120. Bison or Bald Eagle

                                                                    By H A R I N I

The Northern American Bison and the Bald Eagle are both good choices to be the national symbol, as to this, I say that there can be two national symbols, because the American Bison is a mammal and the Bald Eagle is a bird so, they will have to share the spotlight. In other cases, they are two different (symbols) animals and, there will not be such a fuss about who likes the North American Bison or the Bald Eagle because they are two different species and they are both magnificent American Symbols.

The Bison helped the ecosystem by grazing on the grasslands like a lawnmower by cutting the grass so it wouldn’t get too big. Another is that settlers in the mid-1800 hunted bison, some hunted them for sport, but it didn’t matter how they hunted the Bison, the Bison were getting extinct! Finally, in 1894 it became illegal to kill Bison. It was almost too late because sadly, the population of the Northern American Bison decreased to less than 1,000. Vice President Pat Thomas states that “naming the Bison the National Mammal was an important step in making sure the animal is protected for future generations”.

The Northern American Bison has many good reasons and so does the Bald Eagle. Here are some interesting facts for why the Bison should be a national symbol. The Northern American Bison can run up to 35 MPH. It is also extremely agile, another is that the Bison can spin fast, jump over high fences and they are strong swimmers. An extraordinary fact is that they can live up to 20-25 years or more. The Bison was so famous that in 1898 the American Bison was on a $4 and $10 bill. A female bison weighs about 350 lb. and a male weight about 425 lb.

Source:

                      1.  Times for kids Magazine Edition 3-4. November 11,                          2016.vol. 7. No.9

                                    2.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_bison

                                   3.  http://www.georgiabuffalo.com/bison-facts

   

 By Harini, Grade IV

119. Shopping at Shaws

                                         By H A R I N I

            When I was on my bed, I heard my dad call my name, “Harini, Harini, it’s time to go to Shaws, the grocery shop! I staggered across my bed and dragged myself to the bathroom, brushed my teeth, get dressed, comb my hair, eat breakfast and got in the car!

        We drove to Shaws and the place was like sixty sardines all in one sardine can, literally the place was packed with people! We couldn’t even find a shopping cart. Luckily, a staff working at Shaws dropped off a cart and off we went to shopping!

       The first thing that spotted my eyes were baby spinach as I picked the item up I noticed the expiration date, I asked my mom what it was and she told me that an expiration date was something that the edible items should be consumed before that specific date, if not it should be thrown out.

            As we walked along I saw lunchables, I grabbed four lunchables and two of the Nacho Cheese Dip and Salsa and two of the Turkey and Cheddar Cracker Stackers. I went along to the next item which was eggs and I kept a look for the expiry date and I noticed it got enough date to expire.

        Then we went to grab the milk and I saw that it had the word pasteurized. I asked my mom what pasteurized means and she said that it is named after Louis Pasture whose discovery is that fermentation is caused by microorganisms resulted in the process of pasteurization. It is the heat treatment in making the product safe for consumption and improving its keeping quality. If we don’t get the pasteurized milk it can have lots of bacteria that can be harmful or even poisonous for health!

I walked along to grab the salt and my mom told me to make sure that it was iodized, I asked her what that means and she told me to look it up on google. I looked it up and iodine is a deficiency that also causes thyroid gland problems. In many countries, iodine deficiency is a major public health problem that can be cheaply addressed by purposely adding small amounts of iodine to the sodium chloride salt.

We walked to the cash register and my dad got out the “plastic money “, which is a term that is used predominantly in reference to the hard plastic cards we use everyday in place of actual bank notes. They can come in many different forms such as cash cards, credit cards, debit cards, pre-paid cash cards and store cards. We paid the money and said thanks Amanda, the cashier and we reached home safely.

By Harini, Grade IV

118. Visit to the Confreda Corn Maze

                                           By H A R I N I

When I woke up I knew what day it was, it was the trip to the Confreda Corn Maze situated at 2150 Scituate Ave, Hope, Rhode Island. I quickly brushed my teeth, combed my hair and packed everything necessary for the trip.

When we were just about ready when our friend Janice came around to pick us up. We all went in the car and in about 30 minutes we had arrived at that place. We went off to a hay ride which was a ride but on a tractor.

