Room 229

Hey, everyone! It’s Tamara again. Just wanted to tell you the advantages and disadvantages of Elementary school.

Advantages~

1: You never get in bad trouble- (Unless your in 5th grade)

2: You get an actual recess

3: Just having one teacher- (depends on who you are)

Disadvantages~

1: You don’t have any freedom- As in middle school you get a lot of it.

2:Not really trusted to do something big

(I like Elementary school, so there aren’t many disadvantages for me)

We haven’t finished this experiment yet, but I can tell you what we have done so far. At the very beginning, we started out with four cups of water. One had six spoons, two spoons, four spoons, and zero spoons of salt. After a few days, when the brine shrimp started to hatch, my group noticed that the two spoons of salt had hatched more brine shrimp than the others did. A few more days went by and we noticed that some more had hatched but yet, some had died. The ones with the six and zero spoons of salt didn’t hatch at all. On day eleven, we added 50 ml to the six spoons of salt, which makes the water 200ml now. We also added five spoons of salt to the zero spoons. The next day the six spoons, was all hatched. The zero spoons didn’t really have that much luck on hatching, but at least we got something to hatch. I thought it was amazing how fast it took to make them. The week was almost over. Last week all of the brine shrimp died over the weekend. So, this time we decided to bring back some bigger homes for them. Monday we were going to restart the experiment all over. So we got some bigger bottles, and put some salt and water into it. Then the next day we decided to put the brine shrimp into it. We still have the bigger containers but I don’t think it is doing very well. You should really try it sometime. It’s fun!

Image Source

Last Saturday (May 16, 2009) I had my first track meet. I competed against there schools. I was full of excitement. I played in the numbers; 5, 17, and 27. The first event, number one, was long jump. Katie won on that one and I was very proud of her. Event four was coming up and I was almost ready to go. Number 5 was finally called. I was so excited. I saw every body sitting at the red bleachers. We had to do two races because of how many girls were there. Katie was in the first one and I was in the second one. She won first place! It was finally my turn. I felt as though I was going to get sick, I was so nervous. “ On your mark! Get set!” He yelled like we were racing with cars. BOOM! Went the gun. We all ran hard. I was a little behind at first. Then, all of a sudden I saw no one beside or in front of me. I was first! I heard my team yelling, “ Go Tamara, go!” I hit the finish line. I was way ahead of everyone else. I did get in 1^st place but the first race that went on, the one Katie was in, was faster than my race. So I didn’t get a medal, but that was all right. We waited many, many more events before my next one was up. My next race was a 200-meter dash. This one was a little bit more difficult for me because it felt like a whole lot longer than the 60 meter. I was almost there! The girl beside me and I was having a big competition. I went further than her than she went further than me. Luckily right when we crossed the line I was further than she was. Another 1^st place! This time I actually won the race and I was faster than the girls in the second race. When I stepped up on the first place box I felt proud of myself. Before the race I told myself that I have to win this one. After all of that my mom, Katie, Katie’s mom, and I all went to go get something to eat. Katie and I were starving. We ate sandwiches and then went to this Thai craft thing because everyone was taking a break. I didn’t really do anything there. So before we knew it, the brake was over. Katie and I were so excited. The only reason we were excited was because this has been the first race that we were in together. This race was the 60-meter relay. My favorite part too. We had a funny moment at the end of the race, but I’ll get to that later. The first girl went. Then the second, then it was me! We were a little behind at first but I knew we had to win this one. I ran as fast as I could to Katie. There, it’s in her hand and before I knew it, I was screaming “ Go Katie. Go!” It was over. She crossed the finish line. I couldn’t tell who did first though. I didn’t even see her run up to me. She shook my shoulders and said, “ We won!” I was so happy.

Ok, here is the really weird/ funny part that you might not believe.

Everyone how was saying hot it was after the race. So I looked up and then, just randomly I said, “ I think its going o rain.” Then, right after I said it, I saw people running under tents. “ Well what do you know, I was right.” The whole team just started laughing. Everyone played in the rain. (Well every person that was competing.) That day was the best. I got two 1^st place medals and a great laugh from the team. I can’t wait till next year.

