Gabe: Blog of the Week 1

The Groundhog

 It is Groundhogs day.

 I am excited to come out of my hole.

 I will decide my way.

 I have a really big goal. 

 It is to see my shadow.

 I want to look through my window.   

 I want him to come out.

 The groundhog just wont get out of its hole.

 I feel like I want to shout.

 We are having a voting poll.

 He came out of his hole

 And I won the poll.

Cooking With Kids: Chips and Dip

Yesterday Max and Kiki made chips and dip in our cooking class.  We started off with making baked corn tortilla chips...so simple and the kids loved all the steps in this one.  Then we made a seven layer dip to go with the chips

Baked Spicy Corn Tortilla Chips

corn tortillas

chili powder

cumin

salt

PAM

1.  Cut the tortillas into any size you like.  We cut ours into 8ths and the kids used pizza cutters to do it.

2. Spray a baking sheet with PAM, lay out the tortilla pieces on the pan- touching but not overlapping.  Spray the top of the chips with PAM again.

3.  Mix together equal parts chili powder, cumin and salt.  Put it in a shaker bottle if you have one.

4.  Shake (or hand sprinkle) the seasoning over the chips.

5.  Bake the chips in a 375 degree oven for 10 minutes, or until crispy.  Let cool and enjoy!

Seven Layer Dip

1 (16 ounce) can refried beans

1 (2.5 ounce) packet taco seasoning

1 1/2 cups prepared guacamole

1 cup sour cream

2 Tablespoons lime juice

1 cup salsa

1/2 cup each: Monterey Jack and Cheddar cheese

1 can (4 ounce) sliced black olives- drained

1 cup sliced green onions- tops only

1. Chop green onions and cilantro, set aside.

1.5. Taste the black olives.  Yum!

2. Combine the refried beans and taco seasoning.

3. Mix together sour cream, lime juice and cilantro.

4. Start layering- in a pie plate spread refried beans, guacamole, sour cream mixture, salsa, cheese, olives and green onions.

5.  Cover and store in the refrigerator or eat right away.

Avery: Blog Of The Week 1

The Shirt!

by Avery Jones

       One day a man named Taylor was walking around in a movie making studio.  He had no idea what he was doing there and no one would answer him when he asked.  At one point he stood on a table in the lunch room and screamed "Where am I?!" and fell to the ground, almost crying.  An old man, around maybe 72 years old walked up to Taylor and gave him a shirt.  He asked what it was for and the man said to put it on.  So he did!

       After the shirt was on him the man ran off faster than he should of.  He was running as fast as a 5 year old kid.  Taylor stood there lost and confused.  He followed one woman with a clipboard all the way to a green screen.  He looked up at it and smiled and thought I'm going to be in a movie huh?  He was excited but worried because he had no idea who he was playing, what the lines were, and anything movie related.

       The woman with a clipboard came up to Taylor and had him sign a paper.  He put his name on it and wondered what it was for.  He decided not to ask because he knew no one on earth was going to answer him there.  Lots of men with cameras pointed at Taylor, who was in front of the green screen.  He smiled and waited for the camera to "take the picture". 

     "Hey!  What happened to your lines?!  Rip your shirt off and run off screen.", said an angry man.

     "Sorry!  I don't even know what's going on here.", replied Taylor.

     "We are filming Twilight, Breaking Dawn Part1."

       Taylor never heard of the movie.  But he did what he was told, just to get it over with.  Ripping his shirt in half, he ran off the screen.

       After getting fired from his horrible acting, Taylor started building houses for the homeless with some nice people.

THE END!!!!!

Daddio: 1/30/12 Weekly Blog Post 2

Write a story about the following photograph:

Your story has to be about how the guy sitting in the middle lost his shirt.  Your story needs to be four paragraphs long.  Your story cannot be in the first person perspective.  Paragraphs that are most dialogue cannot count towards your total paragraph count.

Daddio: 1/30/12 Weekly Blog Post 1

Thursday this week is GROUNDHOG'S DAY!

In honor of Groundhog's Day, I want you to write a poem about the groundhog coming out of his burrow and seeing his shadow.  The poem cannot be a haiku.  The poem must be at least two stanza's long (like two paragraphs).  Each stanza must consist of six lines, and the rhyme scheme must be ababcc.  You don't have to follow a syllable count for your lines, as long as it matches the rhyme scheme, but generally your lines must be reasonably close to each other in syllable count (you can't have one line with twenty syllables and the second one with only three).

