One of the many interesting locations in Rhode Island is the Tennis Hall of Fame. It was the site of the first U.S. National Championships in 1881. Then in 1954 the Tennis Hall of Fame was created. One of the earliest famers was James Dwight, who was born in Paris, but became a US citizen. He was described as the Father of Lawn Tennis. He was born in July 14, 1852 and died July 13, 1917. One of the US tennis players was Christine Evert (Chrissie), Born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States. At 15, Chrissie defeated No. 1 woman tennis player, Margaret Courth, and before losing to Billie Jean King was one of the youngest top pros. Go to http://www.tennisfame.com/ to learn about all of your top favorite players.
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead is an excellent book. It is about a girl named Miranda and her world goes upside down when her best friend Sal is punched by a mysterious kid. She starts getting notes from an unknown writer and hears a weird chant from a homeless person she calls The Laughing Man. Her mother is entering a game show called The $20,000 Pyramid, a popular show in 1979, when this book takes place (click here to see a clip). This book is an entire mystery until the very end. It was an excellent book that kept me on the edge of my seat, so lift your veil in July of 2009.
Now we are doing an Alice comic. All of us get grouped up, and we make a comic. First we make a script, then we make all of the drawings and art, then our group scans in all of the pictures to our house accounts, put them onto Comic Life, and then finally, we post them on our blog. Right now my group finished scanning in our pictures and will be starting Comic Life on Monday or Tuesday. My chapter is Chapter VII, The Mad Tea Party. I really like this chapter because the Hatter and the March Hare are really funny, and I thought it would be cool to make a comic out of it all. I am really excited to start Comic Life, and make the Tea Party come to life.
Edinger House has just finished a book called The Green Book. Our question is: Is The Green Book similar or different from the Pilgrims? I think that they are pretty similar because they both left their original homes for whatever reason, and they both very, very poor. Also, on both of their vehicles, the Mayflower or the space ship, wasn’t the best quality. The best was saved for the very rich people. They also had the minimum number of people to survive. Surviving wasn’t only your risk, it was everyone’s.
For the past month Edinger house has been studying Alice in Wonderland By Lewis Carroll (a.k.a Charles Dodgson). Charles Dodgson changed his name to write Alice in Wonderland because he was a math teacher at Oxford, and didn’t want to ruin his reputation by writing children’s literature. Alice in Wonderland grew more and more famous. So did the secret. Mr. Dodgson wrote Alice In Wonderland about one of the very senior founders of Oxford. Alice Liddle and her sisters found time to go on Picnics and create a story that became very famous
“And euery day we saw whale playing hard by vs, of which in place if we had instruments & and meanes to take them we might haue a very rich returne , which to our great grief we wanted.”
House 43 are pen pals with the Langston Hughes Academy in New Orleans. My buddy wrote a paragraph on how they helped each other, and what they learned together.
I, Francesca and my class have formed a relationship over letters, between us and third graders in New Orleans who go to a school called Langston Hughes Academy. Langston Hughes Academy didn’t have the books they needed. As a class we planted six hundred daffodil bulbs and pulled weeds from the ground. Before we did this, the whole class told people they knew about what we would be doing and the people pledged money for a cause. After we planted the people who pledged gave the money they pledged into the class. The money went to our buddies in New Orleans so they could buy more books for the classroom library and reading groups.
My class and I have sent a few letters back and forth and learned quite a few things about our buddies. For instances I have learned my buddies ( Kayla) favorite color is purple, she has a brother her age and a little sister, and her favorite meal food is pasta. Donia (a classmate of mine) learned her buddy was very exciting about being buddies and wanted to meet her. People in my have learned similar things and different things about there buddies.
New Orleans sounds like a great place to live. Jazz was created in New Orleans which is quite exciting to the people that live in New Orleans. New Orleans has great holidays like Mardi Gras and lots of others. New Orleans is fun, and it has some hurricanes. Some hurricanes in New Orleans do damage, such as Katrina, people are still recovering from it.
As our buddies in New Orleans I’m very excited about being buddies with someone from a different state. In books sometimes they have pen pals, it has always made me want a pen pal. Now I have a pen pal but she’s a buddy too which makes it feel better than any other book. I feel special, no one else I know is doing pen pals. Which makes it even better than great to be doing this.
This story is based off Cinderella. Rags to riches, cruel family members, and most of the time a happy ending. This is my Cinderella story:
Lara leaped, turned, twisted and flipped. The Olympic gold medal was hers, all she had trained for; she was perfect. Lara had trained ten long hours every day for as long as she could remember. She had lived far from home with her coach since she was ten, and her talent was identified. She dreamed of becoming the top all around gymnast, and then Lara fell. It wasn’t a slight trip. This top gymnast fell hard, breaking her ankle and spraining her left wrist. She was ruined; the doctor said she would never compete again. Never. And she never did. Twenty years later it didn’t seem to matter anymore — all that mattered was her newborn baby. But something was the matter. The doctors tried to save Lara, but they didn’t. They saved the baby, though. Her name was Sara.
