Reece's Blog

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Do you know what Scotch Broom is. It is an invasive plant that got brought over from Scotland. Now it is a plant that is all over  British Columbia.

Scotch Broom is yellow and looks like a flower that you would like. It is actually a weed that is invasive. It was brought over from Scotland by Captain Walter Grant  in 1850 because he wanted his new home in British Columbia to like like his home in Scotland. It grows around forests and can  be spotted by its bright yellow flowers. It looks like a dandelion but grows in big bushes and it also smells really bad.

Scotch Broom is a problem because it is invasive and it does not belong in British Columbia. It belongs in Scotland and should have not been brought to Canada. Scotch Broom stops other plants from growing because of it thick and hard roots that take up a lot of space. The bushes grow super big so it is super hard for animals to get through the thick bush.

People are getting rid of Scotch Broom because they are stopping other plants from growing. They are getting rid of them by getting saws and cutting the branches so they won’t grow anymore. To stop them take away the pedals so the seeds can’t get out and plant more Scotch Brooms.

Do you have Scotch Broom where you live?

Read by : Spencer

Read by : Liam

Do you know what modern day treasure hunting is? It is geocaching. To go geocaching you need a GPS to find the caches. The GPS is like a digital map with waypoints in it. Waypoints show where the cashes are located. GPS’s need satellites that show where the way points are.  Cashes are boxes that come in many different shapes and sizes. When you find a cash there are goodies inside  that you can take if you put stuff back in. In the cashes there is a log book to write that you found it. Geocaching is also fun to do. It is fun because it is like modern day treasure hunting. Geocacashes can be found anywhere in the world. You can do it anytime you want, anywhere there is a cash. I think it is neat you need a GPS to do geocaching. It is something you you can do with your whole family or by yourself. There are people who don’t know what geocaching is so watch out for them. Have you ever been geocaching.

Edited by: Spencer

Tree Kangaroo

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Do you know what marsupials are. Marsupials are animals that live in Australia. All marsupials have pouches to carry their babies in.

Tree Kangaroos

Tree Kangaroos are not a very common animal. They live in the forest of Papua New Guinea. It is super rare you will see one in the wild. They live 40 meters above the ground in tall trees. The tree kangaroo is like a kangaroo, It lives in the trees unlike the Kangaroo. I think these creatures are a very cool animal. These are favourite type of marsupials and second favourite animal.

Koalas

Koalas are very well known throughout the world. They live in Australia. The koala is probally one of Australias main animal next to the Kangaroo. They spend most of their days in the trees sleeping. They only eat on type of food and that is Eucalyptis.

Kangaroo

Kangaroos are the most known Marsupial and the biggest Marsupial. They are known for jumping around all day. The Red Kangaroo can get up to be 6 feet tall. The Kangaroo is Australia’s main animal.

Tasmanian Devil

The Tasmanian Devil only lives in one place in the world. They live on a little island under Australia, The island is called Tasmania and it is a part of Australia. The Tasmanian Devil is a carnivore. I would not want to run in to one of them in the wild.

Wallaby

A wallaby is like a miniature kangaroo. They also live in Australia and act like a kangaroo. There are many different species of wallibes including the Albino wallibie.

Those are my 5 of my favourite marsupials. There are many more marsupials like the wombat and opossum. What is your favourite type of marsupial.

Read by:  Spencer

Read by: Trevor

Have you ever been to a trades school. Are class went on a field trip to a school called Sandwick. At Sandwick we got to learn about different trades. The trades there were Plumbing, electrician, concrete, carpenter and drywall. Each group got to do three stations. One of the stations was learning about trades and having competitions. I also did concrete and electrical. The people who taught us were in grade 11 and 12.

Make a video of your own at Animoto.

For the electricity you had to make wires go from a plug to a light switch and make the light turn on. First you have to cut open the cord so you can see the wires. There was a black, white and copper color wire. You have to cut out part of the wire on the white and black so it is copper. Then you twist the wire you it can hook on to a screw. After that you screw the plug into the wall. Then you do the same thing with the light switch and the light bulb.

Next we did the concrete. I liked the concrete more than the electrician because I think there was more stuff to do. We had to take concrete out of a machine then put it into a container. We had to vibrate the container on a vibrate table. We put bars into the concrete. After we vibrated it a couple more times we smoothed it out. We wrote are names on the concrete. It will be used has a picnic table seat.

Are last station was to learn about different trades. We also did challenges. The challenges were making something and hammering nails. I don’t think I will be someone in the trades when I am older. Do you think you will be in the trades when you are older.

