Salvation Army

Authors Note: Charlie, Zoe, Nate, Carson, and I did a project on the Salvation Army. In the following there is 2 passages. The first passage is about our visit there and the second is about The Red Bell Program.Our Visit to the Salvation Army
For a program called F.A.R.T. night I do at church we donated and packed break fast and snack for the salvation army. On 12/12/2011 Charlie, Zoe, Nate, Carson, and I went to drop of all of the food items. When we got there me and Nate got out of the car went in the building and looked asked for a girl we had previously e-mailed named Rachel. Once we found her she took us to get carts we could but our snack and breakfast bags we had packed in the car the day before.We ended up with three big carts filled up with breakfast and snack bags to donate to needy kids.After we brought the carts into the building Rachel showed us around.They had a huge food pantry that was stacked high with food to give to people who needed it. In addition to the food pantry they had a toy room for kids whose parents can't afford to buy toys for Christmas. Another thing they had was a chapel so people can attend church services. My favorite place that Rachel showed us was the shelter. The shelter is a place that homeless men can stay at for the night. Going to the Salvation really impacted my life, I really want to donate more now.

The Red Bell
Have you ever went to the grocery store with your parents and saw somebody ringing a red bell?If so have you ever put money in their red bucket? Assuming that you said yes you donated money directly to the Salvation Army. Which means your donating money to family's in need just in time for the holiday's! Most of you are lucky enough to receive many brightly colored packages for Christmas or Hanukkah. The people who can't afford them can go to the Salvation Army and sign up for their kids to get presents.  When they are done collecting the money for the presents they have the parents come and pick them up from the Salvation Army, so their kids can have them on Christmas. So when you pass by a red bell on the way into Walmart think of others and put a couple of dollars in for the people who need it.

Best Teacher

 Authors Note: I was going to enter this in the Best Teacher Contest for Barnes and Noble,but didn't want to mail it to them. I think Mr.Johnson is the best teacher, so I put him down.

Thanks you, Thank you,

For being the best teacher.

For lending me that glue.

For pretending to be a t-rex creature.

Just letting you know I'm giving you thanks,

For helping me out.

For never pulling pranks.

For telling my peers not to shout.

Mr. J you are the best,

For being hilarious

For making sure I do good on tests,

For not being precarious.

Making sure you know I am thankful,

For keeping calm and carrying on

For being so careful,

For helping me not write "Once upon".

I' m glad to have you as an advisor,

For  thinking twice.

For not being a bore.

For being so nice.

Monopoly

Authors Note: I had done a project on Monopoly, I learned a ton of history about Monopoly which is strange because, it’s a board game. This piece is about the History of Monopoly.

Kids, teens, and adults all play the family board game Monopoly. Monopoly is the most famous board game in the Nation. It was originally created in 1903 by Elizebeth Magie and published in 1935. Now there are over 1000 versions world wide, including Coca Cola, I Love Lucy, Hawaii,and even The Powder Puff Girls.

This never ending game is played all over the world every day. The longest game ever played went on for 70 days. It has also played a role in places other than the living room.There is a record held for the longest game played in a bath tub. People even used it to sneak money, maps, compasses, and other things into the P.O.W (prisoners of war) Camps so they could escape during World War 11. Because of this, the makers made a version of Monopoly called War-opoly.

So how did Monopoly get its name anyway? Well a monopoly happens when a company takes over an entire market. For example If McDonald's takes over every fast food restaurant it would have a monopoly on fast food. So when you own three properties that are the same color in the game Monopoly you have a monopoly over those properties. Therefore the name Monopoly is an appropriate name.

In the game, player’s compete to win. Throughout the game you get things like buy and trade properties,take chances, win community chests, and earn monopolies. Players have to pull out their best strategies to trade and buy properties, houses, and hotels. The game ends when only one person has money left, so manage it well!

Popularity

Authors Note: I was texting my friend Sarah Gonzalez on Facebook today and she asked me who my best friend was. I said I didn't really have one, and she responded, "really I can't believe that because you are so popular."  We talked more about that and we discussed what popularity actually meant. This piece is about what conclusion we found to what "popularity" meant.

Popularity. My least favorite word in the entire world. What first comes to mind when you think of the world popular? A group of characters in a chick flick or the sporty girls who have a lot of friends in grade school? If you have ever wished to be called "popular" stop wishing. If what I think your thinking is correct to be popular means your good at sports, pretty and everybody thinks you’re the nicest person in the whole world (that is before you get to know the person). If that were true I am friends with some pretty popular people.

