My Award Winning Short Story

This story was written for a contest with the Pasadena Public Library.  It won second prize in the 4-6 grade category.

Race Against Time

Ten year old Malli was desperate to go outside.  After watching her three little brothers, Eric, Max, and Mason, Malli was going to lose it.  It had been a complete disaster.  First, Eric was throwing his toy boat and broke her mom's favorate vase.  Then, Max tripped over Mason and Mason had been crying nonstop ever since.

Malli sighed a sigh of relief as her mom's car pulled into the driveway.  As Mallis' mom stepped into the house, Malli handed her Mason, who then stopped crying.  Then she headed out the door.  Malli lived in a small town in Maine near a peat bog.  This is where she was heading.

Malli hurried over the bridge to the peat bog.   Malli really like this trail because it was very green and had lots of interesting plants.  Malli liked to take pictures with her camera.  She carried it in the bag her mom insisted she take with her.

Today she was headed for the beach at the end of the trail.  Malli reached the begining of the trail.  Even though it was only about a three minute walk, she felt like it took forever to get away from all the noise of her brothers.

She started hiking.  Taking a deep breath, Malli smelled wonderful smells.  Fresh moss, pine trees, salt air, all of it very relaxing.  Off in the distance an occasional seafull cried.  Except for that, all was silent.  Malli stopped when she saw a berry that was picture perfect and took a picture.

A little while later, Malli saw what looked like moose tracks.  The peat bog was full of weird things.  She saw rocks tht were completely covered by moss.  It was strange to walk on ground that was both soggy and solid at the same time.  On the side of the trail she saw a cup-shaped plant, callled a pitcher plant.  The plant ate flies!

Malli soon emerged from the trees. Long fingers of granite stretched out into the cold swirling Atlantic Ocean.  Mallie quickly crossed onto the granite and saw seals playing in the distance.  She carefully jumped from rock to rock, moving farther away from the shore.

Then Malli came to a dip in the rock.  The rocks here were coated in slippery, green seaweed that would be under water at high tide.  Slowly, so not to trip, Malli crossed the seaweed to the rock on the other side and climber up.   She sat down to watch the seals play.

The seals were flipping and diving and the longer she sat there the closer they seals came until one swam right up to her.  More seals cam and Malli even counted three cubs. The cubs started barking and splashing.

An hour later, Malli realized she better start heading home or she might get stuck in a mud hole.

She walked back across the granite.  When Malli reached one of the dips she had crossed earlier, she had to jump across it because it was now full of water.  The tide had come in while she was watching the seals.  She was starting to get worried, because if the tide came too fast, she would not be able to cross the seaweed patch she had crossed earlier.  Malli hurried on.

At the next dip, Malli jumped over the cold water that now filled it.  As she jumped, her foot missed its target and she fell.  As she fell she ripped her pants and scraped her knee.  She had not been focusing!  Malli was worried now because the tide was coming in very fast.  She knew that with her scraped knee she would not be able to make it to the seaweed patch before the tide.  

Mallie stumbled slowly to the seaweed patch, her knee aching.  She was right!  It was full of icy  water.  The water was now five feet deep.  Deeper than Malli was tall.  She was cut off from the land!  She looked at it and estimated that the gap was about five feet wide.  She thought she could maybe jump that far, but she wasn't sure.  While she was hesitating, the water sloshed up on the rock on the other side, make it very wet and slippery.  Malli knew she wouldn't be able to jump.

Malli sat down and thought.  Then she began rummaging through the pack her mother insisted she always take with her on her hikes.  In it was a water bottle, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a rope and her camera.  All useless!  At least she could take eat her sandwich.

It would be dark soon.  She couldn't wait for the tide to go back out.  Her family would really worry about her.

She looked around and realized there was nothing in the ocean that could help her.  Then her head jerked back to her pack.  She had rope!  She started making a plan.

Maybe she could make a lasso?  She looked around until she spotted a piece of driftwood.  She thought, if I can just get my rope around that, then maybe I can use it as a bridge.

She tied a loop in her rope and threw it.  The rope fell short.  If she wasn't careful, she could end up knocking it into the water.  Malli tried again.  This time the rope almost circled it, but missed again.  She hoped that the third time would be lucky for her.  Malli concentrrated very hard, focusing on the wood she threw the rope.  She circled it!  Carefully she pulled it in.

Malli lay the driftwood across the gap.  If fit perfectly!  Slowly she stepped onto the driftwood and walked across.  As she stepped onto the rock on the other side, the stick fell into the water and was washed away.

She hurried back to the trail, wanting to get home before dark.  She hiked back through the peat bog, across the bridge and into her own back yard, right before dark.

Her mother had been starting to get worried, so when Malli crashed through the back door muddy and wet, her mother gave a cry of joy.  She gave her a big hug.  Malli felt warm and comfortable and was glad to be home safe and sound.  She thought, maybe screaming brothers aren't that bad after all.

Sorry!

