The Sun and the Moon

A friend sent me these pictures in an e-mail.  I really admire photographers who are this creative!  I have tried to do things like this (making it look like my husband had the Disney castle in his hands, etc) and it never quite works out.  Have any of you taken a really amazing picture?  If so, please post it here!

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Harris Burdick Mysteries- Finished!

The fourth graders helped to solve the mystery of several unfinished stories.  The Harris Burdick Mysteries is a book with several beautiful pictures and captions.  The story goes that Harris Burdick created these pictures with captions to show a publisher, but never returned to the publisher’s office.  Each of our fourth graders took one of the pictures and finished the story on behalf of Mr. Burdick.  Check out thier stories below, they did a great job:

The Seven Chairs by Chloe

Another Place, Another Time By Mellenie

Captain Tory By Delphia

A Strange Day in July By Izze

Uninvited Guest By JJ

Under the Rug By Ian

Mr. Lenden’s Library By Davis

The Harp By Ellyzabeth

Just Desert By Ellen

The House on Maple Street By McKenna

Archie Smith, Boy Wonder By Nick

The Third Floor Bedroom Window By Amelia

Oscar and Alphonse By Phoebe

Missing in Venice By Tamara

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Live Eagle Cam

 

Recently I was made aware of a live eagle cam that is online courtesy of The Raptor Resource Project.  The Decorah Eagles may be viewed 24/7 from atop their tree at the fish hatchery in Decorah, Iowa.  At the moment, you are able to view both the mom and dad eagle, as well as two babies that have hatched.  I do not believe the third egg has hatched, but this should happen soon.  The Ustream page has other links to videos showing the egg laying and hatching, which fortunately cut out the boring parts as one hatching event took nearly 24 hours.  Other information is provided about the nest and eagle pair on this site, as well.  I find it fascinating that their nest weighs nearly 1 1/2 tons!  I have become quite addicted to watching this family, please post your observations below.

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The Red Pyramid, Finally Finished!

No one was happier than I to be finished reading The Red Pyramid!  Mrs. Adams and I had planned to be finished with it by Christmas, so finishing it mid-April with all the grades seems excessive.  Now, don’t get me wrong.  It is not like I disliked the book, quite the contrary.  I really enjoyed Riordan’s humor and the content present in the story.  I really thought, however, that he became a bit wordy toward the end. 

That being said, any number of you could have easily read this book in a week, so if you are interested in the sequel, I have it on good authority that it will be available on May 3rd.  The next installment in the Kane Chronicles trilogy is called The Throne of Fire.

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Cadenism Update

This goes out to the fifth graders (especially Jacey) who have patiently waited for a good Cadenism story.  I finally came up with a couple of new ones:

1.  He was telling me about his school day, and mentioned ‘workshop.’  He said, “I’ll tell you what workshop means.  Well…you do work, but don’t exactly shop.  That’s workshop.”

2.  He calls his student teacher Ms. Seal, Ms. Sea Lion.  Always…he consistently refers to her as Ms. Sea Lion.  I asked him tonight if she liked that, and he said “Well….probably not so much.”

3.  He discovered his first loose tooth today, and said he wanted it to come out ‘automatically’ when his dad offered to take it out with pliers.

If you enjoyed these, there are older stories posted on my blog.

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EL Ideas

As students are receiving letters from Mr. Weiler regarding changes to the Broken Arrow EL Center (Mrs. Adams’ reassignment), they are expressing very good ideas to help maintain the excellence of the EL program in SMSD.  If you have a good idea that you would like to express to administration, please post it here.  Also, feel free to post ways that EL has impacted your life, and well wishes for Mrs. Adams.  She will be greatly missed.

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Doodle for Google- Exciting News!

Interested EL students submitted Doodle for Google entries for the Theme “What I’d like to do someday.”  A gallery of EL submissions is featured below.  Click on individual doodles to get a better look.  Mrs. Adams and I were very proud of everyone’s efforts.

We just received word that out of over 100,000 entries in Doodle for Google nationwide, Jesse DeBok, one of our second graders, was one of 400 state finalists!  He was one of only two Kansas winners at that level!  Evidently he did not make it to the regional level, but he will receive a t-shirt and certificate for his efforts, and his artwork is featured on the website.  Way to go, Jesse!

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Good Books to Read

I think that since everyone is reading good books, that we should put the names of good books that we read on comments so people can learn about new books and start reading them. So, then, everyone will spread good books around. but, please don’t post the endings of the books! Don’t give it away! Start posting!

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Brian Selznick is Coming!

If you loved The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick, chances are you will love his latest book, Wonderstruck.  This is a graphic-novel style book about two deaf students from different generations who must go to a school for the deaf in New York.  The pictures show the story of the girl beginning in 1927, and the text describes the boy’s experiences starting in 1977.  It sounds facinating.  I am going to get to meet Brian Selznick tomorrow at the Plaza Library when he presents on his new book, and I plan to get a copy for the center.  I e-mailed your parents about it, so hopefully I will see some of you there!