Let's just say you were to meet my "friend" Sandy. Sandy is on the black basketball team, the select soccer team, a softball team, track, and plays volleyball. She is also has perfect long hair and freckles that just make her look cute. Before she's good friends with people she complements them in the halls and runs up and hugs them like they have been best friends forever. She hung out with me a lot in the beginning of the summer, but when someone else  better was free for a day she dumped me and ran off with them. When she is with you she stabs her best friends in the back. To be quite honest she's kind of a jerk at times. Today I was called popular and I was honestly sad about that because I had an awful definition of popular in my head,because I knew people called Sandy popular. I don't want to be group into the "popular" group because a lot of the people in that group are bullies to basically everybody they don't hang out with on a regular bases. The person who called me popular is the nicest person I have ever met at this school district. If you were to ask me now what first comes to mind when you think of the world popular. I would say a person who can be truly nice to everyone.  I am not popular, I will never be able to be nice to everyone.  Even though someone doesn't have that many friends and isn't very athletic or pretty they can still be popular.

Chad

Dear Lila,
We have been pen-pal for 3 years now and I really want you to visit Chad. Here is some information on it so that you can prepare for your trip.

I was born and raised in Chad. I live in a small home, which is okay with me because I've never known anything else. Mom says Chad is a Third World country, but I know that really means Chad is a poor country. I guess I would rather live in a nicer country like Australia or America, but I would never want to leave my family and friends. Tonight for dinner I'm eating porridge. . . again. At least tonight we get some fish in it because the normal tomatoes, onions, spices, and the occasional hog doesn't really float my boat. At least porridge is better than the even more often served Millet. Millet was either served as a paste or a ball, my family normal eats it as a ball because it is less expensive to make. It is basically just grain dipped in Chadian sauces. Although I do like Millet if we make it into pancakes or if we put it in a Chadian Cuisine. We get millet by growing it on the far. Some other things we grow are cotton, sorghum, millet, peanuts, rice, potatoes,and manioc.

My house is one of the better villas in Chad seeing I live close to the capitol, N'Djamena,but some houses here are really beaten down. You could probably compare them to the house made out of straw in the 3 Little Pigs. Chad's coordinates are 20 degrees North and 20 degrees East. I live really close to the equator, which means it's always very hot around my house. Today I got dressed in my purple top, tan briefs, and my nicest scarf. Many Chadians wear traditional dress, mainlyplain colored long sleeve shirts and briefs while women wear scarves and hats on their hats  although a fairly large portion of us wear Western clothing and some even wear tribal garb.Most of these out fits include shorts and t-shirts because of the hot weather.

I live in Dikwa, which is a city in the region of N'Djamena. N'Djamena is the richest of the 18 regions, but it does still not have much money. I go to Shehu Sanda Primary School, Primary school basically just means secondary school. But I am at one of the nicest primary schools in Chad. At least I don't go to the SOS Primary School which has about 300 needy kids enrolled. Most of the parents of kids there don’t have jobs because most jobs are agriculturally related. So if you don’t have flat land, you can’t grow crops.

Most of my friends parents are farmers but not my dad, he works with the transportation of goods in and out of the country. He told me that we buy about $830 million worth of goods each year from different countries. Some of these goods that are imported are machinery and transportation equipment, industrial goods, foodstuffs,and textiles. He also said that people in Chad buy way more stuff then we sell. We sell about $4 million worth of goods each year, we sell cotton, cattle, gum arabic, and oil. My dad knows a lot of because he needs to speak to people in a bunch of countries.I speak Arabic and  French, which are the to most spoke languages here, but there are over 120 more languages spoke in Chad including Sara.

-Larrisa

Friday

Authors Note: I thought of this topic by doing a Word Association. It is about a football game I went to, the night of this football game I realized my friends aren't the very nice.

"Kendall let's go!" my mom yells as I grab my North Face and run out the door. My mom starts the car and we drive to the playoff football game. When I go to a football game I don't actually watch the game seeing I do not understand football one so ever. Instead I just walk around and talk to my friends, which by the way all kids in middle school do. The only problem is I hate all of the drama going on, because I hate gossiping so, I normally just hang out with two or three people.  I hung out with Sally because, I was planning to have her sleep over that night and Marley because,  she isn't in any of my classes anymore.

It was sickening to watch everybody in our grade form these clicks, even some of my closest friends formed these clicks and wouldn't let anybody else join. I guess I was in a click with Sally and Marley but we only hung out together to get away from all of that. Honestly we watched five of my friends make a tight circle and talk. Then when another one of my friends (Lila) walked up to join they all moved together and discludded her. Now here's the worst part, my friend Marley pointed her out and she laughed at her for being a loner. I felt awful for Lila.