Ally’s New Best Friend By Tamara

Hello my name is Ally Anne Fayard. I love sports. I moved a week ago from Italy. I started school right away. Right now I am having a little bit of trouble with school. Everyone in 8th grade thinks of me defferently. I am trying to prove who I really am, but some people come along and everything I do turns out wrong. I just need some help

It’s the first day school. “I am so excited!” I told my parents. That morning I was put into my classroom. My teacher’s name was Ms. Malone. She told me the schedule and what we aware learning this year in 8^th grade.

We had P.E. today. The teacher was great! He is very confident and good in what he teaches us. The first thing he said to me when I got in was “Hello. Welcome to Florida beach middle school. So, do you think your fast?”

I think I’m real fast.” I said but then realized no one understood me. A tall woman with a green hat and blue dress came in and translated for me.

“Ok, then lets go have a nice race for next month?” I shook my head yes with excitement. I’ve never had a real race with other girls before, (well not Americans anyways). I came in 1^st. but that didn’t get me any friends.

As we walked back to the classroom, I thought to myself “ Maybe I should try and make some new friend while I am still noticeable. So I walked up to a girl named Princess. “Hi, my name is-‘’ I was interrupted.

“Um… yea, what ever.“

I guess that isn’t how you make friends here.” I said aloud. Then I said thought to myself and, oops I forgot. They can’t understand me. Well, we went to lunch, and I was told to sit at the nerd table. So I just went outside and ate there. We went to a new classroom after lunch. It was history class. This was a very hard subject for me because you can only speak English. The first question of that afternoon in history class and she had to pick me. I told her the answer, and it was correct too. The only thing that was bad, was that she couldn’t understand me and I guess she thought I was playing a joke with her because she sent me to the principle’s office.

I could read it, write it, even understand it, but I can’t speak it. The only word I knew were: at, had, have, and is.

“ Mom, dad!” I’m home!” I yelled. When I was at home I only spoke Italian. I never even thought about trying to speak English in the house. My parents spoke fluent English, but they also spoke fluent Italian. My mom’s name is Susan, and my dad’s name is Scott. I have a little brother and a big sister. My sister’s name is Racheal and my brother’s name is Markus.

“ Well miss Ally Anne. How was your first day at school?” my mother asked in a calm voice.

“ It was fun! Except that no one, I mean no one, could understand me.”

Ally Anne, why do people think that cockroaches are going to be the last living thing on earth?” my teacher asked as if I was to know. Once again I talked in Italian. Down to the principle’s office for me.

As I sat down in the big brown chair near the office I thought to myself “Why me and not some one else? This sucks, not knowing how to English and all.”

My teacher said, “If you can understand me then I suggest you should get Rosetta stone to help you improve speaking English or you could even ask your parents if they could help you.”

After that, it made me so mad that she said, “If you understand me.” Every time I spoke Italian the whole class would laugh at me. I am tired of this!” I yelled as I was walking home. When I came home on a Thursday afternoon I yelled, “Mom, I have to learn English!” After that we got right to it and every time we practiced I would learn a word or maybe even two.

“It’s already been two months since we’ve moved and I haven’t made a single friend.”

“Ha-ha! I already belong to the most popular kids in high school.” Yelled Racheal in a snotty voice. Apparently she heard me.

“Me too! , Except I’m in 2^nd grade. Ha-ha, Ally doesn’t have any friends. Ally doesn’t have any friends!” Yelled Markus. I ran up to my room and started to cry. Luckily my mom heard them and they got in real trouble. I heard her from my room yelling at them.

I woke up early the next day. I got dressed and pulled my long hair back then went downstairs to write a letter to my mom that I was leaving early. As soon as I got to school I was determined that I was going to make some or at least one friend by the end of the week, which was in one day. These non-friend days are over.

“Time for recess!” my teacher told us with excitement. I expected that she like recess as much as I do. I loved recess. It was the only time I actually did something in the school (which was soccer). Today was an original day, where I was to scared to ask people to play with me or be my friend. Except something happened as I was on my way to the old soccer field with my own soccer ball in my hand. A girl with short blonde hair came up to me.

