Hi! It’s Olivia.

I can’t believe it’s already SUMMER!!!!!!!!! Any way I think it was the 2nd to last day of scool when Ms. M read us an excerpt from the book Chasing Vermeer. I decided to try it and I just finished it today. IT IS ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS I HAVE EVER READ. (seriously)  I recommend this book to people who love adventure and mystery stories about people they’re own age. But beware: this book can be really hard to understand so if English is your 2nd language or you aren’t going to pay close attention while reading, it isn’t a good choice.

The story’s main characters are:

Calder Pillay

Petra Analdee

Ms.Hussey

Mrs. Sharpe

I would tell you more but it would spoil the story. I hope you give it a try!

Olivia

Use Creative Commons!!!!!

Hi it’s Olivia.

Today I am going to be writing about Creative Commons. Creative Commons is a website where people can get special licence for their work so they can share it with the world. But right now I’m not going to talk about how YOU can use the Creative Commons search. The search is really easy to use. For example, let’s say your looking for a picture of a cow. You click on the flicker tab  to search for a photo type Cow into the search thing. Then, you can take any picture of a cow that you want off of that page and use it almost whatever you want as long as you put the source of the photo, video, music, etc. Pretty cool huh?

But now you may ask, why use Creative commons when I can do the exact same thing on Google or Yahoo? Well I’ll give you the answer. Creative Commons is LEGAL! Believe it or not taking images, videos, etc. off of Yahoo or Google for your own work is not allowed according to the law. 9not even if you put the source.) And although you usually never get caught, if you do you could get in big trouble. For example, let’s say you put cute pictureb of your pet up onto the internet. When you put that picture up it is immediatly copyrighted under your name and  no one is allowed to use it without your special premission. But what if you want people to use your work and enjoy it, learn from it, be inspired by it, and allow you work to help people? This is where Creative Commons steps in. If you take a piece of work from Creative Commons the person who posted it is saying “Here, I want you to be able to use my work.”

I hope that from now on you use Creative Commons!!! And in case you didn’t notice, there is a link to the Creative Commons search at the top of the page and also a link to flicker photos in the first paragraph.

Enjoy!!!!!!!!!                      Image Source

Olivia                                                         

Hi! It’s Olivia.

Coming towards the end of 5^th grade is pretty tough especially at an international school. Your best friend may be moving away or maybe you’re moving. But the biggest change is, after 5th grade it’s Middle School! And I don’t know about you, but I was a little worried.

Some worries may be the same as usual for the next year and some may be very different. Some usual worries may be, “What if I don’t make any friends?” or “What if I get a really mean teacher?” Some new worries may be, “What f I can’t get my locker opened?” or “What if I get hopelessly and completely lost in between classes?”

I had these worries and many more. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to take it. So I did some research. I read some books from a series called “How I Survived Middle School” and although the quality of the writing isn’t the best, the books gave me a confidence boost. After reading them I felt a little better. If you have any worries they are a pretty good source of information. The book series also has a website where you can get more information.

After reading the books I felt better but I was still wondering if all of the information given in the book was accurate. So I asked my friends older sister about it. She told me that Middle School isn’t such a big deal as people say it is. The only three major changes are you change teachers and classes, you have a locker, and there’s more homework. As long as you are responsible, finish your work, and keep organized you’ll be fine.

I hope that I helped with my tips. Do you have any tips or questions about Middle School? If you do, share them and you might find an answer or help someone else.

Olivia

Image Source

Hi! It’s Olivia. (Again.)

Lately in science class we’ve been experimenting with Brine Shrimp. (Sea Monkeys) One of the activities we did with the Brine Shrimp was we wrote a “letter” to Dr. Bryan, a scientist who studies Mono Lake. Mono Lake is a salt lake in California. A salt lake is a lake that is filled with salt water.  But it wasn’t always like that. A really long time ago it was a huge lake. But over the years it shrunk so the salt concentration expanded. As a result Mono Lake became salt lake.

Now, getting back to the Brine Shrimp. Brine Shrimp can only live in salt lakes and salt ponds. So Mono Lake is very important to the ecosystem.

But Mono Lake isn’t only important to the Brine Shrimp. It’s also important for the birds. Birds come to Mono Lake and nest there. It’s a very good nesting ground because there are plenty of Brine Shrimp for the birds to eat and there are lots of rocks sticking up out of the lake for them to put their nests on. The rocks in the middle of the water are a good place to nest since being in the middle of the lake protects the nest from predators.

