Welcome to the students of Jay Hewlett at Bunche Middle school, California, USA

The land surrounding LA is flat. However there are mountains in the distance. No woods in the near vicinity but there are towering buildings creating a skyscraper skyline. We have the LA river and aqueduct which are man made rivers. Compton is for the most part a typical urban landscape. However, we are zoned for farming from way back in the old days. So, on occasion, you will see men riding horses down the street.  The weather is a balmy 70-75 degrees most of the time with temperatures reaching up to the hundreds in the valleys during the summer and 50s 60s in the winter.  Not like those frigid winters we read about on the East Coast.

Our community is urban. The city of Compton is within the county of Los Angeles. LA is comprised of many suburbs and communities.  There are an equal number of students in our class that live in apartments and houses. In fact you can find many apartments and houses in our community with pretty lawns and gardens. Many of the gardens have beautiful flowers, trees and vegetables. In Compton you can find many parks and things to do.

Our community has several grocery stores, but no movie theater close by.

The economy in our community is fueled by factory goods such as foods, furniture, fiber, iron, copper wires, auto airplane parts, and recycling products. California in general has the most productive economy of any U.S. State. A wide variety of farm goods are produced in the state and California is the leading if not the only producer of many commodities. Cattle, milk, cotton, and grapes are the states chiefs sources of farm income. Other major products are grains (mainly barley).

Newspaper publishing, commercial printing and lithography and of course movies and entertainment form other large industries here in LA.

Fishing is a major industry here in California. The San Pedro district of Los Angeles is the nation's leading fishing port. California produces an enormous quantity and variety of agricultural and fishery products, manufactured goods and minerals.

We are a close knit family community and most of our parents work in factories, retail shops, hospitals and food shops. Others work as bus drivers and musicians in our community.

If you were to come to Sunny So, California, we would take you to a football game in the Los Angeles Coliseum. We could see professional soccer, basketball, hockey and baseball. Maybe we'll watch Volleyball on the beach. We will go swimming at Raging Waters amusement park or go bun gee jumping.
Next we can go to the LA museum or video games in an arcade. In close proximity to Compton are Six Flags Magic Mountain, Knotts Berry farm, Universal Studios and Disneyland. We can play in a park or go to a carnival. In the Fall we can visit the County fair and on New Year's the Rose Parade passes through Pasadena.

The way we would get to these events and activities would undoubtedly be in a car! Californians are known for their cars and we have lots of them.
Automobiles are our main source of transportation. We have the largest freeway system in the world. There are your usual urban transportation systems buses and taxis and here in Compton the Hahn trolley. We also have the metro blue, green and red lines which are electric trains that criss cross the city. LA is about to add a subway to the downtown area. We have two major airports (LAX & John Wayne airport) as well as a local airport here in Compton (for small planes and helicopters).

We just wanted to take a moment and tell you about our school, Bunche Middle School. We want to tell you what are school has and does.  Our school has eight basketball courts and 2 soccer fields, a football and baseball field.
Our school colors are orange and white. For the first time in school history we will be wearing school uniforms starting next week. We have a library where we can check out books. We also have security guards who help take care of our campus. We try to keep it clean. We have a computer lab where we participate in lots of cool projects including the NGS Kids Network. We also work on word processing, graphics, games and CD-Rom. We have a bilingual
classes where students are helped to learn English. A cadet program is available for students.  A student store provides school supplies and fun food. Different programs are offered to help students and parents such as: Teens on Target, Family Math and D.A.R.E.

Until we telecommunicate again.

The students from Bunche Middle School
Teacher: Jay Hewlett