Friday, November 18, 2011

The Dinosaur’s Poetry Book

This week I will tell you about my books, poetry, and science.  So sit back, relax and enjoy my blog. 

Now first I will tell you about science.  In science this week, we were studying dinosaurs.  For the project, we took clay, and molded it into a 1” high 5“-6” wide circle.  Then we took hard boiled eggs and hit them with spoons to make them have cracks in them.  After that, we took the cracked egg and pushed it into the clay to make it look like there was an egg there.  Then we took a plastic pterodactyl toy, and pushed it into the clay.  It was supposed to look like a dinosaur coming out of it’s egg.  The impressions didn’t turn out so well though.  It sort of looked like it was supposed to.  After doing the clay, we were supposed to have that clay as a mold, and then mold a dough into it, but it didn’t work well, so we ended up just keeping the mold. 

Now, I will tell you about my books-again.  I am still reading the Ga’Hoole series.  I am on the 6th book!  I finished one book in one night!  I recommend this series so much!  Though the books are the best, the movie I would not recommend.  It cuts out many important things,  and if you have not read the books, it would not make sense.  But enough about the movie, time to talk about the series!

The series is about a band of owls who want to become guardians.  But before they do, they will face many battles.  There is a group of owls called the Pure Ones.  The Pure Ones are trying to take over the world.  They are enslaving the minds of owls with metal things found in pellets called flecks.  The flecks can make an owl’s gizzard still, and it looses it’s will of anything.  They are deadly.  Now the Pure Ones have taken over the largest stock of flecks!  Will the small band of “soon-to-be-guardians” owls save the entire owl kingdom? Or will the Pure Ones rule?  Read the books to find out.

Now since it is near the time of Thanksgiving, in poetry, I wrote a Thanksgiving acrostic poem.  Here it is, hope you enjoy!

Thankful I am for
Having a wonderful family
And for the toys that I have
Nice friends
Knowledge of so much
Songs stories and books
Gifts given and received
I am thankful for the seasons 
Vivid
Imagination
Now I thank
God for all he has given me

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
 My cornucopia brownies
Photo Gallery
being silly
Baby reading science :-)
Baby in a box!
Baby showing me her game
pony rides :-)

‘till next time, bye!

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Ga’hoole owls, stamps, bats, and one wild dog!

This week‘s blog is going to be really fun for me to write, and really fun for you to read.  This week’s topics are listed above, but I will list them again:
           
           Ga’hoole owls
           Stamps
           Bats
           One wild dog

I always like to save the best for last, so I will tell you about my stamps first.  I wanted to make an official stamp for our club.  I got out a piece of craft foam and started working.  I first cut out a 2” by 2” square.  Then I cut out four tear drops.  After that, I cut out a pear shape.  Last I glued them all together with tacky glue.  Together they formed a paw print.  I am reading a new serious about owls, (I will tell you more later) so I wanted to make an owl stamp.  I cut out a large square.  I cut two circles-eyes, one diamond-beak, one tear drop-wing, won crescent moon shape-body, one large out line of circle-head, two cone-with-out-point shapes-legs, and two more diamonds-feet.  I then glued them all down with tacky glue.  The two stamps worked perfectly!  I love them!
 my pawprint stamp

 my owl stamp

It is now time to tell you about Ga’hoole owls.  I am reading a new series called the Guardians of Ga’hoole.  It is the best series ever!  It is like a movie in your head, no joke!  The first book, I started to read at lunch time.  And I read it all the way to bed time!  I finished a chapter book in one day!  The next two I finished this week also.  I achieved a goal!  It was a goal because we are going to watch the movie: Legend of the Guardians, Owls of Ga’hoole.  And the movie contains the contents of the first three books.  We are going to watch it tonight! I am so exited!

In poetry I wrote a  limerick about one of the Ga'Hoole characters:
There once was an owl named Twilight
He wore battle claws and then took flight
There was no mission
He was to be missing
That courageous Great Gray owl name Twilight.

Here are pictures I drew of some of the Ga'Hoole characters:
Soren - a Barn Owl

 Twilight - a Great Gray

 Gylfie - an Elf Owl

Digger - a Burrowing Owl

I also made some owl masks!
 Barn Owl, Snowy Owl, Great Gray, Spotted Owl

Now, I hope you love reading about our science experiments and our after play time for science. Am I right?  Well they are my favorite to write about, so here goes.  Now this week’s experiment was especially fun!  We were learning about bats this week, so we did a bat experiment.  We took 20 cotton balls, and 20 things that had a smell -good or bad.  Some of the things were: vinegar, vanilla, toothpaste, and much more!  We put one of the smells on one of the cotton balls.  By the end, each cotton ball had a different smell.  Each of us picked a smell.  M.S. picked a peppermint smell.  M. picked a banana smell.  And I picked the vanilla smell.  Then, one of us got blind folded.  M.S. went first.  She had to find her pup -a baby bat- in all of the nursery.  She picked up each cotton ball smelling it carefully.  When she found hers, we all smelled it and agreed. 
There were a couple of mistakes though.  Good thing that mother bats don’t make mistakes, or else they would end up taking care of the wrong baby bat!  I went next.  I smelled each one.  When I smelled the vinegar, uh oh!  I went berserk!  I wonder if mother bats do that? 
 