In our letters to Dr. Bryan we wrote about how we learned how the salt concentration in the water is very important. We had containers with 6 spoons of salt, 4 spoons of salt, 2 spoons of salt, and 0 spoons of salt. The 4 spoons and 2 spoons of salt were the only containers that hatched Brine Shrimp. 4 spoons did best. We learned a lot from this experiment and even more when we read about Mono Lake. For more fun stuff about environments click on this link. Or for more information on Brine shrimp (referred to as “sea monkeys”)  click on the other link. I hope you learned something new from reading this post!!!!

Olivia

Hi! It’s Olivia! Today I’m going to give you a quick 6 step lesson on how to pick the perfect book to read. I chose this topic because I realized that a lot of people (including me at times) can’t pick out a good book to read. I mean you have to admit it’s pretty hard especially with so many books to choose from. Well, you don’t have to worry any more. By reading this you’ll be picking out books like a pro.

Step 1. Make a quick mini list on a piece of paper or in your mind of books you’ve read before and ENJOYED. Not thought was ok or so-so but you actually enjoyed. (I know this step seems corny like something your mom tells you to do but it makes a big difference in the end)

Step 2. Recall the authors and genres of the books on your list.

Step 3. Find some books with the same authors and genres as the ones on your mini list and read the backs of them. If a book interests you keep it and put it in your book pile. Your book pile is wh

ere you keep the books you are thinking about checking out/buying. Your book pile will narrow your choices down a bit.

Step 4. Out of your book pile choose five or six books that you are especially interested in and put the others away. Then go ask the librarian or the person at the information desk if they have read any of the books you have chosen and if they enjoyed the book. Smart Kids Tip: Take advice. The people working at the library or bookshop usually know more then you do. (This step may be skipped if your in a hurry or your librarian’s an old crab.)

Step 5. Go ahead and tryout the books you picked. And if you don’t like one of the books you chose, don’t get discouraged. There are millions of books out there waiting to be read.

Special Step. Still Stuck? TAKE RECOMMENDATIONS!!!!!! Recommended books are actually safer to try at times because you know someone else enjoyed it. For great recommendations online go to                       Ms. Tara’s Great Reads. To get there go to the blog roll and click on Ms. Tara’s great reads or click on the link. I hope I helped you!

Olivia                                                                                                     Image Source

Hi! This is my story. It’s about a girl whose dog dies. I spent a lot of time making my characters, so tell me how you like them in a comment!!

Can’t Just Move On
By Olivia

“ Miss Brown, the phone’s for you,” says my 6th grade math teacher Ms. Smith.

“Yes Ma’m” I reply. I get up out of my chair nervously and walk to the font of the room. Everyone hates getting phone calls during class. Our school doesn’t have enough money to install a real phone in every classroom so instead we have a speakerphone for every 2 classrooms. So when someone calls you, everyone can hear what your saying. It was my mom.

“Sugar is that you?” she asks me. Oh boy now she’s using my pet name.

“Yes mom” I reply.

“Honey, I just wanted to let you know I’ll be home early today.”

“Okay, bye.” I say.
“Bye Sweetie!” she says and hangs up.
Great. I have to go through all of this humiliation for nothing? I think to myself. There is silence in class for a moment then, people start to tease.

“Sweetie, sugar, honey!” say Ashley, Amber, and Amanda in mocking voices. Then they burst into giggles. I absolutely HATE them. Your name has to begin with A if you want to be in their club. How stupid is that? Plus they’re all rich and snobby. Not that rich people are bad, Maggie is rich and my best friend. In fact, she lives next door to Amber.

“Alright class, settle down,” says Ms. Smith. Ms. Smith is a good teacher but she’s terrible at telling kids to cut it out when they’re being mean.

“Now, I guess that since we have only 5 minutes left,” she continues  “and you finished all of your work, you can leave early. But remember, we have an algebra quiz next Thursday and I expect you to study hard. Now, have a nice day.” I grab my folders and head down the hallway towards my locker. I turn the lock carefully 15,3,42. I then plop everything into my bag and slam my locker shut. When I get outside, I jump on my bike and head home. Most kids mingle after school, but not me. I have to get home and babysit my little sister Lisa.

When I get home I park my bike in the garage. Then I dig in my backpack for the house keys and open the door. Lisa is sitting on the sofa doing her first grade homework. Nothing unusual there. “Do you need any help?” I ask her.

“No.” she replies clearly annoyed.

“Are you sure?” I ask her. Annoying her is one of my favorite hobbies and one of life’s greatest forms of entertainment.

“Yes I’m sure now stop it!” she says in a whiny I’ll tell mom voice.