Turns out my last post was not true.  I still think that it is dangerous to get under a table or desk. I hope they prove a real safe place! I read that Southern CA is very likely to have a 6.7 earthquake by 2037. (That  is from the New York Times,  long before I knew about the false information.) So I'm sorry that I did not study very deep into that.

This is Addison, signing off.

Warning!

I learned something very important about earthquake safety.  Pay attention!  Don't get under a desk or table during an earthquake.  Get next to a heavy object instead.  Why?  That is the place where a triangle of safety is created when the ceiling falls down.  People who do search and rescue during earthquakes found that children under desks died because they where crushed.  When the ceiling falls, the desk is crushed, but a triangle-shaped pocket is formed next to the desk.  So - stop teaching children to get underneath something.  Instead teach them to get next to it and curl up in a little ball.  Pass it along.

This is Addison.  Signing off.

Earth Week Results

Earth Week was a big success. Here are the results:

Monday- got 2 whole kindergarten classes ( that's 40 kids)

Tuesday- Pledges were so popular we did them on Wednesday too.

Wednesday- More pledges.

Thursday - Mom forgot to come!

Friday- Fun in the dark!

Earth week will return next year. I hope you enjoyed earth week and it's activities. There is one thing I hope you keep in mind, make every day earth day!

This is Addison, signing off. 

Earth Day

In the Beginning - In 1963 former senator Gaylord Nelson began to worry about our planet.  He knew that our world was getting dirty and that many of our plants and animals were dying.

He wondered why more people weren't trying to solve these problems.  He talked to other lawmakers and to the President.  They decided that the President would go around the country and tell people about these concerns.  He did, but still not enough people were working on the problem.

The Idea Then, in 1969, Senator Nelson had another idea.  He decided to have a special day to teach everyone about the things that needed changing in our environment.  He wrote letters to all of the colleges and put a special article in Scholastic Magazine to tell them about the special day he had planned.

The Holiday On April 22, 1970, the first Earth Day was held.  People all over the country made promises to help the environment.  Everyone got involved and since then, EArth Day has spread all over the planet.  People all over the world know that there are problems we need to work on and this is our special day to look at the planet and see what needs changing. Isn't it great.

Today at school, I organized a pledge day.  People came at lunch time to make pledges to help the earth.  Over 130 people made pledges to recycle, stop littering, use less water and more.  

Earth Week

Starting on the 21st   and ending  on the  25th I will be running a school wide earth week. Each day will have a different activity:

Monday:  Reading during recess.

Tuesday: Earth day activities.

Wednseday: Start a paper pile with writing on 1 side only.

Thursday: Do something to show you love for the earth.

Friday: Turn of the lights for  30 mins.

Each  activity can be done at home (and should!) I encourage you to try each one. I will post at the end of next week. Until then , Bye !  

Earth hour

One hour of last Saturday was known as earth hour. Earth hour is when people and companys turned off their power to save energy.  People all over the country turned their lights off for that one hour. Chicago saved an estimated 420 tons of carbon dioxide. That is saving a lot of energy! This helped the earth a lot. If you missed this great event, try having one of your own.  Pick a day and turn off your power for an hour.  Let me know how it goes.

       This is Addison, signing off. 

Oh,Give Me a Habitat!

That's what most animals want. A habitat. A habitat is the place where a plant or animal naturally lives and grows. Different animals live in different places. For example,a frogs habitat is wetlands. Most animals don't want one, they need one. People destroy the animals home and drive all the animals  off  . One way to stop it is writing letters to different people, like the following:

the new president

state legislators 

governor

If we reduce our destruction, endangered animals will be helped physically and naturally.

This is Addison, signing off.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Did you know that our oceans are not clean? In the middle of the ocean, there is a huge patch of garbage.  This is called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.  The Pacific Ocean has a clockwise circle of currents that traps the garbage in the center where the winds can't get it.  This garbage patch is the size of a continent and goes 100 feet down into the ocean.  It is full of  millions of pounds of garbage.  (See How Stuff Works)

The garbage patch is made up of little pieces of floating plastic.  This creates problems for marine creates and humans.  It effects the entire food chain, because little fish eats the plastic, bigger fish eat the little fish, birds or humans then eat those fish!    Another problem is birds are choking or feeding plastic to their young.  

So where does this trash come from?  80% of this trash comes from land.  

So what can you do?  Recycle, recycle, re-re-re-recycle!  Another way is to stop using plastic bags.  We can also encourage our legislatures to pass laws to keep our environment plastic free.

This problem isn't going to go away.  But, we can keep it from getting worse by encouraging friends and neighbors to do their part.

This is Addison. Signing off.

One Month Anniversary

I have been blogging for one month now.  In that month, I have learned new things.  When I started this blog I wanted to inform my readers about the earth, but it looks like you have informed me about great ideas and new things.

I am grateful for all the things you have taught me with your comments.

