summary

Today Janina Pietrasiak and Maria Lopuszanska live like sisters. They meet daily and help each other. Both lives alone and are not affluent. Maria’s parents were anti-Nazi underground activists, they sheltered Janina and her mother. Janina’s mother died of tuberculosis. The young Janina clung desperately to her new family, she was baptized to become part of the family to avoid being detected and killed by Nazis. Janina gave up the chance living with an uncle in the United States. During the Warsaw Uprising, the girls had to fend for themselves. Maria's father was sick and her mother were demonstrating against the Nazis. Maria was like a mother to the younger Janina. Janina lost both parents, her only sibling survived the war but later committed suicide. Janina is separated. Maria is a widow. She contacted the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem to recognise Maria's family for saving her during WWI.
[140 words]

Caught in a storm

I dislike being caught in storm. It make me all wet. If i could choose, i would not step out my house. Lightning are scary, whenever i saw a lightning, i would cover my ear. But i like raining day sometimes, it would be great if i could sleep during raining days.

Hit-And-Run Accident

29 July 2009

On 28 July 2009, during the peak period, at around 5.30.p.m, CTE has a hit- and - run accident occured. 18 years old victim, Mr Mark Lim and 21 years old victim, Ms Alice Teo were both hit. Ms Alice Teo was thrown out to the window while Mr Mark Lim was stuck under the car.They are quickly brought them to Tan Tock Seng Hospital and are still in a coma.

26-year-old, Ms Jane Tan, eye-witness and a student said, "It happened so fast!" She was also sure that she saw two cars.

Mdm Moliah Bte Ismail, 36-year-old, housewife who was one of the passengers in one of the car said,"All I heard was a big bang!" She was unsure what caused the accident.

40-year-old, Inspector Abdul Rahman said, "There was streams of blood on the road." He was shocked by what was left of the motorcycle.

When interview, Inspector Abdul Rahman, advised drivers to drive carefully, and also not to talk on the handphone when driving. Bystanders are urged to come forward with information on the license plate number of the vehicles involved in the hit-and-run accident.

Mr Mark Lim's father was the closest to him. As the only child in the family, they were very shocked of what happened. Mr Lim said,"All I hope is that, he can quickly regain conscience." Mrs Lim said Mr Mark was a cheerful and helpful person. "He like going outdoors to play around, and cheeky too." she said.

Whereas for Ms Alice Teo's mother was the closest to her said, in chinese, that Alice was a understanding girl who helps people that are needed. She was also shocked of what happened. "I really hope that she can regain conscience soon, I will give her the best stuffs she needed." said Mrs Teo.

Reported By: Vanessa Tan and Grace Thian

300 Words

Chong Boon Secondary School
2 Ang Mo Kio
Street 44
Singapore 569250

1st August 2009

Mr Lee Hock Thiam
The director
Urban Re-development Authority
Jurong West
Singapore 359625

Dear Mr Lee

PROPOSAL OF DEVELOPING PULAU UBIN

I, as the president of green plan 2012 club, would like to propose a development of Pulau Ubin. The plan is to help serve the residents better and bring more tourists to the island.

Firstly,74,Headman of the island, Mr Mohhamad Ismail Bin Adam, think that it is inconvenientfor his grandchildren to take bumboat to the mainland and had suggested to have a new clinic and a school for the locals there.
45, former owner of a kiosk for bicycle rental, Madam Chan Ah Mui, thinks that a good bus service, roads and infrastructure will make the place around there more accessible. She also suggested to have cycling tracks and nuture trails. It would make it more convenient for the locals there.
20, polytechnic student, Mr Chandran Mohan, consider of transforming Pulau Ubin into a 21st century new town bu building shopping facilities. We could all enjoy and relaxe the nature at our doorstep and the best of both worlds.
32, housewife and part time hawker assistant, Mrs Tan Li Lin, hopes to have reliable water supply as lots of campers and day trippers at Ubin. She hopes to start a coffee stall to serve others.
lastly, 16, O level student, Mekvin Koh, thinks that develpment will destroy the natural beauty if the island and hope to preserve Chek Jawa, the pride of Ubin as a nature reserce.
Consider the views of residents for the development.Hope to see your reply soon. Thank you

Your faithfully
Grace Thian
president
Green Plan 2012 club

19 july 2009

Massive tsunami in the Indian Ocean

The massive tsunami in the Indian Ocean has been described as one of the worst natural disasters. 187,000, with nearly 43,000 missing and many hundreds of thousands injured and suffering trauma and the grief of losing family members, their homes and their livelihoods.
Roads, bridges, water, electricity supplies, health centres and schools were totally destroyed.The landscape was unrecognisably.Some areas lifted high out of the water while others were washed entirely away. Debris and waste were scattered widely and salt inundated farmland and underground water supplies.
The reconstruction will take many years, but there are hopeful signs with the long-term commitment made by the Australian Government and other donors to Indonesia. Steps are now being taken to establish a tsunami warning system, overcoming the previous reluctance because of the expense and low frequency of tsunamis in the Indian Ocean.

