Room 229

Brine shrimp

(sea monkeys)

With the Brine shrimp we are testing how much salt they can handle. We have 0,2,4,6 spoons of salt. Each amount of salt in a different cup. The cups that had 0 spoons and the 6 spoons cup didn’t grow any shrimp, but 2 and 4 spoons did. First 2 had the most but then 4 did when 2 started dying.

When the weekend was over the whole class came back to 0 shrimp. We had to put them in a grey container to be fed to gold fish. Just when Tasha and I were getting attached. The boys (Jake and Stefan.) made up an annoying song called “Dump Them”.

But the one with 4 spoons had something interesting. It looked like a cloud made out of brine shrimp. Or it could have been mold. Also it was weird because I saw the shrimp bodies but in the other dead cups I couldn’t. So we kept the cup but of course it was dead.

Then we made even more shrimp. We even fed them. We also put them in a special cup, but like before we came back to 0 shrimp. It’s really hard getting brine shrimp to hatch. Tell me (comment don’t physically tell me) what you thought would happen, or any other interesting things you know about brine shrimp. (Sea monkeys)

image source

Here are some things to do if you don’t know what to do and it’s raining.

Top 10 things to do when it rains /blackout

1 watch TV

2 play on the computer

3 play video games

4 do homework ( even I don’t like it but it works)

5 draw/ color / paint

6 play with your sibling

7 go to the mall

8 play with / feed the pet    9 read a good book     10 have a pillow fight   clover_m.jpg

Here is a story about a girl named Summer and how she learns it’s not good to keep every thing a secret.I hope you enjoy it.

Summers point of view by:Karis

“Dad!” I shouted, “slow down or we’ll—” a car came out from the left and hit us. I was knocked out on the side of the road with pain all over but it hurt most in my knee, but not further down. I woke up to the sound of beeping, and snoring in a room that was probably white, but it was night time and there were no lights on so was to dark out to tell.

My leg was num on my left side from my hip down to my knee. When my eyes got use to the light I saw that from my knee down was silver and …mechanical. Half my leg was taken off from the motorcycle accident!

I spent a couple of days there with family and my closest friend Hannah but I call he Star. The only good parts were that I got attention, and I got to miss school but my mom picked up homework and the homework was extra hard. The homework was extra hard because I wasn’t at school so I wasn’t learning the stuff I need to know to do the homework. When I left the hospital with my bruised up dad, (he broke a bone.) they gave us a lot of medicine: for my dads pain, his bone to get stronger, and medicine for it to heal, they gave me medicine for pain in my knee, and possible head aches.

Later that month (3 weeks an 2 days before my birthday.) I heard my parents talking quietly in there room at 11:05pm. I assumed they didn’t want me to here so I listened closer. It sounded like “How… do …tell news?” that was mom.

“I…don’t …”replied dad.

“ I …tell … school tomorrow.” That was mom again.

They kept talking like this for a while when I was in deep sleep.

The next day felt like it couldn’t get any better. After I finished my waffle I was proved wrong. My mom entered the room and sat down with me.

“Sweetie I have some bad news.” My mom said slowly.

“Well your dad is going away for a while.”

“Can I go to? Is he going before my birthday? Will he be gone past my birthday?” I said so quickly I almost forgot what I said.

“No, yes, yes.” she said.

“WHAT!!!” “PAST MY BIRTHDAY!” I yelled so loudly I probably woke up the house next door.

“Where?”

“ I think to America”

“But that’s where the war…” I forgot. My dad is in the U.S.A army.

“ How long will he be gone?”

“About a year.” My mom said sadly.

That was the worst day ever. Anyway it’s been months …well only really 1 month, 3 days, 6 hours, 54 minuets, and 25 seconds. But that’s not the point. He said he would Write 2 times a week.

“Mom do you think dad is okay?” I asked

“ Yes honey he probably just doesn’t have time to write. Now speed up or you will be late for school.”

“Okay bye mom.”

“ Come on summer why are you so upset now? You use to be so out going. Come on cheer up tomorrow is summer VK.” Maggie pleaded during 10:20 recess. Star knew why I was so upset so she didn’t say a thing

“ Ya you weren’t even playing PE, again! Is it ‘cause your to lazy?” lizzy said mockingly. Me? Lazy! I have one and a half legs, half I oil every day my dad in the front line for a year and on my birthday… then I raged with way to much anger.

“WELL HOW WOULD YOU LIKE IT IF YOU ONLY HAD ONE AND A HALF LEGS? AND YOUR DAD IS IN THE FRONT LINE IN THE ARMY AND HE WON’T WRITE BACK TO ANY OF YOUR LETTERS?” I yelled.

It took the rest of the girls and me a couple minuets to figure out what I said since I said it so quickly. Great now the whole school would call me one leg or robo girl, and they would all know my dad is gone.

“Your leg what?” Maggie asked.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” asked lizzy

“ I thought you guys would make fun of me and call me names.” I said carefully.