“Would you like to play soccer with us? It’s pretty boring playing with yourself you know.”

I was flabbergasted! “Yes! I would love to, but I only see you.” She looked at me like she had forgotten something.

” My friends are on the new field.” I grabbed my golden soccer ball and walked with her back to her friends. As soon as I saw their faces I realized who they were. These girls weren’t just any girls; they were the most popular girls in middle school. From just walking around I heard they are really cool but can be real jerks sometimes but, hey, they were the only people to actually notice me.

Finally, it’s Friday. I have been friend with the girls for over a month now and things have gone pretty good. Before lunch they asked me if I wanted to go to the skating park this Saturday for Sy’s birthday. She told me only cool girls like her could go. So I figured I was pretty cool. Today in lunch there was some trouble with Sy and the rest of the group. They were trying to take this girl named Morgan’s, lunch. This was the first time I ever saw them do this kind of thing.

I rushed over to them and said, “ It’s not that nice to pick on some one like this you know. You should maybe get your own lunch and leave her alone.” But they refused they kept trying and trying then, of course, they got the lunch. I walked over to Morgan in a very shy voice I said” I’m sorry about your lunch. How ’bout I but you a new on and you won’t even have to pay me back!”

“ Thank you very much. I owe you one. Hey, wait a minutes aren’t you that kid that came about two months ago? She said in a very pleased way.

“ You are very welcome. My name is Ally Anne, but you can call me Ally. I actually came three months ago.”

Yao, Yao, Yao. We’re not letting that loser in our club.” Sy said.

“ Why not? She seems really nice. Isn’t that why you took me in?

“ Well, because she isn’t cool like us. Duh, and anyways we anly took you in because we figured we could use some one to clean after us!” They all answered in a snooty selfish voice.

“Well I’m at least going to buy her a lunch. I told her I would.” I said in the calmest voice I could.

“If you’re going to be in our group then you’re not going to even think about doing that.” They said with a smirk on their face. They must’ve thought that I would do anything to be in their club but man were they wrong. I almost hated that dumb club. I only agreed because they were somewhat nice to me. I would do anything to get out!

“ Well that’s too bad!” I yelled over everyone. I felt happy because of what I just did. “I’m going to buy her a lunch, and I don’t care what you do!” I was still yelling, only because I felt like that was the right time, so everyone could actually hear me out.

Your gonna wish you never did this.” They said. They gave me an evil eye, and then walked away like nothing had happened.

“ That was really brave of you to do that.” Morgan said with relief. I could tell she was happy the girls were gone.” You could have gotten in big trouble just for saying the word “No” to them.”

“Thank you.” I replied with a big smile on my face. I bought Morgan a new lunch and I bought mine with it. After the whole fight I thought she would just say “ Thank you.” Then go and sit down just like the others normally did. Which she did.

I was walking out the door to where I normally sit outside until I heard “ Hey! Come sit over here!” it was Morgan. I was so happy and I couldn’t till what was going to happened next. I went over to her and sat down nervously.

“ This is Ally Anne. That new kid“ from There on everything went great! Everyone would ask me what happened back in the cafeteria, and what it was like to hang out with Sy and the whole group at that.

“ You don’t even want to try it.” That’s what I would always say to the people who ask me what it is like. Then we would all laugh.

Ever since that day I would get more and more friends just for hanging out with Morgan. I think Morgan was a lot more popular than Sy was. Morgan and I had a lot in common; except she didn’t know how to play soccer and I didn’t know how to play basketball. Basketball was her favorite sport and as you all know soccer was mine. We taught each other every other day. For example, she would teach me basketball one day and the next I will teach her more soccer. After we told almost every one what I did, I obtained over thirty friends in a month! I learned how to play basketball and she learned how to play soccer, so now we play a different sport every day like what we did when were teaching each other. As for Sy and her group they all split up and now have a lot more friends than they used to. That year turned out perfect after Morgan showed up!

