Alistar

I really like this advertisement for recycling; It's really catchy. Can you come up with some more ideas about recycling?

Belated Valentines

Geoggers African Masks Project

Miss Habib's year 9 classes have been making tourism videos and this is just one of the first of many to be uploaded to the Geoggers blogspot. If you think you can make a better one pop in and see Miss Habib so she can upload it!

Raging Inferno

The heat in Australia is just getting worse; described as “hell on earth”, Victoria is currently ablaze with 26 fires, including one with a 60-mile firefront.

Kevin Rudd, the Australian Prime Minister, toured the worst-affected areas, “Hell in all its fury has visited the good people of Victoria in the last 24 hours,” Mr Rudd said. “And many good people now lie dead.”

The death toll – which has been climbing by the hour – now stands at 76. There are fears it will rise as many people are still missing in the worst affected areas. Two children are among the dead and 18 people remain in critical condition in hospital with burns and other life-threatening injuries.

YEAR 8 HOMEWORK UPDATE click on the title link for more info!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

A taste of some New York weather today? Essex has woken up to a blanket of snow, at least for a few hours, giving Year 10 students a chance to have a lie in before thinking about what they might need to pack next month!
Update Tuesday: the school remains closed and so we have postponed the information meeting for parents, scheduled for tonight. More information will be given when we return to school.

Nice weather?

Australia is suffering from its worst heatwave on record with temperatures hitting 43 degrees Celsius in the usually mild Melbourne.

Australian ministers are blaming global warming for the heatwave and more than 20 people have died in Adelaide to date. Australians are trying to combat the heatwave by various methods such as freezing their water bottles!

For more information click on the title link!

Homework alert:

Miss Habib's classes, 8A1 8A2 and 8C1, are to write a newspaper article for a kids' geography magazine "Jnr Geoggers". Homework is due on your lesson on the week beginning 23rd February 2009. This news article is to explain about the heatwave in Australia. Things that you should include are:

Climate data
Map of Australia
Information about where the population is mainly distributed
How global warming has affected Australians
How this heatwave is affecting Australia

New York New York!

Less than two months to go and 16 Year 10 students, accompanied by Miss Hammond and Mr Knight, will be hitting the streets of the Big Apple! If you are one of the lucky ones, make sure you have given your ESTA and passport details to Miss Hammond and returned your reply slip about the parents' information meeting.

Calling all serious explorers!

Have you got what it takes to be a Serious Explorer? The multi-award winning Serious.. adventure series returns with a ground-breaking new expedition.
The BBC are looking for 8 explorers between the ages of 12-15.
What is on offer?

Serious Explorers will follow in the extreme footsteps of the great 13th Century explorer Marco Polo as he travelled the legendary Silk Road in search of far-eastern treasures such as silk, gold and spices.

Camels

Among many challenges, you'll join a camel train to take on the mighty Taklamakan Desert, called the 'desert of ghosts' by Marco Polo, and climb to the 'roof of the world' in the huge mountains which he had to cross as he travelled the challenging route from Europe to China. And just like Marco Polo, you'll also spend time with local tribes-peoples.

The Serious Explorers expedition will feature in a ten part documentary series for CBBC, due for broadcast early in 2010.

For more info click on the title link and fill in your application

Recycle your cycle!

What a great invention! This bike is made out of industrial cardboard and has been made for just £15. Ok, the inventor says it should last for 6 months but what do you think? For more info click on the title link!

Life in a refugee camp

Many of you have been asking me what is going on in the Congo after seeing some of the news reports that have been showing for the last few weeks.
The above picture shows a girl in the Kibati refugee camp trying to sell potatoes.

UNICEF have commented that a wave of displacement due to recent fighting in North Kivu, eastern DRC has forced 100,000 people from their homes, 60 per cent of whom are children.

In the last two months, around 250,000 people have been displaced, bringing the total number of internally displaced to around 1 million – 20 per cent of the entire North Kivu population.

The situation of newly displaced children and women is desperate. Thousands have had very little to eat since fleeing their homes. Their access to clean water and health care has been minimal. Hundreds of children are presumed to have been separated from their families and up to 40 children have been recruited by armed groups. Right now children also face a real risk of disease outbreaks and malnutrition.

The Great Southern California Shakeout

Year 9! All around Southern California this morning, people have been practising the Drop, Cover, Hold On earthquake drill that you practised in your lessons earlier this term. Find out more at www.shakeout.org and see the BBC news report by following the link in the title of this article.

See if you can earthquake-proof a room in a house by playing the Beat The Quake game:
www.dropcoverholdon.org/beatthequake/game

Win a trip to South Africa!

Do you want the chance to visit South Africa? All you have to do is take a photograph of local wildlife and submit your shot to Miss Habib or Miss Hammond, who will upload it on your behalf. For more details, go to www.geoggers.net and click on the link.

Google under the sea

WOW! How cool! Google Earth now has developed a tool which allows you to 'virtually' visit the world's protected underwater landscapes.
For more information click on the title link or visit the Google Earth web page.

Penguins washed up on tropical beach in BRAZIL!

I had to check the date when I read this story first; surely it's not April 1st? More than 370 young penguins mysteriously washed up on tropical beaches in Brazil. Fortunately the birds have now been airlifted to safety to Pelotas, South Brazil. For more information, click on the title link.

British woman skydiver conquers Everest

Congratulations to Holly Budge who became one of three skydivers who became the first to freefall at extreme altitude through the skies above Mount Everest.

For more information, click on the title link.

Bruce Parry and the Amazon

I'm really pleased to hear the Year 8 pupils asking questions about Bruce Parry's new adventures. Click on the title link to be taken to Bruce's blog and watch exclusive clips of his travels.

Crazy crazy Japan

Crazy Japan just got a little crazier! Check out this link http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/7654267.stm and see what monkeys have been up to in this Japanese restaurant... We'll be studying this incredible country soon, Year 9, so keep watching to see what else they are doing.

And you thought it was crowded on British trains!

This is just one of many trains heading out from Dhaka, Bangladesh to the south of the country. Today, Muslims around the world are preparing for Eid al -Fitr. Millions of residents in Dhaka have started the exodus home to spend time with their families.

Check out some more interesting pictures by clicking on the title link.

Tsunami storyboards

Miss Habib's class have been designing tsunami storyboards. A selection of the best have been published at www.geoggers.net. Click on the link at the top of the Geoggers net homepage to see them.