Knox Penguins

The Los Angeles Lakers are a pro basketball team in the most elite basketball league in the world, the NBA (National Basketball Association).

            There are two conferences in the league. The Western Conference and the Eastern conference, which are based on the geography of America. For example, the LA Lakers and the Oklahoma city Thunder are in the Western Conference because they are on the west side of America whereas the New York Knicks and the Charlotte Bobcats are in the Eastern Conference because they are on the east side of America.

Within each Conference, there are three divisions:

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Pacific Division:          LA Lakers

                                     LA Clippers

                                     Golden state Warriors

                                     Sacramento Kings

                                     Phoenix Suns

Northwest Division:  Denver Nuggets

                                    Minnesota Timberwolves

                                    Oklahoma City Thunder

                                    Portland Trail-Blazers

                                    Utah Jazz

Southwest Division:  Dallas Mavericks

                                    Houston Rockets

                                    Memphis Grizzlies

                                    New Orleans Hornets

                                    San Antonio Spurs

EASTERN CONFERENCE

Atlantic Division:      Boston Celtics

                                    New York Knicks

                                    New Jersey Nets

                                    Philadelphia 76ers

                                    Toronto Raptors

Central Division:        Chicago Bulls

                                    Cleveland Cavaliers

                                    Detroit Pistons

                                    Indiana Pacers

                                    Milwaukee Bucks

Southeast Division:    Atlanta Hawks

                                    Charlotte Bobcats

                                    Miami Heat

                                    Orlando Magic

                                    Washington Wizards

The LA Lakers are the reigning champions of the NBA after Kobe Bryant (12 time All-Star, 1 time MVP and 1 time finals MVP) led them to victory over the Orlando Magic (reigning eastern conference champions) in five games in the final.

By Ross

I first started doing hockey when I was 11.  When i got to Knox there was a school hockey team, so me and my friends thought we would try it out.  It is on a Tuesday after school at the Aubigne Centre. Hockey practices starts around 4:15 and finishes at 5:30.  I also do  hockey on Wednesday’s from 5 until 6 but that is for Haddington.  I really enjoy playing hockey and I think I am quite good at it.  The position I normally play is defence because I am good at doing big and strong passes.  I am not very good at dribbeling, though sometimes I have to.  Another reason I find hockey fun is because I have a lot of my friends go to both of the clubs that I do.  Some of these friends are; Kirsty, Catherine, Eve, Molly and Kirsty.  We play more games for the Knox team than we do for Haddington although we still don’t get to play as much as I would like to.  The games are my favourite part of playing hockey because you can just forget about everything in life and concentrate on winning.  I am quite a fearless hockey player - I think my friends would agree.  I have had a few injuries over my time  playing hockey, although luckily for me, nothing serious.  Although I have also given some other girls injuries (not on the Knox or Haddington team though.

Above the post is a picture of my friends and I at hockey practice

By Holly

I have two dogs called Haggis and Pippy. They are are Jack Russell X. On the 1st of  February Haggis and Pippy turned 6 years old. My Mum and Dad got me them for my 8th birthday, and they were only 6 weeks old. They were so small, ( they still are very small). I love taking them for walks around the big woods in East Saltoun, with Ashley C, and her two dogs Poppy and Charlie. Haggis is really good at football, and Pippy likes playing with her toys. It is really funny when Pippy chases Haggis around the garden, but when Haggis chases Pippy he bits her tail when he catches her, it is a wee shame.  Haggis likes most dog foods, but sometimes he is really fussy…. Pippy just eats anything.. lol

I LOVE HAGGIS AND PIPPY :)   

Emma T (2T2)                 

I first started doing hip-hop when I was 12. There are 23 of us in the group. I have made some really good friends since I have been there. We have dance practice 2 days a week - Fridays and saturdays. We dance for around 1 hour 45 minutes a day but we stay behind to work on the routine for about 40 or 50 minutes. Another group uses the hall after us. I love Hip-hop because it is a diffrent type of dance to everything else and you dont see many hip-hop dancers around. Our dance teacher is called Kerri and she started doing hip-hop at the age of 11. Kerri became a dance teacher aroud 5 years ago. We are learning how to do twists just now it is really hard because you need very good balance to keep you from falling over. We have some leassons when we can just relax (it doesn’t happen much because Kerri is strict when to comes to learning).

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Emma W x

I got a new puppy called Fudge and she is  8 weeks old. Fudge is a black lab and she is tiny. She likes to get up on your lap to get  a cuddle and she likes to play with my other dogs called Jinx and Jess. They are black labs as well and Jinx  is 1 years old and Jess is 2 in  two months time. My puppy Fudge has to stay in the house until she is 4 or 5 months old  but she likes to go and lie on your bed every night when you are in your room. Fudge has to be fed 2 times a day because she is that small. Fudge likes to lie next to Jess and Jinx every night because she gets on with them all the time but she starts barking when Jess and Jinx are away for a walk. Fudge likes to sit with you and watch the telly with you; that is if you are just sitting there, but if you are not she just lies in the bed with the other two. Fudge  is a very cute puppy and she is a little softy. She always barks when she needs let out or needs to get fed. I think she is very well trained for a puppy. I am sure that Fudge will learn more things when she grows older. I love my puppy, Fudge!

     by kayleigh

I’m writing about the Twilight saga, because I absolutely love Twilight. Unless you have been living on Mars for the last like three years, there are four books in the series - Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn.

My favourite book of the  series is Breaking Dawn because the most happens in this story. Breaking Dawn is quite sad and it is really long, so it doesn’t end as quickly!

Alice Cullen is my favourite charactor, because she is really funny and nice.  She’s also small, excitable and talkative like me!