Reported by:
Grace Thian

Terrorism

After reading the article on Mas selamat, i ask myself, why do people want to hijack planes? Bomb places? I think they are sick. They should be sent to mental hospital not jail. I wonder if their actioin is to only see human dying?
I could say that i am afraid of terrorism. I dont want to lost my life because of them, it is not worth it. Although Mas Selamat was arrested six weeks ago but who knows that he might escape from jail again. He is being found in johor. Why Singapore would let a terrorist to escape into other country? I think that Singapore would have more secure on this matter. Singapore is over all a safe country.

Chek Jawa.

14 july 2009

ChongBoon Secondary school
2 Ang Mo Kio street 44
Singapore 569250

Dear school,

Tour to Chek Jawa

We organise a guilded tour to Chek Jawa. Chek Jawa is a popular nature enclave in Pulau Ubin. Chek Jawa are fill with flora and fauna. This trip will teach you more about the nature.
Carpet anemones, sea star and sea sponges are some of the marine animals and plants that can be found there. There will be guild to tell you more about Chek Jawa and will bring you around Chek Jawa to see the beautiful surrounding.
There will be visitors centre, viewing tower and boardwalk to you to visit. For more information, please check out the Chek Jawa website or look out for me. If you are interested in this tour, please gather at the foyer 2pm on 21July. This will be an exciting and interesting tour. Hope you enjoy.

your faithfully
Grace
President
Green Club

Summary

According to legend, an Ethiopian goat herder discovered coffee. Coffee was a simple food and beverage for African tribesmen. Coffee becomes world wide popular drinks, sold in large quantities worldwide. All coffee exporting countries depend on coffee as the main income and depend on it for their living. In 1975, a frost killed almost half of Brazil’s coffee trees which changed the prices drastically. In 1979, frost hit Brazil again. Every tree lost result in no income for three to five years. The income loss is huge considering 15 million trees were lost and had to stop the export of coffee. Importers bought in bulk afraid of the shortage, prices increased and farmers planted more. Coffee was in abundant and the prices fell. Farmers began substituting coffee for other crops. Both producers and consumers decided to limit production to what the market can absorb and sell at an agreeable price.
[150 words]

GROWTH CAMP

This year Growth Camp was fun.
It was from 16-18April.

I packed my things into my bag. Went to school the next morning and assemble at the hall. We were asked to put out hand phone and wallet into the plastic bag. We break-up into different groups. We have ice-breaker in class. We get to know each other and we played some games.
After that we headed to gallery to put our stuff. We had some games at the parade square and some workshop. After we had our dinner, we headed back to class. We were suppose to stay in class and waited for our turn for night walk. We walked down to the basketball court and wait.
We was group up to go for night walk. It was not as scary as i think. We had to assemble back to the hall and then sleep!

I wake up at 4.30 the next day. When to wash up and chat with friends in the canteen. After that we had our breakfast. Assemble in the parade square to prepare for going Sentosa. My team was the last to leave and some people had to stand on the bus. Reached Sentosa, then we started our amazing race. The weather was very hot and we have to walk around Sentosa. We have to go to every station and finish the task. After the amazing race, went back school. Bathed and we practice for our drama. After we had our dinner, we cleaned the canteen. We had Campfire after that, group by group had to perform there cheers, songs or drama. After Campfire end, we went to sleep.

Wake up and wash up. We had area cleaning. We had cheers competition. Then we had our prize giving. We watch video made by the EPIC. We waited for the Sec1 and sec3 to come back. They had videos too. Sec4 people went up the stage to do ChongBoon cheers. After that, we were dismiss.

Reflective summary

Through the research I have done. Human beings are the ones killing dolphins and whales. Due to hunting, pollution, climate changes and global warming. Dolphins and Whales are dying. They are going to be extinct. The cruel human being eating their meats and use their body parts to make oil. Those people are just thinking for themselves. How about the family of Dolphins and Whales. They are also living things, they have family too! Some people might think in a negative way, like how they have killed human. But human kill them as well. Why don’t you think in a positive way? They performed for human to enjoy yet we are killing them. If this is going to continue, they will extinct. We can no longer enjoy performance by them. The ocean will not be as beautiful as before. This would create a huge imbalance in the food chain. Many countries are still continuing to hunt for Whales and Dolphins. That's why we are making conservation of Dolphins and whales. We have to stop and plan to help conserve them. Protect the marine just like we protect our family. Treat them as one. We are both living things. If hunters are still going on to kill them, they should thing twice being killing. Spread this messages, let more people understands them. Let’s saves dolphins & whales!!!

