Qualities of Excellent Memoir

Qualities of Excellent Memoir, originally uploaded by kmuhtaris.

After we studied memoirs the students came up with a list of qualities and behaviors that contributed to excellent memoir writing. This is their list that I compiled after several days of immersing ourselves in the genre. Students have a copy of this in their notebooks so that they can refer to it often.

Dogs

by Jordan

Poet's Corner

Dogs

Dogs are good loyal friends

They are there when you are

Weak

Lonely

Or even

Friendless

You can cuddle them

Hug them

Kiss them all over

As they kiss and slobber

All over you with their

Lemony rough, but soft tongue

You giggle a little

Sit

Stay

Good dog as you give them a

Treat

As they wag their tails rapidly

They smile at you

All dogs are

Different

Small

Medium

Big

Not just the size matters

But also their personalities

Each dog has a trick or two up

It sleeve

Each dog has a very

Special

Job

Some dogs are serious

Some dogs are goofy

Some well nobody knows

Dogs are different

Shape

Color

Each on has a place in

Your

Heart

Laughter

by Alex K.

Poet's Corner

Laughter is happy,

or it can cover up sadness.

Laughter can hurt.

It can feel good,

Or bad.

Laughter is a smile

bright with confidence.

It’s a tickle,

a song,

a rhythm flowing

into

the

air.

It is being inside

on a rainy day.

It is warm,

like sunshine.

It can make you feel

good.

Laughter is the

EVIL LAUGH

of a mad scientist

discovering a new concoction.

It is a sad laugh,

when you leave somebody

who is dear

to your

heart.

Laughter is a peacefulness,

yet a disturbance.

It is

laughter.

From Draft to Publication

From Draft to Publication, originally uploaded by kmuhtaris.

We’ve been writing, writing, writing, and it’s finally time for students to begin thinking about publishing. The path to publishing can be a long one. We created this chart to help us think about all of the steps that we need to take in order to get to final published piece. We also talked about the fact that something isn’t truly published until it’s been shared with the audience it was intended for. Students also created a chart that details what they think readers need from a final piece of writing.

Publishing Opportunity

Scholastic Write It accepts student submissions for writing.

Hey Friends!  I just found this great opportunity for on-line publishing.  Scholastic has a web page where they will post all different genres of work.  Click on the picture above to read the submission guidelines.

Making Memoirs

image from S.Shubitz at Two Writing Teachers

We’ve been working on drafting memoirs in class.  It’s not easy work for most adults or kids.  Writing a memoir requires the writer to look deep into themselves and their lives and write with truth and emotion.  In order to get a taste for the different ways that we can write a memoir we’ve been reading lots of memoirs in class.

A collection of Memoirs by famous authors.

Using mentor texts allows students to immerse themselves in the ways that a genre can be written. Today I read a memoir called “All-Ball” by Mary Pope Osborne that appears in a collection of memoirs by famous authors called When I Was Your Age. Students were riveted to Osborne’s story of her deep relationship with a ball that formed just as her father was being sent for a tour of duty in Korea.

I also shared a series of drafts I had written about the time that my husband and I got our dog Plato.  We discussed each draft and how the choices the author made improved (or didn’t) each draft.  I hope to share some of our published work in the coming weeks!

View this document on Scribd

From Your Notebook to Draft

From Your Notebook to Draft, originally uploaded by kmuhtaris.

This is the chart that we created today to help us go through the process of pulling ideas out of our notebooks to draft. I showed students how I read through my notebook marking two or three entries that were jumping out at me. I asked them to pick a seed idea that was really begging to be told right now!

Strategies for Generating Narrative Writing

Strategies for Generating Narrative Writing, originally uploaded by kmuhtaris.

In Writer’s Workshop we ask students to choose their own ideas so that their writing is personal and meaningful. This can be quite a task for students who prefer to be told what to do! I support students by giving them a variety of strategies to generate ideas that they can go back to during the year.

Slice of Life Challenge Winners

15 students participated in the May Slice of Life challenge and 13 of them wrote for all 31 days of the month.  Here are their favorite slices, and in some cases poems, from last month’s challenge.

The murmur of voices packs the classroom, hardly leaving any breathing room.  The sky is an empty, spacious blank colored stretch, luckily muted by the twenty-eight stained-glass windows that fill the window of our classroom.  A friend speaks in a hushed voice, and another sighs in relief that the school day is almost over.  Despite the weather, the classroom is buzzing and kids sprint past the others sprawled along the ground in odd shapes.  A circle of boys scoot close together, eager to share a piece of writing they had just written, expecting a chorus of laughs.  I wonder if any of the girls will find it funny…suddenly, their voices hush and they listen intently to the read-aloud books that is slowly unfolding its pages to us.  Who knows, maybe slices of our lives are being unfolded to each other through writing…it’s hard to know for sure.  -Emmy

A muffled sharp shriek

My toe hits fur and teeth run

I stepped on the cat

A land of pictures

A field of words lays down straight

Discover a book

Moving tree shadows

some grasses wave in the wind

trees are growing leaves.

-Avery

As I flip the page, I cannot help but feel happy.  I cannot explain the jittery feeling that builds up as I read these fantastic books. Each character is unique in their own fantasy way.  I flip another page.  The books are addictive.  I remember when I first thought the books were rubbish, I thought they were lovie dovie and gushy mushy.  But as I read the first book of the sagas,  I found that they were truly a work of art.  They had everything.  I flip another page.

As I get to the end of the book, I feel just like Edward when he is torn away from Bella, it feels so sad for the series to end.  It feels like I have had my whole family taken away from me.  I feel stunned and I can’t believe that the series is over.  All of the books, all of their mystery, horror, adventure, and romance…gone.  I finish the books.  As I silently weep I realize that I can read them over and over again. -Evana

I sit on my friend’s front porch with my friend and her mom.  We eat popcorn and the only sound is the “crunch” of our teeth colliding with the food.  Leaves swirl in place, as if they were a whirlpool in the air, and a slow breeze runs through my hair making everything smell like spring. Birds hop about and dusk is gradually closing up the day.  I fell the cool wood under my hands and the aftertaste of popcorn still lingers.  I sprawl out on the porch, tasting, smelling, hearing, and staring into the nearly dark sky seeing blue, blue, blue.  -Maddie

An Ode to Hamburgers

The grill cooks your raw self,

I hear your sizzling zestiness

held by two

buns,

you’re put on the finest

of plates.

