Today, I’m going to talk to you about my best post and why I think it’s my best post. Here is the post I chose!

Quad Blogging is Awesome!

Introduction

On Tuesday, Mrs. Tietelbaum gave us an assignment. She gave us two choices. The first choice was: I you were  forced to spend the rest of your life in a library, a museum or a zoo, which would you chose and why. The second choice was: If you had to pick someone you know to be president who would you pick and why. Guess who I picked. I picked Martin  Luther King Jr. First of all, who was Martin Luther King? Martin Luther King was born in 1929 and died in 1968. Martin Luther King was assassinated on April 4, 1968. He was also  a negroe and he influenced a lot of people to do what was right. Here are some reasons why I think he should be president.

Reasons

Here are my reasons why I think Martin Luther King should be president. For one, he is fair because he wanted all negroes to have as much right as white people. Also, he was a good speaker because he spoke I Have a Dream (one of his most famous speeches) in front of about 250,000 people. I’d say he was a good speaker. Martin Luther King has integrity too because he helped all fellow negroes instead of thinking he was a bad person just because he was black. He was honest because he wasn’t afraid to say what he believed in. I think those are all good reasons why he should be president.

Shocking News! On Tuesday, April 24, 2012, we went to the science lab. We  learned about electricity with Mrs. Burkhart. First, she taught us about conductors and insulators. A conductor is something that electricity and an insulator is something that doesn’t conduct electricity. We tried to make electricity with the items she had put in front of us. Some of the items were insulators and some of the items were conductors. First, we tested the straw. Obviously, the straw was an insulator because it was plastic. Any thing that isn’t metal is an insulator because it doesn’t conduct electricity. Only metal conducts electricity. The next one was, a nail. The nail was a conductor. After that, we tested a glass rod. That was an insulator. Then, we tested a paper clip. That was a conductor. Then, we tested a diode. That one was a trick because one side was an insulator and one side was a conductor. For that, we just put conductor. After that, we tested a rubber eraser. That was an insulator. Then, we tested a copper strip. That was an insulator. Finally, we tested the wooden stick, and of course that was an insulator. I think we learned a lot about conductors and insulators. For being so exceptional in the science lab, we got to touch a plasma ball. A plasma ball is basically a ball of electricity. It was really cool. That was the end of our wonderful trip to the science lab!

Today, we are experimenting and learning about hyperlinking with Mrs. Tolisano. This post is short but it is just an experiment.

On our blogs, we embedded a Clusrmap. A Clustrmap is a world map on your blog, that shows you the location of the visitors of your blog. The map helps us visualize  where our readers are from. We have been surfing the virtual globe to countries all around the world, such as Thailand, Switzerland, and Czech Republic, because we know that they have read our posts.

I think hyperlinking is very useful because it can help you get to other websites very fast. Mrs. Tolisano helped us with this. Now I like it!

On February 27, we started Quad blogging. What is Quad blogging you ask? Quad blogging is where you collaborate with three other classes that have blogs. We collaborated with Switzerland, Thailand, and the Czech Republic. It was a great success! I think it taught everybody a lot about there writing like what there strengths were and what they need to improve on.

The only thing I didn’t like is the commenting and blogging rubric. I don’t think that you should be graded on what you write. One of the things I did like about Quad blogging was that we were collaborating with people all around the world, and it was kind of cool to see what they had to say.

My writing has improved a lot because of Quad blogging. At the beginning of the year, I was writing about five or six sentences per post. Now I am writing about two paragraphs. I also improved on the words I was using in my posts. Before, I was using simple and jading words like good and ugly. Now, I am using fancy and colorful words like delightful and revolting. The Quad blogging was an enjoyable experience for me. I was delighted at getting all those comments! I might want to do Quad blogging in the future. So that was my experience with Quad blogging!

Here are links to the other blogs that we commented on!

Czech Republic’s Blog

Thailand’s blog

Switzerland blog

Always tell the truth

Be yourself

Create your own world

Demonstrate kindness to others

Everyone can help you

Forget your anger

Good things will come to people who are patient

Happiness can not be bought

Imagination is important

Jump higher than everyone

Keep your parents honor

Last is not always bad

Make laughter were there is none

Never be gloomy

Open peoples hearts

Praise yourself for being you

Quitters are bad

Rest when you are sad

Smile and you will be rewarded

Teach your children what you have taught yourself

Up is the direction you want to go

Vastness is not always good

When you are lonely make a friend

X out any of your bad ideas

You can do better than this

Zip up your pants zipper

It is the end of our third nine weeks. That means  book reports are due. I read Anne Frank Life in Hiding. Anne Frank is someone that wrote a diary during World War 11. She is very famous and you can still see her diary today in a museum. I admire her because she has courage. She wasn’t afraid to fight back for what she believed in. That is why I admire her. My book is about Anne Frank and her family hiding in a secret annex with other Jews. Two years later, the Gestapo (police) find her and bring the family to a  Nazi camp. Then  they transport them to a death camp were they are all killed except for Anne Franks father, Otto Frank. He escapes the death camp and goes back to the secret annex and finds the diary that Anne left behind. He reads her diary and then gets it published in a museum that is why she is famous. You can also go to the secret annex in Amsterdam and see were Anne Frank was hiding. I think this is a very good book and it should be read by everybody!

