This week we had a ton of fun creating our avatars. We’ve even made a voicethread to introduce them to you, adding a few comments about our avatars and what makes them like us.

In February we read a lot of folktales, including trickster tales. The protagonist of a trickster tale is a clever, devious animal whose trick or tricks usually cause trouble for another character. What makes them fun is a smaller animal, such as a tortoise or hare, usually plays a trick on a larger, more powerful animal, like a leopard or elephant. The trickster often gets away with the trick and goes away gloating. (Here are a few trickster tales you might enjoy.)

We enjoyed these trickster tales so much that we decided to write our very own. We’ve published them on our VoiceThread page. We had a great time coming up with our plots and adding lots of lively dialogue. Please let us know what you think. If you enjoyed the tales, which tale did you enjoy the most and why?

We look forward to hearing from you.

In February, students studied the genre biography. We all chose different people to read about and then we presented what we’d learned either in a Glogster report, PowerPoint report, or a puppet presentation. Check out Gayle’s, Helen Keller and Kyle’s, Martin Luther King Jr. Glogster projects.

Chocolate Fever by Robert Kimmel Smith is about a boy named Henry Greens, Mac the candy delivery guy, Mr. Fargo the doctor, and Mr. Sugarcane. Henry Greens is a boy who couldn’t get enough chocolate he ate chocolate for breakfast, lunch, and dinner he ate so much chocolate he got this disease that was called Chocolate Fever that looks like brown spots that smell like chocolate. For him to be cured he must learn a very important lesson. So if you’re looking for a hilarious, action packed book this is the book for you!

I personally think that this book is hilarious because it has so many hilarious parts that made me laugh. It was funny when Henry Greens ran away in his underwear from the  hospital. I thought it was so funny because Henry was running down the street in his under pants and getting chased by the police, Doctor Fargo, and the nurses. I think the most important events in this story are when Henry gets chocolate fever, hijacked, chased and more. The theme of the book is that you should never have too much of something you love. When Henry eats way too much chocolate and gets chocolate fever, he realizes he should not have so much chocolate or he will get it again.

By Tyler

My name is Rosa Parks, and I am famous because I stood up for civil rights. Some call me the mother of civil rights movement. Back then people were segregated by skin color everywhere– in hotels, restaurants, schools, and playgrounds too.

I was born in Tuskegee, Alabama on February 4, 1913. My mother was a teacher in Spring Hill. It was too far to walk to each day. So she stayed there all week and just saw us on the weekends.

I grew up on a farm in Montgomery. There once was a boy who threatened to hit me and I threatened to throw a brick at him. I could not defend myself because if I did I would probably get beaten because he was white. I thought I should be able to. To think people didn’t have the right to defend themselves was wrong–anyone should have that right.

I once moved to a new school and this time I moved with a new teacher that was white! It was my first time being taught by a white person. Her name was Miss White.

The worst thing that happened when I was little was when the Ku Klux Klan came. The Klan was a group of people who burned down houses and churches, and beat up and killed African Americans. The Klan also punished whites who treated African Americans fairly. They mostly came because they hated Miss White because she treated the children fairly and because segregation was supposed to keep white teachers for white children, and colored teachers for colored children. The Klan hated people of different races working together. They would never accept these people helping one another. Before I went there the Klan burned Miss White’s school down twice.

In 1929 I was in eleventh grade, I had to leave school to take care for my sick grandmother. Three years later I married Raymond Parks, who was a barber. Raymond helped me go back to school. I graduated from high school in 1934.

At that time no blacks could vote either. I tried once but I got no answer! So I tried again and this time I got an answer. The lady said I didn’t pass, I asked why but she didn’t say anything and at that time they didn’t need to give you an answer. So I tried again and I passed and I could vote any time I wanted!

When I was older I got arrested for not giving up my seat to a white man on the bus. The law said that African Americans had to give up their seat if there was a white person standing and go sit in the back of the bus. I didn’t think that  was fair and so I didn’t move. People started to get angry, so we walked instead of riding the buses or taxis in protest. The bus company lost a lot of money!

After that I began working for civil rights. I joined the NAACP club, and after a while we finally got our way and the buss laws were changed, but there was still segregation.

After that I lost my job, so I moved to Detroit. For a while I had to take in sewing to earn a living. But I did not stop working for everyone’s equal rights. In 1965, I began working for Congressman John Conyers who was a civil rights leader. In 1987 I founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development, which helps young black people. Now I’m much happier that everyone gets their equal rights! I’m sure everyone is happy that the NAACP club and I changed the law, because now we can go to different places with different people! It was a sad day when my life ended on October 24, 2005.

My name is Alexander Graham Bell. You can all me Alec. I was born on March 3, 1847. I am famous because I invented the telephone.

I was interested in science and music at an early age. In college, I learned more about the speech and the vibrations of sound.  After college, I was a teacher of deaf students. One of my students was Marbel Hubbard.  Mabel lost her hearing at age 4.  Years later, I married her.

I had a lot of good ideas but I could not build them, so I asked Thomas Watson to help me on my inventions.  The harmonic telegraph was my first project.  We worked many late nights.  I worked upstairs, while Mr. Watson worked downstairs.  One evening, I spilled acid on myself.  The acid burned.  I screamed to Mr. Watson forgetting that he was far away to hear me.  Mr. Watson heard me over the wires and he ran into the room and said, “I heard every word!”  I danced and cheered and forgetting all about the burn.  We spent the night talking on our machine.  The date was March 10, 1876.

I went on to invent many other things.  I died on August 2, 1922 at age 75 years.

