October 1, 2012 · 5:56 am

Emma’s Poems from School

I Remember

I remember hiking at the Narrows and exploring

I remember the first time I went to the Del Mar Fair

I remember sledding in Wisconsin

I remember hiding in the basement during a tornado

I remember being amazed seeing a car flipped upside down

I remember staring at the two headed corn snake at the San Diego Zoo

I remember a game my brother and I used to play

I remember my grandparent’s clock that scared me

I remember the first time I was in Bubby and Zaida’s basement

I remember when my mom came home with a new T.V.

I remember when I played with an old typewriter even though my parents said no

I remember staying in a hotel with my grandparents

I remember getting a weaving set from my grandparents that changed my life

I remember the fun I had during a girl scout camping trip in Julian when it snowed

I remember when I got a barbie house for Christmas

I remember when I climbed on a Sea World jungle gym

I remember when I taught a kid to write the letters A to S

I remember when I saw my baby photos

I remember when I found out that pencil toppers were sold at Round Table

Things I Wanted To Do

I wanted to get my own room

I wanted to grow out my hair to donate to a charity

I wanted to see my grandparent’s house one last time

I wanted to come up with an idea and write for T.V. show I like

I wanted to meet characters from my favorite books

I wanted to become less stubborn

I wanted to play in the snow

I wanted to ride a wagon down a hill

I wanted to have a tree house in my backyard

I wanted to ride in a canoe

I wanted to jump off a high dive

I wanted to not be negative all the time

I wanted to return to Sea World

I wanted to jump in a leaf pile

I wanted to get in a snowball fight

I wanted to play Minecraft all day

I wanted to sleep in

I wanted to go on a mother daughter camping trip

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September 23, 2012 · 10:45 pm

Two Books I Like by Lois Lowry

Lois Lowry wrote two books that I really like, one that I like more than the other.  The books are Gathering Blue and The Giver. Gathering Blue is about an orphan girl who gets a new role in her community as a threader (an embroiderer).  The Giver is a book about a boy called Jonas who lives a pain-free life, until he gets selected to become the Receiver of Memories, which is the most important job in the community.  If you read on you will learn more about Gathering Blue and The Giver.

I liked Gathering Blue more than The Giver, which may seem surprising, but Gathering Blue is the better book.  I liked it better because Kira’s society is more dystopian, and I like dystopias.  I recommend the book to you, but I don’t want to give away too much.  Kira, the main character, is an orphan with a twisted leg.  She is useless at manual labor.  Her mother has protected her all her life, but then her mother dies so she will probably go to the Field of Leaving and be taken by beasts.  But she is spared by the Council of Guardians, even though a woman called Vandara hates her.  Kira is good at embroidering, and that is why she is spared.  And now she has to repair the Singer’s Robe before the Song, and she really wants blue dye.  The problem is blue dye does not exist in her society.  But she has a friend called Matt who might help her in her tough, tough life.  I like Kira so much because she is kind, like her mother Katrina, and because she finds out more about her society than ever before.

Even though The Giver won the Newbery Award, I liked Gathering Blue better.  But The Giver is still a good book.  The main character in The Giver is Jonas, he is a twelve year old boy who is selected to become the Receiver of Memories.  He lives in society in which the Receiver of Memories is the most important job.  The Receiver of Memories is someone who gets a lot of memories from the Receiver before him, that makes him wise.  When the Receiver gets someone to train, he becomes the Giver.  The Receiver is wise and so the important people in the society ask him questions, and the Receiver uses his wisdom to answer them.  The training to become to become the Receiver involves a lot of pain, and Jonas is afraid of that and of failing at becoming the Receiver.  The Giver called the pain indescribable.  I think that Jonas is really brave to undergo the training, and yet courage is one of the qualities that they saw in him that made them choose him as the Receiver.  Jonas, in the end, rescues a baby called Gabriel from being released, which means being kicked out of the society.  Jonas has a very important role ahead of him as the Receiver, and I think he is going to do awesome because he possesses all of the qualities to become the Receiver, and I don’t think he will fail.

