wow, the Olympics were fantastic – it was one of my favourite ‎experiences ever! I hope we can celebrate (or host) such a wonderful winter event once again. ‎Furthermore, I tried to keep my other blog posts interesting and some were short, others were long. ‎But the three comments that I have received were worth wild! Anyway, since this is my last post and I ‎won’t be back, I should probably explain what this summer will involve. I plan to go to Ontario for a ‎month with my family the day after I am finished school, (Wednesday) and then the rest of August ‎that I’ll be here I don’t know what I’ll be doing. I hope it’s really fun and I don’t want to be away for ‎another exciting event such as…PLAYLAND! It was so sad that I missed such a good event-I love play ‎land so much and I assure you if I wasn’t sick I would’ve been there no matter what! So, my friends ‎felt a little bad that I was away and I missed everyone too, that around August we might go to play ‎land again! During the time that I’m in Ontario, we’re planning to go to Niagara Falls which has the ‎Marine Land amusement park. I think Marine land is a lot like Play land so I definitely want to go ‎there. It’s been an exhulerating year and if I could re-do it again I would leave it all the same! I ‎wouldn’t miss this experience of spending time at Ridgeview for the world! My family and friends ‎have supported me and helped me along the way too, thank you.

From Katrianna! *THANK YOU RIDGEVIEW- and goodbye !!!!*‎

Here are two videos about volcanoes at divergent plate boundaries. They occur when two plates diverge into each other, and slowing add pressure rubbing together. Then, a new crust is being formed made from molten rock that slides apart, as the magma slowly flows upward through the cracks. Then, the volcano errupts sending exploding lava, that also sends waves and creates the ground to vibrate.

Here are two videos showing hot spot volcanoes. A hot spot volcano occurs in hotter climates, such as Hawaii. They errupt when hot magma is forced through plates onto earth’s crust. The temperature of the liquid cause’s the crust to form ‘pipes’. The volcanic plates transition back and forth over top of a hot spot, and finally errupt causing ash and lava to flow downwards.

Here are convergent boundary volcanoes. The first one shows the erruption underwater, as the lava slows flows outward. A convergent boundary volcanoe occurs when an oceanic plate and a continetial plate colide. Then the oceanic plate, which becomes subducted releases water that mixes with the temperature and makes the hot motlen rock, called magma, flow upward. As the plates continue to move back and forth, it adds pressure. Then, the volcano errupts releases magma which has cooled more, and turned into lava.

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Last Monday, on May 10th, the grade 7 classes departed from Ridgeview at 9:45, and made their way to West Van high so that everyone could get to know their new school that most of us would be going to in September. When I  first arrived there I already knew where most things were and some grade eight classes, because my brother goes there, track meets, volleyball, basketball, etc. But, in the upper level of the school I had a harder time figuring out where all the doors lead to. We first met in the grade eight cafateria, where the student counsellor, Mrs. Walton introduced herself and told us a bit about what the schedule for the day was. As the former Ridgeview students piled in, she read out the list of who was paired up withwhich grade eights. I knew almost all their names, so I didn’t care which grade 8 I went with. Luckily, Jamie, Andrea, and I were together. Jamie was very responsible and showed us each class, and room. I think my favourite room was either the art or drama room. Jamie also told us a bit about each of them, and what to expect for next year. I was surprised to learn how short the recess is, and how long the classes are. I thought there would be more classes in a day, but a smaller amount of time per period. The most interesting detail that I found was all the clubs available! I am definitely signing up for volleyball, the track team, and badminton. (If I make the teams) When she had finished showing the tour, we headed back to South Campus and inside Mr. Carrey’s classroom for math. I think Mr. Carrey is a real nice teacher and math seems really fun. When he asked J.K. to answer a math equation I was suprised how fast he answered it! (He is definitely ready for grade eight math) He had a very interesting way of teaching class too. Rather than handing in the homework, he would simply ask various kids to answer them. By 11:45, it was time for recess so the grade 7′s went to the cafeteria and ate some food until 12:00. Than, we walked back after the long tour to school and continued with our daily routines. I think  grade 8 will be an exciting year and a good one.

