Tent Sweet Tent

Come inside to the magical world of the fifth grade Hatta Tent. It is divided into 3 sections. A beige curtain just like the walls divides them each. The first section was the cafeteria, the second was the girls’ side, and the third side was the boys’.
On the first day we had to unpack and lay out our sleeping bags. The sleeping bags were organized in neat rows. In the tent we got to have free time at the end of the day. We had a contest to see whose side was the neatest; whoever won got to the buffet first. The first day the girls won, but the last day the boys won. We all had breakfast in the cafeteria; there were ten tables with about six chairs on them. We got a buffet with a scrumdiliumptious feast.
During our free time in the tent we got to play Apples to Apples and cards. At night everybody froze especially the girls. It was ten degrees
Celsius or below. The last night the boys came to the girls side and Mister Michaud sang a song to us and Mister Houlihan read a story called: “Ali Baba and the Thieves.” We all had an explosion of fun and laughter. This was an amazing experience for all of us.





By: Aya Abou-Jaoude, Georgia Saad, and Brinda Girish

Stars

Billions upon billions of stars lay in the universe waiting to be discovered and studied. The name of this study is Astronomy. Astronomy isn’t only the study of stars but everything in space. At night in Hatta when we look up at the stars our heads are full of questions like how far away the stars are and how the stars get there. Not only could we see stars and constellations like Orion and his belt, but we could also see planets such as Saturn and Mars. They both were huge bright red stars, and if you look closely at Saturn you can see a glimpse of it’s rings. When we were in Hatta, every night we would climb up a grassy hill, lay down and gaze at space until bed time. We each chose our own constellation, ours are Scorpio and Sagittarius. Sagittarius is a half horse half man whose life’s goal is to shoot the evil Scorpio because he killed Orion. Scorpio is a constellation of a scorpion. His brightest star, Antares is a red star located in his heart that is 230 times the size of the sun! Even though scientists know so much about astronomy there’s still a lot to learn about our universe.

by Gabriel and Nicholas K.

Back to the Past

Hatta Herritage Village, is meant to show you a view of an old village in Hatta 2000 to 3000 years ago and their way of life. Here’s a bit of what we saw and tasted.
We saw many uses of a palm tree:
• Barastii
• Rope
• Beams
• Wall
• Mats
Those are some uses we saw in one tent. We also saw five wells, with a bucket made out of animal skin or metal. There were also wells in the house’s courtyard and some had two wells. Houses were built like a courtyard.
Bedrooms had a stuffy feeling and smell. In the master bedroom it had a double bed and a open shower. Inside rooms a door connecting a room to another room was the size fourth grader,
and there was a crib on the other side of the small door.
The kitchen was flooded with huge pots, cutlery, jugs and jars. Outside of the kitchen, around the courtyard was a incredibly gigantic see-saw. The see-saw was made out of very thick wood, that you could get splinters from.
Five minutes from the house, there was the Folklore. At the entrance of the folklore, there were benches for story telling. One room of the folklore was full of instruments, made out of wood and animal skins. Another room was for poetry, fake men were pouring tea and telling poems for entertainment.
At the end of the trail was the fort. There were two paths to reach fort and one path to reach the top of the fort. The path to reach the top was made out of stone. The one to reach the ground floor was climbing a hill or taking the stone path. At the top we found a graveyard. We saw how the tombstones modernized from stones to a proper shaped tombstone. When we were getting on the bus Mrs. Pollock went to go get Mrs. Hurlbuts class and brought us some arabic sweets with date syrup. This was a very educational and interesting trip.
By: Ria and Soraya

Teachers And Chaperones

The Hatta trip was a blast and we owe it all to the teachers. First of all this awesome trip wouldn't have happened without Ms. Kakar and Ms. Gillian who had organised the trip. Then comes Ms. Hurlbut who took pictures, served and brought the food. Mr. Ofarrel hiked with us, played with us and gave us sport equipment. Then guess who it is MMMMssssss. Pollock our own wonderful homeroom teacher who lead the group, supervised by the pool and made the announcements. Next is Mr. Houlihan who fought with us ( play fighting ofcourse), read us a story and served food. Mr. Marshall,also wrestled with us, played frisbee and helped with the drawing. Mr. Michaud judged the bed check, pointed out cool plants and went swimming. Last but not least nurse Jeanine gave people their medicine and helped injured people. thanks to the 5th grade team we had an excellent educational and fun trip.

Treasures From the Past

Everyone excitedly rushed out of the bus, as the teachers called us to form strait class orderly lines. We walked inside, and set our daypacks in the cafeteria and headed into the museum ready for the first adventure of this trip.
There were archways for every time period. The first archway we entered was The Stone Age. We watched a short video, and wrote a fact about what we saw. They hunted animals with spears, even fish. At that time, people used stones to make weapons, tools, pottery, and jewelry. We saw mini models of their houses, and the way they lived.
The next arch was the Bronze Age. As we entered we could see pretty much the same thing as the Stone Age. The main highlight of this time period is that they discovered a type of metal called bronze. This led to stronger weapons and tools. They made fishhooks, and mostly ate fish. New types of jewels were discovered to make better jewelry. The biggest change was that they started to trade.
Walking into the Iron Age we spotted development of houses, and burials. We sat down and watched another video. They discovered new ways of steering animals ex. For horses they made rains.
We traveled farther into time and ended up in Greater Arabia, when they got glass from the Mediterranean, and when trading was still in process.