Laying next to you

pickles and fries

you look good enough to eat,

So,

I will.

Your crunchiness and your softness go together perfectly.

Meat, meat, meat

I love it.

You are a perfect meal,

and now you are in my stomach.

-Elyssa

Kitty Cat

I clicked on the video that Connie sent me.

It was a cat dancing!

It was funny and disturbing at the same time.

I laughed and laughed, it was just too silly.

It was just like Connie.  Now I watch the video when I need a laugh.

-Anna

A pride of lions

trek towards

a red sun with BIG

purple clouds hanging over it.

People with

green bodies

and purple hair

run from them

across

rippling

waves of green.

-Teagan

Gardening is my favorite thing to do. I love to watch things grow.  We are going to plant a garden in my dad’s back yard.  I can’t wait.  It will be sooooo much fun.  When we pick flowers for our garden, Anthony my brother picked orange and yellow flowers, I picked purple and white petunias.  My dad also got us gloves.  I can’t wait to watch the buds start to bloom.  -Alyssa

I rush downstairs

as fast as the

wind.

I start tea,

cut the toast,

toast the toast.

“Ding!”

It’s finally done.

I rush upstairs

with it on

a tray,

put it

over my mom

and

say

“Happy Mother’s Day!”

-Connie

Shots and fainting
“Okay so squeeze this ball so you won’t feel anything okay?” the nurse says. I take the ball and observe the room. I see a bed, containers, and needles. I squeeze the ball as tight as I can and I begin to take many deep breaths. The doctor scent fills my lungs and I shut my eyes tight not wanting to see the needle, which always made me nervous.
I open my eyes and the nurse ties a rubber band thing on my arm. Then she puts rubbing alcohol on my arm and starts to look for my vein. The nurse digs around in her pocket and pulls out a sharp needle and begins to poke my arm to find my vein. I look horrified at my arm as blood begins to come out.
Then something weird happened to me I felt dizzy, my head hurt, and I felt like I was going to throw up. I tell the nurse what was going on and she immediately stops. She gets an ice pack out of the fridge and water and hands it to me. The nurse tells me to go lie down with my mom in the other room. I lay down on the bed and my mom holds my hand and sits down next to me.
My mom tells me to take deep breathes and I do. I hear footsteps coming into the room and I see the nurse standing in the door. My mom walks over to her and they begin to discuss something. The nurse leaves and I take a sip of my water and take a couple more deep breathes. Minutes passed and finally the nurse comes in with a rubber ball, a needle, and a container, and many packets of rubbing alcohol.
The nurse put the ball in my hand and tells me to squeeze it. My mom tightly grabs my hand while the nurse rubs alcohol on my other arm. I shut my eyes and take many deep breathes letting the doctor smell into my lungs. Then I begin to feel pain on my arm but I don’t dare to look and I keep my eyes shut. The pain kept on feeling worse and worse I wanted to scream but nothing came out.
I lost track of time of how long my eyes were closed maybe two minutes was my guess. The nurse finally says you can open your eyes now. I open my eyes and look at my arm there’s a Band-Aid where the nurse poked me I look at the other arm and I also see and Band-Aid. I get up and see a container full of blood in the nurse’s hand. I get a couple more sips of water and lay down for a couple minutes.
After a couple of minutes my mom says it’s time to go. I wasn’t feeling so nauseous anymore. We say thank-you to the nurse and we start to head home.

-Alejandro

Videos

I open my phone.  Then I hold down the button with a picture of a camera.  I press the okay button to ignite the recording of a video.  The slow bumps of the road bounce our family up and down.  I aim the camera at my mother sitting in the seat in front of mine.  “This is my mom in the car, ” I day.  Then I start her theme song. “Da, Dada, Da,Da,Da….”  In the background my brother is screaming, “I wanna be in it!”

I suddenly say, “ow, ow my eyes…it’s too bright.”  The light from the sun glared into my eyes and was overwhelmingly bright.

-Connie

We watch from the bench as our steal works.  But then, the game ends fast.  The third base coach sends the man home. (He hasn’t read the text book.  It says no stealing home!)  The game ends when Bricen goes home and when he has to go back..everyone is yelling at him to go back.  But he doesn’t stop, not until the other team has the ball and the head coach is running from first base screaming.  He is tagged out.  Cardinals 6, Rays 3. -Max

“Go Cubs!” I yelled as the Dodgers almost scored against us.  The Dodgers at Wrigley Field.  It’s the top of the 9th, seven to zero, Cubs in the lead.  They gave us a few close calls but in the end they won and we got to sing “Go Cubs Go!” -Cole

Young Author’s Celebration

Young Authors’ Time

A Rainbow of Books

The Young Authors’ Books are complete.  Sadly, they are too extensive to post here on our site so you’ll just have to stop by and check them out in person.  Congratulations students on all of your hard writing work this year!  Check out our photos from our celebration.

Poets’ Corner

Me and My Dog in Pilsen

by Elyssa

It’s a sunny weekend

and I’m with my father

his new pitbull puppy, Luna.

I lean against the wall

Then I smell it,

baking bread

A wonderful aroma.

A man sells food in a small cart,

children are playing,

I see beautiful graffitti art.

I look down at Luna’s

black and white

face.

I love my Luna

People around us do too,

they are petting her

She’s the bow WOW!

My fathers comes

we walk home

with the scent of baking bread

following us.

We Are All Human

by Evana

We are all  human.

one leg,

one arm,

one eye,

one heart.

