Sea-Monkeys!

In June when I went to Great Wolf Lodge, I bought some sea monkeys. I never expected them to grow, or if they did, to survive very long. But, sitting on my desk is a container full of sea monkeys, 6 months later.

When I was little, 'Santa' always brought me sea monkeys, but they never even survived the process of me putting them into the container because most of the time i dropped them on the floor or something. So after a while, Santa stopped bringing them for me. So when I went to GWL I just needed these sea monkeys, and I told everyone that they would survive. And they have.

I'm still not sure what exactly sea monkeys are, but they look like little fish with one big long fin on the top, huge eyes, and they also smell sort of bad. You have to feed them every once and a while some of this green stuff that comes with them...it also smells sort of bad. When you do this, they will grow up nice and big like mine have. Every day when I look in the tank, more sea monkeys seem to be popping up every where. It's very exciting. I think everyone should get some sea monkeys because they are very fun to have and easy to take care of. :)

Maddie

Eva Olsson

On Monday October 26^th a lady named Eva Ollsen came to our school to talk to us about her atrocities in the holocaust.

I am shocked that anyone, could survive any of the things that Eva had to go through, when she described them to us, my first thought was, why didn’t anybody try to stop this?

Hearing her speech really made me think about a lot of things, like the word hate, which I try not to say at all anymore because hate is what started the holocaust. She told us about lots of the things that happened to her when she was in the Holocaust. When she was 17 years, a Nazi soldier came to Hungry where Eva was living and told everyone to pack there things because they were going to work in a brick factory, so Eva and her family packed their things thinking that anything was better than getting killed in the Holocaust. But sadly, they were wrong in thinking this man, who was a Nazi soldier, was here to help them, he was there to do the exact opposite. Everyone from her neiborhood was marched into box cars to be shipped to Holland to a concentration camp called Auschwits.

After a long time of being in different concentration camps, and having to go through things like living in the ground because of the camp burning down, Eva has survived, and has come to tell everyone her story. She tells people what terrible things have happened to her, to open our eyes so we can realize that these things are real, and that they should have never happened and it is up to us to prevent them from happening again.

"If all this suffering does not help us broaden our horizon, to attain a greater humanity by shedding all trifling and irrelevant issues, then it will have all been for nothing."

- Etty Hillisum

Norval

For me, Norval was a lot of fun. We did lots of team building activities with our groups, I think we learned to trust each other more, and how to comunicate and work together.

Throughout the day, we did things like, the 14 ft wall where we really had to work as a team to get each person in our group up the wall, we had to really put our trust in the people at the top of the wall because they were the people who were completely holding us 14 ft above the ground. Another trust activity we did was the inuit blanket, where each person was lying flat on a blanket our classmates had to toss us up in the air and catch us again before we hit the ground.

One activity where we had to use communication was where one person in the group was suspended on ropes and the other people in the group were belaying them and had to communicate with each other on where to direct the person in order for them to pick up the balls that were around the course.

I think my group demonstrated the skills well, although we could have been a little better at communication because sometimes we were often caught with speaking over each other, or yelling rather, or relying Willem to make all the decisions. Which worked but we probably should have gotten other people in the group involved.

In summary Norval was a really fun day, I enjoyed working with my friends with the activities at Norval, the drum circle got the whole middleschool working together and it was a lot of fun!

Maddie

Little Things

Personally, I think it is really cute, and honestly quite admirable how much babies, or smaller kids can get out of the littlest things in life. Something like how playing barbies with my baby cousin makes her so happy, or seeing my dad come home from a regular work day, makes my sister so excited and happy.

I know that I am bad with looking over the little things in life, and taking them for granted. I know sometimes, I just live for the big things and moments that happen, like going on holiday somewhere new in the world, or going to concerts. Those things are exciting and fun, but as I've realized recently, those really are not the only things that should pay attention to and focus on. From now on I am going to try my best to enjoy the little things in life a little bit more.

Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things - Antonio Smith

Young People Can Change The World.

"Young people are in a position to change the world, All we have to do is believe that we can make a difference and we will." - Craig Keilburger

This quote is by Craig Keilburger, someone who I think all youth should look up to as a role model for making change. Craig has made many organizations to help prevent child labor, and help kids and their families in struggling parts of the world, and it all started with this...
In 1995, when he was 12-years-old, Craig Kielburger saw a headline in the Toronto Star that read “Battled child labor, boy, 12, murdered," this boy was Iqbal Masih. He took that article to school that day to show his classmates. Soon there after he was traveling around the world to help children and families. He has won many awards over the years, as well as in 2007 being named a member in the Order Of Canada. As most of you know, he has created the "Free the Children" organization as well as "We Day" to raise awareness of his causes.

This quote means that kids really can change the world, and even though when you think about changing the "whole" world it seems like a big task and you think "Oh well, that's impossible. So I shouldn't even try." have a positive attitude towards helping people in need, and contribute in any way you can. If everyone just pitched in 10 hours of community service hours a year, think of how much we could get done, together as a team. If you believe you can do something, chances are, if you really try, you will be able to.

I think Craig Keilburger is a role model that all kids should look up to, even if you can't do as much as Craig has, you can still do your own little bit to contribute to causes. Every year "Free the Children" goes on different trips around the globe that help with things like building schools and bringing clean water to communities. What Craig Keilburger does is truly amazing, he was just a normal kid at one point 13 years ago, and still is, but he is someone who wants to make a difference in the world. Wouldn't you like to be a part of that too?

Maddie♥

Poverty

When i think about the fact that approximately 80% of the world wide population lives on under 10$ a day, and that at least 25 000 kids die each day due to poverty, it really makes me think about how lucky I am to live the way I do. Most of us just take what we have each day for granted , even what we think to be little things like clean water and a nice house to live in, because we have had access to it for our whole lives.

When I was reading the statistics, I was extremely surprised to see that in Canada, 15 percent of children live below the poverty line. I have always thought everyone in Canada was well off, or at least had all the necessity's they needed. But when i read these statistics it really opened my eyes to the world around me, and made me realize that just because I live in Canada, and I have always had everything I needed and much more, that it is not that way for most people around here and everywhere in the world, in fact, its very different. The children in the stories that I read about poverty live such different lives than I do, they have been through so much more, and had so many different experiences that I would have in my nightmares. But yet, they still seem to be happy. How can people who have so little hardly ever complain, yet people like us who have so much, can find almost anything to whine or make a big deal out of. It just doesn't make sense to me, and I know I am bad with this too, but after reading these stories, I try to see the world differently, and think that I could be much worse off.

I think the role of youth is very large, when your young all you have to do is learn and grow, most people living in poverty are children. Kids can relate to other kids no matter how different their lives or circumstances are. You can always find something that connects two people, whether it be sports or taste in music, those little things make a big difference, especially to people who cherish every moment and are grateful for everything they have.

If you asked me if my out look on poverty has changed over this past month, I would say definatly. After being to we day, and hearing all the inspirational speeches, and in LA with Ms. W reading stories and learning statistics, its really opened my eyes to the world around me. I now realize and understand what really goes on in the "real" world around me.

Maddie ♥