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Friday, November 21, 2008

It's Turkey Time!

For Thanksgiving, the third graders in Mrs. Yollis' class made delicious pumpkin bread and dressed it like a turkey!

Many parent volunteers helped out as the students used their reading and math skills to create a yummy holiday treat.



Reading from the giant recipe, the students worked together to mix the necessary ingredients.


…1 teaspoon of this, ¼ of a teaspoon of that…

...one cup here, 2/3 of a cup there...

Fun was had by all the groups!

Finally, we decorated our pumpkin bread to look like Thomas T. Turkey!




Happy Thanksgiving from Mrs. Yollis' Class!



Friday, November 14, 2008

Water Cycle Scupture



In November, Bethany created a sculpture of the water cycle. She made her extra credit project at home with tissue, blank paper, pipe cleaners, glitter, and crayons.

The water cycle can start with evaporation. Water is evaporated and becomes water vapor. Then it condenses into clouds. When the clouds get heavy enough, it rains. The water flows down into rivers which can flow into the ocean!

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Halloween Stories


Enjoy reading our Halloween stories! Please comment about story elements that you like. We have been working on creating a story with a problem that gets solved. Look for places where we used specific nouns. Look for high level vocabulary words!

Whitney and the Black Cat
By Taylor S.

One spooky Halloween when Whitney the witch was looking in her spell book, CoCo the rude black cat, was thinking of a plan to run away. She wanted black yarn from the witch's friend, Lucy. CoCo loved to play with yarn.

One hour later the cat was gone! When Whitney saw that CoCo was gone, she started to cry. Whitney went looking up and down the streets, but didn't find her anywhere.

Whitney took a look in CoCo's room. She peeked into her bed, but didn't find her there. Meanwhile, the witch thought to herself, "I will cast a spell on the cat to make her come home."

A short while later, CoCo came back! Just after they got home, they put on their shiny, purple, ghost costumes and went trick-or-treating on their block.

The Sleeping Baby
By Lexi

One spooky Halloween night, Angela took off her costume to show who she really was...a witch! Just then, a toddler named Stephany raced in to see her grandma who was downstairs.

"AH!" shrieked the toddler. "MY GRANDMA IS A WITCH!"

"It's okay!" Angela said calmly. "I'm a good witch, not a bad one!" To prove it, she took her on a broom ride. The street dazzled with shiny costumes, bright lights, and brilliant banners. It was so calm, that Stephany fell asleep! Angela tried to give her a piece of pizza to wake her up. It didn't work! She gave her a piece of candy to wake her up. That didn't work either! Finally, she had an idea. She put a spell on an apple!

"Ikity, bibity, bobity, boo, this specific apple will wake up you!" she belted as she waved her hands around the apple and the child.

Just then, she heard a sound... Stephany had woken up! They celebrated with the pumpkin who lived next door, the skeleton who lived across the street, and Angela's sister, who always loved her sister. Since they had a terrific day, they all went to bed!



The Hero Pumpkin
By Sean

"They are coming!" cried Bob the Pumpkin!

"Who is coming?" asked Frank, the other pumpkin.

"The joke-telling scarecrows are coming! They are having a joke exhibition at the graveyard!" screamed Bob. The two pumpkins decided to go to the graveyard because they they wanted a good laugh.

When they got to the graveyard, they saw a group of children laughing their heads off.

"What is so funny?" Frank whispered.

"I don't know. I can't hear the jokes," replied Bob. The two pumpkins walked closer to the joke-telling scarecrows. One of the scarecrow named Tom was the funniest. One of his jokes was: Knock, Knock. Who's there? Boo. Boo, who? Why are you crying?

The pumpkins laughed when they heard Tom's joke.

Meanwhile, the other scarecrows were telling bad jokes. Tom made all the children laugh, but the children's ears were hurt by the bad scarecrows' jokes.

Frank said, "Those scarecrows are just robots." He quickly pulled the rags off the robots. Frank reprogrammed the robots to tell funny jokes. Frank was a hero.


The Little Witch
By Chloe

One day at the mall a girl named Wendy was looking for a costume. She found the perfect costume, and it was a witch costume. After she went home, she immediately tried on her costume, but she couldn't get it off! Luckily it came with powers. For example, there was a magic wand that could do anything.

The next day Wendy went to the pet store. She saw a puppy and wanted to buy it.

"Wow a puppy! I'll name you Oscar!" Wendy said joyfully. By accident, she turned Oscar into a black cat!

"Black cat!" Mom said, freaked out. I heard a THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! coming from downstairs. It was Oscar!

"Come here good boy," she said. Wendy read on the box that she got with her costume and it said SPELL BOOK INCLUDED!

Wendy took out the book and read the spell. "Aabra ka zoo," Wendy said as Oscar turned back to a dog.

It was Halloween and time for trick-or-treating! She saw all her friends and they laughed and teased her when they saw her costume. Wendy got so frustrated she turned them into mice!

