Avery: Blog Of The Day 1

       Max, Max, Max. The Eiffel Tower is not made out of legos and is not a giant transformer (although that would be awesome!).  Also, I think you'd die if you went hang gliding attached to a kite wherever you are. The Eiffel Tower (a.k.a the Iron Lady) is made out of metals, screws to hold it in place, and all sorts of other things that I can't list at the moment.  It is 1,062.99 feet tall (324 meters) and it weighs 7,300 tons total.  That means it weighs more than our house!
       It was built by a French engineer named Gutave Eiffel.  That's how it got it's name.  Gutave wrote many names of 72 scientists on the Eiffel Tower on the beams.  Like... Petiet, Daguerre, Wurtz, Le Verrier, Perdonnet, Dalambre, Malus, Breguet, Polonceau, Dumas, Calpeyeron, Borda, Fourier, Bichat, Sauvage, Pelouze, Carnot, and Lame.  He put only their last names on it, not any of their firsts.  There are MANY more than that, but it would take hours to list.
       The Eiffel Tower was built in the city of Paris, France, which is in Europe.  Some people call Paris, the city of love, because it is very romantic place to be.  It is very pretty there and would be an awesome place to go on a vacation.

Marney: Word Challenge

Goad
Saki goaded me into not eating my sandwich.
Gratis
My sandwich was gratis at the store.
Harbinger
A grocery bag is a harbinger of sandwiches.

Gabe: Blog of the Day 1

      If your wondering Max, The Eiffel Tower is not made out of legos.  It is also not a transformer waiting to transform and rule the world.  Paris is in France and France is in Europe.  Max, it was built in 1889 in Europe.  It was built by Gutave Eiffel and a whole bunch of other people.  He was a French engineer.

        It was built for France's World Fair Exposition Universelle.  The city of Paris paid for it.  It is the tallest man made structure in the world.  It is 1,069 feet tall.  If you tried to hang glide off of it you would fall.  If they didn't add the point on top of it, the Chrysler Building would be taller.  There are three hundred steps just on the bottom floor of The Eiffel Tower. 

       On June 3, 1902 a lightning strike hit the Eiffel tower.   It didn't damage it, but it bounced off. Here is a photograph taken when the lightning hit the tower.

Max: Architects of Air

We went to a place yesterday.  The colors were very cool.  The center was very, very, very cool.  It travels all around the world. The trees were very cool.  They were blow up trees.

Connor:blog of the day 2

Revenge Is A Dish Best Served With Cold Iron

By Connor M. Jones

                 My head was pounding with a terrible headache, so I sat down on the park bench and rubbed my eyes.  when I opened them there was a strange little girl wearing an old fashioned dress and scarf over her hair.  She flashed a peculiar smile and said "I have a secret to tell you."  I was shocked and surprised by this odd girl and thus couldn't think properly.

  The first mistake I made was responding to what she said.  I said in an intellectual tone "If you tell it to me then it isn't really a secret is it?"  As I spoke I noticed her smile growing in size.  Finally it reached the point where she was grinning at me in the most creepy way.  As though she were a monster or something.

  Suddenly she said "Don't worry you can help keep the secret."  she dropped her voice down to a whisper "There's something bad out there.  It frightens me sometimes and all I know is it got my parents."  I thought about what I should do.  She was starting to cry and my conscience wouldn't let me refuse to help her in some way.

   My second mistake was offering to help.  My kindness and my willingness to help those in need was strong.  I said "How might I help?"  Afterward she told me to go toward the theater and try to find something there that might help.  I ran to the movie theater, but I found nothing there.  Realizing that the girl was in Elizabethan clothing I looked for the nearest theater.  Again I found nothing, but I saw a shadow moving amongst the props.

  Mistake number three was following the shadow to the backstage area.  Once I looked at what cast the shadow I realized that the being was the girl again.  She grabbed what looked to be a fake sword and held it in her hands.  Upon closer inspection I noticed that she was translucent and pale.  She wailed and charged at me with the sword.  She shouted "You will die for what you did!"  I moved out of the way and thought about what she said.

  My fourth and final mistake was to pick up a sword and try to charge at her.  She didn't move or scream.  She seemed to go limp and being who I am I ran over to see if she was still alive.  I tried to hold her in my arms and she said "You fool, you can't hold or kill a ghost.  YOU WILL PAY FOR WHAT YOU DID!"  With that final scream she grabbed the sword I had used.  She stood up wielding two swords.  She said "Don't worry your death will be just like mine.  SLOW AND PAINFUL!"  She stabbed the right sword through my right hand and the left sword into my gut.  I fell to the ground writhing in pain as I died a slow and painful death.  Every mistake I made that day flashing before my eyes and then I remembered that my ancestor had been a constable in Elizabethan England.  He had killed a young girl accused of witchcraft.  I died knowing why she wanted to kill me.