Mason: Blog Of The Day 2

Abe's Revenge

By Mason

     One day in DC  I was sucking people's blood.  Abraham Lincoln's father tried to kill me with a stake.  But he missed me and I tried to suck his blood but he tried to stab me.  But I dodged it and ran away to my hideout.  I waited until it was night.  I sucked more people's blood.  Then I sucked Abraham Lincoln's father's blood.  Twenty years later Abraham Lincoln tried to get his revenge on me.  He found me and I tried to suck his blood.  He stabbed me with a stake in the heart and killed me.  The End  

Mason: Blog Of The Day

Things I like about Max
1 you play with me
2 you eat with me
3 you play tag with me
4 you race with me
5 you are my brother

Cool things you might want to do when you are a grown up-
1 skydiving
2 swimming
3 teaching
4 soccer
5 baseball

Marney: Blog Of The Day 2

     The Food Killer

By Marney

     There I was standing in the middle of the White House.  I was looking around, a strange place I thought.  I walked in to a kitchen where a tall guy with a hat on his head was standing saying stuff about the war.  I thought for a second, what is the guy's name?
     Then another guy called across the house "Abe!"
     Then the guy got up and said "Yes." 
     So I think his name is Abe. 
     When he got back he said "Oh how did you get in stranger?"
     I was trying my best to hide my fangs.
     The next second in life Abe was holding a knife.  He was saying "You better get out of my house or I'll kill you."
     He thought I was a normal person. But he knew I was not.  He took me by the hand and stabbed me in the chest.  He saw I was not dying and he took me to the freezer and stuck me in it.  I saw two more of my type come out of the distance.  Abe stuck a steak, the type of food, in the other vampire's mouth and stuck a blueberry up his nose.  Then Abe stabbed him in the heart.  He took me out of the freezer and stabbed me in the heart and threw me outside.  I was completely dust, he decided he was a vampire killer.

Marney: Blog Of The Day 1

The coolest things about Max
1- how he is brave enough to do a bunch of things
2-how he loves everyone and is so sweet 
3-his mohawk makes him look like a big big big kid
4- his has a bunch of friends
5- he could stay the night and have fun at a hotel


Things Max can do when he grows up
1-Drive
2-Buy his own house
3-get married and have kids
4-go to collage
5- get a job

Gabe: Blog of the Day

            Abraham Lincoln the Vampire Hunter

By Gabe

     I was having a good day and I was eating hardtack with sugar on top.   General Grant and I were talking about him hiring me as a messenger.  I got the job so now I think I have more of a chance to live through the war.  I started packing my bag to leave and the sad thing was I  didn't have a weapon.  We were going to the  Battle of Manassas.
     We just left to go to the Battle of  Manassas.  When we got there, there were picnickers and the other side was not there like planned.  So I ran back to go tell Lincoln.  I could not resist to not eat a picnicker so I ate it.  I just got to the White House and I walked in.
     I told Abe that the other side wasn't there yet and we started walking back to the battle.  When we got there we saw in the distance a bunch of army men coming.  When they got close we could see they were all vampires.  They killed our whole army except Abe and I.  Abe killed all of the vampires except me.  We went over to look at Grant and his last words were "Kill him."
     We were walking back to the White House.  We saw a vampire and it was Abe's mom and he killed her.  We got to the White House.  Abe tried talking to me but I bit him and killed him.  Right when I did that, he killed me.  Except only one died.

Mommio: Art Class- Post Impressionists- Georges Seurat

Today we continued our study of master pointillist, Georges Seurat.  First we took a close look at one of his most famous works, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grad Jatte (1884-1886).

We learned from this that pointillism takes great patience, it took Seurat TWO YEARS to complete this painting and while doing it he refused to talk to friends and family.  The finished piece of art was 7 feet tall and 10 feet across- completely made of tiny dots of paint.We had lots of fun with dots today- using a project I found online to create pointillist pictures with melted crayon.  First the kids drew a simple picture in pencil on a piece of cardstock.

When they were ready to paint each child got a bunch of old crayons (wrappers off) and a lit candle.  Starting with the main color they wanted to use for their background, they held the crayon in the flame for a short time (just enough to lightly melt it without dripping) and then dotted their paper with the melted wax.

Patience in action!  For each dot they had to place the crayon back in the flame....this took a long time.

They continued this process, remembering the idea of optical mixing and placing specific colors next to others to create new shades of color.

After two full hours here are their works of art- they are beautiful and also have a really nice texture to them.  They all want to finish them later so we'll post the completed pictures then.  I'm sure there will be several kids asking to do more of these, they are even asking to paint the wall this way!

 But don't try this at home unless you are prepared to sit for a LONG time.  This basic tree I made as a sample for the kids took four hours.

Phineas and Ferb: Remote Control Car

Today in our Phineas and Ferb science class we use our Thames and Kosmos Remote Control Machines kit to build Model 2- the Three Wheeler.

Again, the kids worked in teams to assemble the machine step-by-step.  Today I made sure that each team had a leader, the kids who were less "in charge" of their team the last time.  So- Connor, Mason and Kiki took a shot at gathering the pieces for their teams and telling their partners what to do.

Here is the finished machine in action.  The kids were excited to play with this one because it can turn in different directions. And they had a parking challenge too!

Next time we build Model 3- the Crane.