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 * Our menu project was definately my favorite this year. Not only was it a way to improve our writing skills, but a way to be creative. Everyone did an amazing job describing their meals, and by the time the presentations were over, I was STARVING. Overall this was a great project and I hope that we do something like this next year. **

It was 1915, the year He’d hand me a flower Thank you for his profusion of roses It’s an indescribable blue Beauty is commonplace, as cheap as dirt A black man and his boy straighten A pile of you know what Is enough to break your heart Lives alone in a little shack As if might made wrong any less wrong Superstitiously I watched for signs God is right here

CIVIL WAR STORY Hello! Even though I have now died on this battle field on August 17th, 1863 my soul still talks. I have put everything I have into fighting for the Union during the Civil War, and now I will educate others about how people like me saved the, WHOA. Could someone get this guy with the sharp tool away from me, I don’t like having someone poke around in my body… Finally, gone. Here is my story.  Two and one half years ago I was a twenty three year old farmer in Pennsylvania, married only five years with two small children aged three and four. My son’s name was Jed and my daughter’s name was Mary. My mother was very ill with pneumonia and my wife was a nurse. I was told I had to go fight in the War. I said goodbye to my family and left.  I was just starting out and I was lucky enough to survive the first year of harsh attacks from, what I like to call, man abusers. I hated slavery, and along with President Abraham Lincoln, I believe that every man should be considered equal no matter what skin color. I wrote letters to my family every day when I had the chance. I made one best friend named Mike. He was a great guy and we had a lot in common. Though one day, I saw a Confederate stick a bayonet through his heart and I stuck that slave user’s face in my mind. I knew what I had to do.  As I was resting there against a tree, and a rumor had spread that the Rebs were coming. I burst up with my gun and short dagger like knife, tucked and my shirt, and was proud to support what’s right. We lined up in a perfect order and unluckily I was up front. Basically I was walking straight to death. I could see them in the distance. Facing straight at me, about 20 yards away was him, the guy who killed Mike. Without any second thought I barged towards him. Knowing I was going to die I knew I was doing it the right way. I said good-by to my family. I suddenly was shot in the arm. I had enough strength for one shot. I fired straight toward his heart and saw him go down. I was shot again in the leg and had no more strength. I fell straight down and my eyes closed.  Somehow I got here and now I’m having surgical things done to me, but I am resting in peace and now I’m with Mike. I watch over my family and bless them. I knew I did the right thing. That is my story.

Today 4/2/09 a person form the Children's Museum in West Hartford Ct came to our school to give us a very exciting science lesson. They set up an inflated half-circle that was like a bounce house. We went in to this amazing area and each science class sat down in a half circle around the inside border. The person from the Children's Museum, Mr. Science, gave us a lesson about stars. Covering the wall of this inflated little house was starts and pictures that were reflected from a machine Mr. Science had onto the walls. He explained about how these constellations were found and stories that went along with them. The experience was truly amazing. It was like floating in space. He taught us so many things that people wonder everyday. For example told us how ancients told what season it was with the stars. He also told us that different places in the world have different stories to go along with the constellations. If you ever get a chance to do this don't let is pass you by because you might not get it again.


 * __GRAMMAR GUIDE__**

Noun = A Noun is a person, place or thing in a sentence. For example, "I have a dog, ” and "dog" is the noun because it is the thing in that sentence. There can be multiple nouns in a sentence like, "The dog and cat ate food, " so the nouns in that sentence is the dog, the cat, and the food. A compound noun are nouns mad up of two or more words for example, classroom. Not all compound nouns mean the same as the noun alone. For example, bookworm doesn’t mean a worm in a book it means a person who likes to read and reads alot. Single compound nouns are for example, heartbeat. Hyphenated compound nouns are for example, father-in-law. Separated compound nouns are for example, pen pal. Finally there are common and proper nouns. A common noun is a noun that tells one of a group of people, places, or things. For example some compound nouns are, city, book, dinner, jacket ect. A proper noun tells a specific person, place, or thing. Some proper nouns are, Harry Potter, New York city ect. An easy way to see if it is a proper noun is if the word is capitalized. That’s all there is to know about nouns.

