stories

HOW TO OPERATE YOUR FIRE EXTINGUISHER IN A FIRE EMERGENCY DANGER! Make sure your fire extinguisher can be safely and effectively used on the small fire you want to fight. Always use extreme caution when fighting any fire. Fight a fire only where there is a clear escape path to allow you to get out safely if the fire gets worse. WARNING! Avoid breathing smoke and heated fumes; stay low if necessary. Burning materials will release toxic fumes. Inhaling these fumes may cause injury or death. CAUTION! Always stand back far enough away from the fire - near an exit - and make sure nothing is between you and your escape route. If you get too close to a fire, you risk getting burned or hit by splattering material like grease. If the fire is too hot or too Smokey for you to get within six feet (2 meters), do not try to fight the fire yourself. Evacuate immediately and call the fire department. For fires on a kitchen stove, turn burners off immediately, if possible. If you can’t reach the oven o...

 The Benefits of a Job What are the benefits of a job? Well, of course, when most people think of a job, they think of it as a way to make money. A job can be one where a person provides a service, like car repair, painting, massage therapy, gardening, cleaning, plastic surgery, etc. Anything that other people are willing to pay you to do is a job. Different jobs pay different amounts of money, depending on a person’s skill level, the demand other people have for their services, and probably where they live. Different countries, states, cities, and neighborhoods pay people differently. Did you know that the minimum wage in California is nearly $15 an hour, and in Alabama, it’s $7? People need to make enough money to pay for their regular living expenses, like rent or a house payment, car insurance and gasoline, the electric bill, the phone bill, food, medical care, and other things to keep themselves alive and healthy. It’s also a good idea for a person with a job to save a little ...

  Basic Information About Parent Centers Some school-based parent centers consist of little more than a bookshelf of materials in the waiting room of a school office; others are more elaborate and self-contained, with comfortable seating and coffee at the ready, books and other materials that can be taken or checked out, and a computer, VCR or DVD player available, which visitors can use for informational purposes. Some have no staff, some [parent centers] are run by a changing cast of volunteers, and some have an actual staff member. Minimally, the purpose of such parent centers is to distribute information and to make parents feel welcome at a school or, if the center is located off campus, to make them feel more comfortable with the U.S. education system in general. Ideally, every school would house its own parent center, but given the limited resources of most schools (including time, funding, and space), parent centers are less common than many educators and parents alike woul...

 The New Puppy     My little brother Mario wanted a dog for his birthday. He had been asking for one for a long time. My mom and I went down to the pet store while he stayed at home with grandma. When we got to the pet store, we saw snakes, birds, mice, and fish. The dogs were in the back. The store only had fancy poodles with curly hair, and they cost $300 each!     My mom said that we could not afford to buy such an expensive dog. I told her that Mario wouldn’t have liked a poodle anyway. On the way back home we stopped at the animal shelter to see if they had any dogs up for adoption. There was a little brown one with black spots in a cage in the back corner.     The other dogs in the shelter started barking when I walked by their cages, but it was real quiet. I put my hand next to the bars of the cage and the puppy slowly walked over to smell my hand. I could tell he had been hurt because one of his legs didn’t work that well. Even though he was sm...

 The Amusement Park     Today I went to Six Flags Magic Mountain with Mar Vista Summer Day Camp. I had been looking forward to this trip all week! (We always go on our field trips on Fridays.) In the morning, I couldn’t wait for the bus to come to pick us up. I hoped there wouldn’t be much traffic getting up there.     When we got inside the gates, we were supposed by how few people were there that day. We had expected the park to be crammed with families and kids from other summer camps.     I got assigned to be with two counselors, Victor and Andrea. Boy, was I glad, because they were the counselors who said they would be going on all the fastest rides!     The first ride we went on was Batman. I liked that ride because the roller coaster track is above the riders and your legs swing all over the place. It’s really smooth, too, even when you turn upside down.     This was the first time I was able to go on the big rides, because t...

 Earthquakes     There are many kinds of natural disasters that happen on Earth. There haven been forest fires, floods, hurricanes, tornados, and severe droughts. Earthquakes are another kind of disaster that make the ground, and everything we built on it, shake. The shaking can sometimes go on for more than a minute. Most earthquakes are small and hardly noticeable, but others can be catastrophic and deadly for thousands of people. Earthquakes in the United States are most likely to occur in western states, especially California. Depending on where we live, we need to be prepared for what disasters are more likely to happen in the future.     A big earthquake can make bridges and highways crumble. This means tons of concrete crashing to the ground. Parts of buildings, or entire buildings can fall. People  can be hurt or killed by heavy things that fall away from high places. This is why students in school practice sheltering under tables during earthquake ...