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This year has been one of 5 fun years that I have spent at Dalton. They have been amazing but this year is what I am going to talk about. In the beginning of the year we learned about immigration. We interviewed somebody that we knew that had immigrated from a country to come to America. I wrote a post on it called My Journey To America. It was about the journey and story of Silvia (the person that I interviewed). I liked that project because I got to learn a lot of things about Silvia that I never knew before. We also wrote poems about the people on the Amistad. My favorite project of the year was definitely the Cinderella stories. I posted that too. There were many other things that I enjoyed over the year such as Alice in Wonderland study, Pilgrims, E. B. White, and many more.
The reason that I wrote this blogs post is because I wanted to reflect on the great year that we had and I hope that I have many more years like this later on.
I will write on my blog after the summer because we will not be able to post for the three mounths that we are going to be away.
Bye blog readers and thank you for reading my blog!!!

This school year we studied two different books, Alice In Wonderland and The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz. Right now we are learning about The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz. We had to read the book and then the day that the book was due we saw the movie. And now we are doing the third thing, writing a blog post about it. The book is about a girl that lives in Kansas and she goes to this magical world when a tornado hits her house. In the magical world she goes on a quest to go to the Emerald City to see the Wizard and she thinks that he has enough power to bring her back to Kansas. Along the way she meets many people; I should not say people because the first one was a scarecrow, the second one was a tin woodman and the third one was a lion. They where all going to the wizard to get something from the wizard. The scarecrow was going to get a brain. The tin woodman was going to get a heart. And the lion was going to get courage. I like the book a lot!
We just saw the MGM movie and it is very different than the book. For example in the book Dorothy is very young (she is about 6 I think) and in the movie the actress playing Dorothy looks as if she is 14. I do not like that. One of the biggest differences in the book and the movie is that in the end of the book the whole world and the adventure she has there, was a dream and in the book it was not a dream. In the book the slippers that she gets from the witch is silver. But in the movie the slippers are red. They made them red because the color movie had just come out and since the movie was in color they wanted the slippers to stand out. In the end of the book when Dorthy has to go see the nice witch she has to go there, and in the movie they took out the whole ending because the nice witch comes to her.
This is an example of something in the movie that I really liked. They added in a lot more with people that she first sees when she gets out of her house that dropped in the tornado. The people are called munchkins. I really like that they added more in because it was very entertaining and funny but it was not to long or to short. I think that the movie is a bad adaptation of the book; but it is a very good movie.

Pilmoth was a lot different than I expected. It felt so short, but I guess that was because it was so much fun. We played games that the Pilgrims played, we dressed up like the Pilgrims, we wrote with feathers, we even investigated Pilgrim’s houses to find out more about them, (they called it C.S.I. Plimoth.) Those were our evening activities.

During the day we went to the Wampanoag Home site, Plimoth rock, The Mayflower II, the town where the Pilgrims settled, and the 1620 Pilgrim Village.

The village felt like it was real because all the people that where there were dressed up and acted like they where Pilgrims. You could ask them questions too. The Wampanoag Home site was also full of people that where dressed as natives. That is one of the reasons that I thought that it was different than I expected because everyone and everything was so realalistic. I felt like I was in 1627!

The girls where divided into three room and slept in those rooms. They were the classrooms, where we did the evening activities. All the teachers had really cool pajamas. Mrs. Edinger had the coolest but Ms. Young’s were a cheetah jump suit.

We had dinner like the pilgrims would. Did you know that the Pilgrims did not use forks? We had carrots, pottage, pie and instead of beer which all the Pilgrims had including the children, we had apple cider.

I think that the trip was more fun than camp Sloane in third grade even thought camp Sloane was three days and Pilmoth was two days.

The whole fourth grade in the Dalton School is going to Plymouth Plantation for one night. We are going next week so everybody is very excited about it.
The pilgrims where people that came to America for religious purposes. Plymouth Plantation is recreating where the Pilgrims settled in Cape Cod.
Last year when I was in third grade we went to Camp Sloane for three days. That was the first over night trip in school. Even though at Camp Sloane and Plymouth Plantation we are going to sleep over I think that it will be very different. The biggest reason is that Camp Sloane was a camp and at Plymouth Plantation we are going to learn. I am very excited about this trip!!!

