D.A.R.E Essay

This year in sixth grade we had a thing called D.A.R.E. Dare stands for Drug Abuse Resistance Education. It teaches us about tobacco, alcohol, and many other drugs and why we should not use them. When you use any of these things, you don’t only hurt yourself, but the people around you get hurt too. This essay talks about what I have learned in D.A.R.E this year.

I think that the D.A.R.E program helps show kids that just because other people are smoking and drinking, doesn’t mean you have to too. It tells kids about all the bad things that happen to you when you use drugs. Deputy Thomas brought in his doll, Smoking Susie. There was a little tube that showed how much tar gets in your lungs after smoking just one cigarette. I think that showed some kids a huge reason not to smoke. There was also a little thing called Mr. Dip-lip. It was a model of the mouth of a smoker. All the teeth were yellow and there were sores all over the roof of the mouth. The gums were even peeling away from the teeth!

I have learned many ways to say no to drugs in D.A.R.E. I think that the most effective one is avoiding the situation. If you see someone smoking or drinking, then just walk away before they can even talk to you. I have also learned the strength in numbers. You should hang around with people who don’t drink or do drugs. There is also just saying no. If someone asks if you want a beer, just say no. If they ask if you want a cigarette, just say no.

When you drink, you hurt yourself and the other people around you. You can get drunk and accidentally hurt someone. To much alcohol can lead to a coma or even death. It also can increase the risk for many diseases. It’s the same with smoking. The people around you could second-hand smoke and that could hurt them. Over 400,000 people die each year from tobacco-related causes. Around 3000 die of lung cancer from breathing in other people’s smoke.

When I was five years old, my grandpa died because he smoked all the time. That was one of the saddest moments of my life, and I knew then that I was never going to smoke. D.A.R.E has given me many more reasons to not smoke or drink. I found out that there are more than 200 known poisons in tobacco. More than 200. Smoking can also wrinkle your skin and cause yellow teeth and bad breath.

We also used DUI goggles in D.A.R.E. That showed us what everything would look like if you were drunk. Everything moved around and some things even disappeared! It was really hard to walk, and then we had to catch a little ball which was almost impossible for me! If someone was driving like that, lots of people could easily get injured. They could injure themselves because it is very hard to walk straight or they could injure others when they drive and crash. 15% of eighth graders in a National Survey reported that they are drinking. When you are young like that, alcohol can slow down your growth and it can damage every organ in your body. It also affects the way you behave in school and sports. If they were drinking and played soccer, it would be very hard because drinking slows down your reflexes.

We also learned about marijuana. Even though it is illegal in the United States, many people still grow it. It contains 50% to 70% more of some cancer causing chemicals than tobacco smoke and it causes short-term memory loss and the inability to concentrate. It is also very addictive. It can cause breathing problems and more colds & upper respiratory problems.

There are many bad things about drugs and alcohol and I don’t want anything to happen to me or the people around me, like my friends and family. So I pledge that I will never, ever use drugs, and if anyone keeps pressuring me to, then I will stay away from them.

Image from http://sethv22.wordpress.com/2011/05/18/d-a-r-e-essay/

What Has Made Me Successful This Year

What has made me successful in sixth grade is always having a positive attitude. You can always focus on what you are doing when you have a positive attitude. When you are mad or sad, the only thing you’re focused in all day is what made you upset. When I am happy, I can focus on what I’m doing because I don’t get distracted by things that are upsetting me.

Another thing that has helped me this year is my blog. It has helped me because I don’t like writing, but my blog makes writing fun! Also, there is no pencil to hurt my fingers if I write a lot. Now, I write more because it is really easy to type and if I spell a word wrong, I have spell check to give me the write way to spell it.

Another thing that has helped me this year is working on little practice packets. They help me learn a lot of new strategies when I’m taking a test or something. One for multiple choice questions is to use process of elimination and cross out the ones you know are not it. That helps in math and reading. One I use for multiple choice is number the parts of the question so you know what you have to answer. That also helps in both math and reading.

 

Image from http://www.masterfile.com/stock-photography/image/400-05714220/the-word:-success-made-with-a-puzzle-%283d-render%29

Advise for the Reading Test

My advice to my peers is to re-read every question to make sure that you understand it and get every detail. If you read a question and don’t understand it, re-read it a couple of times. If you have read it and read it and you still don’t get it, do what Mrs. Blubaugh says and use your virtual headphones. When you do that, you are hearing and reading the words so you have a better chance of getting it right.