“Suit yourself” I reply and walk over to the stairs to look for my dog.  “Pepper!” I call. Pepper is a purebred blue merle Shetland Sheepdog (sheltie) and the best dog in the whole entire world.  But there is no reply to my call to her. That’s funny. Maybe she’s taking a nap. I think to myself. I walk into the kitchen to pick up a snack and instead find my mom sitting at the kitchen table with an empty box of tissues and a cup of coffee.

“I didn’t know that you meant you would be home this early.” I said to her.

“Something-“ she hesitated for a moment. “Something bad happened.”

“Sorry to interrupt but, where’s Pepper? She didn’t come when I called.” I say to her.

“Listen to me!” she said quite loudly with a touch of her you had better listen up young lady or else voice. “Honey,” her voice was softer now. “I’m just gonna come right out and tell you. Pepper died today. That’s why I called you but I didn’t want to embarrass you in front of your friends. You see, she got hit by this big truck and you know her being so small and all, the driver didn’t se her. We rushed her to the hospital but it was too late. I’m really sorry. I would do anything to get her back I really would. Daddy’s coming home early tonight if that helps.” A minute later she burst into tears. But I just stood there stunned. It was like a big jigsaw puzzle in my mind that had no answer. I turned around and slowly walked upstairs to my bedroom and close the door. Then, the tears come. They come faster and faster until I can hardly breath and my eyes itch from my salty tears. It’s not fair. Why did this have to happen to me? Pepper was perfect for me. How could she die? If I could just get my hands on that clumsy driver. I’d show him!

At least tomorrow is Wednesday. That means tennis with Maggie. And I absolutely love playing tennis with Maggie.
*********

The next day school seems to take forever. I can’t get Pepper out of my head. The only thing that keeps me from crying is the thought of playing tennis with Maggie after school. If it weren’t Wednesday I would be in the counselor’s office by now. But finally the bell rings and it’s time to go. “Goodbye class!” Ms. Smith calls. But I hardly hear her. I’m already halfway down the hall. I don’t want to waste a single minute of me and Maggie’s precious tennis time. In 5 minutes I have picked up Maggie from her English class gotten my stuff out of my locker and together we get in the back of Maggie’s family car.

Once we get to the court I take the serve position (as usual) and Maggie takes return. I serve her a hard American twist, but she’s too fast and returns me a strong top-spin. Play goes on like this until we’ve played 3 games and the score is 2-1. I drop down onto a bench and take a cold bottle of water out of the cooler. I take a sip, and then take 3 graham crackers out of my back pack. I split one in half so we can each have one and a half crackers.

“You should really like consider joining the tennis team” suggests Maggie with a mouth filled with gram cracker crumbs.

“Don’t start that again Maggs.” I say rolling my eyes.

“But seriously, you are like fantastic! I can’t believe you won’t like join the team!” (Maggie loves the word “like”)

“Well maybe I could.” I  Say with a smile. “Now, let’s see. Midterm tryouts are a week from tomorrow. And if I beg Coach Jones to put me on team B with you and Lydia, we could keep our Wednesday game!”

“Like fab!” says Maggie. “Besides, it could like, help you take your mind off of Pepper.” I turn cold.

“What makes you think I want to forget about Pepper huh?” I say my voice slowly getting louder.  “Maybe I like remembering old times. I miss her! You don’t get it! You never will!” I’m yelling now. “You’ve still got your Sheltie Chilli and that stupid cat Fuzzball!” Hot tears are streaming down my cheeks and my nose is clogged. Maggie tries to put her arm around me, but I shake out of her grip. I grab my bag and my racket and take out my cell so I can call my mom. Then, I run as fast as I can off the court. Maggie doesn’t try to chase me. That’s one thing I like about her; she leaves me alone.

When I climb into the back of the car my mom is about to ask me what happened but I stop her. “Don’t ask.” I say to her.

***********

When I get home I flop onto my bed, grab a bunch of pillows and stuffed animals and squeeze them as hard as I can. If only Pepper were here. She’d cuddle up next to me and then start doing a little dance until I start laughing. I think about this until suddenly, someone knocks at the door. “Who is it?” I ask my voice muffled from all of the pillows.

“Clara honey? May I come in?” It’s my mom.

“What do you want?” I ask her.

“To help.” She replies opening the door wider and stepping in. Now I realize she’s carrying 2 cups of hot cocoa with whipped cream and peppermint swirl sticks. (My favorite.)

“I don’t think what you’re going to say will help.” I say to her. “I just lost my best friend because of some stupid dog.”

“Oh sweetie!” she says and gives a little nod to show she understood. Then, she plops down onto my bed next to me. “Now honey, I know you miss Pepper but you can’t let that influence you!” she says sounding strangely determined to help me feel better.

