Kate's Birthday Party, by Kate (October 25, 2015)

My party happened a few weeks ago on a day off from school, on September 16.  It was a day off because it was Merdeka Day which is a Malaysian national holiday.

First, all my guests arrived and we did a scavenger hunt. Aimee planned it and hid all the different clues.  For the first activity we were “locked” in a room and had to get out.  We had to find different letters hidden all around the room and arrange them in a word.  Then we told the jailer, Aimee, the word and she would let us out depending on whether the word was correct.  Next, we had the main part of the scavenger hunt which was to look around the house for clues.  It was fun because we had to stick our hands in different things such as new shavings and newspaper pieces that were soaked in water.  The clues were put in plastic bags and hidden in the stuff.  The clues were different puzzles or riddles to find out where the next clue was.  Hidden in some of the clues were numbers.  We had to figure out the combination and open a treasure chest to get candy.

After the scavenger hunt we had a quick Pictionary game.  We drew on a white board that mom had got from her classroom.  We played in two teams. 

After, we had a dinner of macaroni and cheese.  My mom baked it in a casserole pan and we all had a helping.  For dessert we had red velvet cake with icing.  I got to blow out the candles.  After that we played Pit (a trading game) and we played Apples to Apples.   

This was the first room we were in. [Mom: spare bedroom upstairs]

Elizabeth is sticking her hand into one of the containers that had the clue hidden inside. [Mom: kitchen]

We are getting ready for Pictionary on the whiteboard.  It is on the left.

We are playing Pit with spoons.

Jasper Our Guinea Pig, by Elizabeth (October 18, 2015)

We have a guinea pig, Jasper. He is really cute. It is fun to research about guinea pigs. We also think our guinea pig is really cute. It is fun to interpret what his sounds are and what they mean, for example, when he chirps it means he likes something, or when he squeals it means he wants food or doesn't like what you're doing. He also does weird things like biting on the bars and eating part of my mom's apple every day. Here are some pictures of him:

Cinta Sayang Resort, by Aimee Buhr (August 7, 2105)

As you may know, the middle school goes on a retreat to Cinta Sayang Resort every year.  The seventh and eighth grades stay overnight at the resort and the sixth and fifth grades come the next day.  Since I am in eighth grade this year, this was my second and last time I stayed at the resort.

The resort is a very big area so there are many types of places you can stay.  You can stay in a bungalow, a house with separate rooms, or you can stay in the high rise apartments.  Both genders are kept separate. This year we got to stay in the nicest accommodations, the high rise apartments.  It was like a suite and had three bedrooms with a common area.  It was very nice.  The only problem was that there were six people in one of the suites and we only had one key card to share.  Also, if you wanted to go on the elevator you had to have your key card.  So I ended up using the stairs a lot.  Staying overnight was a lot of fun though.

The next day I woke up bright and early and the seventh and eighth grades walked to the water park.  We met up with the other half of the middle school.  We had a little bit of a chapel in a big room.  We also signed up for x-blocks (after school clubs).  Then we split up into groups and played a few games such as gorilla walk (a relay where you had to stick balls under your arms and legs and walk to your next teammate).  The games were pretty fun.  After we finished up on the games we had a nice buffet lunch.  We then had free time in the water park.  I went on almost all the slides.  My favorite slide was definitely the Boomerang.  It is where you go down a steep slide with an inner tube and then go up very high.  We had three hours in the water park and then we had to board the bus.  On the bus everyone was super tired and most people were sleeping.  Even though going to the resort was super tiring, it was a great way to start eighth grade.

Middle School, Part 1, by Elizabeth (August 1, 2015)

A few weeks ago we had something called a sneak peek.  It is an event that happens once a year in the elementary school.  For sneak peek we get to see what the next grade is like.  My mom has some grade 1 students come to her classroom for part of the day to see what grade 2 is like.  My class went to see what 5th grade will be like.  We had a power point.  The power point introduced middle school.  Some of the things included in the power point were middle school activities, retreats, lunchtime, and 5 minutes between classes.  Middle school activities happen at the end of the school day every Friday.  Some of the things we do in middle school activities are dodgeball, tag, and gross food eating challenges.  Every school year the Middle School goes on retreats twice.  This year they went to a water park and to a beach called Turtle Beach. I have been to Turtle Beach but I haven't been to the water park.  The thing that is different than elementary school is that we get to go to the library and we get ping pong tables.  I am looking forward to grade 5.