No matter what, we are all the same.

We are all  Human

dark skin,

light skin,

medium skin

Who ever said a Negro couldn’t play ball?

We are all human

glasses,

skinny legs,

smart answers,

all me should be created equal,

as said in the Declaration

we should ALL be free.

We are ALL human.

Slices of Life that reveal something about the author…

Milo by Avery

Our cat, Milo, was sprawled out in front of me; calm and relaxed.  Suddenly, his head shot up, ears flat back.  Had he heard something?  Had he smelled something?  Then the relaxed expression returned to his face. and he curled his paws under him, his side moving up and down, up and down, up and down.

Milo curled up next to my shin.  He had one paw draped over his face.  I put my ear on his side and listened to this purring.  It was as loud as a thunderstorm.   I put my hand on his side and could feel the vibrations.  He lifted his head with his eyes still closed.  Then he opened one at me, and flopped down into his original paosition as if he were sleeping.

I laid down next to Milo and glanced at the clock.  9:35! I’d better get to sleep, I thought.  I turned off the lights and snuggled against Milo’s bottom (which was the part facing me at the moment.)  He looked up with a slight case of bed head, and then lay back down, using his paw as a soft, furry pillow.  I patted his back and drifted into a dreamless sleep.

Flying by Willem

Dad, Oma, Opa, and I had just gotten on EVA airlines to fly from San Franciso to Taiwan, with a connection in Jakarta.  We found our seats and I got one with a thing like a TV remote with a lot of buttons, levers, and switches.  I pushed every button, pulled every lever, and flipped every switch.  (Wouldn’t you?)  The seat went back, the footrest came up and the lights, TV, radio, and fan came on.  Unfortunately, the stewardess also came.  After dad had finished talking to the stewardess and yelling at me I pushed every button, pulled every lever, and flipped all the switches again…carefully avoiding the stewardess button.  I decided I had a pretty cool seat.  But when I saw that the seats on wither side of me had all those luxuries too, I didn’t feel all that special anymore.  Especially since the seat next to me had a blanket and I didn’t…I reached over and swiped the blanket before anyone noticed.

Blood by Connie

I ready myself, waiting for the puncture.  They put the rubber band on my arm and find the vein.  I yelp!  They take off the rubber band and insert the needle.  I stare and watch as teh clood escapes my body and floods the thin, skinny tube.  It flows into a thicker tube with a red lid on it.

“Connie you don’t have to look at the needle,” my mother says.

I look away.  The I slowly turn my head back to the needle.  The nurse is filling a third tube.  I can see two tubes filled with blood lying on the tray.

Doesn’t my blood like a warm body?  Shouldn’t it stay where it wants to be?  Maybe it does want to go into those fragile cold tubes, which coould break any second if the doctor drops them.  I wonder.

Finally the nurse takes a thread pad out of a paper/plastic wrapper and puts the pad on top of the needle.  She slowly slithers it out of my skin.  I feel a tiny sting as the last needle gets pulled out.  My arm is sore..but at least I lived through it.

Africa’s Children

Children in African countries like Uganda work hard for a living.

by Emmy

A rooster crows off in the distance, the sound echoing through her ears, promising a weary and work filled day. Eyelids fluttering, she groans and rises from the rag on the floor she just slept on. Slowly, she shuffles out of the house and watches the sun rise. She looks around and she sees other children, younger than her, preparing for the day. Grace Simokali knows her future just by what she has experienced in her life so far. A day of work is all she has ever known, and after a few hours of school, work is next on the list of the day. She lives in Africa, a deprived country. She desires the things she needs most in life, such as enough money and food. In some parts of Africa, there is very little water, and children have depressing home lives. 46 million African children have never set foot in a classroom, and ones who are able to go to school can only attend for a few years. The education of children is considered secondary in some homes, as household chores are more important. African children desperately want to attend school.

Even if they could go, the nearest school is miles away. Imagine walking for hours to get to school. Today in the U.S., children can get in the car and be at school in only a few minutes. Today in Africa, children walk for miles to get to classrooms that can hardly be called classrooms anymore. Some schools are in very poor conditions. The windows and doors are broken, and many schools do not have electricity or working toilets. In Zambia, Africa, Grace (age nine) and her younger sister Misozi walk for an hour and a half to get to their school. Grace is lucky to be able to go to school, though. Many girls have to drop out of school for various reasons. Some are forced to work around the house, doing tasks such as collecting water or cooking. Boys are allowed to go to school and learn while girls are not. Twenty percent girls cannot read or write, and a mere four percent girls receive secondary education. In Africa, collecting water is another household job. Water is far away and heavy to carry, and usually the girls go to collect it.

Some children have to walk for miles to get water. In fact, a family of many children must walk for two kilometers each day to a river. This family gathers about 140 liters of water. The water is used for household needs such as drinking, cooking, washing, and feeding animals. Hauling water is dangerous for children’s bodies. Some children carry water on their heads while others carry it by hand. Since girls are usually the ones who carry water, some have back and neck problems later in their lives. In addition, in many African cities, families have trouble finding water. Large areas in Africa have no access to running water, and are forced to buy water from private vendors who sell water at high prices. This water is not very clean, but the families have few options. Drinking water is not always fresh and sanitary, and the children who drink dirty water may have terrible problems with their bodies and nasty infections from drinking it. One infection you can get from drinking unclean water is called Vibrio Cholerae, or Cholera. This is an intestinal infection spread through polluted water. It causes diarrhea and can lead to dehydration and death if help is not provided quickly.

As you can see, Africa’s children have very difficult lives. Millions of children live on only one meal a day, and many are forced to eat grass and roots in order to survive. It is estimated that 50 million Africans are facing a famine today. Some special companies are helping these people. These companies like “Compassion” send animals to families in need living in poor countries. Through these companies, people living in the U.S. can send money to the families who need help. Poor families rely on animals to survive. For example, a dairy cow can give 120,000 glasses of milk in a year, chickens provide eggs and meat, and a pig can produce as many as twenty piglets in a year. These sorts of animals help people meet necessary needs, such as food and clothing. They also give them a sense of achievement! Other companies ask people to sponsor a child. There are many people who send money to these children. Helping families in need dos not require special talents or reputations-anyone can sponsor a child.