Connor: Word Challenge

A skeleton in a black cloak is the harbinger of death.
The man enjoyed a gratis vacation to a distant land.
The evil giant used candy to goad children into his trap.

Gabe: Blog of the Day 2

  ??????? Girl

      My head was pounding with a terrible headache, so I sat down on the park bench and rubbed my eyes.  When I opened them there was a strange little girl wearing an old-fashioned dress and a scarf over her hair.  She flashed a peculiar smile and said, "I have to tell you a secret." 

     I said "What is it?" 

     The girl said "You need to find the key." 

     "What key?" 

     "The one in the house." She pointed to a house next to her. 

     "Okay I will be right back."

      So I started walking up to the big, black and brown house.  So I got up there and both the back doors where locked.  So I tried to climb the gate to get to the front door and it was locked and boarded shut.  Then I tried to get on to the top of the roof to go down the chimney.  I eventually got up there and it turned out there was no chimney on the roof.  So I jumped down and hurt myself when I jumped down.  

      I went back to the bench to look for clues or things to break the windows with.  I didn't find anything over there.  So I tried breaking a window with a big stick or some big thing like that.  I found a big branch, it was really, really hard.  I hit one of the windows and it turned out they were bulletproof windows which meant a stick couldn't break it.  I got really frustrated with it.

      I tried to just get out by climbing the back gate but it was way too big.  I then tried to climb a tree to get out but I just fell.  I started going crazy so I broke things.  I kicked the fake car and the little bike.  I then hit a bird into a squirrel.  I also ripped up all of the roses.

      Then I threw a ball over the roof.  I started eating myself because I was going crazy.  Then I kicked a little dollhouse.  I found a key under it and I picked it up.  Then the girl came back.  I tried to hand her the key and I let go of it and it fell under the deck.

Gabe: Civil War Journal

September 18, 1862

Dear Diary,

     Man, I got beat up out there in that battle.  It is right after the battle of Antietam and there are more than twenty three thousand casualties in this one battle.  I was close to dying but I jumped out of the way of a bullet but then I got shot right under my kneecap and then right under my shoulder blade.  I want to go and see my  really, really big family.  I don't care about slaves anymore I just want to go home to my family.  Instead I am stuck in a hospital tent in a bed.   Everyone is dying around me and I am in a lot of pain.  I think I will make it out of here.

Melvin Thomas

Marney: Blog Of The Day 1

     Okay Max, The Eiffel Tower was not made of legos.  It is not a transformer.  It is actually made out of metal. It can not move.  Some people call it the Iron Lady.  But since she does not look like a lady I do not count that.
     The Iron Lady is 32,627 meters tall.  It also weighs 7,300 pounds.  On the Eiffel  Tower there are 72 names but I am not going to list them all.  I will list only five, here I go: Marc, Joseph, Henri, Jean, Joseph.  There were a bunch of Josephs and a bunch of Jeans.
     The names were scientists and stuff like that.  Some of the people who worked on the Eiffel Tower were on there too.  But there were no girls listed on there.  A girl called Sophia Germain was not on the list and tons of people think that is not fair because she made some of the Eiffel Tower.

Kiki: Journal Entry

September 18, 1862

  Ow ow ow I'm hurt, I'm hurt.  I hate being in this war.  I never should have joined it in the first place.  I am hurt because my leg got shot by a Confederate soldier holding a rifle.  It was the bloodiest battle so far in the war, it was Antietam! I miss my family, I especially miss my mom.  I wish I never left home or my family.  There is blood everywhere and I am freaking out.

Herman Hammond

Gabe: Word Challenge

The man goaded me into not going on the roller coaster.

They had a gratis roller coaster at the town fair.

Walking under a ladder is a harbinger of bad luck. 

Kiki: Word Challange

A lady Goaded me into petting her parrot.
A lady was selling Gratis parrots.
The zombie parrot was a Harbinger of bad luck.

Mommio: Civil War Journals

The date is September 18, 1862 and your soldier is lucky to have survived the bloodiest one day battle in the history of America. The Battle of Sharpsburg (Antietam) in Maryland had 23, 000 casualties and although your soldier survived, he was wounded in battle and is now in a makeshift hospital tent being treated by Civil War nurses. Your soldier takes time while he is healing to write a journal entry.  He can write about the battle, or at least what he remembers of it and he can also write about his wounds, and what it is like in the hospital tent.  Think about what your soldier must have been feeling (physical and emotional) on this day in history.  You can use information you have learned in our Civil War Unit Study this week and/or research online for more ideas of what it was like. Each soldier will earn 10 points if their journal entry is completed by Sunday night.

