The Talking Cucumber

What did the cucumber say to the vinegar?

"Well, this is a fine pickle you've gotten us into!"

Thanks to Matthew for contributing this joke from his book--
Jokelopedia The Biggest, Best, Silliest, Dumbest Joke Book Ever

A Book Review: The Medusa Plot

The Medusa Plot: A Book Review

by Nicholas

     The Medusa Plot is the first book in the Cahills vs. Vespers series. It is written by Gordon Korman, a writer who worked on the 39 Clues book series. Amy and Dan are back, but this time they are facing their most dangerous enemy: the Vespers. The Vespers kidnap 7 members of the Cahill family and hold them hostage. The Vespers demand that Amy and Dan bring them certain items, in order to release their family. The first demand in this book is to steal Caravaggio's painting Medusa. The Cahills pull off a daring heist at a museum but the Vespers require more. That will be continued in the next book, A King's Ransom. I thought this book was a great starting point for the series. I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone who has read the 39 Clues or is looking for a good action/mystery book. Overall, I give The Medusa Plot four out of five stars. I hope you enjoyed my review!

The Lego Movie: A Movie Review

The Lego Movie: A Movie Review

By Matthew

The Lego Movie is a wonderful animated movie about a lego minifigure named Emmett who finds a strange object stuck to his back that apparently Lord Business wants. Emmett goes on a lengthy journey because he is supposedly the ‘chosen one’, to stop Lord Business. Along the way he meet many friends including WildStyle, Batman, and Vitruvius.

This movie is funny and perfect for the family. While this is an awesome movie it was sometimes hard to keep track of why they were going places.  However, you don’t have to get every aspect of the plot to enjoy the movie. Even the littlest of kids will enjoy it! The jokes and funny parts in the movie meant for young and old alike. This movie is rated PG and is 1 hour 40 minutes long.

I rate this movie five out of five lego bricks.   

Clara Barton

Here is Matthew's version of Clara Barton.

Remembered to This Day

By:Matthew

     Extremely intelligent, extraordinarily brave, and exceedingly committed, Clara Barton, the Angel of the Battlefield became a heroine to girls for generations. Born on Christmas in 1821 in Oxford, Massachusetts, she was the youngest of seven children. While growing up in a typical farm family, she gained practical knowledge from being homeschooled, and became a teacher at a unusually young age. During the Civil War she rescued and revived hundreds of soldiers. She rested in Switzerland. There she learned about Switzerland’s Red Cross, which ultimately became her life’s work. She founded and led the American Red Cross until 1904, when she retired at the age of 83. Clearly her contributions have enriched the lives of many.
     

     Clara Barton who was shy, meek, and little, would someday be a school teacher successful hero to many people. When she was eleven she lovingly nursed her brother David from an illness. During her childhood her faithful father told her all kinds of war stories which inspired her to someday save lives in battle. When she was young she had a pet turkey. Now that’s a true tomboy.  Studying in the barn was something Clara enjoyed, and she was able to do that because she was homeschooled and lived on a farm.  Surprisingly as a 15 year old, Clara Barton became a school teacher and was really patient, which led to her success.

     When Clara Barton was a young adult she started to help in the battlefield by finding the Civil War soldier’s lost baggage, which was the beginning to saving many lives. Lovingly she helped the wounded soldiers get better. She was a wonderful teacher. She was awesome with wounds.She cared for the soldiers. On the battlefields there were sadly a lot of dead soldiers, and she rushed out on the battlefield to find missing soldiers often. Clara Barton also recorded missing men.  Helping in the battlefield  was something Clara Barton did, and it helped save many lives.

     Later on in Clara Barton’s life, the German huge war broke out and that’s when she joined the Red Cross, which was a great group. Taking care of the sick and wounded was what the Red Cross did, and that fit Clara Barton and was something she awesome at and something that she enjoyed doing. She would always say ‘you will be all right’ to the wounded she was caring for. Amazingly, they also helped deal with famines, floods, and earthquakes ‘Oh My’. Red Cross helped care for prisoners.  Clara Barton became the Red Cross President during the war also. Whenever there were unidentified dead people the Red Cross carefully identified them and helped arrange a burial. Clara Barton helped with all that.  As you can see, there was a huge transformation in her: from meek and shy to a hero to many people.

     Surprisingly, even though Clara Barton was the littlest and the youngest of the family, she became a hero to many desperate soldiers in the Civil War and helped establish the Red Cross in America. She never ever thought of herself and she always thought of others in fact one little girl asked her mom once “Is that lady an angel?”. She truly was amazing! While some people just wasted their lives, Clara Barton didn’t and while doing that she also saved many other lives which is what made her surely significant and remembered to this day.

Clara Barton

Since Joy, Matthew, and Nicholas all use the same writing curriculum, we decided to post each of our own essays, which are all about Clara Barton.  Here is Nicholas'.