I am a student in Edinger House in the fourth grade. Dalton, my school is in New York City. This Year (2006-2007) we as a class are studying forced immigration but mostly slavery.
Forced immigration is when people have to move out of the place where they live and go to a different place or a different country because they were being taken by other people. For instance slavery is one kind of forced immigration. Sometimes little kids are slaves. It is really sad. The Amistad was a slave ship and the slaves where on the boat took over the ship. We learned a lot about that important ship.
One of the projects that we did was we wrote poems about people that were on the Amistad with the help of a poet named Natasha Tretheway.
We also read my teacher, Monica Edinger’s, book. It is about a girl name Sara Margru Kinson and she was on the Amistad and got to go home. The book is called Africa is My Home. After we read each chapter we wrote about it in a little book, like literary examples, historical facts, comments and our responses. I thought that it was really cool because I had never read a book that was still in the process of being written. We also read books like Amistad Rising, Esperanza Rising, and The Village that Vanished and lots of other picture and chapter books.
One of my classmates brought in stuff from Mali, where his father is from. Mrs. Edinger also brought in thing from Sierra Leone where she lived for two years. They both brought in colorful robes, carved bowls, carved statues and lots of other cool objects.
I think that it is incredibly sad that people were being treated that way and that people had to go through all of those tough times. I think that we did this project because it is a very important historical event and it is exiting and sad to learn about. I learned about slavery, and about all these people that were slaves. I am very glad that we did this project.

The Pilgrims where people that came to America long ago when not a lot of people lived there. They sailed to America on a ship called the Mayflower.
Right now we are studying the pilgrims in school. We read a little bit of the journal by a pilgrim on the Mayflower. The journal is called Mourt’s Relations. Nobody really knows why it is called Mourt’s Relations but they think that William Bradford a person that was on the Mayflower used Mourt’s name as a pen name.
When the Pilgrims where around there was no such thing as spelling. So in school we read the journal and then annotated and looked for misspelled words in it.
When we did that the next step was to chose a line or a sentence from the journal and then we had to draw it and write the line on a piece of paper. I posted the picture on my blog too.
I drew a picture of when the people on the Mayflower first sited land and were very happy after that long trip on the small boat.
I loved this study because it was fun and I love to draw!

In a mansion in England there was a girl named Ella. She had beautiful long golden blond hair and bright blue eyes. But she also had two really mean stepsisters; and I mean REALLY mean. All they would do was think of unkind schemes that would ruin Ella’s life. For example they called her nicknames like Cinderella because she would sit in the cinders and cry about the mean stuff that they did to her. They made her do all the dishes and make their beds, do the laundry but Cinderella thought that the worst thing that they made her do, is that they made her do all the taxes (Ella was smart but her step family shopped so much that the bills where to big for Ella to add).
Let me tell you Ella did not have a perfect life like in those fairy tales; in fact her life was the opposite of that. There was never anything to be happy about or to be excited about. It was all her stepsisters fault. If they were not alive her life would be ten times better than it is now. Her stepsisters names where Fanny and Aril.
Fanny was the youngest sister and definitely the fattest. She looked like a really short hippo. But the bad part about the whole thing is that she thinks that she is pretty. April, the eldest sister, was “six feet four inches” and as skinny as a bean. They fight sometimes but they only where nice to each other when they were doing something mean to Ella, (which was most of the time).
Once when she was cleaning the pool, the both of them jumped out of a bush and pushed Cinderella into it. But Ella did not mind stuff like that, but what she really minded was when they reminded Ella that her parents died.
Ella’s stepmother only applauded to the mean stuff the stepsisters did to her and if Cinderella told her stepmother what terrible things that they did to her than she would say, “Deal with it!” Stepmother did not let Ella call her mom or by her fist name, Ella was only allowed to call her, Stepmother so anyone that heard her would know that they were not related.
Even though Ella’s stepsisters and stepmother were really mean to her, she was always nice back to them, mostly because if she was mean to them then her stepmother would make her do a ton more work.
As usual Ella was sobbing near the fireplace in the kitchen.
“Cinderellaaaaaa, Get the door!” screamed Fanny.
As Cinderella got up from the musty hearth she realized that she was covered in soot but then she quickly walked out of the kitchen trough the living room to the front hall where she opened the door.
There was a short man standing in the doorway. “Hello. I am here to give you this letter from the palace” he began.
“The palace?” asked Cinderella in a quite surprised and excited way. April, Fanny and their mother had heard something about the palace and came rushing down the stairs.
“Every girl in London is to attend the prince’s ball, tomorrow night. There he will pick a bride soon to be the queen”. He handed stepmother a golden invitation with the British flag on it then he said “Good bye” and he walked straight back out the doorway.
Everyone stared in amazement. There was not one word spoken by anyone. I guess that everyone was thinking about the party and what they would wear.
About three minute later Fanny and April said, “Cinderella, did you get my dress back from the dry cleaners yet? Cinderella, where is my makeup? Cinderella, do my hair. Cinderell…”
“Girls, girls, girls,” stepmother interrupted. “The ball is tomorrow and you do not have to get ready yet. It is only nine o’clock. Calm down. There is nothing to worry about. Cinderella will do everything for you,” said stepmother.
Ella rolled her eyes.

The next afternoon every thing went crazy. “Cinderella, is my dress back from the cleaners?” asked Fanny. (Her clothes were almost always at the cleaners because she was such a sloppy eater.)
“Yes it is, I got it back yesterday. I put it in your closet.” Said Cinderella politely.
Cinderella helped the girls with their makeup, hair, shoes, and the dresses. By seven o’clock every thing was ready.
“Step mother?” asked Cinderella “Do you think I could go to the party?”
“You go to the party? Let me think about that. Hhhhmmmmm. NO.” yelled stepmother.
“But…” stepmother gave Cinderella a mean look.
“You are to stay here and do your chores. And that is final. Do I make myself clear? Good,” said stepmother in a harsh tone of voice. I big tear streamed down Cinderella’s cheek, and stepmother and the two girls left throw the front door. Cinderella walked over to the cinders and cried.
It had only been a couple of minutes when Cinderella looked up and saw a little fairy a quarter of her own size appeared out of no where and flew around on her tiny wings over to Cinderella.
“Hello!” the fairy said.
“Who are you?” asked Cinderella, a little frightened.
“Excuse me. Where are my manners! My name is Lucy and I am your fairy godmother! But you can just call me godmother, I hear that you want to go to this ball thingy mergiger” she said quickly. Ella raised an eyebrow.
“How did you know that?” asked Ella. “
“Well I am your fairy godmother I supposed to watch over you. So do you want to go to the ball, or what”?
“But my stepmother said that I am not allowed.” Explained Ella. “
“You can sneak out and be back before them,” said her godmother.
Ella thought it over for a little bit. “Okay,” she agreed.
“Well than I better get to work then.” Godmother waved her wand height in the air and said “BIB-ITY-BOP-ITY-BOO.” Ella closed her eyes when she saw the spark on the top of her godmother’s wand.
Ella looked up she was not in the Kitchen anymore she was in the drive way and in front of her there was a stretch hummer limo.
“COOL!!!” exclaimed Ella. Then she looked down at her clothes. She was wearing a beautiful white dress and silver high heels. Ella hopped in to the limo.
“Remember if you are not back by midnight everything will turn back to normal. Your limo, dress and shoes.” Warned her godmother.
“Okay” Ella replied.
“And if you don’t have it, it won’t go away, so make sure you don’t leave anything at that party.”
“Okay,” said Ella.
When they arrived at the palace Ella got out of the car and went in to the ballroom. She quickly spotted her stepsisters and stepmother. They where with the prince getting fruit punch. You could obviously see that the prince was not comfortable.
There was a line of girls waiting to dance with the prince. Ella got in the line. It minutes seemed like hours to Ella.
When it was finally her turn to dance the prince smiled when he saw her. They danced for hours, but Ella and the prince didn’t keep track of time. All the girls (especially Fanny and April) were jealous. The prince did not seem to care. They had not said anything to each other the whole time they just looked at one another. Suddenly there was a loud noise Ella immediately looked at the clock. It was midnight! In just a matter of seconds she would be back in her dirty clothing and the limo. Ella picked up the bottom of her dress and started running.
“Wait I don’t even know your name!” Yelled the prince. Ella kept running but she turned around for a split second to say, “Ella.” As she was going down the marble stairs to the car one of Ella’s shoes slipped off. She could not turn back to get it. It would of taken too much time, because she had waited to tell the prince her name.
As Ella reached for the door everything turned back to normal. She looked back to where her and the prince where dancing. The prince was there. He looked quite confused as he search for Ella. Ella started her long walk back to home.