Pronoun = A pronoun is a substitute for a noun so you don't repeat the original noun over and over again. Some pronouns are it, he, they, she, we ect. The antecedent is the noun the pronoun replaces. In the sentence, "Jack said he will do the dishes." The antecedent is Jack and it is being replaced be he, the pronoun. There are three types of pronouns. First person which refer to the speaker, for example (singular) I, me, my, and (plural) we, us, ours, ect. Also there is second person which refers to the listener like (singular) you, your, yours, and plural second person pronouns are the same thing, just used in a different way. Finally there is third person which refers to the topic or noun being talked about like (singular) he him, she and (plural) they, them, ect. Lastly there are demonstrative pronouns "points out a person, place, or thing." An example of a demonstrative pronoun is, "I bought a t-shirt. It is brown." The word,” it," points out the t-shirt. That’s all there is to know about pronouns

Verbs = A verb tells the action or condition of a noun. An example of a verb is, "I jogged yesterday." Jogged, is the verb because, jogged, tells what the noun, I, did yesterday. Jogged is an action verb. Action verbs explain the action a noun did. A Condition verb is for example, “sound" that describes the condition of a noun. There are two types of action verbs. One is a visible action verb that you can see or hear like, jump. A mental action verb is an action that can't be seen or heard directly like feel, imagine, ect. A linking verb "joins a noun or pronoun at or near the beginning of a sentence with a word at or near the end. The word at the end identifies or describes the noun or pronoun." For example in the sentence," The driver was angry." The verb, was, links angry and driver together. Finally a helping verb is a "verb that comes before the main verb to add to its meaning." For example if I said, "Rob is sleeping," the word, "is" is the helping verb because it helps out sleeping. The common helping verbs are am, are, is, was, were, be, being, been, have, has, had, can, could, do, does, did, may, might, must, shall, should, will, and would. That’s all you there is to know about verbs.

Adjectives = An adjective is a word that describes something. It modifies a noun or pronoun, too. For example if I said, "purple shoe," purple is the adjective that describes and modifies the noun shoe. An adjective can answer 4 questions. They tell either // What kind? Which one? How many? // or // How Much? // For an example, "colorful shoe," answers the question, // What kind? // There are 2 types of articles, definite and indefinite. Definite articles points to a specific noun. THE is the definite article. For example, "The eraser." The, points out the noun, eraser. An indefinite article point to any member of a group of similar nouns. A and AN are the indefinite articles. For example, "a taxi." A points out taxi but "a taxi" isn't one particular taxi but in a general just a taxi. A, is used when the next word in the sentence starts with a consonant like, "a map." AN, is used when the next word starts with a vowel like, "an apple." A proper adjective is “a proper noun used as an adjective," for example if I said, "August sunshine," then the proper noun (August) is used as an adjective to modify and describe the noun (sunshine). Or a proper adjective is” an adjective formed from a proper noun," for example if I said, "Italian restaurant," then the proper noun (Italy) is formed to an adjective by adding the suffix ian to describe and modify the noun (restaurant). Finally a possessive adjective is “a personal pronoun that can be used as an adjective if it modifies a noun." Some singular pronouns that could be used as an adjective are my, her, and its, ect. Some plural pronouns that can be used as and adjective are our, your, and their. These al show possession like, "My purple t-shirt." That’s all there is to know about adjectives.

Adverbs = An adverb is "a word that modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb." Adverbs tell // Where? When? In what way? // or // To what extent? // For example if I said, “I fully agree with John," then fully would be the adverb and it is telling // to what extent //. If I said, "She gracefully talked to me," then gracefully is the adverb and it tells // in what way //. If I said, "I played inside," then inside is the adverb telling // where //. If I said, "I will sing today," then today is the adverb telling // when //. Also what you have to remember is and adjective modifies a noun like, "purple shoes," but a adverb modifies a verb, and adjective, or another adverb like, "He lives nearby." That’s all there is to know about adjectives.