Hi! I am Albert Einstein I was the smartest person alive!  I changed people’s thoughts of relativity and made some inventions like the TV. I was born on March 14, 1879 in Germany. My parents freaked out because I was so quiet and shy. I didn’t speak until I was 5 years old. Then one day my father came in from work with a gift for me. It was a compass. I loved it. I had so many questions like, “Why did the needle all ways point north?” I asked him that. He told me the needle all ways pointed north is because the world is a giant magnet. I thought that was pretty hard to believe because it would be very weird that we live on a giant magnet.

Then I grew up I went to high school. I hated it. We had to act like soldiers. My Parents moved to Italy but they still wanted me to go to school in Germany but I didn’t want to so I moved to Italy I love the people and the school, it’s so much better than the high school in Germany. I know what I wanted to do as a job. I wanted to be a physics teacher but I didn’t get the job so I worked at the patent office.

Then as I got older the Germans hated me, they wanted to kill me then   World War 1 started. It started right before I wanted to get the pictures to show that space bent but some scientists had to go to Russia but that is where the war is.  They still went, so Scientists got their gear ready for the trip. The whole world wanted to know if I was right on the theory of space bending unfortunately the Russians destroyed the equipment and took the scientists. I wanted to do it again, this time we did it in different parts of the world, the scientists got the photos and I was right. Then World War 2 started, this time Germany joined forces with China, that’s because china was trying to make a destructive bomb called the atomic bomb. I had to do something so I wrote a note to the President of the United States on how to make an atomic bomb. They started straight away! “I did one wrong thing in my life that turned my whole world upside down, when I sent that note to President Roosevelt”. That’s when I started writing a will.  When I was in the hospital I wrote some physics problems and then I died. Everyone followed my will, it said take my brain and give it to the science university and burn me and put my ashes in a secret place.

Stink and the Great Guinea Pig Express

Stink and the Great Guinea Pig Express by Megan McDonald is about Stink, Sophie, and Webster trying to find new homes for one hundred and one guinea pigs…but how. They think of a great idea to decorate the Squeals on Wheels van and go to different places so people can adopt the guinea pigs. Will they find homes for one hundred and one guinea pigs on the road? You can find out in Stink and the Great Guinea Pig Express.

My favorite part is when one of the guinea pigs named Astro goes into Stink’s closet and ends up wearing his underwear. Astro starts running across the room. I loved this part so much because Stink chases the moving underwear. Then four other guinea pigs escape and run into Stink’s closet too. It was so funny I had to laugh out loud. Stink’s parents don’t know he has five guinea pigs hid under his bed including Astro. Stink realizes that if five are hard to take care of then one hundred and one will be even harder.

At the end of the story Stink learns that it is a big responsibility to have a pet because you have to feed it and clean its cage.  You don’t just do it whenever you want. You have to do it every day. To find out more read Stink and the Great Guinea Pig Express.

My Tom Brady Puppet

Tom Brady is my name and I was born on August 3, 1977 in San Mateo, California. I was named after my father. My parents are named Galynn and Tom Brady. I was known as Tom Brady Jr. As a kid I liked sports a lot. I was on a baseball team when I was about eight years old. I was the best player on the team. But one day I decided it was just not the right sport for me. Then, I started to like football.

If I wasn’t watching football I was playing football with my dad. I have three older sisters. Their names are Maureen, Julie and Nancy. My wish was to become a quarterback. My favorite player when I was a kid was a quarterback. His name was Joe Montana. He was on the San Francisco 49ers. When I went to high school I turned down playing baseball for good. I went to the University of Michigan for college. I made it to the team but I was the third string quarterback. The first year I didn’t play much and I wanted to play more because I was better than the second string quarterback. One day the first string quarterback got hurt. The next game the second string quarterback got hurt and then I was in as the third string quarterback.

I led my team to many wins and barely any losses. I beat some of the best teams in college football. I became the first string quarterback in the first month I played. I was named MVP of the team. I led my team to many awards. We won most of them and lost one or two.

The names of the tournaments were the Orange Bowl and the Citrus Bowl. I was their most valuable player but I had to graduate, because I wanted to go Pro. I was part of the 2000 NFL (National Football League) draft. I was not the first person chosen. I was number 199. I was drafted by the New England Patriots. My coach didn’t think I was all that good. But then when he put me in the practices he realized what a great player I was. In that year 2000, Drew Bledsoe was the first string quarterback. I was one of the many backup quarterbacks.

I half to admit Drew Bledsoe was very good. He was better than me at first. But then throughout the years I went to the gym a lot. I practiced at the park and I went to my real practices with my team. Soon, I became Drew Bledsoe’s number one backup quarterback for the New England Patriots. When I was moved up all the way to number one backup quarterback for the New England Patriots, my dad was so happy he jumped up and down and came to my very next game with a huge banner saying “Go Tom Brady”.

Then in the year 2001 the starting quarterback Drew Bledsoe was very badly hurt in a game. So then it was finally time for me to go in to the game. That season the New England Patriots didn’t make it to the playoffs. But in 2002, the next season, my team made it to the playoffs.

Then the next game we beat the Pittsburgh Steelers and went to the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl is where the two best teams that make it to the playoffs face each other.  The Super Bowl was on February 3. My team played the St. Louis Rams. Most people thought my team was going to lose. But it would be a very close game. They were right about the very close game part. But with 5 seconds left in the game, our kicker scored the winning field goal.

The next years that I went to the Super Bowl were 2004, 2005 and 2008. In 2004, I was named Super Bowl MVP. My team and I won the Super Bowl in 2004 and 2005.This year 2011, I lost to the New York Jets in the playoffs. But I’m ready for next season. I always say to myself, “At first you don’t succeed, try again next time because practice makes perfect”.