Avery: Weekly Blog #2

The Nice Boy

By Avery Jones

     There was a little boy who always made promises to do things for others.  And he kept those promises, but went through them one at a time.  He would always promise to help cook, clean, build, and hunt.  One day he promised his friend he would help him prepare for a festival.  When it came to that day he had also promised his mother he would bake the bread for the festival dinner.  He decided to bake the bread first and then take it when he had to set up.  While making bread his father asked him to help clean house as a gift to his mother.  He said yes.  But when he was about to he remembered that the bread was going to burn and he would be late too help with the festival.  He didn't want to upset anyone.  He helped clean and then took the bread, slightly burnt, to the festival. It seemed he was late and didn't make it to set up. People were upset and he promised he would make it up to them.

Moral: Do not attempt too much at once.

7/16/12 Weekly Blog Post #3

Oh man.  What's going on with her?  She looks pretty upset.  For today's blog post, I want you to write a tragic story about the picture above.  A tragedy is "a drama or literary work in which the main character is brought to ruin or suffers extreme sorrow, especially as a consequence of a tragic flaw, moral weakness, or inability to cope with unfavorable circumstances."  Your story should be at least three paragraphs long, but of course you can make it longer if you want.

7/16/12 Weekly Blog Post #2

Read the following fable:

The North Wind and the Sun: by Aesop

THE NORTH WIND and the Sun disputed as to which was the most powerful, and agreed that he should be declared the victor who could first strip a wayfaring man of his clothes.  The North Wind first tried his power and blew with all his might, but the keener his blasts, the closer the Traveler wrapped his cloak around him, until at last, resigning all hope of victory, the Wind called upon the Sun to see what he could do.  The Sun suddenly shone out with all his warmth.  The Traveler no sooner felt his genial rays than he took off one garment after another, and at last, fairly overcome with heat, undressed and bathed in a stream that lay in
his path.


Moral: It is better to use persuasion than force.


Aesop wrote a bunch of fables, which are very short stories meant to teach an important lesson or moral.  Often, the characters in the fables would be animals or -- in the example above-- forces of nature.  You can read some more examples here.


For today's blog post, I want you to write your own fable.  You should think up a moral that you want to write about first, then find a way to make a story to show the importance of that moral.  Like Aesop, your characters should be animals or forces of nature.  If you're having trouble thinking of a moral, reference this list.

7/16/12 Weekly Blog Post #1

For today's blog post, I want you to write a report explaining who Anne Bonny was.  I'm not going to give you any information other than the picture above.  Use your regular sources to try to research her background, then write a four paragraph report on some aspect of her that you find particularly interesting.

Marney:Weekly Blog Post #3

     The Case Of The Banana Gun

By Marney

     I was taking a break from copying papers about a murder.  Then it hit me, a rock, it hit me through the window, it really hit me.  When I looked out the window no one was there, then that's when I got worried.  I ran to my boss who was sitting in the coffee room, which is where he always is.  I told him about the rock hitting me smash in the face story.  So he got really mad.  That I was bugging him at his coffee break but he still went outside to see if something happened.  I went with him because I was the guy that got hit in the face, not the guy that threw the rock.  Then a monkey ran out from behind the building and started hitting us with rocks.  I noticed that the monkey had a banana gun in his pocket and I reached to grab it but I just couldn't.  Then me and my boss started running up the stairs to go to the coffee room.  I think my boss was very scared.  I told my boss that I saw a banana gun in his pocket and that I did not know if it was fake or real because it looked real.  Then we both heard a gun shoot off.  We need to figure out who that monkey really is.
      I ran back home and got all the copies put in folders and wrote more about banana guy because I thought I knew who he was.  Then I looked online to see who the banana guy was and it had a whole page about him but no real name or his name could be banana guy because that is all they are saying online.  Then I went to the office and went outside to where we got hit, I did not see the monkey but I did see the banana gun.  I picked it up and said to myself, this will be a piece of evidence.  When I got back in the office no one was there so I sat in the coffee room and looked at the gun.  I was thinking why would it be a banana gun, why would it be a monkey, this is all very crazy.  Then I heard a tapping like a little girl running everywhere.  So I went walking around the office.  I saw the monkey.  I put my hand in my pocket to grab the gun and it was not there so I ran as fast as a turtle and I grabbed the gun, cocked it and then said, "Do not make me shoot!  Take off your hat and tell me who you are."  Then the monkey ran away.  I saw him again, shot him and I saw who it was.  No big deal, the guy who murdered someone last week,  I do not care about him.  Then I go home and start reliving a normal life.

