Spring Backpacking

“The clearest way into the universe is through a forest wilderness.” -John Muir.        This was my first time camping, and before I was kind of scared, but still kind of excited about exploring through a forest wilderness. Before I didn’t know anything about camping, but after I realized that I could see, hear, and touch real nature with our body. This is so different from learning it from a text book. While camping, I learned so much about nature, river rafting, and the importance of teamwork. Therefore, I disagree with the decision that the administration has decided to cancel future backpacking trips.

          We had a few meetings to prepare for camping about dangerous plants and insects. We learned that poison oak is one of the plants that you have to be careful of. Poison oak has three leaves on the stem and the oil on the leaf will make your body itch for days if you touch it. Even though I learned that in the classroom, I still couldn’t imagine how would it look unless I saw it with my own eyes. I also learned about flowers on the trail. For example, Baby Blue Eyes which looks like baby’s eyes, Popcorn flowers that look exactly like popcorn. Many have special names because of their shapes and color. We won’t find any of these plants in the city or on our campus. Only nature can show us the wilderness.

We river rafted on our backpacking trip. River rafting might sound pretty easy, but it actually matters what you do on the boat. If you stand up, the boat will be unbalanced. If you hold your paddle the wrong way, you might hurt someone. We learned to use all of our body to manuever the boat. It doesn’t sound complicated, but you have to be careful not to fall off the boat while you’re doing big movements. This experience is impossible to recreate in a classroom.

          Can you set up a tent by yourself? Can you carry the boat down to the river by yourself? Can you hike without a hand in front of you to help you go down a steep and slippery hill? Teamwork is important during camping. For example, when you’re carrying the boat, what happens if you suddenly release the boat? The boat will fall! So you have to do everything together. After all, I noticed that you have to always help and do everything together with your partners.

          You can never learn the real feeling of camping with textbooks and tests. I studied about nature, the value of cooperation, and river rafting after I went through the wilderness. Camping is a challenging and educating activity, so I believe canceling backpacking trips is not a very good decision.

How to Write Diamantes Poem....

How to Write Diamantes Poem

1)    First you have to think two nouns as the subjects (they must be antonyms)

2)  Write the first subject on line 1

3)  Write two adjectives about subject 1 on line 2.

4) Write three participles (words that end in “ing”) that’s describing subject 1 on line 3

5)  Write two nouns for subject 1, and two nouns for subject 2 on line 4.

6)  Write three participles that’s describing subject 2 on line 5.

7)   Write two adjectives about subject 2 on line 6

8)  Write subject 2 on line 7

9)      Now look! The shape of your poem is a diamond!

Learning Poems

Learning Poems

Learning and writing poems is really fun. Do you like writing poems? For the past two weeks, I learned a lot about poems. Poetry is another type of writing. We don’t have to take care of  punctuation, capitalization, and other formats. Everytime I wrote my poem, I explored my expression. It's my own story, I could just write anything I was thinking in my mind. I think writing poems is really interesting and enjoying, I enjoy writing, but I enjoy writing poems more! Poetry has different forms. For example, Haiku Poems, Cinquain Poems. I hope I can write more poems in the future.  

So here is an example of Diamantes Poems

Chocolate

Tasty, sweet

Eating food, dessert, golden paper

Smelling, dreaming, tasting

White, yummy

Vanilla

That is how fun learning poetry is! 

Class Hike

 

On January 27^th, 2012 the first day I hike. It was the end of the first semester. As a new student, it was really lucky that I didn’t have to take any test, I just went right upon the mountain without any worries about finals. We went to one of the mountains in Rose Valley with all of the 7^th graders from OVS. Some lower campus kids went to White Rock in Rose Valley. We walked about 10 miles! It was my favorite and worst day of my life.

        

         It took a really long time to get on the mountaintop. I was pain! I couldn’t even breathe. I can walk 10 miles without resting, or without eating. I couldn’t accept that we had to finish 2 big bottles of water. These two empty water bottles were the tickets for the bus. Our teachers forced us to drink this water, but I know they did it for our health. A weird thing is that when we’re walking, we felt really hot, but when we got to the mountaintop, it was freezing cold. Even though on the mountaintop was really cold, I still liked the cool air hitting my face.

         Something good and beautiful had shown on that special day. When we get to the mountaintop, we looked down and we saw small villages, green trees, and beautiful birds flying above us. Our lunch is peanut butter and jelly sandwich, sounds normal, but if you hike for 6 miles, any food in front of you is the best! After I finished lunch, I felt 10 times more powerful than before. The best thing was NO SCHOOL! I didn’t  have to do homework, didn’t have to do any test, no pressure! I’d rather see nature and walk 12 miles, instead of looking at books or study for tests, anyday.

         After the 10 mile hike, we went back to school proudly yet exhausted. When we got back, our teachers gave us freezing sodas. We felt all cool, lay in our beds, and hoped we could stay in bed forever. Few days later my legs and hips got really sore. I could only walk like an old woman. These feelings of happiness were gone.

         This class hike was really a big challenge for me. I learned a lot and know about nature. I also know how to survive when you’re lost in the mountains or forests. I will never forget the day I went to Rose Valley, my best and worst day of my life.