We alter arrived at a corn maze where you had a sheet with symbols on it and as you go through the corn maze you have to punch each one off. As we started the maze it was so confusing!! I had no idea what was which!

 Luckily, we stumbled across some clues and we finally got our way right. When we went across the maze I heard some people and knew that we had finished the maze!! I went out and we had collected $24,000! We were the “Amazing Farmer”!

We went back on the Hay ride truck and got back to the Farmers green house. My mom picked some stringed beans and I decide to get a pumpkin. When I finally got the right pumpkin we went back in the car and went to an authentic South Indian restaurant “GODAVARI” in Cumberland, Rhode Island.

         When we reached there we ordered some nourishment, I ordered Sambar (sam-bar) and idly (id-ly), my mom ordered tiny idly and spicy dosa (dho-sa), Jan ordered Chicken Kabob and my dad ordered plain dosa.

When we were all done eating paid the bill and went in the car and Jan dropped us at home and we all put everything away and went to sleep.

 - Harini, Grade IV

117. The Missing Viola

                                               By H A R I N I

This morning at home, I was getting ready to school by eating my favorite cereal, Honey Nut Cheerios. I wore my special outfit, black tights with a zebra looking top, leather black belt and topped it all with a big black bow.

My parents dropped me off to school, and I headed in and got breakfast which was a chocolate chip muffin. I went to my classroom and read for 40 minutes. I was reading a really good part when Mrs. Caramel told us to line up so we could go to music.

In music class, I sat next to my BFF Cindy and Mrs. Cappuccino told us to turn to page 17. I rapidly tossed to that page. We began to take out out the bow, rosin and when it was time to take out my instrument viola it was missing! Our teacher told me to remember where I last put it. I glanced over to my friend Cindy and it looked like she too forgot her instrument!

I told my teacher that I had a sleepover at Cindy's house and I brought my instrument. We all went over to Cindy's house and there were no instruments! I also remembered that after we went to Cindy's house we visited the Burj Khalifa tower (worlds largest tower at Dubai). We went there and it took us 6 hours to search the entire building only to find out that my viola wasn’t there!

We went back to my school and when I looked under my coat, and I finally found my viola! I practiced my viola and I packed my things and stood at the doorway to go home. I was about to say goodbye when I heard someone scream my name “Harriinnii, Harriinnii its time to go to school”! That’s when I realized that the whole thing was a dream! I got out of bed and got ready to start my day!

Note: The characters names in this fiction story are changed accordingly.

by Harini, Grade IV

116. Swimming at YMCA

When my parents enrolled me in the Aquatics Program, I was really excited to start Youth - I, where I learnt to paddle 25 yards’ front, side and back, in addition to that, I also learnt how to float, kick and rhythmic breathing.

  Usually, I woke up early in the morning when I remembered that, that day was swimming practice. I used to bath swiftly on those days and put on my swimsuit, and my parents drove me to the YMCA. Then I used to rush into the pool, and join the team for the regular routine, which was 5 laps in backstroke, and 2 in butterfly, 2 flips and some freestyles. Later on, our coaches, Ms. Jamie and Ms. Kacey would come and tell us to grab our kick boards and do a streamline. Later we would go on the diving block and do 2 or 3 dives and then do a dolphin kick. Thus, I successfully completed Youth - I and headed into Youth -II!

   In Youth-II, I learnt breast stroke, side stroke, and both elementary and overarm back stroke and diving skills. I kept practicing those skills and I amazingly completed Youth – II and headed to Youth – III, where I have learnt to focus on refining the techniques in the strokes, and introduction to butterfly. Endurance was built to 50 yards in all strokes, 25 in butterfly. During these practices me and my friend Sophia challenged ourselves to do 3 laps in breaststroke and it was a tie! It was really fun in the entire sessions. Successfully, I then got approval from my coach, Ms. Mena to move to Youth – IV, which is Stroke and Endurance.

    In Youth – IV my coach is Mr. George, who is responsible for the swimmers concentration on stroke mechanics of crawl, back, side, breast and fly stroke and endurance swimming. As of now I’m in this level and very much eager to proceed ahead to adaptive swim lessons and teen swimming where I would expect to learn water submersion, floating, swimming to the edge of the pool and swim-float-swim technique.

 Note: Names have been changed to protect privacy.

by Harini, Grade IV