Gabe: Weekly Blog Post #3

    The Case of the Banana Gun

by Gabe

      It was late at night in Central Park.  A man in all dressed in black walked up to another man in black in the dark and took a banana gun from him.  Then the man walked up behind a lady who was jogging and shot her in the head.
     Detective Jeff Jerry was having a good morning until he got a call about a murder in Central Park.  He called his partner, Detective Chris Smith, and they met at the crime scene.  When they got there they saw Ms. Ken Joneses dead body.  There was a bullut hole in her head.  There was a Banana Glock siting next to her.
     They talked to John Jen, a  witness, he said he saw her at the Apollo last night.  They got in their car and poorly drove to the Apollo.  When they got there they talked to the ticket guy.  He said that the night was all normal.  She was there and went in with nobody came out with nobody.  The detectives drove to the gun shop to see who bought the gun.  When they got there they asked and the man said it was Chief Tommy who had bought the gun, he was their chief.  When they heard that, they drove over to the police department.
     When they got there the chief ran out the door in to his car and drove.  When they caught up with him they bonked into him with their car.  That didn't work so they had to shoot his weel out.  When they caught him they charged him for murder and sent him to jail.

Phineas and Ferb Science: Training Termites

Today we watched episode 3 of Phineas and Ferb,   The Magnificent Few.  In this episode the boys wrangle a cattle stampede and while we really couldn't think of any cattle science we were interested in trying out, the evil Dr. Doofenshmirtz was also busy in this episode training termites to eat everything in site.  That brought up the question of whether termites can actually be trained to do something...and guess what...they can!  We ordered this great termite kit from Carolina science supply and got to work learning about termites and how we could train them to follow a set trail.  We learned that termites communicate with each other through the use of pheromones, chemicals they secrete that leave behind a scent.  This is how they follow each other to find food.  We also found out that the ink in common Bic pens contains a chemical that will trick the termites...so we used that to train the termites to follow trails.  First we had to get the little bugs out of the container they came in and into a small cup.  This was NOT easy.  But eventually we had enough in the cup to use for our test.

For the first trail test we traced one side of the Y shaped trail with a Bic pen and the other side with a crayon.  Then we let the termites free to roam on the paper.  After a little confusion they picked up the scent and starting to walk on the Bic trail...they paid no attention to the crayon trail at all.

For the next trail test we made two right angles, one with a Sharpie and the other with a Bic.  The test was to see if they would follow the Bic trail and also to observe whether or not they could/would take a 90 degree turn. They did!  We also learned from this one that some of the termites pick up the scent better than others, those ones tended to follow the line more exactly.

The final test was all in Bic ink, but the trail was broken.  Did the termites manage to follow the trail even though there was a gap in it?  Yes, after a few tries they did!

So today we learned that termites CAN be trained, and with a little work we think we could train them quite well to go anywhere we want.  Avery's advice to Dr. Doofenshmirtz for next time- gather all the Bic pens in the tri-state area and start drawing! 

Avery: Weekly Blog #1

       Madagascar is an island country in the Indian Ocean, near Africa.  It also has little, tiny islands around it. The capital of Madagascar is a small (but still the largest in Madagascar) city called Antananarivio.  The population in Antananarivio gets only as high as 2,001.
       The most common language used in Madagascar is called Malagasy.  There is Eastern Malagasy and Western Malagasy.  For the very educated in Madagascar, some can speak French and English.  The main language used to be French when France took control of Madagascar for a while.  But that was a while ago.
       There are many games played in Madagascar (and I do not mean video games).  The most popular is Moraingy, a type of hand-to-hand combat.  It is mostly played men.  But lately women have been getting more interested in it.  It is a lot like kung fu, but a little bit different.
       There are many animals in Madagascar.  But the one with the biggest population there would be the lemur.  There are thousands of different types of lemurs.  For example; Bamboo Lemur, Black Lemur, Dwarf Lemur, Mouse Lemur, Ringtail Lemur, etc.  One that I found interesting is the Brookesia Chameleon. It is one of the worlds smallest reptiles.  It is just a bit bigger then an inch.  About and inch and a half.  There are very many interesting things about Madagascar.

Connor: Blog of the Week #3

The  Case of the Banana Gun

By Connor M. Jones

       My name is Albert, a monkey at the local zoo.  I was born and raised to understand sign language in the zoo.  I got my start as a detective soon after I turned four years old.  The case was the smoking banana, or banana gun.  If you had told me before the case started that a banana could be deadly, I would have laughed at you.  Now it seemed my favorite food had become a weapon.  The zoo was located in London, not far from the scene of the Jack The Ripper murders hundreds of years ago.  I looked for my stuffed animal, a toy the zoo keepers named Watson.  Watson was a reward for solving the mystery of the missing animals which I solved earlier.