Then M. went.  He kept picking up his and putting it back.  We all laughed!  He also would keep picking up the wine smelling pup, or the vinegar smelling pup!  It was hilarious!  Afterwards, the blind fold began to smell like vinegar! Yuck! 

Now I will tell you about the best!  After the science experiments,  we all went into the large open room.  We tried to think of what to do.  While thinking,  M.S.  started running on all fours growling!  M. tried to catch her.  While he was doing that, I ran and got a scarf.  Then I closed in all openings.  It was like a bullfight!  We used the scarf as a rope.  We got blankets to use as nets.  We closed in a space with chairs.  Then it was time to lure her into it.  Once in, we closed the gap between the two chairs, locking her in.  Unfortunately, she found a way to escape.  She went strait for M.!  While attacking, I forced a blind fold on to her.  Man!  It was hard!  We were fighting a blind folded wild dog!  We made plenty of noise to distract her.  While I went one way stomping, he went the other way saying: “over here!”  We each had a blanket/net.  We then threw them over her, wrapping her up.  I tried to wrap the scarf around her leg.  Then bang!  She was up and running!  And I was being dragged against my own will!  Then, it caught! The rope caught!  Yes!  I pulled and pulled.  We managed to get her into her “cage”.  We did this many many times.  Then, the dreaded doorbell!  They had to leave. L  But I plan to invite them over this weekend! J

Photo Gallery

We're bats!

Making cookies for the Feast of Pope St. Leo the Great
We tried to make lions and papal mitres, but the dough
was very soft to work with, so the cookies turned out 
a bit funny looking, but yummy!

telling secrets :-)
birds in a nest
Well, ‘till next time, bye!

Monday, November 7, 2011

Parties & Elephants

Hi everybody! Now if you all enjoy reading my blogs, you are going to love this one! I have had two really big busy weeks! I don’t even know where to start! This blog is going to be a bit longer than normal, so sit back, relax, and enjoy!

Ok. This week I am going to tell you about many topics. They are:
Faith and Fun Girls Club
Poetry
All Saints day party
Science
Halloween party
Elephants sorry state
Feather explosion!

Wow right? A lot more topics than normal. I am going to start with the Faith and Fun Girls Club. Now this month is dedicated to the poor souls in purgatory, so for our get together this month, we made posters. The posters showed at top heaven, in the middle, purgatory, and at the bottom, earth. We glued pictures of the deceased in the middle (purgatory) and we glued saint holy cards at the top (heaven) and we put pictures of us, family members, and other living people at the bottom of the poster (earth). We cut out “help” signs and glued them so that it showed that the souls in heaven help the souls in purgatory and on earth and that the people on earth help the souls in purgatory and each other. It was really fun. Then, we ate homemade donuts! The donuts represented soul cakes. Back in old England, they “trick-or-treated” begging for soul cakes and sang a song and in return, they promised to pray for the souls of the dead of the house. The donuts were delicious! (my mom and I had made them and they were just finishing cooking) They were still hot when we dipped/ drowned them in sugar! After that, we all just talked and had fun. I loved it!

Next I am going to tell you about poetry. I have been reading a series called Poppy. I wrote about the first book before. And I had just finished one of the books when I had to do poetry. Now if you read or have read Ereth’s Birthday, (I highly recommend) than you will understand this. Anyway, here is my poem:

Marty the Fisher
Marty the Fisher waits around,

body lowered to the ground.

waiting for the porcupine,

saying in his head “you're mine!”

I hope you enjoyed it. It is called a couplet. I also wrote another poem, but I admit I like the first one best. Here is my other poem. it is a ‘trouble’ poem.
The trouble with dinosaurs I think,
is that they’ve all died out, become extinct.

Now to tell you about the Halloween party I went to. There was a Halloween party I went to on Sunday. My baby sister, and my mom went to it also. First there was a parade that we went in. It was small, but it had free candy thrown at you so I was happy! Baby had a blast! She is going to think that every time we go for a walk she will get dessert and get to dress up as a peacock! I was a genie. Since this was my last year trick or treating, I wanted to sew my costume. I did however have help from my sewing teacher. After the parade, I went and worked the popcorn and lemonade stand. Afterward I felt like a machine from all of the scooping popcorn into a bag and putting the bag in to the bucket. I did that for an hour! Anyway after the parade and after the popcorn came my favorite part, the movie! They showed Rio at the party on a big blow up screen it was really cool. My dad came and brought a blanket, but it was still freezing! We had lots of popcorn bags, and cups of lemonade!