When the football game ended I asked Marley if she could sleepover too. She could. When we got back to my house Sally and Marley started gossiping. I sat there for a while listening to them, and then I got sucked in to this sort of black hole. I couldn't get out of it, I couldn't stop gossiping. It was awful. I decided to put in a movie so we could just stop talking for a moment. Soon after we put the movie in I fell asleep.

PHEOC

1. Problem:  How does different places you get water effect the water itself?

2. Hypothesis: The more populated the place the dirtier the water will be. This will be true because, when there are more people there more people will liter but, the places that aren’t populated end up really trashy and extremely nasty as well. Like the pond and river will be disgusting because no one goes by it and if they do they liter. Then there’s the beach which is very populated mostly in the summer. The normal places are like the Waterfront and Smokey’s but that at times has its ups and do.
3. Experiment:
• Materials
• Microscope
• Microscope Slides
• Microscope covers
• Water from 6 different places
• Containers to put water in
• towel
• flip camera
• pencil
• notebook
4. Procedures
• Gather materials
• Go down to river
• collect water
• put water in slides with blue dye record the observations
• Repeat steps 2-5 at the pond, the beach, Smokey’s Bait Shop, the waterfront, the boardwalk, and the sink.
• Clean up mess
• Variables
• CV- the amount of water taken, weather conditions, where you get the water from(top, middle, bottom of the water),the microscope, the amount of water put into each slide, the amount of blue dye put into each slide, clean up process
• IV-the place you get the water
• DV- the water  cleanness
• Control-tap water
5. Observations

1.     Tap Water

a.        We saw little black dots were assuming it's dirt

2.        Smokey's

b.        Tons of dirt and I spotted piece of hair

3.        Pond

a.        Living insects or some sort of bug or possibly some sort of fish at least four of them.

• b.       See weed
• c.        Hair
• d.       Big clumps of dirt

4.        River

a.      Very small pieces of see weed and other small pieces of dirt and what not.

5.        Board Walk

a.        Life in this one we saw 2

• b.       Dirt
• c.        See weed
• d.       Hair
• e.       Air bubbles many!!
• f.         Big huge clump of see weed or hair on the edge of the slide

6.        Waterfront

a.        Dirt

b.       See weed

7.        Beach

a.        Big black dot moving around

• b.       Dirt
• c.        Hair
• d.       See weed
• e.       1 air bubble

6. Conclusion
• Based on our research on the river, Katie and I decided to conduct an experiment on  if you get water from one place and then you get it from another in the same city if it has the same stuff in it. We knew that it would be different from a lake to an ocean but we did not know from a river to lagoon to a lake.  the experiment, I can state that depending on where you get water it  we believe that the more popular the place the more stuff will be in it, because people will be bringing things into it like dirt that was on their body. At the end of the experiment our hypothesis was supported. In the pond in behind the chocolate factory we didn’t find much in it. In the beach their was a lot of stuff because, people are in and around the beach often.
• In the experiment, we encountered a few external variables that may have affected my results. Unfortunately, it was windy outside so the water was moving around which means some of the stuff in the water could have been moving with it. Therefore we can not guarantee this is 100% accurate.

PG-13

Author's Note:  I wrote this because when I'm with friends whose parents are less lenient as my parents. I sometimes can't watch PG-13 movies with them.  This often causes problems so I decided to figure out why kids under 13 aren't aloud to watch PG-13 movies.

Should kids under 13 be able to watch pg-13 movies or shows?  I think it depends on the movie, such as what the movie contains like swearing.  I think kids from the age 9-12 should be able to watch pg-13 movies because, G and PG are mostly cartoons. I do not like watching cartoons because, I find them annoying. 

What makes a movie pg-13? I think it is about if there is swearing or nudity.  But how does the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) rate movies. A G movie can not contain language, nudity, violence or other matters that in view of the rating board would offend parents whose younger children view the movie.  A PG-rated film may not be  suitable for children. PG means parent guided so parents have to check out the movie before children watch it.  It could have some profanity, some violence, or brief nudity , however there will not  be any drug use in a PG film. PG-13 indicates there's material in the film that may not be suitable for children under the age of 13.A PG-13 movie could go "beyond the PG rating in theme, violence, nudity, language, adult activities or other elements, but does not reach the restricted R category." The MPAA will give this rating to films with drug use or more than brief nudity, although the nudity in a PG-13. R-ratings require a parent or adult guardian to be present in order to view the film. An R-rated film "may include adult themes, hard language, intense or persistent violence, drug abuse or other elements, so that parents are counseled to take this rating very seriously." No one under the age of 17 is permitted in a theater to watch a film with this rating. The MPAA gives a film an NC-17 rating based on "violence, aberrational behavior, drug abuse or any other element that most parents would consider too strong and therefore off-limits for viewing by their children."

