Hollis Woods

 

 

We read Pictures of Hollis Woods and had a discussion about the book. It was  a fantastic book and I really enjoyed reading it. Patricia Reilly Giff is a fantastic author and I really like reading her books. We discussed various aspects of the book, such as characters, setting, plot, etc.

 

 

 

Show Me Your Talent!

 

Tonight was our last Art class and we had a talent show! I completely forgot about my camera for half an hour and only got pictures of Jackie showing us her talent, since she went first. But everyone had excellent talents! Some were singing, drawing, playing the piano, sewing, dog grooming, and eye wiggling. It was awesome to see everyone's hidden talents!

 

 

Below are pictures of Jackie showing us some self defense moves she learned in a few classes at the Police Station. She used Ryan (our only guy) as the attacker. Her tips were really good to know!

 

 

My talent was baking cheesecakes! I love to bake and recently taught myself how to bake cheesecakes. I even get baking gifts now! For my birthday I got piping bags, an apron, and spring-form pans! So awesome! I used them to make the Chocolate Mousse and Oreo Cheesecakes pictured below. I still have yet to try them, but everyone said they were good!

 

Camera...Lights...Action!

 

Today, our Arts class became actors and actresses. We acted out scenes from small novels we read. We were placed into groups and chose a book to read. The choices were: Morning Girl, Tiger Rising, Stone Fox, and J.T.

 

 

This is the fierce lion from Tiger Rising.

 

The girls were fantastic when acting out this scene. So funny!

 

Below are more pictures of these fabulous actors!

 

 

 

This group was funny when they were acting out the scene from their book, Stone Fox.

 

 

 

 

I didn't take pictures of our play, Morning Girl, but I did get a picture of our prop: the tree. This was the final picture of our tree. It turned out pretty well!

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Peanut Allergy Controversy

 

 

During the semester, we watched this video about a school in Florida that had a huge controversy about a 6-year old student who had a peanut allergy. She was very allergic to peanuts and as a precaution and an attempt to help the child, the school banned peanuts, peanut butter, and required students to wash their hands upon arriving to school, before and after lunch, and even required them to rinse their mouths out after lunch. While these reactions may seem too harsh, I do not think them all too bad. Parents were saying that their child's rights were being taken away and even had their children picketing outside the school with them. In my opinion, this set a bad precedent for the other students and taught their children that being flexible and courteous of others' needs is not important and their own rights are more important. We discussed why parents did not want their children to wash their hands, especially before and after lunch. Teachers could take that time to have students say their multiplication facts, repeat the preamble, say their ABCs; whatever it may be they are studying at the time. I think it was an awful overreaction to these simple requests to help a child attend school in an environment that is safe for her.

 

Below is a link to CNNs video on the issue.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsVViq9rdmo&feature=youtu.be

Stepping into the Past

 

Today was the day! The Decades Project! After all the preparations, studying, gathering of data and artifacts, we presented our decades to the unsuspecting students who walked through Greenlawn. To say there were a few shocked students would be an understatement. We shocked and surprised many students at IUSB today.

 

Much of the Education staff at IUSB knew we were presenting and came down to see us dressed up in the fashion from our decade. Everybody looked great and everyone's tables were fantastic!

 

 

This is a picture or our table: 1920s. We had two computers running with our PowerPoint and a video with music and pictures.

 

We had our signs that were typical during the 20s. Women were given the right to vote during the 20s, which was our selling point for the women who walked through the lounge looking at our tables.

 

 

This was a close-up of our tri-fold board and some of the artifacts we included. The Mickey Mouse was to represent the first Mickey Mouse cartoon that debuted in the 20s. We also have Winnie the Pooh books and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

 

Here is Aubrey dressed as a conservative woman during the 20s holding a sign that conservative women would have held during the times of Prohibition.

 

And here is our Flapper! She was so self-conscious in this outfit, but she looked quite the part! It was perfect and too funny!

 

The 50s were right next to us! And Bre frequently stole votes from us! They had a hula hoop and pogo stick that was quite the commodity!

 

 

Elvis taking a minute to pose for the camera!

 

 

Bre had a lot of fun with that hula hoop!

 

The 40s won the day! They had a lot of really awesome artifacts! Sarah brought in an authentic trunk and pilot uniform from WWII. They belonged to her grandpa.

 

The ladies of the 70s looked awesome and had some great dance moves! They showed us the Hustle!

 

The 70s gals had a great table, tri-fold, and timeline! They had a great spread of food and drinks and, of course, a lava lamp!

 

The 60s had an authentic record player, used a Twister game board for the table cloth, and looked great dressed up!  

 

These ladies really looked the part! They looked great!

On Our Way to Stardom....