By Aya, Georgia, and Brinda

The Sea of Fossils

Here we are on our last day at Hatta at Gastropod Gulch eating lunch. It's so beautiful over here with all the mountains and rocks and the fossils are mind blowing. I couldn't believe how many there were when I got there. Its too bad that we weren't allowed to take any but we could still take pictures.In my opinion, climbing over the rocks was the best part. Of course you would have to have a good grip. After a bit of climbing and having fun, we all got into groups of classes and did two activities One of the activities was when we had to look for a Geo-Cash with objects and notes from last years fifth grade! It was really sweet. Than we went to the next group and we got to be Oreointeres and used compasses to find delicious oreos! And that was it! We took about 2 hours at Gastrapod Gulch but it was completely worth it. As I hiked back to the buses, I new that in about 2 hours I would be back at the A.S.D front gate in Dubai.

-Avantika and Darby

Date Farm Adventure

On the second day, most of us woke up at 7 O’clock sharp. But some of the people were still sleeping. Everyone headed to the bathroom to wash and after we had a nice breakfast. Then Ms.Pollock announced that we’re going to the Date Farm. She told our groups that we’re going to ride with in 4X4. There were 15 groups. Some of the groups had girls and boys mixed.

We started to head to the Date Farm which took us about 20 to 30 minutes. The roads were not built so it was bumpy all the way. Some men were working on the road.
When we arrived at the Date Farm, we had to walk in. We saw the ashes from a burnt tree. We saw some big oranges on the way to inside. There were tons of them hanging at the tree. Some of us took the ones that fell down and ate it. They said it was very sour and sweet. Some other said that it was too sour to eat. Then we saw some moldy oranges that were gray and brownish.
When we reached inside we took some time to work on our naturalist log. It was very
peaceful. We took about 30 minutes on our naturalist log. Then some people
needed the bathroom. There were no bathrooms at the farm so they had to go behind a bush. When we got out of the farm we rode 4X4 again and went to the wadi. The roads were very bumpy and there were a lot of stones that covered the whole place. And that rocks made the cars go up and down. Also, one big rock made one car have a flat tire. Mr.Houlihan was riding in that car. We interviewed him how he felt when he got a flat tire. He said, "At first I did not know why our car has stopped. When I got out and saw the flat tire I was shocked! I still don't know how it happened. We were lucky because it was quick to fix. It could always be worse."

When the tire was fixed we went to the wadi. But we stopped for quick lunch. After having a light lunch we started to walk into the wadi. Arman, Zayd, and Khayre will talk more about the wadi.

BY Yeo Jin and Nicholas.L

FREEDOM!!!

"Free time!" Mr.Houlihan exclaimed. "Woo hoo!" Everybody in the tent shouted. We all rushed out of the tent as fast as racing horses. Most of the kids ran out to the humongous field of our Hatta fort hotel. The boys were playing foot ball, throwing it to each other. Jack has the ball, he just threw the ball to Kevin...Oh! And there's the interception by Cameron. Now that looks like fun! Hey, there is Zak and Mr.Marshall playing freesbie. Haha! Because of the strong wind, the freesbie keeps flying the wrong direction! Now, I don't want to waste my time watching them play this boring game of freesbie. Look at those kids rolling down the hill. They did some front flips and backflips down the hill. Wow, If I were them, I wouldn't even be able to stand up properly because of the dizziness. Splash! Splash! Wait a minute. That sounds like splashing and swimming, come on! There are 8 boys swimming and some girls swimming. Some boys are playing water tag, and some are wrestling. The girls are relaxing and chatting. Okay, I really want to swim. But first, we have to get changed. To the changing room!

By: Hoon and Danny

The Arabian Feast

During our visit to Hatta, one of the best activities we experienced was the Arabian Feast! We all dressed up in traditional dress from the Middle East. The buffet was a wonderful selection of arabic themed food. Accompinied with the Arabic music in the background. The food was amazing there were kebabs and delicious mouth watering teeth sinking desserts. And don't forget the chocolate cake with a touch of chocolate sprinkles and little drops of heaven. The Arabian Feast was really a special dinner and night for all of us that went on this wonderful trip. In the picture above is Mr. Houlihan a grade 5 teacher dressed up into the traditional male dress of Arabia. The whole trip was just outstanding and i would really like to go back to Hatta!!

-Darby and Avantika

The Amusing Wadi

On our second day in Hatta we took a wonderful mountain drive around gigantic mountains. After the ride finished we arrived at a long pathway that went down to the Wadi. It took us about 15 minutes to walk threw the path way, and to enter the Wadi. When we reached there we slipped on our water shoes and walked into the water. The most fantastic things we saw in the water were black eggs, tadpoles, Arabian toads, and water scorpions. The eggs were very tiny and were flowing away with the current of the water. Khayre thought the eggs were going to be greasy and slimy, but they actually weren't. The tadpoles were so quick we did not even get one picture of them on our disposable camera. The water scorpion looked dangerous and poisonous to Zayd, because the claws were pinching at a little fish. The Arabian Toads looked beautiful to Arman, since they had different patterns of colors on them. They were very small, and some people held them in there hands. We slipped back on our shoes and started to hike back up the path way again. We went to our Toyota van,overall it was a great day.

By: Arman, Khayre ,and Zayd

Treasures f