Clara Barton

By Nicholas

Extremely intelligent, extraordinarily brave, and exceedingly committed, Clara Barton, the angel of the battlefield, became a girl’s heroine for generations. Born on Christmas 1821 in Oxford, Massachusetts, she was the youngest of 7 children. While growing up in a typical farm family, she gained useful and practical knowledge from being homeschooled, and became a teacher when she was 15. During the Civil War she rescued and revived hundreds of soldiers. She rested in Switzerland. There she learned about the Red Cross which became her life’s work. She led the Red Cross until 1904 when she retired at the age of 83. Clearly her contributions enriched the lives of many.

Clara Barton had an intriguing childhood being the youngest of seven. When she was 11 years old, her brother David had a serious accident and she slowly nursed him back to health. Inside, her father, who had been a soldier, told her tales of war lore. Truly a tomboy, she was healing animals and astoundingly had a tiny tame turkey! Her mom homeschooled her. Learning at home was not bad because she could still help around the farm. When she was skating, she injured her knee and this gave her a good point of view for a sick person. At age fifteen she began her successful 13 year teaching career. This shows that Clara Barton had a superb childhood.

     Quickly, Clara Barton began to become known as a good nurse in her hometown. When an opening for a Civil war nurse in her hometown regiment appeared she jumped at the chance for adventure. She helped the entire battlefield.She was seen as an angel by the injured soldiers and even helped other regiments when they were in battle. Organizing supplies; she had always caringly packed the necessities. After the battle she would find some solider to help recover M.I.A.s. Clara Barton was committed to giving the soldier the best treatment although some doctors were lazy in their job. Clara Barton, who usually came out of the battlefield with shrapnel in her dress, was a brave Civil war nurse.

     When Clara Barton was done with the Civil war she began investigating the Red Cross. Traveling to Europe, she learned about the Swiss and their help in wars. She campaigned in the U.S. She gained support. She began her work. Finally she got an important branch in the U.S. and begun her work. Clara Barton, who had helped Union soldiers before, started to think globally. Outside of war, she quickly expanded the Red Cross to calamities also. Clara Barton began to help in Cuba when she was 77 years old! Clara Barton was important in the Red Cross during her presidency.

    Clara Barton clearly enriched the lives of many through her inspiring words and deeds. At the age of 15 she became an uplifting teacher. Rescuing soldiers from battle, Clara was dedicated to giving every soldier the best treatment possible. Since she wanted to spread her efforts nationally, she began organizing the Red Cross in the U.S. Clara was extremely committed to helping all Americans who faced disasters.

The Sharpie Guys... "This Means War!"

This is a short funny stop motion movie about stick figures and their "creators" who protect them.  It is by our own writers.

Mongols

Mongols

By Andrew

The Mongols, who were fierce, warlike people, lived in central Asia. In the twelfth century the Mongols, who spread into Russia and China also in India, became Muslims. Then they conquered the local people. They became the largest empire in history. The Mongols quickly linked Europe to China and they traveled between those nations.

Gandalf's Visit

This stop motion was created by some of our writers!

The Computer Prom

Why didn't the computer go to the prom?

She didn't have a data.

Thanks to Matthew for contributing this joke from his book--
Jokelopedia The Biggest, Best, Silliest, Dumbest Joke Book Ever

The First Science Teacher

This is the paper I was talking about with us using the same writing curriculum.  Here is Nicholas' about Robert Grosseteste.

The First Science Teacher

By Nicholas

Robert Grosseteste was an important figure during the middle ages, because he was a bishop in the Roman Catholic Church around 1200 A.D. He was thoroughly committed to discovering the laws and physics God set in motion. Because of Grosseteste’s revered job as bishop, he had little time for science but he would always be doing experiments to explain correctly why things happen. Interestingly when Grosseteste was inventing things he would not build them unless he had a reason behind the invention.  He thought that scientists should observe and explain why things happen, which made Robert Grosseteste the first teacher to instruct The Scientific Method.

Impacting the world

Impacting the World

By Nicholas

“Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration”-Thomas Edison.

 Thomas Edison, Louis Braille, and Ben Franklin all changed the world with their hard work.

Ben Franklin was a remarkable individual who made life better in the American colonies. He is an important part of American history because he helped write the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Successfully, Franklin established the first library, hospital, fire department, and college in the colonies. He was America’s first great inventor. Franklin created a stove that produced 2 times the heat with less wood. He also cleverly invented the lightning rod and the bifocals. He wanted no money. He wanted no patents. He wanted his ideas copied. Ben Franklin worked to make life better in the American colonies.

Louis Braille was a person who greatly increased a blind person’s ability by inventing an ingenious way to read. He was blinded when he was three because he gouged his eye and it became infected. When he was young he wanted to read as bad as a moth wants light. Desperately, he tried many ways, and then he heard of a code used by the French army. He created a code of dots. Sadly, his school did not accept his system, but he was not discouraged.  He published his code in 1929! So, today the blind read because of the Braille system.  

Thomas Edison was a smart man who changed the world. He was a genius because he patented over 1,093 inventions. Notably, he invented the movie camera and the typewriter. His favorite was the phonograph. He had 10,000 fails with the battery, but surprisingly he continued! He was smart. He worked hard. He never gave up. Thomas Edison changed people’s lives.