Would knowing how the MPAA rates movies effect parents decisions on if there 12 year olds should be able to watch pg-13 movies? I think they would because I don't think PG's rules is that different from PG-13's rules. 

What happens when a 12 year old wants to watch a movie with a 13 year old? Should the 13 year old watch a PG movie or should the 12 year old watch a PG-13 movie? That is up to the 12 year olds parents.I feel that kids under 13 should be able to watch PG-13 movies. Kids under 13 shouldbe able to watch pg-13 movies.

Dear,

Authors Note: I wrote this piece to try a new form of writing. I want this piece to touch peoples hearts, and I want you to feel bad for Margret and Lillian. In this piece two girls are writing back and forth to each other. 

Dear Margret,

I really wish you didn't leave me,  I'm alone and afraid. Yesterday at school we were doing a project on  our family and I didn't have anything to write about. I can barely afford anything. The homeless shelter I  stay in is closing down and I'll be dead without it. I don't know what to do. I need a friend, I need you.

Love,  Lillian

Dear Lillian,

I wish I could be with you too, I never wanted to leave. But, we both know I needed that job. I can't  leave here , but you can leave there. Come here you can sleep in the homeless center down the street  from me. You could maybe even get a job. Please come I'll help you.

Love, Margret

Dear Margret,

I've thought about coming before but I don't have enough money for a taxi. I guess I could go by foot but  it's a long way without any food.  I need to be with you. We need to find a way.

Love, Lillian

Dear Lillian,

I lost my job yesterday. I won't be able to afford my apartment anymore. I have no reason to stay.  I'll have enough money to come back on the train and for food for a few months. We can find another homeless shelter or a cheap hotel.

Love, Margret

Dear Margret,

I'm so sorry you lost your job. We can find jobs here, or even sell lemonade for an extra dollar or two.  I think we need help from somebody. I know we never wanted to do this but, I think we need to find a foster home.

Love, Lillian

To be Continued...

Love Me:

Authors Note:I wrote this poem  because  I enjoy writing poems. I wrote this poem about how other people's actions affects yours. 

Love me and I'll love you.

Be kind and I'll be nice.

Be thankful and I'll be grateful.

Be friendly and I'll be cheerful.

Be mean and I'll avoid you.

Hate me and I'll be forsaken.

Milwaukee Meusum

Authors Note:  Earlier this week I went to the Milwaukee Public Museum for a field trip. I went to many different exhibits, including the Streets of Old Milwaukee, The Arctic,The Rain Forest, Butterfly Garden, The third Planet, Living Oceans, and Native Americans.I discovered a lot when I was there so,I decided to share it with you.

When I entered the museum I was excited to discover new things. All of the groups my class split up.In my group their was eight girls.(Kiley, Zoe, Callie, Tien, Sydney K, Sydney W, Riah, and me.) Our first stop was to the 3rd Planet exhibit. As we entered we saw many cool things, some even dated back 300 million years ago. We looked at and learned about dinosaurs. I also learned that at one time all of the countries were together to make one big country. This country was called Pangaea. Over all  I think that this exhibit was really interesting.

After the 3rd planet exhibit we crossed the hall and took a stroll down the streets of old Milwaukee. I learned Kiley's grand parents got engaged in a building we saw called Phister Hotel. Sydney Wagner's great grandpa worked for the store Usingers Sausage on the real streets of old Milwaukee back in the early 1900's.  In addition to that I learned that George Watts was a famous china salesman in Milwaukee who owned a store name GEO. Watts. After finding out all of that we stumbled across a candy shop where we each bought chocolates and candy sticks. While eating the candy we embarked toward the rainforest exhibit.

In the rainforest exhibit...I learned about monkeys and how they survive in the environment around them. We also learned about cells, we got the chance to loo into microscopes and see the cells of a rainforest leaf. Another thing I found out was that a butterfly is 100% symmetrical. I was glad that I had the chance to go to that exhibit.

Shortly after we left the rainforest exhibit we went to the butterfly exhibit.  We entered a butterfly garden that contained a miniature water fall, plants, and butterflies. I liked when butterflies landed on me. I also thought it was cool when they stuck to the side of the water fall with out falling off. While looking at some of the butterflies I almost stepped one so, I wish they didn't land on the floor. We stayed in there so long, the lady who was running it kicked us out, so we went to lunch.

After lunch we went to the Arctic exhibit.