My memories of grade 4:  I have a lot of memories of grade 4.  Halfway through the year we had a party and a lot of hot chocolate.  Another time we had a Valentines party and we had a lot of chocolate bars.

Common Cooking Ingredients (July 25, 2015)

Fine Arts Festival and Year End Activities, by Hannah (June 10, 2015)

This year has been a blast.  Everything I tried this year I genuinely enjoyed.  There was lots of work to be done this year which paid off.  This work that I did in some of my harder classes paid off especially during the year end activities.

The first thing that I really enjoyed was the Fine Arts Festival.  This is a festival event that goes for a week featuring most of the arts students.  The AP Visual Arts students put up a huge display in the theatre of their portfolio.  The younger and less experienced arts students display outside the theatre what they have worked on. On the first night of the festival, all elementary students are featured on stage.  They present what they have learned in music class alongside their esteemed teacher, Ms. Goh.  It is a blast and is certainly enjoyable for all parents, who proudly watch their growing students. The students really enjoy it also, bragging about the confetti at the end.  I was able to watch both Lizzie's show and the other show, definitely enjoying both. My mom was responsble for being a stage manager in both shows, making the first night of the Fine Arts Festival very busy.

 
On the second night, the middle school is featured.  This was the only show I was part of.  As an AP Music Theory student, I had the responsibility of composing a song for the middle school advanced band and conducting it in front of the audiance that night in the Fine Arts Festival.  It was very exhilarating to have my composition, that I had worked very hard on, finally performed on a large stage, for the Dalat community to see.  I was very proud of the composition, and received much positive praise.  The composition itself I had spent many nights doing, during the third quarter, then missed quite a few classes to practice with the advanced band.  I never thought I would be able to conduct but I was able to pull it off, making my composition sound very good.

 
On the last night, the high school was featured in the Fine Arts Festival.  First, we listened to the band as they played the theme from the movie Les Miserables.  It was very well played, with good technique and dynamics.  Next, we listened to the choir, who spontaneously broke into song while getting up onto the stage.  They calmed down and presented for us what they had on the program.  Then finally we listened to the bright jazz brought to us by the jazz band. Lastly, the choir rushed back on stage for a special rendition of a song from High School Musical.

Overall, I really enjoyed the Fine Arts Festival, and the culmination it provided as an end to my year as an AP Music Theory student.

End of School, by Aimee (June 5, 2015)

Many things happen to come towards the ending of school.  For example, we have commencement and baccalaureate.  We also have class parties and award ceremonies.

The first thing that happens to us every year that kind of symbolizes school is ending very soon is that teachers hand out check out forms.  This is a form that you have to hand in with all the stuff that the teachers need back (i.e. textbooks) and then you will get a signature from each teacher when you hand in their stuff.  This always causes stress for me.  On the last day of school you hand it in to one of the middle school staff.

 

Another thing that happens on the last day of school is, of course, we have parties.  This year's party was really fun.  The food was delicious but my favorite food was the brownies that one of the girls in my class made.  After we had a little bit of eating time we played dodgeball (my favorite game).  We first played team dodgeball, but then we played individual dodgeball (my favorite type of dodgeball).  After we played dodgeball we went into one of the classrooms and watched a little bit of Captain America.  We only got to watch a little bit because the award ceremonies was starting.

The award ceremonies always happen on the last day of school.  This year I didn't get any prizes but some of my friends did.  It was still exciting though.  After that we had a little time to say goodbye to the people leaving.  I did not know any of the people leaving though.  After this we go and clean out our lockers and say our last goodbyes.  Then school is over.

Two formal events that happen at the end of the year are baccalaureate and commencement.  I really like both of the events.  Baccalaureate usually happens before commencement and it is more of a church service.  We usually sing hymns and then one of the class sponsors gives a sermon.  We have to dress up really nice.

Commencement is the formal event.  Commencement is basically graduation but much more formal.  Every year the graduates have a funny thing they do when Mr. Steinkamp hands them their diploma.  This year they did selfies.  Some of the graduate's poses for the selfies were really funny.  Another fun thing they did was when all the graduates walked out, they suddenly stopped  and then all of them did a kind of flash mob in the aisle.  They did the dance to Cut Loose [Mom: Footloose].  All in all it was an entertaining graduation.

The school year ended very fast but I am so glad we had some special events in the end to remember.

This is the song they danced to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhHynAxHURA