Blogger Friday!!!

It's the day before Spring Break and I don't know about you, but I'm SOOOO tired! So, instead of working on vocabulary, or watching me fall asleep on my desk, you are going to be blogging today!

You have three assignments and yes, of course, they are for a grade, so DO THEM!!!!

You will go into your blog and create THREE SEPARATE POSTS, one for each of the assignments listed below! To see a sample, go to my blog, here.

#1: Tell about what you have planned for Spring Break. Maybe you are going on a great trip, maybe you are visiting family, or maybe you are like me, and you are just staying home, catching up on sleep and being lazy! Whatever it is, tell us all about it. Oh, and include in your answer what your IDEAL Spring Break would be! What would you do? Who would you see? Where would you go?

#2: Start a new post and in this one, I want you to follow the directions below. This is just one of those fun, kind of dumb things I found on Facebook. But it was fun and I thought you might get a little chuckle out of it too!

Pick the month you were born:
January-------I kicked
February------I loved
March--------I karate chopped
April----------I licked
May----------I jumped on
June----------I smelled
July-----------I did the Macarena With
August--------I had lunch with
September----I danced with
October-------I sang to
November-----I yelled at
December-----I ran over

Pick the day (number) you were born on:
1-------a birdbath
2-------a monster
3-------a phone
4-------a fork
5-------a snowman
6-------a gangster
7-------my mobile phone
8-------my dog
9-------my best friends' boyfriend
10-------my neighbor
11-------my science teacher
12-------a banana
13-------a fireman
14-------a stuffed animal
15-------a goat
16-------a pickle
17-------your mom
18-------a spoon
19------ - a smurf
20-------a baseball bat
21-------a ninja
22-------Chuck Norris
23-------a noodle
24-------a squirrel
25-------a football player
26-------my sister
27-------my brother
28-------an iPod
29-------a surfer
30-------a homeless guy
31-------a llama

What is the last number of the year you were born:
1--------- In my car
2 --------- On your car
3 ----------- In a hole
4 ----------- Under your bed
5 ----------- Riding a Motorcycle
6 --------- sliding down a hill
7 --------- in an elevator
8---------- at the dinner=2 0table
9 -------- In line at the bank
0 -------- in your bathroom

Pick the color of shirt you are wearing:
White---------because I'm cool like that.
Black---------because that's how I roll.
Pink-----------because I'm NOT crazy.
Red-----------because the voices told me to.
Blue-----------because I'm sexy and I do what I want.
Green---------because I think I need some serious help.
Purple---------because I'm AWESOME!
Gray----------because Big Bird said to and he's my leader.
Yellow--------because someone offered me 1,000,000 dollars.
Orange--------because my family thinks I'm stupid anyway.
Brown---------because I can.
Other----------because I'm a Ninja!
None----------because I can't control myself!


Write down the sentence you made. Now, copy this entire thing, and go to your blog and post the instructions and your answer into it! I can't wait to see what you get stuck with...

#3: This post is unique...not much writing involved, which should make MOST of you happy! :) You have to follow these instructions, or this will not work!

1. Google "your name thinks"
ex: Charla thinks
2. Find the answer on the results that pop up and that will be the title of your new hit song (but don't include the part "Charla thinks" in your title).
3. Now Google your new song title (the one from step 2)
ex: Milkshake
4. Find the name of your band from some of the results
5. Google your band name but this time find a picture in Google Images
ex: The Dresdon Dolls
6. Now take the picture into a program where you can "create" an album cover (I just used Word) using the picture, name of your band, and name of song.
7. Save your cover as a picture, so that you can post it on your blog.
8. The title of your post needs to be the name of your new band! :)

Wikipedia says this about human interest stories:

A human interest story is a feature story that discusses a person or persons in an interactive and/or emotional way. It presents people and their problems, concerns, or achievements in a way that brings about interest or sympathy in the reader or viewer.

Human interest stories may be the story behind the story about an event, organization or otherwise faceless historical happening, such as about the life of an individual soldier during war-time, an interview with a survivor of a natural disaster, or profile of someone known for a career achievement.

Often this is what draws us into something that might otherwise just be boring news or history. For example, the movie "Pearl Harbor" (albeit fictitious) has a story behind the story that draws you in and makes you think about what people during that could have been experiencing. It is the only reason I enjoy history, to know that there were real people living real lives during the events that shaped and molded the world in which we live today. Other times, these human interest stories are simply normal people living through extraordinary circumstances. They are "nameless" strangers one day and because of a choice or decision they make the next day they are making headlines! This is what the following story is about...just 3 ordinary kids who made an extraordinary decision!

German lovers – aged six and five – try to elope to Africa

Mika and his girlfriend Anna-Bell found on way to airport with lilo, swimming trunks and a witness for the wedding in tow

• Kate Connolly in Berlin
  
• guardian.co.uk, Monday 5 January 2009 17.40 GMT
• Article history

Anna-Bell, Anna-Lena and Mika at the police post at the main railway station in Hanover, central Germany, after being caught heading for the airport so Anna-Bell and Mika could 'get married in Africa'. Photograph: /AFP/Getty Images

It is a dream that has been shared by lovers across the centuries – the chance to elope to exotic lands. But few would have been as bold and spontaneous as six-year-old Mika and his five-year-old sweetheart Anna-Bell who, after mulling over their options in secret, packed their suitcases on New Year's Eve and set off from the German city of Hanover to tie the knot under the heat of the African sun.

The children left their homes at dawn while their unwitting parents were apparently sleeping, and took along Mika's seven-year-old sister, Anna-Lena, as a witness to the wedding.

Donning sunglasses, swimming armbands and dragging a pink blow-up lilo and suitcases on wheels packed with summer clothes, cuddly toys and a few provisions, they walked a kilometre up the road, boarded a tram to Hanover train station and got as far as the express train that would take them to the airport before a suspicious station guard alerted police.

"What struck us was that the little ones were completely on their own and that they had lots of swimming gear with them," said Holger Jureczko, a police spokesman. He described Mika and Anna-Bell as "sweethearts" who had "decided to get married in Africa where it is warm, taking with them as a witness Mika's sister".

Anna-Bell told the German television station RTL: "We wanted to get married and so we just thought: 'Let's go there.' "

Mika said: "We wanted to take the train to the airport, then we wanted to get on a plane and when we arrived we wanted to unpack the summer things and then we wanted to go for a bit of a stroll in the sun."

Mika and Anna-Lena's mother, who was not identified, said she had known nothing of her children's plan. "I'm still in a state of shock. I thought 'I'm playing a part in a bad movie.' When we realised the kids were missing we went looking for them." But only when the police called did they realise what had happened.

Asked why they failed to let their parents know, the children said they thought they would not be gone for long.

Mika told police he instigated the plan having been inspired by a winter holiday with his family in Italy. "Based on this the children began to make plans for the future," Jureczko said.

To allay their disappointment at being caught, Hanover police gave them a tour of the police headquarters. Jureczko said: "They'll have the chance to put their plan into action at a later date".

Your assignment today is to find, copy and paste into your blog a human interest story! Please make sure it is from a credible source and, of course, that it is school appropriate!!!

I found a couple of other stories that you might be interested in reading if you have some extra time!

Here is a link about a man who bought a winning lottery ticket and died the same day.

Here is a story about a baby born 2 days after her mother died. :(

Alphabet Story

Today you're going back to elementary school. Well, not really, but you are going to be using your knowledge of the alphabet in today's post!

Here's what you do: You are going to practice writing a story, with a twist. In the story, you must use all 26 letters of the alphabet. Every sentence must begin with the next letter, until you have a total of 26 sentences.

You might have to be a little creative when you get to X, but I know you will come up with something fascinating!

The story MUST make sense and have a beginning, middle and end. Also, you must use at least 5 vocabulary words from this class; they can be from any of the weeks you have in your Vocab Notebook. When you use a vocabulary word, highlight it so I can give you credit for it.

Go here to see an example! DO NOT COPY IT!

Have fun and Happy Blogging!

It's a Dog's World!!

Dogs love unconditionally, but do they really have feelings? Some people consider dogs as important as people. Others view them as pests! How do you feel?

Today you are going to go to your blog and post a story "through the eyes of a dog." It can be any story about anything (a birthday party, a trip to the vet, a walk through the park, getting picked up by the dog catcher, etc.) as long as it is through the eyes of a dog. Since it is through their eyes, it needs to be in first person! If you have a dog, it can be through their eyes. If you don't, it can be through a dog you have known or just some stray on the street. I want lots of details and make sure you give the dog a personality that shows through your story. This needs to be a story--not just a couple of sentences!

Also make sure you include a picture (or pictures). Remember it does not have to be a dog you know, so pictures can just come from the internet!

Have fun!

Christmas FREEWRITE

Go to your blog and FREEWRITE about something having to do with Christmas. You can make up a story, write about a family tradition, tell about your favorite Christmas present, etc…Make sure you write at least ONE full paragraphs and I will grade on correct spelling, punctuation, and capitalization, so check carefully for those things! ALSO, before you publish, add a picture to your post that relates to your writing in some way. Happy Writing!

Hink Pinks-6th period only

Hink pinks are riddles that have two rhyming words in the answer. Below are word pairs. You must find another word for each word in the pair and the resulting new pair must rhyme. Go to your blog and post your answers!

Example: A naughty father
Answer: A bad dad

1.) A sushi plate

2.) A fast elevator (in England)

3.) An antelope drink

4.) A warm bed

5.) A lawful bird

6.) An Orca prison (Google what an Orca is if you don't know)

7.) A salamander shoe

8.) A sham cobra

9.) A depressed boy

10.) A large stick

For the next two, I want you to come up with your own. We will all visit your blog and see if we can figure them out by leaving comments with our guesses! (Hint: Think of two words that rhyme FIRST, and then come up with the alternate descriptions...it seems to be easier that way).

11.)

12.)