“So your trying to say I should just forget about her?” I question her remembering the incident at the tennis courts with Maggie and not wanting the same bad results.

“Oh no, no, no! I absolutely do NOT want you forgetting about her!” She exclaims shaking her head, her short brown curls bouncing. She always does that if she feels very strongly about something so I decide to listen. She sighs. A long, tired, heavy sigh. “Let me tell you a story.” She says her voice softer now.

“But mom!” I whine. What I exactly do not, I repeat do NOT, need is a story from the so called “good old days”.

“Shh!” She says sounding annoyed. Then she continues. “Remember the stories I told you and Lisa about Goldie, my pet dog when I was around your age?” she asked.

“Yeah.” I reply.

“Well, when I was 12, just like you are now, she died.”

“Mom, I’m so sorry I didn’t-“ She cuts me off.

“No interruptions please.” She says. “If I’m going to tell a story let me tell it right. Now as I was saying, when I was 12 she died. I was so upset and I cried constantly, until one day my best friend Sally brought me to the “Young Peoples Music Enrichment Club” after school. The club was for kids who wanted to have fun with music and possibly become musicians when they grew up. I adored it. Everyone loved my singing and piano playing and they asked me to join. I was so happy. The club made me feel really special. I was about to say yes when a girl, I think her name was Rose, told me that she was glad that I would have something interesting in my life, not just a stupid dog.

“And then what happened?” I ask her eagerly.

“Well, I told her to go stick her head in a beehive and left.”

“Didn’t you join?” I ask her, confused.

“No. I went home and did my homework. But to this day I regret it. Now think about that Clara.” She pushes my long brown hair out of my face, takes her cup of cocoa, and leaves the room. I sit there a minute confused and surprised at how suddenly the story ended. Then I pick up my phone and dial Maggie’s number.

“Hello?” says a very tired sounding Maggie.

“I’d just like to tell you that I’m in. So, see you at the tryouts on Thursday.” I say smiling.

“What?” she says. “ This is big news!”

“Bye Maggs.” I say and hang up.

************

It’s finally the day of the tryouts and my heart is pumping so loudly I swear Coach Jones can hear it. “Jessica Daniels!” he says calling Jess’s name to call her to the court. She walks up to the court, misses 3 hits and can’t get a serve. “Thank you Jessica.” He says then calls the next name. “ Next is Ashley Lee!” he cries at the top of his lungs. I smirk. If she’s truly as girly as she acts in class she’ll never get this. Surprisingly, she serves a perfect American Twist the returns a few tricky drop shots. It was amazing. When she finished she twirled her racket as if it was nothing then whispered in my ear, ”Beat THAT newbie.”

“Clara Brown!” Coach Jones calls. My cheeks get hot. How was I supposed to go after Ashley?” I’ll look terrible beside her.

“Go on Clara.” Says Maggie and she gives me a nudge. I take a deep breath and walk onto the court.

Coach Jones gives me a ball and says “Let’s see your serve.” Phew. The serve is what I do best. As I’m just about to serve when Ashley screams “ Hey Dork! The Kindergarten tryouts are on court 3!”

Then Amber joins in by screaming “Honey, Sweetie, Cutie!” trying to imitate my mom’s accent.

Well, with them screaming like a bunch of maniacs I kind of lost my concentration and missed my serve.

“Oh ,poor baby. She’s so sad her puppy died she cant serve.” Amanda says sounding very sarcastic. That’s it. I think to myself. I think about all of the times the “A Club” tormented me. I think about the moment I found out Pepper died. I think about when Maggie asked me to tryout for the team. All of my feelings are boiling inside of me. The only thing I can think of to do is do my best at these tryouts. So I take another ball and serve again. This time I hit hard and fast and get it in. I rally 10 balls in a row with Coach Jones, then do a few smash shots. Normally I would be pooped by now but my anger pushes me forward.

When Coach finally says “Thank you Clara” my heart was beating 2 times faster then it ever had before and I was dripping with sweat. Even Coach Jones was a little red in the face after playing me. I look over at Ashley and she’s just staring with her mouth open so wide you could fit a Texan cow in it. I can’t help but smile. Look who’s laughing now.
****************