The sun sinks behind a hill in the distance, and the sparkling moon rises. She huddles on the rag she sleeps on every night, and her eyes feel heavy as they sink down over her eyes, awaiting the crow of the rooster. That will signal the start to another long day.

A Healthy Frog is a Happy Frog

A pile of frogs.

All You Need to Know About Frog and Tadpole Care

by Avery

The light brownish tadpole with four stubby legs slipped into the shimmering water and off the slippery lily pad.  Caring for tadpoles and frogs may be fun and educational, but it can be hard work too.

Frogs and tadpoles require different types of care.  For example, tadpoles swim in all water.  Some frogs live on land and water.  Frogs eat insects.  Tadpoles eat vegetables.  To prepare food for tadpoles, boil some lettuce for 10 to 15 minutes and put it in the freezer in a baggie.  The tadpoles will eat a pinch of the lettuce every couple of days.  They also might eat meat and other vegetables, depending on the type of tadpole.  When they  get older and bigger they can start eating small  insects and bloodworms. Live is best.  For their time as tadpoles, they can use a variety of things as tanks,  ranging from fish bowls to garden ponds.  When their legs start developing, some breeds will need easy-to-climb-on ledges. Other strictly aquatic species will stay in the water their whole lives.  Tadpoles are most comfortable with ¾ shade on the water.

All tanks need to be humidified and secured against escape.  An all glass tank with a clip on top will always keep a frog in.  Different types of frogs need different types of tanks.  There are three main kinds.  Aquatic, semi-aquatic, and terrestrial.  Aquatic and semi-aquatic tanks need clean water, aeration, and a 60-70 degree farenheight water temperature.  Smooth pebbles can be put on the bottom and floating islands can be helpful to semi-aquatic frogs because they can climb on them.   Terrestrial tanks are all land tanks with a water dish “pond”.  They have pebbles, sand, soil, or a combination of some.  For decorations, rocks and potted plants are ideal.

For food, frogs usually eat insects.  Some eat plants and some even eat mice and small mammals.  Frogs eat these insects.  Crickets, termites, mealworms, wax worms, wax moths, fruit flies, houseflies, blow-fly larvae, earth worms, silk worm larvae, and isopods.  And that’s only semi-aquatic and terrestrial foods.
Aquatic foods include scud, spring tails, aquatic isopods, tubifex worms, fresh frozen aquatic foods, and water fleas.

To sum it all up, frogs are a very difficult pet to take care of. They need the right foods and tanks, but can be lots of fun.  Stop by the pet shop, go to the library, or look on the internet for more information.

Airport Security

by Maddy

Scanning baggage is an essential part of security checkpoints around the world.

Imagine you are at the airport, waiting in a security line, you come to the front, and you see an airport worker dressed in his uniform, and slumped behind a desk. He looks tired and bored. There is a kid complaining to her mother that the line is too long and that she wants to go already. There are people sighing in frustration when the woman in front of them has to go back through the metal detector. The people in line look annoyed because they have to go through security. Everyone seems to act as if airport security is not important. But airport security is very important because it is meant to keep passengers safe, so other passengers don’t have harmful items on an airplane, and so no terrorists, criminals, or unsafe people board a flight.

Security Rules
To be on a plane, it is your job to know the airport security rules. You cannot take any weapons, poisons, or corrosives, meaning car batteries, acids, or mercury. You are also not allowed to take pressurized containers, flammable liquids, or explosives. If a passenger is found smuggling a forbidden object onto a plane, that passenger could receive an enormous fine or even be imprisoned. The rules do not only apply to what you bring with you but the also apply to what you say. For instance, if you speak the words “hijack”, “gun”, or “bomb”, then you could automatically be taken off of your flight, even if you are saying them innocently.

Security Machines
Security is very tight in airports. If someone brought a forbidden item on purpose or by mistake, there would always be security machines to check if there is anything dangerous in your bags. There is a machine called a metal detector, which all people must walk through in case they have any dangerous metal objects with them like a knife or a gun. There is also an x-ray machine, which has a conveyor belt for all of your carry-on items. The conveyor belt moves the items into the machine, and the machine lets security workers identify all of your items as organic, metal, and inorganic. It is important to find organic items because many explosives are made from organic materials. There is a larger x-ray machine that checks your luggage with the same system. Another way that an airport checks for dangerous objects is that they use k-9 dogs. K-9 dogs are dogs that are trained to sniff out bombs and illegal drugs.

Horrific Airplane Events
Airplane security helps very much, but sometimes, even with it, terrible events still happen. On September 11, 2001, a flight crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City. At first, it was thought that the crash was an accident, but when a second plane hit the same building a bit later, everyone knew that the crashes were a planned terrorist attack. A while later, another plane hit the Pentagon in Washington D.C, and after that, a plane crashed in to a field in Pennsylvania. It was found out later that the terrorists were heading to destroy the Whitehouse, but the passengers on board prevented that, so instead, the plane landed in a field in Pennsylvania. The nation was panicking, and it was horrified when the World Trade Center burned and collapsed with thousands of people still trapped in it. It was found that 19 people had planned the plane attacks because of their hatred toward America.
When you are getting a boarding pass, every person is asked if they packed their own luggage because in 1986, an Irish woman was found carrying 10 pounds of explosives. She did not know that the explosives were there, and she had said that her boyfriend packed her suitcase. All hand luggage is checked because in 1968, terrorists carried guns on to a flight and threatened to kill the pilot if he did not land the plane in Algiers.

Airport security is a very important part of traveling by plane, and the next time you feel impatient and annoyed when standing in a long security line, remember why airport security is so important, and what traveling by plane would be like without it.