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

Hello! I am going to be teaching you how to use a couple Historical Fiction strategies. Before I tell you the strategies I am going to tell you a book that I shall refer to. The book I am going to refer to is call “ Gold Stone”

One of these strategies is by walking into the main character’s shoes asking, “ How would I feel?” I am going to use this strategy with my book, for example, in my book there is a girl named Karin. Her mother dies in an avalanche. I used this strategy by pretending I was her and I imagined that my mother was in that avalanche. If it were my mother it would be heart breaking, just like it was for Karin.

Another one is to examine which voices in the story had the power to change the situation and ask, “ What could this person have done to change this?” I used this strategy after Karin’s mother died and right before Karin and her father had to leave. They had to leave because the CPR (Canadian Pacific Railway) was leaving the town and no one would be able to go anywhere. So I used this strategy by saying that the company had the power in this situation. I made an inference that Karin, her dad, and the company had the power because Karin and her father could’ve stayed just wouldn’t be able to travel anywhere. Yet, the company had the power to move because it was their company.

These strategies are very good/helpful to use in a lot of the Historical Fiction reading books. If you wanted to use these strategies often in one book then I suggest the book “ Gold Stone”. This book has a lot to do with these strategies.

Hope You Enjoy Using These Strategies!

Peace out

Tamara

Hi everyone,

It’s me Tamara. It has been awhile since I have written on the blog.

Today, I wanted to tell you about my trip I had last weekend. We (my family and I) went to the old capital of Thailand, Ayutthaya. Ayutthaya is a very beautiful place with many temples.

Last weekend my family and I traveled to Ayutthaya. We stayed at a beautiful resort and went to many places. My favorite place was the tree that had a face in it. The legend says that the Buddha face had fallen to the ground. As the tree grew it brought the head up off the ground and grew around the face.

There were many temples. The temples were ruins from a long time ago. The ruins were fun because I felt like any explorer. They reminded me of mazes because every time you turned a corner it was either a dead end or a passage way. At one of the ruins I got to ride my first elephant and I got to control it too.

The hotel/cottage was fancy. We had massages, dinner by the river bank, and their rooms were the kinds of room were you wish they were yours. Dinner and lunch were the only two bad things about the trip. I’m not a sea food kind of person and that’s all we had, except for a small dish of chicken in each meal.

On the second day we got to drive golf carts at the Palace. I only got to drive the golf cart for a short period of time because I had to be 16 or over to drive it, but we didn’t know. At the end of the two and a half days, half of the people stayed including me, to go shopping. The shopping wasn’t exactly what we thought it was going to be, but it was ok. We all went home after the shopping and boy were we glad to be home. I couldn’t wait to get that peanut butter and jelly sandwich in my tummy.

Thank you for taking the time to read this!

Peace out,

Tamara

Hernan Cortes Was An Important Explorer

Many people have heard of Hernan Cortes, but have you thought about all of the things he did? Hernan Cortes is a memorable explorer because he explored more of Mexico also because he won over Spain for land and last but not least he killed most Aztecs.

Mexico was discovered, but with Hernan Cortes it had to be more explored. It couldn’t be explored by just anyone it had to be explored by him, Hernan Cortes. Hernan Cortes loved to explore more of something that has already been explored because to him there was always more you could explore of something. Just like Mexico. From exploring more of Mexico he got famous for it. As he explored more of Mexico he discovered that most people there like the natives did not like the Aztecs. While he was discovering Mexico he finally ran into the Aztecs. When he first ran into the Aztecs they were very nice to him so he stayed for a few day. That’s how the whole thing started. A few days later they wanted him to leave, and he wanted their land. He made a success for getting the land, and became a hero for Spain. Most importantly he did what he wanted which was to explore more of Mexico.

Hernan Cortes was a proud citizen of Spain. He became the Spanish ruler of Mexico. This Spanish explorer got more land for Spain, but he had to fight for it. He fought the Aztecs for this land. He went through a lot just for the land. For example, he had to burn down 10 of his ships because when he got there the Aztecs gave the Spaniards gold, so they left with the gold. The others that had stayed, put up a fight. After he burnt down most of his ships he sailed off with gold. The people that had already with the other gold had died if sickness and storms, but the very few others that made it told them about their adventures and about Hernan Cortes winning land over for Spain. So when he got there, all of Spain called him the Governor of Mexico.