"Squeak! Squeak!" went her friends, and she turned herself into a cat. She then duplicated herself and chased them home. She put them into cages and said, "You won't remember a thing!"

Two weeks later, Wendy knew all the spells, but she wasn't a professional witch yet. By Hanukkah, Wendy decided she would be a witch forever!
The Candy Vampire
By Matthew

Every Halloween night, there is a vampire named Draccy. Draccy always steals the candy from trick-or-treaters. This year there was a scarecrow named Scarry. Last year, Scarry saw Draccy stealing candy from a boy and Scarry decided that he would put a stop to it. Scarry didn't like when there was no more candy for kids or for himself. This year he was going to catch the vampire.

On Halloween night Draccy saw Scarry and got scared. Scarry took him to jail. The police said that if he promised to be good, they would let him go. He became good because he wanted to be free. So now he never stole candy ever again.



A Fun Halloween
By Shane F.

"It's one more day until Halloween!" Boo said. At school, he dreamed about Halloween all day.

The next day, Boo was so happy. But, one thing he was afraid of was that pumpkin house. It was slimy, creepy, and smelled rotten. It had ghosts, big black spiders, spooky vampires, scary skeletons, and harsh black cats in it. Everyone hated that house.

Boo went to Toys 'R' Us and bought a ghost outfit. It was white, with skeleton bones on the front."I look cool!" Boo yelled.

At night, he went trick-or-treating. It was fun. He went to the last house. The last house was the pumpkin house. Boo rang the doorbell. A ghost popped out and grabbed Boo!

"Help me!" Boo cried. "I have a plan," Boo whispered to himself. Boo remembered he had a bottle of fake blood, and he put it on his face. When the ghost saw his face, he flew away.

It was a fun Halloween.

The Candy Kitty
By Taylor G.

"It is Halloween night!" said Katie.

"Are you ready?" asked Taylor.

"Ya," said Katie.

"Ok, let me get my black cat, Ruggy," said Taylor. Ruggy was a fat, black cat with green eyes and a curly tail. Taylor came downstairs and they were ready to go trick-or-treating.

An hour later they were at the last house. There was one candy left. "Who is going to have the candy ?" asked Katie.

"I don't know?" replied Taylor. "Maybe I should ask Ruggy?"

"Flying Kitty!" screamed Ruggy as he flew through the air. Ruggy had jumped up in the air, grabbed the candy, and ate it!

The girls laughed and had a terrific Halloween!
The Unfortunate Halloween
By James

Knock, knock. "Trick-or-treat!"

It was Halloween and Ray, a black cat, felt very unfortunate because Halloween had come again. Every Halloween Ray would be trapped by a gooey ghost. The ghost had a boss. Her name was Miss Broomstick Witch Head. Of course, Miss Broomstick Witch Head was not very bright.
Ray started walking across a dark black fence, when POOF. Ray was gone. Ray had landed in the ghost's lab behind bars. Ray started a conversation with the ghost.

"So what's your plan this time?" Ray asked.

"Well, since you're behind bars I'll tell you. I want to cook you into an unappetizing Halloween stew and share it with my ghostly friends," the ghost announced.

"Cats don't go well in stew," Ray cried, chewing on the metal bars of the cage.

"Not if they have carrots and celery," the ghost said in a slimy way. "Well, the water is done. Are you ready?"

The ghost yelped now tasting his boiling water.

"Ready to cook you!" Ray yelled. Ray had broken free from the cage and put the ghost into the soup! Now the ghost was cooked into soup.

Ray got home and there was no ghost trap ever again. Now maybe Ray could enjoy a shadowy and twinkling Halloween.


Halloween Olympics
By Shane J.

One Halloween a ghost said, "Let's have a Halloween Olympics!" All the scary things like ghosts, skeletons, and vampires wanted to watch. The skeleton's name was Skolts, the ghost's name was Ghoster, and the vampire's name was Vincent.

The first contest was rotten dodge pumpkin!

"Ready, set, go. Looks like Ghoster chucked a pumpkin at Skolts!" yelled the announcer. "He is hit! It looks like Vincent is going to hit Ghoster with a pumpkin. He is hit! The winner is Vincent!"

The next contest was speed diving. "The first person is Skolts and here he goes!" yelled the announcer. "It looks like he is going 50 MPH and he slams the water. The next person is Vincent. There he goes and he hit 90 MPH! A new record. Let's see if Ghoster can beat his record. Here he goes and he hits 160 MPH! The winner is Ghoster."

"The last contest is archery," said the announcer. "First person is Vincent. Here he goes and he gets a five. The next contestant is Skolts. He firers and he hits 10! The next person is Ghoster, and he firers a bull's eye! The winner is Ghoste!"

The winner of the Halloween Olympics is Ghoster, but most of all they had a great time.
The Mean Witch
By Emily

On one of the nights before Halloween, a werewolf named Bob and a ghost named Joe were trying on their costumes. Bob got a gorilla and Joe got a skeleton. Then they went to their old house in the Pine Tree Woods and hung up their costumes. After that they went to their magic wizard's cave on a tall mountain and got out a magic wand that was very powerful.

