OK...The MJ Tribute

You know I had to do it...I was just leaving 7th grade when Michael Jackson came out with his "Bad" tape (oh yeah, it was not even a CD) and I already had his trading cards plastered all over my walls from "Thriller".

Idioms

No need to bend over backwards or act like a chicken with its head cut off. Just let sleeping dogs lie and rise and shine to check out the idiomsite.com. I have a gut feeling you'll be head over heels before you hit the dog days of summer. I'm no fuddy-duddy.

IdiomSite.com

India's Widows

This link will take you to CNN's article and video on the widows of India. Makes you appreciate what we have here in America.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/07/05/damon.india.widows/index.html

May 21 & 22

Looking forward to touring New York with those students who are attending the trip. For those of you who are staying in Lunenburg, they have a lot of fun planned for you too! Post a comment about your New York experience or about what you did while we were gone. See you all on Tuesday!

Kurt Vonnegut

Tiger got to hunt,
Bird got to fly;
Man got to sit and wonder, 'Why, why, why?'

Tiger got to sleep,
Bird got to land;
Man got to tell himself he understand

- Kurt Vonnegut

One of Kurt Vonnegut's fewly published poems appeared in Cat's Cradle (1963). The poem was from "Bokonon" who was the founder of the Bokononist religion in the book.

-Posted by student guest blogger, Nick Barney

Skype

My cousin just moved to Dubai and I recently set-up a Skype account in order to talk to her...this technology just keeps getting better!

Literature Circles

Post a comment to let me know how you are enjoying the literature circles so far. What is working and what isn't? Do you like the book you picked?

Poet - tree Leaves

Don't forget to write or share a poem on a leaf for our "poet-tree". Here's one that celebrates April, National Poetry Month that is.

April
by Marcia Masters

It’s lemonade, it’s lemonade, it’s daisy.
It’s a roller-skating, scissor-grinding day;
It’s gingham-waisted, chocolate flavored, lazy,
With the children flower-scattered at their play.
It’s the sun like watermelon,
And the sidewalks overlaid
With a glaze of yellow yellow
Like a jar of marmalade.

It’s the mower gently mowing,
And the stars like startled glass,
While the mower keeps on going
Through a waterfall of grass.

Then the rich magenta evening
Like a sauce upon the walk,
And the porches softly swinging
With a hammockful of talk.

It’s the hobo at the corner
With his lilac-sniffing gait,
And the shy departing thunder
Of the fast departing skate.

It’s lemonade, it’s lemonade, it’s April!
A water sprinkler, puddle winking time,
When a boy who peddles slowly,
With a smile remote and holy,
Sells you April, chocolate flavored, for a dime.

Descriptive Language

You had some excellent examples of descriptive language which we posted around the room last week. Post a comment with another example of interesting and descriptive language...you may find it in a book or create it yourself.

Here's my example: "The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning." from Tuck Everlasting, by Natalie Babbitt

Congrats on Long Comp!

Great job to all of you today...I loved seeing you work so hard on your long compositions. You should give yourselves a hand.

Science Poems

A Seed
By William Allingham

See how a Seed, which Autumn flung down,
And through the Winter neglected lay,
Uncoils two little green leaves and two brown,
With tiny root taking hold on the clay
As, lifting and strengthening day by day,
It pushes red branchless, sprouts new leaves,
And cell after cell the Power in it weaves
Out of the storehouse of soil and clime,
To fashion a Tree in due course of time;
Tree with rough bark and boughs' expansion,
Where the Crow can build his mansion,
Or a Man, in some new May,
Lie under whispering leaves and say,
"Are the ills of one's life so very bad
When a Green Tree makes me deliciously glad?"
As I do now. But where shall I be
When this little Seed is a tall green Tree?

An Aquarium
By Amy Lowell

Streaks of green and yellow iridescence,
Silver shiftings,
Rings veering out of rings,
Silver -- gold --
Grey-green opaqueness sliding down,
With sharp white bubbles
Shooting and dancing,
Flinging quickly outward.
Nosing the bubbles,
Swallowing them,
Fish.
Blue shadows against silver-saffron water,
The light rippling over them
In steel-bright tremors.
Outspread translucent fins
Flute, fold, and relapse;
The threaded light prints through them on the pebbles
In scarcely tarnished twinklings.
Curving of spotted spines,
Slow up-shifts,
Lazy convolutions:
Then a sudden swift straightening
And darting below:
Oblique grey shadows
Athwart a pale casement.
Roped and curled,
Green man-eating eels
Slumber in undulate rhythms,
With crests laid horizontal on their backs.
Barred fish,
Striped fish,
Uneven disks of fish,
Slip, slide, whirl, turn,
And never touch.
Metallic blue fish,
With fins wide and yellow and swaying
Like Oriental fans,
Hold the sun in their bellies
And glow with light:
Blue brilliance cut by black bars.
An oblong pane of straw-coloured shimmer,
Across it, in a tangent,
A smear of rose, black, silver.
Short twists and upstartings,
Rose-black, in a setting of bubbles:
Sunshine playing between red and black flowers
On a blue and gold lawn.
Shadows and polished surfaces,
Facets of mauve and purple,
A constant modulation of values.
Shaft-shaped,
With green bead eyes;
Thick-nosed,
Heliotrope-coloured;
Swift spots of chrysolite and coral;
In the midst of green, pearl, amethyst irradiations.

Outside,
A willow-tree flickers
With little white jerks,
And long blue waves
Rise steadily beyond the outer islands.

Grammar Gorillas

Have you tried Grammar Gorillas? Click on the Grammar Gorillas link to the right (under "LINKS") and test your knowledge of the parts of speech!

Read Across America Day

Today is Read Across America Day. I encourage all of you to grab one of your favorite books, whether it be something you are reading now or a book you loved as a kid and READ! Post a comment with the name of one of your favorite books for extra credit. Better yet, pick a passage from a book and post it!

CRYPTOGRAM

Can you solve this cryptogram?

How long does it take? (Hint, F=T)

J TJNNHHI FH SHS: FZH-FPHCDJIKFPD HR J DYHIK.

Irony

Extra Credit Words

Extra credit if you bring in definitions for the following words from our "Boy" story today: malignant, loathsome, elaborate, jaunty, flourishing.

Also, post a comment telling us of your favorite kind of candy when you were a little kid...or now! I love Sour Patch Kids and I think I have destroyed the roof of my mouth eating them in the past.

Hello

Hello all,
I will see you tomorrow since I was home with two sick children today. I hope you are all staying well since there is so much sickness going around. Wash your hands and get good rest!

I guess I have not been very good at keeping this updated this week....sorry. Soon I will send you to the blog for a quiz or homework assignment to two!

The tale of Mendel and his peas...

See Steph, I am keeping this updated...

Genetics And Mendel

View more presentations from jamiehworkman. (tags: mendel biology)

LOVE......

LOVE..according to these kids ages 4-8...
Post your "Love is..." as a comment...

'When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore.
So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love.'
Rebecca- age 8

'When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different.
You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.'
Billy - age 4

'Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.'
Chrissie - age 6

'Love is what makes you smile when you're tired.'
Terri - age 4

'Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.'
Bobby - age 7 (Wow!)

'If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate,'
Nikka - age 6

'Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.'
Tommy - age 6

'During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling.

He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore.'
Cindy - age 8

'Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day'
Mary Ann - age 4

'I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.'
Lauren - age 4

'When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you.'
Karen - age 7

Send me your writing...

If you have your essay on the computer, I would love it if you could e-mail it to ascott@lunenburgonline.com. I want to show some of the great examples you have come up with!