Getting Published

Dear Students,

You are already published authors in Burley World.  Not only do you each have written work on this blog, but you have also made lasting contributions to our classroom library and to my distinguished writing files that will impact future generations of authors.  However, if you yearn to share your work with a broader audience I encourage you to consider submitting some of your writing to a childrens’ magazine.   Here are some links to resources for getting your work published.  Please see me if you are interested in submitting.

Launch Pad Magazine: an online magazine

New Moon Magazine for Girls

Creative Kids: The National Voice for Kids–magazine description  submission guidelines

Skipping Stones: Multicultural Magazine

Stone Soup: Children’s Literary Magazine

Loggerhead Sea Turtles

The Loggerhead Sea Turtle is on the endangered species list

by Aaron

Sea turtles are wonderful creatures, but they’re on the endangered list. This is because people are disturbing there nesting beaches.  We need to save them because they’re on the verge if extinction.  Scientist estimate that there are only 44,560 nesting Loggerhead Sea Turtles in the world.

The Loggerhead Sea Turtle is endangered because of predators, pollution, and human development in the Loggerheads nesting area, and fishing nets threaten them.  Furthermore motorboat propellers are frequently killing Sea Turtles.  Because of these causes nesting is declining on these important nesting beaches, and serious declines have been measured in the Pacific Ocean.

A female Loggerhead Sea Turtle may travel thousands of miles to were to the place the female Sea Turtle was laymen, and lay there eggs at that very beach.  A baby Sea Turtle normally hatches 60 days after being laid.  Loggerhead Sea Turtle females lay an average of 100 to 126 eggs per nest.  Baby Loggerhead Sea Turtles dig there way up, through the sand and wait under the last layer of sand and wait till it is nightfall and head into the Ocean.  Baby Loggerhead Sea Turtles mainly eat seaweed.

Loggerhead Sea Turtles eat horseshoe crabs and other animals with hard shells.  Loggerheads also eat softer foods like Jellyfish, fish, seaweed, and brown algae called sargassum.  Additionally they eat clams, mussels and other vertebra.

Raccoons and wild pigs dig up the Loggerhead Sea Turtles have to stay clear of sharks all their life, Loggerhead Sea Turtles are found world wide, but mostly in subtropical and temperate Ocean waters.  Loggerhead Sea Turtles live close to the shore, but they are still able to swim in open Ocean waters.  Small Loggerhead Sea Turtles spend 7 to 12 years traveling Ocean waters before returning to home.  The Loggerhead Sea Turtle is the most common Sea Turtle in the southeastern U.S.  Their homes are along the Atlantic cost of Florida, South Carolina and along the cost of the Gulf of Mexico.  In addition the east cost of Florida is one of the two mast important places in the world for Loggerhead nesting.

The loggerhead Sea Turtle is a beautiful creature.  An Adult Loggerhead has a reddish-brown carapace and a yellow plastron.  They game large heads and powerful jaws.  An Adult Loggerhead weighs 170 to 500 pounds and is up to 45 inches long.  Furthermore Loggerhead Sea Turtles are graceful salt-water reptiles, well adapted to their life under the Sea.  With stream like bodies and flipper like limbs.  Loggerhead Sea Turtles are graceful swimmers.  Scientist think that Loggerhead Sea Turtles can live 50 years or more.

The National Marine Fisheries Service is responsible for Sea Turtles in their marine habitat while the U.S Fish and Wildlife service has jurisdiction over their nesting beaches.  Both groupes help protect the Sea Turtles through the ESA.  A lot of reasherchers are learning more about the life history of Sea Turtles and this will enable those charged with protecting Sea Turtles to do a better job of ensuring that the Sea Turtles recover.

All in all Sea Turtles are one of the worlds true wonders of the ocean.  And they need our help.  So to find out more information about these wonderful creatures go to the following site.
www.Kids.nationalgeographic.com/Animals/CreatureFeature/Loggerhead

Marine Biologists: The Protectors of the Ocean

An Ocean scene

by Evana

The silent scuba diver swiftly swims into the dark parts of the ocean. Suddenly, like stars on a dark night, a group of bright moon jellies swim up to her. The work of a marine biologist has its beautiful sights but also its dangerous risks.
If a marine biologist was helping a great white, only a snap at her head could make her cower and then her operation would be blown. Their lives hang in a balance.Is this madness? No, it’s just the average life of a marine biologist.

For many years marine biologists have been the protectors of the oceans. They have been making great progress. Even though marine biologists are informing people that they should help marine life, some people just don’t want to hear it. In some parts of the ocean, millions of coral reefs are dying. This is because pollution has started to spread from polluted and garbage filled rivers. With all this garbage and pollution in the water, marine animals are getting sick and trapped because of plastic soda can containers and candy wrappers.

Another major pollutant is oil spills. Oil spills are caused by giant subs spilling out oil from a tank and into the ocean. The affect and consequences of this is horrid. Seagulls and other birds get caught in the sticky oil and aren’t able to fly. Marine life ingests the oil and get sick.

To fix this problem, marine biologists first hand wash the birds. Then they put a metal ring around the oil spill. Since oil floats on top of the water, the ring contains the oil to make sure that the oil doesn’t spread.

There is still pollution, plastic, and other things floating in the ocean even though marine biologists are still informing people about this sea problem. However, just because all these bad things are going on, that doesn’t mean that marine biologists are going to stop what they’re doing. Marine biologists have been going on strong for a long time. They are and always will be the protectors of the ocean.

The Atomic Bombs of WWII

A Plane similar to this one may have dropped the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima

by Cole

You have just dropped Little Boy. You wait a minute. Then a bright light fills the plane. You look back. A terrible cloud covers Hiroshima . . . the cloud. It’s boiling up, mushrooming. No one speaks for a moment and then everybody starts talking at once. You have just witnessed the result of the Manhattan Project.