     I got to the scene of the crime in a few moments.  It didn't take long considering that the crime scene was in the zoo itself.  I saw a corpse of a Galapagos Tortoise, the murder weapon was lying a mere walking distance from the body.  It was a gun, but it seemed more like one the user would have to hold in its mouth.  After all I was the only animal in the zoo to have thumbs and hands.  I looked around at the different animals with large canines and mouths.  I talked to the dingo first and added him to my list of suspects.

      Almost no one had an alibi, and when they did it was a hard one to believe.  I went into researching the gun some more.  For it might have been able to tell me something about the culprit.  Unfortunately the gun helped none.  Thus I had to go under cover into the zoo's bar, for "adult animals"  in order to get the truth.  I heard the leaders of three gangs.  Leon, the head of the lion gang,  Baskerville, leader of the canines gang, and Alucard, leader of the flying mammal gang.  Alucard was a bat, a vampire bat to be more precise.  Baskerville was a black furred wolf named for a Sherlock Holmes story.  Baskerville and Alucard were the best known criminals in the zoo.  Alucard was rich, making money by selling blood donated by the weaklings of the zoo.  Although he could not stand cold blood or a waste of blood.  Baskerville on the other hand was known for selling furs and shells and even teeth on the black market.  A dog whose very path was coated in blood, he lived up to his namesake by murdering the folks he hated and selling their fur and teeth.

        It wasn't either of them though.  After I left my spying plan I returned to my cage where he was waiting for me.  He wasn't anyone who was in the bar to begin with.  It was my archenemy Ludwig  the Puma.  Ludwig hated my guts only because I was the only monkey who stood up to him.  I said to him "Well Ludwig.  I'll admit I didn't suspect you at first.  Although I will admit when I put it together it made since."  He smiled a grin of triumph, like a cat catching a mouse. I knew that he was a freelance criminal, he peddled objects to and from different gangs to make a profit.  He was wearing his usual monocle and still grinning stupidly.  I grabbed the tire swing and threw it in his face.  He fell to the ground hurt, but not damaged too badly.

    As I placed him in handcuffs he was only able to say "Round and round the merry go round the monkey chased the weasel."  I guess he thought he could weasel his way out of this one.  I turned him over to the zoo keeper who took him to a solitary cage.  A big cage all his own with no other animals to harm.  The End

Gabe: Weekly Blog Post #1

     Madagascar  is off the coast of Africa.  Madagascar was called Malgalsy Republic.  It is now called the Republic of Madagascar.  It is the fourth largest island in the world.  It split from India 88 million years ago.A nickname for Madagascar is Great Red. During the summer in Madagascar it is hot and really rainy.  
      The first Austronesian people came on canoes from Indonesia.  They are one of the poorest countries in the world.  Most people in Madagascar only earn 1 US dollar a day.  They have a lot of vanilla beans and vanilla is one of their main sources of money.
     There are 200,000 types of animals in Madagascar.  Ninety percent of the animals there aren't found anywhere else in the world.  The animals that were on that part of India came on the island and grew in isolation. That is why 90% of the animals aren't found anywhere else.
     Lemurs are one of the main wild animals in Madagascar, they only live wild in Madagascar.  An Aye Aye is an animal that resembles a house cat and they only live in Madagascar and it is an omnivore.  A Fossa is a carnivore and is like a Bobcat.   A Tenrec is a herbivore and is like a Hedgehog.

Mommio: Art Class- Christo and Jeanne-Claude

Art that makes a BIG impact...land art....environmental sculpture!  That was our focus for our Artistic Pursuits class today.  We learned a bit about a famous European art duo, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, who have traveled the world creating amazing, large scale, temporary art installations.  We looked at three of their installations by watching videos from youtube.  The first one is Reichstag done in 1995, the wrapping of the German parliament building in Berlin, Germany.

Next we look at The Gates, an installation of  7, 503 bright orange gates in Central Park, New York City in February 2005.

And then we watched one more video clip of the artists discussing The Umbrellas, in installation that took place in both California (1,760 yellow umbrellas) and Japan (1,340 blue umbrellas) in 1991.

After being inspired by the couple the kids split in to two groups and developed plans for their own environmental sculptures, including sketches, written plans and material lists.  We'll be taking time to install these next week.  Here are the artists and their plans:
The Spoon Forest
By Connor, Gabe and Kiki

The Idea: Hang 150 orange, red and yellow plastic spoons from Nana and Popo's fish deck trees.
Supplies:  150 plastic spoons (orange, red, yellow), string (LOTS), red electrical tape, scissors, ladder
Steps: 1. Throw ball of string over branch.
2. Cut to height.
3. Tape both ends of the string to the spoon.

Walking Up The Trees
By Mason, Avery, Marney and Max

The Idea: Put big footprints going up the trees in Nana and Popo's backyard.  The prints will be made out of hot pink and baby blue poster and then attached to the trees with staples or nails.  Each tree will have five sets of footprints.
Supplies: foot patters, hot pink (10) and baby blue posters (15), scissors, staple gun, staple, ladder
Steps: 1. Cut out the foot pattern on the posters.
2. Attach the footprints to the trees.

Connor: Blog of The Week #2

Merin's Haiku

By Merin The Bunny

I hop all day long.

Through the morning and the night.

I love to hop here.

I feel hungry now.

Oh look some delicious food.

Now I would like out.

I wish to be held.

Let me out of this cage now!

First put the dogs out!

Mason: Weekly Blog #2

Merin
By Mason


My name is Merin

Carrots are my favorite

I want out right now 

Family is good

They let me out of the cage

They like to play now

My house is so great 

I am about two months old 

I love my new home. 

Mommio: Art Class- Calder

Alexander Calder (1898-1976) was the subject of our Artistic Pursuits class today.  

Calder is one of the most famous American modern sculptors and was the creator of the mobile- a kinetic hanging sculpture that is moved by air currents.  He was also well known for his stationary sculptures and work with wire.  His kinetic mobiles remind us all of much of the artwork we have seen at the Benini Sculpture Ranch in Johnson City.

He began his career in 1923 while he was attending art school in New York.  He was inspired by a circus that he saw while there and started to make small models out of wood and wire portraying the circus.  We watched this interesting video of Calder "performing" his circus in 1955.

Then the kids created their own Calder mobiles.  They cut shapes out of cardboard and painted them in bright primary colors.

While those were drying they connected two wire hangers for the top of their mobile.

Then they poked holes in the colored shapes, tied yarn to them, chose their placement on the mobile hangers and tied them on one at a time.

Then we hung them up- we'll be enjoying these for a few weeks in our school room!

Mason: Weekly Blog Post #3

     The Case of the Banana Gun

By Mason

     In New York there was a murder and the police called Detective Connor.  Connor looked at the body and saw that it was shot with a gun in the chest.  Then he talked to the witness.
      The witness said that he saw shadows of two people.  One of them shot the other with a gun that looked like a banana.  The detective looked around the crime scene and found some more clues to who it was and where he will strike next.
      The name of the killer was Josh and he was going to strike at the mall at 8:30.  The detective got there at 8:20 and he saw Josh and tried to stop him.  He chased Josh but Josh shot him with the banana gun and killed the detective.  The End

Phineas and Ferb Science: Build A Beach

Today we finished up our Phineas and Ferb: Build a Beach science class by doing this model beach experiment we found on Science Buddies.   

Step 1: Cover the bottom of a paint roller pan with 5 cups of sand.

Step 2: Build a small beach with most, but not all, of the sand at the shallow end of the pan.

Step 3:  Slowly pour 5-6 cups of water into the deep end of the pan.  Let the water and sand settle for 5 minutes.

Step 4:  Take a picture of the beach so that you have a record of how it looked.  Note where the shoreline is.  The shoreline is where the beach and the water meet.

Step 5:  Lay a pencil horizontally so it is floating in the deep end of the water, along the beach.

Step 6:  Set a timer for 2 minutes.  Start timer and quickly bob the pencil up and down in the water with your fingertips to create waves.  At the end of 2 minutes, take a picture of the beach and compare to your first picture of the shoreline.  Repeat wave procedure for 4 and 6 minutes, taking pictures and observations each time.

After 2 Minutes-

After 4 Minutes-

After 6 Minutes-

Step 7: Empty and clean pan, then repeat steps 1-3. 

 Step 8: Make a mound of 2 cups of gravel in the middle of the shoreline to create headlands.  The headlands should be partly in the water and partly on the beach.  Take a picture to show your shoreline.

Step 9:  Measure your shoreline to the edge of the pan and record measurement. (10 inches)

Step 10:  Place pencil in pan and repeat step 6.  Measure the shoreline each time.
After 2 Minutes- (11 inches)

After 4 Minutes- (10 1/2 inches)

After 6 Minutes- (9 1/2 inches)

***What did the kids learn from this activity?***
"The longer the waves hit the beach the smoother it becomes."
"Waves form beaches."
"The waves take sand back with them into the ocean, changing the shoreline."
"When there are headlands the waves go higher up on the sides of it because the water goes around the headlands."
"Waves eventually wear down the headlands and make it more even with the shoreline."
"The waves cause tide pools to form on the beach."