 

 

For our Art class, we are creating scenery for our mini plays. We got into groups and read a short chapter book at the beginning of the semester. We then chose a scene/chapter from the book to perform for the rest of the class. Our group is doing a chapter from the book Morning Girl by Michael Dorris. It is a book about an Indian family and the months leading up to the landing of Christopher Columbus. This chapter we chose to act out is about the son's experience in a thunderstorm and the refuge he found under an ancient tree.

 

So, we created a tree! We used a piece of cardboard to make the trunk and two green poster boards for the backing for the leaves. We folded the cardboard into a pyramid to make the trunk and then used duct tape to hold it together.

 

 

 

Then, we painted our "trunk" brown so it would look more like a tree and not so much like a piece of folded cardboard.

 

 

 

We taped two green poster boards together and then cut them out in the shape of a tree top. To add some dimensions and texture, we crumpled up square pieces of green backing paper that is used to cover bulletin boards. We cut the large sheet into small squares and crumpled them up.

 

 

We were going to use rubber cement, but that didn't work out too well, so we decided to use tape. It wasn't until later that I remembered that I had green duct tape at home (whoops!). But the regular tape held and you didn't see it.

 

 

 

This is the picture of our completed tree top. I'll add more pictures later of the whole tree put together. The trunk was still drying so I didn't get a completed picture.

 

 

To keep the tree top in an upright position, we folded another piece of cardboard into the shape of a triangular prism with one side longer so it could sit on top of the trunk. On the flat, slanted side, we duct taped the tree top to the cardboard. It sits nicely on top of the tree trunk. (I'll put up pictures of this at a later time)

 

 

 

The Decades Project!

 

We have finally reached Block 3, which means The Decades Project!!! We placed ourselves into groups of four and chose the decade we wanted to research, represent, and convince others was the best decade to live in! Knowing this was coming, our group chose our members during Block 2 so we would be sure to have a great group! At the beginning of the semester, we chose the decade we would be (1920s-1980s) and our group chose the 1920s. Throughout the semester we researched information, gathered pictures, artifacts, and items for costumes, and put together our project.

 

Today we put together our tri-fold board with pictures and awesome scrapbooking paper Carmen bought.

 

 

Our completed tri-fold board! I'll add a lot more pictures once we actually present our project. 

 

After we glued all the pictures down, Aubrey went back and wrote names and words sporadically to clarify the pictures.

 

 

These are some of the pictures we included in our PowerPoint and on our board:

 

 

The 19th Amendment: Prohibition

 

Louis Armstrong: famous Jazz player

 

The first Mickey Mouse cartoon debuted in the 1920s

 

20th Amendment giving women the right to vote

 

The Big Parade, one of the major selling movies during the 1920s. Movies began to have speaking parts during the '20s.

 

 

Personal Journey

 

 

We each created our own Personal Journey videos for our Art class. The only requirements were that it was about ourselves, it was about a journey we had or are currently on, and that it used technology to tell the story. Some people used iMovie on the Mac computers or, like I did, used Microsoft Movie Maker on Windows computers.

 

My Journey video is about my journey distance biking. This video tells how I began biking, where I am now, and where I am headed. It was fun to make my video and much easier than I thought it would be. There were some awesome videos from my classmates! Many videos were emotional and inspiring, and gave great insight into my classmates' lives.

 

Below is my video. But don't worry! Mine is not emotional and will not make you cry. It is simply a recount of my journey.

 

 

 

Salt Dough Maps

 

 

I absolutely loved the project we did today in Social Studies! We created our own salt dough maps on any location we chose. We have been talking about the five themes of geography and this is the project we did to wrap up the unit.

 

To make the salt dough, you mix 2 cups of flour and 1 cup of salt together. You gradually add up to a cup of water. The dough should be very thick, but not sticky. If it is too sticky, add some more flour.

 

 

 

 

I started with my salt dough, a copy of the map I chose to create, and a piece of cardboard to place the map on.

 

 

I started forming my salt dough to look like the map. In case you couldn't tell (or you are like me and don't know what most countries look like), I did my salt dough map of Ireland!

 

 

 

After I was satisfied with the shape of my Ireland salt dough, I began to paint it.

 

 

 

I painted the country green because of all the vegetation and green hills! I painted the surrounding cardboard blue to show that Ireland is an island surrounded by the ocean.

 

 

 

Once it was all painted, I decorated it with flags, pictures, and words I printed off the computer. I cut them out and glued them to toothpicks, which I stuck into the map.

 

 

 

I chose Ireland because my grandma's family is from Ireland and she still has family living in County Cork in southern Ireland. Her maiden name was Armstrong. I want to travel to Ireland so badly! Hopefully, one day I'll be able to go!

 

 

 

 

Here are some pictures of some other great maps! Everyone did some great work!