Katrianna

The last few weeks have been tiresome, and once again busy. Not so much at during class, but mainly after school. Because field hockey has started up again I’ve had to plan my week more often so that I found good days to do homework. There has been a term 3 reading assignment, and we recently completed a Egyptian book on tikatok.com. But, right now we are in the middle of a girl’s language arts class project where we are creating a persuasive miniature book, relating to something we are interested in. I chose the topic of Vikings. Vikings are relative towards me because I am a quarter Scandinavian, and the rest British. I always found them interesting because I love history and anything having to do with the past, present, or future. (For example: flying cars, which obviously won’t happen) Anyway, this project is due Tuesday, in class, once we put all the pieces together. So far I have almost finished the text, and I just need to add a two paragraph subtitle. I don’t know how much I’ve written of text but it took me a long time. Other than that we have a new French project, which is due Friday or Wednesday but I am presenting Wednesday. It is based on our family member’s names, and one they do for a living, what they look like, etc. There are 6 sentences per member that we need to write, either on a PowerPoint document, a small hand made book, or a poster. I decided to do a PowerPoint because they are fun to add animations too, and I use them quite frequently. We also have a SS argument, which is where we have to convince Mrs.W on something. My topic is that the driving rate shouldn’t be changed to age 18, that it should stay at 16. This one is difficult because each site that I go to only recommends that driving should be changed to age 18. So, school has been pretty fun this term, especially the dance my group and I are working on. (Vanessa, Jisoo, Emily, Bess, Nicola C, and I) It has turned out successful and we are almost finished. Oh yah, we had our annual dance that Ridgeview students take part in each year, where a dance instructor comes in and shows us the movements, that we must learn by the end of the week. It was exciting and the moves were cool, especially the sashay. In conclusion, that’s what these past weeks have been like.

*Katrianna*

Hello! I am working hard on homework once again, this week. Even though I was away half of today, and a bit yesterday morning, because of my agonizing ear infection from swimming, there still was a bit of homework to work on. Oh yes, the ear infection. Well, I woke up Saturday morning from what seemed like a terrible ache on the side of my jaw, realising it was actually my ear. My mom had had many ear infections, from diving when she was younger, so I had a pretty good idea of what it was. I ignored it, and continued my daily routines. However, the night before going back to school I had almost no sleep and complained to my parents, who insisted on taking me to the doctor’s in the morning. I love school SO much and I didn’t want to miss it so I made sure I could at least be back at school for some of the Language Arts lesson! Sadly, I have missed school quite a bit, in term one, because of swine flu and pneumonia, which was no picnic. I hate missing school and I enjoy every minute of it, most of the time, so I was upset at myself that I had trouble sleeping last night too. (Even though I have medication for it) So, my parents insisted that I stay home for the day because my ear was red, I had a fever, and a terrible headache, but I slept the whole morning so that I would have enough energy to come back to school. Enough about that, I want to mention something about Ultimate Frisbee. I LOVE Frisbee so I couldn’t wait to join the team, not realising that when I returned from Whistler there was a game that exact day. But, I signed up right away and went after school to Amble side to the ultimate Frisbee clinic. (A training session introducing it) Anyway, today (2 weeks later from the clinic) the Ridgeview Ultimate Frisbee team headed from our school (At about 3:00) to the Ambleside grass field where we played three small games. The first game we tied 2-2, so we were pretty happy about that. The second game, we won 4-3 and we were overjoyed. The last game we lost 3-2, but oh well. Furthermore, I need to go but today was pretty good, and my ear infection is getting better. Bye!

*KAT*

Easter has come and gone, but I loved every minute of it! I know how Easter really represents the religious beliefs when Christ made a sacrifice on good Friday, (i.e. was crucified) and was re-born on Easter Sunday. But, most people these days (or at least children) mainly think of it as when the Easter Bunny comes and hides chocolate Easter eggs, so that children can search for them. Well, I celebrate both. First, on Friday morning (good Friday) my family and I headed to church to recognize Christ when he was crucified. It wasn’t a very up bringing celebration, but it turned out well. We came home and I took everything that I had brought from school (gym strip, backpack, etc.), and I organized them in my room. Then on Easter Sunday we went to my dad’s side of the family for an Easter Dinner, consisting of wonderful scalloped potatoes, and apple pie for desert. The next day, we stayed home and we had a belated Easter with my Grandmother and Grandfather. Even though I am a little more mature now, I am never to young to have chocolate and an Easter egg hunt. I stuffed my face with chocolate and grew a bit sick so I haven’t touched my stash yet-ha ha. I also felt like giving my family a few gifts. (Including Easter decorations, mugs, dream catchers, welcome sign, and an Olympic mascot) So, I hope they enjoyed those. I also received a card from my other relatives, which was very thoughtful. The following days I mainly had fun with my friends, and we were planning to go skiing but it was unfortunately canceled. As well, I finished both of my art pieces which I was unable to complete before break. Then, today (Saturday) I played on my field hockey team the Orca’s and we sucessfully won 6 to 1, I believe. I was really happy with our first game, and I hope we continue at a good rate. I was proud with myself because the ball didn’t hit my feet this time-haha, and I did better than I thought I would on the field rather than in goal, where I played most of last year. (I made 2 assists, but next time I want to try and score) Then, after the game Vanessa B invited me to her sister’s field hockey game because they didn’t have any substitutions. Even though we didn’t win, I still had a good time and I hope I will be as good as the girls on that team next year. Anyway, I forgot to mention how I left school for a week on vacation (Which I haven’t done since Kindergarten) to Whistler for a week of ski lessons. It was definitely beneficial because now I KNOW how to ski, which I never thought I would. I am able to ski on some blue runs too. That concludes this blog post because I have to go and continue reading my book for the third term reading assignment.