Sara White
When Sara was a baby she was a natural gymnast. One time the neighbor’s cat got stuck in a tree, and Sara climbed up and got her out. When she was five she could do cartwheels. There was no doubt; she had her mother’s gift.
When she was thirteen she started to train for the Olympics. There was so much to learn, but she still had three years ahead of her until the summer Olympics came. She would only be sixteen, just old enough to enter. She was very eager and excited. The only problem was school. She woke up at around 3:00am and went to the gym. She would practice until 7:00 then go to school.
In her mind though, she had the best coach in the world, her dad. Her dad didn’t have as much Olympic experience, but he had competed once.
On the night before Sara’s sixteenth birthday she couldn’t sleep. That is not surprising, but Sara was not thinking about the presents. She was thinking about the Olympic tryouts, which were only one week away. As she twisted and turned in bed a thought struck her. “What if she didn’t make it to the Olympics?” Then she heard a faint voice right next to her ear.
“You will do it Sara. You will do it.”
Sara shook her head then the voice disappeared. She thought about her mother. How she was one of the greatest gymnasts she had ever heard of. A tear rolled down her cheek.
“ I must be getting tired,” she said to her self. Then her eyes lids felt heavy and she dropped into a deep sleep.
As she walked into the kitchen she suddenly remembered her birthday. Then she realized that the table was full of presents. Just then her dad strolled in.
“Happy Birthday Sara! Why don’t you open your presents?”
“I was just about to.” She replied with a smile.
She got three new leotards, from her father, and her mother’s necklace.
Three days before the Olympics Sara’s dad got very sick. Sara skipped time practicing to be with him. Then two days before the Olympics he died. Sara was devastated. Now, both of her parents were gone. Then went back to the gym, and told her team.
The assistant coach had a daughter on the team, Vanessa Smith. She was always favored. Even when Sara did everything twice as good, Vanessa still did better in the coach’s mind.
The next day at practice, Vanessa was so cruel to the team. If they didn’t stick their landing, not like she ever did, she would push them against the wall and make them do a handstand for five minutes. Coach Smith pretended not to notice.
The next day was the Olympic tryouts. Everyone was worked very hard, except Vanessa. Coach said she was already good enough. At the end of the day Sara’s hands were bleeding. All she could do was bandage them up.
“The Olympic tryouts are today,” Sara thought. “Don’t chicken out and you will be fine.” She put on her leotard, pulled her hair back and walked out onto the sidelines. She did a quick handstand to calm herself down. She chalked up her hands and started to practice on the bars. Then, when the judges were ready, she started.
She flipped and jumped perfectly. Then came the hardest part, the dismount. She jumped and then stood still as a pencil. She did it. She was perfect on the vault and floor. Then, on the beam she did a back handspring. She heard something snap. A rush of pain in her ankle. She stuck the back handspring and looked down. She tried to move her ankle. She couldn’t! She had to finish though. She flipped off the beam and then she fell. She thought all of her chances had just disappeared. A horrible pain rushed through her ankle. She stood still then hobbled over to the sidelines got her stuff together and left. She didn’t even see her score. Last person to go was Vanessa. She was a wreck. She fell off the uneven bars. On the vault she didn’t jump high enough, so when she tried to do a forward tuck, she landed on her back. This was the list the judges came out with:
Ms. Alicia Johnson
Ms. Jessica Bates
Ms. Susan Banes
Ms. Amanda Gates
Ms. Sara White
Vanessa Smith was not on the list. Sara didn’t know she was. Sara was close to Amanda. Amanda called Sara, and told her. They all went to the Olympics together.
THE END
On one of my recent posts I metioned Sara Margru Kinson. I wrote a poem called I Never Forgot. I was inspired by our Edinger house post, and our visit from Elizabeth Alexander. I hope you like my poem , I Never Forgot.
tH
Letters From Rifka by Karen Hesse is about her Great Aunt. Her Great Aunt, Lucy Avrutin is Rifka. After interviewing her aunt, she mostly stuck to facts, but added some other events for drama. Karen Hesse decided to write her book by making the story into individual letters to her cousin Tovah. On the top of each page she puts a small poem from Pushkin. This is a good historical fiction book because her problem, about being a Russian Jew, was a real problem. My oral history book is about someone was a Russian Jew. She was teacher, and the government watched everything she did. In this case Rifka’s brothers are in the army and they escape. The move so the government can’t hurt them. The try to move to America. Along the journey Rifka gets ringworm. They leave her in Antwerp until her ringworm heals. After a storm on her ship to Ellis Island, losing a close friend on the ship her head starts to itch. Now she doubts she will ever see her family again.