Preposition = A preposition is "a word that relates to a noun or pronoun to another word in the sentence." For example, "I hid my book inside my locker." In that sentence, inside is the preposition. Some prepositions are made up of more than one word like according to, or instead of. There are 50 most common used prepositions. They are about, above, across, after, against, along, among, around, at, before, behind, below, beneath, beside, besides, between, beyond, but, by, down, during, except, for, from, in, inside, into, like, near, of, off, on, onto, opposite, out, outside, over, past, since, through, to, toward, under, underneath, until, up, upon, with, within, and without. Finally you must remember that a preposition will always be part of a prepositional phrase (like, "The ball rolled outside the playground." Outside the playground, is the prepositional phrase), but an adverb can stand alone (like "Pat is waiting outside." The adverb, outside, stands alone). That is all there is to know about prepositions

This is all the types we've learned in LA so far. I hope this helps you!

PICASSO RESPONSE : After reading Picasso;s words I think he is trying to say that if the art is good or not or if the painter is good or not put it is what the art does to you after you look at it. Does it move you or motivate you ect. I though this was a very thoughtful thing to say.

After witnessing the inauguration today I feel like I am a piece of history. I still can't believe that I was there to see the first black president to take charge of our country. Soon someday I hope that I could tell my children about this historical moment. Just starting from when African American people weren't aloud to drink from the same water fountain as a white person to now having a African American person leading our country to greatness!!!

Natures Classroom Cabin Life During Nature’s Classroom an important factor in making this trip excellent is having a great time in your cabin. Being in the cabin with all your friends, playing cards, sitting by the fire, and listening to stories told by your chaperons is thrilling. Also, you get a lot of time to think about what you’ve done so far at Nature’s Classroom. Hanging with your friends, having lots of responsibility to do things on your own, and thinking about how much fun you’re having is a great feeling you get during Nature’s Classroom. Being in a cabin without your parents is pretty hard because there is not always someone there to help you. During your time in the cabin you need to be responsible. For example, if you are playing a big game the next day at Nature’s Classroom and you think you should get some sleep, and all your friends want to stay up all night, you have to be responsible and make the smarter choice to get some sleep. No one is going to tell you when to take a shower, or when to brush your teeth, or how you should be dressed for the day. You have to be responsible and do this all on our own. Even though being responsible sounds tough, some people (including me) like the responsibility because it makes us feel like we can accomplish anything. An awesome thing to do in the cabin is just chilling with your friends. At night it’s fun to play cards, or listen to stories by the fire by Mr. Sieller (the principal). When it’s time to go to bed, even though we’re all tired, we still just stay up and talk about sports. If we woke up early enough we would have the opportunity to write in our journal, or go outside and play. Right outside our door is a farm. I think our cabin was in the best spot. In the farm there were horses, sheep, goats, and bunnies. We were allowed to pet them a couple times, but we had to be careful. As you can tell, spending time with your friends in the cabin, just chilling and having fun, contributes a lot into having a great time at Nature’s Classroom. When you’re not hanging with your friends, or taking care of your priorities, you’re just relaxing. During (what I like to call) “relax time” we get to just lie down or sit by the fire and just think. When I get to have some relax time I think about what I did so far at Nature’s Classroom, and what I’m learning. For example, after a fun group activity, I thought about what I learned, and I realized that I’m more of a leader than a follower. In relax time you get to think about the experiences you’ve had so far and just relax. Now just imagine this; You finish your responsibilities in the cabin by making your bed ready to sleep in; You walk to the fireplace and sit to play cards with your friends until it’s time to go to sleep; You hop in bed and think about the awesome activities you have done that day until you finally fall asleep. Wouldn’t it be awesome to experience that every night? I think it would be. That’s why I had an awesome time in the cabins at Nature’s Classroom.

