May 2

YAY! I got perfect attendance!

Classroom magazines image
Above: Illustration by Robert Matson; Below: Photos Courtesy of Families

At some schools in California, kids who have perfect attendance this year will get a new bicycle and helmet! Other schools in the U.S. also reward kids who don’t miss any classes with prizes like movie tickets and even money! Why should they get rewarded? It’s just coming to school every single day. Parents have to go to work every day and don’t get rewarded for that!

All they are doing is coming to school! They could have gotten all F’s in school but still got a pizza party or something just because they came to school! What if you got straight A+ all year and only got a sticker because they missed a day of school? How would you feel about that?

Plus, Parents have to go to work every day and do they get rewarded? No, so why should the kids get rewarded? they should have to work hard to earn something special! I mean I can understand if you got A+ all year and got perfect attendance, but just for attendance? It is just plain unnecessary.

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April 25

Dye Hair, Dye

Classroom magazines image

On January 24, ninth-grader Tim Jenkins walked into his school in Gulfport, Mississippi, with a new look. He had dyed his hair hot pink. Tim was suspended that day for breaking the school district’s dress code. The policy requires students’ hair to be “clean, neat, and a natural-looking color.” Tim wasn’t allowed to return to school until he dyed his hair back to its natural dark brown. I think that schools should not be able to control what you wear or what color you dye your hair because it helps kids express their personality. Also, a lot of adults say it is distracting

It helps kids express their personality. That should be left up to the kids and their parents. At my school, we’re allowed to dye our hair any color we want. We even have a “Crazy Hair Day” during Spirit Week. It’s important to be able to express yourself, so why can’t you express yourself at school?

I don’t think dyed hair is distracting. Most people would look at a kid’s brightly colored hair for a minute and then go back to what they were doing. plus the only reason adults say it is distracting is that they don’t like it.

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May 8

The Last Great Race

Iditarod 2017 frostnip907 via Compfight

There are few things harder than scaling Mt. Everest, the world’s tallest mountain1. One of these things is completing the Iditarod. Read on to find out more about this daring sport.

You’re probably asking, “What is Iditarod?” It’s known as the Last Great Race on Earth2 and unlike other sports, it goes on for several days instead of a few hours. The team is made up of a driver called musher who gives commands to a group of 10-18 sled dogs.  Teams must travel 1,049 miles with checkpoints along the way from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska. In addition to the length of the race, the weather is rough over the challenging terrain which includes snow, mountains and narrow gorges. Even with all these obstacles, people still want to win the race for the top prize: up to $70,000 and a new pickup truck.

Next, let’s go into how the sport originated. Joe Redington founded the Iditarod race in 1973. Because of this, he was nicknamed The Founding Father of Iditarod. Joe Redington founded the race to remind people about the importance of sled dogs in Alaska3. Sled dogs were used for transportation, daily work, and they helped Eskimo Scouts patrol the state. When snowmachines and snowmobiles were invented, people used sled dogs less and less.  Joe Redington hoped the race would bring attention to the sled dogs and reminds people that they are strong, intelligent and can hold many occupations.

Now, let’s go through some fun facts about Iditarod. Iditarod comes from an Ingalik word for a local river, Haiditarod, which means distant place. In the history of the race, the longest one took more than 32 straight days by John Shultz. If the snow melts, the race can have a different starting line or trails. The only dogs allowed to participate are Huskies and malamutes. This rule was created after John Suter allowed his poodles to participate in the competition. Not all dogs are allowed to race because their fur or hair may not be able to handle the cold weather.  Besides the cold weather, another danger for the teams is moose. They have attacked some of the teams in previous races.4

Now that you know more about Iditarod, are you ready to give it a try? Over 1,000 miles, extremely cold weather and long days are not good enough? I bet $70,000, a new pickup truck and twelve super cute huskies as part of your team will change your mind.

References

1The Great Alone. Greg Kohs, Alkemy-X, 2015, documentary.