Here are some of the things I have learned:

1.  Plastics can be dangerous for sea animals.

2.  There is a great garbage patch in the middle of the Pacific Ocean (I'll write more about this later.)

3. Thanks to Aunt Amanda I learned that some dish soaps have petroleum in them.

4. I learned that incandescent light bulbs are harmful.

5. A lot of things we buy have a package - most things in fact!

Thank you for informing me about things you found.  I want to keep writing and learning things about the earth.

This is Addison, signing off.

Packaging Scavenger Hunt

Here is a fun challenge. How much aluminum, cardboard, cellophane, foil, paper, plastic, and styrofoam is used to package the foods you eat?

Look through your cupboards and refrigerator. See how many foods you can find with no wrapping, with one wrapping, with two wrappings, and with three or more wrappings. List the foods you find on a chart. Share with me what you find.

FOODS WITH NO WRAPPING: (example: apples, bananas)

FOODS WITH ONE WRAPPING: (example: bread)

FOODS WITH TWO WRAPPINGS: (example: cereal)

FOODS WITH THREE OR MORE WRAPPINGS: (example: microwave dinners)

Plastic Bags in California

Good news! One of our California State Legistators, Loyd E Levine, is trying to make it so you have to pay to use plastic bags. If that is passed, you will have to pay 15cents to use a plastic bag. This is to encourage people to use paper or bring their own bags. This could really help save tooons of oil! Here is a link to his website so you can write to him and tell him you support the idea.

This is Addison, signing off.

Vegetable-based soap vs. Regular soap

This a very important message. Some regular soaps have PETROLEUM. That's really bad. Vegetable-based soaps do not, so they are better for the earth.

Regular soap uses a precious resource, oil. Oil is a non-renewable resource and it is becoming scare. We use oil on a daily basis. Cars,electricity, airplanes,trains,plastics and many more items use oil. The more oil we save the better we preserve our earth.

Petroleum is also toxic. Imagine using petroleum on your dishes where your food goes! Wouldn't you be a lot better off using vegetable based soap?

My mom, after learning about this, said she would switch to using vegetable based soaps and cleaning products. She was also invited to a "healthy home experience" party. She is going to learn about products that are better for the earth. I'll post again about this after the party.

Here is what one soap making company said:
"If every household in the U.S. replaced just one bottle of 25 oz petroleum based dishwashing liquid with our 25 oz vegetable based product, we could save 81,000 barrels of oil, enough to heat and cool 4,600 U.S. homes for a year!"

Do you want to switch? Tell me if have and how you like it.

This is Addison,signing off until next time. See ya!

Test The Air

Last week my experiment was to test rain water. This week I want to find out what is in the air. You can try this too. Next week we can talk about what we found.

What You Need

A clean wide-mouthed medium-sized jar
Some petroleum jelly

WHAT YOU DO

1. Spread a thin layer of petroleum jelly

2. Take the jar outside and place it in the open air. Make certain that it is away from the sidewalk or playground and at least 3 feet off the ground so dirt will not be kicked into it.

3. Leave the jar outside for 5 days

4. Observe the results and answer these questions:

a. Would you say that the petroleum jelly is slightly dirty, medium dirty, or very dirty?
b. Is most of the dirt you see textile fibers, stone dust, wood-dust, or tire dust?

Acid Rain Experiment

This weekend it rained 3 1/2 inches here in Pasadena. We did an experiment to see if the rain water was acidic or polluted. We had two rain water samples and one river water sample. I tested the pH level of each water sample.

The first night of rain the pH was 6.0.
The second night of rain, the pH was 6.5.
The river water was 7.0 - which is called neutral.
I also tested tapwater which was slightly basic at pH 7.5.

None of the pH levels were harmful.

I think the first night washed some of the pollution out of the air. That's why the second night of rain had a slightly higher pH.

Say Goodbye to Incandescent Light Bulb

President Bush has made a ban on the incandescent light bulb. What does this mean? All incandescent light bulbs have to be gone from the country by 2014. Don’t wait for your incandescents to burn out, change them today to CFLs. CFLs, or compact fluorescent light bulbs, will replace the incandescent bulb. CFLs are better for our environment.

What is wrong with the incandescent? Incandescent bulbs are a big waste of energy and are really bad for the climate. I bet you are wondering, why worry? Worry because global warming hurts everyone, including animals. Incandescent light bulbs only last three to four months and 90% of the energy they use is wasted as heat. CFLs are better because their lifetime is five to ten times longer. CFLs also use 75% less energy than the old bulbs.

But CFLs also have bad points. Turning CFLs on and off frequently shortens their life. They also cost more. And they have small amounts of a toxic substance called mercury. You cannot throw CFLs away – you must recycle them or take them to places like IKEA who will recycle them for you. Call your trash disposal company to get disposal instructions.

Even though they have problems, CFLs are still worth it! They have more good points than bad points. So kids, next time you are at the store, ask your parents to pick up some CFLs and get replacing your old bulbs today!

Welcome!

This is my blog about what I'm learning about our planet and environment and how I can try to help make a difference.