Edited by: Spencer

Photo Credit: Matthew Paulson via CompfightAbout a week ago the NHL trade deadline just passed. There was not very many trades but a couple big ones. There were teams giving away players for prospects and draft picks. There was also teams getting really good players. I am going to recap the big trades that have happened in the last couple of weeks.

Marian Gaborik / Derek Brassard, Derek Dorsett, John Moore

The biggest trade on trade deadline day was this deal. Marian Gaborik went to the Columbus Bluejackets and Derek Brassard, Derek Dorsett and John Moore went to the New York Rangers. I think it was a good trade for both teams because the Bluejackets are trying to make a playoff push and Gaborik is a very good player. The Rangers got good players to. Brassard can get points, Dorsett is one of the grinders who can get a lot of points and John Moore is a good prospect.

Jason Pomminville / Johan Larrson, Jeff Hackett

Another big trade was this one. The wild got Jason Pomminville because they are trying to compete with the other teams. Pomminville is a good player who can get a lot of points. The Sabres got two good prospects and a 1st round and 2nd round pick.

Jarome Iginla / Prospects, 1st round pick

This trade was my least favourite trade because my  favourite player and he went to my second least favourite team the Pittsburgh Penguins. There is one good thing about it though. The Penguins might win the cup. The Flames got two useless prospects and a 1st round pick.

Jay Bouwmeester / 1st round pick, Prospects 

Another trade by the Flames was trading Jay Bouwmeester a really good defense for a 1st round pick and two good prospects. Bouwmeester went to the Blues. The blues are a really good team and are trying to get even better.

Brendan Morrow / Joseph Morrow 

Another trade that made the penguins get better. They got Brendan Morrow from the Dallas stars for prospect Joseph Morrow. Brendan Morrow is a goal scorer who is tough. Joseph Morrow is a very good young prospect.

Cory Conacher / Ben Bishop 

Cory Conacher is one of the best rookies in the NHL this year and could win rookie of the year. The Senators got him because they are struggling to score goals lately. Ben Bishop is a good young goalie and thats what the Tampa Bay Lighting need.

Derek Roy / 2nd round pick prospect

The Canucks only pickup around the trade deadline was getting Derek Roy from the Dallas Stars. Roy is a good second line center and that is what the Canucks were after. In return the Stars got a prospect and  a second round pick .

That is some of the bigger trades that happened around the trade deadline. What did you think of these trades. Were you happy are sad.

Read by Spencer and Trevor

Today at school we watched a Ted Talks video about Google and the Internet. They talked about how if you have a different computer are different place in the world and you Google it at the same time you come up with different links.

I think it is kind of neat that you come up with different search results than other people of the world. It also depends what you have searched in your past searches. It does not mater if it has been a day, week, month are year. Even if you have a different computer company are on a different browser it will be different. If you were in Canada and someone was in Russia and you looked up the same thing on the same browser you will come up with something different.

It effects your future research because if your trying to find the same link you found before it might be hard to find. It would be because the other kids who have searched things up would have made the search terms different. It would be hard to find it after you turned it off.

My question about this video is how would Google keep all that information on each browser. Now I know that if I want to find something I look for a lot I can find it easily. If I want to look for something I don’t usually look at it might be hard to find. What do you think about this.

Machu Picchu

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There are many countries in the world I would like to go. Here are 10 of the countries I would like to go from almost every continent.

10. Turkey/Czech Republic/ Italy

These are three different European countries that I want to go too. I don’t know why I want to go to Turkey. In Czech Republic I want to see Prague. In Italy I want to see pompai, Venice and the Coliseum of Rome. I also want to go to eat pizza and gelatos. I am also going to Italy in a couple months.

9. Bahamas

The Bahamas would be cool to go to because I’ve always wanted to go somewhere in the Caribbean. The have lots of really nice beaches and have a lot of tropical animals.

8. Indonesia

Indonesia looks cool because there are lot of beaches and things to do including going on walks through nice forests.

7. Egypt/Kenya

I want to go to Egypt because I want to see the pyramids and the Spinx. It would be cool to go to Africa too. Kenya would be neat to go to because they  have lots of wild animals and safaris.

6. Chile/Brazil

Chile would be cool to visit because it looks really nice and it would be cool to see a lot a couple countries in South America. It also has lots of nice jungles. In Brazil it would be really cool to see the Amazon Rainforest.

5. Greece

Greece is really cool because it has a lot of things you could see including the Pantheon. It is to honor the Greek gods. There is many other things you could do in Greece.

4. New Zealand

New Zealand would be cool to go to because it looks really nice with lots of things to do. Including beaches and lush forests.