Now for the All Saints day party. We didn’t go trick or treating this year because I was going to an All Saints day party. And I am glad we went because I had so much fun! I went as Saint Anne and my friends went as the Holy Family -their baby brother going as Jesus.- We all stuck together. Some really fun games were there. There was one game that you squirted a paper devil with water. Then there was a game called manna from heaven. There were small donuts tied to a pole high up. The goal of the game was to eat the entire donut -with your hands behind your back-keeping it attached to the string. it is a lot harder than it seems. M.S.(my friend dressed as Mary) won the game by like two seconds! We also played a game called crown Mary. It was just like pin the tail on the donkey. The boy running it turned the person around, and then put him/her facing in the wrong direction! I ended up almost pining the crown onto the girl behind me! There was also a cake walk! I won the first time! The last thing we did was participate in the pumpkin carving contest. I won a certificate that said ‘most imaginative” my carving was of a Bible with roses around it.
Baby was Our Lady of Guadalupe
My pumpkin

And now I'll tell you about the elephants sorry state. This week in history, we have been learning about Rome and Hannibal’s elephants. For our project, I chose to make a paper machie elephant. But as I started to paper machie it, the head, (with ears and trunk) was too heavy, and it started to fall. I tried desperately to even out the weight but nothing worked. Soon, the head was beginning to break off of the neck. Then completely. It was a very slow, painful death. I watched in agony. Then as if to make the situation ever so much worse, the poor elephant’s ear fell off. It appears that that elephant did not survive the war. Tune in next week to see if the elephant’s surgery was a success.

Yesterday, I was enjoying the lovely weather in our back yard and was casually walking through our trees, tossing bird seed on to the ground. Our yard was full of chirping, and the morning dew on the grass gave a wonderful fragrance to the air. I was filling the bird feeder with seed when I saw a pretty bird feather only about a foot away. I went inside and got a plastic disposable cup and came back out. I gathered two sticks, and used them as tongs to grab the feather and place it into the cup. I started going in the direction towards the pepper plants, when I saw a few more feathers of the same type scattered here and there. I used the sticks and picked them up, and put them in the cup as well. I also found a cardinals feather which I collected as well. I started walking back when I saw it. I ran towards it. I stopped. I stared. Right in front of me, was at least a hundred feathers-down feathers, and contour feathers- scattered on the ground. I heard a bark. A black dog was heading my direction. I took a couple of steps back. The dog walked right past me, over the feathers, and into another persons back yard. I was hoping that the dog did not get in a fight with the bird, though that might have happened. I gathered all the contour feathers that I could. then I started towards the fence on the opposite side of our yard. When there, I found a blue jays feather. I thought this must be my lucky day! I found about ten other blue jays feathers. Some were about five inches long! Wow right? I dumped all of the feathers into a hiding spot. I wanted to be able to find them again. Then my mom called me for science.

Now to tell you about science. In science, we started a project. We took an egg, and candled it. That means we shined a light on it that allowed us to see the yolk and the air cell. We had to make an educated guess on if we thought the yolk and the air cell would get bigger or smaller and how long we thought till it would start to smell. After that, we tried a couple other egg related experiments. One was we would hold an egg by spreading all force evenly around the egg and then squeezing. It did not break. Next we took an egg and broke away about a quarter size hole. After that, we took out all the yolk. We then carefully rinsed it out. Then we put our finger in. We could feel the air cell! to me it felt like Jell-O.

I have saved the best for last. After science, M.S. and M. and I all went outside. I showed them my feather collection, and then we went out front trying to decide what we should do. It was M.S. who came up with the idea to pretend we were wolves. We all agreed. The next step was to find where our den would be. I went inside to get some water. When I came back out, M.S. and M. had a den all picked out. It was perfect! And it had two sections. The den was located in my front yard, under a red bush. The under side of the bush formed what seamed to be like an umbrella. The other section was surrounded by low green bushes. Inside the circle of green bushes, there was one tree. We now had a den. We played for a while. We “hunted” leaves. We pretended that old tomatoes were little animals. It was so much fun! We decided to make a club out of it. When we saw their mom drive in to the street, we howled, -showing danger,-and raced through a secret path into the den. It turns out that the red tree is so long, and droopy, and the bushes so thick, that we are perfectly hidden! So their mom walked up to the door. My mom came out and said “they must have run to the back when they saw you coming” We had to try so hard not to laugh. This went on for about one and a half minutes and then we raced out! It was so fun! Then they had to leave. I was sad, but next science day, we can do it again!

Photo Gallery
Baby's 2nd Birthday - I gave her this unicorn
Making bread for our Ancient Rome unit
Science Lab - Making mud for our nests
Found a Bluejay feather
Our nests
comparing chicken & cow bones - Yuck!
comforting Baby
Till next time, bye!