When Ella’s stepsisters and stepmother arrived at the house they told Ella how amazing the ball was.
“You missed one great party, Cinderella. The prince only danced with this one girl” April said. Ella smiled but when stepmother saw her, Ella quickly frowned.
“Ya” said Fanny. “He didn’t notice any of the other beautiful young ladies like me.” April chuckled as fanny took out her mirror to look at what she called her pretty face.
Even though Fanny and April thought that the prince only danced with Cinderella, all night they kept repeating that one of them was surely going to marry the prince.
The next morning when everyone was at breakfast, there was a knock at the door.
“Hello again there is another order from the palace.” It was the short man that had came to them to tell them about the ball. “Every lady in London that went to the party is to try on a shoe that one of the girls left behind.”
Cinderella’s jaw dropped.
“The girls foot that it fits on will marry the prince.”
The Ella, fanny and April where trilled. “Yet me try it on first!” Fanny and April screamed at each other.
Eventually Fanny got to go first (though it took over ten minutes for them to agree).
Fanny sat in the chair in the front hall. The short man took the same exact shoe that Cinderella wore to the ball, up from a pillow with the English flag on it. Fanny tried to get her foot in to the very small shoe. Her foot was so fat that her toes could barley fit in the shoe, but she kept trying.
“My foot did not fit in to this shoe last night either.” Fanny lied.
“Well if this shoe is to small for you how come you dance with the price without a problem?” There was a pause. The short man looked at Fanny. “Next!” April sat in the chair that Fanny had been sitting in then stuck her tongue out at Fanny.
April tried just like her sister but did not succeed. Her foot was too big for the shoe. It fit even worst than Fanny.
“Well I guess that is all,” said the stepmother.
“But what about this young lady” the short man pointed at Cinderella.
“She is just our maid.” Said stepmother.
“Orders from the palace. Every girl in London is to try on the shoe.” The short man replied.
Stepmother did not even think of arguing with him. Ella sat down and the man held up the shoe and Ella slipped her foot in. It was just a little to big but that was perfect.
“IT FITS! IT FITS! You are going to marry the prince!”
Stepmother’s jaw dropped.
“She wasn’t at the ball.” She complained. Ella’s stepsister’s faces where bright red in furry. Fanny and April both started crying.
“Everything is going to be all right,” said stepmother.
“But mummy if Cinderella gets to marry the prince than she will take revenge on us,” said Fanny.
Ella did the exact opposite thing that Fanny thought she was going to do. She was nice. Even after all the mean things that they did said to her.
When they went to the palace to tell the prince that they had found his new bride, he was shocked.
“This is not the girl that I was dancing with. She wore the most beautiful dress, and she was not a maid. I can’t marry a maid, it does not work that way,” said the prince.
“Well the shoe fits,” argued the short man.
“I have one more test for the girl that I am going to marry. What is your name?” asked the prince.
Stepmother fanny and April held their breath hoping that she would say Cinderella.
“Ella,” she said.
“It is you he replied. I will marry you. “
They hugged each other.
The wedding was amazing. It was the most beautiful thing that Ella had ever seen. There were flowers on every table and apple tree around the big white tent. Everyone in that went to the prices party was there. The queen and king were there and so was Fanny, April and Stepmother. Ella wore the dress that she wore to the prince’s party.
The wedding was only three days after Ella found out that she was going to marry the prince because the he was so eager to marry Ella.
After the wedding Ella stepfamily apologized for being so mean. Ella forgave them and they all lived happily ever after.

One of the teachers in my school is the head of the Environmental Club and during assembly he talk to us about ways that you can save energy and recycle. One of the ways that you can save energy is buying these special kinds of lamps that do not use a lot of energy, or you could just turn off our light more often. You can not use so much water of it will be bad, for instance when you are brushing our teeth you do not need to leave on the water on while you do it or you could just take shorter showers. The coolest part of it all is that the school is having a battery drive which is where if you have any dead batteries than you can just bring them in and the environmental club will recycle them for you, and the class that brings in the most gets really cool prizes. It is fun and you can help!

My class and I read a book called The Tale Of Despereaux. It is about a mouse that is in love with a princess, but that is forbidden so when the mouse counsel finds out they send him to the dungeon. Where there is a rat named Roscuro plains to kidnap the princess using Mig, Despereux will have to save her. But how will a little mouse like him save a big princess? That is what the The Tale Of Despereaux is about. I think that the book is pretty good but I did not like how the book totally changed stories every chapter and then at the end it all went back together. But the story was good and sometimes is was very, very exciting.