2 Iditarod Trail Committee, www.Iditarod.com, 2017.

3 Freedman, Lew, www.alaskasportshall.org/inductee/joe-redington-sr/ 2017.

4 Mcpherson, Angie, http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/03/140308-iditarod-dogs-sled-race-alaska-willow-science/ , 2014.

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March 20

Supersonic Transit System

Not long ago, billionaire Elon Musk had a vision of the future. He dreamed of a supersonic transit system. Soon after, he released a 57-page document on a concept called Hyperloop. Hyperloop is a huge supersonic transit system that travels in between cities filled with traffic. The sponsor of Tesla motors and SpaceX dreamed of a friction-less, low-pressure, vacuum-sealed pod. Powered with energy from solar panels, it should be able to withstand major natural disasters. Elon believed this pod would shorten travel times drastically. For example, the distance from San Francisco to Los Angeles takes 6 hours. This pod could get there in 35 minutes.

Continue reading

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January 8

Compassion It! The power to change our world

compassion itBy Maya

Compassion it is a very important social movement. Compassion is a organization where they want everyone to be compassionate to one another. Compassionate is now a verb. So what that means is that now compassioning it is one of our actions.

Recently Sara Schairer came to Curie Elementary and talked to two our 4th grade classes. One of them was mine. We learned what being compassionate is, when and how it all started, where did this all happened, who started it and finally why it started.

When did this all start? This started in 2008. Sara Schairer  made a thought and wanted it to happen right away. The business has now been successful for 8 whole years. Close to a decade.

How it all got started? Well, in 2008 Sara’s perfect life went all upside down. It was pretty hard to take care of an 18 month yr old being a single mom. She divorced but the husband divorced her so she needed a new point in life. A new path. She was watching TV and found the Ellen show. (Yes. The Ellen  show technically gave her the idea.) She was watching and saw Wayne dyer was on the show. He was talking about how teaching your kids compassion is way more important than anything. Sure math  and ELA is important too but being compassionate is way more important. Sara kept constantly thinking about and turned compassionate to compassion it. They sound the same but now compassion it was a verb, well known as an action. By help of her best friends compassion it became a social movement.

Now where is this movement happening? All over the world. Sara has been to Africa and one video from the United Kingdom made a ton of new people on with it. “Compassion it” is with 6 different continents. Antarctica has not been with compassion it. Penguins just aren’t with the program these days.

Who started this? Of course  it’s the one and only Sara Schairer. Sara is a very bright girl that started a huge social movement. Sara even sells buy able products. 

How have you been compassionate? Have been commissioning it? Please comment below.

Paul L via Compfight

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August 22

Welcome to our blog!

Hello class of 2015-16 and welcome to our fabulous class blog! In the past Bloggin Frogs have participated in the Edublogs Student Blogging Challenge. It begins in September, and so soon we’ll make connections with other classes  through our blog. But before that I’d like a few enthusiastic bloggers to be our guest contributors on our class blog. You can write about anything really. You may want to write about your initial impressions of 4th grade, why you’re excited to start blogging, a book that you just read and want to share with others, a great movie you just saw, maybe even a current event you just heard about . . . it’s really up to you.

If you’re interested, please leave a comment on this post. AND remember–never use your last name when commenting online, and always check what you’ve written before you post your comment!

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January 5

Hanukkah

 

Hanukkah is a holiday celebrated in late November or in early December. The story that goes with this holiday has many versions. The versions only differ because they say the miracle happened at different times; before the battle, during the battle, or after the battle. One tale is that after the Jews (the people who celebrate Hanukkah) defeated the Syrians in a war, they went back to their destroyed temple. They were trying to rebuild the temple, but only had enough oil to light all of the lamps for one night only. The miracle was that the oil for the lamps lasted eight nights instead of one night. Today in memory of them we eat latkes, play dreidel, light the menorah, and sing songs.