The Manhattan Project was the making of the atomic bombs. It was the USA with the help of the United Kingdom and Canada. Most of the research was donated by J. Robert Ouk. However, they needed a place to research where scientists could gather without being noticed. They chose the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, but they did not build the atomic bombs there. They built the atomic bombs under a tennis court, in a secret underground bunker, also in Chicago. The reason that the atomic bombs had to be kept so secret was so that the enemy, Japan, would not expect the bombs. The first atomic bomb was known as Little Boy.

Little Boy was dropped on August 6, 1945. It fell on Hiroshima, Japan. After dropped, it took a minute to reach the point of explosion. Little Boy exploded at approximately 8:15 am (Japanese Standard Time). It was over what is now called the A-Bomb Dome at an altitude of 2000 feet. Did you know that most of the wind generated by Little Boy caused most of the damage to the city and people? And just 3 days later Fat Man fell.

Fat Man was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan on August 9, 1945. The plane, a B-29 Superfortress named Bockscar, dropped it. It was dropped at 11:01 am. It carried 6.4 kg (14.1 lbs) of plutonium 239. Seconds later it exploded. Six days later the Japanese surrendered ending World War II.
Over 120,000 people died due to the bombings and although the attacks ended the war, the decision to use atomic bombs is still controversial. This was the only time in history nuclear bombs were used to attack.

Insomnia

by Charlie

Insomnia is a condition that negatively effects sleep quality. There are three different types of insomnia. The first is transient insomnia, it causes similar symptoms as sleep deprivation and can be caused by other conditions.  Number two is acute insomnia.  It is the inability to consistently sleep well for a period of between three weeks to six months.  The third is chronic insomnia, it can last for years at a time. It can be caused by another condition.

People with chronic insomnia might have the following symptoms

• sleepiness

• muscular fatigue

• hallucinations

• mental fatigue

However, people with chronic insomnia often show increased alertness some people with the condition might see things as if they were happening in slow motion.   Now that you know about the three types of insomnia you can tell if someone you know has insomnia.

Insomnia can be caused by the following

• drugs

• hormone shifts

• social tension

• mental disorders

But unlike most conditions fortunately insomnia is mostly temporary.  In conclusion, insomnia is a tedious and pestering disorder that you might have but in most cases it does eventually cease.

Tigers Roar!

The White Tiger

by Vil

Rooooooooooooooar! You can hear the white tiger roaring.
Do you think if you go to a forest you see a tiger cub walking next to you that you can pet it? I feel sorry for you because the next thing happens is that the mother or father is there i say for you to run because you don’t want to be the white tigers pray, and if
you’re out of site I feel good for you.

White tigers are very rarely found in the wild. In about 100 years only 12 white tigers have been seen in the wild in India. They are all most extinct and most of them are living in captivity, mostly zoos. This specific tiger is neither a albaina nor a separated sub species of the white tiger. They are butifull white colored and have black stripes; it has blue eyes and pink quite nose. It also has white fur. The white tiger is born to a Bengal tiger that has the gene needed for white sub spiecies  coloring. A pure white tiger has no stripes and is totally white.

The striking white coat is caused by a dabble recessive in the genetic code, and only turns up naturally about once in every 10,000 births. Amaisingley the Bengal tiger in is the only which is seen to happen. As butiful as may it looks, life as a white tiger cant be easy when your life depends on being able to hide from or sneak on things.

White tigers usually stay in an area from about 10to 30 square miles where there is enough prey. Cover/shelter and water are needed to support them. Territory actually depends on the amount of prey available. The more conceited the pray the smaller an area white tiger needs to survive. White tigers in the wild live about 10 to 15years, while tigers in zoo usually live between 16 to 20.

Tigers do not hunt in social groups like lions. They are generanally solitary animals. In the wild tigers will eat pigs, cattle and deer. They can eat as much as 40 pound of meat at one time! After such big meal a tiger would not eat again for several days. White tigers have 30 large teeth ranging from 2.5 to 3 inches. White tigers are solitary animals except when carrying for there young. They will keep them for about 2to 3 years until the young can go hunt by their selves.

The Most Dangerous Creature in the World

Crocodile Smile

by Elyza

Have you ever learned about Big Dangerous, Scary Creatures before? Well let’s talk about how fascinating crocodiles are. Crocodiles are large aquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Australia. Crocodiles are similar to alligators and caimon. They have webbed feet, which allow them to make fast turns and sudden movements in the water. Webbed feet are an advantage in shallower water where the animas sometimes move around by walking.  Crocodiles are very fast over short distances, even out of water.

Crocodiles have not really changed since the time of the dinosaurs.  They are believed to be 200 million years old, whereas dinosaurs became extinct 65 million years ago.  There is more than one way to measure a crocodile’s age.  The most common method is to measure rings in bones and teeth.  Each ring corresponds to a change in growth rate, which typically occurs once a year between dry and wet seasons. Did you know that a male freshwater crocodiles at the Australia Zoo is estimated to be 130 years old? He was rescued from the wild by Bob Irwin and Steve Irwin after being shot twice by hunters. As a result of the shooting, this crocodile has lost his right eye.

Crocodiles tend to congregate in freshwater habitats like rivers, lakes, and wetlands and sometimes in brackish water. They feed mostly on vertebrate like fish, reptiles, and mammals. Crocodiles have a palatal flap, a rigid tissue at the back of the mouth that blocks the entry of water. Since crocodiles feed by grabbing and holding onto prey they have evolved sharp teeth for tearing and holding onto flesh, powerful muscles that close the jaws and hold them shut. These jaws can bite down with immense force, by far the strongest bite of an animal. The crocodiles bit force is more than 5,000 pounds per square inch compared to just 335 pounds per square inch for a rottweiler, 400 pounds per square inch for a larger great white shark, or 800 pounds per square inch to 1,000 pounds per square inch for a hyena. All crocodiles have sharp and powerful claws. They have limited lateral movement in their neck.