As these great men changed the world huge differences were felt. All these men impacted the daily lives of everyone.

Humpback's Food

Humpback's Food

by Matthew      

     Humpback whales consume over 2,000 kilos of food a day for 4 months a year because they do not eat while migrating.  They store it in there blubber.  The humpbacks eat all kind of food though they'll eat herrings, mackerel, cod, and salmon.  Some of their favorites are shrimp and krill.  If humans ate as much shrimp as the humpback did which would mean 2,000 kilos of food a day for 4 months it would cost more than 5 million dollars even millionaires would starve.

Turkey Crossing

Why did the turkey cross the road?

The chicken was on strike.

Thanks to Matthew for contributing this joke from his book--
Jokelopedia The Biggest, Best, Silliest, Dumbest Joke Book Ever

The Rude Parrot

     David got a parrot for his birthday.  This parrot was fully grown, with a bad attitude and an even worse vocabulary.  Every other word was naughty or rude.  David tried very hard to change the bird's manners.  David would always say polite words, play soft music, anything he could think of to try to set a good example, but nothing worked.  David was getting really frustrated.  He yelled at the bird, and the bird got worse.  He shook the bird, and the bird got angrier and more rude.  One day, David felt so desperate that he put the parrot in the freezer.  For a few moments he heard the bird squawking, kicking, and screaming, then suddenly everything was quiet.  David was frightened that he might have hurt the bird and quickly opened the freezer door.  The parrot calmly stepped out on to David's arm and said:  "I'm sorry that I might have offended you with my language and actions and I ask for your forgiveness.  I will try to correct my behavior."  David was amazed at the great change in the bird and was about to ask what had caused it when the parrot continued:  "May I ask what the chicken did?"


Thanks to Matthew for contributing this joke from his book--
Jokelopedia The Biggest, Best, Silliest, Dumbest Joke Book Ever

Whooping Cranes

Whooping Cranes

By Andrew

     Whooping cranes like wetlands that are wetlands and marshy. In spring whoopers fly 4000 km to get to their habitat. Their diet relates to their habitat. In swampy regions they eat fruit, insects, worms, and frogs. In Aransas refuge they eat  clams, and crabs. In Buffalo park they eat small fish, snakes, and birds. Swampy habitats are some of the whoopers favorites.

A Book Review: NERDS By Andrew

A Book Review: NERDS

By Andrew 

        My favorite book series is NERDS (national, espionage, rescue and defense society). NERDS is written by Micheal Buckley who is also the author of Sisters Grim. This book is about a team of secret agents, who can only be in the NERDS team until they are 18 years old.  They have weaknesses that are upgraded into special abilities. Along the books you will find betrayal, new bad guys, and surprises. Each book is better than the one before!   My favorite character is Jackson Jones, who has the ability to form his braces into anything he wants just by thinking about it.  I rate this book 5 out of 5 stars.  I recommend this book to anyone who likes action or adventure books!

Books in the series:
Book one- National Espionage Rescue and Defense Society

Book two- M is for Mama's Boy

Book three- The Cheerleaders of Doom

Book four- The Villian Virus

(And hopefully more to come!)

Truly a Doctor of Science

 Truly a Doctor of Science

By Nicholas

     Dr. Benjamin Rush was born on December 24, 1745. When his father died, he was 5 years old and his mother moved the family to Pennsylvania. There, to support her family, she opened a simple grocery store. His first careers were being a doctor and a college teacher. Later he became a chemist and a political thinker. He is called America’s physician father because he knew so much about medicine. He replaced a Pennsylvania delegate who was absent and signed the famed Declaration of Independence. After that he was elected to Congress. During his time on Congress he tried to get George Washington removed from the general position. He failed and had to write a humiliating apology letter. Then he was quickly elected to the Surgeon General position. He died in Philadelphia in 1813.  Dr. Benjamin Rush was truly a doctor of science.

Drivin' Raspberries

Why are raspberries such bad drivers?

They're always getting into jams.

Thanks to Matthew for contributing this joke from his book--
Jokelopedia The Biggest, Best, Silliest, Dumbest Joke Book Ever

The Troublemaker

On the first day of class, the teacher asked any troublemakers to stand up.  After a few moments of silence, a shy little girl stood up.  "Are you a troublemaker?" the teacher asked.

"No," replied the girl,  "I just hate to see you standing there all by yourself."

Thanks to Matthew for contributing this joke from his book--
Jokelopedia The Biggest, Best, Silliest, Dumbest Joke Book Ever

The Dollar

"If you had one dollar and you asked your father for another, how many would you have?" the teacher asked the little boy.

"One dollar," replied the boy.

"You don't know your arithmetic," said the teacher.

"No," replied the boy.  "You don't know my father."

Thanks to Matthew for contributing this joke from his book--
Jokelopedia The Biggest, Best, Silliest, Dumbest Joke Book Ever