“Why would we do that were your friends?” Star said pretending she didn’t know, about my leg and my dad in the army already. When my mom dropped me off I told her I would get the mail, and I thought to myself. Well at least I have friends that I can talk to about all my problems. But dad still isn’t writing, and my leg is getting rusty so it’s starting to squeak.

I was so caught up in my thoughts I didn’t notice the mailman. But when I did he handed me a package. It had 4 tamp so I knew it was from far away. So far away it could be from America“ Wow thanks a lot Mr. mailman.” I said so happily I almost hugged him but of course I didn’t.

He was in a really mad mood because then he glared at me and walked away. I didn’t care so I ran inside and without waiting for mom or my sister, I ripped open the package very quick but also careful. There were 3 boxes (with gifts.) inside the big one each had an envelope addressed to one of us. I opened mine and read:

To summer

I’m sorry I have not been answering your letters lately. But I have a good reason though. Rusted metal on the ground cut my leg. I had to get 8 stitches. When it was healing it got infected. Than I dot sick. Sorry if I made you worry but I’ am ok. Write me back because I ran out of things to write,

love you lots,

Dad

Hello everyone,

After some unfortunate delays, we now have the next two installments of Room 229’s Historical Fiction Podcast Series available on iTunes.

Tamara, Emma, Karis and Juliana refer to Goldstone, and teach about building the world of the story in your mind.

Tasha, Helen, and Sophie refer to Esperanza Rising, and teach about walking in the main character’s shoes.

Goldstone Source Esperanza Rising Source

I will be talking about 2 historical fiction strategies I used in Goldstone. Mrs. E just arrived at the railway station and all the men are gathering around. Mrs. E also had to have help paying for the ticket.

At this part I used the strategy of thinking about the supporting characters to help you understand the time and place. I assumed that train tickets were expensive, I also assumed that since it was a mans job to work on the rails there weren’t a lot of woman.

My second strategy is to understand the groups they belong in. this is important because, it helps you understand why people treat people certain ways. For example Karin’s mom is from Sweden so she is in a Sweden group. She now lives in Canada so her daughter wants her to stop speaking Sweden because she can speak English.

I recommend you try using these strategies when you get stuck or just to help you with the book. Thanks for reading!

I recommend Ella Enchanted and Diary of a Wimpy Kid. I know a lot of people who read one of these books. The books  were so great I couldn’t stop reading them. http://onegirlnocar.com/images/ella.jpg

http://pgteenspace.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/wimpykid.jpg

I think if there was no age of exploration the world would be a lot different. There wouldn’t be as many wars, the plane might not be invented, and there wouldn’t be as much variety in the word.

One of the reasons I care about this is because. If the Philippines and America were never found I would not be born. Lots of people are from two or more different countries, and without exploration most of them would not exist.

There wouldn’t be as much variety in the world if there was no age of exploration. For example if I as from England my parents would be from England, and my parents, parents and so on.

Because of exploration people went to the Americas, Australia and a lot more countries. They brought new things to these lands. They also started intermarrying. Intermarrying is when people from different countries get married. That’s why the world wouldn’t have a lot of variety without the age of exploration.

Would the plane be invented if there was no age of exploration? I don’t think there would be. The people would not want to go that far away. Because the world would seem much smaller.

The world would seem much smaller because. There would be Europe, China, and a part of Africa. Would seem like the world. And the tribes and natives in all the other countries, would only know of were they are. There would be no need for a plane if you can’t go that far with it. That is why I think there would be no plane if there was no age of exploration.

I think with out the age of exploration there would not be as many wars. Because there would not be as many places to fight with. People might be fairly separated so they wouldn’t fight over land.

One example is, from exploration England moved to America, the French moved to Canada, and the British moved to South America. Soon they started fighting over who owns the land. Then the Indies started fighting because they did not want to be ruled any more. That’s why I think without exploration the plane would not be invented, there would not be as many wars, and there wouldn’t be as much variety in the world.

by Karis

My class and my friends class went to the ancient city on wednesday. At the ancient city we did a treasure hunt on bikes.My brakes squeaked whenever I used them. We had  people taking turns of who would be the guide. At each stop our team had to find a big yellow board, and a treasure. At the end the guide led us to a store where we bought some cool stuff.

Merry christmas everyone! This christmas I got the best present ever, a puppy! We named her Daisy.

Daisy is a little sick my mom took her to the vet 3 times. They got Daisy before Christmas. So to keep her secret Allen’s family took care of her for us. Daisy is a messy eater and she slept a lot today. My parents say its because we got her up early.

Have a fantastic holiday- Karis

Here are some good strategies for reading non-fiction:

One good strategy for reading non-fiction is to use the table of contents or the index to find certain information.  This is very useful when you are doing a report on something.

Another strategy for reading a non-fiction book for a report is making a lot of post-its to hold on to the information that you think is important. Then if you put the post-its in a notebook so you know where they are. This is also very useful when you are doing a report.

Looking at the picture and back at the words is another good strategy for reading non-fiction. It can be really helpful when you don’t understand the picture.

Signed,

Gwen, Karis, Emma