To sum up one of the most fascinating species (crocodiles). There are many ways to learn about these creatures. Some ways are going to your local library and check out books on crocodiles and wild life. You can also go to www.google.com and type in key words such as crocodile life, or the crocodile’s hunter. You can learn more on the crocodile hunter adventures and the wild life with crocodiles. I believe this will change your point of view about crocodiles. Who knows you might even like them and will stop being afraid.

Barbours’ Seahorse

A Seahorse

by Alexxis

Shhh, in the beautiful delicate ocean, a Barbours’ sea horse lie almost invisible. Make a move and there goes the shyest fish in the sea.
Amazing! The Barbours’ seahorse’s textures and body parts are unique in hundreds of ways. The shy seahorse has a head like a mighty intelligent horse, a pouch like a strong genetic kangaroo, and a tail like a jumping hyper monkey! The male Barbours’ seahorse is the only seahorse that has a pouch. Many creatures in the ocean don’t feed on the Barbours’ seahorse, maybe because of its difficult prickles all along its body can hurt the creatures throat.

The special seahorse’s prickles around its body protects it from all kinds of different sea creatures.  The Barbours’ seahorse moves very slowly so when predators are nearby they stay hidden and camouflage into their surroundings.  Seahorses are the only males to get “pregnant” with the young ones’ growing inside their bodies. When the female and the male meet with each other and the female is full of eggs, the female will put her eggs inside the males pouch. Barbours’ seahorses can have two to three hundred babies at a time.

An issue Barbours’ seahorses and other species of the seahorse kind is people are tanking seahorses’ and sending them to aquariums. The aquariums then sell them bleached to Chinese doctors so they can do traditional Chinese medicine. If the seahorse kind keeps on getting tanked up then sold bleached to Chinese doctors they would first become endangered, then extinct. In this time period they are not endangered but if the divers keep it up they will be.
Barbours’ seahorses feed on plankton and it is very easy for them to slurp away when they come in big clusters. Usually they come when a current comes by and since the clusters so big its not hard for them to slurp at the plankton. Most of their diet is plankton and not much of anything else.

To sum it all up, the Barbours’ seahorse is in danger and is close to becoming endangered, then extinct. By being tanked then sent to the aquariums to be sold bleached to Chinese doctors for traditional Chinese medicine.

The Aloha State

Black sand beaches are found on Volcanic Islands such as Hawaii

by Anna

Aloha!  That’s Hawaiian for hello and good-bye. Therefore you can be saying hi or see you later.  Hawaii may be part of the U.S.A but the Hawaiians have different cultures and a different language.  But the people of Hawaii do speak English as well as their own language, for example wikki wikki means hurry up.  Hawaii is a big tourist site and now you will know why.

Hawaii is made up of eight main islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.  So in order to get to Hawaii the flight is nine hours and two minutes long!  You might want to bring something to do on the plane so you will not get bored.  If you do get bored, once you see the sights that Hawaii has to offer!
In Hawaii they have a traditional party called a luau where they have men with sticks that have flames on both of the ends and they spin the sticks until they look like wheels of fire!  Another thing that is in the luau is a traditional dance called hula where there are girls and women who where grass skirts and flower necklaces called lei, the dance tells stories about really important times in Hawaiian history.

In the crystal blue waters of Lanai, is the only place where you can see the magnificent spinner dolphin. This unique dolphin will jump into the air and spins back into the water.  In Maui you will be able see a turtle cleaning station at the edge of the water.  You can watch the turtles one by one get cleaned.  If you want to see some humpback whales, you can take a boat ride to see some if you are lucky.  Or maybe a dolphin occasionally.

There are many volcanoes throughout the Hawaii islands but, the largest volcano is in the Hawaii (a.k.a the big island.) it is called Mona Loa.  Mona Loa may be active but it has not erupted for a long time.  There are also lots of non-active volcanoes that are safe to climb on but you have to get up extremely early in the morning at about 3:00 am to do so!  But you will love what you will see once you get to the top of the mountain and watch the sun rise over the island.

All and all, is a wonderful place to visit.  If you would like to learn more about the aloha state, you should visit Hawaii and see the sights that Hawaii has to offer to you.  Trust me, you will not be disappointed!

Under Construction

by Avery

This is going to be great, I thought as I unfolded the yellow and violet tent.  It had two openings.  One was a circular hole on a yellow side of the tent, with a flap, the same color of half the tent, over it.  I rolled the flap up and secured it with a black string attached to the tent. The other opening was on a violet side.  It was two triangular flaps that could be closed by stretching the fabric and closing the Velcro, but it was hard work so I opened it and tied it open with black strings.  Another side had a window and was violet.  The last side was blank yellow with nothing on it.

Time to decorate the inside, now.  I put a small round rug in the middle of the tent.  It was blue with a red and white criss-cross border and bugs, ranging from bees to butterflies, on it.  It also had red heart s dotted around the bugs.

I dropped a dark forest green cushion in one corner of the tent.  I wonder how long that tear has been there and what did it.  The cushion looked a lot like a chair without legs or a seat.

On to the bookshelves, I thought, But then again, what should I use as bookshelves? I’m not very strong so I can’t use some thing heavy.  Then something clicked in my head.  I can use those sets of drawers that grandma Phyllis gave me for my birthday! All I need to do is take out the drawers! I was a genius.  A few minutes later I was pulling the black cloth drawers out of the small white cabinets.  I hauled them over one by one.  I stacked two of them on top of one another and slid the top one over a notch so it would fit next to the tents diagonal walls.

I just created something very important, I realized, Something so important that it’s like opening a door in my heart.  My book nook is complete  But still, some nagging doubt stayed in my head.  A doubt that I would not ever use it.

My book nook is my home work nook.
My home work nook is my writing nook.
My writing nook is my book nook.
My nook is part of me.

A Friendly Water Community

Fish are a fun and rewarding pet if you now what to do

by Sam

“There is something over there and over there oh and there too.”   When you take a look around a salt-water reef tank you see all sorts of creatures walking around the tank and swimming.  You have a little community of your own.  But did you ever wonder how it started?  And how to maintain it?

