A Day At School: Tuesday, October 20th, 2018

Hi! Today, was our last day at school before our Thanksgiving break. Hooray!

 

Science

Today in Science we finished working on our graphs with our partners that show the different amounts of gravity on Mars, Earth, and Jupiter. Jupiter has the most gravity of the three, and Mars has barely any gravity.

 

French

In French we had to write a paragraph in French comparing French breakfast traditions and American breakfast traditions. Two main points in mine were that waffles (une gaufre) in France are more commonly eaten for dessert instead of breakfast like here in the United States. Another point was that in France they call toast with jam/nutella/butter, tartines.

 

Social Studies

In Social Studies we first watched CNN 10 (CNN’s daily news for middle school/high schools students.) Then my two partners and I began to work on our google presentation on the Treaty of Ghent. The Treaty of Ghent was what ended the War of 1812 between England and America.

 

Study Hall

In Study Hall, I worked on one of my essays for English class. I reached the minimum of 3 pages.

 

Reading

In Reading we got our literary essays. I was one of the only kids in my grade to get all the conventions in my essay right. I ended up getting 9/10 points (94%.)

 

Lunch/Recess

Today at recess one of my best friends and I worked on our skit for the talent show. We are the emcees that host the talent show.

 

English

In English class our teacher put on Charlie Brown Thanksgiving while we worked on typing our handwritten essays onto our laptops.

 

Fire Drill

Today we had a fire drill which was really cold! It was only 20 degrees outside and I was wearing short sleeves. The firefighters drove by a couple times and then we headed back inside.

 

Math

In Math we had a quiz reviewing the Pythagorean Theorem. I think I did pretty well on it. We had to use the theorem to find the area and perimeter of different shapes like arrows and equilateral triangles.

 

P.E

Today in P.E we had game day (my favourite part of the week!) One of my friends and I played basketball and then we took an anatomy quiz. After we finished the quiz we all played dodgeball which is my favourite game.

 

I hope you enjoyed my post! Have an amazing Thanksgiving for those who live in the US! 🙂

~ Mara

 

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A Day at School: Tuesday, November 13th, 2018

Hi everyone! It’s Mara here back with a new post about my day at school today.

Hour 1 Science

This morning in science we went over our tests that we took about a week or two ago. I got a 73% which isn’t great. Then we worked on our animations of the sun moon earth system and how the moon rotates around the earth and the earth rotates around the sun.

 

Hour 2 French

In French this morning we learned about the different forms of the verb “prend” which means to take.

 

Hour 3 Social Studies

In Social Studies we worked on notes where we learned about the president John Adams and his foreign affairs with countries such as France and Great Britain. When John Adams decided to make peace with France instead of having a war against them, he lost popularity which in the end cost him his presidency.

 

Hour 4 Study Hall

Today in study hall I worked on an essay I had to finish for my English class about the themes and what there meaning is in a book we are reading.

 

Hour 5 Reading

In Reading we learned about what makes a dystopian story a dystopian. We have to write an essay about a dystopian story we are reading this upcoming Thursday.

 

Lunch/Recess

Today during recess it was only 15 degrees out so most people stayed inside. One of my friends and I went outside though and we met the cops who came to “hang out” with us. The ended up playing basketball which was pretty cool.

 

Hour 7 English

In English class I turned in the 4 page essay we had to write by hand for homework last night. My hand was so sore and I had almost used up all the lead in my mechanical pencil by the end of it! Tonight we have to write an essay but this one is only 2 pages.

 

Hour 8 Math

In my math class we are learning about algebraic equations and how to use the Pythagorean Theorem on them. So far it is pretty easy to do.

 

Hour 9 P.E

I got to leave math 15 minutes and go to P.E. Today we had CPR with the local firefighters. It was pretty easy but one of the group’s had the head of their mannequin fall off which was pretty fun. When we had learned what to do, we had to do an example for the whole class. One of my friends grabbed the defibrillator, another one of my friends did CPR, and I was the person who called 9-1-1. During the example though I had a really bad coughing attack which was really awkward. Everyone in my class was like “do we have to do CPR on her?”