I think that both books are excellent, and the endings are both really surprising.  I just finished Gathering Blue yesterday, and I cannot wait to start The Messenger, which is the companion book to both Gathering Blue and The Giver.

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August 10, 2012 · 9:45 pm

How I Know So Much About Developing Babies

I really like watching and reading about babies developing.  I don’t know why I like it so much, it is just interesting to me.  I get my information from Netflix, DVDs, and books.  The first thing I saw that got me interested in it was an old PBS video called “Life’s Greatest Miracle.”  And the video had pictures from a book called A Child is Born by Lennart Nilson and Lars Hamberger that I still own today.  I remember the book has great photos and images, and I still read it occasionally.

Other videos I watch are National Geographic’s “Inside the Living Body”, “In the Womb”, and “In the Womb : Multiples”.  There is also a Discovery Health video called “Body in Numbers.”  They are all about the human body, and also have something to do with babies developing.  And there are two videos about the human body on Netflix.  They are “The Amazing Human Machine” and “The Science of Babies”.  I would recommend these to people because they are interesting and educational, so parents, if you are reading this, force your kids to watch them.  They and you will learn about the human body.

In first grade I did a science fair project (with my mom’s help) on the development of babies.  You will see pictures I drew of the photos from the book A Child is Born below.  I organized my poster from the sperm fertilizing the egg to it all ending happily with the baby being born.  I talk about the brain, the heart, the eyes, and everything else developing.

This is how I got to know all about the human body and about developing babies.

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July 31, 2012 · 4:50 am

A Baking Project With Mom

One day I was watching an episode of Phineas and Ferb, and I got the idea of making pretzels at home.  In the episode Doofenschmirtz told Perry the Platypus a backstory where he was kicked out of pretzel making because he couldn’t make them right.  I decided that it would be fun to make pretzels on my own, so I told my mom, and a few days later we finally got around to it.

We bought the ingredients that we were missing, which were bread flour and yeast.  We found a pretzel recipe, and I put the link at the bottom of this blog post.   Below are the pictures my mom took of the stages in making pretzels.  These pictures tell a story, why don’t you look at them?  I think it was fun rolling the dough snakes and twisting them into pretzels.  I found that I was good at that.  I think that the pretzels were delicious, and that my mom and I should make another batch.

If you want to make pretzels like I did, this is the link to the recipe I used.  I think you will have to do some shopping for some of the ingredients.  I hope that you feel encouraged by all this to make pretzels, and it will be worth it because they will make a tasty snack.

http://www.penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzeys/recipes/r-penzeysSoftPretzels.html?id=wHR2VkUz

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July 22, 2012 · 8:48 pm

Thank U Post for My Friends

I had a lot of fun at my party, thanks to you friends.  You helped me make the most of it, and personally I think it was great.  I had a lot of great snacks like Pirate’s Booty and pizza, and a lot of great friends, like you guys.  I spent my time playing games in the pool with you friends, and some of them were pretty fun.  I loved the cake, even though it was a bit rich for me.

Thank you all for coming to the party and the great presents.  Those presents definitely weren’t crummy.

-Emma

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July 5, 2012 · 2:20 am

I Want to Eat at the Scripps’ Restaurant

We went to the SIO pier to do something called the Moonlight Pier Walk.  We got a tour of the campus and the most lovely building was nicknamed “The Forum.”  The Forum was a new decked out building that had a beachy look to it.  Inside there was an auditorium, some classrooms, and even a restaurant.  The restaurant, called Caroline’s, is even mentioned in the title to my post.

After the tour we actually went on the pier.  We got a tour of the pier, and we also did things like squid dissections, picking through mussel clumps, and we operated a plankton net.  There was also this table about sharks.   There was a dried out whole shark, shark egg cases, shark teeth, and among those shark teeth was a fossilized Megalodon tooth.  Megalogodon was an ancient species of shark that was the biggest type ever.