I am on team Edward (If you don’t know what that means; click off this page now!!!)

I have read the books over four times each and I really recommend them to anyone.  The films are also really good, but not as good as the books. =)

Please leave comments =)

Holly M (S2)

Recently I read the book ‘Day of the Triffids’ by John Wyndham. The book focuses around a man named Bill who awakes one day in a hostpital after recovering from a triffid sting to the eyes and finds himself the only person able to see. This is because the previous night a mysterious green meteor shower happened all over the world, blinding anyone who could see it. Soon atfer leaving the hospital he meets a woman called Josella. Josella is being used by a blind man to help him find food. Bill rescues Josella and they become friends. After a few days they meet a large group of people who are also able to see. However, things take a turn for the worse and Bill and Josella are seperated from each other. Bill then makes it his personal mission to re-unite with Josella.

The book is quite old (1951) but the morals and messages found within the book are still relevant today. As it is 59yrs old the language used is also old and may prove hard for less established readers to understand. I can honestly say the ‘Day of the Triffids’ is one of my all time favourite books and considering the amount of books I have read I would say that’s quite an achievement. Overall, a perfect 10/10 from me.

-Lee S2

 The Rwandan genocide in 1994 destroyed over 20% of the population. The genocide started when a group of people who were mostly Tutsis assassinated the Prime Minister. The new Prime Minister thought that the Hutus should wipe out the Tutsis. The army agreed with this and so did some of the police. Both Hutus and Tutsis were given ID cards which specified their ethnic group. These cards served as symbols in which the Interhamwe could check the threat of force. Skin colour was a general physical trait which was typically used in ethnic identification. The lighter coloured Rwandans were typically Tutsi, the minority group, while the darker skinned Rwandans were typically Hutu, the majority group in Rwanda. In many cases, Tutsi men and children (as well as moderate Hutu men and children) were separated from the population and sometimes forced to be slaves. As for the Tutsi women, they were often thought as gypsies and frequently became victims of rape. This is a poster for people who are wanted for taking part in the genocide. There was a large reward offered to anyone who could find them. In Rwanda itself, some 120,000 people were jailed on allegations of participation in the genocide, many of whom died in jail. As of April 2000, some 2,500 people had been tried, with about 300 of them receiving death sentences. Prunier writes: “Rwanda’s economy remains badly damaged, with little hope of a quick recovery. There are several reasons for this, including the lack of roads, bridges, and telephone lines. Education is also suffering due to a shortage of schools, educational materials, and teachers, many of whom died in the genocide. Many Tutsis are increasingly convinced that the only way to ensure their survival is to repress the Hutus. Many Hutus believe they have b een proclaimed guilty by association and that no one cares about their sufferings under the current Tutsi-led government. Extremists on both sides retain the belief that the only solution is the annihilation of the other.

The Holocaust is the term used to describe the mass genocide of approximately six million Jews during WWII.

The Nazis hated anyone who was different to them. All Jewish, disabled, homosexual and coloured people were taken to one of many concentration camps situated mainly in Poland. Nazis thought it was the final solution. In the concentration camps the prisoners were given insufficient food and were not given medication, many died of starvation and disease.

In 1933 the Jewish population of Europe was over nine million. By May 1945, two out of every three Jews in Europe had been murdered.

At Bergan-Belsan camp British troops encountered ten thousand unburied corpses.

Between 1942 and 1944 the Nazis deported millions of people to extermination camps. At the largest killing centre, Auschwitz-Birkenau, transports of Jews arrived almost daily from across Europe. Around 1.3 million men, women and children were murdered here by the time of the liberation of the camp on 27^th January 1945.

Roman Halter was 12 years old when Hitler’s troops entered Poland. First, the SS rounded up all the Jewish and Polish leaders in his town and shot them. Then they took all the able-bodied Jewish men and women to work. For those that remained, their properties were taken away and they were relocated in hovels in the outskirts of the town.

They were made to wear armbands with the Star of David on them and to walk in the gutter. By the following year, Autumn 1940, of the 800 Jews who originally lived in the town, 360 were left; and they were all sent to the ghetto in Lodz. When Roman arrived there, the Lodz ghetto was overcrowded and could only accept 120 of them. His grandfather, father, mother, half-sister and two of her children, and Roman were amongst the 120 taken in, but the remainder were taken away and shot.

In Spring 1942, Roman’s mother, half-sister, her two children and Roman were all selected to be taken to Chelmno to be murdered there. His mother begged him to escape and hide till the selection of our area of the ghetto was over. “Run in a zigzag,” she told me, “and don’t stop when they shoot or shout ‘Halt!’. I did as she asked and escaped that selection, but my mother, half-sister and her children all perished there.

I think we can learn from the Holocaust by treating people the same even if they are different from us.

The genocide in Cambodia from 1975-1979 shocked the world when the communist party Khmer Rouge, under their leader Pol Pot seized power. The Khmer Rouge imposed an extremist program to rebuild Cambodia. The public were made to work as laborers in one huge federation of collective farms.  The ill, disabled, old and very young were driven out and people who refused to

work or leave were killed, so were those who did not leave fast enough.

Also targeted were minority groups such as ethnic Chinese, Vietnamese and Thai, and also Cambodians with Chinese, Vietnamese or Thai ancestry. Half the Cham Muslim population was murdered, as were 8,000 Christians. Buddhism was also eliminated from the country.

Children were taken from their parents and placed in separate forced labor camps. Hospitals and schools were shut down. Lawyers, doctors, teachers, engineers, scientists and professional people were murdered with their family.

The Khmer slogan was ‘To spare you is no profit; to destroy you is no loss’. The total deaths were estimated well over 2 million.