 

I hope you enjoyed! Have an amazing week! 🙂

~ Mara

A Day at School: Friday, October 26th, 2018

Hi everyone! I’m sorry, I haven’t written in so long. Today, I’ll just be doing an overview of my day at school. Hope you enjoy!

 

1st Hour Science

This morning in science we worked on our lab about how high polymer balls bounce, depending on the amount sodium borate added to the polymer borate. My partner and I finished our experimental summary and then moved on to drawing our scientific diagram. We didn’t finish but we got pretty far.

 

2nd Hour French

In French, we got our quizzes back that we did earlier this week on parts of speech. I got a 27/30 which is a -A. Then we learned about Kylian Mbappe who scored a goal for France in the World Cup this year.

 

3rd Hour Social Studies

In Social Studies, we watched CNN 10, which is like CNN News but for middle schoolers. Then we did a virtual tour of some famous places in Washington D.C. Our grade is going to Washington D.C later this year.

 

4th Hour Study Hall

In Study Hall I finished writing my memoir for English class and turned it in, then I finished my math homework.

 

Flex

Flex is a class we have between 4th and 5th hour. Everyone can take a class that interests them. Some people take Science Fair others take Theater. I do National History Day with my friend. We are doing a project on the Wisconsin Peshtigo Fire. The Peshtigo Fire is the worst fire in United States history, but barely anybody has heard about it!

 

5th Hour Reading

In reading, we are a reading a book called Wes Moore. So far it is very good. I highly recommend it for 7th – 10th graders. We also learned about the difference between themes and claims.

 

Lunch/Recess

Today, at recess I climbed up a tree and then my friends and I went to go sit inside the Gaga Pit, since nobody ever uses it. At lunch, I had a spinach and lettuce salad with dressing. It was delicious!

 

7th Hour English

Today in English we took a placement test then we began to learn about gerunds (a type of verb.)

 

8th Hour Math

In Math, we learned about calculating slope. It was very easy, and then we took a quiz. I think I did pretty good overall on it. The quiz was about finding y-intercepts, x-intercepts, and slope in algebraic equations.

 

9th Hour Journalism

For my 9th hour, I have journalism. In Journalism, we write for the school newspaper. One of my friends and I are doing the sports section. I’m going to be reporting on the 2018 Gymnastics World Championships which are currently going on in Qatar.

 

I hope you liked learning about my day!

~ Mara

 

First Day of School

Well, today was the dreaded first day of school. After 12 weeks of summer vacation I definitely wasn’t ready to get back into the “school mode.” Overall though, the first day of 8th grade wasn’t terrible.

I’m a mentor at my school for the 5th graders (since they are the youngest.) We started off the day but helping them with there lockers and such.

From there I headed to the 8th grade meeting, where we have to go over behaviour expectations and rules about our computers.

After all the meetings we went to our first hour class. I have science first hour, and we went over the syllabus most of the class. Then we worked on a worksheet that told our science teacher about our strengths and weaknesses.

In my 2nd hour French we went over the syllabus and then we talked for the rest of class. (We’re pretty good at getting off task.)

During 3rd hour I have social studies and of course I’m in the back row like always. Once again we went over the syllabus and then we worked on a project telling our teacher about our favourite things.

In 4th hour I had study hall. I decided to go organize my locker and my binder since they was nothing better to do.

5th hour I have reading class with one of my old 5th grade teachers. We worked on an assignment called Textual Lineage. We talked about how we learned to read over the years.

6th hour we had recess. It was 90 degrees out! We also have lunch during the second half of 6th hour. We had assigned lunch tables and we had to sit with our homeroom.

7th hour I have english class. In English we went around introducing ourselves and making name tags.

8th hour was math class. My math teacher is leaving for Bulgaria in a few days so we won’t have her the first few weeks of school.

Finally 9th hour came. I have gym class 9th hour and today we opened our gym lockers and went over rules and expectations.