3. Peru

I really want to go to Peru to see Machu Picchu. Machu Picchu is a big historical sight in the Andes Mountains. It was made by natives a super long time ago. Machu Picchu is made out of stone and have temples

2. Australia

I want to go to Australia because I really want to go to see the The Great Barrier Reef. The Great Barrier Reef is the biggest reef in the world. They have lots of tropical fish and other animals. I would also like to see animals in the outback including Koalas, kangaroos and Emus.

1. Bora Bora

I would like to go to Bora Bora because it is super warm and it is a tropical place in the South Pacific. Bora Bora has lots of nice beaches and the water there is super shallow water. You might be able to walk from island to island because Bora Bora is made up of lots of islands.

Those are the countries I really want to visit. There are many other countries I would like to visit like Finland, Argentina, Thailand and Cuba. Where do you want to go in the World. Visit the Student Blogging Challenge.
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Read by: Trevor

Read By: Spencer

A long time ago in 8000 B.C, a writing system called cuneiform was invented. Cuneiform is a type of writing with images. The writing comes from Mesopotamia.

Mesopotamia is located in the middle east., Near   Irag and Syria. Cuneiform is the first known writing way. Cuneiform was the only written one way, vertically from top to bottom. In 3000 B.C. the writing was changed left to right in horizontal. Each day in Mesopotamia the people would record daily trade, daily events and astronomy. A lot of the time the clay tablets were put in clay cases to too keep them safe.

Cuneiform started as pictographs. Pictographs are the little image that made cuneiform writing. The images represent trade and livestock. The writing was written on clay tablets. Before they wrote on clay tablets they made small tokens from clay to represent stuff. The tokens were kept in sealed clay envelopes. To read the tokens you would press them into the clay so they would pop out of the envelope.

The word Cuneiform means wedge-shaped. They named it cuneiform based on the apperence of strokes. The word comes from latin. There are many different symbols in cuneiform writing. In the older texts there was about 1000 images. In late text there was 400 images. Some of the symbols have multiple   pronunciations.

In class we made our own clay tablets and made are own images in cuneiform tablets. My tablet has images of stuff I like to do or are what I like. My pattern says Reece, Then it says abunch of sports and dog.

Jarome Iginla in warm up

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Have you ever heard of the NHL. It  is the best hockey league in the NHL.    There are 30 teams. The best team in the league will win the Stanley Cup. Last year the L.A Kings won the cup. I am going to tell you about my three favourite players.

3. Claude Giroux

Claude Giroux is one of the best players in the NHL. He was just ranked third by TSN. I think he is the best player in the NHL. He plays for the Philadelphia Flyers. He has played 5 seasons and has 243 points. He has played in the Stanley Cup finals and was just named captain of the team. The Ontario native was drafted 22nd in the 2006 NHL entry draft. Giroux is still far away from the hall of fame though.

Claude Giroux is one of the best players in the NHL. In fact, he was just ranked third by TSN and I agree with them. He plays for the Philadelphia Flyers and in 5 seasons has earned 243 points. He has played in the Stanley Cup finals and was just named captain of the team. The Ontario native was drafted 22nd in the 2006 NHL entry draft. Giroux is still far away from the hall of fame though.

2. Danny Briere

Briere is another member of the Philedelphia Flyers. He is my second favourite player because I think he is a good hockeyand he scores a lot of goals. He has played for 15 years. Briere used to play for the Sabres and the Coyotes. The Flyer has played in one Stanly Cup final, but he lost. Briere is an assistant captain.

1. Jarome Iginla

Jarome Iginla plays for the Calgary Flames and has played for them the 16 years he has played in the NHL. He has been captain for many years. In 2004 he brought the Flames to the Stanley Cup. But they lost in 7 games. He is the latest player to the 500 goal club. He also has over 1000 points. Not very many players get 1000 points are even are 5oo goals. At one point in his carer he was the best goal scorer in the NHL. He still is one of the best. He is in one of the best players to ever play the game.

Who are your favourite NHL hockey players and why.

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Have you ever heard of a sea otter are seen one? They are on of my favourite animals. If you want to learn more about them read on.

These fascinating creatures are mammals and part of the weasel family. They live in the Pacific Ocean. I think one of the coolest things about the sea otter is that to eat they use their stomachs as tables. They put the food on their bellies and eat off of them. When they are on land they like to slide down hills on their belly.

Sea otters eat clams, mussels, crabs, sea unchains, squid, octopus and fish. To open the mussels and clams they use a rock to break the shells open. Sea Otters are the only otter to give birth to their young in the water. The otters were almost extinct a while ago but there are way more of them in the world today.

I like sea otters because they are very playful and fun  to watch. At zoos they swim in the water a lot and slide on their stomach out of the water. I also like how they eat on their stomachs.

Do you like Sea Otters. If you do please tell me why in a comment.