Suddenly a very mean witch who wanted the powerful wand swooped in on her magic broom and took the wand. She took it to her cave on top of Mount Everest. Quickly Bob and Joe dashed to their magic ball to see what she was doing with the wand.

"She is making chocolate milk," said Bob.

"I love chocolate milk!" yelled Joe.

"Joe, we have a bigger problem because we lost a magic wand that is very powerful!" said Bob.

"What is a wand?" asked Joe.

"I'll tell you after we get the wand," said Bob.

"Okay!" said Joe.

Then Bob had an idea."Let's sneak into the witch's cave in our costumes and take the wand!"

So they tried it, but they got caught because Joe had stepped in something gooey and howled like a banchi.

"I have an idea!"screeched Joe.

"Really?" shrieked Bob suprisingly.

"Yeah!"said Joe. "We can make magic cheese!"

"Okay!" said Bob."I will go get my wand!"

"Me too," said Joe.

BOOM! "Magic cheese!"roared Joe. "I'll eat the cheese because when you eat it the wand comes back to you. It is glowing, and it smells sweet!" said Bob.

"Okay!" said Joe. GULP! Bob had swallowed the cheese before Joe started talking again. "It tastes scrumptious!" yelped Bob.

POOF!

"The wand is back!" they said together.

Then they threw it in a black hole and everything was back to normal.



The Vampire
By Marcus

A vampire named Juney bit a little boy on his right arm. The little boy turned into a good vampire. Juney was a lonely vampire, but now he had a little vampire to play with.



The Evil Vampire
By Kyle

Once there was an evil vampire that lived in a haunted house. One spooky night, the children in the neighborhood tried to trick-or-treat, but there was no candy. The candy was all gone because the evil vampire was taking all the candy from every house. Everybody was so mad that they were going to demand that the evil vampire give back the candy.

The neighborhood children decided to be brave and go to the vampire's haunted house. They knocked on the door, but no one answered. The evil vampire did not answer because he was in the attic eating the candy and did not hear the knock on the door.

All the children decided to yell a message to the evil vampire hoping he would hear them and come out. They yelled, "EVIL VAMPIRE, COME OUT AND BRING THE CANDY AND STOP BEING A COWARD!"

The evil vampire went to the attic window to see who was yelling. When the children saw the evil vampire at the window, they started yelling, "CANDY STEALER, CANDY STEALER, CANDY STEALER!"

The evil vampire started feeling distressed. Not just because the children were yelling at him, but also because he was getting a bad stomach ache from eating so much candy. He told the children to stop yelling and to wait at the front door. He went downstairs and met them at the door. He invited all the children inside so he could share the candy with them. Having all that candy for himself would just make him sick. He apologized to the neighborhood children for taking all the candy. All the children were surprised. They decided the evil vampire was not so evil after all.


Crazy Halloween Day

By Behyan

There once was a world you cannot imagine in the future with a population of 200,000,000,000 people, all of them ready for Halloween night parties and festivities. There will be going to be lots of candies, costumes, fireworks, and lots of scary decorations.

In that world lived a nasty creature named Albert the Zombie Ninja. He had a Ferrari, a black belt, a secret underground laboratory, and a candy-eating problem.

One day he was walking to his lab, and when he went in, he saw Alvin the Zombie dude. Alvin had anger issues, a Mohawk, and an electric skateboard.

Albert walked into the lab and bumped into Alvin.
“Ah!” Albert said.
“Hey dude, can I borrow your Ferrari?” asked Alvin.
“Sure, just be careful and don’t scratch it!” said Alvin. “Here are the keys.”
Then Albert went to the bathroom. When he came out he went to check on Alvin, when he looked outside. Alvin was not there, but the car was.
“He must have left,” Albert said to himself. “Wait, if he’s gone, why is the car still here?”
Albert set out to find him.
Albert looked in his backyard. He wasn’t there.

Next, he checked in his Ferrari to see if Alvin was in there. He wasn’t there either.

Then he remembered how much Alvin loved candy. Albert checked in his basement where he was keeping the Halloween candy for the 200,000,000,000 trick-or-treaters. He saw Alvin sitting in the candy barrel eating, just finishing the last of the candy.

Albert asked Alvin why he ate all the candy.

“How are we going to get more candy for the trick-or-treaters?” asked Albert.
“Um, I don’t know,” said Alvin.

So, they started searching around the house for stuff to fill the candy bowl. They found peanut shells, packets of ketchup and mustard, raw eggs, bubble gum and chopped up carrots, broccoli and cherry tomatoes. They were so happy with their finds and they thought the kids would love them. When the kids started trick-or-treating, Alvin and Albert started to hand out the goodies, but, the kids did not look so happy.

When all the kids got home, they went right to the dumpster and threw everything out, except the gum.

Alvin and Albert thought the kids were so happy. “Let’s do that again next year!” said Alvin.