Overall, today was pretty good except for the fact that teachers seem to love syllabuses and that it was super hot in our non- air conditioned school.

~ Mara

August Adventures

Over the last week, I’ve been going around some cool towns in the states of Wisconsin and Illinois. Enjoy!

Johnson Creek

Johnson Creek is a smaller town, not far outside of Madison. We visited the Outlets of Johnson Creek. Some of the outlets include the Lindt Lindor Store, Crocs, Adidas, Banana Republic, and Old Navy. Our first stop was at the Adidas outlet. I’ve never seen so many shoes in my life! Next, we went to the Lindt Lindor store. They had every possible flavour from pumpkin spice to mangos & cream. We also visited the Banana Republic and Crocs outlets. After our shopping spree, we went to Pinecone Plaza. Pinecone Plaza is a truck stop in Johnson Creek with some really good food. The desserts are gigantic!

Adidas Outlet

 

Lindt Lindors!

 

The gigantic cream puffs

Port Washington

We visited Port Washington on August 24th. Port Washington is about 30 miles north of downtown Milwaukee. It’s a beautiful town on Lake Michigan. We had lunch at a delicious lunch at the Twisted Willow restaurant. I got the four cheese caesar salad and my mom got the salmon salad. Both were amazing!

After lunch, we went to the docks and saw the waves crash really high. It was a super windy day and our hair got pretty messed up. Then we walked a bunch of stairs up to a lighthouse. We took a tour of the lighthouse, which was very neat. After our lighthouse tour, we went to the Daily Baking Company. I got a delicious Boston Cream Donut.

Salmon Salad

 

Four Cheese Caesar Salad

The Lighthouse

 

Top of the Lighthouse

Boston Cream Donut

Thiensville

Not long after we visited Port Washington it rained a ton in Wisconsin. There were mudslides and almost 17 tornadoes in the span of a couple days. There was flooding in western, central, and southeastern Wisconsin. We visited the town of Thiensville and got a look at the flooding for ourselves

 

 

Grafton

We saw more flooding when we went up to Grafton. We also got some Starbuck’s because why not?

Farmington

One day we went to the Shalom Wildlife Center up in Farmington, Wisconsin. We saw all sorts of animals! From elk to skunk to bobcats. You are also allowed to purchase corn then feed some of the animals.

Elk

Badger

Buffalo Herd

Ostrich

Eeyore says hi!

Llama

Belgium/Cedar Grove/Oostburg

One day we headed up to Belgium (Wisconsin that is.) It was definitely very rural. The best part I think was that there was a sign in Belgium that said: “Welcome to Belgium, home of the Luxemburgers.” From Belgium, we went to Cedar Grove and we even saw a traditional Dutch windmill. In Oostburg, we went to the Oostburg Bakery where we got a cream-filled coffee cake for my mom’s birthday. Yum! I tried a Caramel Cookie Frappe at a local cafe. It was delicious!

Windmill in Cedar Grove

 

Cream Filled Coffee Cake

 

Caramel Cookie Frappe

 

Cedarburg

We visited Cedarburg on Saturday. We went to lots of stores and the Cedarburg Arts Mill. The river in Cedarburg was pretty high from all the recent rain.

Sculptures

Chicago

Moving out of Wisconsin and down to Illinois! This was a highlight of August for sure. On Sunday the 2nd, I went to Chicago with my mom. Our first stop was the Centennial Wheel in Navy Pier. We took a water taxi (right by Union Train Station) to Navy Pier which I highly recommend. For lunch, we went to Eataly. The layout of the store was kind of confusing but we found a restaurant with some amazing ravioli inside the store. It had ricotta and spinach inside and it was amazing!

From Eataly, we headed to the Magnificent Mile. We went to Tiffany & Co, Lush, the American Girl Store, and Watertower Place. It was almost 93 degrees that day (in September!) so we stopped at Starbucks and Millenium Park.