If you can time travel, what time period would you want to celebrate the holidays in and why?
If I could time travel to any time period to celebrate the holidays in I would travel to 500 years in the future. Who knows maybe our trees are made of metal and we get a thousand presents instead of just about 6 or seven. I would definitely want to see what Christmas is in the future. In present day time our Christmas is very special. We are always with our family doing cool things like decorating a Christmas tree we found out in the woods. Near the holidays most families stay inside, drink hot coco, and have big family meals. We get to decorate our houses and write letters to Santa (real or not). There is snow out or front door and we could always go out to play. No school is in session during the holidays, too because it is such a special time of year. Finally on Christmas Eve while all the little children are tucked in bed filled with excitement for Santa coming, their eyes close, nothing is under the tree, but when they open their eyes the next morning under their delightful tree presents sit there waiting to be un-wrapped. The feeling of seeing that present and wondering whats inside the box is a feeling you can't replace until next year. The most special time of year is almost over and we get to think about the awesome Christmas we had here in 2008. Even though that we think Christmas is awesome here in present day time we don't know about Christmas 500 years in the future. It might be so much better than our Christmas or it might be worse. Imagine that in the future Christmas our parents have to work and we can't spend time with them. Imagine everyone found out that there is no Santa. Maybe event there will be no presents under the tree because Santa is not real and he won't come to deliver presents. Christmas may be the most horrible time of year. Imagine thought that Christmas is 1 million times better than our Christmas. Maybe

My favorite topic sentence: Hi m name is Bertha C Pumpkin and I live with a rich family on Charcoal Avenue in Middlebury Connecticut.
 * Pumpkin Piece**

My favorite descriptive sentence: Sharp tools hung against the wall and pumpkin seeds were constantly falling out of me and hitting the ground making a sound like a clock does every second.

My favorite paragraph: Whoa! Wait a minute. Who’s that guy? Get away from me!” I screamed. Right there some old man picked all of our body pieces up and took us to his home. As he stepped through the front door, I had become scared. A feeling I have never had before. The room was gloomy and it was covered in cobwebs. Sharp tools hung against the wall and pumpkin seeds were constantly falling out of me and hitting the ground making a sound like a clock does every second. In the middle of the dark room was an old beat-up table. Carefully he lay both of us down against the rough surface. Delicately he dug all of the seeds out of the sticky part of our body. Somehow I fell asleep and when I woke up I was a JACK-O-LANTERN!!! Finally after all that work he put us out to glow on the spookiest night of the year, Halloween. I GET TO GLOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(find a picture and write about it) Carey “I’m having another baby!,” my mom screamed after looking at this odd, small stick, with a big pink stripe on it. “I’m 41 years old and I’m having another baby!”, she screamed from the bathroom. I’m only one years old, so I couldn’t quite make out the words, but I think she said baby. That’s weird because I thought my name was baby… until that day. Eight months later I was sitting in a room with my dad in a big building. Everyone was reading a magazine, and every once in a while a women in a white jacket and pajama pants walked by. My father continued reading then, “AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!” I heard a scream from across the hall. My dad and I jumped, and he lifted me into the air and carried me to a room filled with pajama people and men in white holding scissors and knifes. Finally, I noticed my mom in the middle of a circle with some red substance everywhere and floppy skin, flapping around like the wings of a bird. This experience went on and my mom continued screaming while my dad kept going, “EWWW!! YUCK!!” Within a blink of the eye a head, crying, popped out of the doctor’s hands. In a New York second we were in the car on our way home. For some reason next to me was an ugly creature. It had a chubby little body, a birthmark on his arm and little hands and feet as small as golf balls. That thing had tall eyebrows that pointed up and big green eyes like an emerald shimmering in the sun. It also had little hairs under his nose and lips. Oh, and I can’t forget he had a pitch black furry buzz cut on its head. “Who was he,” I kept asking myself. My mom started calling it Carey and right there I knew it was my sister. After a while my mom told me that I have a little brother!!! Once she said that I thought, “Wow I have a brother!!!”