I got some gifts at the end but I didn’t like them.  We had to leave the pier because I was shivering non stop.  I think if you went in the winter it would be really really cold, and I recommend bringing a heavy coat because it gets cold at night.

This is me holding up the shark mummy.

In the photo I am writing with the pen of the squid (which is the squid’s version of a backbone) using its own ink.

This is a funny picture I took of my mom’s pants. My mom wanted me to take a picture of her with a tiger shark jaw, but I didn’t and instead I took a picture of her pants, the second picture was also bad, and third one came out good.

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July 2, 2012 · 12:25 am

Canyon walk and trash pick up

On Saturday my mom and I went to the canyon to pick up trash.  I picked up some trash, but my mom did a lot of the work, because she was the only one who had a glove.  I think we should bring a glove for me next time we go.  In the canyon we found some trash, even an orange!  Below is some of the trash we found.

There were also some plants and animals that I saw in the canyon.  There was this green blanket of duck week over the water, and it completely covered it.  It looked so much like land that it was completely hypnotizing and my mom couldn’t leave it.  And I liked seeing the crayfish and fish swimming in the water at the oasis.  When we were walking I heard a dove and then I saw it for real, perched on a tree branch.  And last but not least we saw a lizard sunning itself on a rock.

I was really tired at the end and I wouldn’t have made it home if we hadn’t rested in a shady field.

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June 27, 2012 · 2:44 am

A Pillbug’s Diary

The PillBug Diary

(written on a leaf)

(this diary is written from the pillbug’s point of view)

My name is Pailea.  I am a pillbug, as the humans call me, and I live under a rock with my extended family.  I go to Rock and Leaf Elementary School, which is a foot from my house.  The building is made entirely of rocks and leaves.  We learn who we are and the adult skills that my parents know and that I will need to know.  Skills like how to forage and what to eat, how to find water, and how to avoid humans catching us for their dumb projects.

My big sister got caught yesterday, and she was put in this cup that was bare and white.  She said it was the weirdest color she had ever seen.  Then she was put on this pink piece of paper, which was also a weird color to her, and given four choices of places to go.  She went where she was pointed by the humans, just to get off the paper.  She was released in the end, and if she hadn’t been released she couldn’t have told all this to me.

Today I got caught.  I was put in this container-like thing, and a bird almost came and ate me.  But I escaped.  Thanks to my lessons in school I think I can find shelter and survive the night, and find food.  My parents will be proud of me if I ever make it back home.

I had to spend a few nights away from home because it took a really long time for me to get back.  It was like many yards away, it took me two days to get there.  My parents were really happy to see me back home.  They knew I could survive.  I can’t wait until tomorrow, when they reward me for surviving.  I don’t know what it’s going to be yet.

Today my mom told me she was going to hitch a ride with me and we were going to go to a lake.  So we snuck into a house through an unguarded door and had a quick snack in what the humans call the “kitchen”, and then snuck into what they call a “backpack”.  We have to spend the night here, so we broke into what they call a “lunchbox”.

Mom and are in luck because now what they call a “kid” has picked the backpack and is going to school.  And there is a lake near the kid’s school.  Now we are at the lake, surrounded by tall trees that are green all over.  Even though the humans call the trees “grass”, because to them it’s really small, to us it’s giant!  And the lake the humans call a “puddle” because it’s really small to them also.  We swam in the lake, in the shallowest part of course, or else we would have drowned.  And after a few hours of lake fun and climbing up trees, we hitched a ride in the “backpack” again to go home.

We are finally home, and the rest of the family is happy to see us again.  I like being a pillbug, but I don’t know what it would be like to be a human.  I’m sure it must be great.

© 2012, Arthur V. Evans. Used by permission.