Centennial Wheel

At the top of the wheel

Ravioli at Eataly

Watertower outside of Watertower Place

AG Store

Exhausted in Millenium Park

Thanks for reading this post, everyone. I start school again tomorrow, so no adventures for awhile. I’ll post every once in awhile though! Have a great September!

~ Mara

 

Naperville: Days 7 and 8

Hello! I recently was on a week-long vacation in the town of Naperville which is in the northern part of Illinois, not far from Chicago. I’ve already posted about the first 6 days, and here are the links if you have yet to read those posts. Days 1 and 2, Days 3 and 4, and Days 5 and 6. Enjoy!

 

Friday morning we spent in the room since it was downpouring outside.

For lunch, we headed to Oak Brook which is 20 miles or so from Downtown Naperville. Once we were in Oak Brook we went to a restaurant called Labriola’s. I got the Strawberry & Kale Salad. Yum!

After lunch, we went to the Oak Brook Center which is a mall! It was outdoors and there was lot’s of cool shops like Lolli&Pops (candy store), Tesla, Altar’d State (clothing store), Davids Tea, Build A Bear, and even an escape room.

The Microsoft Store

Starbucks (with a line out the door)

For dinner that night we went to Ted’s Montana Grill (founded by Ted Turner) and I got the parmesan cauliflower (yum!) and a baked potato. My dad got one of the famous bison burgers.

Cauliflower

That night we walked around downtown Naperville and the North Central College Campus. We went to a clothing store called Southern Tide as well.

North Central

Southern Tide

The next morning was our last day in Naperville. I went down to Sparrow Coffee (in our hotel) to get a pastry to go with my breakfast. I got a chocolate croissant.

Sparrow Coffee Interior

 

Then we walked the riverwalk one last time before heading back home. We saw tons of ducks.

Goodbye, Naperville!

 

 

Naperville: Days 5 and 6

Today, I have our Naperville Post about days 5 and 6 in Naperville. Click here for the post about Days 1 and 2 or Days 3 and 4. 

 

We started off our 5th day in Naperville with some protein at the Starbucks Reserve Bar. We had the Bacon and Gruyere Sous Vide Egg Bites. Yum!

Then we walked all the way to Dunkin’ Donuts on the riverwalk. It had rained so much part of the riverwalk was flooded.

        Flooded Part of the Riverwalk

After our morning riverwalk hike, we went to the Morton Arboretum in Lisle. The Morton Arboretum was founded by Joy Morton who owned the famous salt company.

Recently, lot’s of troll statues made out of scrap wood have been erected in 6 different places around the Arboretum. We spent our day hiking and checking off all the troll statues. We even found the Troll Hideout.

 

That night after lot’s of walking we headed for a rather unhealthy yet satisfying meal at Smashburger. I had the grilled cheese and tater tots. Once we returned to downtown Naperville we headed for David’s Tea and got some teas – to – go and walked along the riverwalk. I got Magic Potion Tea which changes colour.

             Magic Potion Tea

The next morning was my parents 24th anniversary! We had breakfast in the hotel room and then from there we drove to Wheaton and went to the Danada Equestrian Center. We saw tons of horses up close and even Clyde the Cat, who we saw a year ago at Danada.

         Clyde the Cat: August 2018

 

              Clyde the Cat: August 2017

We had lunch in Wheaton Square at PDQ which specializes in chicken tenders and nuggets. From there, we went to pick up bundlets (tiny bundt cakes) for back in the room, at the store Nothing Bundt Cakes which was also in Wheaton Square. Nothing Bundt Cakes is one of my favourite cake shoppes. I got the red velvet bundlet.

Outside of Nothing Bundt Cakes

That afternoon we went shopping downtown at stores like William Sonoma, Eddie Bauer, and Anderson’s Bookshop.

                    Andersons Bookshop

For dinner, we went to Midici Pizza which is right on the river walk and offers great views. I got a Margherita Pizza, which was pretty good.

            Margherita Pizza 

After dinner, we walked around the campus of North Central College which is in Naperville.

Goodnight, Naperville

 

Thanks for reading! The next post will be about days 7 and 8.

~ Mara