If you want to know how to have a successful saltwater tank, then you need a Nano-cube. This is a fish tank that has a built in filter and lighting. The Nano-cube can be either twelve or twenty-four gallon fish tank.  When you’ve got a Nano-cube you then need live sand.  This sad comes from the ocean.  It has some bacteria in it, so the tank can get use to living creatures.  You then need synthetic sea salt.  You mix this with water that is called distilled water.  With your hydramator you want the arrow to point to the number 1.20.

When you are done with these steps.  You should get a damsel.  This fish is like a saltwater goldfish.  Except these fish can survive much longer than a regular goldfish.  You need to let the damsel adjust to the water for about twenty minutes and then let him swim freely around the tank.  If your damsel dies don’t feel horrible.  Because before a tank has a lovely community.  The tank has to go through a cycle.  Which means some fish have to die to get the tank used to having fish and inverts.  After the cycle is finished you can get some new fish and awesome inverts and maybe even corals if you have great lighting.

Now you can get live rock.  Live rock is rock that was dumped into the ocean.  After some time they come back and get the rock they dumped.  This rock now has new critters such as snails, crabs and maybe even an octopus.  When you have rock you can add fish into the tank.  Maybe you will get a coral beauty which is a type of angle fish.  You might want a batfish or maybe you like wrasses more.  There are fish that clean the tank like gobies who will take rock and put it in their mouths and will spit it out.  There is also a fish called a scooter blenny it will eat algae and it does what its name says, it scoots.  It has two wing-like flappers that pushes them.  They don’t glide like other fish they just scoot.  And there is also a fish that looks like it has tattoos all over its body.  This fish is called a mandarin gobie.Not all fish are reef safe such as a trigger because they bit on the rock to keep their teeth sharp.   All tangs are reef safe.

Inverts come in handy as well. These creatures aren’t fish.  They are animals such as crabs, snails and sea apples.  Snails eat algae and crabs and shrimp will help clean the tank. . When you have fish and inverts you can have a wonderful community in your coral reef tank.

All in all to have a successful salt-water reef tank you need to have fish and inverts.  Both these animals rely on each other to do their job.  But not just do their jobs but do them well.  So go out and by a Nano-cube and have fun with the great adventures of an awesome coral reef tank.  And remember have a wonderful time doing it and don’t get stressed.

Delicious Dark Chocolate

There are many types of chocolate, but dark chocolate has been shown to give the most health benefits.

by Fiona

Dark chocolate is good for you. That’s right dark chocolate can actually lower blood pressure! A group of people was tested with high blood pressure. They gave them chocolate and those who ate dark chocolate dropped a significant amount of blood pressure. It also has potent antioxidants, so when you eat it the antioxidants gobble up the free radicals, destructive molecules that are implicated in heart disease and other aliments. It only works if you eat it without milk or anything else. It uses more cocoa than any other types of chocolate. Eating a 1.6 ounce bar of chocolate every day is good for you. Part of the reason why it’s good for you is it comes from a tree so it’s like a fruit or a vegetable! Its tree is called the cocoa tree. The tree is called Theobroma, which is Greek for food of the gods! Its seed was originally used by the Mayas, Olmecs and Aztecs used it for medicine. People say it’s a folk remedy for burns, cough, dry lips, fever, malaria, rheumatism, snakebite and wounds. Its tree grows a pink flower and inside the flower is jelly that contains about 50 cocoa seeds. The cocoa seeds have a very bitter taste. Its powder can be made into chocolate and chocolate beverages such as hot chocolate, protein shakes, chocolate milk and a bunch of more stuff. Whether you’re drinking dark chocolate milk or plain dark chocolate it’s still healthy. It’s amazing how much we find healthy in some pieces of candy! Even though it doesn’t taste good you’re still getting protein. Plus I think it’s one of the healthiest pieces of candy. Isn’t it great finding out that certain types of junk food are healthy! So whenever you go to the store and buy candy try to choose dark chocolate.

Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks

by Mario

Rosa parks was born in Tuskegee, Alabama on February 4th, 1913. Her mom was Leona Edwards McCauley and her father was James McCauley. After she was born her family moved to live with her grandparents where there were cows, chickens, fruits and nut trees. When Rosa grew older she helped her grandparents by clearing the weeds. When she was young there were the “Jim crow’’ laws that keep the white and the black separated For example they had different churches, drinking fountains, theaters, and restaurants. Even the United States army was separated.

When Rosa lived in pine level, the Ku Klux Klan a group of hate filled whites were active there. They wore with robes and they covered their faces with white pointed hoods. Members of the Klan helped political candidates who shared there hate for African American, Jews, roman, Catholics and foreigners. They beat, torated, and killed many African American.    Rosa’s grandfather carried a shotgun to protect their family of the Ku Klux Klan.

Rosa parks became really famous because of a bus ride. When she was in her thirty’s she got on a bus and when ever a white had no place to sit, blacks had to give up there seat and they had to sit some where else but Rosa parks refused to give up her seat the bus driver told her that he would call the cops on her so she gave up her seat. The next time she got on the bus there was a group with her they all sat with her. A white came to the bus and he had nowhere to sit every one that was sitting with Rosa got of except for Rosa. The bus driver gave her a chance to get of but she didn’t. The bus driver called the cops on her and she got arrested.

Rosa parks got arrested that day and that was the start of the bus boycott.

Ode to Pizza

by Alejandro

Oh pizza I see
You,
Just laying there
I don’t care if people
Say you’re disgusting
They just don’t know how to appreciate
You.
Oh pizza every bite I take feels like
Heaven.
My taste buds just jump around wildly
Practically jumping of the chart
That says well.
Oh pizza you’re simply
Just a piece of art
You’re cheese and
Pepperoni
And stuffed cheese crust
Jump of the list of my
My perfect pizza
And my taste buds
Decide to move to best pizza.