One thing that helps me on the test (this may not help everybody) is taking a little break after each passage. I stop for a little bit so I have a fresh mind when I go on to the next passage and I don’t have a bunch of stuff from the other passage confusing me.

If you have absolutely no idea what the answer is, skip it and come back to it later. Make sure you go back and answer it, though, because you don’t want to skip a question. You have a 25% chance of getting it right when you just guess, but a 0% chance if you don’t answer it at all, but I would only guess if you have tried everything, and still have no clue what the answer is.

Another good thing to do is if you don’t know what a word means on one of the answer choices, use process of elimination and eliminate the ones you know are not it. If you can eliminate at two answers, you already have a 50% chance of getting the answer right. If you know that three of the words are not right, that’s even better!

The Main Character’s Problems

This was another assignment for my class, The Reading Workshop. We’re writing about the problems that the main character faces, and how it makes the book better.

The book that I am reading is called The Darkest Hour. It is another book in the Warriors series. In fact, it’s the last one. It is really good and I can’t wait to finish. I kind of don’t want to finish it, though, because I want the series to go on.

One of the problems that my main character, Firestar, faces is Bluestar dies. She was the old clan leader. Since Firestar was deputy, he has to be the new leader now,so he has to visit Moonstone to get his nine lives. When he gets there, he falls asleep to share dreams with Starclan. That is when they give him his nine lives. His ceremony gets interrupted when a big pile of bones forms behind him. The bones start pouring out blood until it makes a river. Starclan tell him “Four will become two. Lion and tiger will meet in battle, and blood will rule the forest. That makes the book because it makes you wonder what it means.

Another problem that Firestar faces is his old enemy, Tigerstar, is trying to kill him. Tigerstar made a trail of dead rabbits for dogs to follow and the trail leads straight to Thunderclan camp. At the end of the trail is Brindleface, one of the warriors. Tigerstar killed her and left her there so that the dogs could get a taste of cat blood. Firestar and Tigerstar will eventually have to fight to see which one of them gets to stay in the forest. That makes the book exciting because you never know what Tigerstar is going to do or when he is going to do it.

Another problem that Firestar faces is one of his warriors, Darkstripe, is acting very suspicious. In one part of the book, Firestar catches Darkstripe taking Tigerstar’s two kits out of the camp. He did that right before the pack of dogs attacked the camp. Darkstripe was also caught feeding a kit Death berries.

Yellowstone National Park

My family likes to travel a lot, and we usually go out west. One of my favorite places we have ever went was Yellowstone National Park. It is in Montana and Wyoming. When you go there, you get to drive on a road through the park. It is really cool because the animals aren’t in cages. They can go wherever they want. Sometimes, they will even walk across the road right in front of you!

Another thing that is really cool is all the geysers. The most famous one is Old Faithful. It is really cools when it erupts. It can shoot water up to 180 feet in the air! There are some little geysers and some that are huge. Some have lots of colors in them and are really pretty!

I love going to Yellowstone because I like seeing all of the animals. My favorite are the wolves. I also like to see the grizzly bear cubs. It is fun to watch them play fighting.They are cute when they are little, but huge and scary when they grow up. I also like to see the moose. It is really cool to see all their giant antlers.

Yellowstone is my favorite place to go. I haven’t been there for 3 years, but I’m going this year and I can’t wait! So, if your family can’t decide where to go on a vacation, I would recommend Yellowstone National Park. There are really cool geysers, and lots of animals!

My Strategies

This was one of my assignments in my Reading Workshop class. We were supposed to write a comment about our test taking strategies.

One strategy that I used when I took the test was I looked at the questions first, so I knew what stuff I would be trying to find. Another strategy that I used was I went back in the selection and underlined where I had found my answers. That helped me a lot on the extended response, because instead of flipping back and taking a long time trying to find where I found my answer, I could just find the number that I was on. That helped me find the information I needed much faster.

On the multiple choice questions, I re-read the question a couple of times to make sure I had read everything right. That helped me on one or two questions, because when I had first read it, I read something wrong. I would have gotten the wrong answer if I hadn’t re-read the question! These strategies helped me out a lot during the test.