Rad Lemon Poetry (oh – and some babies too!)

Lemons are sour and so are you.

The juice makes you cry and I’m going to cry with you.

– Random poem by Robo (looks like I’m being influenced by Apollo, God of Poetry who does really bad poetry in the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan)

This video came from my friend’s blog but I’m adding a little twist to it with a funny title. His title for the post is Pucker Up! You should watch this because they have babies closing their eyes and sticking their tongues out after they eat a lemon. Who are these parents giving their babies lemons anyway?

photo credit: fikirbaz via photopin cc

CAUTION – Doughnut Poll is closing

I’m closing the poll for doughnuts on February 21 and I’m going to tell you the results so far.

Chocolate Long John was 4 votes with a percentage of 30.77% (winner so far).

Other = 3 votes
All of the above = 2 votes
Any doughnut with sprinkles = 1
Strawberry frosted = 1
Boston Creme = 1
Munchkins = 1

TOTAL VOTES = 13

That’s right, chocolate long john is winning. If you still want to vote there is one day left!

Two field trips in two weeks…crazy I know!

Field Trip #1

I went to the art museum for a field trip last week. I saw one of my favorite paintings, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, by Georges Seurat. I also learned that one of the paintings was the biggest painting in the museum and it was also painted by one of the students that went to the Art Institute school, Georgia O’Keefe. It was called Sky Above Clouds IV. She had to paint it in her garage while laying down to get the bottom parts. I couldn’t show you the pictures because they are copyrighted but you can click on the links to see them. She must have had a really big garage because if I remember correctly the painting was 24 feet wide and 6 feet tall.

We had a tour at the Art Institute and the first painting we saw was of Hercules fighting the Hydra by Gustave Moreau. Click here to see the painting: Hercules and the Lernaean Hydra.  I think you know what’s coming up – another Greek mythology story. Yeah I know they are boring to listen to but you might learn something so I’m going to tell you the story anyway. So one day Hercules was sent out to slay the Hydra. And on his way he was trying to think of a way to defeat him. But here’s the catch. Every time you slice off a Hydra head (he has seven) two new heads sprout from the old neck. So he couldn’t just slice off all the heads. If he did that he would have 14 heads to deal with. He thought he would shoot a head off with his arrow but then he would have the same result. But before he could think of his plan he got to the Hydra’s lair and he didn’t have time to think of the plan. But as he was fighting he noticed the sun coming up and the sun god, Apollo, was his cousin. So he asked his cousin to set each neck on fire every time he sliced a head off so no new heads could grow out of that neck. And his plan worked. And they all lived happily ever after.

See what I mean? It’s boring. But it teaches you a lesson. Always think before you act.

Field Trip #2

Tomorrow I am going on another field trip to the Adler Planetarium and I had two field trips two weeks in a row.

I’m going to tell you how that happened. So my teacher was planning to watch a show at the planetarium in November but then she was informed that you can go watch a free show at the planetarium in the winter months so she moved it to February. But then another teacher offered her to go on another field trip to the Art Institute but I don’t think she told her the date until the week before so she had already got everything organized and she couldn’t do anything about it so we just had two field trips in a row.

Questions for my readers

1. If you have ever been to the Art Institute please let me know what your favorite painting was (or statue or sculpture, etc.)
2. Who is your favorite artist? Answer the poll below:

photo credit: HarshLight via photopin cc

And the dictionary does it again!

If you don’t know why the image is of a spider, I’m going to tell you why. I’m doing a review of the movie and book called Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White and illustrated by Garth Williams. I read the book and watched the movie in my classroom and I thought the book was better (of course).

Book Review

I have to say the drawings were really detailed so make way for illustrator Garth Williams. There was this one picture where a farmer named Lurvy was trying to tackle a pig who got out of his pen and accidentally tacked his cocker spaniel and the pig goes through Lurvy’s legs.

One of the things I like about E. B. White is that he uses a lot of good vocabulary. My teacher had us write new and interesting words on a post-it in the front of the book. One day I went home and my brother was eating all of my food and I said, “Stop being a glutton.” And my mom was really surprised that I used that word. She said, “Where did you learn that word?” My response: “Charlotte’s Web.” These vocabulary words below were from Charlotte’s Web just so you know why perspiration is there.

glut·ton

1.  one given habitually to greedy and voracious eating and drinking
2. one that has a great capacity for accepting or enduring something <a glutton for punishment>

per·spi·ra·tion

1.  the action or process of perspiring
2. a saline fluid secreted by the sweat glands: sweat

SPOILER ALERT

If you want to read this book stop reading NOW!!

Charlotte has a really clever plan to save Wilbur, the pig. Chalotte is saving Wilbur from getting killed and eaten at Christmas time. One day in school my teacher asked us to write in our journal about if you could save Wilbur how? A lot of people wanted to get him out of his pen, including me. But Charlotte’s plan involved him not getting out of his pen and into the world because Wilbur doesn’t want to go out of his pen. I am going to tell Charlotte’s plan in steps.

1. Charlotte spins the following words in her web: SOME PIG, TERRIFIC, RADIANT, HUMBLE
2. Mr. Zuckerman, Wilbur’s owner, will think that Wilbur is some pig, terrific, etc.
3. Mr. Zuckerman will then take Wilbur to the county fair and win prize money and an award.
4. When it is Christmas time Wilbur will not get killed because he won prize money for Mr. Zuckerman.