I went to the Arctic exhibit in the Milwaukee museum. I learned how Indians lived in the cold weather. For food the went ice fishing. It was a lot like ice fishing now but in stead of using a pole to fish through the holes they used a spear to catch fish and seals. I also learned they lived in igloos. I thought that would be cold, but I learned it wasn't that cold because  it  was completely closed and close together. All together I liked the exhibit.

In the living oceans exhibit I learned a lot. I learned about how people used mollusks. They used it for food, tools, adornments, and money. I also learned about waves. The force of surging waves causes problems for life along the shore. Another thing I learned about was the saltiness of salt water. There is three-tenths of a pound of salt in each gallon of seawater. Over all I learned a lot in the exhibit.

I  went to the Native American exhibit in the Milwaukee Museum. I learned about the Broad leaf Forest, the trees in this forest were classed as either broad leaf or needle leaf. I also learned about the fishes such as perches, sunfishes, trouts, and basses. In native Americans free time they dance. One of the kind of dances they did was the Traditional Wisconsin Woodland Powwow.  I learned a lot in the Native American Exhibit.

Journey to Heaven

Authors Note: I wrote this story after one of Mr. Johnson's Ed Chats. This Ed Chat was about stream of consciousness and how you should just let your ideas flow. I think this is one of my better writing pieces tell me if you think so. Some of these sentences are fragments, but this is an artistic piece so I did this on purpose.

Standing beneath a large oak tree in the middle of a field.   A picnic blanket beneath me. But only I am around.  I can see only nothingness and feel only a kind gentle touch of angels surrounding me.  I'm here for a reason. But I cannot figure it out. Who wants me to be here? Why do they want me to be here? I don't know.  But I know I'm the only one who will ever know. I need to leave this field and this tree. But I don’t know how. I don’t know where to go.

 I start walking and still all I can see is the long prairie grass.  It starts looking familiar. Something starts looking familiar. But why?  When have I been here before? Last years family picnic? No. In college? No. As a child? Yes. I was here as a child this was the field behind my house! But where is my house? Is this a question that I will ever know the answer to? I don’t know. I start thinking.  Did the field get moved by god? Or did my house simply get demolished?  I need to figure this out! But how? How do I get back home, back to my kids and my husband? I decided to keep walking.

 All of my neighbors houses were gone. But I am positive this is the field me and my sisters use to play in on summer nights. I see the tree that we often climbed and hung on.   I choose to climb up it one more time. Branch by branch I make my way up to the top of the tree. I look beyond the prairie and see my town. Only I still see nobody. I climb down the tree and walk to the town.  As I get there I look around nobody is here. All I have to comfort me is my thoughts. But all I can think about is how to get back home. I walk and I walk for days straight but still I see nobody.

Many weeks later . I see something , I see everything.  Everything is white around me and I look down and see some sort of  cloud when I look back up I see angels. My journey is over. I was looking for home all along when I should have been looking for heaven. All of my questions have been answered. I am here and from here on I will always be here.  But where is here?

My Family Tree

Love

Authors Note: This is a poem about love. I tried to describe love in the best way I could.Tell me if you think it flows well.

Love is pretty, a wonderful thing

Love is at first sight,

Love is a verb, and adjective, and a noun

Love is being together

Love is  friendship

Love is not detest

Love is marriage and dating and engaging

Love is being kind

Love is enjoying

Love is passion

Love is not hatred

Love is beautiful!

Library

Authors Note: When writing I was sitting in the Pewaukee Public Library. I was waiting for my parents to get done with a meeting. I decided to write. I don't think this is my best piece ever tell me how you think I could improve this.

One day I went to the library. I started to do my homework, but after 30 minutes or so lost my interest. I started to observe people. I looked over at the people who were on the computers. I saw a man and 2 women. The man was wearing grey sweatpants and a black sweatshirt. Then I looked at the women sitting next to him. She looked old probably around 85 she had grey hair and glasses. She was on her email. She seemed to be struggling, taking 5 minutes to read each one. Surprisingly she had many emails, I'm guess from her kids and grandkids. Then I looked over to the chairs their was a women sitting alone. She was reading a newspaper, and appeared to have a cold because she kept on blowing her nose. After a few minutes she got up to put her newspaper away, you could tell she had a hip problem by the way she limped. Once she put her newspaper away she went and got a magazine. She skimmed through the pages as if she was un-interested.  Then  once again she got up and put her magazine away. On her way out I smiled at her and she smiled, when she walked past me asked if I was doing school work.

"Yes," I said.

"Good luck," she responded and walked up the stairs. I again smiled but not to someone this time mainly because I was happy. After she left I continued my homework. About 10 minutes later my mom picked me up.

Colors Powerpoint

This VIdeo is for Sydney and I's How the eye can see colors project it is an Optical Illusion.