Do you know what purim is about? Purim is when you read the megilah and eat hamantoshen. Purim is were you have feasts and were you give gift baskets. I will tell you why we do all this stuff.

Long ago in the land of Persia, there lived a king named Achashverosh. Achashverosh wanted to go to a ball with his queen, Vashti. Vashti refused to go to the ball because she was having her own party. For that, Achashverosh threw her out of the castle. Not long after that, Achashverosh asked his guards to go and find him another queen.

Meanwhile, in a small house there was girl named Esther. She had an Uncle named Mordichai. They were both Jewish. Esther was worried that Achashverosh would chose her as his new queen. Just then, Esther and Mordichai heard a knocking at the door. They saw two guards. The guards told Mordichai that they were looking for a new queen. Esther came out and asked what was going on. Mordichai said that she was going to be made the knew queen of Persia. Then the guards left. Mordichai told Esther not to tell the king that she was jewish or Achashverosh would kill her. Esther agreed. Mordichai and Esther rode to the kings palace. The king liked what he saw and took Esther as his new queen.

After Mordichai left, Esther was sent up to her chambers.When Mordichai walked back up the street to his house, he saw Haman (the king’s advisor) riding by. Haman told everybody on the street to bow down to him. Everybody listened except for Mordichai. He didn’t bow down to Haman no matter how much he threatened him. Haman rode away, but he promised he would kill all the Jews on the  thirteenth of Adar. Mordichai sent a letter to Esther warning her about Haman.

Back at the Palace, Esther was wondering what she should do. Should she tell Achashverosh about Haman or should she not tell anybody? Esther couldn’t choose, so she fasted for three days and nights. Finally, she came up with a plan. She went into the court room where Achashverosh was and told her that she would hold a feast in his honor and that Haman could come.

That night at the feast, Esther made an announcement. She told Achashverosh that Haman would kill all the Jews and if he killed all the Jews she would die too. Achashverosh didn’t know about this plan so when he heard about it, he was surprised. The king sent Haman to be hung. That very same day he was hung. All the Jews celebrated and that is why we celebrate Purim.

Now that you know what Purim is, I will tell you what we did in school for Purim! When we came into school, we were all wearing costumes in honor of Purim. I was a Celtics basketball player. Our class made Mishloach manot baskets and I gave my mishloach manot basket to Jamie. Then, we went into the sanctuary to read migilah and I did a very good job. We had a mini carnival after that. It was a great day!

My teacher has told me to tell you about minerals, Igneous rocks, Sedimentary rocks, and Metamorphic rocks from my science book, so here it is.

page 244-245

Do you know what minerals are? A mineral is a solid, nonliving substance that occurs naturally in rocks or in the ground. Here are some examples of minerals. Hornblende is one of a group of hard green, black, and brown minerals. Silvery galena is a common mineral from which we get lead. Copper is produced from the mineral chalcopyrite. Rock can be made of many minerals or of one mineral with different- sized grains. Can you believe that there are more than 4,000 kinds of minerals?! It’s hard to believe but it’s true. Many kinds of minerals are alike. Gypsum and calcite may look alike but gypsum is easier to scratch. Now let’s talk about Igneous rocks!

page 246

Do you know how Igneous rocks form? Igneous rocks form when melted rock cools and hardens. Igneous rocks usually form from volcanoes because volcanoes have magma and lava. Here are some Igneous rocks: Basalt, Rhyolite, Gabbro, Diorite, and Granite. Deep inside the earth, it is so hot that some rock is liquid, like syrup. This melted rock is magma. Magma is inside earths crust. Now let’s  talk about Sedimentary rocks.

page 247-248

Sedimentary rocks form from sediment. Sediment is pieces of rock that have been broken down and moved. Sedimentary rocks are very common on earths surface. For instance, you could see one in your backyard or in a park. You could see them almost anywhere. Another group of rock is metamorphic rock. Metamorphic rock is rock that has changed from another type of rock. High temperature can change one type of rock into metamorphic rock.

That’s just about all I wanted to tell you. Hope you liked it!

On February 22, our class celebrated Kaleidoscope Day with our school. First, we went on a river boat cruise and the guide told us about the St. Johns river. On the cruise me, Itamar, and Zachary saw Shaun Kan yacht! Shaun Kan is the owner of the Jaguars football team. After the river boat cruise, we ate lunch at friendship park. Then, our class went back to the center for yoga. The yoga teacher taught us a lot. I was partners with my brother. After that, we went to paint chip theory art. Paint chip theory art was were we put colored paint chips on a board with glue, then we spread modge podge on it. After that, we went to theater and I pretended to be Babe Ruth, swinging for a home run. Everybody thought I was acting like a lunatic! Finally we went to an event called message in a bottle. Message in a bottle was were we were thanking soldiers and veterans for there help to our nation. People would make all the bottles into a wall and display it downtown. I wrote two messages. In one of my messages I wrote: Thank you, Go USA, and freedom. Finally we went outside and cleaned up the school playground. That was pretty much Kaleidoscope Day. Hope you had a great Kaleidoscope Day!