The next day I come to school early with Maggie to see who made the team. We park our bikes at the bike rack, drop our back packs into our lockers and head towards the gym. When we get there there’s a small crowd of girls around a bulletin board. I elbow my way to front and check the list. It reads:
TENNIS TRYOUTS RESULTS!!! THE FOLLOWING GIRLS HAVE MADE THE JOHN ADAMS TEXAS MIDDLE SCHOOL TENNIS TEAM. I look down the list at the names. Ashley Lee, Maggie Kourts, Jane Michealson, Lydia Crossover, and the names of about 15 other girls I don’t know. But I can’t find my name anywhere. I’m about to give up searching and start moping about Pepper again when I see it. It’s at the very bottom of the list but it’s there. Clara Brown in clear black letters. I can’t believe I’ve actually made it. I’ve never done something like this before and I feel myself swell with pride. Then my eyes fog up and I can barley hear Maggie scream with joy when she sees my name on the list too. I think about what Pepper would have done when I got home. She’d probably do a little dance and lick me. Then she would- I stop myself. I’m only making myself sad about Pepper. I don’t have to just forget about her, but I can’t let her dying take over my life either. I should try my best to look at the bright side of things. So I clear my tears, look one last time at my name proudly sitting in the list and then I give Maggie a huge hug.

“I can’t believe we both made team B!” I cry. Then we hug again and head towards homeroom.

I felt perfect at that moment. Even about Pepper. I know that Pepper’s body is gone for good, but her spirit lives on and affects every thing I do and say everyday. Before I thought everything was over, but Pepper still loves me, wherever she may be. I know that now.

Hi! It’s Olivia.

Today I’m going to talk about HF (Historical Fiction) strategies. The book I’m going to be referring to is Al Capone Does my Shirts By Gennifer Choldenko.

The first strategy I am going to talk about is “Readers examine the main character by walking in his or her shoes, asking, “How would I feel?”” Moose is a very good character to do this with because he has a lot of strong opinions and his opinions affect his actions. One way I used this strategy was when Natalie had a temper tantrum in the book and couldn’t stop screaming, (literally, she could not stop, she’s autistic) I put myself into Moose’s shoes. If I were Moose I would have gotten really upset. What was I supposed to do? But he was brave and he remembered how his Mom rolled Natalie up in the rug to calm her down. If I had not tried to imagine myself as him I wouldn’t have fully understood the pressure he was under and how he tried to remain calm and do the right thing. Another example of me using this strategy is when Piper asked Moose to be part of her “Project” (i.e. money making scheme.) I put myself in his shoes. Should he tell or not? Should he tell on Piper or help her? If he told on her, her father may not believe him, but he would be free. If he helped her he is under risk of getting into trouble but his dad’s job would be safe. He chose to help. It helped to put myself into his shoes because otherwise I might have thought he should have just risked his dad’s job to tell the truth.

The next strategy I am going to talk about is “Think about the roles of the supporting character in the time and place.” The biggest supporting character in the book was probably Natalie. Although she can’t communicate with others, she plays a big role in the book. One way this strategy was helpful was Moose kept on having troubles in the book. I was wondering why when I started to think about Natalie. She was the cause of most of the problems. Of course Piper was a problem but if Natalie didn’t exist or at least didn’t have autism Moose would never have had to move to Alcatraz Island so he would never have met Piper. Without Natalie there would be no story. It would just be about a normal boy who lives with his family and is pretty insignificant.

I hope my strategies help!

Today I was looking through some of the books my sister took out of the library and I found one that’s called “The Book of Boys (for Girls) & The Book of Girls (for Boys)”.  The book is actually an illustrated poem. On one side it gave the girls opinion about what the boys do and on the other page it gives the boys opinion about what the boys do. I like it because it tells the truth. Boy and girls both find each other annoying, but sometimes they can be friends. My favorite part is these two verses:

They’re smiley, they’re wily

They’re highly crocodiley

But nothing can give you’re head swirls

Like those drastic, elastic

(sometimes sarcastic)

Fantastic, fantastic, GIRLS!

They’re mysterious, serious

Can drive you delirious

But nothing brings joys and annoys

Like those curious furious

(Sometimes uproarious)

Glorious, glorious, BOYS!

I think that it’s good that they balance it and say both good and not so good things about each group.

Peace,

Olivia

Have you seen our new podcast? It totally rocks!!! To listen to it click on the ITunes link. (A big CD with a note on it.) We are working on a series of Historical Fiction podcasts along with the rest of the class. We are introducing different ways to read and think about reading historical fiction. We talked about the book Morning Girl by Michael Dorris.

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We hope you enjoy listening to the podcast as much as we enjoyed making it.

Hi!

This is Olivia. Yes, I’m the one who loves Warriors.

But the fact is not only do I love Warriors but I also love The Sisters Grimm. It’s the story of two girls whose parents were kidnapped. They are sent to live with their wacky grandmother who Sabrina doesn’t trust until…. Sorry that’s all I can tell you. From what I know there are 5 books in the series AND you can borrow the book at our library. I hope you enjoy it.

Olivia