Natures Classroom – Predator vs Prey

Nature’s Classroom is an outdoor sleep away learning classroom in Becket, Massachusetts. At Nature’s Classroom (NC) we get to do different activities, classes, and more. One of the activities that we did was called Predator vs Prey. In the game everyone was in different groups. The lowest groups were the main prey: centipedes and tics. The bugs couldn’t eat anything, but anything could eat them. The next group were the frogs. There were the Canadian frogs and the just plain frogs. They could eat bugs and the next group up could eat them. The next group up (and the final one) were the snakes. The snakes were the best group out of them all. They could eat anything, and nothing could eat them, so they were basically invincible.

 

I got put in one of the worst groups, the centipedes. But fortunately, I also got put in a group with some of my really good friends. I was with Olive, Olivia, and Eden F.  All together there were eleven centipedes. Throughout the game we had to hide, run and sneak around. But, the simulation was a “walking simulation”. A walking simulation was when you had to walk around everywhere until told to run. Basically, Carrot (group leader) always had to be in the front of all of us. If one of us passed him, he would say “freeze” and the person in front of him had to freeze for twenty seconds. While we were going we couldn’t do anything but walk and speed walk. No running, no jogging, no skipping, just walking. If a predator group was coming behind a prey group, the leader of the predator group blew his or her whistle for meal time. When a predator group leader blows a whistle, everyone starts running. The predator group will chase different people from the prey group and try to tag them. If you got tagged, you would leave your group and join theirs. The main point of the game was to try and survive in your original group for the whole game. This whole tagging thing went on until the group leader blew their whistle again, which meant the tagging time was over.

 

One by one the predator groups picked off members from out pathetic centipede group. At the ten minute mark, it was only me, Olivia, Eden, and Olive. We were all really happy and surprised that we made it this far. We were really proud of ourselves because we made it farther than some of the really “fast and strong” people in our group. But, we still had to remember that the game was still going and we needed to be careful because the predator groups were getting much bigger. We had two attacks before the game ended. Fortunately, we all survived. Though, I’m not a very strong runner and during one of the attacks I got a really bad running cramp. Luckily just as I got it the attack ended. Finally, we heard the ending whistle and we knew it was over. We had survived as little old centipedes.

 

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Picture by PDS

My Holiday By Violet

During the holiday season, my family celebrates Hanukkah. My part of the family isn’t religious like the other part of our family, neither my sister or I went to hebrew school or are having Bat Mitzvahs. On the eight days, we light each candle on the menoura  night by night and give presents to each other. Traditionally, every night we’re supposed to say a prayer; instead we just say it the first night because we only know one of the prayers. We sometimes spin dreidels and play the game (even though we barely know how). Hanukkah is celebrating the rededication of the Holy Temple. We give each other chocolate coins called gelt, which now come in lots of flavors.

 

Plymouth Xmas 07Creative Commons License GabboT via Compfight

 

 

Final Blogging Challenge – By Violet

FINAL BLOGGING CHALLENGE

The blogging challenge was a really fun thing we did that I hope we could do other years too. Even though all of the challenges were super cool, my favorite would have to be the first one: All About You. In the All About You challenge, we had to make ourselves an avatar that relates to us as people. After that, we wrote a little bit about ourselves. I really enjoyed making the avatar and getting to try out all the different tools that we could use. I also really liked writing about myself. The main reasoning for that is, I know a lot about me, so it was easy to write!

 In the course of the challenge, I learned how to leave positive comments instead of negative ones, I learned how to find other blogs and how to respond to posts, and I learned how to responsibly use a blog and create posts.

This is a picture of my avatar. I think it represents me because I’m a very funny person. I like to giggle, randomly crack jokes and make up puns, and smile.

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Panda-monium! Week #7 By Violet

Ever since I visited my first national zoo, the Giant Panda became the best living creature to me. In this post, I will tell you about the Giant Panda, Also known as  the panda, or just panda. Panda’s are  adorable and fuzzy bears that comes from south central China is going extinct. Most people recognize them by their large, distinctive black patches around its eyes, over the ears, and across its round chubby body.

Screen Shot 2015-11-18 at 7.14.48 PMViolet via Panda Cam

Mei, the giant panda mother eating bamboo while watching her cub Bei sleep.

 

The name of ‘Giant Panda’ is often used to differ it from the totally unrelated Red Panda. Though it belongs to the diet Carnivora, the panda’s diet is over 99% bamboo. Pandas in the wild will sometimes eat other grasses, meat, or rodents. When in captivity, they are fed prepared food. The panda live near a few mountains in central China, mainly in Sichuan Province, but also in other provinces, some known as Shaanxi and Gansu. Because of the farming, deforestation, and other happenings, the giant panda has been forced out of the areas where they used to live.

 

The giant pandas are relying on the conservation from people all around the world, to keep them from going extinct. A 2007 report shows 239 pandas living in captivity inside `China and another 27 outside the country. On December 2014, 49 giant pandas live in captivity outside China, living in 18 zoos in 13 different countries. Some reports also show that the number of giant pandas in the wild is rising. While the dragon has often served as China’s national sign, globally the giant panda appears almost the same amount as the dragon. It is becoming used within China a lot in international happenings. For example as one of the five mascots of the Beijing Olympics.

