Marine Blog    

The Marine to the left is my dad, Greg.   He works on jet engines to keep the jets in the air.  He used to be in the Marines in the “Supply and Munitions” department for a while, but now he is working at the Air National Guard in Portland.  He makes life safer for all the civilians (that means people not in the military).   I’m proud of what he does for our country.  It wasn’t easy when he was deployed for 6 months, and my family didn’t have their dad at home.  Life felt a little boring, and we had to do a lot of extra work, like gardening and yard work, and my mom had to take care of all of us.  When he got home, we went to get pizza and have a party!  We were excited to have our dad back!  Now in the National Guard, he gets to come home almost every day.  We are a much happier family.   I chose to write about the Marines, because I’m inspired by my dad.  I want to be a Marine in the future. Great Marine Resource links: Facts About the Marine Corps Links to Official Marine Corps Websites

 

Is this a mystery... or a mystery person!?

Welcome to our blog, fair viewers! As you see, there will be a mystery person. there will be many  clues as you come along. As your first few clues, this person…

• is a girl
• is in 5th grade (at the moment)
• has brown hair
• does gymnastics
• loves Five Nights at Freddy’s (a game)
• LOVES cats!!!
• enjoys fishing and aquariums

               Comment down below to ask more questions, and guess.Good luck to you, and have a good day!

 

Ham Radio

If there was no power and the satellites would not work, a ham radio would still work. If you want to find out more read

In a natural disaster, ham radios will still work and help people in need, and you can send a distress signal. Call the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to let the Search and Rescue crews know that help is needed. They will contact you and pinpoint your exact location and let you know help is on the way.

With a ham radio, you can not only contact the International space station, but also people around the globe. There are three types of ham radios: stationary, hand-held, and a vehicle ham. To operate a ham radio you must (and I mean must) have a ham radio license, or you can be put in jail.

 This is a stationary Ham Radio.You would not want to bring it camping with you, because you wouldn’t want something to happen to it. The hand-held radio below is small enough, so it would be a good choice to take out camping.   

 These are portable, handheld ham radios, so you can take a hike, listen, and/or transmit while taking a hike. But remember to charge it before you go out and hike, because if the battery isn’t charged, you won’t be able to communicate.

We are Officially Blogging!

Welcome readers!  Our school started a new blogging after school activity in April.  We are all learning how to blog and trying to create a blog that is all about our school at Pleasant Valley Middle School in Vancouver, Washington.  Our group consists of 8 fifth graders and 1 6th grader with an advisor.  We know our blog is not completely ready, but you have to start somewhere.  

Pleasant Valley Middle School includes grades 5-8 and has about 500 students.  The 5th graders have one main teacher all day, the 6th graders have one main teacher and a class with another teacher, the 7th & 8th graders move around all day with several different and unique teachers. We have 5 great teachers at each grade level and some pretty important specialists, and efficient office workers. Our principal, Mrs. Grigg, is new to our school this year, and she is really interested in what we are learning about.  Mr. Hoskins is our assistant principal, and we like to visit him for PRIDE awards or good things.  Our school is part of the Battle Ground School District.  

More to come...

Learning in the 7th Grade

In language, students are hard at work writing a 5 paragraph essay on any topic.  Some students chose Apple iWatches, loyalty of dogs, or the Ukrainian War.  Students need to make sure the essay is written well using interesting, uncommon words, topic sentences, evidence from several sources, and a lot of elaboration.  You may wonder what elaboration is… giving more detail and explanation about the main idea.  

Have you ever been to Pioneer Courthouse Square?  Our 7th graders wander around downtown Portland solving real life problems while photographing the processes.  It’s a busy place, but they learn a lot.

Seventh graders are getting ready to become eighth graders soon with only 3 ½ weeks of school left!  

Cool Stuff Students are Learning in 5th Grade

Students have been hard at work reading and creating line plots in math.  We are able to see the data more easily on a line plot than a list.  We noticed that it is important to organize your data (information) first to make things easier.  

What type of soil do isopods and darkling beetles prefer?  Do you have a guess?  We found out what soil they preferred, but we want to know what you think.  Make a comment down below.  

Some classes are already learning about the Revolutionary War.  The Revolutionary War is all about how war changes earth’s revolution.  Does that make sense?  Of course not, the Revolutionary War in the US is about how colonists were getting really angry and furious that England was trying to control them and take all their wealth and land.  So, this led to war with England.  What are you learning in school?