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I Hate Shakespeare

Don’t be misled by the title, this is a pro-Shakespeare post. It is the title of the Hocker Grove play this year though. Basically it’s a giant medley of Shakespeare plays with a twist. I am privileged to get the third largest role as Macbeth. For those of you who don’t know the story of Macbeth, I play a power-crazed general who becomes overcome with greed and ends up killing the king and his sons to take over the throne. He ends up being killed by Macduff in an epic sword fight at the end. I told you there were twists right, well, the epic sword fight scene is being done using lightsabers. Anyways, you should all come to Hocker Grove’s production of I Hate Shakespeare, its in the last week of January.

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Short story, part ten

READ PARTS ONE THROUGH NINE FIRST!!!!!!!!!

After the death of our king, the war stopped. The enemy went around, throwing knights in the dungeon, making slaves of the rest. The man who about killed me became the new king, and Crystal the new queen.

                I was about to be put in the group with the slaves, but then a voice rang out.

                “Wait! She is one of the knights!” Crystal yelled.

                The men looked surprised.

                “Are you sure?” One of the thicker men yelled back, confused.

                “Yes, she is the one who almost ruined our plan! Throw her in the dungeon for now, I’ll deal with her later,” Crystal snapped.

                “Yes, my queen,” They said instantly, not wanting to risk the dungeon

                They grabbed me, and shoved me down into the dungeon, then shoved the door shut after me.

                As my eyes adjusted to the dark, I saw a familiar face.

                “Master York!”I cried out, surprised.

                 “They made the mistake of putting us in the same dungeon cell,” He chuckled. “I am already working on a plan of escape,”

                I leaned forward, eager to hear.

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Short story: Part Nine!

READ PARTS ONE THROUGH EIGHT FIRST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cleo was badly injured! You could see that the sword went through her hand, and I could not tell if the king was alive or dead. I panicked.

                “Master York!” I cried out, as loud as I could. I heard footsteps, and then Master York appeared. He looked around, and without a word, picked up Cleo and the king.

                “Wait! Do not take them to the healer! The men said she was spying for them, she is a traitor!”I exclaimed.

                “I have suspected such for a long time,” He responded in a grave voice, setting them down. I watched as Master York tore down the nearest tapestry, cut it in to strips with his sword, and wrap them around Cleo’s hand.

                “I will put herbs on it later,” He said. He then moved over to the king. He pressed his thumb against his hand, feeling for a heartbeat.  He looked at me.

                “May he rest in peace,” Master York said.

                   I stared at the kings’ dead body, in shock. The king is dead. The castle has fallen.

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Word of the week 12/15/2011

 

abrade

\ uh-BREYD \  , verb;

1.  To scrape off.
2.  To wear off or down by scraping or rubbing.
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Different ways to say gooodbye

Say goodbye in different languages, post them in comments (especially German). No repeating!

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Story part 8, Johanna

READ PARTS ONE THROUGH SEVEN FIRST!!!!

 

They looked surprised.

“Crystal was supposed to kill you!” The leader said, confused.

Crystal? Crystal is the healers’ name! Before I had time to think about that, he charged. I sidestepped, taking him by surprise, and disarmed him. I hit him on the head with the hilt of my sword, knocking him and one other out. I faced him, ready to knock him out, when I heard someone say my name.

“Johanna!” Cleo called from around the corner. “Come back!” She rounded the corner, and cried out. The remaining man used my distraction to sneak up behind me, and then attacked me. I whirled around, and tore his sword from his hand, flinging it away.

“Ah!” Cleo cried.

I turned around, and the sword was imbedded in her arm.

Cleo passed out, and I screamed.

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Winter Sledding

I have the best hill right in front of my house and it is awesome! There are a couple of trees, but the space between them is big enough for you to sled. When I first started sledding, I was really scared because you could go really fast. It goes down on the sides, so I went on the shorter part. I had a lot of fun, but the snow kept on getting in my face. After I went sledding, I went home and drank a HUGE cup of hot chocolate! Now I go on the highest part of the hill and go down the fastest board I have. The only bad part about the hill is that there is a street right below it, so if you go really fast then you literally fly off of the curb and hurt your bottom REALLY bad! It is a lot of fun so you just instead start laughing.

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A Tragic Day

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lots of ways to say hi

say hi in different ways ever time you comment

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Favorite Memes

 

(MEEM)

For those of you who do not know a meme-as it is commonly known- is a thing on the internet that has reached a lot of people and then became a well known symbol. This is most commonly accomplished on youtube. In this post I will in detail describe a few.

1.Chuck Testa

  • medium:youtube
  • Actual meme: NOPE! Just Chuck Testa with one of his realistic
  • Name of Video:Ojai Valley Taxidermy Commercial
  • How it Goes: Chuck Testa goes around setting up and hiding behind taxidermized animals, then someone screams “There’s a bear in my bed” etc. and Chuck Testa pops out and says ‘Nope, just Chuck Testa with one of his realistic mounts.’

 

Thank you for reading this weeks issue of Favorite Memes

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