 

Here are some facts about the giant panda:

  • 1,864 wild giant pandas were counted during a 2014 survey
  • An adult panda can weigh about 100-150kg and grow up to 150cm long
  • Pandas feed for up to 14 hours a day and can eat up to 38kg of bamboo
  • When born, a panda cub is just 1/900th the size of its mother
  • Pandas are good swimmers and excellent tree climbers
  • Habitat loss and fragmentation are major threats


Mother panda’s are very protective over their cubs, as shown by the mother panda Mei and cub Bei in the National ZooViolet via Panda CamScreen Shot 2015-11-18 at 7.29.03 PM

Blogging Challenge week #5

Nutella

This chocolatey dream, aka Nutella is a hazelnut chocolate spread loved by many Americans. Nutella, in its earliest form, was created in the 1940s by Mr. Pietro Ferrero, a pastry maker and the creator of the Ferrero company. At the time, there was very little chocolate because there was not much cocoa during World War II. So Mr. Ferrero used hazelnuts, which there was a lot of in the Piedmont region of Italy, to extend the amount of chocolate. Nutella was first imported from Italy to U.S. The main purpose of the spread is for putting on bread, though people have come up with quite a few other ways to use it.

Strawberries and Nutella esimpraim via Compfight

Nutella is growing to be one of the most popular spreads in the world and is growing in popularity very quickly. In addition to its wonderful taste Nutella has no artificial flavoring or coloring and is also gluten free.

Don’t forget to celebrate National Nutella Day on February 5th!

 

The Scratching By Violet

The Scratching

 As Cecelia walked into her new apartment on Halloween night after trick-or-treating, she noticed it was not like the others. The peeling paint on the off-white colored walls, the cobwebs that lined every nook and cranny, and the creaky, splintery stairs made Cecelia shudder. “Thank you sir,” She handed the doorman a tip, but noticed that he had a long scar stretching across his eye, making him blind, and overgrown fingernails. He walked away and slammed the door behind him.

 Cecelia started to take her  belongings out of the boxes , but then she went to the lobby to ask if there was any other rooms available. The woman at the front desk said there wasn’t any because it was such a popular building, so Cecilia decided to stay and clean it up. An hour later she went off to sleep. She got into her bed and turned out the lights.

 Scratch, scratch, scratch! It was exactly 12:00am when Cecelia woke up to the horrible sound. It seemed to be coming from outside her door. She suspected it was just her radiator and went to sleep.

 About two weeks passed, and every night at exactly 12:00 she heard scratch, scratch, scratch! Every time she ignored it. One night at 11:59 she crept up to her door, fed up with what was happening. Scratch, scratch, but before the third could happen, she opened the door. In front of the door was the doorman, blood dripping from his head.  Cecilia’s eyes locked on his. For a second they just stood there, but then the doorman lunged at Cecelia and pinned her down, knife in hand. The doorman used it to cut across her eye. She tried to call for help, only to be muffled by the hand covering her mouth.

 

Week 3 activity #2 By Violet

When I was four years old, I went trick-or-treating with my aunt, parents, and sister. My sister and I both dressed up as Cinderella and my mom, dad, and aunt were all wizards. Halloween has always been my favorite holiday. Getting candy and being able to dress up as princesses seemed like the best thing in the world to me. But this Halloween was the most special one of that time because we got new candy baskets. Lily and I were very proud of our orange and purple pumpkin baskets! Also, my dad was on a diet so he gave us all of his treats! My aunt is super cool. She gives me gifts on every holiday, including Halloween! That Halloween she got me a witch toy. You press a button and the witch’s head comes out of the little box and screams crazy thing like “TRICK OR TREAT SMELL MY FEET” or “GIVE ME THE CANDY HAHAHA!”  To this day I still have it to bring with me every Halloween. Every year me and my sister count the amount of candy each of us get. Then we organize the candy and trade it. That year I got 145 pieces of candy and my sister got 146. That was the best year of trick-or-treating I had ever had!

Photo Taken by Blake-Copyright
Photo Taken by Blake- ©

 

Week #1 Blogging Challenge By Violet

Blogging Challenge Week #1

Activity 1:

My name is Violet but UltraViolet is usually my computer/online name. I’m a 6th grade student in PDS. I love skiing, baking, and being weird! When I am online I’m polite and serious. While offline I’m crazy, a social butterfly, and sweet.

 

Activity 2:

IMG_4906Bitmoji

I made my avatar like this because everyone says I’m a really funny person, and as you can see in the picture I’m laughing. I chose to use bitmoji because I have the app on my iPod and it’s a really good app. I put my outfit like this because there was no outfits like me so I chose a hoodie because I sometimes wear them.

 

Activity 3:

My name is Violet Bryn Stearn. I was born October  in Syosset LI. I have a very large family with a lot of cousins. My family has always had a passion for skiing, so when I was two I started skiing. Now that I’m older, I ski race for Belleayre mountain with my sister and my friend Joanie. It’s a lot of effort in the Winter but it’s a lot of fun and it makes you stronger. I also rock climb and ice skate.

Joanie, Petra, Olive, Olivia, and Maya are some of my best friends. We’ve all known each other since we were in 1st grade. I also have a 14 year old sister named Lily, she is the most SUPERCALIFRAGILISTIC sister anyone could ever have. Though she can sometimes get a bit cranky, grumpy, annoying, and mean, she is one of the sweetest people you’ll ever meet. But  there’s not a big surprise there. I mean, she is a teenager! I also have a German shepherd dog named Rocket. He is super adorable, smart, and big. Another thing about me is, I am a huge fan of Japanese food. All of it, sushi, rice, soup, dumplings, anything. I love the color violet, just like my name. I also really like panda bears. They’re so adorable and fuzzy! I’ve always wanted to go to France and learn how to speak the language. My mom said she would take me next year and I’m really excited!