Slam Dunk Competition                                    

Good morning ladies and gentlemen, today, I will be talking the Slam Dunk Competition. This took place in the gym, on Friday December 12, 2014. The nets were lowered to 7 feet, so that more people can participate. Cost to participate was $10, and $2 to watch. All proceeds will be going to buy new glass backboards for the basketball season. Some of the people in the class that participated were, Kavisha, Alador, Derek and myself, accompanied with grade 7’ers and 8B’ers as well.

At the contest, there was nothing but suspense as we anticipated the winner. First, we got practice time to practice our dunks. Then after, we dunked as much as we could in 10 minutes. You got one point for simply making the dunk, and 2 points for making it decorative. There was also a block to step on before dunking to ensure that everybody could reach the nets. There were the top 4, and they were Derek, Alador, TJ, and Thevin. They all competed, and Alador and TJ made it to the finals. It was a nail-biting experience as they both presented their dunks. TJ tried to dunk from the free throw line, and near it, but couldn’t do so. Now, it was the final dunk, and Alador was taking it. The crowd jumped as Alador made the dunk, and led 8A to the title.

                                                      

Mesopotamia Social Studies =D

Sumerians

Good morning, everybody. Today I will be talking about Mesopotamia the "cradle of civilization." Right now we are talking about the Sumerians who lived in Mesopotamia. Sumerians were a big part to history. They created the wheel which made life for them very easy. Sumerians studied the stars and space, they created a calendar based on the moon, and the calendar had 12 months of 30 days. The Sumerians also had deities which were gods in their times. They named their city-states after their deities and the most powerful city-state was Uruk. Sumerians were also part of the Bronze Age. Bronze was made when tin and copper were mixed together and made a very strong and powerful metal. Sumerians had an unusual way to bury their king, first they would bring his servants to the burial site and bury his possessions with him then they would give their servants a drug to kill them all. Later somebody would go down and make sure everybody is dead. Sumerians are very amazing and interesting to learn about. Thank you for listening to my blog post.

 

Gym Class

Gym Class

In gym class, we are learning about cricket. Cricket was first played in England and is also very popular in countries like India, Australia, and South Africa. Cricket is played with 11 players on each side and on an oval or circular shaped field. The game of cricket is played with a bat, a ball, and a wicket. Common player positions are the wicketkeeper, batter, bowler, and fielder. Some matches can last up to five days, but a more popular version of cricket is only played up to 20 overs, an over is 6 bowls. Sides switch when 10 of the 11 batters have been eliminated.

The team with the most runs wins and one run is awarded to the batter who makes a successful run. The objectives of batting are to score runs and protect the wicket. After hitting the ball, the batter can decide to run, run multiple times to score more runs, or stay where they are. A batter is eliminated if the ball hits the wicket while they are batting, if they are caught out, if they do not make it to the crease before the ball hits the wicket, and if they hit the ball twice. 

Blog Post

By: Veronica Macabeo 8A

December 12, 2014

Good morning fellow classmates, I will be presenting about what we are learning in math. In math, we are learning about how to calculate the surface area of a 3D object such as a cube or triangular prism. I will only be showing you how to calculate the surface area of a rectangular prism, because it would take me a long time to explain them both. For the beginning, you would have to either draw a net of the shape (which is a diagram of the shape flattened out) or draw faces of the top/bottom, both sides, and the front and back. Then you would measure the vertices of the faces. After you would make columns like f/b, s/s, and t/b. Under those you would put an ‘A’ for area and an equal sign then ‘LxWx2’ which is Length x Width x 2.

That would be the first ‘A’. For the second ‘A’, you would already have the measurements you need. So then you would take the two measurements, times them together, and then times them by 2 (since there’s two faces). And lastly, the third ‘A’ would just be the answer to the two measurements multiplied by each other and by 2. Thank you for listening and I hope you enjoyed my blog post.

Respiratory System

Respiratory System

By: Bianca Villarba

For my second blog post I will be discussing the process of respiration. This is a topic we are currently learning about in science. Respiration is the action or process of inhaling oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide. I will walk you through this process. 