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June 24, 2012 · 12:05 am

Finding and dissecting an owl pellet

I found an owl pellet yesterday when I was looking for bugs on the roof.  There was this grey lump on the edge of the roof, and when I looked at the lump it had bones in it.  I realized it was an owl pellet.  I knew it was an owl pellet because just the day before my brother and I dissected an owl pellet that my brother’s teacher (Mrs. B.) gave us.  It was an amazing coincidence.

Owl pellets exist because when owls eat an animal they can’t digest the bones and fur, so they cough it up in a sausage-shaped pellet.  To dissect the pellet, we put it in water for a few minutes to help it come apart.  When it started coming apart my mom got out her forceps and started taking out the bones.  We found vertebrae, ribs, leg bones, and maybe a pelvis.  But we didn’t find a skull, which was disappointing.

We took a picture of the pellet and a picture of the bones we found inside.  We live next to a canyon, the only thing separating the canyon from our yard is a chain link fence.  We haven’t seen any owls, but we’ve heard them hooting.  We’ve also heard a mother owl making a clacking sound with her beak to her babies.  And now we have evidence of an owl sitting on our roof, so they might be closer than you think!

This the pellet that I found, sitting in a plastic tupperware.

These are the bones Mom found, spread out on a paper plate.

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June 18, 2012 · 10:58 pm

My three favorite TV shows on Netflix

I’m going to be introducing to you my three favorite TV shows that I watch on Netflix, and tell you I would recommend them to you.  The TV shows in order from favorite to least favorite of my top three are Johnny Test, Dr. Who (2005 season), and Phineas and Ferb.

1.  Johnny Test

I like Johnny Test because it is really interesting.  It is about this boy called Johnny Test who is perfectly normal, he likes playing video games, is really dumb, and loves junk food.  But his sisters, Susan and Mary Test, are geniuses.  They have a lab in the attic, and they have scholarships from the Porkbelly Institute of Technology to go to college, and they are only 13!  Their lab is full of these amazing inventions, but here’s the catch, they make Johnny test out their new inventions, and sometimes it goes horribly wrong.  Johnny likes to fool around in their lab.  One time he set their lab monkey, Lolo, free, and filled their lab with blue goo.  Johnny’s best friend is a talking dog named Dukey, who his sisters did experiments on, and he has a very human-like personality.

In the front row are Dukey and Johnny, and in the back row are Susan Test, Gil from next door, Johnny’s Dad, Mr. White, Mr. Black, Johnny’s Mom, Sissy (another neighbor), and Mary Test.

2.  Dr. Who

Dr. Who  is this time traveling guy who saves human kind from alien threats.  He time travels with his time machine called the TARDIS, and he always has a companion.  In two of the seasons it is Rose Tyler, but then she gets stranded in a parallel universe forever.  The bridge between the parallel universes gets closed and they get separated forever.  The Doctor can regenerate so he is immortal.  He changes his looks and his personality.  Dr. Who is interesting because he battles obstacles like Daleks and Cybermen.  It is an amazing TV show.

The one on the left is Rose Tyler and the one on the right is the Doctor

This is another photo of them

3.  Phineas and Ferb

Phineas and Ferb is this amazing TV show about two brothers who make astonishing inventions.  It is summer vacation and they make these inventions for fun every day.  Phineas does most of the talking and he has a positive attitude.  Ferb is kind of silent, so people don’t know much about him.  He is really skilled at things like dancing.  They have three friends.  Isabella is a talented Fireside girl and she has a crush on Phineas.  Buford is a bully who is really big and muscly, and he is kind of dumb.  Baljeet is a really smart kid who does math and homework in summer and he gets picked on by Beaufort because he has no muscles.  They have a pet platypus called Perry, but he always disappears during their adventures because he is a secret agent.  They have a sister called Candace who always tries to bust her brothers.  She thinks she going to do it, but she fails every time.

The one on the far left is Phineas, then Ferb, behind Ferb is Perry, and walking angrily behind Perry is Candace, and then behind Candace in the order from left to right are Isabella, Baljeet, and Buford.

These TV shows are all great and I recommend them to everyone.

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