Killing most of the Aztecs (over 300,000 Aztecs) wasn’t bad for most people. The Natives and Americans did not like the Aztecs. When Hernan Cortes first discovered the Aztecs he enjoyed them giving him and his men gold and jewels. He saw no point in hurting them. After awhile he realized why they were treating him that way. The Aztecs thought he was the Aztec god called Quetzalcoatl. When he found out that they thought he was the Aztec god, he became greedy and kept asking for more gold and food. Afterwards he returned to Spain, and turned to the Aztecs a year later. This made the Aztecs upset because the Aztec god wasn’t suppose to come back for another 200 years or so. When he found out that he was no longer going to receive gifts he declared war.

During the war, many of Cortes’ men were capture. Some were held as prisoners others were killed. Half of the prisoners escaped but those that got caught were killed. The escaped prisoners had no luck with them. The escaped prisoners stole as much treasure as possible and tried to swim across the river. Their heavy pockets caused many of Cortes’ men to drown. Hernan and a few others made it across alive.

Hernan Cortes was not going to be defeated. So he found thousands of people and got to work on his new plan. His simple plan was to cut off the city’s river by destroying the aqueducts so they couldn’t have fresh water to survive from. Then he went around the whole city and cut off cause ways. Now the Aztecs couldn’t get any food to survive. Cortes’ plan worked. He had killed many Aztecs. Most died from a disease called small pocks. The Spaniards brought the disease but didn’t know it because their body was used to it. Three months later the Aztecs got weak enough for Cortes’ men to move in. the Spaniards destroyed anyone and everything in their path. Most of the Aztec’s gold was never found. Many people believed the Aztecs sunk their gold in the river while they were being starved. After the the battle, Hernan Cortes went back home to Spain and was hailed the “Spanish Ruler of Mexico”.

So Hernan Cortes isn’t that bad of a person now that you know these facts about him. He explored more of Mexico and the Aztecs. He also won over a lot of land for Spain and was rewarded for it. Killing the Aztecs wasn’t bad for all especially for Spain since that is where he got his land from. I hope you enjoyed reading this!

Hi it’s Tamara

My class went on a field trip yesterday. I was so excited when i found out that it was going to be something like a treasure hunt. I enjoy treasure hunts as much as I love math. We went on a big bus, I’ve never been on one so big!  When we got there we had to get a bike. The bikes were a little rusty but worked like new. The whole trip, nobody looked bored. We did this field trip for fun and for exploration.

Q: How were you an explorer?    A:I explored something that I’ve never seen or heard of before.

Q: If you go back, what would you like to explore more of?    A:If I could go back and explore more of some thing it would defiantly explore more of the Prasat Phra Wihan, it was a big temple on a mountain. It was the was the biggest mountain I’ve ever seen. There were many, many steps. There were also many doors,imagine a small elf door but 10 times bigger, pretty big huh?

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This picture is taken from the big mountain I was talking about!

Hi It’s Sophie, Tamara, and Tasha!

Here are our Strategies for reading non-fiction reading:

If I were you and you were reading a non-fiction picture book, I would read the text and look at the picture back and forth. You should do this strategy as soon as you see a picture on the page you are reading. If you forget what the picture is about, then you can use this strategy. Also, to help understand the text (or for example if your reading a book about animals and you don’t know or understand what the text is taking about) you may use this strategy.

Another strategy is to read a little, write down the main idea of that part and then scan over the main idea at the end. To use this strategy you can write the main idea on a sticky post-it or on any scrap piece of paper. You use this strategy after you read a page. This strategy is helpful because you can know what the page was all about.

The last strategy we have for you today is right after you flip the page look at the photograph and read the caption before reading the text to have an idea of what the topic is about. (Only if your photo has a caption.)

I hope you find these strategies are helpful !!

Bye!