Avery: Weekly Blog #3

The Case of the Banana Gun

By Avery Jones

       I was sitting in my office at my desk.  It was a slow day, nothing happening at the time.  There were a few interviews I had done earlier that day, but they were for interns.  I was bored, tired, and had nothing to do for the rest of the day.  Until three o'clock p.m..  There was a loud boom coming from the break room. Sounded like a gun going off, but not exactly.  I had my gun in my hand and my hat on my head as I slowly walked into the break room.  There, laying on the floor, was a banana.  Gun.  That's right, a banana gun.  It wasn't a real banana of course.  It was metal.  It looked new, but dirty and worn down at the same time. Next to the gun was a man that I have not met before.  His head was shaved and large.  He looked to be around six feet tall and near two-hundred pounds.  He had been shot in the shoulder.  I assumed with the gun next to him.  He was knocked out on the floor.  He seemed to have fainted when he was shot.

       I called for help, but no one answered my yells.  I walked out of the break room and closed the door behind me, leaving the lights on.  I didn't want anyone messing with the man until I knew he was okay.  I yelled one last time for the nurse.  She came running towards me with fear in her eyes.  She signaled for me to keep quite.  So I did as she said, believing something was wrong.  I took her to the break room and as I opened the door I saw no man in the room.  The gun was moved to the counter next to the fridge.  There was small drops of blood around the floor and on the handle of the gun.  The blood wasn't there before.  I looked around the room, checking every corner for clues.  But there was nothing but the gun and the blood to help us.  I called the sheriff, who had left for lunch an hour ago.  He answered with a laugh.  I told him what had happened and that we needed people over there as fast as possible.

       I took the nurse to her home and let her off of work for the rest of the night.  She was traumatized after what happened.  She was a very paranoid person.  She watched very many horror movies and shows.  She would check around her house every day to make sure no one was going to get her.  Everyone thought she was insane, but after what happened that afternoon, I would understand how she felt. 

       I went back to the office to find policemen scattered throughout the building.  Searching and blocking off rooms and halls.  I went to talk to my friend who helps me with my cases I get.  He was short and skinny. Very young for a detective.  His name was Johnathan, but I called him Joe.  His hair was thick and curled.  I thought of it to be strange, how he looked.  But he was a very nice boy, and never pulled any tricks on anyone.  He told me they found a dead man in the interview room and didn't know who he was.  I thanked him for the information and left to see the man.  He was one of the interns I interviewed that morning.  He had short, flat hair that was colored black.  He was tall and wide.  He had an arm that had been removed two years ago.  I looked at him very closely and found a bullet hole in his left leg and in his chest.  I propped him up and looked in the pocket of his shirt.  There was a note.  I unfolded it and read away.

3:30
Bring the weapons.

---J

     For a second I thought this so called "J" was my helper Johnathan.  But I knew that he was gone at three thirty.  He was at lunch with the others.  I took the note to my desk and studied the hand writing.  I didn't recognize it a single bit.  Every other word had a different font.  I gave it to Joe for him to study.  He didn't get too many jobs around here.  He mostly went on coffee runs and helped me out every now and then with the littlest things.  He seemed happy to have a big job for once.  I went to examine the banana gun.  There were little finger prints.  They seemed to belong to a person with small fingers.  I took the blood before it dried and it turned out to matched Johnathan's.  I didn't believe it, I couldn't!  I had to bring Joe in.  I talked to him and it turned out he did kill the men.  He had a list of things that upset him.  One of them being tall people.  When he was a child he was bullied and made fun of for being short.  We put him behind the bars and ended his madness.

THE END

Marney: Weekly Blog Post #2

Merin
by Marney


I am so happy 

I just got here it's so cool

But those stupid dogs 

I can sleep all day 

And hop around at night yeah

 I can drink water

I am Merin and 

That's why I am a bunny

I'm loving it, bye

Gabe: Weekly Blog #2

   

Merin
by Gabe

I wish I had food.

I really really want hay.

Look at those carrots.

Can you get me out.

Hey I would love to come run

That carpet looks fun.

Run Merin run run

I can't stop running around

Don't put me away

Avery: Weekly Blog #2

My Good Life
By Merin Jones

I run in circles

and tear up the newspapers,

it is kinda fun.

I am so social

I want out of my small cage

I want to play too!

I like to wonder

what's in the cage above me,

I have no idea.