Daddio: Blog of the Day 2

Creative writing time!  I'm going to give you something called a writing prompt and you are going to write a story around it.  A writing prompt is a "story starter" -- something that you have to start your story with, but where you go from there is up to you.  Your story needs to be five paragraphs long.  No mythology.  No unicorns.  You can have as much dialogue as you want, but paragraphs of mostly dialogue don't count towards your paragraph totals.

Here's your story starter:

My head was pounding with a terrible headache, so I sat down on the park bench and rubbed my eyes.  When I opened them there was a strange little girl wearing an old-fashioned dress and a scarf over her hair.  She flashed a peculiar smile and said, "I have to tell you a secret."

Daddio: Blog Of The Day 1

You asked for it, you got it.  Max wanted to know about the Eiffel Tower.  Is it just a giant lego sculpture?  Is it a transformer waiting to transform and rule the world?  We know it's in Paris, France-- but where is it in Paris?  When was it built?  And by who?  And why?  And who paid for it?  And how tall is it?  And what would happen if you tried to hang glide from the top of it in a giant kite?

Look, I could answer all these questions for Max, but I've been really sick the last week and I'm busy.  So I'm giving the responsibility to you.  Using your online sources (Factmonster, Google, etc.) I want you to research the Eiffel Tower and write a report.  Your report has to be three paragraphs long at a minimum.

BUT HERE'S THE MOST IMPORTANT PART:  Your report has to be written for Max.  He's your intended audience.  So make sure you're writing it on a level that he'll understand.

Mommio: Word Challenge

Write a sentence for each word.  

Anyone who can come up with a complete sentence that makes sense for each word gets a dollar!

goad- (verb) to prod or urge

Denise goaded her sister Leigh into running the marathon with her.
gratis- (adjective) free, costing nothing

The college students swarmed around the gratis buffet in the lobby.

harbinger- (noun) precursor, sign of something to come

The groundhog's appearance on February 2 is a harbinger of spring.

*all words, definitions and sentences are from the Kaplan SAT Vocabulary Prep Level 1.

Gabe: Tree Planting

Yesterday we all went to Ziker preserve to do Tree planting with the Discover Green group and it was run by Austin Tree Folks.  When we got there I got to be a leader and that means that I would lead our group and help people with planting trees. I was leading the group with Matthew, he was one of the kids who started the Discover Green. Then we went and planted trees.
First you dig the hole to the length or width of the plant.

Then you put it in the hole then bury it. Then we put a stake in the ground and a tube to protect the plant, then you put tags on.

Gabe: My Photo

These are some photos that I took of the outdoors.

Marney: Word Challenge

Fracas
I made a big Fracas with Johnny because he ate my food.
Garner 
The farmer Garnered his vegetables for the winter .
Glowered 
I Glowered at Stacy because She glowered at me.

Mommio: Art Class- Constructed Sculpture

We finally returned to our art lessons using the Artistic Pursuits curriculum and today's lesson was about building a constructed sculpture.  To learn about this we took a look at one of the most famous constructed sculptures in the world, The Statue of Liberty.

The Statue of Liberty was built in the mid-1800's by French Impressionist sculptor Frederic-August Bartholdi and was presented as a gift from France to America on the 100th birthday of American Independence in 1876.

Bartholdi used an interior steel framework (or armature) covered with sheets of copper to make the exterior sculpture.  Copper sheets are a soft form of metal so they can be easily molded.  But they are too light to hold themselves up so the armature was needed.Today the kids practiced this same principal by making paper mache sculptures of people.  The paper strips are like the copper sheets, not strong enough to hold themselves up but easily shaped.  For the armature the kids used toilet paper tubes, making a stronger structure.First they cut a head shape out of the top of one toilet paper tube.  Then they connected the two tubes together to create height for their sculpture.  

Next they rolled some dry newspaper into tubes for the arms and connected them to the top tube using masking tape.

Then it was time for the paper mache!  Messy and lots of fun- just mix some flour and warm water together to make the glue, cut strips of newspaper, dip them in the glue and apply them to the sculpture until it is completely covered.

Our art book had a great tip for impatient kids- instead of waiting days for these to dry we just put them each in the microwave for a few minutes and they came out dry and hard as a rock.  Caution though, a few of them were cooked a little long and were smoking when we pulled them out.

The kids applied an undercoat of gesso to their sculptures.

And when that was dry they got very creative with the acrylic paints.

They added finishing touches, including crumpled tissue paper for hair.  Here they are- loved this project!