[226 words]

Reflective journal5

Endangered dolphins are a huge concern in our actual society. This would create a huge imbalance in the food chain. No dolphins to eat some creatures then there would be too many. Too many of them mean less food for each one and since their food might be marine plants, they will not grow fast enough to feed everyone. One of the three reason is both tuna and dolphins follow the same routes; dolphins get caught in the fishermen's nets which are meant to catch tuna. Dolphins are being killed just because they are not purposely to caught them.
Another reason is fishing for use in human's cuisine. Nowadays, dolphins are protected by laws but nonetheless between 200,000 and 500,000 dolphins were victimized by fishermen during the 1960s. Some laws protect dolphins, it allows a certain amount of dolphins to be accidentally caught which still has a negative impact on the dolphins' species. The most major reason is Pollution. Since humans are polluting rivers, seas and oceans, it affects dolphins. Since the dolphin is at the top of the food chain, the chemicals that pollute its habitat create the highest level of concentration of these pollutants in its body. As a result, diseases, difficulty to reproduce or even death take their toll on these species. We need to help in less pollution to the ocean. Dolphins are so cute but we are killing them. They also feel the pain when dying. Stop hunting or killing them.
[246 words]

taken from http://dolphins-and-more.com/endangered-dolphins.html

Reflective journal4

I research on dolphin for the reflective journey4. There are many types of Dolphins. The Delphinidae are both the largest family of dolphins and the largest family within the order Cetacean. They are commonly referred to as the ocean dolphins even though some still retain the name whale. The beak length and width is highly variable between the different species and types of dolphins; some members have little or no differentiated beak while others demonstrate a prominent and distinct beak. Six types of porpoises currently reside in the world's oceans all belonging to the family Phocoenidae. They include, Burmeister's Porpoise, Dall's Porpoise, the Finless Porpoise, the Harbour Porpoise, the Spectacled Porpoise and the rare Vaquita. These largely cryptic animals have drawn little attention to themselves until the later part of the 20th century when it became apparent that a large number of these animals were becoming entangled in static fishing gear. The porpoises differ from dolphins by having chiseled shaped teeth, no beak and a more triangular shaped dorsal fin.Of all the marine mammals the dolphins are among those most adapted to an aquatic way of life.
[188words]

TAKEN from http://www.whalewatchwestcork.com/types-of-dolphins.html, http://www.whalewatchwestcork.com/dolphin-research.html

childhood memories

Talking about childhood memories, i miss the time when i was young. It always been so fun. Now there are schools, no more fun but studies. During my childhood, i am always much more closer to my grandmother. She take care of me very day, without her i would always cry. Even with my parent around. She always go to Malaysia and i would follow her every time.
She would always buy thing that i want.
My grandmother use to bring me to swimming every weekend. And i love swimming when i was small. All i can say is that i Love her a lot.

Reflective journal3

I found this research of dolphin. Dolphins face a greater number of threats to their species survival today that at any other time during their evolution and at a time when there are more acts designed to protect them than ever before. We select below a few of those issues that require serious attention and make dolphin conservation a pressing need the world over. Dolphins and Yellowfin Tuna are always found swimming together. The reasons for this are not fully understood but we believe the tuna are taking advantage of the dolphin’s ability to find prey as they frequently feed on the same species. Fishermen have long noticed this association and have sought to exploit this association by fishing close to groups of dolphins. This practice was commonplace in the Pacific from the 1950's onwards and resulted in the deaths of thousands of dolphins caught up in purse seine nets employed to catch the tuna. Many countries continue to allow hunting of dolphins for aboriginal, cultural or subsistence purposes. Dolphins and small whales are killed and used for food, oil or other traditional uses and their products cannot legally be traded.
[191 words]

taken from http://whalewatchwestcork.com/dolphin-conservation.html

Reflective journal2

Whales and dolphins are facing ever-increasing dangers despite the 20-year ban on commercial whaling. Whales are currently under threat from a wide range of human activities, despite there being a moratorium in place against commercial whaling for nearly 20 years. Nearly 1,000 whales and dolphins are killed every day as bycatch in fishing nets. Bycatch is when unwanted fish and other species are caught up in fishing gear. It has been revealed as one of the greatest global threats facing dolphins and whales. When dolphins and other species, which breathe air, get caught up in the nets, they often get trapped underwater and drown. WWF is working with members of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to encourage whale conservation around the world. Many countries like Norway continues to hunt whales under its objection to the IWC moratorium against commercial whaling, Japan has been whaling under the guise of 'scientific research', killing hundreds of whales each year and selling whale meat openly on the market. I wonder what they are hunting whale for. Whales are also living things like human. If they treat hunting like sport, they are totally cruel.
[189 words]
taken from http://wwf.org.au/ourwork/oceans/whales/