Such as:

Rock Of Ages

I Have A Little Dreidel

and

Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah

 

 

 

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November 19

Harlequin Bugs

Harlequin bug

Nymph harlequin bug

When we went to Rose Canyon our nice tour guides showed us the Harlequin bug. These bugs are very fascinating and smart at the same time. The Harlequin bug is part of the Pentatomidae species but the scientific name for the Harlequin bug is Mugantia Pentatomidae. They are very annoying around veggies such as radishes ,broccoli , and an oriental flower called the Cleome. The harlequin bug is actually a beetle because every beetle a a line down their back that kinda makes the shape of a triangle. A Harlequin bug’s way of defense is falling down. That way predators won’t get to touch it, grab it ,or eat it. Baby Harlequin  bugs can be as small as two centimeters but the biggest  Harlequin bug that we saw was about half an inch. Some people in our class went there last year and they saw 2 harlequins bugs mating together to produce offspring. I really saw that the development of the Harlequin bugs have increased with more nymphs and adults since last year. Harlequin bugs are NOT poisoness  the are NOT harmful either so if you see one don’t worry. Harlequin bugs are fascinating bugs to learn about and to observe in real life .

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October 17

How Halloween was created

Have you wondered how Hallobooh!ween was created? Well here is how it was create from real facts researched  by me.

Halloween was first known as a festival and celebration by Samhain. Samhain was part of the ancient Celtic religion  in Britain at the time, Samhain was also in some other regions and countries of Europe said Google and bbc.co.uk. I read  an article that said, “At the end of Summer the border between the human world and the ghostly spirit world would get very thin that it sent the Celtics the message  that peculiar  spirits and ghouls and would be lurking out and about to the human world.” The Celtics would have a grand and big party that was all about scaring spirits away lurking ghouls and spirits. But later on the Christian religion got involved with it and the eve of November 1 became All Hallo’s eve.

America’s first Halloween took place in the 19th century when Irish immigrants immigrated to the U.S.A then when the word was spread out about Halloween , from there Halloween in America rose to it’s popularity with trick or treating, costumes, and most importantly CANDY!!!
Photo Credit: Martin Fisch via Compfight
Photo Credit: Martin Fisch via Compfight

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December 19

Ask for Water, Give Hope and Change Christmas!

christmas-collageDid you know over nearly 1 thousand kids and families in Africa don’t get clean water? Well, the Water Project has a yearly Christmas program that is trying to fund 25 projects from Thanksgiving to December 25th,and we want to help. We want to raise $350 dollars so a few people can drink clean water for Christmas. This is our gift to them.

Why do this? Well lots of people get diseases, and did you know that more than 80% of those diseases are caused by drinking dirty water, and most of those people live in Africa! Well, this is why we want to help. If want to donate $320 dollars. And we think  it’s fun to help.  Click here to learn more!

We want our parents and other family members to help us. Yes, Perhaps, we can have a lemonade stand or bake cookies and sell them. There are a lot of things we can do to help our class. We will have a bucket in our classroom that you can put your loose change in. If everybody donates at least $10 it would help.You can also donate through our website.

So we need money. Parents, students get up and help! If every student donates at least $10 altogether we already got our goal! So students, parents,and teachers get up and give! Ask for Water, Give Hope and Change Christmas!

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April 12

Kumeyaay Indians Field Trip

Last month we learned a lot about the  Kumeyaay Indians, such as how they survived using natural resources, what they ate, what they did, what they wore, and where they lived.  We went on a field trip to the Kumeyaay Ipai Interpretative Center which is a museum. 

How did the Kumeyaays live? They survived by hunting for food and making their own tools, such as a rabbit stick, baskets, pots, bows and arrows, cloths, and toys for children.  They ate a lot of deer, nuts, seeds, and other types of animals. The Kumeyaay children liked to make their own toys and games to entertain themselves. The Kumeyaays boys ran around naked, while girls wore skirts and painted there face like parrots. They lived in giant e’waa or huts.

It was a very fun field trip and we leaned a lot. Here are some pictures from our field trip.

Make your own slideshow with music at Animoto.

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