I don’t want to tell you too much information in case you are reading the book. But I would recommend you reading this book.

Movie Review

Let me just tell you…I have a lot of differences from the movie and the book and I don’t want to have to list them all because parental controls are going to shut down my computer in ten minutes so I don’t have a lot of time. To make a long story short you can totally tell Charlotte the spider was animated. My mom just said I have to explain but I only have nine more minutes to explain.

On another note, they left out Chapter Three, Escape, in the movie. I only have eight more minutes left so I’m going to save my post now. This is Robo signing off.

Oh, I have one more thing, these are references from where I got the definitions and the picture:

Definitions come from Merriam-Webster dictionary: http://www.merriam-webster.com/

photo credit: Aleš Smrdel via photopin.com

 

Zamzee Rules – TV Drools

I am at a after school program and one of the counselors is giving out this pedometer called a Zamzee. It is this blue almost like chip and you clip it onto your pants and it measures how much you are active every day. You go onto https://www.zamzee.com/ and login to see how many points you have and how active you are. With the points you use the points to win prizes in real life so the more active you are the better. I am going to get one tomorrow and I had to think up a name for my login. I also have to create a character on the Zamzee website and you can print your picture out to hang on your wall. I think I am going to have a lot of points because I like to have as much physical activity as I can like gym at my school. Instead of watching TV when I get home from school I am going to start running around my house so I can get extra points and badges.

photo credit: zcopley via photopin cc

Gods, Gods, Gods Galore

Help me decide which Greek God I should do a school project on. I’m not sure if I’m going to do this school project but I’m pretty sure I am so I want to be prepared. Reply to this blog post to tell me why you voted for a certain God. If you don’t have a good reason I’m not going to count it!

Rick Riordan Unlimited

One of my readers, Susan, asked me these questions and I told her I would answer in a blog post so here it is.

“I don’t know much about Rick Riordan. Can you tell me why you like his books? Can you recommend a favorite?”

Well Susan, I don’t have a favorite yet because I haven’t read all of his books but I can tell you why I like his books.

Here is my top five list for Rick Riordan:

1) In the Kane Chronicles, he puts words in brackets that are jokes because two characters are recording their voice on a tape and sometimes the other character says something while the other is recording. Here is an example from page 7 of chapter 1 (Fun with Spontaneous Combustion) :

Jaz was holding Walt’s hands. That surprised me, but it surprised Sadie even more. She made a squeaking sound like a mouse getting stepped on.

[Oh yes, you did. I was there.]

Carter is narrating this chapter. The part in brackets is Carter talking to Sadie in real life. This technique is on my top five list because it shows you that they are really recording it on a tape. It is funny.

2) I like Rick Riordan’s writing because he understands humor for kids. He know what kids will like or won’t like. See these other blog posts to learn about his funny chapter titles: Rick Riordan, New Series! and Scoop the Poop

3) In the Percy Jackson series I learned about a bunch of Greek Gods. Here are some examples:

• Zeus, God of the Gods
• Poseidon, God of the Sea
• Hades, God of the Underworld
• Athena, Goddess of Wisdom
• Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt
• Apollo, God of Music
• Diyonesius, God of Wine
• Demeter, Goddess of the Crops
• Gaia, Goddess of the Earth
• Hefastus, God of Fire

There are many more Greek Gods but my mom says I have to stop.

4) I also like that he doesn’t keep continuing the same series so you don’t have to wait for the next book to come out. He just write a bunch of series.

5) In the chapters each chapter gets better and better until the end it’s the final battle against any Egyptian or Greek or Roman God.

I know what I said in the beginning that I can’t tell you my favorite book but I take that back. I can tell you my favorite book but it is only going to have to be in the Percy Jackson series because I finished that series. My favorite book (drum roll please) is The Titan’s Curse, book number three. This is my favorite because there is a lot of action going on.

 

Minecraft Parody Sleepover

I have a guest author tonight named Survival Maniac (Minecraft user name). He’s going to write this blog post. – Robo

Thanks Robo! I’ll take it from here.

When Robo and I were playing Minecraft together on the computer we realized that we are not a great team. We kept having to respawn (come alive again). Luckily we had each other and we shared our food and weapons. Robo even found red stone and lapis lazuli. Once we were trapped in our house when two spiders were surrounding us. We had just respawned so we didn’t have any weapons. We had a lot of trouble defeating the spiders. Luckily our house was in the desert so we pushed them into cacti.

We’ve been watching a lot of parodies for songs. And these are our favorite ones.

Don’t Mine at Night is a funny parody and also teaches you a lesson for playing Minecraft. The lesson is not to mine at night because if you mine at night there will be a lot of monsters on your way to the cave and a lot in the cave.

Like An Enderman is a video that shows you what an enderman may do to you in Minecraft. Lesson: Stay away from endermans!!

Join Me Stevie is a parody of Call Me Maybe. It is about Stevie, the main character in Minecraft, being found by a lonely teenage girl that is going to help him with his skills.

Minecraft Style is one of the top 10 Minecraft songs. If you like digging in Minecraft this is the perfect song for you.

Survival Maniac signing off!