Reflective Journal1

The first website i research on is whale. There are still cruel hunter around hunting for whale. Thousands of years aboriginal hunting has sought the meat and oil of cetaceans. It is the last 300 years that have seen a steady escalation in the volume of animals taken culminating in the well documented greed of the 20th century when over two million whales were slaughtered in the southern hemisphere alone.

In spite of the Japanese continuing to hunt smaller rorquals under the guise of scientific whaling. However, with continued pressure and ongoing environmental degradation it is likely that some cetacean species will be extinct before the end of the decade and others before the end of the century. For some cetacean populations we are too late. Whales are facing many threats like chemical and oil pollution, resumption of commercial whaling and excessive and insensitive whale watching without controls.

we should stop all the hunters for killing whales. There are too many pollution around the sea, which causes many whale or even other fishes to die. Whales are also living things. we should conserve them.
[184 words]
Taken from http://www.whalewatchwestcork.com/conservation.html

A place where i want to go

i always want to go Taiwan. The place is so beautiful and nice.
The view there is much more nicer then Singapore. The food there are all so nice that i could not wait going there. It is my dream to go Taiwan long time, due too projects and school. We have no time to go there. My parent would always have their job to do and we have no time for holiday.
Hoping can visit there this few years

The beauty of Chek Jawa is unchangeable. There is several different ecosystems that can be seen in one small area. The plants and animals that are unseen in Singapore can be found there, some are also unseen all over the world. The ecosystem consists of mud and sandflats, mangrove, coastal forest, lagoon, coral rubble and a small island called Frog Island or Pulau Sekudu.

The hill overlooking Chek Jawa is covered with trees and plants that shelter and feed a variety of animals. Among the beautiful and unusual trees you may see is the Delek air tree.
Mangrove trees have unusual shapes and properties as they are adapted to being covered in seawater at high tide and to grow in soft mud. Mudskippers are the highlight of a visit to the mangroves.

Chek Jawa is among the few places left with a natural rocky shore, gravel beach and other interesting rock formations. At low tide, we can have a closer look at some of the strange animals that live here, including barnacles, crabs and fierce shell-drilling snails. the sand is the backbone of Chek Jawa and provides a home for all manner of intriguing creatures. The sand dollar is another intriguing creature to examine. The sand bar is also a popular rest stop for shorebirds that fly in from as far away as Siberia. Overhead, majestic birds of prey hunt for fishes in the sea.

Well, of course, this is not all of Chek Jawa. There are more interesting things about CheK Jawa that you and me might not know. Chek Jawa is a marvelous place to go for holidays, which can go there see the beautiful scenery or sunset and visit all those creatures that we had not met before in Singapore!
( taken from http://www.wildsingapore.com/chekjawa/text/a001.htm )

Done by Grace Thian (3) and Thia Xiang Ting (19)

Confession of Bufonophobia (Fear of toads)
It was a sad thing that i will became a person who has Bufonophobia. When i was in primary school, the school has a trip to a toad farm. I thought it will be fun, catching toads. I went to school happily. Teacher took our attendance when we were in the bus waiting to leave school. When we reached the toad farm, we lined up in two and waited for the rest of the classes to reach. My friends and i were very excited about the trip. We can’t wait to see the toads. When everyone reached, classes by classes when into the farm. We were asked to catch toads and complete with other classes. The classes with more toads win.
My class teacher told us to catch one toad at least. The toads were placed in a big container, and some toads will jump out of the container. Many of the girls are scared of toads, of cause me too! When it was my turn to catch toad, i was so nervous that i did not dare to stand near the container. But all my friends encourage me to try. I dare myself to catch the toad. At first, i place my hand on one of the toad, but the toad jump out of my hand. I try to catch the toad again and place it to my class container.
Our class did won for the game. But the first touch of the toad was disgusting. And i told myself that i would never ever go to a toad farm again. Now that i see a toad, i will run as far as i can. [ 276 words ]

Growth Day

Friday was growth day.
we had to do target setting.
this year theme is ' Beyond Bridging Gap '

and we had this 16 Habits Of Mind(HOM).
and we need to do one advertisement.
i think that others don't really understand our video.
but nevermind.

And we did target setting.
looking from the last year result,
i really didn't do well.
so this year must inprove!

EL blog 2009