First, air enters through the external nares, where it then travels to the nasal cavity to be cleansed, moistened, and warmed. From there, the air passes through a pair of internal nares into the pharynx. Both food and air pass through the pharynx, however the food will travel down the esophagus, while the air will enter the larynx. During the process of which you swallow food, the opening of the larynx is closed off by a flap of tissue known as the epiglottis. The larynx is also known as the voice box or Adam’s apple and contains the vocal cords. Air passing over the vocal cords causes them to vibrate and emit sound. Air then travels down the trachea where it then branches into the bronchi. Each bronchus divides into smaller tubes called bronchioles which end in microscopic pouches called alveoli. There are several hundred million of these in the adult human. A network of capillaries surrounds each alveolus. This is where the exchange of gases between air and blood stream take place. Surrounding each lung is a tissue known as the pleura which secretes a liquid that protects the lungs from friction. 

There are three types of respiration: cellular respiration, interior respiration, and exterior respiration. Thank you for listening to my blog post, have a great day. 

Mesopotamia

Blog Post By Bennet Finney 8A

In Social Studies, we are learning about the life after the stone age; Mesopotamia. We are more Specifically learning about the early people's life style. Mesopotamia was home of the first civilizations in the world known. In Mesopotamia, the people did things that lead up to today's lifestyle. 

People in Mesopotamia had ways of farming, technology, medicine, and other ways of modern day things we do. For farming they had made dams, dug channels to divert water to all the crops, and used plows to cut into soil. The technology they had was metals they found and used for tools. Medicine was used for bandaging, casts, and chants to cure others.

Gym

In gym class we are learning how to play cricket. The first gym class we started cricket, we learned some facts about it like who invented it and when was it invented. We also learned the names of the equipment. For a few gym classes, we played cricket in groups of six; one person had to be a batter, the other had to be a fielder, and the other person had to be the ball thrower. Last gym class, we did relay races where one team had to run with the bat across the gym before the other team catches the ball. Another relay race was when the class was divided into two. One team would run across the gym and back and the other would have to throw the ball to each other in a circle 100 times without dropping it. These are the things we are doing in gym class so far. 

Health-Digestive System

          In health class we are learning about the digestive system. We are learning all of the body parts that create the digestive system and their functions. We had to create a diagram and label the parts of the digestive system and also their functions.

          Now I will tell you a little bit about what we have learned more specifically.Digestion is the process of breaking food into tiny pieces that are absorbed by your blood and carried through your body. There are many parts of the digestive system like your esophagus, stomach, salivary glands, liver, intestines, etc.Inside your mouth, you chew your food and your salivary glands give off saliva which moistens and softens the food. Then it goes through your esophagus which connects your mouth to your stomach. Then chemicals in your stomach digest the food more thoroughly. Then nutrients, water, waste, etc. go to other organs or parts of your body that are associated with your digestive system.                                                                                            

Boyz Basketball tryouts

Boyz Basketball Tryouts

Greetings and salutations classmates of grade 8A, for my second blog post I will be talking about the boys basketball tryouts. This year the coaches for competitive boys are Mr. Mcnabb and Miss Thornberk, and for developmental boys the coaches are Mr. Beaudry and Miss Mp. The tryouts where Monday December 2nd and Monday December 9th. There is another tryout on the 11th.

In the tryouts we did a lot of drills for dribbling, shooting, and passing. We also worked on a few drills for defense. I didn't do well in the shooting drills. The hardest drills for me where the shooting drills because I kept on missing all my shots.

That concludes my second blog post, thanks for listening and good day to you.
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Circulatory System

             In science, we had just finished learning about the circulatory system and now we are learning about the respiratory system. We are also learning about the circulatory system in health. I will tell you briefly about the circulatory system.

             There are four components in our blood: red blood cells carry oxygen; white blood cells fight diseases and germs; platelets clot blood and repair damaged blood vessels; and plasma is the liquid. There are three blood vessels: veins carry blood towards the heart; arteries carry blood away from the heart; and capillaries are the smallest blood vessels that carry blood to and from the tissue cells. The pathway of blood is that the superior vena cava and the inferior vena cava bring blood to the heart from the body. The blood then enters the right atrium. The right atrium pumps blood through the tricuspid valve into the right ventricle. It pumps blood into the pulmonary artery which takes it to the lungs. In the lungs, the blood gives off CO₂ and takes in O₂. The blood then returns in the heart through the pulmonary vein to the left atrium.  It pumps the blood through the bicuspid (mitral) valve into the left ventricle. The left ventricle pumps blood through a semilunar valve into the aorta. The aorta carries blood to various parts of the body. The whole process then starts all over again.