*Kat* P.S. I hope that tomorrow will be enjoyable because it is the last day of Easter Break. Time flies when I’m having so much fun! BYE

Hello! This week was fun, but strange. Oh yes, Mrs.Wilson was sick, so I hope she comes back soon. Anyway, the homework wasn’t a total overload in our class, but there was a lot of math! Anyway, tomorrow is the last day of school and then it’s the weekend. However, I unfortunately am missing school because I have a funeral to attend to. It is quite sad, but I have never met the relative so I probably won’t be bawling my eyes out. Other than this week, these past few months have turned out alright too. Soccer season has ended, so I’m not as busy, but field hockey is starting up again – and for 3 times a week. I am already doing several activities and without soccer, I have finally been able to rest a little more, but now I will be back to the usual busy schedule. Also, we have started a new girls self defense class! (By Julie Mrs.T’s sister, and another male instructor) Each week I look forward to it, because I have had some martial arts training. (In Taekwondo) But, this is quite different because it is almost the opposite of what I have learned for the past 3 years that I have done Taekwondo. Rather than attacking, we are defending ourselves. So, we’ve learned a few different maneuvers (including scratching the attacker-haha) and small kicks. Lastly, the FSA’s are long gone, and so is the 2010 Winter Olympics. It is kind of sad in a way. For what seemed like forever, Canadians talked nonstop about the Olympics coming! But, when it finally came to British Columbia, it went by so fast I barely had time to actually enjoy myself. Also, on the second week of the break, i went to Kona Hawaii! It was SO exciting! I enjoyed every minute of it, with my family members, and I made sure I could reflect back on the memories by taking loads of pics! (he he) But, no matter how much fun I was having, on the second to last day, there was a terrifying tsunami warning, so we had to evacuate to higher ground. (Because there was an earthquake) Even though it was very frightening, nothing happened, so I was relieved. Anyway, now that I’m back home and safe, I can concentrate on friends, school, and sports. (The way I’d prefer it) I have to go now, but I hope everyone had a nice Olympic Break! I sure did, it was an amazing adventure that I will cherish forever.   

*Kat*

Ever since Christmas Break ended, and we arrived back at school we have been dealing with most time consuming, difficult, and annoying, tests. They are called FSA quizzes. (Which stands for Foundation Skills Assessment) For the first week, we did some practice math FSA’s and one Language Arts FSA. Then, starting on the 18th of January, we began the real FSA’s. It was frightening at first so I tried to study as hard as I could, but once I finished the first math test I found that it wasn’t as hard as it seems. However, the teachers aren’t allowed to help us during this stage so if I had an important question I would have to think for myself. But, they are allowed to answer basic questions, not giving away any answers. This week has been even more stressful, we’re almost done our LA FSA’s (thank goodness) but we just handed in an important SS map and a LA reading assignment. (Which basically counts for 1/3 of our LA mark) I hope I did a good job. Mine was about Helen Keller, as I said in my last post, and I finished my poster for the reading assignment. My favourite part of the project was either reading the book (learning so many things about Helen) or creating an interview, with 10 questions about Annie Sullivan. I was the interviewer and I would ask Annie about her time with Helen, and the good parts and bad parts that she and Helen went through. I’m just glad that it is over with, and I have the rest of the weekend to relax. (Other then the fact that I have to work a bit more on my wiki and the science lab) Since last year, Grade sevens have been writing on a wiki site about the 2010 Olympics, coming in only 2 weeks! However, last year’s grade sevens left out a few sports and information about the Olympics, so we are going to add some extra pages. I am working with Lydia and Emily on Canada’s Women’s Hockey Team. So far we have finished the text, but we still need to include the links. We have two external, but I am going to research and find some more sites so we have enough links. Soon, I am going to try and discuss the links with my group and add them onto our page. I’m still in the process of learning all about wikis and how they function. But, other than that my week has been alright. But, I was surprised when the teachers called us for a meeting, yesterday, and they said how people were disrespecting our classrooms at lunch, and everything was filthy. I thought our classroom needed to be cleaned up, especially the lockers, where I was no better. I try to keep my area clean, but there are four people sharing a locker so it is a bit harder, but there are no excuses. Once we cleaned it all up, I thought it looked a lot better! Well, I better enjoy the rest of my weekend while it lasts!

*KATRIANNA – I will probably write another post soon about the Olympics, bye!